How different is Project M from Melee?

[AirFair]

I have both Melee and Project M, and I have been playing melee exclusively since I started learning the more advanced techniques of the game. If I wanted to start playing Project M, since it appears more in tournaments in my state, what will I need to get used too? are there any noteworthy differences?

note that I have little to no experience playing Project M

 

[DrinkingFood]

Almost every character is great in PM, and those that aren't are just good.
In melee you have like 5 that are great, 5 more that are good, and the rest ~suck.
That's the most important difference.

 

[AirFair]

I see that the characters are great, but I also want to know the gameplay aspect of it. What is the pace like? Will I have to make a big adjustment to playing on Project M from Melee? how easy will this be?

Sorry if I'm asking too many questions. I want to know how well I can apply the stuff from melee to this.

 

[DrinkingFood]

It's not a big adjustment. The pace of movement is the same but taking stocks can sometimes take longer since edgegaurding is more involved. The biggest adjustment you'll have to make, besides learning all the new matchup, is that the control stick has some differentt sensitivities to trigger actions, and some techs are easier to perform in a way different than the easiestt way to perform them in melee. DJC for example is easier in PM with Y+tap jump or X+tap jump whereas in melee it was easiest with X+Y or just double tapping X or Y. WD OoS requires you release the full digital press on the shoulder but ton before you can air dodge, regardless of which button you use.

There's also a lot of new mechanics like B-reversals (reverse momentum), RAR (run turnaround into immediate jump to reverse direction), and others that really organically add onto Melee's freedom of movement once you get over the fact that controls will feel weird until you have fully adjusted your muscle memory (which isn't hard and doesn't take too long).

 

[PMS | Tink-er]

The big difference is that there are like 20 matchup in melee. There are 861 matchups in Project M, and due to balancing, the metagame is not dictated by characters who excel at rushdown play styles (or who directly counter rushdown playstyles).

 

[AirFair]

Well I just went and practiced Marth in melee for 40 minutes.
Then I finally loaded Project M and used Marth in the training mode.

I definitely liked that there was a little flash when you preformed an L cancel correctly. I also saw that most of the physics were the same. All in all I enjoyed it. Thanks for your feedback, because now I have something to research if I ever decide to go further with Project M. For now though, I'll sharpen my Melee skills. Thanks!

 

[Exodo]

I dont know if its only me but i feel that in melee is easier to perform a good wavedash.

 

[AirFair]

I dont know if its only me but i feel that in melee is easier to perform a good wavedash.

You might be right, as I did try wavedashing in Project M. I find it to be more comfortable in Melee, but it's still not that hard to preform if you know the inputs

 

[Deleted member]

project m is not melee

 

[AirFair]

project m is not melee

...... that's why I asked the question.....

 

[DrinkingFood]

Wavedashing in PM is 1 frame slower to start moving than in Melee, meaning effectively 1 frame longer start-up and total 1 frame longer duration. It's due to an issue from brawl that processes changes to momentum one frame after they are applied rather than the frame-of.
The timing and difficulty is the same, the distance and speed is the same, the required control stick angles are the same, but because the total duration is one frame longer, it can mess up your muscle memory from Melee for acting immediately AFTER the wd.

 

[Sour Supreme]

I understand you're looking for technical differences, but if it's any help I think you'll enjoy PM more than Melee. As someone who used low-tiers in Melee, in PM the game feels much more comfortable, in the sense that no matter who you roll with you aren't getting tied to a tree and whipped by top tiers.

Movement does feel different. I personally prefer it though, Melee is fast, but at the same time it's kind of restricted to an extent. That could just be me though. I hope you enjoy Project M!

 

[Giga-Bowser]

I feel that melee meta-game places more emphasis on movement and spacing, whereas traps and hard punishes are more important in pm.

 

[DrinkingFood]

Melee only feels that way because characters who trap hard in Melee also suck pretty hard.
Also there's no way there's harder punishments in PM than in Melee. Have you seen falco? Falcon? Sheik's grab combos? Jigglypuff's "bad DI into rest"s? If anything the games have an equal level of punishment, the difference is, people are less used to DIing preemptively in PM.

 

[Giga-Bowser]

So you say that melee feels like it isn't as much about traps because trap based characters aren't as good? Glad you agree with my point. I'm also glad that we're on the same page about pm not having harder punishes than melee, because I didn't made that statement either.

 

[krazyzyko]

There are no soft shields. You can move right out of your ledge jump like in Brawl. Tethers auto sweetspot the ledge. Techs are easier to perform. Characters are a bit more floaty. There are new techs like air glide toss, stool jump, RAR, etc.

 

[AfricanManBeast]

Tethers auto sweetspot the ledge.

Yeah I don't like that addition I had preferred the melee version

 

[TreK]

-There are about three times as many legal stages.
-The metagame is a bit slower because A) we still all kinda suck at this game and B) the amount of viable floaty characters is greater than one.
-Edgeguarding in PM is generally a bit unintuitive for Melee players.
-There's a new top tier every other sunday.
-There are Brawl ATs and a few new PM specific ATs.
-You will get to play on various setups with stage textures of varying quality, and custom music that's going to be terrible most of the time.

 

[DrinkingFood]

Techs are easier to perform. Characters are a bit more floaty.

These two are wrong.
Unless by techs you mean advanced techniques as opposed to catching yourself as you hit the ground, in which case it is true in many cases.

 

[krazyzyko]

These two are wrong.
Unless by techs you mean advanced techniques as opposed to catching yourself as you hit the ground, in which case it is true in many cases.

I meant AT's

 

[TheLostSabre]

You'll find many Zair have greater utilities for characters who have them, particularly in combos. An example I definitely know is Link with his Clawshot.

Probably another difference is the seemingly much better upB recoveries many characters have been gifted with. I say seemingly because most recoveries that have been improved are still fairly predictable and, with proper spacing and reads, can still punish those recoveries hard.

Of course, Mewtwo's Teleport may be an exception as of recent results by Emukiller. Then again, I'm no hardcore competitive player; just a casual who enjoys observing tourny matches and experiment on my own time.