Fan-team behind 'Project M' explain why they are giving Brawl a Melee makeover

A portion of a PikiGeek interview with Project M’s Shane Mullig…

PG: Why emulate Melee’s style? Why not just simply play Melee?

Shane: We feel that Melee has incredible depth and excitement. It allowed for highly variable combos, embraced technical skill, and always left room for improvement. We analyzed what about it was successful and took Melee’s metagame as the source of inspiration for Project M, where we aim to be a “fast, technical gameplay” and still be incredibly fun.

This leads me to the answer of your second question: Why not just simply Melee? The answer is an obvious one, look at our character select screen! This isn’t just a Melee clone, it’s Melee and Brawl evolution. We have entirely new character metagames: weak characters in melee and brawl get the attention they deserved, and brawl characters add an entire new flavor to the melee environment. People that haven’t played a Melee-esque Sonic or Snake (as examples), don’t know what fun they are missing!