Brawl-

It has been suggested that this article should be moved to Brawl Minus. The reason given for the move is: Brawl- is an outdated name for the mod. The name Brawl Minus has been in usage by the logo and every single official social for many years now. (Discuss)

The Brawl Minus logo

Brawl Minus (also known as Brawl-, BM or B-) is a gameplay modification of Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Brawl Minus was initially created as a parody of the then-popular Brawl+ — hence the name — which was designed to balance Brawl through reasonable character tweaks. As such, the goal of Brawl Minus is to instead give incredible buffs to all characters until they all became equally overpowered, and thus, balanced.

The popularity of Brawl Minus notably eclipsed Brawl+ after its release, and the mod was even featured at some tournaments as a side event, such as at Apex 2010. Its popularity has since been overtaken by Project M, but Brawl Minus still maintains a devoted cult following, and development of the mod has continued into the present day, making it the oldest mod for Brawl that remains in active development. The latest version, 5.1, was released on August 10 2024.

Changes from Brawl

Gameplay

• Every character has received significant buffs and moveset changes, ranging from balance tweaks to radically different movesets.
• Gravity has been increased: x1.0 → x1.1.
• Falling speed, jump speed, and short hop speed have all been increased: x1.0 → x1.05.
• Momentum from a dash is now carried while jumping.
• Hitstun has been increased: x0.40 → x0.50.
  • The ability to act out of hitstun has also been completely removed.
• Significantly increased shieldstun: (damage/3) → (damage x 2.7)+2).
• Shield pushback has been increased.
• Powershielding now reflects projectiles, cancels all pushback and shield damage, and causes 5 frames of hitlag with 5 frames of intangibility on shield drop.
• Characters can shield during an initial dash.
• The window of time for dash-dancing has been increased.
• Dashes can be canceled into crouching or a C-stick down smash.
• Random tripping has been removed. Characters can still trip if hit by attacks that cause tripping such as Banana Peels. Additionally, most moves that had a chance to inflict tripping on grounded opponents are now guaranteed to do so.
• Teching is easier to perform, since it can now be buffered before the character is even hit.
• Characters can perform edge getups immediately after grabbing an edge.
• Edge grabs only grant intangibility up to 5 times before the player has to land on the stage to get intangibility from it again.
• Respawn intangibility has been reduced: 120 frames → 60 frames.
• Every character can wall jump.
• Throw speeds are no longer weight-dependent.
• Stale move negation has been removed.
• Air dodging is disabled during tumbling.
• Footstool is now performed with the Taunt input.
• The damage, knockback and gravity reductions given to frozen characters have been reduced: Damage x0.5 → x0.75, Knockback x0.25 → x0.725, Gravity x0.03 → x0.0488.
  • The freeze time reduction per input has also been increased to counterbalance: 4 frames/input → 6 frames/input.
• CPU AI has been enhanced, they also no longer gang up on human players.

Modes

• Special Brawl-related modes:
  • Element Mode: Every attack inflicts a random effect. Replaces Flower Mode.
  • Turbo Mode: Allows players to cancel moves into other moves on hit. Projectiles are unaffected. Replaces Curry Mode.
    • This was done by overwriting the effect of the Superspicy Curry item, which now gives the player the Turbo effect temporarily when used.
  • All-Star Versus Mode: Allows players to use different characters (or costumes) per stock. This is done on the character selection screen by selecting a character, then selecting the next character, which will set the order they will appear in. If less characters are chosen than the number of stocks, the remaining stocks will loop back to the first character (e.g. only selecting Mario, Luigi and Peach in a four stock match will loop back to Mario on the fourth stock). Replaces Angled Camera Mode.
    • A similar version of this mode would later be added to the official games with Squad Strike.
• Team Battle changes:
  • Team Partners can be randomized if a match starts with all 4 players on the same team.
  • Team Battles now operate like Smash 4, giving players a team-colored glow in battle instead of being forced into the costume of their team's color.
• Event Match features new custom Events replacing some old ones.

