Nintendo’s positional fighter, Super Smash Bros Melee, was a great hit on the tourney scene because it offered a different style of fighting than the traditional beat-em-ups, but was still highly tied to the player’s skill. The Wii update, Super Smash Bros Brawl, was a disappointment to these hardcore fans. Brawl wasn’t built around skill, but randomness, to the point where your character might trip over themselves in the middle of an attack. If Nintendo had abandoned them, then the fans would do for themselves. Enter Project M, a mod of Super Smash Bros Brawl. 1UP has the story.
Back in the day, I was one of those Melee fans. Brawl didn’t click with me, for exactly that reason. It was all luck and button-mashing, no skill. Anti-skill, in fact. It’s interesting to see this project in action, and a real shame Nintendo didn’t see fit to include a Tournament Mode option in the game settings to kill the randomness and restore the skill play.