Welcome to Smashboards, the world's largest Super Smash Brothers community! Over 250,000 Smash Bros. fans from around the world have come to discuss these great games in over 19 million posts!
You are currently viewing our boards as a visitor. Click here to sign up right now and start on your path in the Smash community!
It appears that you are using ad block :'(
Hey, we get it. However this website is run by and for the community... and it needs ads in order to keep running.
Please disable your adblock on Smashboards, or go premium to hide all advertisements and this notice. Alternatively, this ad may have just failed to load. Woops!
Super Smash Brothers is a nice game, but if there's one thing that tends to get on everyone's nerves, it's the
character roster. Why isn't King K. Rool in the game? Capcom should have pushed for Mega Man in Brawl! Why was
Mewtwo cut? You've all seen the whining and the support threads and the theoretical rosters. Now is your chance to actually do
something constructive with those desires! This is Make Your Move, where you can create a moveset for any
character imaginable. And when I say any, I mean any. It could be from a video game, TV show, your
favorite movie, or anything else you can think of! You think Ridley's too big? We've got a moveset for WAILORD!
Moveset Creation
If a dictionary entry for moveset existed, it would read as: a collection of functions for a character to perform in a video game, which aims to be easily-transferred. There is a dictionary of some of the most common terms used in movesetting [HERE] that should help clue in the clueless as to what the basics of a moveset are. Remember that you can always send a private message to a leader requesting help on your set – Smash Daddy and ForwardArrow especially.
Here are some examples from our leadership of some sets we're most proud of and should give an indication of what our very best heads can achieve.
One of the most dreaded and confusing parts of making a set is in those silly statistics sections, where it used to be that people simply had to ballpark where exactly their character would lie compared to the enigmatic Brawl figures. A list can be found [HERE] to help one better visualize this tedious chore.
Comments
It's a well-kept philosophy in Make Your Move that reading other people's sets inherently helps you to improve your own way of thinking and making movesets. This is why others will dissect and advise on your work - so don't be afraid if people are critical, they're only trying to help.
On that same note, though, we're always open to those who do want to put their own opinions out there and judge other people's sets, even if you don't feel you're as experienced as others. Like with sets, the more differing opinions we can get in comments, the more well-adjusted we can become. Without comments, it’s very difficult to tell that anyone has actually read your work, and since commenters have been dwindling in recent contests, they’re quite sought after.
MYmini and Other Activities
After so long, some stuff gets cut from the typical moveset make-up - extras being one of them, from victory theme to series logo, they're all gone! However, the town hipster Junahu set up MYmini for just this cause, creating a weekly contest-within-a-contest for extras like Bosses, Assist Trophies, Stages, and what have you. Junahu posts the most recent mini in both the thread, as well as the front page of the Bunker.
There are some other things going on in Make Your Move too, though. For one thing, Smash Daddy run his own little points system in the User Rankings based off of people's activity. I also run my own Set Ranking system - while far from definitive as it is all my sole opinion, the fact nobody else refuses to openly make such a ranking makes it somewhat notable for getting a decent idea of big name sets, in the least. Half_silver28 runs the User Awards near the end of every contest. These are just three examples of us being entrepreneurs in our own ways. Links to all of these will be added once they get underway at the start of the contest.
Deadline and End Date
All sets posted in the thread up until the deadline are up for voting, and can place in the Top Fifty at the end of the contest. This three-four month period is called the submission period. The submission deadline, when this period ends will be determined by the leadership and posted with a few weeks’ notice in the thread based off how active the MYM is. The deadline is January 31st, 2013.
Voting
This is the culmination of our months of hard work to make good movesets, as everyone comes together and votes on their favourite sets from throughout the contest. The criteria for everyone may be different, but no one can deny that vindicating feeling that comes from putting lots of effort into a set and seeing it flourish come voting time.
The voting itself is a rather open process to anyone who wants to participate. We do recommend that you try to read and comment as many sets as you can to give yourself the best point-of-view, however. There are some rules though, stemming from the most basic of, don't vote for your own sets.
The big requirement to vote comes in the advertising week, which takes place during the week after the submission period. During this time, any prospective voter has to post 3 advertisements for other people's sets, only then being qualified to vote in the following week, which we shall call the voting week. Advertisements are sort of like comments - you post things you like about the set and recommend it to others, reminding them of a set they had forgotten about or telling them about it for the first time.
The voting week is where you send in your votes to the vote gurus (Katapultar and myself), and then collectively everyone's votes form the Top Fifty - the fifty sets which gained the most votes in all. Everyone gets 36 votes altogether, which are broken up into three different kinds of votes. 6 of them are Super Votes, 15 are Regular Votes and 15 are Weak Votes. Super Votes are worth more than Regular Votes are worth more than Weak Votes. The point being, you rank the sets you like on your vote list, giving preference to your absolute favorites.
The Top Fifty
This is the end result of the voting, as sets are now ranked on the basis of their accumulated votes. The sets which received the most votes rest at the top - in the famed Top Ten - while the less popular sets rest lower on the list. Leadership does make some changes to the list such as breaking ties, but nothing major.
The most sought after spot on the list is the top spot, that set in effect "winning" the contest and that Make Your Move. This is an achievement that only a handful of people in the community have achieved.
Beyond the Thread
While MYM may seem to be reserved only for this thread, there is actually a whole lot more beyond it for you to explore. These are all set up and run by members of the community - I'd recommend bookmarking them or at least checking them out, as they are all invaluable resources for any budding moveset maker.
The Chatroom may be the most important of all of these, however, with Make Your Move members coming from across the globe to dwell in this armpit for hours on end - for some, far more than just hours. Particularly in the evening, the chat is buzzing with activity. If you are looking for a quick bit of advice - in the form of a preview or simply a one-liner on pure logistics - or a new place to whittle away your meaningless life, this is the place to be.
A very new institution in Make Your Move, The Bunker serves as a bit of an intellectual hotspot in our community, allowing anyone who signs up to post their own articles - getting their opinion out in written form. From there, others can protest or support them, which, like commenting, helps everyone become more grounded and understand others in the contest better. If you want to sign up, just PM your e-mail [and intended purpose thereof] to Junahu.
The Stadium - dedicated to providing an up-to-date moveset list for Make Your Move 13, important leadership Announcements and having more helpful FAQs and guides than you could shake a stick at. This is also the residential home of the leadership and one of the oldest, finest establishments the community has. If I were in the habit of taking over Make Your Move with my set quality alone, I would here start my initial research.
The old girl has life in her yet - the Social Group. This once had far more of a point, now it serves as more of a fun distraction and a bit of a museum for the community, harbouring some old discussions and attempts at revival. If you're in the mood to, you could always try starting up a discussion here or trying your own hand at giving this thing a purpose. Who knows, maybe Junahu will post a set in there or something.
Leadership
This is generally seen as the personified elite of the contest and those people who actually do have some limited responsibilities in running this business. If anything goes wrong, it's your job to blame all of us, every one.
ForwardArrow
I'm admittedly one of the newer guys here, but I did make a name for myself in recent MYMs. If you have any questions, the other leaders and I are willing to answer.
Smash Daddy
The King God of Controversy the Universe himself. He's won the last two contests in a row and is incredibly helpful and experienced.
BKupa666
Another incredibly long running leader, BKupa’s consistent line of quality movesetting is a force to be reckoned with.
Katapultar
Katapultar came from incredibly humble beginnings – essentially, he is the ultimate rags to riches story as he came in the previous MYM and took the contest by storm.
MasterWarlord
The biggest influence in the contest and the longest-standing leader. MW and MYM are two inseparable beings.
Rules
Here at Make Your Move, we also have to adhere to Smash World Forum's rules and regulations. Read them [HERE] and do your part to keep the thread clean – the chat is more than open enough for your spamming needs. Now go forth, and ensure MYM 13 doesn’t end up at the bottom of a top 13 list.
BubbleMan.exe is the third major boss in Megaman Battle Network 3, being known for (if you couldn't guess), producing endless streams of bubbles. Despite the rather questionable gimmick of choice, the navi puts these bubbles to great effect, using them to float, trap people, hide missiles and grenades, block Megaman's path, and finally as a shield in his most annoying attack pattern.
Specials:
Neutral Special: Bubble
BubbleMan does a miniature dance, creating a kirby-sized bubble in front of him. This will proceed to float upwards at Mario's walk speed, and on contact with the opponent, does 5% with minor upwards knockback. However, if you use this input in front of a bubble you've already created, Bubble Man will blow into the bubble, adding to its mass. This means that the bubble has changed from a hitbox to a drop-through platform, though with some minor extra lag on dropping through (thanks to actually going through the bubble).
Finally, if you use this input again on a platform bubble, Bubble Man will once more blow into it, solidifying it more. Now the bubble is completely solid to the opponent, and they will have to destroy it or move around it to get by.
For convenience, normal bubbles will be referred to as "tier 1" bubbles, platform ones as "tier 2", and solid bubbles as "tier 3". Tier 1 bubbles have only 1% HP, being destroyable by anything. Tier 2 bubbles have 7% stamina, and tier 3 ones actually take a little effort to remove, with 15% stamina. Using this move on a tier 3 bubble will merely repair it back to full health. Anyway, this move has very low lag on both ends, being a mainstay of BubbleMan's game.
Side Special: Fish Missile
Taking out one of the missiles from his boss fight, BubbleMan.exe tosses it in the direction you hold the control stick. The missile moves at Ganon's run speed, doing 8% damage and decent knockback. If a bubble is directly in front of you when you use this, BubbleMan will instead insert the missile into the bubble, and it will release as a projectile whenever the bubble gets destroyed.
The interesting part of this move comes when the missile hits a bubble in mid-flight. If it hits a tier 1 bubble, the tier 1 bubble simply gets destroyed, being too fragile to hold the projectile. If it hits a tier 2 bubble, it will enter the bubble, but get stuck inside. This will cause the projectile to be released whenever the bubble pops, as if BubbleMan had inserted it manually at point blank range.
Finally, if the fish missile hits a tier 3 bubble, it'll become stuck on the outside of said bubble, being unable to penetrate fully. This causes the rocket to push the bubble along at half Ganon's run speed in the direction it was fired, and there can be more than one missile pushing a bubble along, as this effect will stack (though the bubble's total speed will not exceed Ganon's run speed due to missiles alone). Should the tier 3 bubble be destroyed, all missiles pushing it will continue along their paths as normal.
One last note, if a fish missile hits a bubble (of any tier) already containing a missile, the missile that was inside will be fired regardless. Lag is fairly low.
Up Special: Sea Crab
BubbleMan.exe tosses a pink crab upwards in a lob, with it going roughly to the height of battlefield's top platform. The horizontal distance this covers can be changed via the control stick, from landing only just in front of BubbleMan to 3 SBB's away. Upon landing on something (Whether that's a bubble or the stage), it will begin moving forwards at Ganon's run speed, though still subject to the law of gravity. It will continue moving forwards until it collides with something solid (such as a wall or a tier 3 bubble, missiles or the opponent do not count), at which point it will reverse direction.
The crab does 12% damage and good upwards knockback on hit, lag is moderate. Of note, it does not disappear on hit, but rather will continue until it falls off the bottom blast zone, or takes 20% damage. Finally, the crab does 3% damage on the initial impact with a bubble, and upon popping a bubble will bounce upwards slightly, reducing downwards movement yet retaining its horizontal momentum. This means with proper bubble placement, you can direct a crab's path rather nicely.
Down Special: Bubble Fountain
Doing his prolonged Bubbly dance, BubbleMan.exe creates the trademark infinite bubble spawner from his boss fight at that spot on the stage. (You must be grounded to use this move.) This will create tier 1 bubbles from the neutral special, with one key difference: They will home in horizontally on the opponent's location. However, their horizontal move speed is capped at Mario's walk, and this homing can be blocked by other bubbles. (These tier 1 bubbles can push other tier 1 bubbles, but they will be blocked by a tier 2 or tier 3 bubble.) The lag on this is fairly bad, and only one bubble fountain can be out at a time. Additionally, the bubble fountain will spawn a new bubble as soon as the space immediately above it is empty.
Standards:
Jab: Needle
The needle is an item used as the goal of an in-game fetch quest in Battle Network 3, known as the only thing that can pop BubbleMan.exe's cyber-bubble door. Although the bubbles in this game aren't quite as resilient, the needle is still just as useful. With this input, BubbleMan.exe will toss a needle in the direction you press the control stick. The needle travels at Pika's run speed, and will instantly pop any bubble that it contacts, and keep on travelling. However, should the opponent hit BubbleMan in the startup lag, he'll drop the needle, which the foe can then pick up and use for their own (like a standard item). They can also pick it up should it collide with the stage. Only one needle can be onstage at a time. This can also be used to poke the opponent, although the minuscule 1% damage and small knockback makes it hardly worthwhile. Fortunately, lag is quite low. Obviously, the main use of this is to surgically remove a line of bubbles (and perhaps activate some side special missiles).
Up Tilt: Bubble Foam
BubbleMan.exe shoots his arm cannon, sending out a spray of foam. This will only push back the opponent slightly, but more interestingly it will make them, bubbles, or the stage foamy. Foamy terrain acts much like ice, increasing the distance you slide when turning, and decreasing your traction, and foamy ledges cannot be grabbed until the foam wears off. Additionally, if the opponent is hit while in contact with foam, and the knockback isn't enough to hit them into the air, they'll trip. Foam expires after 5 seconds, so it won't last too long. Lag is moderate. (Keep in mind that if you want the foam be of use on a bubble, you'll need to arc it to hit the top of said bubble.)
Also, if there's a bubble directly in front of you when you use this, BubbleMan will insert his arm cannon inside the bubble before firing. This puts the foam directly inside the bubble, hiding whatever might be inside.
Down Tilt: Bubble Shield
BubbleMan.exe blows a T1 bubble, before diving inside it. However, if you're standing on a bubble, the navi will simply dive inside that. While inside a bubble, you can push it left/right at ganon's run speed via the control stick. You're completely safe from damage (except electric attacks) until the bubble is popped by the opponent, and you have access to your neutral special, grab, and ground game from inside the bubble. Using down tilt again will cause you to leave the bubble, via diving through the bottom. (Inside the bubble, neutral special will upgrade/heal said bubble.)
Forwards Tilt: Aqua Shot
BubbleMan shoots a trident projectile in the direction you shoot the control stick, up to a 30 degree angle. This does 8%, good upwards knockback... and that's about it. The main use of this is as a projectile for while you're inside a bubble shield, as this does not interact with your own bubbles at all. Lag is low.
Dash Attack: Charge
Bubble Man dashes forwards, attempting to ram the opponent with his head. On the ground, this is a typical dash attack, dealing 10% and moderate upwards knockback. However, if you're standing on a bubble, this will cause the bubble to rotate under BubbleMan's feet, with him now running in place as long as you hold the button (although still a hitbox). This will rotate a bubble a full 360 degrees every half second, and end lag is pretty low.
Smashes:
Down Smash: Proximity Mine
One of the more annoying elements of BubbleMan.exe's fight were the mines he'd hide in various bubbles, causing them to explode upon proximity with the opponent. The use of these is similar, if you're standing on top of a bubble, BubbleMan.exe will plant a mine inside. When the opponent gets within half a stage builder block of the mine, it will start flashing, exploding a quarter second later (this can be reduced to 1/8th seconds when charged). This explosion does 17% and great upwards knockback (destroying the bubble it was in), making it a great way to KO off the top. However, if the bubble the mine is located inside is destroyed before the mine explodes, it will detonate harmlessly.
Finally, if this move is used on the ground, BubbleMan.exe will simply drop the mine on the ground. It retains the same properties (going off a quarter second after the opponent draws near), and can be destroyed harmlessly by taking 15% damage.
Forwards Smash: Water Gun
Taking out his arm cannon, BubbleMan.exe shoots a stream of water in the direction you push the control stick. This is about as effective as Mario's Fludd, except you can aim it in any direction. The main point of this move is to push around your various bubbles, as well as stall the opponent or your up special crab. There's a bit of end lag to this to prevent spamming.
If you do this right next to a bubble, (or aim it down while standing on a bubble) BubbleMan.exe will insert his arm cannon into said bubble, filling it with water. Doing this once will merely keep the bubble from rising due to the extra weight, but doing it twice will fill the bubble completely, causing it to sink at Mario's walk speed.
Of note, a tier 2 bubble filled with water greatly slows down an opponent attempting to drop through it, and when a water-filled bubble pops, the water drops down, which can potentially drag the opponent downwards with it. Finally, water from this will wash away foam from your up tilt, should you need to remove it.
Up Smash: Bubbly Door
This move can only be used on the stage itself. BubbleMan.exe does his trademark BubblyDance, creating a bowser-sized cluster of bubbles on the stage before him. This cluster is completely solid, has 20-45% HP, and exists mainly as a roadblock to force the opponent to waste a lot of time, or take to the air, where they're more vulnerable to your bubbles. Of course, that's not to say there aren't other uses... For instance, you can hide down special mines in these, or use them along with up special crabs to create a death zone the opponent has no chance of landing in. You can have two of these onstage at a time (and this can be popped instantly by the needle), lag is moderate.
Grab Game:
BubbleMan.exe creates another bubble in front of him, encasing the opponent in it if they happen to be in front of him. This bubble is somewhat stronger than others, the opponent needs to deal 25% damage TO ONE SPOT before they can break out. Additionally, if it comes into contact with any other bubbles, it'll absorb said bubbles into itself, becoming larger (the effect is diminished somewhat with each bubble absorbed, but after absorbing 3 bubbles, you'll be at twice the radius.) Anything caught inside said bubbles (foam, water, missiles, or mines) will be absorbed into the grab bubble, remaining in place as another trap for the opponent. Finally, regarding external interactions, this is treated as a T3 bubble (with stuff like your side special missiles). You can use as many of these at a time as you want, but be warned that there's some fairly heavy lag on a missed grab, and these pretty much destroy any other setup you had in the area when used.
But wait, after a grab, you can actually input throws! Due to the unusual grab, you can use any combination of throws you want, but the opponent will be trying to break out even as you throw him, so use them wisely. You can press the pummel input to go back to your normal moveset, and if you grab one of these bubbles that's already out, you can use your throws again. Just keep in mind that although this can be used as a midair grab, you have to be standing on something (not the grab bubble itself) to use throws.
Forwards throw: Spin
BubbleMan.exe will spin the bubble, making it rotate as if you had used your dash attack on it. This will make it far more difficult for the opponent to consistently hit the same part of the bubble and break out, and also make traps inside more difficult to dodge. The rate of rotation will increase with each time this throw is used, it has roughly average tilt lag. (Also, rotating the bubble will rotate all traps inside the bubble, aside from water staying towards the bottom due to gravity)
Back throw: Toss
BubbleMan.exe will give the bubble a hard push in the direction you press the control stick, causing it to move at half Ganon's run speed in that direction (this decreases when there's more weight inside the bubble.) It's worth noting that using this throw will automatically end your ability to use throws, due to BubbleMan.exe no longer being near the bubble.
Up throw: Inflate
BubbleMan.exe will blow into the bubble, increasing its size at a slow rate (it'll double from its initial size over the course of half a second, but the rate of inflation slows as the bubble grows larger, due to more air needed.) The downside is that this is a fairly slow throw, and can weaken the bubble.
Down throw: Reinforce
BubbleMan.exe will stick his arm cannon into the bubble, reinforcing it with additional... whatever you call the stuff bubbles are made out of. This will increase the bubble's HP by 5% per second... with the downside that the opponent can easily out-damage that. Still, if they're occupied by traps already in the bubble, then this can give said bubble a little extra lifetime...
Aerials:
Neutral Air: Bubbler
BubbleMan.exe points his arm cannon in the direction you press the control stick, shooting out a small mass of bubbles. On contact, this causes a kirby-sized explosion... as well as a second kirby-sized explosion directly behind whatever it hit. These do 7% damage and decent upwards knockback, and are an excellent way to hit an opponent trying to hide behind your bubbles (or even some of their own setup). The projectile travels at Ganon's run speed, lag is fairly low.
Back Air: Cowardly retreat!
Deciding discretion is the better form of valor, BubbleMan.exe leaps half a battlefield platform in the direction you push the control stick. This doesn't do any damage, but whatever he rams into he'll push along the distance of his jump (whether it's a bubble or the opponent). This has obvious value as both a mobility tool, and pushing your bubbles/the opponent higher. Additionally, if you've press A after hitting something, BubbleMan.exe will launch himself off of it (again, in the direction you press the control stick), sending himself half a battlefield platform in this new direction, and whatever he'd hit half a battlefield platform the other way. (You can do this as many times as you keep finding stuff to ram into.) Just keep in mind that he can only use this move once before touching ground (or landing on a bubble). Lag is pretty low.
Up Air: Latch on
BubbleMan.exe will grab the air above him with one arm. However, he's not attempting to grab the opponent, but rather a bubble. If you grab a bubble with this, he'll hold onto it with one arm, while hanging below. From this position you can use your entire grab game while below the bubble.
(Changes: Up smash won't work at all, as mentioned in the move description.
Down tilt will make you climb into the bubble you're holding on to.
Down smash will actually drop the mine below you.
Finally, up tilt and F-smash will do their "no bubble" variants, unless you aim them straight into the bubble.)
Finally, you can drop down from this by holding down on the control stick, climb up the sides by using left/right, or jump on top by simply pressing jump. Lag is fairly low.
Down Air: Foam drop
BubbleMan.exe points his cannon directly below him, dropping foam as long as you hold down the button. This works exactly like the up tilt, with the main difference being it's a lot easier to coat bubbles below you this way. Lag is average.
Forwards Air: Harpoon swing
Taking one of his harpoons from the forwards tilt, BubbleMan.exe swings it in an uppercut front of him in a trajectory like Marth's B-air, doing 10% damage and decent upwards knockback. As usual, there's a secondary purpose to this move, if you manage to hit a bubble with this, BubbleMan.exe will leave the harpoon inside said bubble (pointing forwards), making this the only way to leave your forwards tilt projectile inside a bubble. This also makes a pretty good trap for a grab bubble as well, considering it retains its hitbox. Also, it's BubbleMan.exe's only good aerial for normal air to air combat, should he be caught without any bubbles nearby. Lag is okay.
