Project M: Super Smash Bros Melee Revived for a New Generation

Super Smash Bros Melee.  Arguably one of  the best multiplayer games of the last two video game generations.  The customization that could be done with the game allowed it to run the gamut between "amazing party game to play with three buddies" and "fiercely competitive fighter".  Now I'll stop you purists right here - This isn't about IF Melee could be viewed as a competitive game and the huge rift created between people when they discuss it.  It's about a group of people that have collectively taken Super Smash Bros Brawl and combined the best parts of it and Melee into a splendidly nostalgic chimera of fun and competition.

We are here to discuss Project: M, a look at what Super Smash Bros Brawl could have been had it continued down the same path that Melee's gameplay took.  When Brawl was released, it was met with quite a bit of contention; the design was to bring the series back to its happy-go-lucky fun for all roots, and this didn't sit well with the many players that had spent years creating a competitive tournament scene with Melee. 

I happily took part in the Melee scene in the Long Island/NYC area, along with many friends.  When Brawl came out, I was a touch disappointed by the physics changes made to the system, since it entirely changed the way the game was played.  I didn't raise the same complaints that many of my fellow players raised, however.  I still saw it as a game you can grab three friends and play the night away with.  Tournaments arose for it, but they just have not had the prevalence that the Melee scene had.  The introduction of fun (but admittedly unbalanced) Final Smash moves was just one of many changes made to the game that were considered better and worse, depending on with whom you spoke.

Project: M is the fruits of the labor of a team of 50+ fans across the globe.  The game itself is still technically in it's "Demo 2" stage, but there are enough completed characters and stages for the demo to stand on its own merits.  The most important aspect to note in reviewing this mod is that it can be played on a perfectly vanilla, un-modified Wii.  The website (http://projectm.dantarion.com/) provides quite a few options to install the files necessary to launch the game.  These include choices for those of you with unmodified systems, as well as users of homebrew.  All of these are simple and straight forward. 

The team at work has gone through extensive analysis and trials of the physics they've employed, and the characters that you know from Melee feel like their old selves, and the Brawl new comers all fit in well.  As you play, you'll discover that the dodges, ledge grabs and wavelands you remember from your Melee glory days are back in full force.  That first wavedash with Luigi is the sweetest you'll feel.

The current roster includes a mix of veterans and Brawl newcomers, with the Brawl roster planned to be filled out.  There are rumors of additional characters to be added later on (Mewtwo's name has been thrown around often), but they have said that they do not wish to add things just for the sake of adding them; they'll need to make sense in terms of the changes at hand.  As per the Project M Dev Team: "Right now we're focused on working on the base 39 characters Brawl offers us...We'll let everyone know about our plans for this when we reach that point and hopefully, things will pan out for it as well".  We'll take a look at a few characters with a bit of depth, but the Team had this to say as far as general character design for the mod.

Their approach on Brawl new-comers differs a bit, taking a "blank slate" approach:  

"More often than not, we tend to not look at how they played in Brawl. Instead, we try to think of them as if they are on a clean slate. We also draw inspiration for moves from the games they came from. Wario is a great example of this, we thought about what would happen if Wario had been in Melee. If he were in Melee, he likely would have had a more Wario Land-inspired move set. So, we looked at what moves could be changed to fill the space of "canonizing" Wario more to Wario Land." 

We'll visit Wario shortly, as one of our character analyses.  The details given won't be frame-specific break downs, so as not to bore many of you to tears, but we will have a look at new combo opportunities and the imagination that has gone into re-imagining some of your Brawl favorites.

Let's start with Lucario, who has gone through arguably one of the biggest changes in the game.  In "vanilla" Brawl, Lucario has a back-end mechanic that increases his damage and knockback as his own damage increases.  This allows a risk-reward style of play; if you can keep yourself alive and on the offensive, you possess a much improved chance to take out opponents.  In Project:M, this mechanic is entirely reworked:  Instead of taking into account Lucario's own damage, there is an invisible "super meter" akin to most mainstream fighting games. 

As Lucario deals out hits, combos and damage, this meter grows.  Once it reaches a certain point, Lucario's hands will glow, alerting the player that he has a 'charge' for his new Super Specials.  Much like the meter, these are very much "EX" moves by comparison.  With a charge, you can perform any of Lucario's special attacks in conjunction with the A button to execute the EX version.  Aura Sphere becomes Aura Bomb, in the most blatant example.

