For everyone, how is the music going for you guys? does it break or glitch out sometimes on the wii? Any skins messed up or glitchiness! I'm waiting for this weekend to start applying fixes so I would like a crowd sourced bug list!
Goku is gone because I couldn't find a decent skin so I found half of Goku and put him in haha. Also can you please tell me what you mean by default N64 stages? And I don't know about having Michael Jackson. To me.. That just doesn't sit right. As per the melee song I can for sure add that for next time!
Just make sure when you add the Melee music you do not cut the N64 menu song either! Both of those are too classic to abandon. As for Michael Jackson, I just feel like he is the ultimate joke character. When I use him at parties people unfamiliar with Brawl hacking are astounded. I would say the Smooth Criminal over Snake skin is as crucial as Ronald McDonald. I am sure you could find a way to make it work (so long as you keep the EVA and Boba Fett costumes I do not really care what you cut).
I just played through the mod and made a list of things that were iffy. Hopefully this helps you out in some way...
- I do not think there should be two different Crash Bandicoot skins. Do not get me wrong, I am the biggest Crash Bandicoot fan I know. But people only want to see classic Crash. The Crash of the Titans skin over Luigi is simply a wasted space.
- Delfino Plaza plays over Ryoshima Coast for some reason, and the music selection screen is basically impossible to navigate, so I would just put a more appropriate song over that slot. Speaking of which, just put it in another slot and bring back Delfino Plaza, as that is one of the better Brawl stages.
- The icon for Namek is way too dark. You might also want to consider adding the daytime Namek stage, or at least one other Dragon Ball stage considering how many skins you included (I think models for the Time Chamber/Archipelago exist).
- Especially for classic songs like Green Hill Zone and Chemical Plant Zone, you should just restore the original 16-bit music. People would much rather hear that than OCRemix style tracks, considering it is a throwback stage akin to Mushroom Kingdom. I also would just not touch the music on Project M Green Hill Zone, it is perfect as is (unless you want to replace the Sonic 3 song with the 16-bit version, or add "Can You Feel the Sunshine"/"Living in the City" in over one of the crappy post-Dreamcast Sonic songs). I would also considering cutting the third Sonic stage, because it seems like overkill, the rings look very unprofessional and Chemical Plant Zone is clearly the better option.
- Some of the stage icons have sharp/square corners and are not rounded
- Ganondorf still has his green portrait in place, despite the fact that slot has been filled with an alternate costume
- The new Game & Watch sound effects are a little irritating and out of place. I would bring back the old sounds we are all used to, as they appeared in the previous two games.
- The black from the eyes of Raichu basically end up enveloping his entire face. This is a problem with the skin, as other mods I have played also have this issue. I would find an alternate Raichu costume.
- Find a decent Young Link skin? Then we will have pretty much everyone.
Alright, now Stage specific issues...
PMPE Stages:
- Cut the Mega Man stage. The background looks it is sourced from a JPEG (it probably is) and is completely unprofessional.
- Cut Brawl Galaxy. This is a really fun stage to play on but not only is it not viable for competition (something I have no problem with personally) it also slows down the game to a screeching halt.
- Cut Cool Cool Mountain. This stage is a great idea but it runs way too slow/induces way too much lag and is not an accurate representation of the N64 world.
- Cut either SR388 or Norfair. They are far too similar to take up two separate slots. At the very least do what you did with Corneria/Sector Z.
- Cut Castlesky. It is an unnecessary clone of Castle Siege and we already have more than enough competitively viable stages, we do not need a new one that looks identical to another stage that is already included.
- Cut Bowser's Castle. I would hate to see this go but unfortunately it also runs into lag issues and is way too slow. If you can find a version that reduces the number of lava particles that would probably run a lot smoother.
Project M Stages:
- Restore Project M training stage, that was a great practice space.
- Cut Skyloft. I have always experienced terrible lag and slowdown on it. I am sure you could replace it with an equivalent Zelda stage that runs better anyway.
Brawl Stages:
- Again, I am really making the case for restoring Delfino Plaza. It is a fantastic stage and I miss playing on it.
- Cut New Pork City. It is pretty much a waste of a slot at this point, even if edited to be a competitive stage. The same could be said about Spear Pillar.
