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Welcome to a whole new Brawl. Are you ready for Project M?
Despite the fact that Super Smash Bros. Brawl has been in the hands of Wii owners for more than four years, the game continues to evolve. As many anticipate Nintendo's next installments of the fighting game franchise, which have been announced for the 3DS and Wii U, an eager enthusiast community of pro players has taken to crafting the type of Smash Bros. game they'd like to play.
Though many fans (rightfully) love Brawl just as it is, one particular community of more than 50 volunteers has been attempting to find a more technically-adept iteration of the game. In other words, a global team has been working for more than two years to develop an engine that brings Brawl more in line with Super Smash Bros. Melee on GameCube, retaining the Wii game's depth of content while achieving a speedier, more balanced sense of play. The result is Project M, a piracy-free mod that only requires a physical copy of Brawl and a 2 GB (or less) SD card free of custom stage files. No hardware or software modifications are needed - and it's also free to download. (Note that there are two versions with slightly different functionality, most notably the ability to play Project M online. Also, the mod is currently only supported by NTSC systems and games.)
"Project M started as a hobby to try to replicate Falco's functionality from Melee inside of Brawl," the development team, called Project M Backroom (PMBR in short), told me in a group e-mail. "Since then, the scope of the project increased greatly. Interest in the project exploded into an international effort across more than ten countries, with over twenty people working on it on a daily basis.
"For the most part, development is a closed-doors private project. Our efforts are worldwide, with members of our team present in US, EU, and Japan developing a product for each market. While a vast majority of the content included in Project M is done by our developers, we've also received permission to include impressive work done by other individuals who modify the game independently as well."
PROJECT M CHARACTER STUDY – BOWSER
"For Bowser, we first focused on his basic design. He's a big, lumbering tank caught up in a fast paced game. The easy answer would be to make him faster, but instead we chose to embrace his unique slowness and gave him armor on a variety of moves so he could plow through the faster characters' attacks. After playtesting this we made balance changes, tweaking how much armor was on various attacks and how strong his hits were.
"As for a scrapped idea, we experimented with replacing his Firebreath with his Fireball, as seen most recently in Super Mario 3D Land. It looked spot on, a large and intimidating projectile rumbling towards the opponent. However, it just didn't mesh well with his core design niche, de-emphasizing the necessity of his armor and giving him an offensive side that, while admittedly cool, was already something other characters could do. In short, it weakened his identity as a defensive tank."
PMBR is adamant that it does not support piracy or any sort of permanent alteration to Nintendo's systems. (The team is also not working with the game's source code.) Playing Project M is as simple and innocuous as going to Brawl's stage builder screen and letting the program do the rest. Furthermore, this project is one of the most complete, polished and presentable 'hacks' we've seen, featuring fully designed menus and stages that look like they belong in a full retail release from Nintendo. To the casual eye, Project M appears to be Brawl 1.5 (or, perhaps more accurately, Melee 1.5) – a lost version of a game that not only looks great, but feels different than its predecessor.
Changes range from technical details that only hardcore purists will appreciate to things so obvious you can't help but notice. Colorful menu alterations aside, the PMBR team has made significant changes to the roster of the game, separating Zelda and Shiek on the selection screen for example, or removing each Pokemon from its trainer (which even impacts each creature's moveset). Individual combatants' moves have also been changed. Falco can no longer throw his reflector. Pit's Wings of Icarus (Up Special) and Angel Ring (Side Special) abilities have been replaced. Numerous tweaks to other characters have also been made, from speed adjustments to strength modifications to projectile control and range.
"Broadly speaking, there are two different types of changes, design alterations and balance alterations," the team told me. "Design alterations focus on the play style of the character. For example, we completely replaced a number of moves on Wario to emphasize his niche as a slippery, dirty-fighting brawler (more on this later).
"Balance alterations are generally more straight forward tweaks to how a given move works, like making Link's forward aerial attack have more knockback to in order to KO opponents sooner. Once you review enough of Melee's data, you start to get a feel for how certain types of moves work."
