Malix Perez aka meanmalix
August 1st 2025
The first time I ever picked up the GameCube controller was when I was about eight years old. It feels like a lifetime ago now. I won’t go into detail into that time now, but I can give you the short version. I sucked. I still suck. But as a kid, well I wasn’t any good.
The memories from that time are clouded in a darkness. I would play for hours on hours without stopping. The only thing which would give me a break was my dog tearing the controller from the console. Damn did it hurt when she did that. Pain wasn’t something I really understood at that time. Even now it’s hard to know everything going on inside.
My older brother was convinced the new console was gonna garner new and better games. I believed him. They didn’t. Well maybe they did; but melee was always special.
It wasn’t until I was sixteen, maybe slightly younger, that a friend of mine hook-ed me up with a set up. It had all the bells and whistles. UCF, 20xx, and all the characters unlocked; what more could a young buck dream of. I still remember that first time I put my hands on a new. I mean brand new. Out of the box new: GameCube Controller.
It was white. With a green A button and a red B button. Two beautiful gray jump buttons; X and Y. The triggers on the back were firm. Yellow was the color of the control stick.
I had a crew. We didn’t know that though. We were just the only melee players in our local area. While at least the only ones who still played the game. I wasn’t the best player at the time, but as of writing this article I might be the best player in Kingston Washinton. Theres only 2500 people here. Thats what the census said. This would’ve been around 2016. How many of them play melee? I have no clue.
The years past and I wasn’t able to make it to a local. Just never fit it into the budget.
When I left for college, I thought, now is the time to start competing. That didn’t happen though. On my twenty-second birthday I was diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer. Beat that shit. But the scars remain. Being disconnected from the real melee scene has always been difficult. People are encouraged to build a local. “What if it’s just not in the means? Well I guess– and then nothing.” Is often the sentiment I have heard echoed in the world of twitch, reddit, and twitter(as it is still known in melee). I digress.
I had to drop out of college due to the damage from cancer. I had to stop playing melee due to the damage from cancer and my own inability to stop playing melee, drinking, and generally not giving a crap about my own well-being.
That winter, the winter of 2022, I had a wonderful opportunity to work/intern for a friend in the field of Content creation. Getting to edit, animate, and sometimes (although they might describe it differently) direct the content. We made melee stuff as well as other things.
My hands got worse as my depression did. I had to stop playing melee altogether. I’ll spare the details again, but a year later, the winter of 2023 I had multiple hospital visits due to issues with medication, marijuana, and alcohol. The problems culminated into a multi night stay at an inpatient facility.
After that I spent almost nine months deep in psychosis. The eventual kick in the butt that got me out of it was an enderman from the niche video game, Minecraft.
The year after that, 2025, was my return to the game. No, I still haven’t been to the local. I am still working on that. And no, I still haven’t been to a major. That’ll come with time too.
The game has been fun. The community is still really hard. At least the parts that I can engage with.
I see super smash bros. like baseball. It’s just simply spectacular. It’s athletics. But at first it was just a game. What people have done; in order to keep playing the game is almost indescribably amazing.
I think we are in another dark time in melee. For me, I don’t think it is that hard to see. Maybe this time is the time we lose.
Maybe we– but no.
It’s only a matter of time, before the renaissance begins. Some say, it already has.
The new kids on the block are fierce; but its hard to know if their heart is in the right place.
The oldgaurd is getting older; but for a lot of them that means better.
Theirs blood in the water.
Who’s ready to take the swim?
___________________________________________
The point of a Hidden Boss highlight is to show-off the people in melee. I am one of the people in melee.
It only made sense for me to write the first hidden boss highlight about me, since well, I don’t really know anyone else in melee. The number at the top, XX, represents a lot to me. But in order to respect our history I thought I would wait. I do not know who the hidden boss highlight numeral one will be. I am excited to find out.
Thanks for anyone who read this issue.
A Poem:
Melee is like Music
“Who’s music?”
“Is music a new player?”