Since its 2001 release, Nintendo's crown jewel, "Super Smash Bros. Melee," has inspired multiple generations of players to sustain a grassroots community. The Book of Melee is a deep dive into the universe of competitive Melee, gaming's greatest and most unlikely underdog story.In The Book of Melee, longtime Melee enthusiast and gaming journalist Edwin Budding covers the history of competitive Melee through the lens of its greatest legends, including "The Five Gods of Melee." Simultaneously absurd, heartwarming, and tear-jerking, The Book of Melee tackles the evolution of the most passionate cult following of the 21st century, from crowded restaurant basements to packed arenas.

In a world where most video game players crave the newest hardware or the latest game, one tight-knit global gaming community, thousands strong, has stood alone for nearly two decades: the competitive Super Smash Bros. Melee (SSBM) scene. SSBM's release for the Nintendo GameCube in 2001 signaled an exciting moment in gaming history: a continuation of the popular Smash Bros. franchise, boasting even more characters and iconography from players' favorite Nintendo properties. Melee is Broken argues that SSBM's unique staying power is sourced from its reliance on hardware objects from the early 2000s, through which new life is breathed into ostensibly "dead" media objects. Through blending textual analysis with artistic research-creation, this book interrogates the ideologies and principles that have sustained the competitive SSBM scene for so many years through examining hardware, software, community discourse, and the formation of universally adopted techniques both in- and out-of-game. This groundbreaking work aims to invite everyone from long-time SSBM competitors to those on the peripheral of SSBM, or even gaming in general, to inquire and learn more about the passion and dedication that defines competitive SSBM.

How hard can it be to run a marina in the tropics? Freshly divorced for the third time and fired from his "allowance"-paying job in the family oil business by his father as a result, George Marshall is invited by his friends Ricky and Katie May to join them on a sailing trip around the Caribbean. A few weeks later, George and his friends stumble upon the idyllic island of Sao Jorge, where they are welcomed by expat marina owner Tracker Doorn who extols the virtues of Caribbean living-not entirely without ulterior motives. Determined to prove that he is more than a spoiled, womanizing, overage adolescent, George buys the marina to show his skeptical father and family that he has what it takes to achieve business success without their assistance and without having to work too hard. At times raucous, at times touching, Marina Melee is a fun voyage to the Caribbean island of Sao Jorge, where living the easy life is hard work!

Using twenty distinct scenarios, students can engage in structured role play in a student-centered learning environment.

The Reign of the Giant Monsters Begins - Complete move lists for all monsters - Hardcore battle strategies for defeating every monster in the game, including King Ghidorah and the dreaded Mechagodzilla - Tactical analysis of each battlefield - Detailed maps of every stage, including the locations of every throwable building, hidden item, power-up, and spawn point - Essential tips for all gameplay modes: Adventure, Melee, Destruction, Survival, and Team play - Every secret revealed, including all Easter Eggs and hidden monsters - Dozens of top-secret cheat codes

Get the tips and tricks you need to come out on top in this official fighter guide. Includes every contender from the biggest roster in Super Smash Bros. history and all the basics you need to succeed with any fighter. -- Adapted from back cover.

After getting punched in the face by a golem, Jason discovers he desperately needs two things: a much better offense and a much better defense.To a hammer, everything looks like a nail, and to a mage, everything is solved with magic. That is, unless your magic is small and restricted like Jason's. Since he can't use charms, create shields or throw fireballs, he needs to find a different way to win battles.Fortunately, Tyler is back, and as a Natural, he is ready to teach Jason the Way of the Fist. Among other things. (Nudge nudge, wink wink)And he'll need all the help he can get, because with Isobel gone, the Louisville Mages are in disarray. That should have been the end of the threat to Jason, his friends, and the House. But she left behind a terrible legacy, and now there is a battle royale for power.As the last person standing, Jason must find a way to defend the House and get his friends back on their feet. If he can't do it with magic, then he'll have to do it as a fighter. He will have to become the Melee Mage.

Super Smash Bros. Melee combines gameplay from the original adventure with various new features and enhancements for the Nintendo GameCube system. Gamers will choose from a wide variety of famous characters including Mario, Donkey Kong, Link, Peach, Samus, Ice Climber, and more, plus some hidden characters that can be unlocked. The popular four-player mode returns in this sequel, along with other new modes including a Coin Battle and a 64-player tournament. Players battle through 20 interactive stages, all from other hit Nintendo games. The game also features several upgraded defense techniques, including deflect, block, and evade. There are also over 30 defensive and offensive items to use. The gaming community is commending the superb character animation in the game. Real-time lighting, reflections and shadows help the characters come to life.

Bring on the Books for Everybody is an engaging assessment of the robust popular literary culture that has developed in the United States during the past two decades. Jim Collins describes how a once solitary and print-based experience has become an exuberantly social activity, enjoyed as much on the screen as on the page. Fueled by Oprah’s Book Club, Miramax film adaptations, superstore bookshops, and new technologies such as the Kindle digital reader, literary fiction has been transformed into best-selling, high-concept entertainment. Collins highlights the infrastructural and cultural changes that have given rise to a flourishing reading public at a time when the future of the book has been called into question. Book reading, he claims, has not become obsolete; it has become integrated into popular visual media. Collins explores how digital technologies and the convergence of literary, visual, and consumer cultures have changed what counts as a “literary experience” in phenomena ranging from lush film adaptations such as The English Patient and Shakespeare in Love to the customer communities at Amazon. Central to Collins’s analysis and, he argues, to contemporary literary culture, is the notion that refined taste is now easily acquired; it is just a matter of knowing where to access it and whose advice to trust. Using recent novels, he shows that the redefined literary landscape has affected not just how books are being read, but also what sort of novels are being written for these passionate readers. Collins connects literary bestsellers from The Jane Austen Book Club and Literacy and Longing in L.A. to Saturday and The Line of Beauty, highlighting their depictions of fictional worlds filled with avid readers and their equations of reading with cultivated consumer taste.