Some quick n’ dirty thoughts regarding the new Smash Bros-like game around the block.

If you follow me on Mastodon, you’re probably aware that I’m a bit of a Super Smash Bros. Melee fan. Someone in my Discord went so far as to call me a “Melee head.” It makes sense; there’s rarely a day that goes by without me playing a few singles or doubles matches. Melee is one of those games where it’s not only played for fun; my mind feels sharper, more focused.

PhobGCC. Chances are you’ve probably never heard of it. Allow GitHub to explain what it is: The PhobGCC is a replacement motherboard for Gamecube controllers that reads stick position using magnets and Hall effect sensors instead of potentiometers that can wear out. It offers an advanced digital snapback filter that doesn’t reduce responsiveness and actually improves responsiveness in Melee. It also features gate calibration, swappable buttons, and facilitates installation of discrete switches on the D-pad and face buttons.

Slippi version 3.0.0 is out. This release has early support for ranked matchmaking! For the time being, ranked matchmaking requires a subscription, the minimum of which will set you back at $5/month. Manage your Slippi account and choose your subscription tier. After that you’ll need to agree to the Terms of Service with the Slippi Launcher. Ranked matchmaking will be free after it comes out of early access. You can also check the leaderboards.

By default, your controller adapter polls at a rate of 125 Hz, or every eight milliseconds. However, by overclocking it, we can increase that rate to nearly 10 times at 1,000 Hz. The result of this overclock, per the document by SSBM_Arte, results in “a much closer experience to console play. It considerably improves the latency stability, which directly impacts execution, and also reduces input lag.” You might have seen this in action with a mouse.

Emulation has come so far. To the point where you can actually play online multiplayer on PC and Steam Deck with Nintendo Switch games, thanks to the LDN version of Ryujinx. A number of benefits come with this, including: no need to cough up $20/year for a Nintendo Switch Online membership higher resolutions than 720p/1080p higher framerates the ability to use controllers outside of joycons, pro controllers, etc. So let’s walk through the process of getting this set up.

As of Ryujinx version 1.1.112, users can now seamlessly load mods on Super Smash Bros. Ultimate with the use of ARCropolis/Skyline. Here’s how to do it. Note: this tutorial is based off of the guide from GameBanana, but specifically tailored to Linux users. TL:DR Get yourself set up with emulating Switch games on Linux with this guide if you haven’t already Download Ryujinx and run it for the first time Download ARCropolis, extract zip to %RYU_DIR%/sdcard/ Download Skyline, extract to %RYU_DIR%/sdcard/atmosphere/contents/01006A800016E000/ Download any mod (plenty of them over on GameBanana), extract them to %RYU_DIR%/sdcard/ultimate/mods/ Launch the game.