Playstyle:
As hopefully anyone would have realized by now, BubbleMan.exe's play style revolves around bubbles. LOTS of them. It's fairly obvious how you can use these tools for damage racking, creating a rain of projectiles for the opponent to avoid. However, did you realize that the navi's primary KO method is by floating enemies off the top of the screen? Nearly everything BubbleMan.exe does deals vertical knockback, sending the opponent higher. Bubbles carry the opponent upwards even while the opponent stands on them. Your foam from the up-tilt and down-air makes the opponent trip upon being hit, forcing them to waste precious time getting up while the bubbles carry them yet higher. Your forwards smash can push along more bubbles, which the opponent has to avoid or spend precious time destroying.
Of course, the best tool in this regard is your grab itself, as the opponent has a hard time limit to get out before being KO'd off the top. While the opponent is grabbed, you can fill the bubble with water, rendering most opponents unable to damage the bottom half and forced to jump out of said water and do an aerial. Alternatively, you can cover the inside of the bubble with foam, wasting more of their time whenever they run into a trap. You can then rotate the bubble, making it much harder for them to damage the same spot to break out, and making those mines, harpoons, and missiles you left inside deadlier traps. You can use those same side special missiles from the outside to push the bubble along faster. Finally, you can go inside the bubble with down tilt for more mayhem, possibly even grabbing the opponent while they're already inside a grab bubble to start the cycle all over again! It's worth noting that even if you miss the opponent with a grab bubble, it'll still create a giant solid bubble they have to avoid, taking up a large amount of precious space.
Ultimately, BubbleMan.exe has numerous ways to torment, delay, and KO the opponent with his army of bubbles, but can do almost nothing without them. So, what kind of bubble setups can you create?
Sawtooth and Squarewave are a pair of rap robots from flooded, post-apocalyptic Earth; year 2325. Squarewave was made to be easily defeatable in a rap battle, as opposed to Sawtooth, who was made to be unbeatable. Sawtooth is equipped with powerful rockets, and both robots are capable of using basic versions of the Tech-Hop Fetch Modus(inventory system) as their source of combat prowess.
Sawtooth and Squarewave have a setup based off of the Tech-Hip Modus. Split to its most basic elements, rhyming attacks strung together increase attack power. There are four rhyme groups, so lots of options. Attacks of same type, on the other hand, lower end and start lag. These two can be combined to lower startup lag with type matches and then let loose at the end with a sick rhyme for a good hit. For convenience, when a move is used and pulled off (completes its startup lag), a small pop-up word bubble will appear of Sawtooth(or Squarewave, depending on whether or not he is involved) saying the name of the attack. The bubble will not appear if the move is interrupted, and disappears when the move enters its end lag.
First move you use is your starting point on the grid. Using moves in the same row, or that is to say, in the same attack group(tilts, aerials, specials), make a Groove combo. This lowers lag and makes attacks faster and/or farther-reaching. Using moves in the same column, or moves that have rhyming names, make a Shade combo. This can make moves a little different to hit with, but makes them stronger or better in some other way. Jumping between Shades and Grooves intelligently is the quick track to victory!
The first numbers [7 8 3 3 2] are Sawtooth's stats. Sawtooth is taller and heavier than Squarewave, and is slower in every regard. He moves more slowly and casually, doesn't move through the air at mach seven, but also hovers slowly down in midair.
The second numbers [5 5 5 6 7] are Squarewave's stats. Squarewave is smaller, shorter, faster, and more balanced than Sawtooth. However, he is not as equipped for combat, making him weaker. Unlike Sawtooth, he also does not have reliable projectiles.
The two spawn on the stage together. Sawtooth is the lead character of the pair, while Squarewave sits by and taunts the opponents until he is called upon to actually contribute to the battle. Squarewave can be separated from Sawtooth, but will recover on his own. He won't always attempt to return to Sawtooth's side. If he is thrown from the stage and off the blast line, Squarewave will be teleported to Sawtooth after five seconds. Squarewave will usually not do anything when near Sawtooth. When put into self-defense mode, which is when Squarewave is closer to an opponent than he is to Sawtooth, Squarewave will actively attack enemies. He will always take specific inputs as signals to assist attacks if he can. If he is far away, he will move in and attempt to assist if it's possible to do so at all.
* * * SPECIAL MOVES * * *
Neutral B: Faygo
Squarewave jumps slightly at being given orders. After a fifth of a second, he lobs a bottle of orange Faygo at a 45 degree angle toward his opponent. The faygo will burst onto the stage or opponent or what have you three platforms away, spilling soda onto the stage. The soda will cause the stage to become sticky, increasing traction. Spamming this move on icy stages can negate the slippery effects. If B is double-tapped, Squarewave will simply hold the soda like an item, which will rupture when thrown by anyone. He will throw it when the A or B buttons are pressed, but will drop it if Z is pressed. The soda will also absorb electric attacks that run along platforms floors and walls, and will also take priority over electric projectiles and remove their charge. If the soda is splashed onto a mechanical opponent or prop, the prop will break and the robotic opponent will enter a state similar to having their shield broken. However, every time this is done, their stun time will be halved until it does not effect them. Squarewave throws his bottles at a rate of one every two seconds. They deal 5% damage on contact with normal opponents, and 15% on contact with mechanical ones. Little knockback is dealt.
Side B: Rhythm Rocket
Sawtooth opens his cloak and prepares his rocket launchers. After a second's preparation, he fires rockets that will fly around the stage after opponents. However, the nature of the attack depends on how the attack is set up. When used in a GROOVE combo, the attack takes a quarter second of lag and fires 10 weak rockets that do 3% each. The rockets move at Sonic's dash speed, target opponents, and blow up on contact with items or platforms/walls/whatever. The rockets will come out after a half second instead of a full second. However, this move also has a longer buffer time for being used twice in a row; 4 seconds. When part of a SHADE combo, the move has a startup of 1.25 seconds, and lets out 4 rockets. These rockets move at Ganondorf's dash speed and follow opponents around the stage, but they avoid items and stationary obstacles. They deal 8% damage on impact and make larger explosions on par with bob-ombs. The move, when used multiple times in a row, has a buffer time of 2 seconds, and will release half as many rockets each time until it fires only a single rocket every use.
Up B: Jet Attack
Sawtooth hops a very small distance upwards and activates his foot rockets. This move functions similarly to the Wings of Icarus, lasting for six seconds after use. Sawtooth can land while using the move, which increases his speed on the ground and in the air, lowers his traction, increases the power of his kick attacks by 5%, and makes him fall slower. The move can only be used one second after the upgrade period ends, and leaves Sawtooth open for half of a second.
Down B: Squarewave Box
Squarewave hops in the air and turns into a cube the size of Kirby. Sawtooth is able to pick up and throw the cube around and pick it up as if it were an item. Opponents can't do anything to it other than attack it. When in cube form. Squarewave doesn't take damage and simply stays in his compact shape. With a second press of down and B, Sawtooth can remotely command Squarewave to return to normal. If Squarewave is closer to Sawtooth than any opponents, he will have normal AI. If he is closer to an opponent, he will assault the opponent with his Faygo projectiles and aerial attacks until Sawtooth comes to his aid. If KO'd, Squarewave can be re-summoned by Sawtooth in cube form after seven seconds. The cube deals 5% as a projectile, gets thrown by explosions instead of getting destroyed, and is able to stop many projectiles as both a shield and a thrown object. The move when used in a Shade combo will make Squarewave's cube 1.5 times larger, deal 8% damage and more knockback, and be more resistant to movement. When part of a Groove combo, the cube will be thrown mid-combo in whatever direction Sawtooth's momentum is working.
* * * STANDARD ATTACKS * * *
A: Squarewave
Sawtooth makes Squarewave appear at his side with a snap of his fingers, and Squarewave attacks the opponent with his cap for 2%. The startup lag depends on how far Squarewave is from Sawtooth at the time. When part of a Groove combo, the startup lag will be minimal, and Squarewave will be dropped back where he last was. When part of a Shade combo, when Squarewave appears, Sawtooth will catch him and smash him head-first into the opponent for 8% damage, making Squarewave dizzy and keeping him near Sawtooth.
Dash Attack: Flying Rocket
Sawtooth hops onto a red rocket board while running. His movement speed increases by 1.8 times and will be propelled forward indefinitely unless one of two things happen. This move can be stopped with the A button, and Sawtooth will hop off and the rocket board will keep going. Collisions with the rocket board deal 8% to opponents. The rocket board can be tilted by pressing up or down on the control stick. This is relative, so it is possible to steer the board by simply pressing up or down, and the board will tilt in that direction relative to Sawtooth. It would be possible to use the board to fly a circle around Hyrule Temple, but much more finesse would be needed to fly it in a circle around Final Destination at high speeds. Normally, the Rocket Board will accelerate to full speed over the course of a second. When part of a Groove combo, there is no acceleration, and the rocket starts more or less at full speed. This makes it harder to control if used "accidentally" in a groove. If used in a Shade combo, the board will start faster, dealing 11% damage, but will slow down to below max speed and stay there for more controllability. At this slower speed, damage dealt is 5%.
Up Tilt: Hard Knocks
Sawtooth will move his arm from his cloak and uppercut his opponent in one swift motion. The move will knock opponents up and away diagonally for 6% damage. When part of a Shade combo, startup lag is a half second and the attack deals 8% damage with more knockback. When part of a Groove combo, on the other hand, the attack will be faster, Sawtooth's hand will rocket off, and will force the opponent upwards diagonally quite a ways- four battlefield platforms. The hand will then release them, dealing 4% damage and increasing end lag to about a second. Squarewave will mimic this move when you use it. If it is done in a Groove combo, Squarewave will send his attack separately from Sawtooth's to catch the opponent and force them back for another 4% damage. He will also use the attack to help you keep foes in the air sometimes, where they're susceptible to missiles.
Side Tilt: AR Jack
Sawtooth pulls a pair of pointed sunglasses from his cloak and swings them ahead in a quick attack. The move deals 3% in a quick cut. When apart of a Groove combo, the end lag is basically nonexistant for faster use, dealing 2% damage. When apart of a Shade combo, the attack will stick the shades to the opponent, and they will stay there. The shades will deliberatly interfere with the opponent's attacks(except for grabs) by shocking them for 1% every time they try to perform one. The shades will be broken when the opponent wearing them takes a total of 15% damage since getting the shades attatched. The opponent can mash the grab button to remove the sunglasses, but it is somewhat like escaping a double-strength grab.
Down Tilt: Laying Low
Sawtooth ducks down and does a spin kick to both sides, knocking opponents in reach off their feet for 6% damage. When in a Groove combo, the attack is faster, and lasts longer. Sawtooth will quickly perform the attack three times, for anywhere from 4% to 8% damage depending on how many times the opponent gets hit. The end lag is extended to a half second. When a part of a Shade combo, Sawtooth will have a half second startup before his foot rockets off of his leg, performing something similar to a falcon kick that shoves opponents three platforms away for 10% damage before it returns to his body. Squarewave will usually take the latter as a signal to chase the opponent and return them to you, often with the same attack.
* * * SMASH ATTACKS * * *
Forward Smash: Slash 'n' Hack
Sawtooth draws an unbreakable katana from his inventory and performs a wide slash at the opponent, dealing a possible 15% damage. Squarewave, when nearby, will often use the same attack from the other side of the target in order to rack up damage. If in a Groove combo, the attack instead involves Sawtooth pulling out the sword and launching his hand a platform's length ahead of him, where it spins in place like a flipper for 3 seconds before returning to Sawtooth. Sawtooth is able to move after launching it, but his sword attacks are not available until the blade returns. The spinning blade will deal 8% on contact, but low knockback. If part of a Shade combo, the move will instead have a full second and a half startup lag of Squarewave appearing with Sawtooth, drawing the sword himself, and doing a spinning front-flip jump attack on the opponent for as much as 22% damage and massive knockback. This is much easier to see coming, obviously, than other versions.
Up Smash: Cutter Show
Sawtooth draws the katana and stabs it upwards for 8% damage. Squarewave tends to take this as a signal to go to Sawtooth's side, or to attack opponents above him. When part of a Groove combo, Sawtooth performs a quicker draw and spins the blade quickly over his head. This move causes Sawtooth to hover slightly over the ground, and can allow him to not be hit by low attacks and ground-condemned items like shells. The move will then do as much as 12% if opponents are held in the spin long enough. When part of a Shade combo instead, Sawtooth will stab upwards like normal. However, Squarewave will then appear at Sawtooth's side, grab the sword, and perform a spin attack with the sword. He will move unpredictably from side to side at Marth's walk, and any opponent that touches him for the 6 seconds of spinning will be hit with 17% damage and high knockback. However, he is easy to avoid from a distance. After the time expires, Squarewave will be dizzy, and the sword will go back into their mutual inventory.
Down Smash: Plant It
Sawtooth removes the sword from his inventory and plants it firmly in the ground below him, causing a shockwave less than a half platform around him for 10% damage. The sword, while stuck in the platform, can now be used as a tag target for the Appearifier, explained later in the set. The sword also functions as a sort of small wall/platform, although the size is very neglectable, more or less being Luigi's height and a very narrow platform to even try to stand on when you're not Sawtooth or some sort of ninja. Unlike most moves, this attack doesn't change for the most part between its three versions. The only difference being, when used as part of a Shade combo, Sawtooth will be on top of the sword at the end of the attack. When part of a Groove combo, Squarewave will be on top of it. Sawtooth can pick up the sword by running into it or dash-attacking into it, as well as using a smash attack next to it while it is planted in the ground. Using this move right on a ledge while facing off of it will cause the sword to be planted in the side of the stage as a pass-through stage extension of about 2/3 of a battlefield platform. However, it also makes the ledge impossible to grab.
* * * AERIAL ATTACKS * * *
Neutral Aerial: Warpin' It
Sawtooth pulls out a Sendificator, being a red object the size of a microwave. This is held like an item, can be dropped, and when it hits an opponent it will send them directly in front of Sawtooth with 6% damage. This item can be used by anyone who picks it up and throws it. If Squarewave is hit, it will affect him no matter who throws it. If the item is thrown off stage, another can be made after five seconds. Only one can exist at a time. If this move us used in a Groove combo, Sawtooth will pull out an Appearifier instead. The Appearifier is very similar to the Raygun, and has infinite shots. When it is picked up, it will tag the nearest available target(An item, an opponent, a minion(like Squarewave), Sawtooth's sword) and will send that target to any location where the beam collides with an object or opponent. This can be used to teleport Squarewave to opponents, or can be used to bring fleeing opponents into traps. These items behave the same way in all aerials, whether or not they are treated as droppable items. The ability to throw or drop the items is exclusive to the neutral aerial. Only one sendificator and one appearifier can be on stage at any time.
Up Aerial: Rocket Box
Sawtooth will grab opponents near him in the air, possibly countering attacks that hit him when this is used, and will stuff them into the sendificator. He will shake the sendificator and send the opponent directly above them, where they will be hit upwards with the sendificator. The move does 10% damage. When part of a Groove combo, the move will instead be Sawtooth pulling out the Appearifier, teleporting the opponent above him, and kicking him upwards for 7%. The animation for this is just under 0.75 seconds, shorter than the normal version. It also has less knockback, but it can juggle the opponent due to how the tags work. Squarewave sometimes will attempt to spike opponents to the floor if he is in the air nearby when this is used.
Forward Aerial: Quick Save
Sawtooth will hold the sendificator in front of him as he moves through the air for about a second. If an opponent touches the sendificator, they will be teleported behind Sawtooth with whatever momentum they had when they were hit. This move doesn't do damage, but is very good at preventing frontal assaults in the air. When part of a Groove combo, the move will have a shorter animation and will send the tagged target to whatever is ahead of Sawtooth. This can be used to teleport a protective Squarewave right into the face of an attacker.
Back Aerial: BackTrack
Sawtooth turns 180 degrees in the air with the Sendificator at the ready. If an opponent touches the sendificator, they will be sucked in and sent back out for 10% damage, sending Sawtooth backwords. Squarewave will sometimes try to keep opponents in the air after this move. If part of a Groove combo, the move will instead be Sawtooth using the Appearifier to teleport whatever the tagged target is to the area right behind him.
Down Aerial: Down Ya Go
Sawtooth spins around with the Sendificator, sucking things inside of it. He then points it downward and sends whatever he hit with the move straight down. This move can be very deadly if it manages to hit over nothing despite its horribly short reach. If a platform is below Sawtooth at the time, the opponent will be sent halfway into the platform (basically, buried). If part of a Groove combo, this move instead will make the tagged target appear on the ground beneath Sawtooth, launching him upward slightly. Squarewave usually takes this move as a signal to assault the opponent and keep them away from you until you land.
* * * GRAB GAME * * *
GRAB
Sawtooth holds his arm out and fires it from his body to go a platform and a half in front of him. If the attack misses, Sawtooth is vulnerable for a second and a half while his arm reattatches. If the attack hits the opponent, you will lose control of Sawtooth. Squarewave will immediately move to Sawtooth's location to protect him, and you will be able to control the flying rocket arm while it holds the opponent in a 2x strength grab. The rocket arm moves at Bowser's run speed, but can accelerate to Sonic's run speed if it goes straight for long enough. Slamming opponents into the ground will bury them for 14% damage. Slamming them into Squarewave will cause him to catch the opponent and suplex them for 10% damage. Slamming them into Sawtooth will case him to kick the opponent out of the hand for 12%, and will negate most of the ending lag involved in this move. If the opponent breaks out, the hand has to return to Sawtooth the long way, and you don't regain control until it returns. If the hand goes off screen with the opponent, you have to wait three seconds before it returns immediately to Sawtooth and control is regained. While grabbing onto the opponent, Sawtooth can perform alternative actions despite not being able to move around.
Pressing the B button will cause Sawtooth to fire three missiles at the opponent. Due to lack of homing involved, the number that hit depends entirely on the angle and direction that the opponent is being moved in. At least one missile will always hit, but if two or all three hit the opponent they will be released from the rocket arm, which will return to Sawtooth. Each rocket deals 5% explosive damage. If Squarewave is able to, he will lob a bottle of Faygo at the opponent in an attempt to hit them. If it does, the opponent will not be released from the grab no matter how many missiles hit it. Instead, the rocket will shut off and the arm will malfunction, slamming the opponent either into the platform below and burying them for 6% damage, or dragging them to the blastline.
Pressing the A button will cause the rocket arm to squeeze down on the opponent and slow down. Tapping the A button repeatedly will cause the opponent to take about 2% per second, and will increase the power of the grab to a 3x grab. However, the movement of the arm will slow down to nearly a stop in midair when doing this. Using this move in conjunction with the Rocket attack can lead to a better chance of all three rockets hitting the opponent. Squarewave will often leave your side to wait underneath the opponent when this move is used.
Pressing the Z button will release the opponent in mid-air, but will leave you in control of the rocket arm. The rocket arm can pick up items at this point, and/or slam into the opponent. Slamming into the opponent again empty-handed will deal 7% and grab onto them a second time. Slamming into them with an item will deal 12%, and destroy the item if it is a container. If the item picked up is a healing item or equipped item such as a home-run bat or franklin badge, it will act empty-handed. Upon returning to Sawtooth, which the arm can do by running into him empty-handed, the healing items collected will take effect and heal him, and whatever item he picked up will now be equipped. Picking up Squarewave will cause Squarewave to ride the arm, and the A button can be pressed to throw Faygo bottles.
Pressing the L or R buttons will cause the rocket arm to perform a sort of spinning dodge(similar to Kirby when riding Landia in Return to Dreamland). This move is valuable due to the fact that the arm taking damage will release the opponent, and may even cause the arm to explode. This would leave Sawtooth unable to grab, use smash attacks, or tilts for about five seconds. Using the spinning dodge before colliding with something adds an extra 5% to the damage dealt. Squarewave ignores this move completely. The difficult part of the move is that when L is pressed, the arm will automatically dodge straight left, and when R is pressed it will automatically dodge right. Pressing the wrong button can cause more problems than it solves.
Final smash: Rap-Off
Sawtooth and Squarewave will become invulnerable and move to either side of the stage. They will proceed to have a rap battle across the stage, their lyrics taking the forms of large high-speed projectiles that move horizontally from one side of the other. Opponents hit by the lyrics take 30% no knockback. There is a vertical limit to the lyrics, about two blocks above and below Sawtooth and Squarewave's positions (being the middle of the stage). The rap battle will go on for 10 seconds before Sawtooth and Squarewave both appear on the edge of the stage nearest the side Sawtooth moved to.
The entire point of Sawtooth is to dominate or be dominated. With the Tech-hop grid system, he is able to change up what type of character he wants to be on the fly. He can be quick and agile in combat, or he can be a heavy hitter, or maybe even a mid-long range hit and run. Options are a thing he never stopped having. By using moves of the same type in succession, Sawtooth can be faster when attacking and be more agile in the field. On the other hand, when using rhyming attacks, Sawtooth gets stronger and sometimes gets special effects to his moves. Mixing the two by jumping all over the grid is what he's all about.
Squarewave is always there to be used in a variety of ways to help take opponents in a wide area, to complement your attacks with followups, to dispatch mechanical foes, and to be turned into a makeshift projectile if absolutely necessary. While not the playable character of the set, Squarewave is definitely a major contributor.
Specials are very useful to any matchup. Rhythm Rockets are Sawtooth's major projectile, allowing him to bombard foes with explosives. But he also has access to Jet Attack, which will give him added maneuverability when he needs it. He's got the Squarewave Box, which is a very major move for using the assisting AI. And on top of that, he has Squarewave's Faygo projectiles. The faygo projectiles are very useful against mechanical opponents, and can make battles against large robots and electrical elementals much easier.
Sawtooth's standard and smash attacks are all about making opponents guess as to what you're going to do, when you're going to do it, and how it's going to happen. And as long as you know where you are on the Tech-hop grid at all times, and what combo you're about to let loose, you'll be the only one who knows the answers to any of those questions. Planting the AutoResponder on the opponent and then using a single tilt to rocket them away from you, rocket them back, and plant another autoresponder can be very useful for racking up damage when your opponent is on the recieving end of your sicknasty beats.