Settings / QoL

• The default ruleset is now 4 stocks, 8 minute matches, with team attack and score display turned on.
• Booting the game now immediately takes the player to Versus Mode.
  • If Shield is held, the game takes the player to Training Mode instead.
• Handicap is replaced with "Custom Buffer", which lets you set the amount of buffer between attacks up to a maximum of 10 frames.
• The level of CPUs is set to 9 by default.
  • All CPU levels have new names.
• No restrictions on controls configuration.
• No time limit for saving replays.
• Time matches can start with only one player.
• Team Battle matches can start with only one team.
• A Debug Mode has been added.
• Letting go of the character select cursor outside of the character spaces will randomly choose one, like in Melee.
• The cooldown on the cursor after selecting a character on the character select screen was removed.
• Letting the game idle for awhile in a match will lower the BGM volume.

Other changes

• New designs for menus, including title screen, loading screen and character/stage selection screens, with altered fonts.
  • The Wii Remote warning and beginning of the opening movie are different as well.
• Sheik was given her own independent character select slot.
  • Zero Suit Samus, Squirtle, Ivysaur and Charizard also have independent slots, though this is due to them now being independent characters.
• Shield colors are darker.
• Pain voice lines play instantly when a character is hit by a strong attack like in Melee and 64, rather than after a short delay in Brawl. Pain voice lines variations based on damage were also implemented, with most characters using previously-unused voice lines for it.
• The Super Scope item has been changed to the "Minus Super Scope", with new textures and now firing a "Gandouken" when fully charged, a very large, slow and powerful projectile normally used by Ganondorf in his new moveset.

Characters

Brawl Minus's character selection screen.

As per the mod's focus, every character in Minus received major buffs and significant changes from Brawl in addition to the mod's global gameplay tweaks. The roster is overall extremely powerful in a vacuum, with even the notoriously strong Meta Knight being slightly buffed.

All 39 characters from Brawl are present in Minus, though with Pokémon Trainer being removed in favor of Squirtle, Ivysaur and Charizard becoming their own independent characters (with new down specials and Final Smashes), Sheik receiving her own slot on the CSS, and Zero Suit Samus now being separated from Samus, both on the CSS and by no longer transforming into each other. Additionally, Pichu, Roy, Mewtwo and Dr. Mario return from Melee with moveset changes, while Waluigi and Ridley are added as newcomers, increasing the roster to a total of 45 characters. Furthermore, Wario-Man and Giga Bowser (with their own balance changes) can be selected from the CSS as secret characters by holding L before selecting Wario or Bowser respectively and keeping it held until a stage is selected, bumping the character number to 47 if they are counted.

The idea of adding newcomers to the game was put on the table as early as the Pre-Alpha development stage, with the earliest known consideration being Zero from the Mega Man series (a Brawl mod of whom had already been created by a developer on the team at the time). However, the idea was set aside due to the lack of a reliable, working clone engine during this period.

Brawl Characters (39)
Mario	Luigi	Peach	Bowser	Donkey Kong	Diddy Kong
Yoshi	Link	Zelda	Sheik	Ganondorf	Toon Link
Wario	Samus	Zero Suit Samus	Ness	Lucas	Ice Climbers
Pikachu	Jigglypuff	Squirtle	Ivysaur	Charizard	Lucario
Kirby	King Dedede	Meta Knight	Fox	Falco	Wolf
Captain Falcon	Marth	Ike	Olimar	R.O.B.	Pit
Mr. Game & Watch	Snake	Sonic
Minus Characters (6)
Pichu	Roy	Waluigi	Mewtwo	Dr. Mario	Ridley
Bonus Characters (2)
Wario-Man	Giga Bowser

Stages

Note: This section is outdated.

Many stages were altered, if not outright replaced completely, with several stages from 64 and Melee returning. Any stages not listed here are unchanged from their regular form.

