Although Banjo and Kazooie from Banjo-Kazooie would not appear in the series until Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, their names appear as two of the random default names selected in the Name Entry in the Japanese version of Super Smash Bros. Melee. The same is true for Conker from Conker's Bad Fur Day, another Rare character.
The characters of Captain Falcon, Pichu, Ganondorf, Peach, Jigglypuff, Link, Samus, and Donkey Kong actually have two taunts; one for each direction they are facing (right or left). However, some characters like Donkey Kong, Samus, and Ganondorf have taunts that look identical but actually have very subtle differences that are hard to spot at first glance.
Captain Falcon has minor gameplay changes based on which alternate skin is being used. Presumably a programming oversight, the character's Environmental Collision Box (ECB), a small diamond that prevents the character from falling through stage environments and walking through walls, differs slightly between skins, meaning they have very slightly different widths for dealing with stage collisions/interaction (although hurtboxes remain the same on all skins). Ranked from thinnest to widest, Captain Falcon's default skin has the thinnest ECB, while the Pink, Blue, Red, and Black skins have wider ECBs, with the Green skin coming out on top with the widest.
If you turn off the music and select Captain Falcon on the character select screen, an extremely faint grunt obscured by the Announcer saying Captain Falcon's name can be heard. In the game's sound test, audio files can be found with "DEMO" attached at the end of them showing that every character in the game had similar planned sound effects on the character select screen, but only Captain Falcon's sound remains audible. Additionally, in the game's files, animations labeled "Select" and "SelectWait" can be found for every character in the game, many of which were either ripped directly from Super Smash Bros., are unfinished, or were repurposed in the final game. These are all presumably remnants of an earlier version of the character select screen that more closely resembled Super Smash Bros., where the character's in-game models were visible and used special animations and sound effects when selected.
There is an unused sound of the Boo's laugh from Super Mario 64 with the file name ST_GREATBAY_TKLE_LAUGH which would've likely been used for Tingle at the Great Bay stage.
In the game's files is an unused sound for when you get a Rare Trophy. This sound would later be used in Brawl, and as part of the character unlock screen in the subsequent three installments following said game.
Starting in April of 2002, the FAQ section of the official website had the question "Are Sonic and Knuckles in the game?".
This was in response to the April 2002 issue of EGM, which jokingly stated that Sonic and Tails could be unlocked by defeating 20 or more Wireframes in Cruel Melee.
This was in response to the April 2002 issue of EGM, which jokingly stated that Sonic and Tails could be unlocked by defeating 20 or more Wireframes in Cruel Melee.
When the game was rereleased under the "Player's Choice" banner in the US, the color of the game's title on the spine was inverted.
While almost every character requires eight frames after grabbing onto a ledge before they can do anything, Link is the only character that requires four frames before performing another action.
The song "Mother", which plays in the stage Onett, is a remix of three songs from the game Mother: "Bein' Friends", "Eight Melodies", and the jingle that plays before a battle begins.
There are nine unused event match character tags stored in the game's files. The unused character tags are for Peach, Roy, Pikachu, Pichu, Ice Climbers, Zelda/Sheik, Mewtwo, Ganondorf, and Dr. Mario. They are never seen in game because none of the event matches force you to specifically play those characters.

There is a glitch that makes Samus Aran's grapple beam three times longer than usual. It is performed by pressing: Z, up, down, up (on the D-pad) and Z.
By pressing the L button, the grapple will also home into opponents, but the A or Z button must be pressed again to grab enemies.
By pressing the L button, the grapple will also home into opponents, but the A or Z button must be pressed again to grab enemies.
Ness is the only character who can't charge his down smash near a ledge, because his is the only one in the game that has a hitbox while it's charging.
You can choose which victory animation the winning character can do by pressing X, Y, or B before the result screen appears.
Ayumi Tachibana, from the Detective Club series on the Famicom, was considered for the Super Smash Bros. Melee roster. She wasn't included because the character and the franchise she's in aren't well known outside of Japan.
Wario was originally going to be a playable fighter in Melee but wasn't added due to time constraints. He even had one of the highest potentials of being in the game according to the Smash 2 polls. Sakurai even stated that he would've been included if he had time.

