My Kirby Style

[TheORKINMan]

I'll state out front I've never gone to a tournament. I did play SSB1 in High School for money though :P

My #1 is Kirby, my #2 is Pichu. Yeah not exactly the top of the tier list ehh? #3 is Dr Mario who is considered slightly better :P

In any event I've played against what I would consider average to good players in HS and college. Most of whom love to play as fast characters like Fox/Falco/Captain Falcon/etc... and love to play very aggressively and pull off combos.

With Kirby and Pichu my goal most of the time is to simply roll with their attacks and not get hit. Muhammed Ali style almost :P Take small quick jabs and very quickly roll/move. Taking advantage of how short their characters are by holding the down button after rolls and doing a quick kick for 9% From my experience good rolling helps negate speed to a certain extent and their small size is an asset that is terribly terribly underrated.(A large large amount of both A and B attacks miss if Kirby or Pichu are ducking) If I can get an opponant to chase me through levels with platforms like Fountain of Dreams it's almost always a guarenteed smash for me. Kirby has very good juggling ability with his up+A which has pretty high priority. Since Kirby's aerial game was nerfed IMO from SSB1 to SSB2 I very rarely take to the air with him. And mainly use his spinning hammer in the air simply to get back to the ledge if I get bounced.

In any event IMO with Kirby and other low tier characters patience is a must. Playing defensively yields dividends with short medium speed characters.

[nitro-blazer]

Kirby's Air Game is Great, F-air is a good Combo move, Bair and Dair are great Edgegaurders, Bair is good Shffled, The Aerial Hamemr is great for Damage and Recovery and Anti-edgegaurd.

The Bair is just sexy though.

[Efflixi]

Well you're doing the hit and run part right, that's what kirby is best at.
What you're not doing is using him in the air though. You have to take advantage of kirbys air attacks. When you see your enemy was hit off and is about to come back up run off the ledge and Dair him to spike him down. Kirbys great at spiking. Then use your 6 jumps plus final cutter to get back, they should be more than enough. Just never use more than 2 jumps to reach the person or you wont make it back.

You should also take advantage of kirbys suicide. when you both have 3 lives but you have 174% and the opponent has 20% don't fight him. Instead use kirbys dodges to drag him to an edge and back grab off the stage that'll kill you both and even out the match. :)

Oh and kirby has great recovery too. :)

[nitro-blazer]

Sorry to but in, but Hit and Run isn't Kirby's Best option. If he does that he's bound to get chased down and Cornered, He's not the Fastest runner. WHat you SHOULD do, is play his Crouch Cancel game and use his Dodges, His Standing Dodge is Quick, yet lasts fairly long, which can be a boon or a bane.

Suiciding is rareely a good option, The opponent can EASILY break out unless its an Up throw suicide, as of which is very situational.

Yes, Kirby has good long recovery, but it is predictable at times. HOWEVER, the Final cutter can sweetspot the ledge and allow the Anti-edgegaurd Hammer technique.

For the hammer move, check the stickied thread, you'll find alot there.

[Efflixi]

I meant hit and run as in dodgeing not literally running away lol.

Oh and usually people don't see a suicide coming but the main thing about suicide is DON'T ABUSE IT.

I dont use the hammer too much though. On ground it has too much lag and in air theres just better moves out there. Though its good for anti-edge as you stated.

[nitro-blazer]

Oh, sorry about that.

I never use suicides... I find thenm annoying and too risky, why die when you can lure them, B-throw ON the edge and Meteor them?

[TheORKINMan]

The hammer in the air seems like an extremely high priority move. It goes through attacks like Peach's up B as well as Marios upB.

His dair seems incredibly lagged compared to SSB1 and I've just avoided it rather than work on the timing I guess :P Which is why I stay away from the air for the most part other than using ledges that can be moved through. Something that's been an adjustment for me as well is I'm not as quick at grabbing because I'm left handed and use the L button for shield/roll rather than R which makes for quicker grabbing.

[Omnigamer]

Aerial moves have no priority against eachother, it's all a matter of range of hitboxes. In the aerial hammer's case, it's a disjointed hitbox, so you don't have much to worry about :p

But it's still easy to get through, so only rely on it when you know the move through and through.

And yeah, suiciding is bad. Don't do it. Check my discussion thread for a ton of usefull info on using Kirby competitively.

[nitro-blazer]

Aerial moves have no priority against eachother, it's all a matter of range of hitboxes. In the aerial hammer's case, it's a disjointed hitbox, so you don't have much to worry about :p


A bit off topic, but...