• 75m (now just a single large platform, a smaller raised platform to the right, and one column of elevators to the left)
• Brinstar (destroying the floor substance brings the two halves together into one platform instead of distancing them)
• Castle Siege (No longer transforms)
• Dream Land (SSB) (replaces Green Greens. Its theme is also replaced by Dream Land 64's theme)
• Brawl Final Destination (ledge collisions have been smoothed, preventing getting caught under them)
• Final Frustration (Melee Final Destination except the main platform tilts drastically about every minute; replaces Distant Planet. Master Hand and Crazy Hand also appear in the background playing rock-paper-scissors; plays No Johns (aka:Juicy Fruit) which is a song from the documentary The Smash Brothers)
• Fountain of Dreams (No character reflections in the water. Terrain reflections accomplished by duplicate models inside the main platform)
• Frigate Orpheon (ledge collisions have been smoothed)
• Green Hill Zone (no longer a walkoff stage)
• Halberd (claw removed)
• Hyrule Castle (no tornado hazards)
• Jungle Japes (river's strength slightly weakened, Klaptrap frequency increased)
• Kongo Jungle (SSB) (features the theme of Kongo Jungle from SSB)
• Lavaville (Smashville with Norfair's background and hazards)
• Lavender Town (based on a stage in Super Smash Land, a fan made game.; replaces Flat Zone 2. Its theme is also replaced by the theme of Lavender Town from Super Smash Land)
• Luigi's Mansion (second floor is drop-through. Also central platforms are removed)
• Lylat Cruise (stage doesn't tilt)
• Mushroom Kingdom (SSBM) (smaller and doesn’t contain blocks)
• New Pork City (much smaller. Also rearranged to remove caves of life)
• Online Practice Stage (only spawns sandbags, fruit, and stickers. Fruit only drops from sandbags if both are turned on. If all items are turned off one sandbag that drops nothing will always respawn at the center of the stage.)
• Peach's Castle (bumper acts as a stationary solid block, with Bowser's Castle available as an alternate skin; replaces Mushroomy Kingdom. Ground Theme (Super Mario Bros.) is replaced by the original overworld theme of Super Mario Bros.)
• Pictochat (some drawings are restructured)
• Pirate Ship (cannon fires faster)
• Pokémon Stadium 2 (no stage transformations)
• Port Town Aero Drive (additional grabbable edges and wall jumpable walls)
• Rumble Falls (made into a neutral stage with a bridge and three platforms)
• Skyworld (only the rightmost platform is breakable, and cloud platforms are removed)
• Spear Pillar (Dialga, Palkia, or Cresselia can be chosen by holding A+R, A+L, or A+Z during loading respectively; they are no longer a stage hazard, and the cave has been removed)
• Summit (grabbable edges)
• Trophy Room (Snag the Trophies bonus stage from SSBM. Random trophies constantly fall from top of stage. They are cosmetic and can’t be interacted with)
• Venus Lighthouse (replaces Mario Circuit)
• WarioWare, Inc. (no microgames, and the platforms will change positions about every 45 seconds)
• Super Happy Tree (AKA Yoshi’s Island from SSB. Smaller, with no clouds)
• Yoshi's Island (SSBB) (all walls are now wall jumpable)
• Yoshi's Island (SSBM) (expanded, and blocks are removed)

Tier list

The first Brawl Minus tier list was a community tier list made in December 2015 for version 4.0b and was shared on the official forums by the Minus project lead. The first official tier list was later released on March 5, 2017 for version 4.0BC. A second official tier list was released on February 28, 2022 for version 4.2. This remains the most recent tier list available despite Minus now being at version 5.1, having received important balance changes and new characters since.

Brawl Minus Official Tier List [4.2]
	SS	S+		S					S-
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14
A+								A
15	16	17	18	19	20	21		22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29
	A-									B+
	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38	39	40	41	42	43

Release history

The Brawl- project was announced by its original creator, Budget Player Cadet, on November 11, 2009, with preview videos uploaded within days. An official forum would be created on November 15 for players to suggest ideas, discuss balance and download and try out early WIP versions of the mod and PSAs. The mod quickly garnered attention during its early development, with early builds being featured in tournaments even before its first official release on March 27, 2010, such as at Phase 5 in late January 2010.