The air game is all about making sure you know where the opponent is better than they do. Using the sendificator to counter or avoid them, and following up with the Appearifier to throw things in their face or move them around can be a very helpful asset if used creatively. When combined with Sawtooth's down smash, this can also extend his sword attacks by hurling sharp blades into his opponent's face.
The grab game is another such ability, and can be very helpful in forcing the opponent into places you want them to be. Setting up a sendificator and forcing them inside? Flying them around, throwing them across the stage and catching them in mid-air, or flying them directly into a roundhouse kick to the face? All viable. The only downside to the versatile grabs is that grabs are excluded from the tech-hop grid, making them much more predictable. Not that that says much.
Overall, Sawtooth is all about options, and abusing the tar out of every last one of them.
You might decide you want a bit of a change when playing Sawtooth or Squarewave. This is understandable, and is exactly why alternate color palettes and skins exist! Sawtooth and Squarewave have their own unique alteration. Aside from their standard recolorations for Red Team, Blue Team, and Green Team, they also come equipped with...
This bizarrely colorful alternate skin is referred to as the Zillyhoo skin, and aside from giving a very vibrant display to the eyes of your foes, it changes many of the sounds and animations present in Sawtooth and Squarewave's style. Many of the sound effects are replaced with comedic cartoony sounds of clown horns, bonks, and anvil dropping sounds. The small menus that pop up with your attacks will be vibrant and will flash bright colors before disappearing. And lastly, instead of bottles of Faygo and Rhythm Rockets, the projectiles will have been replaced with party crackers that explode into confetti rather than soda, and elongated cones of cotton candy. These changes are purely aesthetic and are obnoxious entirely on purpose.
My 1st set anime female character who's name starts with A and is the 3rd set
Athena
Known throughout Greek mythology as the Goddess of many things such as War and Wisdom, this particular incarnation comes from Campione!, a series of light novels about various ancient deities and god-killers just recently turned anime and watchable on Crunchyroll. This Athena was supposed to be the Queen of Gods who ruled over life, death and wisdom as the Winged Serpent, but due to a revolt by the male gods history was re-written and she was instead made the daughter of Zeus. She and Medusa were supposed to have the same origins, but due to the revolt Athena lost her form as Medusa, which became a monster mentioned in different stories (such as the last two MYM contests, for example). This cryptic backstory serves as a motive for Athena's early antagonistic role, in which she was forced to take the form of a child whilst looking for a special snake medallion to regain her full glory, which she did find hence the form she appears in. That motive might seem harmless to others on its own, but in doing so Athena would cause the end of the world by dragging it into the underworld. She is defeated however, and is forgiven by the generic goody goody male protagonist. And now she comes to Brawl, because that's where Hades and Dionysus are hanging out like cool kids.
Athena is a fully grown woman, but being a broken anime character she has above average stats in all departments (7) minus weight (4), and fall speed (3).
Specials
Neutral Special
A golden sphere flashes into existence and instantly envelops Athena - normally the size of a bubble shield, it can become twice as large with a second's charge. This sphere is entirely solid and protects Athena while letting her attack at the same time (her fall speed is quartered in midair), though it only has 15HP and thus is easy to destroy when she can damage it herself. If you want more protection however, using this move while shielding will convert it into extra energy for the sphere based on how much HP it had to the point where it can have up to 90HP - the only downside is that Athena cannot shield while the sphere is out and when it is destroyed she'll start off with 1HP. Athena cannot move while inside a small sphere and is treated as being on ground while in mid-air, but is able to move about in large spheres with the ability to move in any direction at her aerial speed within the refines of the sphere in midair.
If you direct the control stick while holding B, you'll take control of a golden cursor which lets you create the sphere wherever it was, even make it go through surfaces, though it moves at the unreliable pace of PK Thunder - the size of the sphere is altered by keeping the cursor in place after moving it about and is independent from normal charging. This newly created sphere allows you to trap foes inside it or use it to block off certain areas as it'll go through the stage, and the sphere will float in place when Athena's not inside it. You can only have one sphere out at a time, and using this move will again will let you recreate providing you were inside it at the time.
Side Special
Athena summons a mystical bow and arrow before taking aim up to 45 degrees. Once released, the arrow will travel across the screen and deal 4% with strong hitstun to the victim whilst piercing them before exploding into a flock of black feathers behind them that float about for 5 seconds. Once these feathers make contact with something or the aforementioned time passes they'll release a dark-purple gas (does not obscure) which starts off as large as Bowser, but spans out thrice that far within a second before dissipating - it's not all doom and gloom for foes when they can use their shield to block off the gas in that short amount of time (it deals hits of 0% that prevent the foe's shield from dropping), but once they've inhaled it and start coughing along that's when things start to get worse for them...a lot worse. You see, that gas is Athena's Wind of Death that slowly kills the inhaler: just touching it will kill you within 100 seconds or when you reach 999%, but it only gets worse with continuous exposure as every 0.1 seconds further exposure reduces the time and % required to kill by 1 second and 10% respectively to the point where just being inside for 10 seconds straight at 0% is an instant death as your character's body turns black and crumbles to ashes. The Wind of Death will continue to plague foes for 5 seconds after exposure with its severity set in place based on how long a foe was exposed in the first place...
Given the gas only stays out for one second however, it's impossible to flat out kill foes with the Wind of Death unless they're at a very high percentage. There is a way to fix this though, as gas will not only be blocked off by obstacles (it will try to move past them however) but will have its movement speed in that direction halved for every second it is blocked off - given gas will only dissipate upon fully spreading out, this means it'll last for longer. Combined with the fact that the feathers from the arrow are released behind victims, it's possible to fire an arrow into one of your spheres and trap the gas inside for however long it's not destroyed to make foes inside suffocate or produce an impending threat that requires their attention.
Also note that two gases cannot stack, and the oldest one will cancel out the newer one.
Up Special
Like many others before her, Athena teleport spams and uses it for recovery in Brawl - think Mewtwo but the inability to enter helpless and the ability to move through surfaces. It can be used to travel through surfaces, allowing Athena to leave behind a sphere she's surrounded herself with which will float in mid-air if she was there. Speaking of spheres, directing this teleport into the direction of one within range will have Athena teleport herself inside of it, and teleporting upwards whilst inside on will position Athena on top of it. This teleport can also be used as a counter, as Athena will appear a small distance behind a foe who attacked her sphere if you time it well enough (if they were inside the sphere whilst attacking it and Athena was outside she'll teleport to the top of it).
Down Special
Athena's eyes flash purple much like with the Neutral Special, only this time the ground around her gradually becomes stoned via her nature as Medusa. This effect spreads a SBB's distance across the ground every 0.5 seconds and stones anything on that affected ground while Athena stays in place, and while she can still attack all her attacks will be treated as fully staled during that time so it's not like there isn't a reason why you shouldn't always use this on the ground. The likes of minions, traps and items are immediately stoned and rendered useless bar the latter which deal 1.5X more damage and knockback when thrown but cannot be used for its functional purposes - any of these stoned objects that do have HP are twice as difficult to destroy, otherwise having around 10-100HP based on their size before crumbling away.
The stone effect will creep up on grounded foes feet first until it covers their entire body within 2.5 seconds, though they can easily dodge this by jumping off the ground - the time for this is halved against prone foes, howveer. Stoned foes must escape at 1.7X grab difficulty, and while they have Super Amour and don't take damage (they can still be grabbed but not knocked away with throws), they have HP based on how much shield they had left, which if depleted, will cause them to violently crumble for an instant KO - Athena is the Goddess of Death, after all (if the opponent does not have a shield due to being a boss or something, they'll have 50HP). If this fate is too much for one to bear, they can offer up their shield instead, which will instantly be stoned in their place as a solid. The victim will effectively be trapped inside their own shield, forced to break it down at twice its HP if they want to escape - foes cannot shield during this time, and destroying their stoned shield counts as breaking their own shield so it'll start off with 30HP instead of 70. The stoned shield will collapse upon being destroyed and smack victims for roughly 3-6% with some flinching that can only be avoided with a hitbox above them, presumably to deal the final blow to the stoned shield. These rules also apply to a stoned sphere and any other traps of sorts which one can hide in, letting Athena turn her own spheres to stone for many benefits - the only downside to this is that you cannot recreate another sphere while that stone sphere is out, so be careful. Athena may also choose to turn her own shield to stone by putting it up with this move turned on, and she won't be hindered nearly as much as other foes are given she can just teleport out of them on demand.
Stoned foes are unaffected Wind of Death and will have their timers for such halted. Speaking of which, an obvious yet sneaky trick is to fire an arrow onto a foe's stoned shield so gas gets in there and forces them to break out as quickly as they can.
Standards
Standard
A grayish aura surrounds Athena before a burst of wind is released from a Platform's distance or potentially 1.5 Smart Bombs around Athena with 2 seconds charge, pushing foes back a distance varying from 0.3 SBBs to a Platform over the course of half a second - just be aware that both ends of the move have lag and cannot be used as casually as you'd think. This move is a wind hitbox that can push around your Wind of Death gases, but also increases the size of spheres you're inside of to the potential distance the wind reached - during this time the sphere doesn't push away anything on the outside perimeter but rather cages them in with Athena as it goes through them. As if escaping a sphere with Wind of Death gas alone wasn't enough, Athena's company will make things even worse for foes as she forces them into a cage match with her - no player can be knocked out of the sphere until it's destroyed, yet Athena can attack the foe and over time kill them with the gas when they can't do the same.
Dash Attack
Athena readies her scythe before stopping and swinging it around in a circle 3 times. Each hit deals 9% with horizontal knockback that KOs at 165% along with producing a wind effect that pushes anything horizontally aligned to Athena back at Ganon's running speed. That in itself prevents this move from multi-hitting shielding foes, and there's enough of a gap between each of the slashes to successfully dodge all 3 that makes it a bit less effective against stoned foes than one might think (remember that stoned foes are not affected by wind hitboxes). The wind does make this more useful with your death gases however, and will push them all the way across the sides of the screen at Mario's dashing speed to ensure they do hit foes - this behavior does not change even when this attack ends, and if the gas would be blocked off by a wall it'll try to move around it.
If you held down A when starting the attack, Athena will ready her scythe and release it upon command. Aside from letting you decide exactly when to attack, this'll make Athena teleport through any walls she runs into and initiate the attack from the other side - if said wall can be stood on you only need to angle the control stick upwards to make Athena appear there. Also interesting to note is that Athena will teleport into any feathers left behind from her arrows she's within 1.5 SBBs of if you let go of A during that time - she'll not only perform the attack normally but create a powerful blast of wind that pushes enemies away at Dedede's dashing speed whilst releasing the Wind of Death across wherever the wind blew until the attack ends. This uses up that Wind of Death afterwards, but it can be a worthwhile investment when that same wind can be blocked off by spheres and be released upon being destroyed - hence why this attack conveniently deals 54% to your spheres with the combined damage.
F-tilt
Athena swings her scythe sideways in a swift motion much like Ike's F-tilt that can be angled. The scythe is the specific sweetspot you're trying to hit with, but it's worth it as it'll deal a solid 12% with high base knockback that KOs at 140%, but not before inflicting some brief impact stall. It appears basic at first glance, but if you input the move a second time both Athena and her victim will dissipate into darkness and swap places with each other (whilst turning around) before the knockback takes effect, and by inputting the move as a backwards tilt Athena will instead drag her foe to the other side of her. That being said, one of the main applications of this move is to trap the foe inside a sphere you're inside and vice versa or drag them to the other side of it - you won't have to worry about damaging your sphere in the process unless you're trying to hit a foe inside one. Athena can still drag shielding foes around, which is usually a lot better for them than being hit on considering the knockback they take will pass on to their new location of which can result in them bouncing around in the small refines of the sphere uncomfortably. Note that Athena can swap positions with a stoned foe via teleportation, though she cannot drag them around as simply depositing them offstage would be too effective.
U-tilt
Athena holds her scythe above her and spins it around like a propeller while you hold the input, covering a lot of horizontal distance thanks to range. The scythe and handle are sweet and sour spots respectively, with the former dealing 2% and weak juggling knockback and the latter 8% with good upwards downwards that KOs at 150%. The attack hits 5 times within a second and thus can rack up a heap of damage, though it's difficult to hit anyone on the ground given how high the hitbox is unless they're unusually tall, meaning you can't just use this as an insta-win against stoned foes. You'll mainly use this move as an anti-aerial that punishes a foe's attempt to jump away from being stoned and easy way to destroy spheres, though if you can trap an aerial foe close to the ground in a sphere it becomes a cheap method of damage-racking based on how much HP the sphere had, effectively damaging foes for roughly that much.
D-tilt
Athena holds her scythe away before slashing it across the floor in a ruthless motion as darkness envelops it. The scythe is angled downwards so it'll end up tearing at the floor instead of the foe's feet, though it leaves behind a small flame of darkness wherever it hits that stays behind for 3 second and deals 10 hits of 1% every second. If a foe is struck by the scythe due to there being no ground in front of Athena, they'll instead take 10% with impact stall and mostly horizontal yet some downwards knockback that KOs at 140% along with a flame being left behind where they were struck. Inside small airborne spheres the attack can be used to strike at outsiders without damaging the sphere.
Smashes
F-Smash
Athena holds out her hand and sends out a blast of dark energy as tall as she is that travels across the ground at Mario-Sonic's dashing speed for 3-8 SBBs. The blast deals 14-23% with mostly horizontal knockback that KOs at 130-90%, but chips away at shields at 1% every 0.1 seconds to keep them in place for a while. Furthermore, the dark blast will split into two segments and continue traveling along the background if it's blocked or out-prioritized, meaning it can damage foes trying to dodge or even shield albeit at half power. An obvious tool for pinning foes in place whilst attempting to stone their shield despite the power stale Athena will suffer (and consequently keep the foe in place for less longer than you'd think), this move also interacts with the Wind of Death given its dark origins: if the darkness strikes the feathers left behind from an arrow it'll cause them to burst in a large blast (1.4X larger than Bowser) that deals 1.3X as much damage as the dark blast itself with radial knockback and similar properties against shields - this is easier to hit with than you'd think given foes won't want to touch the feathers in the first place and if they do stay near them they'll just suffer even more damage from this new blast. Furthermore, if the dark blast destroys a sphere enveloped in the Wind of Death it'll consume that wind and increase its range by 1 SBB and height by 0.3 SBBs for every second the gas was inside the sphere. You can imagine that things will get pretty ugly for foes if they ignore your feathers and gas-filled spheres, though it's not like letting said gas leak is all that good in the first place.
U-Smash
Athena faces the screen and raises a hand as a dark portal with many red eyes peering from it appears behind her - owls, creatures that serve as Athena's avatar and are said to travel between the real world and the underworld. One by one, 8-40 Owls exit from the portal and scatter out above Athena while dealing 2% with weak juggling knockback to anyone in their way. The owls will scatter themselves within a horizontal distance 2 SBBs above Athena or across the entire screen in a sort of "cone-shape" based on charge, and while most of them will leave the screen 1/4 of them will remain stationary on a certain part of the stage until certain conditions are met - at least one owl will direct itself above Athena and a foe approximately halfway from where they are to the top of the screen, while another will try to position itself above any spheres and the rest will appear near other owls.
If a foe remains vertically aligned with an owl for one second, its eyes will glow red for a moment before dive-bombing towards them in the form of a purple streak as if it were one of Pit's arrows, dealing a surprisingly decent 5% but no flinching. Owls will instantly dive-bomb at foes if they put up their shields or attack within a 3 SBB horizontal space of one, or if they get within a SBB's distance of one. The damage will add up, but foes can kill the owls with their attacks if they're willing to spare the time to do so. Owls will travel through spheres as if they were ghosts, and they will move out of the way or turn around if they'd come into contact with a hitbox from one of Athena's attacks. It's also worth mentioning that owls will travel alongside Athena when she's moving horizontally on the ground if she's aligned with them, and vertically when she's in the air under the same circumstances. Re-using this input when there are owls out will make them come back to Athena, dealing the same damage they did when going away from her.
D-Smash
As you charge the move, the ground surrounding Athena shines a glorious yellow much like her sphere, anywhere from 1-9 SBBs on both sides based on charge. This coating causes any shield it touches to vanish and be replaced with a golden sphere like those from Athena's Neutral Special after 0.5 seconds, and also turns stone spheres back to normal - foes don't actually lose their shields this way, regaining one that has 30HP much like recovering from shield-broken status. That's not even getting into the main attack, which causes that coated ground to crumble for a moment before darkness erupts from it. The darkness reaches 0.3-1.2 SBB's height and deals a total of 15-45% over 3 hits in one second that each KO at 140-75%, though there's enough time for foes to jump out of the way and Athena is vulnerable during that time.
The coating that determines where the darkness strikes will hug surfaces and allow Athena to attack foes from different angles - it will even hug around the outer areas of shields-made-spheres if they were made such early enough. This is relevant with spheres given the coating will travel around their outer perimeter without damaging it. If you use this attack inside a sphere however, the coating will have no means of escape and the darkness will attack from every possible angle; hence, this attack might not seem effective used inside a sphere aside from turning stone into spheres if a foe is not trapped inside with you, but if the sphere is destroyed before the attack ends the darkness will be released prematurely as it not only spikes inwards from where the sphere was destroyed but also outwards as a threat to those foes (this also happens the other way around if the coating is touching the outside instead of the inside). And naturally, foes will suffer when destroying your sphere suddenly becomes dangerous for up to 3 seconds when you might have Wind of Death active or even the Gorgon's curse to stone the surrounding area. Foes who remain inside the new "shields" are the ones worst off, as while the darkness that'll strike beneath them will damage the sphere and potentially release them, they can potentially be locked in place for all the hits if their shield was healthy, and even if they aren't they're just as screwed if the darkness destroys their sphere and causes darkness created from the coating on that outside of that sphere to hit them from many angles and deal a phenomenal amount of damage - a fully charged attack can potentially inflict 315% via hitting from 7 angles, so no sane foe will want to turn their own shield into a prison that kills them in conjunction with the Wind of Death. Don't forget that Athena can have her Down Special active all the while, and foes damaged inside the sphere will effectively have never left the ground, making them ripe for shattering if you can successfully stone them.
Aerials
N-air
Athena curls up and holds her scythe out while spinning, much like Meta Knight's own attack for animation reference but with actual lag on both ends given the massive range. The handle deals 2% and knocks enemies back a little while the blade inflicts 20 hits of 1% that lock the foe in place over 1.5 seconds, though Athena continues falling as she spins around. The nature of this attack is great for blocking off large sections in the air and locking foes in place whilst Athena continues to move (she can fastfall too if floatiness is not good enough for you), but it also serves another purpose as another use of A when hitting a sphere will have Athena teleport inside of it, or on top of it if there's already a foe inside - it can also be used as an aerial version of the F-tilt to swap places with the foe. If Athena hits the ground during the move she'll teleport to recompose herself in an instant, allowing you to follow up on a foe's brief stun via trapping them in a sphere or something.
F-air
Athena holds her scythe overhead before swinging it down dramatically, attempting to send enemies to the underworld with a fatal blow that deals 18% and a spike that KOs at 99%, though it can be charged for up to 1.5 seconds to double the power as the scythe glows with dark energy. This is typical strong laggy attack with a specific sweetspot to it, though the way it's executed makes it surprisingly useful against foes trapped in aerial spheres - the scythe will destroy the sphere first before hitting the foe, where in small spheres they'll be forced out of their grounded action and as such makes this impossible to dodge without the aid of shields or sidestepping. The dark blow also knocks enemies through all drop-through platforms and makeshift solids, condemning them to a sphere prison if they were above one.
B-air
Athena butts her scythe out behind her, dealing 4% with some solid horizontal knockback that KOs at 275% whilst pushing shielding foes to the very edge of the scythe and further back a little, enough so to make them tumble off the edge any ledge that might be nearby. This isn't even taking into account what happens to foes hit by the sickle of the scythe, who'll end up being struck by up to 25 hits of 1% before they do get hit by the butt of the hilt and are pushed away given Athena will be falling all the while. Overall, the speed and duration of this move are comparable to Mr. Game and Watch's B-air, making it useful for some defense.
U-air
Athena raises her scythe above herself without even looking up before quickly bringing it back down again. The first hit deals 11% with upwards knockback that KOs at 165%, while the second hit deals 7% with even weaker knockback that KOs at 350% but dealing a frightening amount of hitstun. At around 100% the first hit will knock the foe away before they can be struck by the second hit, but before then the first hit will always chain into the second hit whilst dealing additional damage and keeping enemies locked in place for an uncomfortable amount of time that you can use for purposes such as trapping them in a sphere or even poking at them while they're in one. This move is disturbingly fast and has the same great range of Athena's scythe-based attacks, acting as a way to ward foes trying to jump over the goddess and is more effective than other moves of similar nature when she can stand on top of a sphere to increase the range.
D-air
One SBB worth of ground beneath Athena starts to crack as darkness seeps out, hiding beneath them the dark depths of the underworld - if there's no ground beneath Athena, the crack will appear at the area closest to her. If nothing occupies the space of the crack it'll simply vanish after 3 seconds, but foes standing atop one will cause it to slowly open up over time until a hidden blast zone which shines an ominous violet light is revealed that KOs characters who fall through it, and there are no ledges to grab onto either - Athena being a goddess will not be KO'ed from falling in but rather re-appear at the top blast zone (with her jumps refreshed). On average the hole will open up after a foe has stood over it or are above it for a total of 5 seconds, though this timer is slowed down whenever they're shielding/dodging or attacking but sped up when they're stoned or plagued by the wind of death - holes will also open up 2 seconds earlier whenever any character is knocked into one, being the death of foes and an escape route for Athena. This hole will only close when Athena is KOed but stays out forever otherwise, though only one can exist and if you recreate it elsewhere you'll have to start over - these holes most certainly help with getting foes where you want them however, though they cannot be created on spheres just in case you thought so. If a sphere was touching the ground with a hole beneath it foes will fall to their deaths the moment it opens should they fail to destroy the sphere in time or their aerial game exhausts on them. Athena can also create holes above foes stuck in midair spheres and inflict the killing blow with the F-air, which becomes more relevant in this kind of situation.
