Project M: Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 17:41, November 16, 2014
Project M is a gameplay mod for Super Smash Bros. Brawl designed to make the gameplay more closely resemble that of Super Smash Bros. Melee mainly, and also Super Smash Bros. to a lesser extent. This means that the speed of gameplay has been generally increased, with many Melee mechanics being restored. The development team is partly descended from the original developers for Brawl+, now known as the PMDT, or Project M Dev Team (formerly the PMBR, or Project M Backroom). It has members from over ten countries, though as of now, only an NTSC version has been released.[1] Project M's character roster notably includes Mewtwo and Roy (two characters that were playable only in Melee and not in Brawl) with altered graphics and movesets.
Project M is commonly featured as an event at tournaments including several national tournaments, such as the Zenith series, The Big House series, and Apex 2014. Starting around 2012-2013, Project M saw a rapid rise in its popularity as more characters became playable and the mod was featured more commonly at Smash tournaments; the number of entrants for Apex 2014's PM singles event notably surpassed the amount of entrants for the original Brawl.
Universal changes
Project M currently has two different versions: Full Set and Wi-Fi. The former has Stock Control and Input Assistance as new features, which allows newer players to use advanced techniques better and have a stock advantage over experienced ones. However, Replays and online play won't work properly as a result of L and R button light-presses causing online desynchronization. The Wi-Fi version allows these two things to work properly, and while it keeps the former version's battle features, these are not implemented for online play, likely because Stock Control would have caused potential griefing within matches (by the distant opponent always choosing the maximum amount of stocks). If a Project M replay is viewed in regular Brawl, it may cause malfunctions when beginning a match, possibly because of the stage replacement.
Both versions heavily alter the original Brawl gameplay to more closely resemble that of Melee, along with other changes to make the game more competitive in general, while keeping other Brawl beneficial techniques such as crawl, wall cling or DACUS.
Melee based changes
The following mechanics have been altered to match their Melee forms:
- General amount of freeze frames reduced.
- No buffering by default, though players can turn on Input Assistance to implement a three-frame buffering window for helping newer players master advanced techniques, replacing the "Damage Gauge" option. Online matches instead have a different Buffer option that replaces handicaps, from 1 to 30, with these numbers being the respective amount of buffer frames.
- All characters have faster falling speeds and gravity, and more forwards momentum from a dash is conserved when jumping.
- Air dodging applies a directional boost and causes helplessness, making it generally riskier for midair combat, but allowing faster midair movement within short ranges and restoring the wavedash techniques vital for most characters' metagames.
- L-canceling halves landing lag when a shield button is pressed 7 frames before landing, thus reinstating the SHFFL technique, bolstering characters' midair movement and allowing much better usage of combos. A brief white flash on the character is additionally displayed when an attack is correctly L-canceled.
- Dash dancing's timing has been reverted, making it longer and more practical, and characters can shield during one.
- Crouching cancels the running portion of the dash, allowing quicker, more varied options after dashing.
- Characters retain the full momentum of their dash if they jump forward. This is especially noticable with characters with faster dashing speeds.
- Crouch canceling reduces knockback, and hitting the C-Stick down while crouching uses a down smash (in Brawl it used a down tilt), allowing to efficiently counter opponents by crouching.
- Consecutive jabbing is removed.
- Double jump canceling reimplemented for characters with slow but high double jumps. For some characters, double-jump canceling can be bypassed by holding the jump button while attacking.
- Ledge teching reimplemented, again giving recovering characters the possibility to survive at ludicrous damages by DIing toward a ledge and teching into it upon being attacked. Ledge-canceling is once more possible as well.
- Jumps can be canceled with grabs, so regular grabs can still be effectively used after a dash, avoiding the usual ending lag of a dash grab.
- Powershielding can reflect projectiles during the first 2 frames.
- Shieldstun formula reverted. Like in Melee, characters now also take longer to act out of a shield drop (almost twice as in Brawl), causing the gameplay to be less defensive-focused.
- Ledges cannot be auto-sweetspotted, so they can neither be grabbed from the back, nor during the attacking portion of recovery attacks. Some moves like Raptor Boost or Bowser Bomb still use this feature, though. Additionally, characters can act out of a ledge grab sooner, and when performing any ledge recovery action (normal get-up, jump, roll or attack), other characters cannot grab it until the animation is half-finished, thus making edge hopping and edgehogging easier.
- Hitstun canceling has been removed, causing overall horizontal survivability to be shorter, but giving characters more extensive combo options, which were almost nonexistent in Brawl. Air dodges are no longer usable when tumbling.