PROJECT M CHARACTER STUDY – PIT
"We take on numerous strategies when examining how to incorporate and design Brawl-exclusive characters in Project M. We often look at their overall playstyle in Brawl, and try and identify characteristics that we think are strengths and weaknesses that we want to preserve or change in our new engine. This is to identify what the character does well in addition to singling out moves or tactics that don't fit into Project M's fast-paced environment.
"In Pit's case, we identified his strong projectile and off-stage recovery as potential issues that lent him to a more defensive play-style than the norm. To address this, we weakened his projectile somewhat while refocusing his ability to glide. We made it easier to perform, faster, and less restricted than other glides in the game, giving him an effective on-stage tool to attack with."
Project M makes some key alterations to Brawl standards that previously frustrated many fans. L-Canceling has returned, with an added visual cue that will allow more casual players to understand its effect. Aerial dodging has been enhanced. Randomized tripping is gone – never to be seen again. Shields can reflect objects and projectiles. Numerous adjustments to physics, including how character speed and jumping, have also been made. The developers are also planning on enhancing enemy AI in future updates.
Again, some of these changes are virtually indescribable (perhaps even irrelevant) to those who haven't obsessively charted every detail of Brawl, from hit boxes to frames of animation. This is the stuff that few know and fewer still manage to master. But on the whole, the result is a game that is far more precise, balanced and detail-oriented than its immediate predecessor. So far it appears to capture the best of Brawl and Melee – which is certainly not a bad thing.
As with characters, every Project M player will notice a different set of stages, borrowing from all three existing Smash Bros. games – and then some. Subtle changes to classics like Final Destination have been included, eliminating unpredictable elements that seemed more frustrating than anything else. Overshadowing everything else, however, is a level borrowed from a franchise that has never been seen in Smash Bros. before – Castlevania.
Based on Dracula's Castle, this stage doesn't get too complicated like some of its Brawl counterparts, and perfectly captures the solemn, gothic tone of its franchise. More importantly, it opens up the idea that the PMBR crew is interested in expanding upon the Melee and Brawl foundations. Will more characters and stages be on the way? That certainly would seem to be an option – but not for a while.
"We are currently focused on first finishing all characters available in the Brawl roster before considering any characters present in previous iterations of the Smash," the PMBR team told me. "If any new character is to be included in Project M, it must be professional and be seamlessly added without replacing another. While we've made a lot of progress in this endeavor, some key coding issues remain unsolved. Throughout development we've revisited the issue with new knowledge and skill to try to tackle it, perhaps in the future we finally will."
There is one notable exception to this policy regarding additions to the roster – a giant question mark set in the midst of the Project M character page. What exactly is this mystery? The team wasn't quite ready to get into details, but emphasized that a larger roster wasn't impossible. Likewise, several new stages are currently in a line to be evaluated. Interested in battling in the world of Skyward Sword? The PMBR crew said that was being considered.
PROJECT M CHARACTER STUDY – LUCARIO
"Lucario is one of our most creative characters, and a far departure from how he was represented in Brawl. He now is focused on an On-Hit Cancel system that should feel familiar to anybody who enjoys traditional fighting games. Having a Smash Bros. character with some traditional fighting game mechanics leads to an extremely interesting mix of concepts that people have greatly enjoyed so far. He also has several new moves that were obviously inspired from very iconic attacks from the genre, so don't be too surprised when you see a Pokemon performing a Hurricane Kick!"
Project M continues to evolve, but is progressing towards a 'complete Brawl' roster quickly. The latest iteration of the mod is only a version 2.0 of a demo, yet it features 29 of the currently 40 planned characters. When asked, however, the team declined to provide any sort of time table. They stressed that they want to get this right, and that they weren't going to "limit the potential" of the conversation by setting an arbitrary date. In terms of polish, design and features, it appears as though PMBR is well on its way. Now it just comes down to endless tweaking and feedback from the community – something thousands of Smash Bros. fans will no doubt be eager to do. Let's just hope Nintendo is paying attention as well.
