In just two and a half months, 2025 has already proven to be a packed year for Melee. At Genesis X2, Hungrybox won his first supermajor in six years. That same event—and a trend carried over from late last year—suggested we could have more potential major winners than ever before. And if that weren’t enough, just last weekend, we witnessed another chapter in the Cody Schwab-Jmook rivalry at a large regional.
Beyond competition, one of the most intriguing recent developments is the return of Samox. Not too long ago, he announced a Kickstarter for “Smash Saga,” a new documentary series on Melee. The project has already reached its funding goal, proving that the community still values creative storytelling about the game. As a content creator myself—and one who has critiqued Samox before—I find this exciting. I want “Smash Saga” to be great and believe it can be great.
Naturally, this has me thinking about content. Not to toot my own horn, but I’d like to think I know a thing or two about what works, what doesn’t, and what fits Smash well. In today’s column, I’m going to discuss “Smash Saga,” analyze Samox’s strengths and weaknesses as a filmmaker, and outline what I personally hope to see in his new project.
Strengths
When you think of “The Smash Brothers” – and, to an extent, “Metagame” – a key strength of these documentaries is how Samox turns his subjects into larger-than-life figures. He typically accomplishes this through a mix of third-party narration, live footage, gradual reveals, and well-placed music—all which serve to build rising action toward climactic moments.
More than anything else, Samox really understands the power of set pieces in storytelling and has a great instinct for how to move them around for the maximum effect. The most obvious example comes at the very beginning of the original Smash doc. Today, “now he will try” is one of the most iconic phrases in Melee. Everybody recognizes it as a reference to when KoreanDJ anonymously showed up at someone’s house to play Melee, kicked everyone’s asses without breaking a sweat, and later revealed that he used to be one of the best players in the world.
Looking at “The Smash Brothers” through a pure storytelling lens, Samox does his finest character work with KoreanDJ. Not only does the entire documentary begin with him, we’re reintroduced to him later in the “Paper Cuts” episode, where we actually learn about his backstory as a violin prodigy and exceptionally hard worker. We then see KoreanDJ’s gradual climb to the top echelon of competitive Melee through a mix of gameplay, KoreanDJ playing the violin to the tune of the Gerudo Valley theme, and a visual checklist tracking his process. This culminates in an epic finale in KoreanDJ’s run at MLG Las Vegas, set to an orchestral remix of the same theme we heard him play on the violin, and where he falls heartbreakingly short of winning grand finals over PC Chris. Everything about this sequence—his initial mystery, his reintroduction, the growing investment in his journey, and the ultimate bittersweet ending—demonstrates fantastic character-building.
Samox is not nearly as consistent in this strength throughout “Metagame,” for reasons I’ll get to later. But for the first three episodes, he does an excellent job in building Mang0 up as a lovable anti-hero. The framing of his victory at The Big House 4 nicely parallels it with his previous win at Pound 3 six years prior, adding a level of stakes to Mang0’s success that otherwise wouldn’t exist. In general, the first third of “Metagame” maintains a celebratory tone, but the complex and engaging presentation of its set pieces keeps viewers invested in the story.
One last strength worth noting is the eye that Samox has for compelling third-party narrators. Wife and Chillin are definitely the strongest third-party figures in the first documentary, and within the first third of “Metagame” at least, Scar does a really phenomenal job. Strong narration adds further layers to a documentary, offering perspectives that go beyond the subjects themselves. It can even allow for natural conflict, where different viewpoints clash and create depth for storytelling. But take note of this, because when unchecked, it can hold back the final product.
Weaknesses
Samox’s penchant for self-indulgence was more charming (though occasionally repulsive) in the original Smash documentary. In “Metagame,” however, it becomes a much larger issue. His sense of humor doesn’t always translate very well and he sometimes takes big detours from his central topics. Moments like letting Cactuar wax poetic on Eastern philosophy and how that translates to Melee come off as more cringe-inducing than endearing and the entire chapter on Fox at Justice 4 just had nothing to do with the story Samox wanted to tell.
Scope creep, however, is the bigger problem. As I pointed out in my ten-year anniversary review of “The Smash Brothers,” the last few episodes hinted at this issue. While the documentary largely focused on the golden age of Smash, the Mew2King and Mang0 episodes felt like detours into a newer era. Though discourse-stoking and colorful, they’re nowhere near as substantive or compellingly connected to the core story. I think this particular weakness becomes especially concerning in “Metagame.”
To my understanding, “Metagame” was originally supposed to be an extended episode about Armada. However, Samox eventually shifted his focus towards the rivalry between Armada and PPMD, before then turning “Metagame” into a series about The Five Gods. Mind you, it doesn’t even particularly work out in the wake of Samox having to re-edit the documentary in the wake of Smash’s mid-2020 #MeToo movement, where he was left with footage that he couldn’t use because it spotlighted abusers. The end result is a documentary that came out way too late, tries to cover too much ground, and never feels like it has anything unique to say.
Honestly, from Episode 4 onward, “Metagame” becomes a somber recap PPMD’s conflicting relationship with Melee. It does not work the way that Samox wanted it to; rather than feeling like KoreanDJ’s story in terms of involving compelling elements of mythologizing and humanizing a key figure, this one largely portrays a struggling central character who has a relatively unrewarding journey to experience as a viewer. Had Samox built the documentary around PPMD from the beginning, it might have worked. Instead, we get glimpses of multiple different visions—the Five Gods, Armada vs. PPMD, PPMD’s struggles—but none are fully realized.
Can Smash Saga Succeed?
I think “Smash Saga” has the potential to be a return to form for Samox. Although it may not reach the same cultural status of his first series, it can certainly be a significant improvement upon the uneven “Metagame.” From what I’ve heard, he’s involving a lot more community members into the feedback process in order to avoid the narrative pitfalls he’s fallen into before.
Maybe Samox won’t catch lightning in a bottle again. But with that said, he has the tools to tell a great story about the Smash scene today. Multiple times, he’s shown the ability to strike a strong balance between mythologizing and humanizing someone; it’s just a matter of discipline. If he can stay focused, trust the strength of the narrative, and stay plugged into the community “Smash Saga” could once again be another special moment for the entire scene.