Grab
Athena raises a hand and holds the foe in place with telekinesis, gaining a huge advantage over those other weaklings who have to use their hands to do the same. This actually has a bit of range to it compared to Mewtwo's, though you cannot use it to grab enemies through spheres nor can they do the same to you; hence why you need to teleport behind them to grab them when they're attacking your sphere.
Pummel
Darkness flickers on the foe at the rate of a normal pummel, but rather than damaging them it reduces the damage their attacks inflict by 1% for 5 seconds...which starts when they successfully inflict damage with an attack. In some ways this is much better than just dealing damage given foes will have a more difficult time breaking out of your spheres, and if you hit them enough times their small attacks will stop working for a while. Multiple uses of this pummel between throws before the effect kicks in will stack, and foes will be in trouble if you afflict them to such extremes.
If used on a stoned foe, it'll inflict 4% per hit along with the damage-weakening effect.
F-throw
Athena lifts the foe off the ground slightly and releases them, but afterwards she'll hold out her hand and fire a dark energy projectile shaped like a moon crescent. This dark projectile is slightly shorter than Athena and travels at Sonic's dashing speed before dealing a large 24% that KOs at 85% whilst going through foes and their shield until it goes off the screen or hits a wall. It's not just the potential damage that makes this projectile frightening, because if it destroys a makeshift structure it'll create a dark explosion in the process that reaches out at 1.3X that structures's width and deals that same damage as the projectile, which Athena is not damaged by. It's easy enough for foes not to be damaged at all if they shield, dodge or jump over the projectile, though they'll have to deal with the impending explosion if there was a sphere behind them and if they choose to jump they'll have to use their second jump given Athena already put them in mid-air beforehand. The explosion will only affect the outside of whatever structure it destroys, meaning if you use this throw inside a sphere the foe will not be damaged by it. That's not to say they'll have it any easier in such a tight space however, and the explosion can damage their precious allies, traps and minions that are still on the outside.
B-throw
Athena levitates the foe behind her and repels them with dark energy, dealing 13% with mostly horizontal knockback that KOs at 160%. This is a very simple throw that knocks the foe away because the others aren't, and there's no reason why Athena shouldn't be able to have an attack that doesn't harm her sphere in the process. Also, if this throw is used on a stoned foe, Athena will return them back to normal before knocking them away - foes will take all the damage they took in stone form after the knockback is applied, giving them much to fear from later attacks.
U-throw
A black snake as tall as Bowser emerges from the ground beneath the foe and catches them in its mouth, quickly rising to 2.5 SBBs distance and craning its head forward with a nice tasty victim. Said foe gets chewed on for 5% every 0.7 seconds, though they can escape by attacking the snake with their aerial game and deplete its 35HP, causing it to turn to stone and crumble into nothing - that becomes all the more difficult for stoned foes when they have to escape from their prison and race against time not to be killed by the snake, though the time it takes for the throw to be executed should balance this out a bit. Athena can move while the foe is captive too, and can use the snake's head as a drop-through platform of easy access via teleportation - she can gang up on the foe with the snake, though her attacks will damage it as well as the foe's (unless you use the D-tilt or an angled F-tilt atop its head).
The snake will break through any structures in its path when moving upwards, opening a hole in your sphere that releases any Wind of Death gas inside upon the snake's death, along with breaking through holes to the underworld you so happened to had created with the D-air. Furthermore, you can turn the snake into stone and make its entire body solid by standing on top of it (this is the only way it'll be affected), releasing the foe from its grasp but forcing them to deal with a structure of 70HP as well as move away from its mouth if they want to move without destroying it. Any spheres created which overlap the snake will have holes in them cut out based on where you positioned it around the snake's body of which you can do in some creative manners (this works well with the D-Smash). You can also trap the foe in the snake's mouth in a sphere, which will cause the snake to bite into the sphere instead if for some reason you want to protect it, as foes still in that same spot when the sphere is destroyed will get caught in the snake's mouth again - during that moment you might want to pressure them from the outside and even turn them to stone so they're ripe for the kill against the snake. If the snake has nothing to bite it'll go back underground, and you can only have one out at a time anyway - using this throw with one around will deal the same damage and knockback as the U-air.
D-throw
Athena floats up to her foe and gives them a passionate kiss, going as far as to actually put her tongue in their mouth. This is Athena's Words of Death which can kill people much like the Wind of Death, only it's instantaneous because people in the series can relay information very quickly via putting their tongues into another person's mouth. The foe will die if they fail to escape within 6.66 seconds, though this has another more relevant effect in that any Wind of Death gas that's onstage will be absorbed into the victim and reduce the time it takes to kill them with this Pummel KO by 0.1 seconds for every 0.5 seconds it would have stayed out for, even if it was already being imprisoned in a sphere...that, and the next time the foe shields, take knockback or they're encased in a sphere the wind will be re-released in the same way it originally was. There isn't really any other way to encase Wind of Death and a foe in a sphere at the same time, so it helps that they'd better watch out for this effect. Be aware that Words of Death cannot afflict a stoned foe, though you're free to use this on them anyway to place Wind of Death into them despite not being the most time-efficient way to go about things when you could just kill them with F-throw.
Playstyle
Athena is the Goddess of Death among other things, so it's only natural she has -three- special KO methods alongside being able to KO foes normally. Along with being able to bypass Brawl's traditional KO methods to suit her own needs, Athena is not only very good at creating defenses but also breaking through them at the same time - she's a goddess after all, so it wouldn't be very godly if she could be taken down easily.
The main tool Athena has are her spheres, which she can be very open about and has plenty of room to play around with. Whether she encases a foe in one or uses it for self-defense, Athena has no trouble going through them with her teleportation and dragging foes into them with her F-tilt and F-air just when they thought they were safe. And even if foes aren't trapped inside, Athena can make spheres more dangerous by injecting the Wind of Death gas into one and/or creating a hole beneath it that'll open up when foes are above it. Wind of Death gas that's been imprisoned inside a sphere can lead to the death of all foes if they choose to ignore it for too long, though it shouldn't take long to destroy anyway when the sphere will only have 11HP, and even if Athena powers it up foes could simply attack her instead in her more defenseless state - it's a safe yet pointless tactic vs a risky gambit, yet it keeps the foe on-guard and you -can- use the necessity for them to destroy the sphere to your advantage for spacing purposes. Athena gains many benefits from a distant foe such as being able to pelt them with arrows that release even more gas around them (all the better if it's segregated from that imprisoned in the sphere), stone the ground and keep foes airborne or even prepare one of her powerful ranged Smash Attacks. The Wind of Death is generally a plague that foes will want to avoid and is deadly when they're at a high damage percentage or they've ignored one trapped in a sphere for too long. It can be avoided by shielding, but it just so happens to not attack their shield so it'll end up shrinking over time, and Athena can use this to her advantage by creating a stone shield in addition to the sphere she can already create.
Having a foe trapped inside a sphere or being covered in one are beneficial to Athena given the massive range on her scythe attacks which she can use to hit through them via Brawl logic - there aren't many characters who possess weapons of the same caliber. If Athena is protecting herself with the sphere, she can attack without worrying about taking damage or being grabbed without damaging her sphere with certain attacks, while if she's got a foe trapped she can pressure them while they attempt to escape and get some free hits with the non-existent space they have. Both tactics have their limit when the sphere has limited HP - 15% is barely enough for 2 hits from Athena whilst you end up helping the foe escape, something that makes the 90HP spheres suddenly sound more worthwhile despite the risk behind them. Getting some hits on the trapped foe is obviously a good thing and you can land the finishing blow with the F-air if you think you have enough time, though attacking their shield is just as good when it comes with so many benefits - it'll be a terrible sphere for them if they're hit by a mighty D-Smash attempt at over 200% which can lead into a guaranteed KO from Athena's other methods such as Wind of Death, and the less HP a foe's shield has the worse off they'll be when it comes time to stone them....which is incredibly easy if they can't escape from a sphere in time. All this does make trapping the foe in a sphere sound incredibly beneficial, and it is really when shield-pressuring and stoning become so much more possible against a foe who cannot move at all.
To further the foe's troubles when encased in a sphere, Athena can use her D-air to create a hole beneath them. Foes will have well over 5 seconds to escape before it's created and Athena can assist with that creation by knocking them into the space where it would be created with her F-tilt or F-air. It's not like it's hard for foes to escape when they can defend themselves however, but even when they do Athena can still use that hole to her advantage and for that reason foes will want to avoid it like the plague - what's worse than a blast zone you can't KO your foe with? Even if foes try to avoid the hole, the interesting thing is how it ties in with other parts of Athena's game - she can shield attack foes, and for that reason is able to actually push them into the hole and make them unavoidably tumble into it to their deaths when the gap into the abyss is so low. You might not think Athena has many attacks that focus around this given she's more about locking foes in place, but with her wind-producing Standard and Dash Attack she can get this done a lot more efficiently than you'd think - those feathers left behind from arrows foes might try to ignore will end up being their doom if Athena teleports into one with her Dash Attack and spreads a powerful and literal Wind of Death that pushes them into the hole to their death when they were trying to stave off the gas's effect by shielding, which will cause them to tumble upon contact with the edge of the hole. There's also the B-air for convenience.
Howdy! I'm Junahu (clearly), and I have the pleasure of announcing New "MYminis" here.
MYminis? MYminis are like, little contests within a contest. We've got MYM13 for making Movesets, so the MYminis are for all the other cool things that go into a Smash Bros game.
Every 2-3 weeks I'll announce a new 'goal', such as designing a new Assist Trophy, or dreaming up a fun stage for Smash Bros. You then make something that fits the bill, and that's essentially it. The first new MYmini will start on the 13th August.
I swear this is tons of fun. You can take a look at all the previous MYminis we've had [here]
Special MYminis Special MYminis are exactly that, unique MYminis that are harder, but run for the entire length of MYM13, rather than just a couple of weeks. For MYM13, we're running two Special MYminis symultaneously. Wow!
MYmini Ʃ
Project SSB4 Boards [Ends at the close of MYM13]
Unless your head has been buried in the sand recently, you'll know about how Super Smash Bros 4 has been announced for the WiiU and 3DS. There are some very interesting discussions going on in the SmashBoards boards, especially the Character Discussion Board [here]. Longtime veteran Smash Daddy has suggested we try tailor making movesets to post in those boards.
Now, this isn't as simple as just making what you want and dazzling them with loads of words. The key is that you'll be designing a moveset explicitly for this audience (people who regularly visit the Character Discussion Board), so there are all kinds of considerations you'll have to think about. It should probably be cleanly presented, short, welcoming, pragmatic, and at least slightly feasible as a real moveset in Smash Bros. You can check out MasterWarlord's Midbus moveset [here] as a good example of a moveset tailor made for a less patient audience.
MYmini Ʊ
Golden Years [Ends at the close of MYM13] Veterans of MYM may recall that this was a Special MYmini during MYM12. In light of the relatively small number of entries, I will be keeping this one open until the end of MYM13.
The essence of this MYmini is simple enough; take one of your older movesets, and refurbish it into something sparkly and snazzy. Give your moveset a fresh coat of paint, a new leash on life, and a second chance. Rewrite, tweak and re-present an old moveset to the masses.
Now, I must stress the difference between refurbishing, and remixing/remaking, which is something else entirely. When refurbishing, while you can make changes to the core of the moveset itself, the point is to make sure the moveset plays the same way the original moveset was intending to. Changes should be low-key, or in keeping with the moveset’s original spirit and style.
The moveset you choose to refurbish must be at least 1 and 1/2 years old (or, if you have no sets that old, you must use your earliest set). If you have no movesets at all, yet still want to try this, you may freely choose a moveset from MYM4 to refurbish.
Cold Enchanter is a Yu-Gi-Oh! card which I personally greatly enjoy, due to a fun effect and excellent art. There isn't really anything to this card aside from that. So let's not dilly-dally.
*Statistics*
Cold Enchanter's weight isn't too light, but his weight is still not heavy at all, being the same weight as the Ice Climbers. Size-wise, Cold Enchanter is a little less tall than Zero Suit Samus, with about the same width, maybe slightly more due to his icy staff. His ground speed is about as fast as Marth, a little less though. As a side note, Cold Enchanter's dashing animation involves him putting his free arm in front of his face, holding his staff in the other.
Cold Enchanter's aerial stats are similiar to a falling snowflake, with slow falling speed, about the same as Lucario's, with decent but not great aerial speed. He does, however, have excellent aerial control. So that's cool. He also has high jumps on both first and second ones.
Cold Enchanter points his staff forward, shooting out a Wolf's blaster-sized ice crystal. This crystal does only 5% damage and travels a bit slower than Wolf's blaster, with similiar starting and end lag to said blaster, but is far more important to Cold Enchanter's game. First off, any ice crystal that hits the foe will embed itself in them, which slows their movement speed a little. They will, however, melt after 10 seconds of being on the foe, which negates their effect obviously. Secondly, this move is chargable, up to two seconds. At maximum charge, this move will shoot out five crystals in a tightly clustered formation, which do the same damage each as the solo crystal. These will, of course, also stick themselves in the foe. Half charge is three crystals, 1/4th charge is two crystals and 3/4ths charge is four crystals.
This move has some more special properties too, so be prepared for a bit of a long description. Let's start with the short one: This move never stales and never enters the stale move negation queue. It will always do 5% damage per crystal. Remember this. Secondly, you can point the control stick back while firing, which will cause the crystals to strike Cold Enchanter for the same damage and embed into him! Why would you do that?
Well, you see, the other special thing this does is that Cold Enchanter's moves get powered up the more crystals are on the field. While all the power ups will be explained per move, suffice to say this is important to making Cold Enchanter good. By embedding the crystals in Cold Enchanter, they will never melt, due to Cold Enchanter's constant...well...coldness. While this means you have a constant movement debuff on yourself, it also means you get a constant powerboost, which cannot be removed until you die. It is up to each character and situation to decide which is appropriate and how much. There is no limit to how many ice crystals you can have, be it on yourself or the foe, but most moves max out at a certain amount of crystals, so it can be a bit useless to go too far. Do note that the crystals still come out as projectiles when you embed yourself, they just then head for you: If a foe is particularly scared of you getting embedded further and are close enough, they can take the hit by getting right next to you while you start. But you still hit them or wear down their shield, so!
As a frame of reference for how crystals work, 10 crystals will halve Cold Enchanter's speed. Also, since I did not mention it before, this is a Giant Punch-style charge, AKA savable.
Down Special: Frost Wall
Cold Enchanter slams his staff against the ground, summoning a mighty icy wall of...oh...a whole Jigglypuff in height! It's also pretty thin, making it kind of ineffective. Being struck by it coming out only does 3% damage and very light upwards knockback, but at least it doesn't take too long to execute, though it has a bit of end lag. It also melts after five seconds. How useless.
But what if you have crystals out? Well, then things get fun. For each crystal, it gets a bit higher, lasts a bit longer and deals a bit more damage, capping out at ten crystals. As a reference, at five crystals, it goes a bit above the first set of platforms on Battlefield and at ten crystals, it goes just higher than the highest platform on Battlefield. For each crystal, it deals 3% more damage and a bit more knockback, maxing out at 33% damage and knockback that KOs at 100% or so. It will also last an astounding twenty seconds with ten crystals. Isn't it amazing? Note that it functions as a solid wall no matter the crystal amount and cannot be destroyed except by melting, but Cold Enchanter can only have one out.
This also has an interaction with Cold Enchanter's dash. And you thought that animation was just for show! If he dashes towards the ice wall and within half a platform, he will open the palm of the arm in front of him, casting a spell. A Ganondorf-sized hole will open in the ice wall, allowing Cold Enchanter(and anyone else) to pass through it. It disappears after two seconds, shoving anyone stuck there to the side they were originally on. If you don't want to open one, just don't dash so close to it. It allows Cold Enchanter quick access to the other side if the opponent is over there, while the foe must traverse the ice wall's height.
Side Special: Flash Freeze
Cold Enchanter extends his hand forward, releasing a chilling mist in front of him. Anyone caught within half a Battlefield platform in front of Cold Enchanter proceeds to be instantly frozen, having to escape at 1.5x Grab Difficulty. This move doesn't have too bad of starting lag, but it's ending lag is punishable, and it is shieldable, though they must wait for the mist to disappear or roll far enough away if they shield it. The mist lasts until the end of the ending lag, by the way.
This move is affected by crystals, but not nearly as much as other moves, and only with crystals embedded in the foe. For each crystal on the foe, grab difficulty is increased by .1, up to a maximum of .5, meaning this move can have a maximum of 2x grab difficulty. In addition, however, crystals will not melt while the foe is frozen. Since, you know, it's too cold for them to melt. Simple, yes? Use this when you need to preserve crystals for something or just for a nice, solid hit. Remember it deals no damage, though!
Up Special: Cold Satelite
Cold Enchanter creates a small frozen platform under him, which rises towards the stage, at a shallow diagonal angle. This doesn't deal any damage and the platform is not large enough for anyone to get on, though it has somewhat above average starting lag for a recovery. On the plus side, it's not too bad, though it is primarily a horizontal recovery: It goes about as far horizontally as Spinning Kong, but doesn't even rise as high as Dolphin Slash vertically...
But if you hold down B while on it, this move will continue going past what it usually does, at a cost: Crystals! As long as Cold Enchanter holds down B, he can use crystals embedded in him to keep the recovery going, one at a time. While individually each one only causes him to go a bit far, together they can go a fair distance: Ten crystals will double how far the recovery goes, meaning 5 crystals will increase it by 1.5x, and so on. While this is great and all, considering that embedding crystals in yourself comes with damage and a speed debuff, it isn't quite as cool as you think.
Finally, you can jump off the platform at any time, sacrificing any further horizontal recovery for a somewhat small vertical jump. If you really need a little bit of a boost up, go for it! Cold Enchanter won't go into helpless using this move, but can't use it again until he is hit or lands on the stage. Yep.
*Standard*Snowflakes*
Jab: Staff Smack
Cold Enchanter makes a quick rightward swipe with his staff, then a similiarly quick swipe the other way, then ends it with a slightly laggier overhead strike. The first hit deals 3% damage, the second deals 2% and the third deals 6%, though at medium-high percentages the third hit can be dodged. Still, it has decent knockback for a jab, albeit still not a lot. Aside from that, it serves the basic function of a jab, for quick damage from a quick attack. Good, yes?
Forward Tilt: Frost Sweep
Cold Enchanter swings his staff from the side, an icy power flowing through it as indicated by the slight snowflakes coming from it as it does. Still, it only does 11% damage, and no extra effects apparantly. Knockback is a tad low. Kinda lame. At the least, it has good range, and is fast on start up, though ending lag is merely average. But what was that about the icy power?
Oh, right, it only comes into effect if you have at least one crystal around. If you do then, as the swipe goes through, it leaves behind essentially a sharp little ice formation where it sliced. It looks kind of like a boomerang, actually, except placed horizontally. This formation sticks around for 1 second for each crystal around, maxing out at 15 crystals and, thus, 15 seconds. Not only is this excellent for punishing spot-dodgers, since they will spot-dodge right into it, but at higher crystal amounts you can just plain use this move to leave them around the stage. If you're wondering what they do, they deal rapid hits(Like from a multihit jab) of 2% and flinching knockback, until the foe DIs out of it. Not bad, eh?
Up Tilt: Circlet Strike
Cold Enchanter swings his staff upwards in a sort of half-circle arc, as his staff gains a familiar icy power snowflakes, in a fairly long range attack which deals 12% damage and actually really good knockback, probably KOs at around 180% or so. It's got good range as well, think like Marth's Forward Smash, and it starts up pretty quickly, but it's end lag is longer than usual.
As you may have guessed, this move carries a similiar effect to Frost Sweep when crystals are around, creating an icy formation along the trail the attack went, in this case making it pretty half-circular, though since it is above the air you can still move under it. It lasts for one second per crystal, up to a maximum of fifteen seconds and, thus, only fifteen crystals matter. This is more of a sharp cutting formation than the previous, so rather than multiple hits, it deals one solid hit of 7% damage and pops the foe up with decent but poorly scaling knockback. This can be decent to try and punish air dodgers, but using it as a juggling tool is generally the superior option.
Down Tilt: Staff Strike
Cold Enchant sweeps his staff against the ground while crouched. This move is the least damaging of Cold Enchanter's tilts, doing 9% when sweetspotted, which is the snowflake lookin' tip, and 7% went not, and has the most starting lag, though it is still only slightly below average. On the other hand, it has almost nonexistant ending lag, retains the good range of most of Cold Enchanter's staff attacks and, if sweetspotted, trips 100% of the time, which combined with the nonexistant ending lag allows follow-ups. The sourspot will sent the foe up slightly, which also allows potential aerial followups, though of course nothing for certain.
This move is one of the rare moves of Cold Enchanter's that does not have any interaction with his crystals.
Dash Attack: Shield Crusher
Cold Enchanter lunges forward with his arm, intending to tackle the foe and crush them into his arm! It's not a very strong attack, but it still deals 6% damage, with somewhat weak forward knockback. In addition, it makes Cold Enchanter move faster as he tries to tackle the one Battlefield Platform distance he travels. Starting lag is fairly quick, but end lag is poor, leading it to being frequently shieldgrabbed if done predictably.
This move changes a fair deal with crystals, but similiar to how the Side Special only increased with ones on the foe, this one only cares about the ones on you. For each crystal on you, Cold Enchanter forms an icy shield on his arm to ram the foe with, which gives Cold Enchanter 1% of super armor for each crystal on him, allowing you to use it as a sort of psuedo-counter. This super armor maxes out at 15%, so don't think you're invincible, especially since it leaves at the end of the move. It also increases damage in a similiar manner, 1% for each crystal, but that caps at 10% for a maximum of 16%. Note that the movement speed increase is not consistant: The slower your normal movement speed, such as due to crystals, the slower your faster movement speed on this move will be. It is still good for moving around if particularly slow, though.
