The Helirin is incorrectly named the Heririn. This was fixed in the PAL version.

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.

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.

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.

The developers initially considered replacing the character Ness with Lucas (the protagonist of the still in-development EarthBound 64, and later the Japan-only GBA title Mother 3), and planned on making Marth and Roy Japanese-exclusive fighters. However, Ness remained as the only fighter for the EarthBound series due to delays surrounding EarthBound 64's original Nintendo 64 release (and that game's eventual cancellation), and Marth and Roy were made available worldwide due to fans' desires to play as the Fire Emblem duo. Both Ness and Lucas would go on to be playable in this game's sequel Super Smash Bros. Brawl, though Lucas' appearance would be based on Mother 3's eventual GBA release.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Luigi is the only character from the original Super Smash Bros. to not appear in Melee's intro.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

By selecting Ganondorf's classic trophy and then changing to the 4th lighting setting, the trophy's eyes will change from a normal greenish grey color into a glowing orange color.

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.