On the stage select screen, a small 3D preview of the stage that the cursor is hovered over is displayed in the bottom left corner of the screen. Hovering over the "Random" option shows nothing in this space, however it does displayed a model of a tall tilted structure outside of the player's viewpoint. This can only be displayed by altering the game's camera in emulation.
Event 44: Mewtwo Strikes! is a reference to the first Pokemon movie, the main feature of which was titled "Mewtwo Strikes Back."
In the event the main objective is to K.O. Mewtwo without K.O.'ing Zelda, Mewtwo only appears 15 seconds into the battle.
Zelda also has a darker appearance in the event, which references how Nurse Joy, still under control by Mewtwo, disguises herself as the mystery woman in the movie.
In the event the main objective is to K.O. Mewtwo without K.O.'ing Zelda, Mewtwo only appears 15 seconds into the battle.
Zelda also has a darker appearance in the event, which references how Nurse Joy, still under control by Mewtwo, disguises herself as the mystery woman in the movie.
In Home-Run Contest, although the in-game counter stops at 9,999.9 ft, the signs in the stadium continue to count distance past 10,000 ft, although the stadium past 10,000 has no collision, and Sandbag falls through the world.
Mr. Game & Watch is the only character that cannot L-cancel all of his aerials, as the game reads Mr. Game & Watch's back-air, neutral air, and up-air as special moves. This was fixed in Brawl.

During Pikachu's montage in the "Special Video" there is a part in mute city where there are two spinning platforms instead of just one like in the final version. Though it was changed in the final version, the two spinning platforms can still be seen on the Mute City trophy.
The final roster was originally going to have a total of 20 characters (not counting Shiek). However, at some point during development, the developers felt the roster wasn't large enough, so several model-swap characters were added. These include Dr. Mario, Young Link, Falco, Ganondorf, Pichu and Roy.

When receiving a Screen KO in Flat Zone, the characters will hit the screen in their standard tumbling animation as opposed to their animations used in the other stages.
There's an unused audio clip of Mario saying "Let's-a-go", possibly to have been used for a Final Smash back when they were considered for the game.
Although the Dream Land stage looks perfectly normal, in Event 48: Pikachu and Pichu, the Dream Land stage is twice its normal size. It's unknown why, but some consider it to be because of the difficulty of the 3 -on-1 parameters of the event requiring a larger stage size.
The only fighter who didn't make their playable GameCube debut in this game is Luigi, who was previously playable in Luigi's Mansion.

Roy's belt buckle has the image of a lion on it. This is likely a reference to his endgame title of "Young Lion" in Fire Emblem: Binding Blade. He was also referred to by this title in the Fire Emblem: Awakening DLC.

The reflections found on the Fountain of Dreams and the models inside the magnifying glass when a character is offscreen are not actually the character's model, but rather a low res version of the model. These versions of the models don't show any item the character is holding, nor do their facial expression change.
8-Player Smash (a mode featured in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U) was originally planned for this game. However, due to technical performance, Sakurai stated "it was more than impossible."
Both the songs that can play while playing on the Onnet stage aren't from Earthbound, but are actually from it's predecessor: MOTHER.

The last sentence of Pit's Trophy description reads, "Will Pit ever fight again?", possibly foreshadowing his role as a playable character in the next entry of Smash Bros. released 7 years later, Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

In a prerelease build, the "Temple" stage originally had an elevator that led to the bottom of the stage, and had a fixed appearance. Players could also walk through the laboratory in Great Bay. Hyrule Temple had two mysterious platforms in the center of the stage. These platforms can also be seen in the game's Special Movie.
A segment of the remixed DK Rap used in the Kongo Jungle stage has the Character Select theme from the original Super Smash Bros. mixed into it.
In the PAL version of the game, the Rainbow Cruise stage is renamed to "Rainbow Ride", likely for consistency with the international versions of Super Mario 64.
When the game was revealed during E3 2001, the game's introduction sequence was played, followed by gameplay footage demonstrating each character's movesets. The only changes made when adding this into the game was to the gameplay footage.