*Smashing*The*Ice*
Forward Smash: Spike Peril
Cold Enchanter prepares a powerful swing by holding his staff over his head, before forcefully slamming it against the ground, icy power released at the point of impact. This is one of Cold Enchanter's more powerful and slower attacks, dealing a crushing 19%-24% damage with knockback that KOs at 80%, but it's startup is really slow, though not quite...say...Ike-slow. On the plus side, the ending lag is pretty fast, albeit still noticable. If you miss, you'll still be punished. This is your best KO move, obviously.
Without crystals, the icy power is merely a fancy animation, but with crystals, it matters very much...though it requires quite an investment. For every five crystals on the field, an icy spike will pop up in front of Cold Enchanter's staff, stretching forward as more appear. The first one basically appears in front of Cold Enchanter's staff, with each subsequent one appearing essentially right next to the one before it, though not overlapping. Each spike disappears after one second, remaining a hitbox until then, and there is technically no limit, though since spikes will not appear past the edge of the stage or whatever platform Cold Enchanter is on, that is essentially it's limit. When the spikes first pop up, they deal 14% damage and knockback that KOs at 100%, making them effective for killing too. Past that and until they disapear, however, they are merely static hitboxes that deal 10% damage and knockback that KOs at 140%. Both of these numbers are unaffected by charging the attack.
While it doesn't go off edges, that doesn't mean everything stops them. Specifically, they will travel up walls, turning said wall into a bit of a death trap. Knockback and damage remains the same, but the knockback becomes purely horizontal rather than vertical, due to them being sideways. This means that using this next to a wall can be good, especially if the foe is just getting over, if you have them in the air near the wall or such. This includes the ice wall that you can create, of course, but the spikes will last three whole seconds on the ice wall, due to it being made of...well...ice! Spikes go up walls essentially as if it was a vertical floor: For a visual reference, think of it like a hothead going up a wall, but with spikes popping out. Do note you can't create new spikes where old ones were, even by using multiple F-Smashes, while they are out.
Crystals allow this attack to be some great stage control at higher numbers and cover the high chance of this attack missing, but unless you've got them in the foe, you might be hard pressed to strike them even more with your reduced speed making your chances of punishing particularly laggy mistakes harder. You could also use it to make getting over the wall even harder or to just plain whack someone against it. Yeah.
Up Smash: Blizzard of Oz
Cold Enchanter sticks his staff straight up, causing an icy spike to pop up from the top of it. The staff itself deals only 5%-7% and flinching, but it will keep foes there for the stronger spike, which deals 11%-14% damage. Knockback isn't too great, but you should get a KO at about 140% or so. Starting lag is average in every manner, but ending lag is a tad on the slow side.
The key thing with this? It has an amazing interaction with crystals. It actually totally changes the attack. While Cold Enchanter still raises his staff high, doing the 5%-7%, instead of a spike coming out, it glows white and releases a massive burst of snow power, beginning a small blizzard. This causes it to have more starting lag than usual, though not quite Ike F-Smash level, and the power is quite variable based on the crystal count. With but one crystal, it only envelopes Cold Enchanter's body, though it deals 3%-6% multihit damage. Each crystal adds a little more to it's size, maxing out at 20 crystals, at which point it covers about half of Battlefield in terms of horizontal length and just reaches the topmost platform of Battlefield. Charging it up also allows you to increase it's size further: At size 20 and maximum charge, the blizzard envelopes the entirity of Battlefield's width, and about a Ganondorf above the topmost platform. The multihits happen approximately 10 times, giving it 30%-60% damage total. Insane, eh?
Of course, this is hard, due to a few reasons that keep this move form getting ridiculous. First off, getting 20 crystals on solely the foe is almost impossible, due to melting. So you're going to need to slow yourself down for maximum blizzard. In addition, maximum blizzard requires full charge, so it's hella predictable, though you could release it early if they try to hit you out of it, but there are two further problems! First off, it still has kinda high starting lag...but it also deals very little shield damage, even at max charge, so proper shielding can stop this easily. It's really better used as stage control by halving the field with your ice wall and using it that way, or on a foe frozen with the Side Special.
As a note on how it's knockback works, it works very similiar to the Ice Climber's Down Special: Little knockback and constant high chances of freeze. The last hit has the majority of the knockback, all upwards with KOing at 160%, and the highest freezing chance, at 75%. The freezing doesn't last too long, though most foes will at least reach the apex of their knockback before breaking out.
A very risky, but very powerful move.
Down Smash: The Ice Age
Cold Enchanter raises his staff as it very quickly gathers some icy energy, before sticking the held-end into the ground, causing a torrent of frost to rush out to both sides of him. This burst of cold energy causes 15-19% damage and relatively weak knockback, KOing at 190%-155%, but it has a very quick startup...unfortunately, it also has severe ending lag, making it very easily punished.
Like all of Cold Enchanter's smash moves, this has a crystal interaction, as after the move is used, sharp shards of ice will be left to the left and right of Cold Enchanter, pointing their respective direction. Similiar to the tilts, these deal damage, static damage of about 4%, so pretty weak, along with some moderate purely horizontal knockback in their direction, certainly not a killer. Of course, the ability to create these on both sides is good, and it can be used to set up some pretty deadly areas when combined with ice-wall spikes. One downside is these sharp shards take a moment to form, usually allowing a good smash attack to be used against Cold Enchanter in his ending lag if he misses. These shards last one second for every two embedded crystals, up to a maximum of twenty crystals or ten seconds. Scary, scary~
This move has another property, however, independant of crystals. Any ice structure, with the exception of ice walls, has three seconds worth of time refreshed by two seconds. Ice walls are not refreshed due to size and needing more structure to stay up. Anyway, this makes it a good way to keep spikes or formations up, but also leaves you heavily vulnearable due to the high ending lag and, if abused, extremely predictable. Be weary about this use of the move, as it can be strong, but can also easily backfire.
*Gently*Falling*Snowflake*
Neutral Aerial: Staff Spin
Cold Enchanter spins in the air with his staff outstretched, giving a very nice ranged GTFO move. It deals a solid 10% and decent knockback that isn't too great, with somewhat fast starting lag but somewhat slow ending lag. It should also be noted that while it has good horizontal range, it does not hit above or below Cold Enchanter, so it's not a cure-all.
With crystals on the field, Cold Enchanter will extend a little icy spike at the end of his staff, increasing the range and damage even further! At the maximum of ten crystals, the range is doubled, making it quite scary. In addition, it will now deal 5% damage more, each crystal adding .5% obviously. Simple, yet effective, much like the move's use. What more is there to say? Use it as a GTFO or for a solid hit while juggling.
Up Aerial: Snowflake Slaughter
Cold Enchanter raises his staff a little, not hard enough to do anything, and a torrent of snow flies out from it's top, conjured via icy magic! The snow deals a decent 11% damage and pops the foe up a little, though not much, with low starting lag but somewhat awkwardly long ending lag. However, the key thing for this is that at the start of the move, when the snow is popped out, a chilly wind hitbox pops up just before! This is how the snow got popped up high and is the selling point of the move due to it's strength: It sends foes fairly high up, definitely out of range of the snow, and is a key part of juggling foes. It is a bit hard to learn to land due to the timing required, however, so don't expect to just learn it.
Crystals merely increase the amount of snow the move releases, increasing it's range by up to half, and improving it's damage to a more chilling 16% at the maximum, which is a mere five crystals, making it the easier move to power up in Cold Enchanter's arsenel. Knockback also improves, eventually able to KO off the top at 170%, though obviously faster if you juggle them high enough. The wind hitbox's pushback is high enough to kill foes on some stages, as well. A key tool for juggling via wind hitbox.
Forward Aerial: Crushing Finisher
Cold Enchanter rears his staff back and thrusts it into a downward swing quite harshly, dealing a powerful 16% damage and spiking the foe pretty strongly. It's no Ganondorf DAir, but it's still strong, making it an excellent way to finish juggling or try to prevent the foe from returning. It's startup is relatively average, certainly not fast but not really slow, but it's ending lag is quite punishable and...well...bad. It is not recommended to use this if you think there's a high chance of missing.
This move has absolutely no change based on crystal count, similiar to the Jab and Down Tilt. Therefor, it is always reliable for what it does.
Down Aerial: Non-Spike Spike
Cold Enchanter readies his staff overhead, cold energy swirling about it, before slamming it below him. This attack does some pretty nifty damage, 14%, along with fairly high upwards knockback, like many non-sweetspotted spikes do in Brawl, which can KO at around 130%. Unlike those spikes, this move doesn't have a sweetspot that makes it spike or anything, the whole hitbox will do this. A bit above average starting lag and the ending lag is a tad awkward, but it's not absurdly slow or anything.
With crystals, this attack changes twofold, depending on if you hit the foe or not. If you hit the foe, this move will encase the foe in ice, freezing them solid at the common rate for Cold Enchanter to freeze them: .1% grab difficulty per crystal, with a maximum of 20 crystals, so a maximum of 2x grab difficulty to escape the ice. They still take their normal knockback, so this can keep the foe pretty solidly unable to move while you chase them or whatnot, making it effective. Even if you only encase them for a moment, though, it's still pretty good.
If you miss, however, that cold energy drops to the ground, a small ball of snowy-lookin' stuff. It's really small and only does 1% and flinching to people who touch it, but it's key property is that if it hits the ground, it chills into a spike, with the same properties as the icy spikes from the Forward Smash. This can leave quite a nasty surprise to people who air dodge this and then have to get around the spike.
Back Aerial: Staff Incision
Cold Enchanter grips his staff and thrusts the head part of it back, leaving the move with sort of awkward starting lag of above averageness, along with somewhat slow ending lag. On the plus side, it's another pretty strong move, dealing 14% damage and knockback that KOs at about 135%. So it's a relatively standard back aerial.
But we've got another interaction, involving the ice wall! If you impact the ice wall with this move, the staff will stick into it, slightly extending the ending lag but causing an ice spike to pop out of the wall when the staff is removed. This spike has the exact same properties as the Forward Smash spikes when they are on the ice wall, meaning a nice three seconds of lasting and all. This can be used to quickly pop out a single spike, especially closer to the ground with a short hopped back aerial, or just as a way to help cover up the ending lag if you miss. Very nifty, don't you agree?
*Catching*a*Cold*
Grab: Grab
Cold Enchanter reaches out a hand. Decent speed, fairly average range, not a lot of end lag if you miss. Standard stuff.
Pummel: Staff
Cold Enchanter hits the foe with the thin part of his staff. A quick pummel that deals 2% per pummel, so it's pretty good.
Forward Throw: Freezing Strike
Cold Enchanter tosses the foe to the ground for a weak 3% damage and raises his staff high, as it gathers freezing power from the shards of both you and the foe. Cold Enchanter then slams the staff on the foe for 8% damage, which sends them sliding a set one and a half Battlefield platforms' distance, easily preventing chaingrabs.
The bit about the freezing power is where it gets it's name, though. If you or the foe have at least one crystal between you, the staff's strike will freeze the foe, which the foe must break out of. The difficulty of escape is based on the number of crystals: Each crystal adds .1% grab difficulty to getting out of being frozen. The key thing is this move has no crystal limit, meaning you can potentially freeze people for a very long time...though realistically, it will be in the range od 1x-2x grab difficulty. This is still pretty good, especially at higher difficulty. And remember, crystals don't melt on a frozen foe!
Down Throw: Crystal Clear Pain
Cold Enchanter puts the foe on the ground underneath his foot and begins charging a snowy spell in his non-staff holding head, before slamming it into the foes face or, if they lack one, body. This move can do either no damage or a ton, depending on one thing: Crystals, of course!
For each crystal you or the foe have, this move gains 2% damage done to the foe. So if you have 10 crystals between you, this move deals 20% damage. See how this could be ridiculous? The foes does NOT want to get grabbed when you have a large number of crystals around, lest they suffer massive damage. On the plus side, this deals a set knockback of one and a half Ganondorf's height and little hitstun, so it's really hard to follow up on, especially if you've crystaled yourself up. Just like the forward throw, there is no crystal limit here.
This is your damage racking throw, so use it properly to rack damage.
Up Throw: Cold Chuck
Cold Enchanter grips the foe and simply chucks them upwards. This is Cold Enchanter's most basic throw, simply dealing 10% damage and decent but not killing knockback that goes straight up. While it sets up well for aerial juggling or an Up Tilt if you think they expect that, it is a bit basic but it is effective. Does not use crystals!
Back Throw: Stormfront
Cold Enchanter tosses the foe behind him for 4% damage, before making a strong swing with his staff, impacting the foe for 11% damage and knockback that KOs at 125%, in addition to turning him around and releasing a large burst of mist-like residue, which os somewhat sparkly.
This residue will stay behind for up to ten seconds, one second for every ice crystal around, as it gently falls to the ground, not obscuring anything. What it does do is slow the movement speed of people who enter it, reducing it by a minor amount, in addition to deals 1% per half second to those who stay inside the somewhat wide but not very tall cloud. Note that Cold Enchanter is immune to these, given that he is...you know...all about cold stuff, so it just plain doesn't affect him. Also note that this effect is not restored by Cold Enchanter's Down Smash, most likely due to it's nature as not being actually made of ice.
Final*Smash*:
Playstyle
Cold Enchanter's playstyle isn't particularly complex in it's goal: Restrict the foe's movement and destroy them! Getting there, however, can be a bit of a task, mostly due to the way Cold Enchanter's crystals work.
The question of how much to embed and how much to rely on embedding your foe is a tough one, something very largely based on matchups: Obviously, you can risk more embedding yourself against someone with little KO power or lower speed, than you can against someone who has a lot of KO power or very high speed. I find a good starting point is five crystals embedded in yourself, which allows you a decent mix of speed and power with a modest but not too great investment of self-damage. It also means you can get out a max Frost Wall out by embedding the foe with a fully charged Neutral Special only once.
The Frost Wall is important to Cold Enchanter, for it is one of his better tools for restricting the foe: Because Cold Enchanter can dash right through it, his mobility is almost always more top notch, while it's indestructability and potentially long lasting time make it troublesome for the foe. Preferrably, Cold Enchanter will end up on the same side as the foe, but simply dashing to the side the foe is on makes this not too hard to work.
This is combined with the various ways Cold Enchanter will restrict the foe's movement: The most obvious are Cold Enchanter's Forward and Up tilts, quick attacks which leave behind troublesome lingering hitboxes which can last for quite a while, steadily leaving the foe out of space to go. Down Smash can bring out two at once or refresh old ones, while Forward Smash sending spikes up the walls can set up some fun play against it(Forward Throw -> Spike Wall -> Follow Up, for example) or just make it a pain to escape over it. Back Aerial and Down Aerial can also help, making single spikes faster and more on command. Back Throw helps slow movement.
If the foe attempts to escape into the air, Cold Enchanter is able to transition into a somewhat basic, but very effective juggling game, based around using the Up Aerial to keep the foe up or hit them, along with a solid NAir for spacing, FAir for ending and Down Aerial to pop them up with strength and potential freezing. One particularly thing fun thing to do is set up an Up Tilt formation, spike them into it with the Forward Aerial, then try to predict the air dodge into a Neutral Aerial or use an Up Aerial if they don't to eject them far into the air via wind hitbox.
Cold Enchanter's weakness comes from his poor weight and, ironically, his crystals: Unless he wants to rely on the foe for crystals, he's going to need to embed himself, which lowers his own movement speed and self-inflicts damage, which ties further into his issue of having poor weight. His recovery, while good horizontally, is pretty poor vertically, and it's non-damaging nature, and extremely linear nature make for an easily predicted and sometimes quite useless recovery. You may wish to encase your foe in ice and flee when the going gets too hot.
Matchups
Cold Enchanter vs. Lexaeus
A troublesome matchup for both contestants.
Cold Enchanter's issues against large KO powers comes to a head in this matchup, as Lexaeus' insane ability to damage and KO creates a nervewracking experience for him. The jab in particular is bad, but F-Tilt is your krpytonite: The ability to dodge a tilt or Smash and reply with a quick, strong attack makes Cold Enchanter's plans of attacking and leaving behind safety a nightmare. Lexaeus' high vertical recovery also makes it easier for him to get around the ice wall, although he's content to sit behind his own Monolith and power up if you try to sit behind it and wait for him to approach.
On the flipside, Lexaeus' poor mobility is even worse in this matchup, as Cold Enchanter does not have to worry about his speed debuff as much. In addition, Cold Enchanter can shoot some crystals into Lexaeus if he gets to his powering up quickly enough, before knocking him out with a tilt, which can make powering up risky. Cold Enchanter's ability to leave lingering hitboxes can also be somewhat annoying to Lexaeus, as it forces him to be a bit more strategic in his Monolith placement and can mess with properly abusing Hypocenter.
Hypocenter is actually a really nice tool in this matchup for Lexaeus, as it allows him to mess up Cold Enchanter without crossing the ice wall in yet another way, once again playing into Lexaeus' game of forcing the foe to approach, which is tough since Cold Enchanter's game involves approaching through the ice wall when required, except Lexaeus is blatantly superior there, and Cold Enchanter can't camp with his projectile. The quick attacks of Cold Enchanter's and his juggling game are fairly nice however, even if Lexaeus' outranges him with his massive disjointed hitboxes.
In review, Lexaeus has a fairly clear and relatively sizable advantage, but Cold Enchanter is able to fight through and win on enough of an ocassion to prevent a curb stomp matchup.
Descision: 65/35, Lexaeus
---
Cold Enchanter vs. Karkat
A matchup with two foes who have moves which slow.
Cold Enchanter tends to want to impact Karkat more than himself with crystals in this matchup: Stacking his own debuffs on top of Karkat's isn't a good idea, after all. Remember that Karkat's bleeding, while potentially deadly to himself, is also much better than yours, affecting many more areas. Then you have to take into account Blood Pact and his God Tier mode, which really hurt you, especially Blood Pact: Karkat is one of the rare foes who can camp behind Cold Enchanter's ice wall due to it not being a "projectile" stopped by the wall, though God Tier is required for this.
On the other hand, Cold Enchanter's ice wall is a prime method to mess up Karkat's God Tiering, especially at higher crystals: Just plant it right in the middle of the stage and Karkat will be raging more than he usually does. This makes Karkat's game significantly riskier, as one of Karkat's primary great parts of this MU is the ability to camp Cold Enchanter and still outdo him on physical range, which is lost if Karkat has to keep taking damage and gets his own debuffs stacked on each other. Karkat should therefor work to force Cold Enchanter to place his wall somewhere not in the middle of the stage by playing aggressive with him.
The key thing that gives Karkat this Matchup is that Karkat really just murders Cold Enchanter once Karkat has god tiered. Cold Enchanter's range, while good, will find it harsh to be effective if he is forced to approach, which Karkat's non-projectile camping can force, while Karkat will have superior mobility as his debuff is much stronger than yours and can be more easily spammed. Karkat's physical onslaught will also likely include a Down Throw, which can really make you bleed out. Cold Enchanter must stop Karkat from God tiering to win.
Overall, while they are evenly matched at the start, Karkat's God Tiering really makes it tipped heavily in his favor.
These sets are my personal best, forming compelling playstyles with great interactions and no major flaws. If anyone were to ask me for some of my own sets to look at, these are the ones I'd direct you to.
1.BubbleMan.exe (MYM13) 2.CloudMan.exe (MYM11) 3.Galaxy Man (MYMX)
Not quite as outstanding as my S tier sets, but still very good, these sets are definitely some of my better work. Still, there's something missing, either the playstyle isn't quite as unique, or there's some OOC issues here or there... regardless, these are still great sets.
Much like the A-tier sets, these are still good, but here the flaws are more apparent, or the benefits less pronounced. They're worth a read if you have time, but they aren't exactly high priority.
8.Concrete Man (MYMX) 9.Portal Man (MYMX) 10.Master Hand (MYM12) 11.Caterpie (MYMX) 12.FlashMan.exe (MYM13)
These sets are merely average. Although they do have their good points, their flaws weigh them down too much to be considered for more than a weak vote.
13.Mafia Man (MYMX) 14.Fawful (MYM9) 15.Phantom (MYM11) 16.Pong (MYM9)
These sets aren't worth the time they take to read. There may be something slightly redeeming, but on the whole there's just too many flaws here.
And these are the flat out awful sets, the ones that had no reason to ever exist, and should only even be mentioned to laugh at just how terrible they are.
22.Soldier (MYM9) 23.Obi Wan Kenobi (MYM9)
Comments:
[collapse=Sawtooth and Squareweave]So, my first comment of the contest... and already more than I did all through last MYM. Whether I'll comment consistently or sporadically remains to be seen. Regardless, on to the set.
First off, as I mentioned in the chat, I rather enjoy the concept behind this. Sure, some might argue that the concept itself forces it into a flowchart, but considering you can get any variation on any move within two inputs, that's hardly a major concern. Going back and forth seamlessly between two styles to combo is something you don't see all that often, and I think this mechanic is the best way to pull it off that I've seen.
Secondly, the moveset itself is fairly good. You've definitely been working on removing generic attacks and giving every individual move its own purpose. There's still some work to be done in this area (for instance, the aerials could probably be compressed quite a bit), and as a result the moveset comes off as disjointed at times. Still, with the various elements you put into the set, you still end up with a reasonably good playstyle.
Thirdly, there's some under detail at points... for instance, in the grab game you mention that if the grab arm takes damage, the opponent will be released from the grab, and the arm might even explode... but there's no mention of how much damage would cause the arm to explode, so it's hard for the reader to get a grasp on the concept. Still, for the most part this set was reasonably easy to understand (probably more so than a few of my own sets, anyway.)
So, in the final analysis, I really enjoyed the concept, and although the execution is alright, I feel that with some proofreading and extra time, this set could have been a lot better. Still, it's hardly bad, and I think it has a good shot at the top 50. So, good job on this, Majora.
[/collapse]
[collapse="Bubbleman EXE"]I didn't think you'd post the first set in the contest, nor would that character be for one done in the past by a familiar MYMer. Your interaction heavy trait is prevalent here as it always has been, though I'm starting to realize it's not as bad as I thought it was despite the mostly bottlenecked style of KO'ing. There's some decently cool stuff going on (a huge plus in your style given EVERYTHING is a cool thing going on, lol) and reminds me of Burst Man (1st set in MYM8 ironically enough) only there's more versatility going on with the bubbles when you can use them as trap placements, most interestingly your missiles. Also strange is the surprising lack of bubble trapping despite an actual full grab game, which I can't help but think isn't as effective as it could have been without the ability to trap foes in currently existing bubbles. The set is very focused and the playstyle section helps bring it together, being good at what it does attempt enough for me to like it despite the set being for a character who's already had a set. For now I can't bring myself to outright love it -because- it's so inwardly focused, however, but we'll see.