Lucario charges his new Aura Bomb EX move - a slow but powerful tool.

Aura Bomb will travel slowly in a straight line out from Lucario, possessing huge damage and knockback opportunity.  Some might scoff at a slow moving projectile, but the distance it covers and time it spends out allow one quite a bit of time to jab, tilt or throw the opponent into it, not to mention it being a potentially useful edgeguard tool.  Lucario's forward B, Force Palm, increases in power, much like the EX Aura Sphere, and with the other large change to Lucario's play style (discussed below), makes for a great combo and kill tool.  Extremespeed, Lucario's Up B recovery tool, remains the same, but with a Super charge, you can cancel the animation into an aerial, helping to recover more safely.  Down B has now become a shadow step tool - with good timing, one can step through a projectile or attack to begin a new combo.  When used in its EX form, this move can be cancelled in much the same manner as Extremespeed, allowing great movement.

As for the above mentioned play style change, Lucario borrows one more aspect from those traditional fighters:  Attack cancelling.  Lucario has two built in "magic combos", one for the ground and one in the air.  In the air, on contact, you can cancel any aerial into a special attack, for a quick force palm grab in mid air (Yes, it grabs in mid air now) to jettison the opponent down or to chase upward with an EX Extremespeed.  On the ground, you have a bit more creativity. 

You can effectively cancel a jab into a tilt, into a smash, into a special, provided you make contact.  You can also skip any step therein.  Want to jab and immediately grab with an EX Force Palm?  Go for it, it's a great kill tool.  These changes, coupled with Lucario's respectable wavedash distance (great for wavelanding platforms and continuing combos) makes him an even bigger threat than he was in the original Brawl.  There are other animation changes for Lucario, but these should be discovered for yourself.

Next, we'll have a look at Pit, Brawl's resident chatty cherub.  If anyone hated any move in Brawl, it was Pit's Angel Ring, with his annoying yelps as he performed it.  If you fall into this sect of fans, rejoice:  Angel Ring is no more.  It is now replaced with a command glide (In fact, gliding is entirely done via commands now - no more jump button gliding).  When performed, Pit will rush a short distance with a quick burst in the gliding position, and you can perform any aerial out of the glide.  This is a great chase tool to keep combos going.  You should get used to the glide command; you'll be using it a lot for attacking and recovering.  Pit's ability to fly with Up B has been replaced with a powerful upward bash with his Mirror Shield.  The upward movement is a bit limited, so you'll want to get good at gliding effectively to recover, as Mirror Shield will give you about as much lift as Mario's Up B, but with a bit less horizontal movement built in.

 Mirror Shield - Great to kill with in the air or from under a platform, but not ideal for recovery.  Learn to glide!

Pit's arrows, an already great spacing and attacking (and annoying) tool are a tad more mobile in the Melee-fied Brawl.  Always a handy edgeguard tool, be sure to get good at curving these.  And always feel free to show off by looping them around a stage; I'm sure all your friends will be happy to not attack you while you showboat.  The increased mobility with the command glide speed burst coupled with some modified attack properties on the ground and in the air make Pit a character you'll be happy to play as both up close and far away from your opponent.

Let's take a trip back to my Melee favorite, Ganondorf for our next look.  The Project:M team has done Ganondorf fans a great service in their work with him:  They've left his Flame Choke in his moveset.  Essentially what this gives us is Melee's deceptively quick and agile Ganondorf with an excellent spacing and approach tool added in.  Ganondorf's attacks retain many of their Brawl animations, but the properties and hitboxes are more akin to this Melee incarnation.  Your jab will launch enemies away, your down tilt will pop enemies up for follow up with your strong aerial game, your smashes will decimate opponents and that wonderful, wonderful forward air is just as strong as you remember. 

Mixing Flame Chokes into all of these is a great mix up:  On approach, opponents could often shield grab you if your spacing was less than stellar but you can now play mindgames by using a Flame Choke in place of a strike.  If they predict poorly, you'll grab them and place them on the ground, and a quick Ganondorf can follow up with a down tilt or a well placed short hop down air attack, which in and of itself is capable of combos and kills.  Tech chasing and spacing are your best friends with Ganondorf, so get reacquainted with the Flame Choke and your old tactics.