- Either cut Warioware entirely or replace it with the original stage, Micogames intact. It only makes sense as a 'party' non-tournament stage, and the Project M version is pretty dull considering there are so many other stages like it.
Melee Stages:
- BRING BACK MELEE FINAL DESTINATION/BATTLEFIELD. I cannot stress this enough. These two stages are a huge part of Smash history, and it does not feel like Smash without at least one of them (the Classic Expansion Pack has a fantastic version of Melee Battlefield).
- Restore Big Blue. This may not make a lot of sense to people but the new stage is claustrophobic, far too zoomed in, and the original Big Blue is a casual party staple.
- Restore Rainbow Cruise. You can keep the Mario 64 stage you put over it, but casual Smash just feels lacking without this stage.
- Bring back Yoshi's Island (Super Mario World). This is a very fun stage to play on.
- Revert to the original music to Yoshi's Story. It is almost blasphemy to replace the music on a Melee stage.
- Bring back Onett.
- Restore Mushroom Kingdom, as the new variant looks unprofessional and also results in a number of graphical glitches (including invisible players).
- If Brinstar is causing issues I would also just leave it in its original place.
N64 Stages:
Now, here is where I take the biggest issue I think. Most of the HD retextures simply are not up to the standard of the rest of these stages. Also, part of the charm to playing these stages is to witness the classic 64-bit graphics and relive old memories, not to play on scrappily made modernized versions. I would highly recommend just replacing all of these with the versions available in the Classic Expansion Pack, but let me go into detail.
- Peach's Castle. This stage was a mess from the get-go. I honestly would just consider cutting it. It is the worst arena in the entire series, save New Pork City. Not only that, but the version you used makes certain costumes invisible.
- Mushroom Kingdom. Maybe it was just me but something felt off about the version you used, although it very well might be the same one available in the Classic Expansion Pack. It looks like there is some kind of smoothing over the sprites though, which blur the image.
- Yoshi's Story/Island. I do not understand why you would alter the very layout of a classic stage. This should be reverted to the original, graphics included, because that was the key appeal of the stage, it actually looked like you were playing Yoshi's Story.
- Kongo Jungle. The same as the above could be said for this. The new textures are simply ugly, and the N64 textures honestly looked a lot higher resolution, not to mention closer-matche the SNES source material. The new flat sprites just seem wrong/of poor quality.
- Hyrule Castle. This actually looks fine, but the darkness of the background almost makes it look an entirely new stage. Also, is that a stage builder background? If so I would just kill it entirely. Just stick with the original. It will load faster too.
- Saffron City literally looks like it was made in Adobe Illustrator. These are some BAAAAAAD vectors, and when I say bad I mean just awful. I would revert this to the original models, as the "HD" pack simply kills the Pokémon aesthetic.
- Dreamland. I see what they were trying to do here but it looks digitized and spotty. Also, using the Green Greens tree when you already have Green Greens as a stage makes zero sense. Revert to the N64 classic ASAP.
- Brinstar. Maybe it is just me but it looks like the background is not only new but in fact lower-res than what was used in the N64 version.
- Sector Z. I like the dual stage concept but unfortunately this sometimes results in invisible players. I would just split them in two, even if that seems redundant.
- Metal Caverns. As much as I enjoy the Melee song the N64 music is too good to cut. I would just include them both. Also, the new textures seem to induce longer load times, especially considering all of those excess off-screen models in the map. Just stick with the Project M version.
- Consider bringing back the 64 Final Destination/Battlefield/How to Play Stages, just for the novelty of having them I guess.
NEVER CUT ANDROID #18
Also, please be on the lookout for Goku (and Kid Goku) if you can; those skins are crucial to any mod.
Your work is incredible and I cannot thank you enough for putting out the first truly decent Project M mod. Again, remember that simplicity is key. Try to stick to the fundamentals and you should have a stronger package than anyone else on the scene.
Edit: Also, the Kirby facial texture appear to be off. I am not sure if it a "SSB4" costume or not but it clearly looks sourced from a JPEG and white-ish digitization is visible on his face during battle. I would just wait for Smash Bros. 3 to finish their model or just revert back to Brawl Kirby.