Date	Version	Main Content	Sources
Nov. 2009	Pre-Alpha	First PSAs available on the official forum (Ganondorf, Bowser and Captain Falcon).	[1]
?	Pre-Alpha	More characters: Luigi, Donkey Kong, Link, Samus, Mr. Game & Watch, Wario, Sonic, Falco, Sheik, Yoshi, Lucario, Lucas, Mario.	[2]
01/19/2010	-	WIP build posted by the lead dev on SB looking for help/feedback. All Brawl characters were rebalanced to various extents at this point.	[3]
02/01/2010	Phase 5 Pack	Early build used for the Jan. 30 Brawl Minus side event tournament at Phase 5 in Dallas, TX. Publicly released by the organizer.	[4]
03/27/2010	Beta 1.0	First official release.	[5] [6] [7]
07/23/2010	Beta 1.5	Balance patch. Overhauled menus (title screen, CSS, stage select).	[8] [9]
08/02/2010	Beta 1.6 (APEX Build)	Balance patch for a select few characters. Version featured at Apex 2010 as a side event tournament.	[10] [11]
04/01/2011	Beta 2.0	Significant balance changes. Added universal walljump. UI improvements with new character portraits.	[12] [13] [14]
05/19/2011	Beta 2.1	Balance patch with fixes.	[15]
05/26/2011	Beta 2.1.1	Small bug fix patch. First official PAL release.	[16] [17]
03/01/2012	Beta 2.X	Plenty of balance changes, including a full Bowser rework.	[18] [19]
03/27/2012	Beta 2.X Patch Level 3	Third of 3 hotfixes released quickly after the initial 2.X release, fixing game-breaking bugs, file issues and balance problems. Patch Level 1 released 03/06/2012, Patch Level 2 released 03/12/2012.	[20] [21]
06/22/2012	Beta 2.x.4	Balance patch with fixes.	[22] [23]
07/15/2012	Beta 2.x.5 (Patch Level 5)	Bug fixes.	[24] [25]
11/29/2012	Beta 2.x.6	?	[26] [27]
07/19/2013	MAX 0.5b	Development restarts under new leadership with the announcement of Brawl Minus MAX (technically 3.0) in Public Beta.	[28]
08/04/2013	MAX 0.51b	Sheik Update - Sheik overhaul, Ganondorf updated.	[29]
08/23/2013	MAX 0.52b	Weekly Updates Update - Start of weekly updates until end of Beta.	[30]
08/30/2013	MAX 0.53b	Rolling Crates Update
09/06/2013	MAX 0.54b	Peach & R.O.B. Update
09/13/2013	MAX 0.55b	Fantastically Unremarkable Update
09/20/2013	MAX 0.56b	“Way Past Cool” Update
09/27/2013	MAX 0.57b	I Need a Hero Update
10/04/2013	MAX 0.58b	Really Rushed Update
10/11/2013	MAX 0.59b	Reformatted Update
10/18/2013	MAX 0.60b	Puff UpDate
10/24/2013	MAX 0.61b	Personally, I Prefer The Update
11/01/2013	MAX 0.62b	Flat-Out Balance Update
11/08/2013	MAX 0.63b	The Little Things Update
11/15/2013	MAX 0.64b	Calm Before The Storm Update
11/22/2013	MAX 0.65b	Power Storm Update - Samus overhaul.	[31]
12/06/2013	MAX 0.66b	The UpDDDate
12/13/2013	MAX 0.67b	Aftermath Update
12/20/2013	MAX 0.68b	The … Update
12/30/2013	MAX 1.00 (3.0)	End of the Brawl Minus Maximum Beta, officially ending the Brawl Minus Beta as a whole.
02/14/2014	MAX 1.01 (3.01)	Balance patch. New project leadership.	[32]
04/24/2014	3.3	Many character changes. Added first newcomer, Pichu. Stage Expansion Pack: 13 new stages added + stage alterations. New HUD and CSS. (Old update numbering reinstated)	[33] [34]
05/29/2014	3.5	Added Roy. Balance changes. Temporary removal of the Stage Expansion Pack due to crashes: 12 stages removed.	[35]
07/26/2014	3.Q	Balance patch.	[36]
09/04/2015	4.0b	Major changes to the physics. Many character changes.	[37]
09/06/2015	4.0b Hotpatch	Bug fixes.	[38]
09/05/2016	4.0BC	Added Waluigi and Mewtwo. Balance changes. New announcer voiced by Elliot G.	[39] [40]
09/07/2016	4.0BC Hotpatch	Bug fixes.	[41]
04/02/2017	2.x.6 Netplay Edition	Refreshed version of 2.x.6 made to work with Netplay. Small adjustments, added music, though no balance changes from 2.x.6.	[42]
08/01/2017	4.1	Balance patch with new game modes and many Quality of Life changes. UI revamp.	[43] [44]
12/28/2017	4.2	Return of the Stage Expansion Pack, with 14 new stages. Balance changes.	[45] [46] [47]
01/04/2018	4.2 Hotpatch	Bug fixes.	[48]
02/21/2020	2.x.6 Netplay Edition II	Update to 2.x.6 Netplay Edition to be used for the 10 Years of Minus anniversary tournament. Polished but faithful UI, some stage list changes and more added music.	[49]
12/27/2022	5.0	Major update. Added Dr. Mario and Ridley.	[50] [51]
12/29/2022	5.0 Hotpatch	Bug fixes.	[52]
02/14/2023	5.0.5	Balance patch with bug fixes. Announcer reverted to Pat Cashman.	[53]
08/10/2024	5.1	58 new stages, with some stage tweaks. Balance changes. New announcer voiced by SwordTee40. New music. Various fixes and tweaks, notably to Single-player modes.	[54] [55]