Despite the fact that Super Smash Bros. Brawl has been in the hands of Wii owners for more than four years, the game continues to evolve. As many anticipate Nintendo's next installments of the fighting game franchise, which have been announced for the 3DS and Wii U, an eager enthusiast community of pro players has taken to crafting the type of Smash Bros. game they'd like to play.
Though many fans (rightfully) love Brawl just as it is, one particular community of more than 50 volunteers has been attempting to find a more technically-adept iteration of the game. In other words, a global team has been working for more than two years to develop an engine that brings Brawl more in line with Super Smash Bros. Melee on GameCube, retaining the Wii game's depth of content while achieving a speedier, more balanced sense of play. The result is Project M, a piracy-free mod that only requires a physical copy of Brawl and a 2 GB (or less) SD card free of custom stage files. No hardware or software modifications are needed - and it's also free to download. (Note that there are two versions with slightly different functionality, most notably the ability to play Project M online. Also, the mod is currently only supported by NTSC systems and games.)
"Project M started as a hobby to try to replicate Falco's functionality from Melee inside of Brawl," the development team, called Project M Backroom (PMBR in short), told me in a group e-mail. "Since then, the scope of the project increased greatly. Interest in the project exploded into an international effort across more than ten countries, with over twenty people working on it on a daily basis.
"For the most part, development is a closed-doors private project. Our efforts are worldwide, with members of our team present in US, EU, and Japan developing a product for each market. While a vast majority of the content included in Project M is done by our developers, we've also received permission to include impressive work done by other individuals who modify the game independently as well."
PROJECT M CHARACTER STUDY – BOWSER
"For Bowser, we first focused on his basic design. He's a big, lumbering tank caught up in a fast paced game. The easy answer would be to make him faster, but instead we chose to embrace his unique slowness and gave him armor on a variety of moves so he could plow through the faster characters' attacks. After playtesting this we made balance changes, tweaking how much armor was on various attacks and how strong his hits were.
"As for a scrapped idea, we experimented with replacing his Firebreath with his Fireball, as seen most recently in Super Mario 3D Land. It looked spot on, a large and intimidating projectile rumbling towards the opponent. However, it just didn't mesh well with his core design niche, de-emphasizing the necessity of his armor and giving him an offensive side that, while admittedly cool, was already something other characters could do. In short, it weakened his identity as a defensive tank."
PMBR is adamant that it does not support piracy or any sort of permanent alteration to Nintendo's systems. (The team is also not working with the game's source code.) Playing Project M is as simple and innocuous as going to Brawl's stage builder screen and letting the program do the rest. Furthermore, this project is one of the most complete, polished and presentable 'hacks' we've seen, featuring fully designed menus and stages that look like they belong in a full retail release from Nintendo. To the casual eye, Project M appears to be Brawl 1.5 (or, perhaps more accurately, Melee 1.5) – a lost version of a game that not only looks great, but feels different than its predecessor.
Changes range from technical details that only hardcore purists will appreciate to things so obvious you can't help but notice. Colorful menu alterations aside, the PMBR team has made significant changes to the roster of the game, separating Zelda and Shiek on the selection screen for example, or removing each Pokemon from its trainer (which even impacts each creature's moveset). Individual combatants' moves have also been changed. Falco can no longer throw his reflector. Pit's Wings of Icarus (Up Special) and Angel Ring (Side Special) abilities have been replaced. Numerous tweaks to other characters have also been made, from speed adjustments to strength modifications to projectile control and range.
"Broadly speaking, there are two different types of changes, design alterations and balance alterations," the team told me. "Design alterations focus on the play style of the character. For example, we completely replaced a number of moves on Wario to emphasize his niche as a slippery, dirty-fighting brawler (more on this later).
"Balance alterations are generally more straight forward tweaks to how a given move works, like making Link's forward aerial attack have more knockback to in order to KO opponents sooner. Once you review enough of Melee's data, you start to get a feel for how certain types of moves work."