Like the original Ice Climber, Topis were changed from seals to a yetis due to the controversy of seal clubbing. Oddly enough, the English trophy description is exactly the same as in the Japanese.
The bonus for getting a Star KO on all of the opposing team's members is called "Rocket KO". This may be a reference to Team Rocket from the Pokemon TV show, as they are commonly seen blasting off into the sky, punctuated by a star glint.
In the Spanish version of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, one of Rawk Hawk's lines is slightly changed to "¡Los aficionadillos deberÃan quedarse en casa jugando Super Smash Bros. Melee!" (translation: "The weaklings should stay home playing Super Smash Bros. Melee!") after having defeated The Koopinator. In all other versions of the game "Super Smash Bros. Melee" is simply replaced with "video games".
There is an unused audio clip of Captain Falcon saying "Come on!" and "Blue Falcon". The Blue Falcon is Captain Falcon's final smash in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and both voice clips appear in that game. It's possible the developers were experimenting with final smashes, just as they did in the original Super Smash Bros.
Event 22's name, Super Mario 128, is a reference to the series of experiments done to test technology that was eventually used in later games from Nintendo, as well as a reference to a sequel to Super Mario 64 that was never released.
The song for the Onett stage (simply called "Mother") is an orchestrated version of the "Bein' Friends" theme from the original Mother for NES.
Ness' victory theme is an orchestrated segment of the Eight Melodies song from Earthbound.
Since Star Fox Adventures was in development at the same time as Melee, the cast of that game voiced Fox, Falco, Peppy and Slippy during the codec calls in Corneria.

The Yoshi's Story stage was originally different during the game's prerelease, featuring an extra plateau.

The character select went through several changes. One design shows Kirby, Peach, Zelda, and the Ice Climbers missing from the character select screen.

When the game's language is set to Japanese in the international versions of the game, there are several differences in the trophy room's background. The NES changes to the Famicom, the Super Nintendo changes to the Super Famicom, the picture that reads "Super Smash Bros." is changed to say "Dairantou Smash Brothers." A Virtual Boy is also added.

Early trailers for Super Smash Bros. Melee show Samus' Grapple beam being more narrow and electric looking compared to the finished product.
Some of the characters' palette swaps reference past Nintendo character designs. For example, Kirby's white palette swap is a reference to his appearance in Kirby's Dream Land for the Game Boy.
The main menu theme sounds strikingly similar to the first part of the opening segment of the Super Nintendo RPG Terranigma, which was published by Nintendo in Europe. The composer for Melee may have taken inspiration from it.
In the Stage Select screen, the symbol representing the stage of the game of origin appears briefly before an outline of the level is generated where the name of the stage is displayed. Although Final Destination has the traditional Smash symbol, being an original level, Battlefield strangely displays a shattered circle. The reason why is unknown.
The Ice Climbers' Target Test Room only has Popo (or Nana depending on the color) and instead of the Target Test music, it plays the Ice Climber music. This could reference the game Ice Climber, as Popo climbs to the top alone (unless there's two players), along with breakable blocks and scrolling clouds. The condor appears holding the last target which is referencing how an Ice Climber needs to grab onto the condor at the end of a bonus stage (which Target Test also is). The targets could also reference the vegetables in Ice Climber that the player needs to collect for points.
The Rest Area Music in Allstar Mode is a remake of The Great Cave Offensive's Save Area Music from Kirby Super Star.
Allstar Mode itself may be based on Kirby Superstar's Arena Mode, as both have the player fighting a number of random enemies, finishing off with a consistent final opponent. Both modes feature a lobby between fights that displays which opponent the player will fight next, and a limited stock of healing items that do not replenish between fights.
Allstar Mode itself may be based on Kirby Superstar's Arena Mode, as both have the player fighting a number of random enemies, finishing off with a consistent final opponent. Both modes feature a lobby between fights that displays which opponent the player will fight next, and a limited stock of healing items that do not replenish between fights.
The music in Fountain Of Dreams is an orchestral remix of the Gourmet Race theme from Kirby Super Star. This remix was used in Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land during the battle against King Dedede, and has since been recognized as the fountain's theme. Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land was most likely in development during the creation of Super Smash Bros. Melee, and so the fountain's music was added as a teaser for the upcoming GBA game.
DK's voice clip's were originally meant to be recycled from Donkey Kong 64, performed by Grant Kirkhope. But much like the original Super Smash Bros., it was decided giving DK a more realistic gorilla voice would better fit the game.