Also, something you might want to note for others is how the bubble rotation affects traps when using it with the Dash Attack instead of suddenly mentioned it in the F-throw, as until then I had no idea what you used it for.[/collapse]
[collapse="Sawtooth and Squarewave"]This set definitely marks an improvement for you Majora, as the individual attacks are actually fairly strong on their own - both surprising and impressive (you even got some cool(er) pictures!). I can understand you wanting to get into the feel of the character with the interesting rap combo mechanic, though it sort of feels like you're talking in an entirely different language, and the mechanic doesn't seem 100% relevant to gameplay despite changing the properties of certain moves. Also marking an improvement is how there are stray concepts, but they are there, such as with the U-Smash, Aerial teleportation, the great grab game and surprising use of Squarewave as a secondary character instead of emphasizing on tag team co-ordination like a lot of other sets - Squarewave seems like a bit of a butt monkey given his disposition and treatment with the jab. Your usual under-elaboration on certain bits of information doesn't bother me as much as before either, it more requiring common sense to get through.
The F-tilt's effect does seem a little overpowering when you could just not attack the foe and massively stall with the shades. It does seem on the overpowered side.
It's not so much the role changing of the set that comes at me well (though it's still good and you do know what you're doing based on the playstyle section), but rather the surprising flow in the item manipulation and their uses for positioning - you can use your grab game to catch the many items you can toss around, and furthermore turn Squarewave into an item for that matter! Perhaps there are some parts of the set that could do with some itemification to make them more potentially interesting such as the shades and rocket board, but you do have enough interesting items as it is with the extensively bizarre nature of the series. In any case, it's easy to see you put a lot of effort into this set and for once I really genuinely like it, if oddly for the playstyle grounded up over the specs of character and well-structured specifications of the moves - of the first 3 sets posted, this one is probably my favorite. Excellent job.[/collapse]
[collapse="Cold Enchanter"]It's clear you have a good grasp on the Cold Enchanter's in-game effect, and use it as a basic ammo mechanic that's fairly creative if a little strange when imagining he hurting himself to gain the crystal's bonuses - it's not too out there however, and you can't just heal it off. The moveset is as simple as it gets in most cases, save for decorating a wall with ice spikes, but simple good - you always have that magical ability to make me want to do a set of similar caliber, though that's probably something to do with how easygoing the set is. Given the set's disposition there isn't too much to say despite the detail that goes into certain moves - the ideas and uses don't have as much impact as Alice, but do show your staying power and new trendy standards to expect from you. It's enjoyable, not devoid of some interesting ideas and I should totally post Madolche Majoleine as my next set to give Cold Enchanter a friend.[/collapse]
Before I begin: Please click Aradia(the red fairy girl) in my signature. You'll find something you like. Hopefully.
By which I mean it's my moveset rankings.
Bubble Boy
Bubbleman.exe is actually a pretty neat set. In a total shocker, Bubbleman.exe uses...bubbles! These little aquatic semi-projectiles start out weak, but can survive most tilts at higher levels, while going from generic projectile to generic platform to a pure solid form.
Adding onto these, though, Bubbleman fills his bubbles with all kinds of surprises: Proximity mines to hit those who do not quickly get away from the bubble, missiles that'll go flying in a direction when the bubble pops and most importantly, foam that hides just what is inside the bubble from the foe. Bubbleman.exe can even dive into the bubble with his down tilt, though that interaction is a tad awkward...
Indeed, while the primary idea is strong, I feel like the execution can falter a little. The Up aerial seems sorta odd, given he can hang on to any bubble: The tier 1 bubbles being so weak and all. Up Smash seems sorta...there-ish, somehow not really meshing well with the rest of the set, even if it does make some sense for stalling purposes, and I would have liked to have seen some more detail on if it has any purpose other than just generic stalling. Not really sold on it workin' well with the Up Special crabs...
I would have also liked to have seen some more direct attack abilities: This guy almost suffers as badly in this department as Luxord, but without the concept that allows it to work. I would have liked to have seen a real Up Smash attack in place of the current U-Smash, maybe an actual up aerial or a throw that deals damage or something. Overall, it's good, but...just that: good.
Stylin' and Profilin'
Sawtooth and Squarewave is certainly a fun set, but how good is it? Let's find out.
The first thing to discuss is, of course, the Tech-Hop Modus mechanic, as Sawtooth's attacks change based on what other attacks are: A cool concept for sure, especially given how fitting it is with the source material, and allows Sawtooth, as was well put, to be all about options. The battle is a lot like a rap-off in this regard, as you rapid fire off SICK BURNS to keep the opponent off guard.
I think the flow is a bit low at times, though: The smash attacks could especially use a little bit more flow into the game, though as-is, they are fine, if unremarkable. I also feel the Neutral Aerial's location is pretty horrible: Yes, the amount of inputs this could be put on is low, but it's still quite an awkward neutral aerial...really cool actual move, though. Makes me think of the Black Knight and his warp powder...
Lag times are also a bit whack in this set: Remember that a second is almost as long as a Warlock Punch in terms of startup, so it gets a bit absurd with some of these times, you know? Rhythm Rocket is especially hit hard by this, as it desperately needs a slightly less time on the default option: Probably something like 3/4ths of a second, which is roughly Falcon Punch level.
I do quite love the grab, however, with it's multitude of options and cool visual. I also like how despite being a very unconventional "grab", it still essentially has three throws: Ground, Squarewave, Sawtooth. This is where the majority of the moveset's potential and decent flow seems to stem from for me and it is a pretty awesome move.
As a final note, the moveset can be a bit confuzzingly written at times, mostly minor conflictions about Squarewave. Kinda annoying. Overall, though, I do think I enjoyed it more than Bubbleman, though it's no Karkat. Good effort, though.
Fist of Athena
Athena is...certainly a set. I think we've got a severe case of Katapultar Writing Syndrome here.
The whole shield thing is quite thick and somewhat hard to understand, I feel, though I got the basics of it by the end. And Athena's base playstyle is actually sorta interesting, what with the shield manipulation and all. At the same time, though, I feel this set is very...flawed. Down Aerial in particular should definitively be a special, though unfortunately Athena lacks room for it. And a fair deal of this stuff seems sorta...there, I guess, and it could do with more simple attacks like the Forward Tilt, I think. The complexities, when added up, don't seem to total more than the sum of their parts. I also don't think that the playstyle is particularly interesting once examined with the Wind and Words of Death in mind, though it's not too bad. The set also somehow seems a bit too good at what it does, though I get the impression that is somewhat intentional, for her to be a bit too strong.
It's a difficult set to comment, but really, I just...didn't like it much. The complexities are a tad unneccesary and distracting, the playstyle doesn't end up too interesting, it's definitely tacky and I don't like the Up Smash at all. While I can see why someone would, it's definitely a high concept set and has a bit of polish, I don't. Oh well. ...As an aside though, she is pretty, and I like the image you chose for the set.
FlashMan.exe is a net navi from the game Megaman Battle Network 3, a member of the evil WWW organization. As the intro boss, he's a pushover, with even his V3 form having less HP than some of the later bosses. However, despite this he does have a few abilities, managing to hypnotize Lan's friends into thinking they're various things, effectively use a blinding flash of light to score cheap hits in battle, and even seriously damage Megaman's PET as his dying blow. Despite this, Lan and Megaman still triumph over him without too much difficulty, mainly due to Flash Man foolishly trying to kill Megaman in a straight up fight.
Specials:
Neutral Special: Blinding Flash
Grabbing his shoulder lights in either hand and raising his arms above his head, Flash Man emits a blinding flash. This deals 5% damage, and cannot be blocked or dodged, with one caveat... it only works if the opponent is facing you. An opponent hit by this becomes "blinded". That is to say, the screen fades to white, with only the opponent and an outline of the stage visible. (Should Flash Man lose track of his own location, he can press a taunt key to flash into visibility before fading back into invisibility.) However, the white-out induced by said blindness will only last for 3 seconds, after which it will fade back to normal over the course of another second. Additionally, this move has a 7 second cool down to prevent spamming it, if you use it before it's recharged, nothing will happen.
Side Special: Neon Lights
Much like in the boss fight, FlashMan.exe will point his arm forwards, causing a series of small circular lights to flash into existence. These flash in and out, each new one a stage builder block in front of the other, forming a sequence of hitboxes that functions much like a normal projectile. This does 10% with decent upwards knockback. (Each light lasts only a fraction of a second, and the rate of appearance is fast enough that the chain effectively moves at Ganon's run speed.) Additionally, the precise properties of the lights changes slightly depending on which direction you inputted.
Straight forwards results in a sequence of red and blue lights, which goes straight ahead and hits through dodges.
Down/forwards results in a sequence of red and green lights, going diagonally down until it hits the stage, and then heading straight forwards. This variation does heavy shield damage.
Finally, forwards/up results in a sequence of green and blue lights that adjusts its height to track the opponent, but has no other special properties.
Obviously, no one variation will hit an attentive opponent, as it's easily seen coming and avoided, but if they can't see the type of lights headed at them, they'll have a difficult time figuring out which way to dodge. Lag is average.
Down Special: Shining Browser Crasher
FlashMan grabs his shoulder-lights and raises both of his arms above his head like in the neutral special. This time he charges energy for a full 1.5 seconds, uttering the phrase "SHINING... BROWSER... CRASHER". If he manages to pull this off, he'll emit a full screen flash, which does 10%, cannot be avoided or blocked in any way, and disables one of the opponent's specials (chosen at random) for the rest of their stock. (If all specials are disabled, it'll pick a random move from the rest of their moveset.)
Up Special: Area grab
Flash Man disappears before suddenly appearing a BF platform away in the direction you press the control stick. This is a pretty standard teleport recovery, move on for more interesting fare. (Lag is average, this won't send you into helpless, but you can only use it once until you make the stage or get hit.)
Smashes:
Up Smash: Lamp Light:
FlashMan.exe raises his arms, creating one of his signature lamps from his boss fight. However, unlike the normal ones, these create a sphere of white light (as if the opponent was blinded), obscuring anything within a 1.5-2.5 SBB radius (depending on charge), after a second of remaining onstage. Unfortunately, they're somewhat fragile, only able to take 10% damage before being destroyed. Lag is average.
Down Smash: Flash Light:
FlashMan.exe raises his arms, creating one of his signature lamps from his boss fight. These are indeed the ones from his boss fight, after a second of remaining onstage (and every 10 seconds afterwards), they'll create a blinding flash identical to your neutral special. (You can charge this to decrease the recharge time, down to 5 seconds at max charge.) Unfortunately, they're somewhat fragile, only able to take 10% damage before being destroyed. Lag is average. (As a side note, although blinding an already blind opponent will renew the timer, it will not stack.)
Forwards Smash: Fake Light:
FlashMan.exe raises his arms, creating one of his signature lamps from his boss fight. As it turns out, these particular ones... don't actually do anything. On the plus side, they're far more durable, being able to take 30-50% damage without being destroyed. Additionally, aside from just being a mind game, they can also protect your more valuable lights from destruction by the opponent, simply by blocking projectiles. Lag is average.
Standards:
Jab: Buster Shot
Like everything else in the Battle Network universe (or any Megaman game), FlashMan has his own arm cannon. However, like all BN busters, it's extremely weak, only doing 1% with no knockback or hitstun on contact. However, it's also extremely fast, with almost no lag, and the projectile travels at sonic's run speed (being about the size of Fox's blaster shot). Holding down the button will simply let you fire at max speed, about half as quickly as a rapid jab (aka: Fox/Falco's neutral A combo). This is great for getting in some quick damage on a blinded opponent.
Down tilt: Spark Arm
FlashMan punches his arm into the ground, charging electricity, before releasing it into the stage builder block in front of him. That piece of stage will now continue sparking, and is now your standard electricity trap, dealing 5% damage and minor knockback to the opponent on contact... at least initially. Over time the electricity will decay, doing 1% less damage for every 2 seconds it's been out, before vanishing once 10 seconds are up. (It will also vanish after an opponent walks onto it and gets hit.) On the bright side, lag is fairly low, and you can have as many of these out as you want. Fortunately FlashMan.exe is immune to his own traps.
Forwards tilt: Neon trap
Flash Man places a semicircular (half of kirby's size) light on the ground (color is random), much like one of his neon lights. However, this one will just stay there until the opponent hits it with an attack. Once it gets hit, it'll explode, doing 10% damage and decent knockback. You can only have three of these out at a time, placing a new one will cause the oldest one to disappear. Lag is average.
Up tilt: Directional Flash
Grabbing one of his shoulder lights, Flash Man holds his arm upwards, shining a 45 degree cone of light directly above him. If the opponent jumps into this, they'll be blinded as in the neutral special (assuming they're facing the correct direction...although if they're moving horizontally through the cone, it'll happen regardless.) However, be warned that the duration of the blindness decreases the further away the opponent is from the light, with the move having no effect should the opponent be more than a battlefield platform above you. Lag is fairly bad, so if you do blind the opponent, they'll probably still be able to hit you... but that's still a decent trade.
Grab Game: Hypno Flash http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lG8jfCGjuEM (2:10-onwards)
Flash Man's grab has holding one arm out in front of him, sending a beam of colored light a SBB ahead. This means he has actual range comparable to a tether grab, but with the downside of the grab being laggy, and punishable if missed. Additionally, this will only connect if the opponent is looking your direction, considering the grab is literally a hypnotizing flash.
Pummel: Release
Flash Man just leaves the foe standing there in a still hypnotized state, as they mash out at double grab difficulty. In the meantime, go ahead and add easy damage with your buster, do some more setup, or simply use a kill move to finish them off.
Forwards throw: Train hypnosis
Flash Man hypnotizes the opponent to constantly run, being completely unable to stop dashing (or moving at their max air speed should they jump.) As a consequence, this prevents them from shielding or spot dodging, attempting to shield will merely produce a roll. So, why is this bad for the opponent? Well, it makes them far more likely to run into traps set by your down tilt, particularly if they've already been blinded. This will last for 7 seconds.
Down throw: Zombie hypnosis
The complete opposite of the forwards throw, this throw will prevent the opponent from running at all, and when airborne they can only move at half their normal air speed. The benefits of this throw are obvious, when the opponent has their movement restricted to this extent, it's far easier to run away and try to blind them, or merely add some more damage using your buster. This state lasts 7 seconds, then the opponent returns to normal.
Up throw: Swan hypnosis
And with this one, Flash Man hypnotizes the opponent into automatically jumping whenever they touch ground. Depending on the opponent this can severely limit them by itself, and forcing the opponent into the air makes them more vulnerable to your up tilt, as well as easier to blind. (due to most characters being unable to turn around in the air without the use of an attack) Additionally, any traps set on platforms are made much deadlier by this throw, effectively blocking off whatever's under them due to the opponent's forced jumps. (By the way, if you're wondering about the odd names of these moves, just watch the video I linked, it's a reference to what he does in-game.) This state lasts 7 seconds.
Back throw: Directional hypnosis
The last (and possibly most useful) throw, Flash Man hypnotizes the opponent, preventing them from turning around by any means. Even moves (such as Marth's B-air) that would normally turn them around leave them facing in their original direction afterwards, for as long as this throw is in effect. The usefulness of this should be blatantly obvious, considering Flash Man needs the opponent facing a certain direction to blind them. As with the other throws, the effects of this last 7 seconds. (Yes, I just did a normal grab game with a pummel and four throws.)
Aerials:
Forwards aerial: Thunder ball
Flash Man shoots a small homing ball of electricity out of his arm cannon, doing 4% damage and moving at half Ganon's run speed. What's more interesting is that you can have two of these out at a time, and on hit they paralyze the opponent, much like Zero Suit Samus's neutral special (or down smash). Lag is somewhat worse than average.
Neutral aerial: Aerial Buster
This is quite literally a copy/paste of the jab, except performed in midair. Hey, it wouldn't be much use as a camping tool if the opponent could just jump over it. (Especially considering the number of DBZ characters who never have to land.) If you need a reminder, these are rapid 1% damage shots that don't cause any knockback or hitstun.
Back aerial: Elec Sword
Using the stereotypical attack of all electric elemental navis, Flash Man swings an electric sword behind him, with a range similar to Marth's back air. This does 13% damage and great knockback. So, I bet you're wondering what the purpose of this move is? Well, there's no gimmick here... this is just Flash Man's only kill move. As such, unless the opponent has been blinded, this is very predictable. And considering there's some decent start up lag (and end lag), even when they've been blinded it might be a good idea to disable some of their options (down special) or just outright immobilize them (grab) to make this easier to land.
Down aerial: Skylight
Grabbing a shoulder light, Flash Man puts his arm below him this time, shooting a directional cone of light downwards. This is essentially a repeat of the up tilt, but with the direction reversed. As for why he needs it, you're guaranteed to blind the opponent if you simply jump over them using this, giving him a solid answer to the camper who simply stays at the edge of the stage with his back turned.
Up aerial: Light globe
Flash Man pulls out a small light (much like one of his shoulder lights), holding it like an item. This can either be dropped normally on the stage (pressing grab drops an item, if you'll remember), or thrown. If thrown, it'll emit a blinding flash (as in the natural special) on contact with the opponent or the stage. If simply held or dropped, it will simply produces a 2 SBB circle's worth of white light (blocking the opponent's view), much like the up smash. Only one of these can be onstage at a time, and the opponent can indeed pick this up and throw it offstage. Finally, if you press this input again while one of these is onstage, it'll explode in a blinding flash as normal. (After you've pulled out a light globe, you can't obtain another one for ten seconds, so you can't use this to spam flashes.) Lag is low.
Really? A bunch of namby-pamby people could post a pack of pony movesets but can't be bothered to give some to us dragons? It's time to fix this, personally!
GARBLE
Garble is a teenage dragon and a minor antagonist in the most polarizing cartoon on the internet, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. He’s the leader of a group of dragons Spike encounters, and he challenges Spike to several games to test Spike’s dragon-ness. While he seems like a decent guy at first, by the end of the episode he’s basically a stereotypical a-hole gang leader. Dragon Greasers FTW?
Garble is incredibly proud of his race, outright belittling Spike for associating with ponies. While he doesn’t have any special powers for a dragon, he’s able to fly as well as his peers despite having torn-up wings, presumably from the all the fights he’s gotten into to assert his alpha-male status. I don’t want to know what kind of demonic dragon he’s going to be when he’s fully grown.
Ground Speed: His regular walk is a slow, intimidating stride. His dash is above average in speed as he glides along the ground Charizard-style. Traction: Below average First Jump: Above average Midair Jump: Comparable to Dedede’s, Garble lazily flaps his wings for a slight vertical boost. He does in fact have 1 midair jump despite being a winged/flying character, but you'll soon see that he has other ways of representing this trait. Air Speed: Good Air Control: Good Fall Speed: Average Size:Comparable to Ganondorf, though Garble’s tail has a hurtbox too. Weight: Slightly above average. Trust me, you don’t want him to be any heavier.
Garble can wall cling and wall jump, and he has the most BS air game of all time as he has both a glide and a Peach-style float! His glide is 30% faster than Charizard’s and his float lasts just slightly less time than Peach’s. The float comes out if you just hold the jump button, and the glide comes out if you hold up+jump. Yes, he is able to use both in a single air session.
SPECIALS
Down Special: Draconic Beatdown
Garble points forwards and yells “Get ‘em!” as a shadow appears on the ground 1/3 of Battlefield in front of him. Over the next 6 seconds, the shadow will continue to grow in size until the fat dragon seen above comes crashing down from the sky Bowser Bomb style, dealing 12% and spiking knockback to anything in his way. This dragon is roughly the size of Bowser, and upon landing will simply sit there, occasionally scratching his head.
He’ll sit there for 6 seconds before simply disappearing in a flash, or you can use this input again for Garble to snap his fingers and yell “Move it!” This prompts his dragon buddy to get up and slowly chase the nearest enemy, stopping at the edge of platforms if he doesn’t detect ground beneath the drop. If he gets close enough, he’ll perform a spinning tail sweep. It’s somewhat laggy but deals 12% and KOs at 130%, followed by the dragon laughing heartily for a full second before disappearing. After being told to attack he’ll become vulnerable, having 20 HP but taking no knockback from attacks (everything simply makes him flinch). If he loses all of his HP, he’ll trip and fall, dazed on the ground for 3.5 seconds before disappearing (though he becomes invincible again if he successfully lands a hit). Finally, the summon disappears instantly when Garble is KO’d. Naturally, Garble cannot summon more than 1 of this dragon at a time, with this input resulting in nothing if he already has his friend in-play.
When Garble’s pal hits the ground, he creates a shallow (read: it works on drop-through platforms) pool of lava underneath himself, slightly narrower than himself. It lasts for 9 seconds, including the time he’s sitting around waiting for the signal to attack, but the lava does not have an active hitbox until he attacks. The lava deals 9% and vertical knockback that KOs at 185%. Garble and his friend can stand in this lava with no problem, of course. You didn’t think they had a weak little pony hide, did you? Only one of these can be in play at a time, with newer ones overriding old ones. If an opponent somehow shields one, such as being pushed into one, the lava will deal just enough pushback to keep them away from the lava’s hitbox.
Neutral Special: Mega Firebreath
With above average startup lag, Garble fires a stream of orange fire from his mouth that is as long as a Battlefield platform and as thick as Bowser’s own firebreath. The fire travels in a straight line but Garble angles it on a 35 degree downward angle, so under normal circumstances it hits the ground before reaching its full range. He fires his…fire…for .3 seconds, dealing a single hit of 12% and horizontal knockback that KOs at 90%. Moderate end lag, but the attack always pushes enemies to the end of the available stream when shielded, and it deals enough shieldstun to leave Garble at a slight frame advantage!
