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. Due to the Smash Stack exploit and relative ease of hacking the Wii compared to other consoles, alongside the popularity of Project Mmodifications for Brawl are considerably more widespread than for any other game in the series.
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. Within the hacking community, the base game without any mods is often referred to as vBrawl or vMelee as a contraction for Vanilla Brawl or Vanilla Melee the term "vanilla" comes from a common terminology featured in the computing world. Brawl remains the most commonly modded game in the series, though some mods also exist for MeleeSmash 64and Smash 4.Ī majority of mods for Brawl can be loaded through the Smash Stack exploit, though alternate methods for loading them are available 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 the mods to develop considerably more attention with observers.
The first attempts at modding involved Brawlwith such projects generally being viewed as novelties, not unlike the modification of palette swaps for characters outside of this, forcing the Wii to load such mods was considered difficult, requiring use of the now-inoperable Twilight hack.
In addition to cosmetic hacks such as file replacementmodifications to the gameplay of individual gamesshorthanded to modshave become a widespread phenomenon within the hacking community.