Logo Gallery

• 

  Logo used in the original forums during the Pre-Alpha

• 

  Original logo, used in Beta 1.0

• 

  Logo of Beta 2.0

• 

  Logo of Beta 2.X

• 

  Official logo used from MAX until 5.0 (2013-2022)

• 

  Logo of MAX 0.5b

• 

  Logo of the MAX Beta starting with MAX 0.52b

• 

  Alt version of the MAX Beta logo

• 

  Logo of MAX / Maximum (3.0)

• 

  Alternate logo introduced in 3.3

• 

  Logo of 3.Q

• 

  Logo of 4.0b

• 

  Logo of 4.0BC

• 

  Logo of 4.2

• 

  Logo of 5.0

• 

  Logo of 5.0.5

• 

  Logo of 5.1

• 

  Current official logo

Errors

Note: This list might be outdated.

• When USB Loading Brawl Minus on Wii/U, if the player does not set their Hook Type to AXNextFrame (if available), multiple Roy icons will appear on the Character Select Screen, and lead to the game crashing if the cursor is moved high enough on the screen.
• Custom Stage Builder stages cannot be played outside of the Stage Builder.
• Luigi's CPU AI tends to excessively spam dash attacks. It may also simply spam fireballs, smash attacks, or stand completely still during its Final Smash.
• The attract mode matches that start when waiting on the title screen are prone to freezing the game.
• In Training Mode, combos and total damage aren’t registered correctly, likely due to the game using the old hitstun system to calculate them.
• Challenger Approaching events can occur despite all characters being unlocked by default. If the player happens to be using the same character as the challenger with the default costume, both fighters will have the same appearence, with neither having a light/dark tint that would usually be applied to differenciate them in such a scenario.
• Opening Group Records will freeze the game.
• Errors related to the new characters (Pichu, Roy, Waluigi, Mewtwo, Dr. Mario, Ridley):
  • The voices of the new characters can still be heard when they are metal.
  • Using Kirby's Copy on any of the new characters will fail, behaving as if trying to copy another Kirby.
  • Triggering Codec Conversations on any of the new characters will play Mario's Codec Conversation.
  • Playing Classic Mode with one of the new characters will freeze the game at the end of Stage 11 (just before Master Hand).
  • Records and stats for the 6 new characters cannot be saved, though the total match time will still increase.
  • Waluigi's CPU AI will never attempt to recover with his up special move when knocked off-stage.
  • Although Waluigi isn’t a character from the Wario series, he is considered one nonetheless.

Developers

The known currently active Brawl Minus developers are listed here.

Project Leaders

• Pin Clock (Minus Art)
• E.N.B. / EpicNonBread

Codes / PSA

• Glitch (Website / Zeus Dev)
• KingJigglypuff
• Sente / Neville
• Maye / Kboomers
• fudgepop01
• Axellion

Animation

• Survivian
• fantasyfox
• HappyMilla

Art

• Numbreon

Costumes

• Cahalan

Sound

• Zerks (Music)
• jiffypop23 (Music)
• Cahalan (Music)
• Swordtee40 (Announcer)

Inactive / Retired

The original project lead, Budget Player Cadet, had a very open approach to the mod’s early development, inviting anyone to submit suggestions, feedback, and even PSA work for the Pre-Alpha versions. The various movesets would then be tested, curated, and refined through open playtesting and feedback by the contributors and community. This led to the project having many credited contributors early on and, when combined with the project’s long lifespan and leadership being passed down multiple times, results in Brawl Minus having a long list of names attached to its development throughout its history. While it would be difficult to name every contributor, all known legacy contributors are listed here.