If you use this move and it hits a lava pool left behind by the MasterWarlord dragon, 3 fireballs will fly out in high arcs that don’t make it out of the range of the pit. These deal flinching knockback and burning damage of 3% per second for 3 seconds, but only one burn effect can be applied a time. If you have someone trying to jump over the lava, you can stun ‘em with a fireball to potentially drop them straight into the pool!
Side Special: Fly-By Shooting
Garble puts his hands to his mouth yells “All clear!” His other good friend, a purple dragon, flies in from the side nearest to Garble. The summoning animation is laggier than in the neutral special but the summoned dragon appears in only 2 seconds. The dragon will hover just off-stage, at the height Garble summoned him, for up to 6 seconds before disappearing.
Inputting this move again has Garble finger-whistle as his friend rears back for .5 seconds before flying across the stage in the background at a moderate speed. As the dragon is doing this, he is unleashing a constant stream of fire at the fighting plane, dealing a single hit of 8% with vertical knockback that KOs at 225%. The fire hits an area the size of Mario’s fireball, but it’s transcendent, cannot be dodged, and does not count as a true projectile and therefore cannot be reflected. After flying all the way off-screen, the dragon will return to the stage momentarily, point and laugh at anyone he damaged for a second, then disappear. During the startup lag of his attack, he’s vulnerable, and has 14 HP. Like Garble’s other cohort, he doesn’t take knockback. If he loses all of his HP, he’ll fall for 3 seconds before disappearing. Like with the other summon, this input does nothing if performed while the dragon is attacking, and he’ll disappear if Garble is KO’d.
Get both of Garble’s fellow dragons onto the field and laugh as you have 3+ hitboxes going on at once!
Up Special: Dragon Elevator
Garble leaps upwards 1.5x the height of his ground jump as he spreads his wings, hovering in midair at the apex of the jump. He now essentially gets to use a Peach float that lasts twice as long as his regular one, and when it ends he returns to his regular air game. So basically, you can use his normal float, then when that ends, use this one to stay in the air even longer, then use his glide if you haven’t already . The main drawbacks to this move are that there is no hitbox on it, and like Pit’s up-special it doesn’t refresh until landing. You also can’t cancel the float, but this is a dragon we’re talking about, he LIKES the air!
STANDARDS
Jab: Whiplash
Garble whips his tail back and forth in this 2-part jab, overall resembling Mewtwo's FTilt with an added hit as he retracts his tail. Each hit deals 6% and the second deals knockback that KOs at 190%. The first part only has 1 frame of startup, and it has good range overall, but where the move suffers is that it deals absolutely pitiful hit-stun. Garble’s opponent can act almost immediately after the second part connects, and as the move has moderate end lag if you complete both parts, it’s possible for Garble to end up with a frame disadvantage after landing this!
Forward Tilt: Roughhousing
Garble shoves his opponent out of the way, dealing 11% and set horizontal knockback on a low trajectory as far as 1/4 of Battlefield. This has low startup lag and moderate end lag with frame-neutral shield-stun. Occasionally, Garble can be heard chuckling to himself on a successful hit. One useful feature of this move is that if it clashes with attack, Garble and his opponent are both pushed back slightly, providing a total distance between the 2 combatants that usually resets the situation.
Up Tilt: Fireworks
Garble spews a stream of fire at a 50 degree upwards angle. It’s as long as Link’s sword and expands to 4x its width by the end. It lasts for .4 seconds, dealing a single hit of 12% and mostly-horizontal knockback that KOs at 110%. This has moderate lag on both ends but it’s an effective anti-air as the raw area it covers also makes it difficult to air-dodge through.
Down Tilt: Playing Dirty
Garble’s crouch has him get on all fours as he glares at his opponent with a devilish smile. What could he be planning?
Upon inputting this move, Garble slashes at the ground, kicking up a transcendent cloud of dust as large as Olimar laid horizontally. This deals 9% and stuns opponents for 1 second as they back away slightly while shielding their eyes and/or coughing. This stun is a special one, as the opponent may still shield and spot-dodge during it, and the effect is indicated by a small cloud of dust circling the victim’s head. If this connects against an airborne opponent they will be placed into freefall until hitting the ground, with the falling time counting towards the stun. The status is not applied at all to characters already in a stun-state.
The move has low startup lag and above average end lag; it deals enough shield-stun to be safe when spaced, but you’re not getting any help if you completely miss the attack. Assuming you land it, this is a great way to either start some offensive pressure or buy time to escape and reposition yourself.
Dash Attack: Feral Swoop
With below average startup lag, Garble flaps his wings to increase his altitude before diving forwards while biting. The initial rise deals 4% and a flinch to combo into the bite, which deals 8% with knockback that is surprisingly primarily vertical, star KOing at 165% and potentially KOing horizontally at 230%. If Garble misses he experiences moderate end lag as he breaks his fall on the ground. However, the attack can carry him off the sides of platforms, and if he ends the move in midair, he’ll immediately enter his glide! Since the dive itself is at a shallow angle, you can easily end the glide and use Dragon Elevator to return to the stage.
SMASHES
Forward Smash: Dash Tackle
Garble gets down on all fours, then glides forwards 1.4x his dash speed with his arms outstretched. He travels slightly over half of Battlefield in total, and his arms have a grab hitbox. He’ll carry the first enemy player or summon he catches to the end of his path before slamming them into the ground, dealing 12-28% and a knockdown that the opponent recovers from a few frames before Garble. Garble will not stop at the edge of platforms, and if he happens to end the move over a pit with a victim, they can say hello to the bottom blast zone.
The attack has moderate startup lag and absolutely dreadful end lag if Garble doesn’t catch anyone, crashing into the ground and getting back up over the course of a full second! The end lag is halved if he ends the attack in midair, allowing Garble to potentially recover if he's off-stage, but he's still vulnerable to edge-guarding thanks to Dragon Elevator's lack of a hitbox. On the other hand, if you space yourself so the move will end inside a lava pool, the attack becomes a ton safer, as the lava wlil prevent direct attacks from the ground and crashing into the lava sends 3 fireballs into the air like when Mega Firebreath is used on it.
Up Smash: Tail Flip
Garble displays some surprising agility as he performs a backflip while extending his tail outwards, hitting a full semi-circle above and around himself. This has moderate startup lag and Garble drops to all fours as he prepares the move and charges, allowing him to pseudo-dodge some attacks at the last moment before retaliating with the actual attack. Garble’s tail deals 12-32% and star KOs at 120-80%. While this is a good anti-air, it’s also far from spammable, having above average end lag.
Down Smash: Tail Sweep
Garble turns slightly towards the screen and sweeps his tail along the ground in front of him, a sly grin spread across his face. This has below average startup lag, moderate end lag, and deals 10-24% with a techable knockdown. The move deals enough shield-stun to be safe as long as you space it properly.
In battles with more than 1 opponent, you can press the attack button for Garble to hop while performing a follow-up spin attack with his tail! This hits to both sides (no way!) and deals 12-28% while KOing at 115-90%. It has above average end lag and you only have a few frames to perform it, so don't think you can use it against enemies you already knocked down with the first hit!
AERIALS
Neutral Aerial: Aerial Rave
A midair jab combo! This is a 3-part move. Garble performs 2 downwards-angled kicks in sucession before delivering a final hit with both legs at once. Each hit deals 4% with the final one dealing horizontal knockback that KOs at 185%. It has below average startup lag, and .4 seconds of end lag no matter which part of the move you end on. While this may seem crippling for a move that’s supposed to perform like a jab, keep in mind that Garble’s ridiculous aerial mobility allows him to easily retreat if things go sour.
Still too slow for you? There’s one other trick Garble has with this move. If you press the shield button during the “end lag” of the first or second parts, Garble will perform a sort of air-dodge while halting his aerial momentum. He’ll move forwards by default, but if you hold backwards he’ll move that way instead. Either way, he’ll quickly travel 2x his width with below average lag on both ends, but this only has 2/3 the invincibility time of a true air-dodge. What makes this especially useful is that you get a moment to continue the jab combo as the dodge ends, and if Garble passes through another character during this, he’ll automatically face them as the move ends. You can essentially perform one part of the move, wait a moment to bait a response, then dodge through the counter attempt and continue with the combo! You can perform this maneuver once on both opportunities in the combo, and you can only use each one once until you hit the ground.
Forward Aerial: Mighty Slash
Garble performs what is essentially Wolf’s FAir. This has comparable lag times to Wolf’s move, but it deals less damage, 11% and knockback on a slightly downwards angle that KOs around 135%. On the other hand, if Garble hits the ground mid-attack, he’ll slash at the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust identical to the one seen in his DTilt. The cloud only deals 5%, but delivers the same second-long special stun. You can try to have epic timing and spacing in order to combo both the main attack and the cloud into each other, or you can use the move defensively, slashing at the ground right before you land to keep yourself safe.
Back Aerial: Wing Cutter
Garble extends his wings backwards only to immediately retract them. Both parts to the animation have hitboxes. Garble’s wings deal 10% and KO at 170% when they extend. When they’re retracting, they deal 10% and set knockback in Garble’s direction as far as 1/3 of Battlefield, on a slight downwards angle. The first hit cannot combo into the second under normal circumstances, but they do make for a true attack string for shield-pressure. The move has below average startup lag and moderate end lag, and there is about .25 seconds between the extending and retracting of Garble’s wings.
Function-wise, the attack is deceptively useful. In its most basic form it’s a poking tool with good horizontal range. However, if you manage to land a clean hit on the retraction phase, you can bring your foe to Garble’s front in order to continue with some more offensive pressure. Even if the opponent shields the whole thing, the time they spend in shieldstun can be used to help Garble’s friends get into position.
Up Aerial: Wing Slicer
Garble spreads his wings to either side as he swings them slightly upwards. They deal 12% and interesting knockback. Horizontally, its base knockback is 1/6 of Battlefield and it has KO potential at 200%. Vertically, it’s always as high as Garble is tall, with the angle actually changing to fit that. Below average startup lag, moderate end lag.
Besides the knockback, this is a quirky move in usage. It hits to both sides and despite the slight upwards swing is still primarily a horizontal attack, making it a good defensive move. On the other hand, it isn’t too good at defending from attacks directly above Garble. Considering how much aerial mobility Garble has, he has plenty of ways to space himself so he isn’t fighting a vertical battle.
Down Aerial: Diving Tackle
Garble gives a mighty flap to increase his altitude half his height before performing a head-first dive at an 80 degree downwards angle, his arms outstretched and a malicious grin on his face. This has a grab hitbox, and if he catches something he’ll drag them all the way to the ground with himself, dealing 12% and a knockdown on impact (Garble recovers a moment after the opponent). The rise at the start can be used as a dodge of sorts to bait anti-air attempts. This can even be used to suicide KO offstage, with the opponent dying first. However, the attack has moderate startup lag because of the initial rise and above average end lag if Garble hits the ground empty-handed. To alleviate this, try performing the move above a lava pit. When Garble splashes into the lava, it will shoot 3 fireballs into the air like when Mega Firebreath is used on it. Not only can the lava help keep you safe, but it’s possible to drop right past someone, and then use the fireballs to send them into the lava! Another fun feature of this move is that Garble will grab the edges of the stage if he passes by one without something in his grasp, allowing him to use this attack in a much safer manner when edge-guarding.
Glide Aerial: Dragon Kamikaze
Garble charges half his height in the direction he’s angled with a fierce headbutt. This deals 11% with knockback that KOs at 160%. This has low startup lag and is in fact invincible up to the end lag. The end lag is moderate, but afterwards Garble enters free-fall! Still, this is a potential recovery option since it allows you to negate most edge-guarding attacks. Just hope you’re not fighting Junahu movesets with non-damaging barriers.
THROWS
Grab
Garble’s grab has him turn around while whipping his tail in the direction he was facing. If he connects, he’ll pull the opponent to him and transfer them to a headlock! If he misses, he’ll turn back around for above average end lag. This has good range for a non-tether grab, slightly shorter than Dedede’s due to Garble curling the end of his tail to form a hook, and it has low startup lag.
If Garble’s tail clashes with another grab hitbox from an enemy on the ground, he’ll proceed to wrap the end of his tail around the opponent’s limb/weapon/telepathic-grab-nova as we get ourselves ready for a round of tail wrestling! Both combatants must mash the attack button for 3 seconds to determine which grab wins, with lower-damaged characters holding an advantage. In the case of a draw, the grab is given to whoever presses the attack button first (in other words, you’ll never notice there’s a stalemate unless you intentionally set one up). While Garble doesn’t get any statistical bonuses, he does have a special move for this occasion! Press the special move button at any time during a tail wrestle and Garble will lurch forwards, pulling his enemy to the ground in a prone state and ending the contest. This deals no damage and the enemy is allowed to move a few frames before Garble so he can’t abuse it too heavily, but if you were caught off guard by a grab-clash or you have a major damage disadvantage, this is your escape tool.
In the interest of fair competition, those involved in a tail wrestle are invincible for its duration, along with status effects on them being disabled. This will freeze the timer on timed status effects.
Pummel: Initiation Ritual
Garble gives his opponent a noogie! It deals .5% per use but it’s quite spammable. Insert random creative effect as Garble humiliates his opponent here.
Forward Throw: Faceplant
Garble jumps forwards a short distance with his foe, landing comfortably on his behind while his opponent hits the ground face-first. This deals 12% and places his opponent into prone while Garble recovers a few frames later. If Garble is close enough to the edge of the stage he can use this for a suicide KO (the enemy dies first). The throw has the same weakness as Kirby’s FThrow, that the opponent’s escape timer continues while the throw is being performed. If they escape mid-throw, both combatants enter their air games at the same time.
Back Throw: Out of my way!
Garble tosses his enemy over his head, sending in a high arc that takes .5 seconds to hit the ground. This deals 11% and a techable knockdown, but if the enemy doesn’t hit the ground after .7 seconds, he automatically escapes from hitstun. Garble snorts after throwing his opponent, giving the move .55 seconds of end lag, resulting in Garble recovering AFTER his opponent techs the throw! Of course, if you have one of his friends attacking, or a lava pool nearby, that cuts down on the opponent’s options…While an Fthrow might seem outright better because of its higher damage, that fact that this one has an extended animation means you can use it to buy some extra time for a summon to reach you, and since this one doesn’t change Garble’s positioning you can use it at the edge without KOing yourself.
Up Throw: Seismic Toss
Garble flies up with his opponent as high as his first jump before performing a single loop in midair, followed by slamming into the ground with them. The whole throw takes .5 seconds to complete and deals 13% with vertical knockback that KOs at 115%. Just like the Seismic Toss of Pokémon, the damage of the move is set, meaning that it won’t stale! This is a strong damage option, and like with the BThrow you can use it to stall briefly for your summons. As a tradeoff, it has the worst positioning result of Garble’s throws, placing the opponent directly above him.
Down Throw: Dirt Nap
Garble shoves his opponent to the ground before kicking them away, sending them sliding forwards ¼ of Battlefield, leaving the enemy in prone at the end. If they slide off the platform they recover after .2 seconds. This deals just 8%, but it’s a potentially awesome throw for 2 reasons. First, the fact that it forces the opponent across the ground means it can be used to send them straight into a lava pool or one of Garble’s pals. Second, while sliding away, the opponent leaves a dust cloud as tall as Olimar across the distance they travel. It deals no damage but does induce the dust-stun in any other enemies who are struck by it, making it a great stage-control move in FFA matches. Garble recovers from the throw a moment after his opponent.
You may have noticed a pattern in Garble's knockdown moves in that the enemy gets to act BEFORE Garble. This is because if Garble could move at the same time or before them, he could literally FSmash their wake-up on reaction and carry them across the stage to a pit for the KO. Garble still recovers from his knockdown moves with enough time to shield a wake-up attack from his victim, and considering what Garble could do to punish said attacks, his enemy has to roll (or get up normally) in order to be safe. Basically, Garble isn't using his knockdowns for a true tech-chase, he's forcing his enemies to chose from a small selection of locations they can head to, making it very easy for his brown dragon friend to chase them, and for Garble to keep control of what his enemy is doing. Yes, I did just write all this right before the actual playstyle section.
PLAYSTYLE
Garble is a bully. His game-plan is to dominate his opponents by pushing them around the stage with stuns, his lackeys, and constant aerial pressure. His eventual goal is to corner them at the edge of the stage where he can finish them off nice and easy.
Right at the start, Garble will want to try to summon one of his friends to the fight. Both have their advantages, though the down-special dragon will be more common thanks to the lava pit he creates. In some cases you may even try to use both at once! While the timer for a summon counts down, Garble can use his aerial mobility to hang back and out of harm's way, or he can already do some preemptive offense on his own. His FAir, UAir, and Bair all work as offensive pokes to gain and maintain momentum, with his NAir serving as a close-range hit-and-run or baiting tool. While the general horizontal nature of Garble’s aerial attacks means he wants to stay somewhat close to the ground, his float allows him to do exactly that without worrying too much about landing lag getting in his way. There’s also Mega Firebreath as an option to literally push opponents towards his sweet spots. When he lands, he does need to be mindful of his spacing to keep things like DTilt and DSmash safe, but he always has his FTilt to use if he lands in his enemy’s face. If his opponent insists on hiding behind a shield, it’s time to punish with a grab or FSmash, especially if they think they can use their shield to be safe when stunned by Garble’s dust attacks.
Once Garble’s summons are on the stage, he can take things up a notch. With the brown dragon applying his own attacks, Garble’s aerial attacks go from merely being offensive “pokes” to full-blown rushdown moves. His ground game also opens up a lot more as he can go for more grabs, and his knockdowns basically force the enemy to roll a specific way if they want to avoid the gang bang. Ideally, they’ll be rolling towards a platform edge. The purple dragon is great for cutting off aerial escapes, and his relative speed in calling allows him to keep the skies clear for the head dragon. As for the lava pit, it works as an on-stage danger zone for enemies, as Garble can use it to retreat or as an alternate location to keep his FSmash, Dash Attack, and DAir safe.
When the opponent nears the edge of the stage, things become very fun for our teenage dragon. There’s nowhere for his victim to run, and several of Garble’s attacks become safer when combined with the ends of platforms, allowing him to further pressure his opponent. Once they’re offstage, Garble has some vicious edge-guarding abilities thanks to his float, FAir, and summons. For a really sure-fired way to assert your dominance, try spiking an enemy with the summoning fall of the brown dragon!
While Garble’s most blatant weakness is dealing with enemies who dare strike from directly above, he also has problems when he’s on the ground and forced on the defensive at close range. While his jab, DTilt, and grab all serve as defensive moves that can even swing the momentum back in his favor, they are all highly punishable when baited. His lack of effects on his up special also gives him less out-of-shield options than most characters. On a similar note, when he’s on the ropes and forced to recover, his aerial mobility doesn’t help as much as you might think when his up special can’t refresh from damage and his GAir places him into free-fall.
In summary, Garble doesn’t want to give his enemies a moment to breathe or challenge his authority. Sure, his tactics aren’t foolproof, and at times even rely on his buddies to force the respect out of you. But the more time you spend fearing their potential and running away, it only serves to make them more powerful, and give Garble the opportunity he needs to ensure you never say “no” to him ever again.
Free-for-alls
Garble's close-range weakness isn't doing him any favors when 3 enemies are around, but his stuns and AOE attacks give him valuable crowd control. When he has his summons in play, he can control the match arguably better than in a 1v1 fight, simply because the other players have a chance of harming each other as they try to fight-off Garble’s friends. He can always try to stay out of major fights with his aerial capabilities until he can swoop down on weakened enemies like a vulture.
Doubles
Garble works well as a disruptor in 2v2 battles, using his dust stun attacks to disable one of the opposing team members and his knockdown moves to keep the enemy from covering each other. He compliments ground-based characters nicely, using his air-to-ground moves to keep the opposing team in range of his teammate. On the downside, the extra hitboxes Garble can bring onto the stage can inadvertently harm his teammates. It may be best to save the summons for KO set-ups rather than outright using them as stage-control devices.
Capture the Flag
While he is a “set-up” character in order to get his offense at full potential, Garble can very fittingly join the raiding team because of how relatively simple it is to for him to set up. As long as he isn’t right on the front lines, he can take a moment to preemptively have his gang waiting alongside him when a fight breaks out, and by the time the battle’s over his summons will be off the stage and ready for summoning again. Similarly, he can also have his stage control tools ready to defend a teammate bringing back the enemy flag. The best part is that he’s still capable of serving as a dedicated defender of his flag hoard if need-be, making him a very versatile pick for CTF matches.
Original main playstyle write-up:
Garble is a bully. His gameplay revolves around pushing his opponent around by having several great hitboxes in play at a time to maintain offensive pressure. Add a great air game courtesy of his species and you have quite a threat to deal with.
Like most (all?) bullies, he’s most vulnerable when he’s exposed and being challenged. While Garble can easily summon one of his friends to the field, there’s still some time before they actually show-up, forcing him to fend for himself in the meantime. Of course, he didn’t become the leader of his gang for nothing. The most obvious way to defend yourself is with some good ol’ keepaway, using Garble’s insane aerial options to keep yourself right out of harm’s reach while fighting back with some ranged attacks such as Mega Firebreath or his defensive wing attacks. On the ground, Garble has utility such as the clashing effect on FTilt or the straight-up awesome hitbox on UTilt to keep enemies at bay. If the opponent baits out these attacks they can put pressure on Garble up-close, but even then he has his jab, DTilt, and grab to try to regain momentum (with the inherent weakness on all of them of being punishable). If you’re really gutsy, you can even try an offensive approach to buying time, such as NAir mix-ups and tech-chases off successful grabs.
Thankfully, it doesn’t take too long before Garble’s pals appear to back him up. This is when things start to become really fun. Suddenly, all of those big hitboxes and aerial mobility used to defend himself become tools to crush the opposition. Who cares about end lag when you have another dragon around to cover it? Force your opponent into a shielding position when you can FSmash safely into a lava pit, and they’ve suddenly lost most ways to survive the attack, let alone trying mountain a counter-offensive. Tech-chasing suddenly becomes a lot more reliable, and you can pull off tag-team combos for insane damage potential. Heck, when the opponent is damaged enough you can just have the fat dragon come down off-stage to prevent their recovery!