Although he appears to be a flat sprite, Mr. Game & Watch is actually a 3D model designed to look 2D from the perspective of the camera.
Giga Bowser was a playable character at some point in development, albeit likely only for testing. He can be made into a playable character using cheat codes, and the announcer will even say "Giga Bowser" when he is selected. All boss characters are playable in some form using the debug mode.
Some of the trophies have strange reflection textures:
• The Ayumi Tachibana trophy has a reflection of a heavily embossed cat's face.
• Fire Kirby has a reflection of an inverted baby face.
• The Ocarina of Time trophy has a small reflection of the sky.
• Multiple trophies use a screenshot of Osohe Castle from the cancelled Earthbound 64.
• The Ayumi Tachibana trophy has a reflection of a heavily embossed cat's face.
• Fire Kirby has a reflection of an inverted baby face.
• The Ocarina of Time trophy has a small reflection of the sky.
• Multiple trophies use a screenshot of Osohe Castle from the cancelled Earthbound 64.
If Mr. Game & Watch absorbs 3 strong enough projectiles (Such as 3 fully charged PK Flashes) using oil panic and uses it against a shielding character, their shield will be broken, and Mr. Game & Watch will be sent flying back at extreme speeds. Unless there is a wall behind him to stop him, he will die almost instantly. This is known as the "Kamikaze Glitch".
Neither Roy nor Sheik appear as opponents or allies in Melee's Classic Mode (though Sheik can appear if Zelda transforms during battle). Ganondorf also cannot be fought, yet he can show up as an ally. Despite their absences, all three have their own intro poses programmed into the disc.

Among Plum's trophy's textures is a picture of a gun, which appears to be an AR platform rifle.

When on the stage, "Battlefield", in Classic, Adventure, and All-Star Modes, or in Event Matches "Space Travelers" and "Mewtwo Strikes!", it has a circular swirling rainbow design in the background. This background does not appear when the stage is selected normally in Versus Mode, and is otherwise unavailable.
Although Master Hand and Crazy Hand can't be outside of the stage Final Destination without glitches or hacking, their names will still appear correctly on the monitor of the Pokemon Stadium stage, albeit without spaces as "Masterhand" and "Crazyhand".
The information box for each trophy that states the game of origin includes different information in each region. The NTSC version includes a release date, the JP version states the system the game was released for, while the PAL version simply states the game of origin.
In the North American release, The Master Sword's trophy incorrectly states that it first appeared in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. This was corrected in the PAL release, which correctly states that it came from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.
Setting the game's language to Japanese will cause Falco to say one of the two quotes when taunting:
- Falco's taunt #1: "Ore no emono ni te o dasu na!" (俺ã®ç²ç‰©ã«æ‰‹ã‚’出ã™ãªï¼, which is translated as "Do not dabble in my prey!" in Brawl)
- Falco's taunt #2: "Nigasu ka yo!" (逃ãŒã™ã‹ã‚ˆï¼, meaning "Like I'll let you escape!")
However, when the game is set to English, he will simply scoff.
- Falco's taunt #1: "Ore no emono ni te o dasu na!" (俺ã®ç²ç‰©ã«æ‰‹ã‚’出ã™ãªï¼, which is translated as "Do not dabble in my prey!" in Brawl)
- Falco's taunt #2: "Nigasu ka yo!" (逃ãŒã™ã‹ã‚ˆï¼, meaning "Like I'll let you escape!")
However, when the game is set to English, he will simply scoff.

In the Japanese version, the Motion-Sensor Bomb is based on the Perfect Dark Proximity Mine. Although it was changed in the US version to remove all references to Perfect Dark, the game and it's developer, Rare are still mentioned in the credits. The design of the bomb was changed, though it resembles the design used in the original Smash Bros., which was itself based on the Goldeneye 007 Proximity Mine. The trophy description calls it "a favorite covert weapon of spies and other stealthy operatives.", and the game data only says "TOP SECRET".
The PAL version uses the same design as the US version, but renames it Proximity Mine, and the description mentions the Carrington Institute from Perfect Dark. However, the game is still listed as "TOP SECRET". This is despite the PAL version being released later than the other versions.
The PAL version uses the same design as the US version, but renames it Proximity Mine, and the description mentions the Carrington Institute from Perfect Dark. However, the game is still listed as "TOP SECRET". This is despite the PAL version being released later than the other versions.

In the Onett stage, a hidden rice ball can be found behind the flower pots in front of the drugstore. This can be seen through camera hacks.
In the opening sequence to the game, there is a short moment where Fox - piloting his Arwing, crosses paths with Wolf in his Wolfen. A mugshot of the two characters in their cockpits is briefly seen. In early days of the game's release, this led to much speculation of Wolf playing a role in the game, perhaps as a playable character. However, this was not the case.

Ness' Yoyo says "Dolphin Loop. HalLab Nintendo 2001." on the front, a referencing the Gamecube's codename 'Dolphin'.

