Hello, fellow smashers! Many smashers, like me, have never had a Wii, thus never got to experience SSBB. But now that I have bought a Wii U, I can finally play Brawl! But Brawl was missing something... and that something was the fast paced gameplay that Melee had to offer. Yes, this guide is how to get Project M working consistently on your Wii U, for people in a strange situation, like me. I will be covering common problems and ways to fix them, and covering basic requirements to get Project M functioning on your Wii U! Lets begin.
Disclaimer: This guide is for the NTSC version of SSBB and Project M. Unfortunately, Project M is not available in the PAL region. It is only available in America and Japan. It sucks, but I've heard that they're working on a PAL version, so keep your fingers crossed! I've also heard that by using a program called USB Loader GX, you can get a functioning version of Project M on a PAL Wii U, but I know nothing about that, so look it up on google, you'll probably find a guide or something similar eventually.
Part 1 - Downloading the mod
To start off, you'll obviously need a Wii U, and a copy of SSBB. Keep in mind, this is a guide for the hackless version, as this is the only consistent way you can play Project M on Wii U, due to Homebrew not working correctly, if at all on Wii U. I've heard from Reserved that he got Homebrew and Project M functioning on his Wii U, so if you can get it to work, than great! But I generally recommend using the hackless version, as it is more consistent with Project M on Wii U.
Just like a Wii, you'll need a 2gb SD card. When Brawl was created, Wii's could not support SD cards more than 2gb, thus Brawl is not compatible with any bigger SD cards. You can probably find one at Walmart or Radio Shack. If you can't, like I couldn't, you'll probably have to order one online, which are typically expensive. The cheapest you'll find would probably be 10 dollars, 8 if you're lucky. I know it's a ripoff, but trust me, It's worth it!
Next step, go to the official Project M website (Smashboards won't let me link it) and click the "Download" tab on their home page. Scroll down until you see a list of download options. Click and download the "Hackless Wii ZIP (Full Set)". I've heard from some people (Namely Shokio) that the "WiFi-Safe" works and the "Full-Set" doesn't work. In all honesty, they both work, yet you want to download the Full Set anyway, due to more features and better gameplay. Nintendo dropped WFC anyway, so you couldn't use the WiFi to play online.
While you wait for it to download, go ahead and plug your 2gb SD card into your computer. If you don't have an SD card slot, just go and buy a cheap USB hub that has a SD card slot from Walmart or somewhere that sells computer accessories. after it downloads, open it in WinRAR. If you don't know what WinRAR is, then find another guide that tells you how to download WinRAR. After that, click the start menu, then click computer. There should be some new storage device. Open it.
Proceed to drag the WinRAR file into the storage device (Your SD card). Be sure not to name the SD card "Project M" or any kind of abbreviation of that. If you absolutely HAVE to name it something, "Game" works fine. Right click the WinRAR file and click "Extract here..." Boom. Done.
Part 2 - Running Project M on your Wii U
Boot up your Wii U, but don't put Brawl or the SD card in yet. For some reason, Project M won't load unless you put the SD card in your Wii U AFTER going to the Wii menu. Although, I've heard from various people that they got it to work without doing that... just do it this first time to be safe. As for not putting Brawl in, it just works better for me. After you boot up the Wii menu, go ahead and put Brawl in, but not the SD card. Boot up Brawl.
Go to the Vault, then Stage Builder. Delete EVERY STAGE. Don't assume just because you haven't made a stage that there are no custom stages, as Brawl comes pre-loaded with 3 sample stages. If you want to just start on a fresh slate, go ahead and erase all your save data, and then delete the three sample stages (Although erasing your whole game data isn't necessary, it's just cleaner). Go back to the Wii menu after deleting all custom stages.
Put in the SD card, the card holding both the fun and glory that is Project M. Boot up Brawl once more. Go back to the Vault, and then to the stage builder. If you have done everything correctly, then after clicking the stage builder, it should go to a debug-like screen, glitch a little bit, and then it should boot up Project M. Please enjoy the amazingness that is Project M!