  If you don't follow this with at least a down tilt, you are squandering opportunities.

Finally, we'll take a look at a character with significant changes from his Brawl incarnation:  Wario.  Much of the inspiration for Brawl's Wario came from a mix of the Warioland series and the Warioware series.  His default costume was from the microgame compilations and his specials were geared in that direction as well.  Using that "blank slate" philosophy, the Project:M team has reworked his moveset to draw far more from the Warioland series.  Wairo retains his strong air game from Brawl:  His movements allow him to hop in, attack and pull out all before landing on the ground, so once again, spacing is key. 

Wario's neutral B Bite remains, but is a bit different.  The priority on this move has been toned down significantly, so it's not a catch all "take damage but guarantee reciprocation" counter any longer.  A strong attack will tear right through his open mouth without getting caught.  The positive change, however, is you can now throw your opponent backwards after successfully catching them in your teeth; this opens up edge guarding possibilities.  Wario's down smash is now a quick punch to the ground to disrupt enemies around you; the wind down time is shorter than his previous breakdance spin down smash, so you can be a bit more liberal with it's application.  Down air is entirely different - It's now a ground rushing ground pound.  Miss, and you'll plummet; connect, and you'll spike your opponent and hop off their head.  Risk is always exciting!

Vintage Wario, realized by the Project:M team.

One of the key changes made by the team is Wario's side B.  Gone are the days of riding your motorcycle into opponents.  Now, you'll be able to quickly ram them with Wario's signature Shoulder Bash.  Done on the ground or in the air, Wario will rush forward, ready to knock opponents out of his way.  Keep in mind that in the air, you will go into free fall, so don't use this for recovery unless you've got some height and a trajectory in mind.  After a short distance, you'll stop rushing. 

"When designing new move sets, it usually depends on the character...Most Melee veterans don't receive large move set overhauls, but some have received some move additions.  Donkey Kong, for example, needed a forward-facing approach option so we looked at some of his moves and thought of ways to either improve upon them...We noticed Neutral Air would be a great approaching tool if its hitboxes were slightly better...We looked at what else we could do and then the idea of Donkey Kong's well-known Donkey Kong Country roll came into fruition. We decided to replace his dash attack which has almost always been a bad move. Now, on top of having a wonderful looking and canon attack, one of DK's main issues in competitive Melee was dealt with, making him a much more formidable opponent."

This distance is key; the later in the attack you make contact, the stronger it is.  Be careful with shield-happy opponents, though; if you bounce off of someone's shield, you're likely to eat a quick smash or grab.  Spaced out after hits or throws, this can be a great way to extend combos, and when performed on the ground, you can jump after opponents, just like in the Warioland games.  And as an added bonus, Wario's dash grab starts out looking just like the Shoulder Bash, so mixing the two up can force the opponent to predict and take grab/attack damage accordingly.

Honorable mentions for character information go to Zelda, Charizard and Luigi.  Zelda's Din's Fire attack now hangs in the air for a short time after releasing the button:  This lets you control the stage to a degree akin to Snake and it's incredibly satisfying to set a mid-air minefield and throw an opponent into it, watching them bounce between each as they explode.  Charizard, now separated from its trainer (As will Squirtle and Ivysaur be) has embraced its Flying dual type.  Since there is no need to switch Pokemon, down B is now Fly.  On the ground, it's a quick high jump to continue combos off of the Fire type's many launchers and in the air, it is now your command glide.  Charizard's glide isn't quite as quick as Pit's and he is a huge target, so be conservative in its use.  And then there's Luigi...The wavedash is back and oh so satisfying.  Up B is also back to its Melee potency, so combo, get in and PING your opponents high into the sky.

Super Smash Bros Melee had a strong sub-sect of fans that embraced the unique gameplay tweaks available and those same people have spread the love to Brawl.  Some local tournaments are already using Project:M as a side event to standard Brawl brackets, and if P:M is widespread enough, it could garner its own strong following.  The project has been featured in its demo 1 and 2 incarnations all around the net so far, but as a dedicated fan of the series, I was thrilled to take a bit more of an in depth look than what has been published thus far.  Please visit the team's project site HERE (or tweet with the hashtag #projectmelee) and read up on the changes made to all your favorite characters and keep an eye there and of course here at The Geek Asylum for any updates.