List of legacy developers Project Leaders

• Budget Player Cadet / BPC / The Cadet (Original Creator)
• Supreme Dirt / Bowser the Train / Amber / 00FFBF00
• Numbuh214
• Thundamoo
• Sammi Husky

Codes / PSA

• Kirk (Lead Design & Codes / PSA)
• TSON / TheSilenceOfNoOne (Lead Codes / PSA)
• Anomalus (PSA)
• Tsunami70875 (PSA)
• Sr.PyR (PSA)
• TaroNuke (PSA)
• Eldiran (PSA)
• AS (PSA)
• Mawootad (Codes / PSA)
• sness (PSA)
• FrozenPopo / FroznHobo (Stages)
• Xyless (Lead QA & Playtesting / PSA / Original Minus Art)
• Blind (PSA)
• standardtoaster (Lead Codes / PSA)
• Shanus (Codes / PSA)
• VietGeek (PSA)
• Xi / Xinephous (PSA)
• ASF1nk (Menus / Codes)
• Phantom Wings (Codes / PSA / Tools)
• Dantarion (Codes / Tools)
• SilentDoom / Virum (PSA / Animation)
• Falco400 / Revven (Codes)
• Bionic Sonic / Bionic / Isatis (Codes)
• Ripple
• Linkshot (PSA)
• MonkUnit (Stages / Codes)
• Starwats (Stages)
• Kwalkest / TheEffinBear (PSA / Codes)
• NO@H
• Rkey (PSA)
• Veril (PSA)
• Kitamerby (PSA)
• BrawlPK (PSA / Menus)
• Tybis (Stages)
• Mech / SAHunterMech (Menus / PSA)
• Kienamaru (Lead Character Design / PSA)
• Thanyou (Codes / PSA)
• MarioKing64DS / MKHT (PSA / Animation / Costumes)
• PyotrLuzhin (Codes / PSA)
• Sluigi123 / Mr.AI (AI)
• Doc / Doq / Ameowli (Codes / PSA / Wi-Fi)
• InternetExplorer (Codes)
• diddy kong (Codes)
• spunit262 (Codes)
• The Paprika Killer (Codes)
• Y.S. (Codes)
• Yeroc (Codes)
• Magus / Magus420 (Codes)
• Bero (Codes)
• ds22 (Codes)
• Dr. (Codes / PSA)
• ThePwnzr / Mitz (Codes / PSA)
• soopercool101 (Stages)
• Kapedani (Stages)

Animation / Graphics

• MASTERLINKX (Animation)
• libertyernie (Costumes / Stages)
• Wave Kusanagi (Costumes)
• SonicBrawler / Mizumi (Animation)
• Bringobrongo (Animation)
• Firelis (Animation)
• Theytah / Ryztiq (Costumes)
• Nanobuds (Costumes)
• Pik (Costumes)
• Purpa / Sate (Costumes)
• Ishmael205 (Animation)
• StupidMarioBros1Fan (Costumes)
• JoeTE (Costumes)
• Llama Juice (Stage Modeling)
• Mach 7 (Renders / Costumes / Menus)
• Shin F. (Costumes / Menus)
• AlGeorgeRomo / Eiji_Ar (Costumes)

Other / Unknown

• CRASHiC (PR / Design / Testing)
• Adumbrodeus
• Wingy
• Red X
• Darkmega
• Recycle
• Big O
• Oro?! / Bzoo
• Isaac / DunnoBro (PR)
• Th3 Master Composer / DtJ Composer
• RocketPSIence / rPSIvysaur
• Mit
• Dragonrage
• SaltyKracka
• OmegaBlackMage
• BSL
• Fuse
• Mouse
• Elipsis
• Elliot G. (Announcer)
• Lob (Sound)
• HyperLink / HyperL!nk (Sound)
• PMDT
• Chaotrope (Main Theme)
• Many more incredible devs who have yet to be mentioned

External links

• Official Brawl Minus website
• Brawl Minus YouTube channel
• Brawl Minus Twitter page
• Brawl Minus Forums (archived)
• What is Brawl Minus?
• Brawl Minus BlueSky page
• Brawl Minus Subreddit
• Brawl Minus Facebook page