Smash Bros. Project M development officially ends

Fan mod Project M ends after almost 6 years of development
Fan mod Project M ends after almost 6 years of development

A beloved fan mod that started development in 2010, Project M, officially meets its end after nearly 6 years of updates.

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Project M has been seen as the spiritual successor to Super Smash Bros. Melee after the Nintendo release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl failed to cater to fans’ expectations. Project M sought to bring back core gameplay elements from Melee while simultaneously changing up characters so that they would be more diverse than in the original games. The mod also re-added characters from Melee such as Dr. Mario, Mewtwo, and Roy.

Project M tried its best to balance characters across the board, changing the gameplay of certain characters such as Roy, Ganondorf, and the Pokemon Trainer’s Pokemon to better suit competitive gameplay.

While it is unclear exactly why they stopped development, in an official statement found on the Project M website the development team said the following:

We’ve learned so much in the process of making Project M—accumulating life-changing lessons in communication, team work, professionalism, work ethic, and more—but there’s only so far we can take those skills in a volunteer project. With this in mind, we’ve made a difficult business decision: We’re ready to finish development here and move on to bigger and better ventures.

We realize that this will come as a shock to many of our fans. Please, forgive us. Again, it’s been an excruciating call to make, but it’s been made a bit easier by our satisfaction with the previous and final release, v3.6. We’ve spent six years polishing Project M, and rather than let it drag on through another several years of dwindling development and change-fatigue in the competitive circle, we’re going to consider our work complete.

In the meantime, we plan to be hard at work on new projects, built from the ground up. We can’t spill the beans just yet, but know that we’re looking towards a fresh start with brand new designs. Rather than splitting our focus, many of us want to dedicate ourselves to this new venture fully. In this way, we hope to maintain the level of quality and professionalism you’ve come to expect from us.

– Project M Development Team

Surprisingly, Project M was never shut down by Nintendo. In fact, Project M was so grossly popular that even e-sports groups slowly allowed the mod to be played in tournament environments. I suppose the developers believe that the final version of the mod is as close to their goal as they can get, and for that I respect their decision.

Hopefully, we see more content from the Project M team in the future. While I doubt we will ever hear about another Project M update, perhaps we might see a mod for the current Super Smash Bros. games? Or maybe the team will develop an entirely new game that stands alone and doesn’t use Nintendo characters? Only time will tell I suppose…

Did you guys ever play Project M? Are you saddened by the end of its development? What do you think the development team will have in store for the future? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below!


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David Fisher
Author, GameSkinny columnist, and part-time childhood destroyer. David W. Fisher (otherwise known as RR-sama) is a no B.S. reviewer and journalist who will ensure that you get as close to the facts as humanly possible!