A noise complaint at a US apartment had a "wholesome" twist when the investigating police officers turned up and joined a group of gamers who were playing the Nintendo fighting game Super Smash Bros.

"So neighbours called the cops on us and now we fighting them," Jovante Williams posted on Facebook and Twitter, along with a video and photo that have been shared thousands of times.

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The noise from the Minneapolis apartment had irritated neighbours in the complex, with one of the five friends in the apartment telling local media they had several visits from their building's security guard telling them about the complaints.

"Each time we brought the volume down further to the point where the TV was on mute and our music was only playing at 10 per cent volume," Storm McKee told BMTN.

"Suddenly there was a knock at the door and when I answered it there were five cops in the hallway as well as the security guard.

"I explained to them that we heard complaints and turned everything down and even brought our voices to basically a whisper. The security guard had my back and said he didn't know why they kept complaining either."

Mr McKee told the police he and four friends were just playing Super Smash Bros Ultimate, eating pizza and having a couple of beers.

He invited the officers to join them if they wanted.

Officers Isaac Palmer and Kou Yang did just that.

"I never played the game, so I said, 'Why not?'" Mr Palmer told local paper Twin Cities.

"Not every call is chaos.

"Some days we can just sit and chit chat with people. When it's not crazy, you can take the time to talk."

Mr Williams later posted that "everyone was having a good time".

"Something that was worrisome but came out wholesome."

He said the night's events had become his "15 minutes of fame" and that "even the Mayor is talking about it".