- Teching can be performed even before a character is struck, making it generally easier to perform.
- Items cannot be grabbed during dash attacks or aerials.
- Grab aerials cause helplessness if they miss a ledge, but can be used after an air dodge with the shield + attack combination. They still act as tether recoveries, though they won't restore a character's midair jumps if they drop from the ledge.
- If a character still in hitstun is struck again in quick succession, the new knockback either replaces the old knockback (if the gap between the attacks was 10 frames or less) or has its direction and power combined with the old knockback (after 10 frames). In Brawl, whether to replace the old knockback is based on the relative power of the two attacks, and no merging is performed.
- Brawl's random input delay is fixed.
- Meteor smash angle reverted, thus implementing the superior, more efficient spikes.
- When dash grabbing a foe, forward momentum is completely negated. Unlike in Melee, though, characters with low traction still possess this feature.
- Grab released characters will get back their midair jumps.
- Pummels reverted to all having the same standarized speed and dealing 3% damage per use, with only a few exceptions.
- Grab physics reverted: characters can grab opponents behind them, though they cannot be grabbed by the lower legs or arms.
- Characters hit when lying on the floor will bounce a short distance and then get up automatically upon landing, or will assume their falling animation if they bounce too high or away from the platform, removing locks, but allowing opponents to perform jab resets.
- Though a barely noticeable change, smash attacks can now be charged for 59 frames as opposed to 60, and a fully charged smash deals x1.3671 of the uncharged amount.
- Melee's rare Phantom hits return, dealing half the damage a move would have normally done, although Brawl's somewhat more common "glancing blows" are still present, dealing no damage at all and "ticking" an opponent; when either situation occurs, no hitstun or knockback is sustained by the character hit. Both can also be SDI'd into the actual hitbox, but the total damage sustained is solely from the hitbox alone.
- Stale-move negation now uses Melee's reduction factor. The freshness bonus from Brawl is also removed.
Brawl based changes
Aside from Melee restorations, the following techniques and mechanics from Brawl have also been changed:
- Footstool jumps are still present, but are now done with a taunt input to avoid unintentional footstool jumping with the jump button.
- Dashing is easier to perform than in Melee; dashing only requires a moderately strong input on the control stick to perform.
- Brawl's modest B-reversing window for all neutral special moves is retained. Certain special moves have also been given the option to be pivoted, such as Captain Falcon's Falcon Kick.
- It is now possible to pivot grab during any portion of the dash like in Brawl.
- Ability to use to the C-stick to dash attack and up smash retained, making it easier to perform sliding up smashes and DACUSes for the characters that have it available to them.
- Tether recoveries now ignore edge-hoggers; characters will still grab the ledge without affecting them, and when pulled up they will perform an automatic jump get-up. This gives characters reliant on this technique a much better and safer recovery, and makes them harder to punish.
- Random tripping has been removed. Forced tripping is kept, but only for attacks that always cause it. Tripping can additionally be teched, so punishing a tripped character is more tech chase-orientated.
- Meteor canceling revamped: after being struck, all characters must wait for 16 frames before meteor canceling. Attempting to do this earlier results in the character not being able to meteor cancel during the entire hitstun of the attack (except if a jump input isn't used).
- The grab release glitch is now an intentional feature used as a balancing tool for select characters. It has been altered to also remove the victim's ability to air dodge in addition to their up special move, though it also restores all their double jumps.
- A glide toss can be done in midair with an air dodge. Additionally, air dodges still auto-grab items during the first frames of execution as in Brawl, so that item-based attacks are easier to counter.
- Gliding is no longer performed by tapping and holding the jump button; the three characters that can glide have special moves that allow them to glide instead.
- Infinite launch resistance is now only reserved for Ike's fully charged Eruption and for grabs and special grabs when a character collides with a strike hitbox while successfully grabbing an opponent, like in Brawl. Launch resistance for other moves that have it is given a range from light armor to heavy armor. Some characters feature color overlays to indicate such armor, with more opaque overlays generally indicating stronger armor. If an attack's knockback is lower than the specified amount of an armor, no knockback is inflicted, but if it is higher, knockback will be regularly inflicted as usual. One exception to this rule is Yoshi's double jump; it has knockback reduction frames rather than standard armor frames. Therefore, overcoming its armor will result in Yoshi receiving the difference in knockback instead of the full knockback from the move that hit him out of it.
