So you’re a Melee player who has fallen helplessly in love with Project M. Christmas is here and Santa has brought back l-cancelling, wavedashing, ledgeroll edgeguarding, and all of the other Melee goodies that were absent from Brawl’s engine. However, there are many useful Brawl mechanics that seem to go unnoticed. Let’s take a look at a few techniques that you may or may not have started implementing into your gameplay.
"To infinity... and beyond!"
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Pivot Grabs
“But Omni, I already know about pivot grabs.” Well, you do, but you don’t.
In Melee, a pivot grab is essentially a combination of two moves: the pivot and the grab. A pivot (originally known as DA dash) is the act of returning into a neutral position during the last few frames of a dash animation (not to be confused with a running animation). The idea here was that you could reposition yourself after a quick dash to perform actions that you could not perform while running.
In Project M, a new pivot grab mechanic was implemented that allows you to turn around and grab your opponent during your running animation. This is huge for two reasons:
King DDD has the largest grab hitbox in the game.
If you use a character with a tether and/or fast running speed, there is no reason why you shouldn’t be using this technique.
“Reversal aerial wha--?” Yes, unfortunately, there is a unique name for every kind of movement/technique in Smash. Fortunately, for you, if you’ve played Project M you probably already know what this is and have done it on several occasions.
RAR is another Brawl mechanic which allows a player to quickly change the direction they're facing from a running animation. During your running animation, if you press the opposite direction your character will move into a “slide” animation where they will attempt to turn around and run in the opposite direction. If you jump during this animation your character will continue moving in the original direction, but they will face the opposite direction.
“Eh, so what?” Well, this allows for two things:
Just play with it. You’ll be glad you did.
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The terminology is confusing but the concept is simple: You can reverse both the direction you’re currently facing and the momentum in which you are moving in with this technique.
“More turn around mechanics, Omni? Really?"
Yes, really. It seems miniscule at first, but both these techniques allow for some powerful increases in mobility. To perform a b-reversed move:
You already know what this is. Everyone knows what this is. But for some reason only a tiny percentage of the Project M community have even attempted to use this technique in real matches. This may be because Project M removed the automatic footstool option from just pressing jump while on a character’s head. Instead, you can assign a specific button for footstool purposes only. Currently, it is assigned as pressing up on your d-pad.
Which is kind of awkward.
Regardless of how you map your controller, footstools allow your character to bounce off the opposing character’s head. The effects of this bounce differ depending on whether your opponent is grounded or airborne.
Grounded Footstool
Your opponent stutters in place making them completely vulnerable for a quick second. Some moves, like Marth’s d-air, can essentially combo from the footstool. It is important to note that footstools DO work even if your opponent is shielding.
Final Destination. Fox Only. No items... except the ones you're already equipped with.
Ah, items. Item control is a skill that many Melee players lack due to its advanced implementation in Brawl. The easiest way to tell if someone is a Brawl player or not is to watch how naturally they control items (i.e. Diddy’s bananas, Toon Link/Link’s bombs, Peach’s turnips). Melee-only players tend to have a hard time playing against players who have mastered this item control.
Let’s have a look at a few item control specific techniques:
These techniques are especially important to master if you both use or face an item oriented character like Diddy, Toon Link, or Peach.
Edit: @
Soft Serve
reminded me that if you wavedash into an item you will pick up the item automatically. This replaces the previously used dash attacks that use to be able to pick up items from Brawl.
And there you have it. There are still many unused Brawl mechanics in Project M that are unused by Melee-only players. If you want to take your Project M game to the next level, be sure not to neglect these more foreign elements of the game.
Omni is a smash player from Maryland. He enjoys pina coladas, long walks on the beach, and getting caught in the rain. Feel free to follow him on his new Twitter: @InfernoOmni
"To infinity... and beyond!"
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Pivot Grabs
“But Omni, I already know about pivot grabs.” Well, you do, but you don’t.
In Melee, a pivot grab is essentially a combination of two moves: the pivot and the grab. A pivot (originally known as DA dash) is the act of returning into a neutral position during the last few frames of a dash animation (not to be confused with a running animation). The idea here was that you could reposition yourself after a quick dash to perform actions that you could not perform while running.
In Project M, a new pivot grab mechanic was implemented that allows you to turn around and grab your opponent during your running animation. This is huge for two reasons:
- Pivot grabs have different animation from both a standing grab and dash grab. Some of these pivot grabs have properties that are far more superior compared to their counterparts.
- Tether grabs (i.e. Link, Samus, Lucas) become more powerful since grabbing out of a running animation gives said character much more mobility.
King DDD has the largest grab hitbox in the game.
If you use a character with a tether and/or fast running speed, there is no reason why you shouldn’t be using this technique.
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Reverse Aerial Rush (RAR)
Reverse Aerial Rush (RAR)
“Reversal aerial wha--?” Yes, unfortunately, there is a unique name for every kind of movement/technique in Smash. Fortunately, for you, if you’ve played Project M you probably already know what this is and have done it on several occasions.