PROJECT M CHARACTER STUDY – PIT
"We take on numerous strategies when examining how to incorporate and design Brawl-exclusive characters in Project M. We often look at their overall playstyle in Brawl, and try and identify characteristics that we think are strengths and weaknesses that we want to preserve or change in our new engine. This is to identify what the character does well in addition to singling out moves or tactics that don't fit into Project M's fast-paced environment.
"In Pit's case, we identified his strong projectile and off-stage recovery as potential issues that lent him to a more defensive play-style than the norm. To address this, we weakened his projectile somewhat while refocusing his ability to glide. We made it easier to perform, faster, and less restricted than other glides in the game, giving him an effective on-stage tool to attack with."
Project M makes some key alterations to Brawl standards that previously frustrated many fans. L-Canceling has returned, with an added visual cue that will allow more casual players to understand its effect. Aerial dodging has been enhanced. Randomized tripping is gone – never to be seen again. Shields can reflect objects and projectiles. Numerous adjustments to physics, including how character speed and jumping, have also been made. The developers are also planning on enhancing enemy AI in future updates.
Again, some of these changes are virtually indescribable (perhaps even irrelevant) to those who haven't obsessively charted every detail of Brawl, from hit boxes to frames of animation. This is the stuff that few know and fewer still manage to master. But on the whole, the result is a game that is far more precise, balanced and detail-oriented than its immediate predecessor. So far it appears to capture the best of Brawl and Melee – which is certainly not a bad thing.
As with characters, every Project M player will notice a different set of stages, borrowing from all three existing Smash Bros. games – and then some. Subtle changes to classics like Final Destination have been included, eliminating unpredictable elements that seemed more frustrating than anything else. Overshadowing everything else, however, is a level borrowed from a franchise that has never been seen in Smash Bros. before – Castlevania.
Based on Dracula's Castle, this stage doesn't get too complicated like some of its Brawl counterparts, and perfectly captures the solemn, gothic tone of its franchise. More importantly, it opens up the idea that the PMBR crew is interested in expanding upon the Melee and Brawl foundations. Will more characters and stages be on the way? That certainly would seem to be an option – but not for a while.
"We are currently focused on first finishing all characters available in the Brawl roster before considering any characters present in previous iterations of the Smash," the PMBR team told me. "If any new character is to be included in Project M, it must be professional and be seamlessly added without replacing another. While we've made a lot of progress in this endeavor, some key coding issues remain unsolved. Throughout development we've revisited the issue with new knowledge and skill to try to tackle it, perhaps in the future we finally will."
There is one notable exception to this policy regarding additions to the roster – a giant question mark set in the midst of the Project M character page. What exactly is this mystery? The team wasn't quite ready to get into details, but emphasized that a larger roster wasn't impossible. Likewise, several new stages are currently in a line to be evaluated. Interested in battling in the world of Skyward Sword? The PMBR crew said that was being considered.
PROJECT M CHARACTER STUDY – LUCARIO
"Lucario is one of our most creative characters, and a far departure from how he was represented in Brawl. He now is focused on an On-Hit Cancel system that should feel familiar to anybody who enjoys traditional fighting games. Having a Smash Bros. character with some traditional fighting game mechanics leads to an extremely interesting mix of concepts that people have greatly enjoyed so far. He also has several new moves that were obviously inspired from very iconic attacks from the genre, so don't be too surprised when you see a Pokemon performing a Hurricane Kick!"
Project M continues to evolve, but is progressing towards a 'complete Brawl' roster quickly. The latest iteration of the mod is only a version 2.0 of a demo, yet it features 29 of the currently 40 planned characters. When asked, however, the team declined to provide any sort of time table. They stressed that they want to get this right, and that they weren't going to "limit the potential" of the conversation by setting an arbitrary date. In terms of polish, design and features, it appears as though PMBR is well on its way. Now it just comes down to endless tweaking and feedback from the community – something thousands of Smash Bros. fans will no doubt be eager to do. Let's just hope Nintendo is paying attention as well.