Finally, please note that in order to play Project M again after booting down your Wii U, you may have to take out the SD card, and put it back in after booting back up the Wii Menu. It's a little strange, but sometimes Project M won't boot up unless you do this, although you don't have to do this all the time.
Part 3 - Troubleshooting/F.A.Q.
I constantly hear people saying that Project M doesn't work on their Wii U due to various reasons. Be it the system, the mod, or even the controller, I'll try to answer every single question/problem that you great people have. If I don't already answer it in this guide, please tell me your question or problem below in the comments, and I'll try my best to answer it as quickly and as helpfully as possible. I know mods and computer stuff can be really frustrating sometimes, so please, bear with me. Onto the troubleshooting.
1. Project M won't boot up
This is a common problem that is typically caused by a mixture of other problems, or an error in the downloading of the game. From experience, I can tell you that waiting in the main Brawl menu for about half a minute before activating Project M through the stage builder might help. Be sure to check yourself with all the previous steps, and backtrack to find the problem if you think you've done it right. If you still can't find the problem, just starting over isn't very hard and will only take about a half an hour at maximum.
2. My Wii Remote/ Wii Remote Plus won't turn on
I see this one a lot. People typically associate that Wii Remotes with Motion-Plus built inside won't work with Project M. I can confirm that they do, in fact, work with Project M, although I have had some problems, but nothing that would get past the initial boot up of the mod. After selecting "Play" on the Project M launcher, my remotes would turn off, and if left idle for about 10 seconds, won't turn on again (until after rebooting the system, of course) and Project M would not load. To fix this, all I do is spam the A button on the remote until it turns on again. You don't have to be sonic quick, just fast enough so the remote boots up again before it's too late. If you aren't fast enough, then the whole system locks up on a black screen. You can't even turn off the Wii U from the power button; you have to unplug it and plug it back in, which sometimes may be sketchy, but in the end, it should be fine. After turning it on again, just try again. Additionally, this "black screen of death" can occur in other situations, very commonly I'll select the Brawl stage builder too quickly (mentioned in the previous troubleshoot) and be greeted with this black screen. Also, I should probably mention that I haven't used or tested those 3rd party Mayflash Gamecube adapters, but from what I've seen; if your remotes work, than the adapters should work.
3. Why do I need to take out the SD card after play?
Project M wasn't designed for the Wii U, thus it doesn't always work consistently. This guides purpose is to get Project M running on your Wii U, and as consistently as possible. If it works without having to take out the SD card for you, than great! But it doesn't seem to work like that for most people, due to the Wii U simply having different hardware. So, for consistency's sake, I recommend just taking it out and storing it in your Brawl game case until you want to play again.
4. Do I need a GameCube controller in order to play?
Fortunately, no. As the Wii U doesn't support GameCube controllers, you'll have to use your Wii remotes anyway. Although, there are 3rd party adapters made by Mayflash that plug your GameCube controller into the Wii Remote, and the controller then acts as a Classic Controller. But, as I stated earlier in the guide, I have never used or bought these adapters, so I can't tell you if you should buy them or not. I recommend just learning to play with the Wii Remotes (Wave dashing really isn't that hard when you do it long enough) and simply wait until the 1st party adapter made by Nintendo comes out.
As I think of new problems and fixes, I'll post them here. Also, if we figure out more answers to problems by discussing them through the comments, I'll post them here as well. I would also appreciate feedback on my guide, after all it is my first guide and it would be great to know what I can improve/add to it. As for why I made this guide, well I noticed there wasn't any real guide to getting Project M on the Wii U, and I was experiencing quite some frustrating moments in trying to figure it all out, so I want no one else to feel that level of frustration with this. Also I noticed a large level of unanswered questions about Project M on Wii U, so I want to answer as many as possible. Also, I hope I am posting this in the right forum, after all this is help and support, and I want this to be the first thing someone sees before they ask a question about Project M on the Wii U. Please tell me your experiences with Project M on Wii U in the comments. Thank you and game on!
Mike4Life What do you mean by "getting NTSC Brawl"? Do you mean the ISO? If so, I'd show you where I got mine from, but that's against SmashBoards rules.