Legacy TE added stages with the design of stages used for competitive play for each stage, using their theme in background models and textures and playing the same background music, that load when holding the Start, L, or Z button. with a rendition of Fountain of Dreams from Melee. Outside of this, unpopular stages might be entirely replaced with others, such as how Project M replaces the highly non-standard Mario Bros. Stages with transformations like Castle Siege or Pokémon Stadium are often changed to stay at the most competitive form of the stage. It is also possible to use newly created slots on the stage selection screen or alternative stages that load when holding a specific button when selecting a stage.īrawl- and Project M, for instance, replace the ordinarily over-sized Temple with a smaller, more condensed version. In these mods, it is common to new stages, often replacing others, that have been made by fans.
In Project M, the same stage layout was used to make the Skyloft stage.īrawl is the most commonly modded game in the series due to Smash Stack exploit, which makes modding the game much easier to the average player. The changing of stages is among the more common ways to do this: In addition to raw gameplay, other portions of the game may be overhauled by developers to further change gameplay.
Mods for Ultimate require a Switch console released before July 2018 to utilize a recovery mode exploit left over from the development phase of the console, enabling the use of code hooking and file replacement via the Skyline executable patch. Mods for both versions of SSB4 involve the use of kernel exploit chains on their respective consoles primarily using Layered File System (LayeredFS) patchers to overwrite parts of the game's filesystem.
19XXTE, a gameplay mod for Smash 64, requires patching a ROM image of the game. Mods for Melee often require the use of applications available for The Homebrew Channel.
The increasing complexity of game play mods and the discovery of the Smash Stack exploit, however, caused mods to develop considerably more attention with observers.īrawl remains the most commonly modded game in the series, primarily utilizing the Smash Stack exploit, though alternate methods for loading them are available. Outside of this, forcing the Wii to load such mods was considered difficult, requiring use of the now-inoperable Twilight hack.
The first attempts at modding involved Brawl, with such projects generally being viewed as novelties, such as palette swaps for characters and UI changes. Silly mods often times have overlap with Overpowered mods.
There are a few different categories most mods fall into:
Specific changes to the game depend on the preferences of the developers, as well as their ultimate goal.