- Special Brawl's "Curry Mode" is replaced with "Turbo Mode", in which all moves can cancel into any other move or action on hit or on shield. Superspicy Curry is replaced with a "Turbo" item that causes characters to act like in Turbo Mode for a short period.
Other changes and gameplay tweaks
- Smash 64's taunt canceling returns.
- Stages such as Dream Land, Hyrule Castle and Fountain of Dreams replace stages such as Bridge of Eldin and 75m.
- Stock Control added, replacing handicaps. Players can now control the amount of stocks each player starts with before battle, from 1 to 30 stocks for each individual character. A Crew mode has been added in which the game keeps track of stocks retained after battles.
- Stage selection menu modified to include built-in stage striking control (Full Set version).
- Project M has no light shields; a light press will activate the shield, but a full press is required to wavedash or to powershield.
- New Melee-like designs for the menu and character selection screens, with altered writing.
- The game in general takes less time to load modes, characters and scenes, and things such as Records can be scrolled through quicker.
- Brawl mode is now labeled as "Fight!", and all other modes and sections containing "Brawl" are replaced with "Smash" (such as Multi-Man Brawl being named Multi-Man Smash).
- Default match type is 4 stock with an 8-minute timer, and Team Attack is turned on by default, similar to the settings of usual competitive Melee matches.
- The timer during matches is placed at the top center of the screen rather than at the top right.
- Altered camera that behaves similarly to in Melee's Camera Mode, as well as being capable of zooming out indefinitely and rotating around the entire stage, allowing to unrestrictedly take snapshots.
- Stage selection screen revamped: stages are now ordered at the bottom in a rectangular shape, with the selected stage being displayed at the top. Stages are now also ordered in Pages 1 and 2, and the top background displays Project M.
- Victory screen for VS. battles altered to be entirely black like in Melee.
- Independent character icons for Zelda/Sheik and Samus/Zero Suit Samus.
- Characters now grunt instantly when hit by a strong attack, as in Melee and 64, while in Brawl they did a second afterwards. There are also medium-damage and high-damage groans as well, with most characters using unused voice samples from the Sound Test. Characters now also use voice samples for sidesteps and air dodges, and variable voices for smash attacks.
- Smash Taunts were introduced to more characters, such as Ness and Link, though these are less involved and can be done on any stage.
- Characters now emit a spark when wall jumping.
- The cast of characters and background at the beginning of the opening movie is slightly altered, and both it and the title screen now display "Super Smash Bros. Project M".
- Mewtwo and Roy were added as opponents for All-Star mode.
- Training mode now appears as the default Solo mode, and after entering it, the same characters that participated will appear chosen automatically for Group battles.
- Home-Run Contest stadium no longer has a protective window, acting like its Melee counterpart. Its online competitive mode has also been added as a co-op mode offline, with records being saved.
- No Replay time limit.
- Many additional costumes are added for each character, and are shown on the characters profiles as "Colors". There are now also "Special" costumes for some characters, such as Dr. Mario for Mario, Shadow Queen Peach for Peach, and Armored Mewtwo for Mewtwo, some of which get team colors and changed aesthetics.
- Due to issues with slow motion, Timers are removed and replaced with ordinary stickers, even for Training mode. Poké Ball Pokémon are also changed slightly: Latios and Latias deal half their usual damage, and Weavile no longer stuns opponents, instead sending them on a weak upwards trajectory. Other items remain unchanged, though, aside from a few Final Smashes.
- CPU players have a much more advanced AI, with higher technical skill, though they are extremely prone to air dodge self-destructs and running into extremely slow attacks, such as Falcon Punch. It is also possible to manipulate certain characters to do absolutely nothing or hold their shield repeatedly even after it breaks.
Characters
In addition to the many universal changes, each character received several individual adjustments in order to properly balance the game. The roster was largely buffed overall, creating a broad collection of viable characters with varying play-styles, strengths and weaknesses. However, certain moves were nerfed to further flesh out some fighters and break their dependence on repeated use of a single move or small set of moves. Some Project M characters are based on their appearances in Melee (such as Captain Falcon and Jigglypuff) while others are modified from their Brawl versions or a mixture of their iterations from both games.
The sourcing of previous versions of a character depends largely on previous attendance and performance, with high tier Melee characters being mostly reverted to their past formats (with some adjustments to add more balance for the other characters). This includes both normal and special moves, properties such as gravity, weight, run-speed and air mobility, but does not include sound effects, textures, or vertexes.
Some characters, due to having poor attributes and movesets in both Melee and Brawl (such as Bowser, Kirby or Zelda), had their positive attributes from each game merged and were given entirely new buffs. Characters that were introduced in Brawl however, such as Sonic and Snake, were given completely original buffs, nerfs and even entirely new moves in order to increase their variability and versatility.
