Because of Super Smash Bros. Melee's status as a launch title, it was specifically designed to showcase new features that the N64 wasn't capable of. This is why the game's opening sequence is a high-quality, full-motion video, which the N64 was incapable of producing. The developers at HAL even worked with 3 other production companies in Tokyo, Japan, to make Melee's opening sequence as outstanding as possible.

Melee was in development for 13 month's, and the game's director, Masahiro Sakurai, had no holidays and cut short his weekends to work on the game. He even went far enough to say that his lifestyle while developing Melee was "destructive", due to how he felt pressured to deliver a greatly improved game. In the end, Sakurai and his team's efforts paid off. Even after the release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl's release, Sakurai still dubs Melee to be the sharpest game in the series.