Hello! We are working very hard on translating the Melee website. We decided to ramp up our translation focus on the character introduction pages in order to give everyone a better picture of Melee, and its character. Special thanks to soma for providing assistance with this translation.
All comments were originally written by Sakurai himself. You can see Sakurai’s individual picture comments by hovering your mouse over the image. Originally pictures were given their own page, but for the sake of brevity I combined them. The original page can be accessed here. Translator notes are marked by [TN].
Ganondorf:
Updated: December 18th, 2001
The descent of the supreme ruler. Ganondorf!
Ganondorf is the human form of “Ganon,” the final boss of “The Legend of Zelda.” His first appearance is in “The Ocarina of Time.”
Ganondorf was a very lucky character [to get in].
To be honest, I had no plans to bring Ganondorf to Smash, but because of various convenient circumstances, he was able to join the fight.
(I received the model, the traits were clearly defined, the body proportions matched Captain Falcon, and above else his popularity was high.)
If you play as him, you will quickly understand but above else he is stolid, and feels extremely heavy. In that regard, his strong points are that his offensive ability is very high, and because he is heavy he is very hard to knock off [the stage]. Ganondorf is all about brute force, while Captain Falcon is more focused on technique.
Once again, I made another character that clearly shows their strong and weak points….
Unlock criteria: Clear Event 29 “Triforce Gathering”. Or play 600 or more rounds of versus.
(Images taken during development)
1.Event #29 has you working with Zelda in order to defeat Ganondorf.
2.Warlock Punch. It exceeds the Falcon Punch, and it’s both powerful and vulnerable!
3.He only has one jab, but even still it’s very powerful.
4.Wizard’s foot. In exchange for being slow, it has a lot of power.
5. Dark Dive. He grabs his opponent with both hands and then releases them with a burst of electric energy.
6.Ganondorf has a lot of moves that will burn you purple.
| Special Moves [TN1] | |
| Neutral Special: | Warlock Punch |
| Side Special: | Gerudo Dragon |
| Up Special: | Dark Dive |
| Down Special: | Wizard’s Foot |
[TN1] All of the names are written in kanji with hiragana in parenthesis.
For more information on Ganondorf”s design, check out Frostwraith’s article, F-Zero Pilots and Demon Kings Fight Alike: Ganondorf in Smash Bros.
- Smash Ultimate Development Timeline - May 16, 2020
- Straight from the Source: Koji Igarashi on Castlevania in Smash, Bloodstained - October 16, 2018
- Sakurai Discusses Isabelle, Echoes, and Newcomers - September 26, 2018
Ganondorf has a really weird history in Smash. A lucky addition in Melee, yet his status as a clone (or a semi-clone, since Brawl) still has a lot of fans foaming at the mouth. Would it have been better to have him sit out until Brawl? Hard to say.