Based on the Brawl roster of 39 characters, Project M gives Zero Suit Samus, Sheik, Squirtle, Ivysaur and Charizard their own slots on the character selection screen (the latter 3 replacing the Pokémon Trainer) while including Mewtwo and Roy for a total of 41 characters.
List of characters
* Characters not in Brawl
Stages
| Stages | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Stage | Changes | Stage | Changes |
 Battlefield |
Stage layout slightly tweaked to match Melee's Battlefield. |  Big Blue |
|
 Brinstar |
 Castle Siege |
Second area removed. | |
 Corneria |
File:ProjectM DraculasCastle.png | Replaces Luigi's Mansion. A large stage based on Dracula's Castle in Castlevania that takes place on the roof of a medieval style castle with three platforms. The platforms move around during play, taking on various configurations and sometimes disappearing altogether. The stage is set at night with a view of the castle in the background, and there are walls down to the lower blast line that can be used for walljumping when returning. Note that this stage does not play any Castlevania music. | |
  Dreamland[sic] |
Replaces Green Greens, as well as "Fountain of Dreams" theme with Smash 64's Dream Land theme. Has new visual upgrade. | 
|
Not to be confused with Brawl's Distant Planet, this stage was originally an arena from SSE: The Lake, but was redone with a Pikmin theme. It consists of a large base and four platforms, the outermost of which are slightly raised leaves that hang over the main platform's edges and will droop when stood on. |
 Final Destination |
Reverted to Melee's version to fix issues with getting stuck underneath Brawl's edges when returning. |  Flat Zone 2 |
|
 Fountain of Dreams |
Replaces Mario Bros., as well as its theme song with Fountain of Dream's. |  Fourside |
Replaces New Pork City, and replaces "Porky's Theme" with Fourside's. |
 Frigate Orpheon |
|
Redone entirely. It is now a medium sized stage with a proper bottom blast line and no hazards or breakable sections. There is a single moving platform which rotates around a central point above the main platform. | |
 Halberd |
Raised ceiling and removed claw. |   Hyrule Castle |
Replaces Bridge of Eldin. Also replaces "The Hidden Village" theme with Hyrule Castle's. Tornado hazards removed. Has a new visual upgrade in v3.5. |
 Jungle Japes |
Water cannot be swum in. |  Congo Jungle |
No Barrel Cannon. Replaces 75 m. Also replaces "25 BGM" theme with Congo Jungle's. |
 Lylat Cruise |
Stage doesn't tilt. |   Metal Cavern |
Remade Meta Crystal, replaces Mushroomy Kingdom. Also replaces "Ground Theme (Super Mario Bros.)" theme with Meta Crystal music from Smash 64. |
| File:ProjectM Norfair.png Norfair |
Different layout with three slowly moving platforms and all hazards removed. |  Onett |
|
 Pictochat |
Some transformations removed. Some previously impassable platforms can now be passed through. |  Pirate Ship |
Hazards made weaker. |
 Pokémon Stadium |
Windmill during water stage moved to the background, edges tweaked to let characters recover more easily. |  Pokémon Stadium 2 |
No stage transformations. Center platform has a Master Ball drawing, and small televisors at the background display "Project M". |
 Princess Peach's Castle |
No block switches nor Banzai Bills. Replaces Mario Circuit and its theme with Princess Peach's Castle's. |  Rainbow Cruise |
Donut block lifts can be passed through like in Melee. "Princess Peach's Castle" theme is replaced with Mushroom Kingdom II's from Melee. |
|
Completely redone without scrolling. Neutral stage with a main platform and three smaller platforms in an unusual configuration. |  Saffron City |
No Pokémon spawn. Replaces Spear Pillar, as well as "Victory Road" theme with Saffron City's. |
 Shadow Moses Island |
|
Features a large base platform with stairs and two raised platforms, one of which is quite large. Features parts of Temple. Replaces Hanenbow, using "Hyrule Field Theme". | |
 Skyworld |
Main platform made unbreakable and other platforms made into clouds. |  Smashville |
|
 Summit |
 Temple |
||
|
Large stage with checkered surfaces, a wall at the left and a pit at the right, designed with a lot of open area for practicing. Features a sandbag that respawns in the middle when knocked out. Replaces Online Practice Stage. |  WarioWare |
Microgames removed. |
 Yoshi's Island |
 Yoshi's Story |
No Fly Guys. Replaces Yoshi's Island (SSBM), as well as "Super Mario Bros. 3" theme with Yoshi's Story's. | |
 Port Town Aero Dive |
|||
Turbo Mode
As of version 3.0, the Curry effect is replaced with a new one - Turbo. In Turbo mode, players are able to cancel any successful attack, upon hit or shield, into any other action except the same attack, and all aerial attacks auto cancel when landing, if they hit. Certain moves, such as Farore's Wind, consist of multiple actions and can be canceled into themselves. Turbo Mode has been compared to the Marvel vs. Capcom series, because it enables skilled players to perform extensive combos.
