Is it practical to desire to be good at both Brawl and Melee?

[eveningninja]

and/or any of Brawl's mods (Project M, Brawl+, etc.)?

There are a few friends of mine who really only play original Brawl, and I enjoy playing competitively against them. But I also have a few friends who stick moreso to Melee, and I also enjoy playing competitively against them. Do you essentially have to choose which one you are going to primarily play and really only be "pro" at one or the other? Or do any of you have good experience with being able to switch back and forth between the two and still maintain your technical skill/prowess/awareness?

It is causing me a bit of trouble atm with things like ledge-guarding and DI-ing and accidental fastfalls to death and what not because of the different mechanics. I end up accidentally suiciding all the time now in Melee, Fairing/Bairing to my death or something, and end up wasting time trying to pivot to grab the ledge in Brawl when it's not necessary. Or trying to Z-air the edge in Melee with Sheik and end up dying because it only works in Brawl. Or trying to directionally airdodge/wavedash and then it not working XD I know, I'm whining

Any input? Thanks.

 

[gettysburg11]

You know, I was kind of wondering the same thing lol. The only person I know of offhand who plays both at a high level is M2K, but there's probably a couple more that I'm missing. I'm interested to see what people with more experience than me have to say as well.

 

[FoxBlaze71]

They require exceedingly different tactics, so definitely don't play them back-to-back.

 

[PieDisliker]

I think it's good because both require different forms of technical skill and predictions. And when getting better at both, you can get closer to both communities in a way. You'll get to play more kinds of people and learn different strategies that might be used in the other game's scenarios. Particularly Hbox taking a set of Armada at APEX because Seibrik gave him advice, reminding him about how melee is similar to brawl. Hbox doesn't win that many brawl tournies, but it can definately help you in the long run when playing Melee or vice-versa.

If you like both, you should try to get better at both.

 

[Vionce]

IMO the hardest thing about playing both is that they have a different amount of input buffer which means that different muscle memories are needed when you would normally want to use the same. ledge hops become difficult since there's a different window for when you can fall away from the stage.

Another thing you could attempt is not to play any character that has a similar playstyle in both games. This will help you keep in mind that they are different characters. Though i can't really think of any at the moment that plays mostly the same in both (except maybe link).

One of my friends uses a classic pro for brawl and a gamecube controller for melee. I think this helps differentiate the game.

I suppose you really just need to think of them as completely different games with different characters and different mechanics (since they do). One analogy might be Melee differs from brawl as much as Tatsunoko vs Capcom differs from MVC3. Some mechanics are similar, movesets might be the same, but the effects and combos change as well as the overall abilities of every character. If you're good at one, then you have the potential to be good at the other.

 

[Beninator]

One of my friends uses a classic pro for brawl and a gamecube controller for melee. I think this helps differentiate the game.

I'm with this. The different controller is the only thing that keeps me from playing Brawl like Melee.

 

[Prince_Abu]

its a lot easier to get good at brawl than it is to get good at melee

 

[Wizzrobe]

I feel the same way about this. If there is a Brawl tourney coming up soon, (maybe in the next few days or something.) I will not play melee until i finish the brawl tourney so I will be able to focus on brawl mechanics. and vice versa with melee.