A question just popped ito my mind, what would happen if two Aerial moves "Hit" the opponent(s) at the same time? Would both players be damaged? seeing as they can't Clank out.

[TheORKINMan]

I've been trying out that reverse aerial hammer btw :) Very nice

[Omnigamer]

Yes, both players will be hit if the hitboxes reach the characters hitbox at the same time. It happens fairly often, people just don't tend to think about it.

[nitro-blazer]

I've been trying out that reverse aerial hammer btw :) Very nice
Also try out the SHAH, or the Short-hopped Aerial hammer, it takes fairly fast fingers, but its a good technique.

Bair is a fairly good Projectile-cencel-outer, and the F-smash, if timed and Spaced Right, can Clank out a Marth F-smash (un-charged), but it takes God-like timing, and too risky. Neutral A is better off left alone, I use F-tilt more than anything.

I've noticed that the D-tilt has downward trajectory, Perhaps it an be used to Edgegaurd iwth a D-air... I dunno, i'm just ramblingon about theoretical ideas.

[Dr.Peabody]

the key with kirby is getting the opponent over the edge, the fly out and dair them... this works especialy well agaisnt fox, falco, and ness, since thier recover move takes a bit
also for a bit of a suprise against edge gaurders... try the super sucker and just fall with them in ur mouth... if ur lucky, the will fall out to their doom, and u will get all ur jumps back and fly back up to safety... if ur not, they wont pop out and ull both die :( of course if u can its almost always better to get back on the platform if u can, and dont abuse this, cause if u miss u will most likely fall to ur doom
the swallow abilty is very useful for agresive opponents, and its fairly hard to dadge unless they can get behind u... try a short hop to swallow
in most cases kirby's normal ability is more useful than copied onse (but thats a bit off topic) -.-"

[kirbstir]

You can actually survive the "suicide swallow" even if your opponent doesn't struggle if you hit jump the instant after your opponent dies. The chances of surviving depends upon your timing and the stage's height.

Aka "suicide-cancelling" lol

[King Kirby 90]

Since I haven't got any vid in which I'm doing the suicide swallow + suicide-cancelling, I have cut the part in which KrazyKirbyKid is doing it in the match Rickard(Kirby) vs. CORY(Fox) 7-16-04.wmv out and uploaded it. I think it will help you Dr.Peabody.
http://people.freenet.de/King_Kirby_90/Kirbys%20suicide%20swallow.wmv

[Dr.Peabody]

:o
well either way it can be an anoying trick agaisnt edge gaurders >:D

[DeathscytheHello]

The best is whenever it's their last stock and you just pop up, swallow, set the controller down, and wait for victory.

However, the "suicide cancel" doesn't seem to always work. As in, sometimes you die at the same time depending on your opponent's character. Anyone have a list of whom this works on?

[Dr.Peabody]

well like what was said before, it also depends alot on the map
u aint gonna be suicide canceling on flat world >:P

[Omnigamer]

Especially since Flat Zone is banned at 99% of tournies :p

But it shouldn't be too hard to get a list up. Actually, I could probably go into AR and tell you exactly how many frames you have between when they die and when you can jump. Hmmm... I'm not doing anything right now, and that won't take terribly long, so I'll get right on that :D

[Gelmax]

You can always spit people out under the stage then fly back up, too. Kirby's vertical recovery will usually get him back faster and you can spike if it looks like the opponent will make it back.

[Omnigamer]

That's not usually a good idea. When you spit people out in midair, they go up, and you go down. It's the equivelant of them getting nearly three jumps with upwards momentum. Most characters with any amount of vertical recovery will get to the ledge faster than Kirby as well, so you're more likely to be spiked.

[nitro-blazer]

I think he means RIGHT under the stage, like your scraping the edge, adn when they pop up, they hit there head on the bottom or teh stage, usually preventing recovery. This is still unreliable, as they can break out close to the edge, but anyway.

Its also hard to pull off.

[Dr.Peabody]

letting them pop out is the best way to go, since most people will try to struggle out, and then just fall to there doom...
and this is especialy hard to do on flat world cause there is no bottom o_0

[DeathscytheHello]

Peabody...

Especially since Flat Zone is banned at 99% of tournies :p

There you go.

Omni, that frame information would be useful to know. I'm in no rush to know the stuff, but, in any case, thanks.

[Omnigamer]

Check out the Kirby Video and General Discussion thread, Deathscythe. I posted all the stuff there.

[DeathscytheHello]

Thanks. That will prove useful to me, especially since a lot of local people know not to break out against me if I do get them into the death trap.