RAR is another Brawl mechanic which allows a player to quickly change the direction they're facing from a running animation. During your running animation, if you press the opposite direction your character will move into a “slide” animation where they will attempt to turn around and run in the opposite direction. If you jump during this animation your character will continue moving in the original direction, but they will face the opposite direction.
“Eh, so what?” Well, this allows for two things:
- Forward moving instant b-airs. Especially useful for characters with extremely strong b-airs (i.e, DDD, Ike, Pikachu).
- Pivot grabs. “Wait, didn’t we just…” Yes, we did. If your character’s standing grab animation is better than their pivot grab animation you can jump-cancel grab during the slide animation creating a “pseudo” pivot grab as we explained earlier.
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B-Reversing
The terminology is confusing but the concept is simple: You can reverse both the direction you’re currently facing and the momentum in which you are moving in with this technique.
Yes, really. It seems miniscule at first, but both these techniques allow for some powerful increases in mobility. To perform a b-reversed move:
- Jump forward in any direction
- Let go of your analog stick allowing it to return to neutral
- Press B
- Immediately smash the analog stick in the opposite direction
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Footstool
You already know what this is. Everyone knows what this is. But for some reason only a tiny percentage of the Project M community have even attempted to use this technique in real matches. This may be because Project M removed the automatic footstool option from just pressing jump while on a character’s head. Instead, you can assign a specific button for footstool purposes only. Currently, it is assigned as pressing up on your d-pad.
Which is kind of awkward.
Regardless of how you map your controller, footstools allow your character to bounce off the opposing character’s head. The effects of this bounce differ depending on whether your opponent is grounded or airborne.
Grounded Footstool
Your opponent stutters in place making them completely vulnerable for a quick second. Some moves, like Marth’s d-air, can essentially combo from the footstool. It is important to note that footstools DO work even if your opponent is shielding.
Airborne Footstool
The classic. This footstool forces your opponent to fall helplessly downward for a set period of time before they can act. If the opponent lands on the stage before the tumble animation it will force a knockdown allowing for tech chase options.
The classic. This footstool forces your opponent to fall helplessly downward for a set period of time before they can act. If the opponent lands on the stage before the tumble animation it will force a knockdown allowing for tech chase options.
Ledge Footstool
This is an overlooked footstool in which you can jump off a character who is currently hanging off a ledge. This footstool does nothing to your opponent, however, the application for some characters is crucial. For example, when both Snake and Sonic exhaust their up-b specials they fall down in a neutral position (unlike the “helpless” positions usually given after a character’s upb or air dodge). Instead of being edgeguarded and falling to their demise, both characters can footstool off players who remain on the ledge which adds another tricky option element to their recovery game.
This is an overlooked footstool in which you can jump off a character who is currently hanging off a ledge. This footstool does nothing to your opponent, however, the application for some characters is crucial. For example, when both Snake and Sonic exhaust their up-b specials they fall down in a neutral position (unlike the “helpless” positions usually given after a character’s upb or air dodge). Instead of being edgeguarded and falling to their demise, both characters can footstool off players who remain on the ledge which adds another tricky option element to their recovery game.
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Item Control
Final Destination. Fox Only. No items... except the ones you're already equipped with.
Ah, items. Item control is a skill that many Melee players lack due to its advanced implementation in Brawl. The easiest way to tell if someone is a Brawl player or not is to watch how naturally they control items (i.e. Diddy’s bananas, Toon Link/Link’s bombs, Peach’s turnips). Melee-only players tend to have a hard time playing against players who have mastered this item control.
Let’s have a look at a few item control specific techniques:
- Glide tossing: Throwing an item out of your shield. Performed by pressing the analog stick either left or right (the direction you will glide) and the c-stick in any 45 degree angle (the direction you will throw). You are essentially cancelling your initial rolling frames into an item toss.
- Aerial glide tossing: Same concept as above, but instead you can also "glide" in any 45 degree angle that you choose. Here you are cancelling the initial frames of your air dodge into an item toss.
- Instant tossing: Again, same concept as before. Imagine you see a banana on a Battlefield platform. Instead of jumping into it, pressing Z (to grab), and then tossing you instantly grab and toss the item by aerial glide tossing into the banana. This INCLUDES items that are being thrown at you!
These techniques are especially important to master if you both use or face an item oriented character like Diddy, Toon Link, or Peach.
Edit: @
Soft Serve
reminded me that if you wavedash into an item you will pick up the item automatically. This replaces the previously used dash attacks that use to be able to pick up items from Brawl.------------------
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In Summary
In Summary
And there you have it. There are still many unused Brawl mechanics in Project M that are unused by Melee-only players. If you want to take your Project M game to the next level, be sure not to neglect these more foreign elements of the game.
Omni is a smash player from Maryland. He enjoys pina coladas, long walks on the beach, and getting caught in the rain. Feel free to follow him on his new Twitter: @InfernoOmni
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