Turbo mode can be selected from the Special Brawl menu, or temporarily granted by the "Turbo" item, which replaces Superspicy Curry.
Notable Turbo-related resources:
- The official Turbo Mode blog post.
- Melee Impossible, the original inspiration for Turbo Mode.
- The official Turbo Tuesdays playlist, beginning with the April Fools video that revealed Turbo mode.
- Going Turbo, by Sethlon. The first Turbo combo video to feature no tool assisted inputs.
Tier list
While an official tier list has yet to be published, a preliminary list has been posted by CLASH Tournaments on March 26th 2014.
Release history
|
This article or section may be out of date. You can discuss this issue on the talk page or edit this page to bring it up to date. |
Demo 1.0
Released February 8, 2011
- 14 characters available
Demo 2.0
Released April 17, 2012
- Added 15 characters
Demo 2.1
Released May 23, 2012
- Major bug fixes
- Skyloft is added, replaces Hanenbow
Demo 2.5
Released December 29, 2012
- Added 4 characters
- Ledge teching implemented
- Melee knockback stacking implemented
- Input Assistance and Stock Control implemented
- Input Lag from Brawl is fixed
- New aesthetic changes which include new palette swaps and new menu designs.
Demo 2.5b
Released January 6, 2013
- Various Minor Bug Fixes
Demo 2.6
Released July 17, 2013
- Added 1 character
The PMDT announced Project M 2.6 along with their new website design.
Demo 2.6b
Released August 15, 2013
- Various Bug Fixes
v3.0
Released December 9, 2013
- Added 7 characters
- Turbo mode added.
- Princess Peach's Castle added, Norfair revamped, Distant Planet revamped, Training Room stage added.
- Numerous alternate costumes for several characters added, including Dr. Mario.
- Shedding of "Demo" title, now an official mod.
- Formerly, an April Fools' video[2] announced that 3.0 would contain a gameplay change where all moves would cancel into any other move/ action on hit. While the change being universal was a joke, it finally became available as a new "Turbo Mode" for Special Brawl, replacing the "Curry" option. Project M 3.0 also marks the first version to contain the entire Brawl roster, along with Roy and Mewtwo, and features many new alt costumes, such as Dr. Mario as an alternate skin for Mario, akin to Wario's biker and original skins. Other skins are: Melee Fox, Shadow Queen Peach, Ocarina of Time Link, Dry Bowser, Party Hat and Pirate Hat Pikachu, Crown and Fairy Jigglypuff, Armored Mewtwo, Mr. L, Virtual Boy R.O.B., Outset Toon Link, Classic Wolf, Boxer Donkey Kong, Pajama Ness, Masked Man Lucas, Fire Peach, additional Yoshi colors, Melee Falco, and Concept Art Meta Knight.
v3.01
Released January 11, 2014
- A new launcher is released with the following features:
- Support for SDHC cards larger than 2GB (Hackless method still limited to 2GB, unless Letterbomb is used.)
- A news ticker will display current news for Project M which will update if the Wii is connected to the Internet.
- The ability to update and patch both the Launcher and the version of Project M. If 3.0 is installed on the SD card, the Launcher can automatically download and update to version 3.01.
- Faster and more reliable file loading.
- Fixed the lag from the imported models such as Roy, Mewtwo and the alternative costumes.
- Salty Runbacks implemented. Holding L+R+Y at the end of a match, or L+R+A+Y+Start at the pause screen, will cause the match to restart instantly. This feature is not available on Pokémon Stadium 1, Lylat Cruise, or Castle Siege. Similarly, it's possible to abort a stage loading by holding L+R+A, as in Melee, but faster loading times make this more difficult to perform.
- Various bug fixes, including (but not limited to) the following:
- Roy's Final Smash is reworked, and no longer causes game-breaking glitches.
- Many of Kirby's copy abilities updated.
v3.02
Released January 13, 2014
- Various Bug Fixes
