Brawl+

Brawl+ is a gameplay mod designed to make Super Smash Bros. Brawl more competitive. Among the first gameplay mods released to the public, Brawl+ attained some niche appeal amongst the Smash community due to its gameplay changes. However, as the first mod of Brawl to undo many of the game's changes to more closely match Melee, Brawl+ was frequently controversial amongst smashers, primarily over what the mod's intentions were, with a number of critics referring to the game as "Melee 2.0". Brawl+'s own staff also reportedly became antagonistic with one another due to the lack of a defined goal for the mod.

Despite the controversy surrounding the mod, Brawl+ was the first gameplay mod of Brawl to develop its own tournament scene, and it was featured as a side event at some tournaments, such as Apex 2010 and S.N.E.S..

Brawl+'s last release, version 7.0.3, was released in 2010, with most of its staff having moved onto the development of Brawl+'s spiritual successor, Project M. As such, development of Brawl+ is ceased, and no new releases of it are expected. In the present, Brawl+ is mostly viewed as a curiosity for players who want to see how the Brawl hacking scene started.

Features

 * No random Tripping. Moves that trip players such as Banana Peel are unchanged.
 * A new character select screen with independent icons for, , , and all Pokémon.
 * Hitlag decreased in some moves, such as Captain Falcon's sweetspotted forward aerial (the Knee Smash) and Marth's tipped forward smash.
 * Fully independent versions of, , and , though can still be selected. For the stand-alone characters,  has been removed, and the Pokémon will not cycle upon revival or via Pokémon Change. The Pokémon Trainer will be absent from the match and the results screen if players choose to play an independent Pokémon.
 * Automatic L-canceling, also known as ALR or Aerial Lag Reduction (most characters' landing lag from aerials has been reduced to 50%; Captain Falcon and Lucas to 40%; Link to 35%)
 * Dash-canceling from Melee is reintroduced. Crouching while dashing allows for this.
 * No replay time limit. The replay icon still does not appear if the match is longer than three minutes, but if the player presses the button to save replays, the replay will be saved normally.
 * Window of time for dash-dancing lengthened, enabling more Melee-like DDing.
 * Ability to shield during dash-dancing.
 * No stale-move negation.
 * Stage freezing. A few stages have all their movement stopped, potentially allowing for more neutral stages. This applies for:
 * Luigi's Mansion - Formerly, the stage would always be in the "destroyed" mode, known as the Deadlands, however, it has recently been recreated to have ceilings act like soft platforms
 * WarioWare, Inc. - stage is always in original form
 * Spear Pillar - Dialga, Palkia, and Cresselia don't appear altogether, removing stage hazards
 * Pokémon Stadium 2 - Stage does not change forms
 * No auto ledges.
 * Lag-less edges - characters can now drop from or climb onto ledges immediately after grabbing them
 * Since build 5.0, the Online Practice Stage is loaded whenever Rumble Falls is selected in Versus Mode. In older versions of Brawl+, the Online Practice Stage was loaded whenever New Pork City was selected, and in even older versions (Genesis build) the Online Practice Stage was fully selectable as a stand-alone stage. As of 7.0.3, the Online Practice Stage is loaded as its own icon, but without the common3.pac file, the icon is loaded as Flat Zone 2.

Gameplay tweaks

 * Character modifications with the intent of balancing. For example, has been significantly improved.
 * Faster overall gameplay speed, largely due to reduced lag and sped-up attack frames
 * Increased falling speed for most characters
 * Increased fast-falling speed for most characters
 * Increased hitstun, allowing for truly inescapable combos, and more comboing potential in general
 * Tech window enlarged, making for easier teching
 * Faster techrolls
 * Fixes grab release problems. No more grab release problems afflicting characters such as Wario, Ness, and Lucas.
 * Perfect shield window decreased.
 * Increased shieldstun, meaning a character hit while using their shield is forced to stay shielded for a longer amount of time.
 * Many moves received slight alterations (e.g.: 's forward smash now produces a flame effect on contact with the opponent, Wizard's Foot gives another jump for recovery, and Rest now produces a darkness effect and launches the enemy at an angle instead of upward.)
 * Buffer time for moves can be changed to 0-10 frames in Versus mode (Brawl's default is 10). This is done by replacing the handicap with buffer settings, with every 10% being one frame of buffer.
 * Using the C-Stick for a downward aerial attack no longer produces an auto-fastfall.
 * Landing lag glitch removed.
 * Unrestricted camera during replays, and while paused in a Versus match.
 * Default Versus settings are now four stock, eight minutes, Team Attack on
 * Nametags are saved in replays
 * Grabs give the victim back their second jump (fixes exploit when grabbing an opponent at the ledge and release them to force a Fall)
 * Extended out-of-bounds limits on certain stages
 * Differently colored shields