In earlier versions of the game, the lab in Termina: Great Bay could be entered from both sides, and characters could stand on top of it. This idea was eventually canned and the laboratory was closed and moved to the background. However, the lab still has some textures and models of some pipes inside of it, likely remnants from the initial idea.
In the Spanish version of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, one of Rawk Hawk's lines is slightly changed to "¡Los aficionadillos deberÃan quedarse en casa jugando Super Smash Bros. Melee!" (translation: "The weaklings should stay home playing Super Smash Bros. Melee!") after having defeated The Koopinator. In all other versions of the game "Super Smash Bros. Melee" is simply replaced with "video games".

A screenshot in Super Smash Bros. Melee's instruction booklet shows a Stamina match in which there are characters with more than 150HP. This could either mean that the original HP was a higher number, or that it was player-configurable.

Starting the game with a Pikmin save file on their memory card grants the player the Captain Olimar trophy. This is the only legitimate way to obtain this particular trophy.
By selecting Ganondorf's classic trophy and then changing to the "nighttime" background, the trophy's eyes change to yellow.
Jigglypuff is the only character whose voice actor changes depending on the game's language setting. When changed to Japanese, French, or German, her voice actor will change as well as the name. In Japanese, it becomes Purin, in French, it becomes RONDOUDOU, and in German it becomes Pummeluff. A new voice actor is used when announcing her name as RONDOUDOU and Pummeluff and is the only time a different announcer is used in any version of Melee.
There are actually numerous differences between the NTSC and PAL versions of Super Smash Bros. Melee. Many characters and their moves were tweaked to rebalance the game.
The language setting in the PAL version can be switched between English, French, German, Spanish and Italian, with the French and German settings having new voice overs for character name changes during character selection. In order to fit these additional languages on the disc, the Japanese language option and the Special Movie were removed.
The language setting in the PAL version can be switched between English, French, German, Spanish and Italian, with the French and German settings having new voice overs for character name changes during character selection. In order to fit these additional languages on the disc, the Japanese language option and the Special Movie were removed.

Roy did not star in a game before Melee. Although Fire Emblem: Fūin no Tsurugi (Fire Emblem: Binding Blade) is where Roy held a starring role, the game came out March 29th 2002, while Melee was released November 21st, 2001 in Japan. Roy was put into Melee to promote Fūin no Tsurugi's release in Japan, and was originally intended to be an exclusive character to the Japanese region.
Mario's vocals for his down special move and back throw were used in Mario vs. Donkey Kong. This is the only time a vocal from any character in a Super Smash Bros. game was reused in a game outside the series.
A Male Wire Frame's name will be displayed on Pokémon Stadium as 'ZAKO otoko' and a Female's will be displayed as "ZAKO onna". "otoko" and "onna" mean Man and Woman in Japanese respectively

Changing the language to Japanese on an English version of the game results in the Ice Climbers being called simply "Ice Climber" as Japanese does not differentiate between singular and plural written words in the way English does.
Luigi is the only character from the original Super Smash Bros. to not appear in Melee's intro.
Donkey Kong has a hitbox attached to his necktie. This is likely included to prevent projectiles from missing due to slipping between his arms and ending in the empty space of his standing animation but it also artificially inflates his overall hitbox in may other animations.

Falco's voice actors, Ben Cullum and Hisao Egawa, are credited in the credits even if he has not been unlocked yet. This is likely due to his appearance in the intermission of the Corneria stage in Adventure Mode.

Link and his clone, Young Link, both use the same model for the Hookshot. This makes Young Link's look rather large compared to Link's.
If the game language is switched to Japanese, Mewtwo will speak in full sentences for some of its victory poses. In English, Mewtwo only laughs during its victory poses and taunt.
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.
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.

In Event 39: Jigglypuff Live, the screen in the background will sometimes focus on the player's Jigglypuff. If the player uses "Sing" at this very moment, the other 3 Jigglypuffs will fall asleep, and for longer than usual. This Easter egg only appears in Event 39, which may be appropriately placed in sync with Jigglypuff's National Pokedex number, 39.
The developers initially considered replacing the character Ness with Lucas (the protagonist of the Japan-only GBA title Mother 3), and planned on making Marth and Roy Japanese-exclusive fighters. However, Ness remained the spokes-fighter for the Earthbound trilogy due to consideration for delays in releasing Mother 3, and Marth and Roy were made available worldwide due to fans' desires to play as the Fire Emblem duo.

One of the battle bonuses is called 'Switzerland', and is worth 12,00 points. It is obtained by not attacking (including missing) and not being attacked. This is a reference to Switzerland's neutrality during both World Wars.

