Greetings smashers, the next major iteration of Project M has arrived!
BEAUTIFUL NEW COSTUMES & STAGES This release features more than fifty new costumes, with either a new model or recolor for almost the entire cast. Discover which new style suits you! Additionally, several older stages have been lovingly re-imagined. These updates are more than simple detail bumps. Our artists have flexed their creative muscles to update these stages to a more modern aesthetic while lacing them with rich canonical details. What can you find hidden in each locale?
STEP INTO THE LAB The new Debug Mode, built from the ground up for Project M, allows you to examine the inner workings of Smash frame by frame. Take a look at a move's hitbox priority, check out which combos are air-tight, test out an attack's block disadvantage, and more! With proper study, Debug Mode has the potential to catalyze rapid metagame development and condense years of advancement into months.
A LEANER CUT OF COMPETITIVE GAMEPLAY After analyzing tournament sets, listening to community members, and reviewing the cast in Debug Mode we've gone through each character and trimmed the fat. Recoveries have been pared back, burst mobility options reigned in, and attack safety reweighed -- sometimes dramatically, but often subtly. These character design tweaks are matched by a small slew of mechanical optimizations. The end result is a tighter game that's more fun and more fair for everyone playing.
FRESH WAYS TO PLAY With the new All-Star Versus mode you can select a different character for each stock in a match, and new Stamina Stock modes allow you to choose "world wrap" options instead of using blast zones. Combine All-Star Versus, Stamina Stock, and Turbo Mode for some truly marvelous gameplay!
CLOSING COMMENTS TO THE COMMUNITY Finally, we wanted to talk about the timing of this release. PM v3.5 was originally targeted for two months ago, and although the major work was completed on time the final tuning has since taken us up to the last few days to finish. We’re sorry we couldn’t get this to you sooner; regrettably such is the nature of deadlines in a volunteer project.
We should clarify, though, that this final release date was set weeks before the announcement that Project M would be absent from the Apex 2015 lineup and the announcement’s subsequent backlash. We had initially even hoped to have it finished in time for The Big House 4 in early October. Some community members mistook the snappy turnaround from the Apex announcement to the v3.5 trailer to today’s release to be a sign that we were rushing out a release before we could get shut down: this is unfounded, we were merely doing our best to stick to our already delayed timeline.
With Project M v3.5 now released be sure to also keep an eye out for Smash Bros. for Wii U launching next Friday. After this flood of development work we’re excited to be able to not only share v3.5 with you, but take a break and join the rest of you in exploring a whole new smash environment together. With several new smash titles just released and an incoming surge of new players, it’s a great time to be a part of the smash community. Please help us to lead the community through this period of expansion by promoting shared values of respect, inclusion, and dedication to the scene. Thank you for your support!
Take care, The Project M Development Team