Super Smash Bros. Melee has been considered the apex when it comes to a competitive Smash game thanks to a community that's still active 20 years after its original release. One way that the game has stayed alive is due to a heavily active modding scene, with one of the biggest mods currently in development for Melee being the Team Akaneia Build. It has been implementing various things into the game, such as additional modes, online play, and characters to Super Smash Bros. Melee.
Earlier this year, the Team Akaneia Twitter account introduced these additions for fans to try out. One of these was a new Volleyball mode, as well as alternate costumes for existing characters. The team also announced that Wolf is being modded into the roster of Super Smash Bros Melee, complete with his moveset from Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The latest modded addition to the game from the team is another character that was introduced in Brawl, the DK Crew's Diddy Kong.
The first photos of the mod were also shown off by the team, where it looks like Diddy Kong has been ported into the game perfectly. This is evident through the textures and model of the younger Kong being incredibly faithful to Super Smash Bros. Melee's semi-realistic artstyle. It can be seen further when comparing Diddy Kong's model to Donkey Kong's in one of the pictures, where fans have noted how seamless Diddy fits alongside DK. The team noted that the process in making him fit into the game required a few adjustments to existing assets.
Diddy Kong's moveset and mechanics have also been imported into Super Smash Bros. Melee, where he can be seen using his Up-Special Rocket Barrels, alongside his Down-Special Banana Peel. This means programming the same mechanics that the Banana Peel would introduce, such as tripping, as well as other mechanics to make him balanced within the realm of this modded version of the game.
Despite the success of later games such as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, mods like this show that the love for Melee is forever long-standing. Fans of this game in particular are still adding characters into the game, such as when one modder outside of Team Akaneia added Cloud as a playable character to Melee. It will be exciting to see not only the continued development from Team Akaneia, but whatever other playable fighters additions come to Melee as well.
Super Smash Bros. Melee is available now on GameCube.