[Introduction to Project M]
"Project M is a community-made mod of Brawl inspired by the
gameplay of Super Smash Brothers Melee, designed to add rich and
technical gameplay to a balanced cast of characters while additionally
enhancing the speed of play. Project M employs new codes which
seamlessly add in new, universal features to the entire cast to add
technical variety to all characters." -
Project M's Site
To put it simply, Project M aims to please the competitive Super
Smash Brothers player by offering gameplay similar to Melee with the
additional content and characters that Brawl brings standard. While
Brawl stands on it's own as a perfectly capable competitive fighter,
there are those who prefer how Melee felt. Project M is directly made
for these types of Smash Brothers players, but of course would love to
reach out to Brawl players who want to spice it up and participate as
well. Nobody says you can't play both games, afterall!
In cooperation with All is Brawl, the Project M team hopes to
interest you in Project M and the future of it by bringing you this
handy guide to the basics. For more information about Project M and
what it's trying to achieve, please visit the
"About Section" on their site.
[The Demo Release]
The Project M demo releases today at the Smash Mods homepage for Project M, complete with a
14 Character roster
that covers fan favorites of the series as well as newcomers.
Characters include Captain Falcon, Falco, Fox, Ganondorf, Mr. Game
& Watch, Jigglypuff, Link, Lucas, Mario, Marth, Sheik, Snake, Sonic
and Zelda. There will also be a selection of new stages, as well as
throwback stages including but not limited to Dreamland 64, Fountain of
Dreams, and Yoshi's Story.
Project M does not require a modified Wii in order to play!
There are methods detailed on the site above that can help those
unwilling to use modifications in order to play, and they're very
simple. Arm yourself with an SD card, your copy of Brawl and your Wii,
and you can play without any system modifications.
[Frequently Asked Questions]
I actually do not play Smash competitively, will this still be fun for me? Absolutely!
Although the intentions for Project M are to be competitively
attractive, there is something here to appeal to almost everyone. New
stages to play on will be available, character changes allow for a
fresh feel of play, and there may even be other additions in the
future.
I didn't enjoy Melee, am I going to like Project M? It
all depends on what you disliked. Was it the limited cast? The items?
The graphics? Reasons such as this mean that yes, there is potential
that you may enjoy Project M. If you disliked the combos, the Melee
style of air dodge, or even Wavedashing, there is a chance you may not
be very interested. It is advisable that you at least try Project M
once before passing judgment.
Is there a release date for the final version of Project M? No,
and there is no release window either. Setting artificial time limits
to push the team could lead to complications such as overlooked issues,
wasted potential, or worse: team disagreements.
Will Mewtwo/Roy/Pichu/Dr.Mario/Young Link be in this? The
Project M team has taken the stance that no Melee characters will
return unless they can be seamlessly added without replacing any
character, as well as have their own Character Select icon. Dantarion
has been recently putting in a lot of effort into making advancements
in this area.
Why are you making changes to Brawl-exclusive characters? Some of the Melee characters even appear to have changes! The
basic reason is to fit the Brawl characters within the Super Smash
Brothers Melee physics and style of play. If everything was kept the
same as in Brawl, they would likely not feel very good or fit in at
all. Changing characters also brings a fresh feel to the gameplay and
differentiates it from the original game. This helps eliminate the
feeling of playing that same exact character with the same strategies;
think of it as a new game. As for Melee characters, changes are made in
theory that they're for the better and bring balance to the character.
Why are you reintroducing wavedashing/various techniques anyways? Not just because the competitive scene embraced them, but also because in Wavedashing's defense,
it was intentional! Other reasons include various new options to explore for character potential.
Stages from Brawl have been replaced, and this bugs me somewhat. What is the plan to remedy this? The
final version of Project M aims to have all of Brawl's stages
alongside of the extras. For the demo, they'll be overlapping some of
the existing ones, mainly the ones that are banned in competitive
environments. Some Brawl stages may be edited to make them be more
appealing to balanced play as well.
Why wouldn't you just play Melee if you enjoy its style of gameplay so much? This
is probably the most commonly asked question, and it should be simple
to see. A quick list would be the new characters, balance brought to
the cast, fancier graphics, more stages, and online play. These are all
reasons why just playing Melee isn't too enticing of an option with
Project M capable of existing. With all of these extras and
possibilities, how can you ignore Project M?
Something is off...Are you sure this is like Melee? While
plenty of the values used for Project M are being ported directly from
Melee itself, there are still a few odds and ends that need some work.
Mainly, landing detection. In Brawl there is as of now, an unchangable
method to detecting when you touch the ground. In Melee you landed
with what was basically your shins, but in Brawl there's a set point
that varies. It's very miniscule, but this is why it's a demo.
This will never get popular, why would I invest time in it? With
Pound 5 having a side tournament for Project M, various retired big
name Melee players returning for Project M, and many Brawl players and
tournament hosts already interested, it depends on a single factor to
become popular: You. If the community can embrace Project M together at
once, interest won't taper off and can get quite accepted and widely
played. A game I like to relate this to is Counter-Strike.
Counter-Strike was a very popular first person shooter modification of
Half-Life in the late 1990s, and was created by a handful of fans. The
mod got so incredibly popular that Valve ended up buying the
modification off of their hands and the game went on to be one of the
most successful and widely played first person shooter for many years
to come. Of course, that outcome could never happen with Project M, but
it goes to show that being derivative has potential to gain a
following.
It's going to suffer the same fate as previous
mods, team disagreements leading to disaster! Not to mention it's hard
to manage tournament play with all of those versions flying
around...Right? Wrong, actually! Project M is being handled
with utmost care by a team filled with talent, and everyone works
together with their new ideas. Every beta change is readily available
for the team to look at and test, allowing for increased testing and
feedback leading to a more professional working environment. One of the
things that bothered a lot of people with previous Brawl mods was that
everyone had to make sure they were running the same version. Project M
will be two releases, the demo and the final release. There won't be
other releases, and it's assumed that releases after the final will
only be major bugfixes and optional content additions if needed.
[Videos]
[Credits]
Project Leader: Shanus
Lead Character Developments: SHeLL, Camelot, Strong Bad
Additional Coders: Dantarion, Yeroc, WindOwl, Almas, Standardtoaster
Character Design/Development: Shanus, Magus, jiang, Strong Bad, WindOwl, JCaesar, leafgreen386, Falco400, Plum, rPSI
Backroom Testers: Mango, Lucky, Lovage, Silent Wolf, KirbyKaze, unknown522, RaynEX, Amsah, Faab, BombSoldier, Captain Jack
Graphics/Menu Design: Orca, Guy, VectorAce, Shadic
Stage Design: FrozenHobo, GameWatching, Mewtwo2000, Shadic
This Post: Sails, based off of work by Anth0ny