There are six "unused" entries in the debug menu's level select for Versus matches. While most of them crash the game, only two of them work properly. The first one, TEST, is a large terrain test stage with a unique backdrop. The background comes from a coffee shop in Palo Atlo, California. The second one, TSEAK, is a test stage for "Break the Targets" and was reserved for Sheik.
In the background of the trophy room, several Nintendo consoles can be seen. The room includes a Nintendo 64 with the original Smash Bros. inside, a Nintendo Power with Super Smash Bros. on the cover, an NES, a SNES, and several other objects. If the language setting is switched to Japanese, the NES and SNES change to their Japanese equivalents, a Famicom and Super Famicom, and a Virtual Boy will appear next to the sunflower.

Early English releases of the game changed the "Magnum Killer" (The Japanese name for Banzai Bill) trophy to "Bullet Bill", accordingly changing the game data to "Super Mario Bros. 10/85". The description acknowledges that that all the "Bullet Bills" in Melee are the rarer, extra-large variety, yet it seems the translators were unaware that those are called Banzai Bill. Later English releases fixed the name and description, but did not change the game data back to Super Mario World.

The Metroid trophies claim that the original Metroid was released in 1989 (8/89), but it was released in 1986.
The Great Fox trophy says that it first appeared in Star Fox, but its debut was actually in Star Fox 64.

The original boxart did not feature Link or Pikachu, and instead featured Mario being attacked by Bowser's Fire Breath move.
On the description of the Meta Knight trophy, it states that he made his debut in Kirby Super Star. This however is incorrect, as his first appearance was in Kirby's Adventure, four games before Kirby Super Star was released.

The Pokemon, Ditto, was meant to be a possible helper when a Pokeball was thrown. He was supposed to transform into the player that threw the ball and would help fight. However, there were problems with its programming and it was removed. By using an action replay, Ditto can be put back into the game, but he is lacking his "transform" ability. Instead, all it does is say "Meta!" (it's Japanese name being Metamon) and disappears. Anyone who runs into it is dealt 7-8% damage.

The Metroid trophy has an image reflecting off of its shell. The image is of the space station from the beginning of Super Metroid.
Luigi's voice is just a pitch-altered version of Mario's.
In Captain Falcon's "break the target" room, a picture of dolphins can be found on the left-most wall. This may be a reference to the original codename of the Gamecube, which was "The Dolphin".
In Luigi's "Break the Targets" room, the small square in the middle of the stage, which he begins standing on, is actually a Nintendo Gamecube.

There is a glitch that allows the game to advance to the stage selection screen without properly configuring the match. Any player that does not select a character will be set to Master Hand as a default. However, Master Hand will only respond to controller port 3.

An Excitebike racer from the game Excitebike, Balloon Fighter from the game Balloon Fight, Urban Champion from Urban Champion and Bubbles from Clu Clu Land were considered for characters that could be used to represent the NES era of Nintendo in the game, but Sakurai decided that the Ice Climbers would be far more fitting as fighters.

Unused character intro loading screens for All-Star mode can be found by using the game's debug mode. They were most likely removed because the player may fight multiple opponents simultaneously in some rounds.

There are many Regional differences between the Japanese and U.S. versions of Super Smash Bros. Melee. They include name changes (Jigglypuff is named Purin and Bowser is named Koopa in the Japanese version), event names ("Time for a Check Up" is "Don't Hog The Spotlight, Bro" in Japan), and different names for items (Bob-Omb is Bomb Soldier in Japan).

The main character of the game Devil World, Tamagon, appeared as a trophy in the Japanese version of Super Smash Bros. Melee. Tamagon was removed in the American version of the game but the trophy can still be found with Action Replay, complete with a translated description. Stranger still, the Tamagon trophy was removed outright from the European version of the game and cannot even be found with a cheat device, despite the fact that Devil World was released in European countries.

In early versions of the game, the Princess Daisy trophy contains a third eye beneath her hair if viewed at the right angle. In fact, there are many hidden eyes all over her head, but this is the only abnormal eye that can be seen in normal play.
Hideo Kojima had requested that Metal Gear Solid's Solid Snake be in the game, but due to time constraints he couldn't be added to the game's roster. Sonic the Hedgehog also nearly made it into the game. Sonic's creator Yuji Naka stated that Sonic was going to be in Melee, but he also was cut due to time constraints. Both characters later made it into the sequel, Super Smash Bros. Brawl.