Because of Garble’s lack of straight-upwards attacks, and the fact that his brown dragon summon can’t pursue enemies to higher platforms, he tends to perform better when there are fewer platforms around, with Final Destintation being the extreme example of an ideal stage. However, he does have some notable options for dealing with platform-heavy stages. His FThrow allows him to bring both himself and his foes to a lower level. And with his good grab range he can take advantage of the smaller available space on a platform. Since the lava pool from his brown friend will spawn on platforms, this allows him to block-off a platform from use from other characters. His other summon also works as an anti-platform tool by cutting across their elevation, working amazingly on stages like Smashville which only have 1 platform other than the main stage.
Garble yells out the name of the move like in the video as a pile of gems erupts from the bottom of the screen, comparable in size to the mountain in the Ice Climbers’ final smash. Garble will automatically leap to the top of the hoard as the summoning animation finishes, and the music is replaced with heavy metal guitar riffs. Everyone’s goal for the next 13 seconds is to be on top of the hoard, though Garble has a natural advantage with his aerial capabilities and summons. The winner of the game gets a crown-shaped marker that grant completely invincibility for 6 seconds; if there are 2 kings of the hoard, they each get 2.5 seconds, if there are 3 they get 1 each, and if all players are on top of the hoard (or nobody is), then nobody gets anything but the damage they took trying to win.
SITUATIONALS
Rising Attack: Tail Strike
Garble hops off the ground while performing a spinning tail whip, dealing 8% with low set knockback to anyone caught in his way. A fairly basic rising attack.
Tripped Attack: SAKURAIIIIIIIIIII
Garble roars before rising to his feet, creating a Bowser-sized soundwave around himself that lasts for .4 seconds. Anyone who is struck by this normally takes set knockback as far as 1/3 of Battlefield on a 30 degree upwards angle. However, if someone is struck by the soundwave on the first frame it appears, it delivers a paralyzer stun as powerful as Zamus’ DSmash fully charged. Considering the move still has moderate end lag after Garble finishes roaring, this isn’t a complete death sentence for those stunned, but it does make it much more difficult to punish Garble when he trips.
Ledge Attack: Sneak Attack
Garble lunges over the edge while biting at his opponent, dealing 9% and set knockback as far as ¼ of Battlefield. This is on a rather high angle too, so don’t think you can just camp the ledge to try to hit an opponent into a lava pool. The attack starts quickly and has moderate end lag with frame-neutral shield stun.
Ledge Attack >100%: Blatant Attack
Garble pulls himself over the edge while slashing at the ground, creating a small dust cloud that delivers its special stun to enemies. While the attacks starts quickly (a rarity among 100% ledge attacks), it has a second of end lag, so even after connecting with it the stun will only serve to cover the end lag (though it can still summons get into position). The attack also deals no damage.
ITEM ATTACKS
Yes, that’s right, Garble’s one of the first movesets ever to actually describe what happens when he wields a beam sword or similar items!
Item Jab: Cleave
Garble swings the item upwards, covering a nice area in front of himself. This deals low damage and knockback, and has below average startup lag with moderate end lag. On the downside, if performing this with a beam sword the blade barely increases in size.
Item Tilt: Parry
Garble performs a simple horizontal swing while holding one hand behind his back. This deals below average damage and knockback, but has low startup lag with moderate end lag, and the beam sword lengthens a decent amount. As an extra bonus, this has the same clashing property as Garble’s regular FTilt, pushing back both combatants slightly.
Item Dash Attack: Leap
Garble jumps forwards 1/5 of Battlefield on a low trajectory as he slams his weapon onto the ground, dealing good damage and a knockdown. The beam sword extends a below average amount during the attack. The jump gives the move moderate startup lag, and the attack has moderate end lag as well. If Garble jumps off the side of a platform, he'll enter his aerial game after .2 seconds.
Item Smash: Skewer
Garble thrusts the weapon forwards like Marth’s Shield Breaker, dealing high damage and knockback. This has moderate startup lag with above average end lag, but the beam sword increases to a frightening size, reaching nearly 1/3 of Battlefield with this attack!
Home Run Swing
Garble winds up with both arms grasping the bat before swinging so hard that he does a full 360 spin. Unfortunately, the attack doesn’t actually hit to both sides, save a broken HRS like that for an actual baseball-themed character. I shouldn’t have to tell you the damage and knockback of this attack.
MATCHUPS
Vs Pennywise:Slight Advantage
Pennywise’s biggest advantage in this matchup is by far his balloon traps. Send a few of them floating around and Garble finds it hard to maintain his air game as long as he’d like. While Mega Firebreath and the purple dragon give Garble great ways of clearing them out, this means he’s either abusing a laggy attack or committing one of his timed summons just to the act of dealing with Pennywise’s traps. If Garble chooses to stay on the ground, he’ll find himself vulnerable to some scary attacks, such as Pennywise’s fast, ranged grab.
What stops this matchup from being one-sided is Garble’s larger friend. Having both a summon and the lava pit in play restrict Pennywise’s movement enough that he’ll have a hard time setting-up pits and blood trails, making his Dash Attack much less reliable. The summon also makes it much easier to deal with Pennywise’s side special mixups. The summon will always go after the visible Pennywise, but this forces Pennywise’s hand. Pennywise will instantly reveal whether or not he’s a fake if he attacks the summon thanks to the difference in damage. If he tries to literally “dodge the question” by evading the summon, this makes him more vulnerable to attacks from Garble.
Pennywise does have some ways of dealing with the brown dragon. His FSmash in particular allows him to separate the dragons, with the summon walking into the confetti constantly as though he wanted to reenact a Bubbles matchup. Of course, the charge time required to create a solid wall can make things tricky when he’s being pressured by 2 hitboxes at once. Pennywise can also try his UTilt, using the summon as a weapon against Garble. However, the duration of the attack means that Garble has time to either call in his other summon or destroy some more of Pennywise’s balloons.
Remember those pits Pennywise wants to dig? Well, in some ways they’re actually a BAD IDEA to do at all in this matchup. If he catches Garble alone there’s a chance to deal some hefty damage via shield-grabbing to punish Garble’s laggy attacks, but if Pennywise insists on shielding this makes him vulnerable to Garble’s own grab. Considering the fact that Pennywise is limiting his own movement options for prone escapes, and Garble’s BThrow is now a Godlike tech-chase starter. If Pennywise wants to play more aggressively with his grab, Garble can respond in kind for tail wrestling. However, this is all assuming that Garble doesn’t have his brown friend in play. In these situations, Pennywise is basically digging his own grave by boxing himself in with 2 enemies. Perhaps the best way for Pennywise to utilize his pits is to try luring the brown dragon into one and then abandoning it, but this still essentially turns his pit into another hazard under Garble’s control.
Overall, this is a humorous matchup as both characters can turn their opponent’s set-up against themselves. Garble holds the final advantage because of how much he stands to gain from Pennywise’s pits, but the fact that Pennywise can control the air so well and still manipulate the dragon gang allows him to pose a threat. Maybe Pennywise should have gone after Spike instead…
Vs Manfred Von Karma: Slight Advantage
Von Karma will have a hell of a time using the murder weapons as evidence against Garble, considering Garble can deal large damage on his own and even better with his summons. Von Karma’s best way to go about it is to use his pummel, which makes things all the more difficult if he falls behind in damage as he becomes vulnerable to tail wrestling. On a similar note, Von Karma’s DThrow can potentially be a tremendous boon in this matchup as Garble’s summons can hurt the witnesses to break the contract, but again, this requires him to actually land a grab first.
The best way to incriminate Garble is through the victim’s corpse. Von Karma’s UTilt is invaluable as it outranges most of Garble’s aerials except for an aerial Mega Firebreath, though to be fair that move is great for pressuring Von Karma regardless if any of Garble’s friends are around. Still, if Von Karma can punish the starting time of spammed Mega Firebreath, Garble will be forced to spend some time on the ground, making it easier to get blood on his body and spread it around the stage. Another viable anti-air option is Von Karma’s USmash, as if he’s directly below Garble, Garble has few constant options other than his punishable DAir. Handcuffs sadly won’t do much good in keeping Garble grounded, as his above average weight and dash speed allow him to control positioning, though it does make things difficult for him during the times he has no summon in-play, keeping him within punishing distance when one of his attacks is baited.
When Von Karma shifts to the trial phase of his mechanic, things very quickly degenerate into chaos. Garble’s friends will more likely than not hit a witness at some point, ensuring Von Karma has at least 1 cop in-play. Of course, the fact that Garble has summons too means that he’s never truly outnumbered unless Von Karma can get the full 3 cops in play; since he has trouble utilizing the murder weapons in the trial, it’s unlikely this will happen. When the inevitable brawl between Team Karma and Team Dragon happens, Von Karma is better at directly supporting his summons, but Garble holds the advantage of being able to unload massive damage at a time when comboing with his summons and having things like DThrow to disrupt Von Karma’s group. If all else fails, he can always try to lure the cops to a lava pool and send them into it.
This matchup is largely dependent on how things go prior to Von Karma’s trial. While Von Karma can defend himself fine against Garble’s gang, it also means that he may not get enough evidence to tip the numbers in his favor. In these situations, Von Karma may have to act a bit more recklessly, largely ignoring the other dragons while he and his cops focus on the leader. Garble’s capabilities of wrecking the investigation give him an overall advantage, but Von Karma has enough in his toolbox to stand a very real chance of winning.
Vs Rainbow Dash:Moderate Disadvantage
Rainbow Dash is one of the scariest aerial characters to play against, having aerial mobility rivaling Garble’s (5 jumps, multiple attacks that lead into her glide, and makeshift platform clouds). She also has utterly insane aerial attacks, being generally fast without sacrificing damage (having above average damage in fact) along with built-in movements that give them great range. Did I mention that she can also perform most of her aerials and specials on the ground through her Super Speed Strut? Sure, her clouds give her a set-up aspect, but unlike Garble’s “from slightly disadvantaged to kicking ***” set-up, Rainbow Dash goes from great to godlike.
Ok, let’s try to think calmly here. One advantage Garble has is that his moveset’s defensive utility at the start of the match allows him to actually survive Rainbow Dash’s onslaught until he gets his gang into the picture. Once that happens, Garble can use his own aerial capabilities to try pinning RD to the ground to set-up his pals’ attacks. While Rainbow Dash is generally weaker on the ground, she still has things like her DSmash and Jab as defensive attacks that lead to combos or simply allow her to return to the sky. On the other hand, her grab isn’t going to help too much with escaping shield-pressure, as Garble always has the option of forcing a tail wrestle against a grab-happy RD. Garble’s combos are also incredibly devastating to RD, sending her off-stage quickly where Garble’s aerial mobility allows him to actually attempt to gimp RD for hilariously early KOs.
When all is said and done, Rainbow Dash’s raw awesomeness in her air game gives her a victory, but Garble does have ways of surviving. Seriously, can we give a bit of the damage in RD’s aerials to her tilts?
Vs Lucio Fulci:Moderate Advantage
Garble’s already got a major disadvantage in this horror matchup: Being a teenage jerk. The only way things could get worse is if he were black! In all seriousness though, Garble’s summons do a good job of helping to keep the zombies in check, especially considering the dragons can dislodge them off each other. Always good to work as a team during the zombie apocalypse!
Fucili’s moveset functions a lot like a more extreme version of Garble’s with big, strong, laggy attacks. Fucili also has the advantage of many of them being disjointed, though Garble has several attacks with grab hiboxes or transcendent priority, especially in his dust cloud attacks. Those dust moves are beyond frightening in this matchup, where being able to shield isn’t going to do much good against zombies with grab-type attacks, so that second of stun time feels like an eternity. At the same time, Fucili has his FSmash and DSmash as viable defensive moves to keep Garble off his back, or to deter zombies if he’s already in an uncomfortable situation.
Fucili has some decent anti-air options, such as his gun and Uair. The Uair in particular is troll-worthy since Garble’s best move for attacking straight down, his DAir, only serves to bring him down the ground, resulting in the same position he’d be in if Fucili’s UAir connected. On the other hand, Garble’s Mega Firebreath is too valuable as a head-shot tool for Fucili to always keep Garble out of the sky. Fucili really doesn’t want to resort to his acid bath, as Garble’s extreme flight time ensures that if the whole stage is going down, dragons will be the last ones standing. Finally, Fucili’s grab is REALLY not too reliable in this fight, seeing as if the zombies don’t interrupt the struggle, Garble’s friends will.
Similarly to Pennywise, Fucili has the misfortune of fighting a character who can turn his own mechanics against him, but Fucili doesn’t have as many ways of evening the odds. The sheer threat of the zombies is enough to give him a fighting chance, but as Fucili would want, that’s the key word: Fighting.
Vs Cooking Mama:Even
Cooking Mama is perfectly balanced, having even matchups with every moveset ever. This isn't "1% advantage so it may as well be even" either, this is perfect 50/50 victory chances for both competitors. In fact, Cooking Mama is the only character who can viably fight 1v3 without needing any changes!
STAGE – DRAGON CRATER
This barren volcanic area is where Garble goes during the “dragon migration”, which isn’t really explained in the show but I suspect it involves dragons. The stage has a curious layout, seen below:
Black is solid, red is lava, green is drop-through, the border is the edge of the screen. As you can see, there is no true offstage area, though the lava can certainly count, as it deals slightly less damage and (vertical) knockback than Norfair’s lava. There is a slight change in elevation at the ends of the main platform to provide a grabbable edge. The solid part of the environment 2/3 the length of Final Destination.
Besides the lava, you can see several dragons in the background doing dragon things. If Garble isn’t present in the match he can be found in the background hangin’ with his friends. Of particular note are these 3 dragons:
These guys will occasionally come into the fighting plane to cause havoc. The albino dragon will glide by and spit several fireballs at the ground, each one dealing 4% and flinching knockback, but if they hit the stage they leave a fiery patch the size of Kirby that lasts for 5 seconds with the same effect as the fireballs. The purple ogre-like dragon will charge across the stage at the speed of Fox’s dash, dealing 11% and vertical knockback that KOs at 135% to the first thing he hits as he swings his head upwards. Finally, the black dragon will slowly wander about, grabbing the first guy enemy he connects with only to toss them forwards a moderate (set) distance for 10%. All of the dragons have 13 HP when they appear with the same knockback mechanics as Garbles summons. If they’re KO’d, they fall over dazed for 3 seconds, disappear, then rejoin the other dragons in the background after 10 seconds.
OTHER GOODIES
Entrance: Garble flies in from the side of the screen and stomps the ground as he lands, creating a cloud of dust around him.
Side Taunt: Garble spreads his wings and roars.
Up Taunt: Garble cracks his knuckles and says “I’ll give you three seconds to run!” Sometimes, if you wait 3 seconds after finishing the taunt without doing anything, Garble will angrily look towards the camera and yell “I wasn’t entirely serious!”
Down Taunt: Garble plays air guitar, only real electric guitar notes start to come out! He’ll jam a single random note by default, but you can mash any button to continue playing, with each button performing a different note. You can even press 2 buttons at once to play chords and use the control stick to change the pitch! There’s a point .4 second window for you to input another note before the taunt ends.
Special Taunt: When one of Garble’s friends is in the middle of their “successful attack” animation, you can perform any taunt input when next to them for Garble to give them a high-five. Sweet KO, bro!
Win Animation 1: Garble fist-pumps and yells “Woooooo! Dragons for the win!”
Win Animation 2: Garble’s friends hoist him up as he stands atop their shoulders, laughing manically.
There’s a slight chance when this animation occurs that Garble will fall off after a few seconds, his friends failing to catch him. After getting up, Garble punches his friends in the stomach while yelling “Even a pony could hold me up easier than that!”
Win Animation 3: Garble appears with both of his friends as they perform as an air band! Garble plays main guitar, Warlord Dragon plays drums, and the purple one plays bass guitar.
Win vs Peach: Garble chuckles and says “Ha, as if I would lose to a namby-pamby peachy princess!”
Win vs Fluttershy: Garble and his friends chase a terrified Fluttershy back-and-forth across the screen. Every once in a while, Garble will stop in the middle of the screen and laugh at Fluttershy’s misfortune, only for Fluttershy to nearly run into him the next time she passes.
M.Trinity Down Taunt: M.Trinity performs pose 4 while saying “I don’t care how much of a bad boy you are, you are NOT my king…oh, you said ‘hoard’…”
Loss Pose: By default, Garble crosses his arms and scowls at the winner. However, if the winner is a draconic character such as Charizard, Garble will cheer enthusiastically.
Doc Scratch Smash Taunt: Scratch lays out a bowl of gemstones. At first, Garble simply takes them one at a time, eating them in one bite. If he’s really hungry, he’ll devour the entire bowl, only to spit out pieces of the bowl; turns out that china material is in fact not a gemstone.
Assist Trophy: Crackle
Crackle is one of Garble’s friends…supposedly. He/she/it doesn’t really do much, even after being summoned from the AT capsule. He’s about as long as 1/3 of Battlefield and twice as tall as Ganon. You can stand on his back like a drop-through platform, and attacks will shove him around a bit, but you can walk right through him as though he were only in the background. Sometimes he’ll scratch his back using his hind legs, which doesn’t do anything. Seriously, after he disappears in about 12 seconds, you’ll be wondering what you just witnessed…and wanting to witness it again.
-INCOMING TRANSMISSION PRESS SELECT-
Snake: Colonel, is that a dragon I’m fighting?
Colonel: That is indeed a dragon. His name is Garble.
Snake: Garble? That name must do him wonders.
Colonel: Don’t get cocky Snake. He’s only an adolescent, but you’re no match for him physically, and he’s already capable of flying and breathing fire. He’s also well respected among his peers and is generally viewed as the leader of his group.
Snake: Group? You mean there are more of th- Hey, wait a minute! Isn’t this guy from a children’s cartoon? How do you know these things about him?
Colonel: Well…you see, I…um…
-END TRANSMISSION-
A WORD FROM THE AUTHOR
So 23 pages of Microsoft Word later, you have finally finished reading my largest MYM project outside of Playing God. For the past month, my days were spent looking forwards to the night when I would have the computer all to myself so I could work on this. I managed to write at least 1 move each day, many times writing 2 or 3. When I wasn’t writing new attacks, I was tweaking the current ones. When I wasn’t working on attacks, I was thinking of extras. Seriously, I think MYM as a whole has forgotten how much fun it is to create extras for a character that you genuinely love. I felt the same way as I did when I first joined MYM3; How fitting that this is essentially my 10th MYM anniversary. Do I consider this the “best” set I’ve ever made? I’m not sure if I’d go that far, but I do know that this is the first time in a long time that I felt like the effort I was putting into it was worth it.
NOW LET'S PARTY DRAGON STYLE!
ver 1.01: Fixed descriptions of midair jump and jab, tweaked FTilt and Uair to make them more reliable when summons are not present. ver 1.02: Added Item Dash Attack and a new "matchup" vs Cooking Mama ver 1.03: Added a fireball effect when FSmash is used on a lava pool to create more consistency with DAir and to make FSmash much safer when spaced properly. ver 1.04: Tweaked descriptions of Dragon Elevator and FSmash. I wonder if anyone even knows I've been tweaking this set since I posted it (tipsy) ver 1.05: MEGA UPDATE! Buffed Side-B summon's attack (un-dodgeable), buffed speed for dash attack and FAir (plus new FAir animation), gave USmash consistent damage/knockback, new animation for NAir, BRAND NEW DSMASH, nerfed the knockdowns on all relevant attacks, fixed version numbering scheme, a few other minor damage/knockback changes, and a playstyle section rewrite is in the works! ver 1.06: Playstyle section rewrite added. Original write-up moved to the end of the section for fun. ver 1.07: Changed input for the special dodge NAir can perform from the special move button to the shield button.
"Namby Pamby Peachy Princess", Garble? Also 1 day rushset gogogo.
Princess Bubblegum
Princess Bubblegum is a main character appearing in the Cartoon Network show, Adventure Time. She rules the Candy Kingdom, one of the main locations in the series, and is said to have some influence over other regions of her world. Near the beginning of the show, she is a benevolent ruler and is beloved by all. Due to this, she is often a frequent subject of kidnapping. One of the major things that sets her apart from a few of the generic princesses seen in the series is her scientific qualities - she is shown to be a talented scientist, setting off numerous events in the series due to this. She remains entirely passive for the first season or so of the show, never making an attempt at fighting. This has changed, however. You see, as the series goes on, Bubblegum starts to become a darker character. She starts showing off some streaks of insanity, in two notable examples, she starts experimenting on herself a bit in a way to increase her own mortality - as well as accidentally raising zombies from corpses of dead candy people. She has also been shown to speak in German - the language of EVIL. Given her more malicious experiments and recent revolts against her, there may be more to Bubblegum than there appears...
Bubblegum has pretty standard stats, her most notable trait coming from her excellence in the air, of course. While her weight and falling speed are pretty bad, she has plenty of ways to sustain damage from her foes - which leads into her mechanic: Bubblegum's hair is made entirely out of her namesake, and covers most of the back of her character model. Whenever Bubblegum is struck from behind with a physical attack, her hair blocks the blow. Any foe who strikes her hair with a physical attack, or makes contact with it at all, will be stuck to it in a grab hitbox. In this state, they are forced to escape at grab difficulty. Bubblegum is able to take advantage of foes while they're in this state, of course, and can simply just move around with them attached to her hair to take advantage of them. However, she cannot inflict knockback or stop them from escaping in any way - in addition, the foe becomes immune to being grabbed by her hair for 2 seconds after a successful escape, only to prevent potential infinites.
There is a catch, though. Dealing 15% or more in one move to Bubblegum's hair will cause a chunk of hair as tall and wide as Kirby to drop onto the ground. This very obviously becomes a trap on the ground behind her, and removes a bit of hair from her grab hitbox. This trap has the same grab escape properties as your normal hair, characters becoming stuck to the ground and having to escape at grab difficulty. Bubblegum can also become vulnerable to this, though will more often be using it to her advantage. Bubblegum will appear with a full head of hair upon the next stock, where all her traps on the ground disappear.
Hair that is cut off will disappear after 25 seconds by default.
Specials
Up Special: Hair Whip Bubblegum moves her head out in a very fast motion (the direction can be angled slightly during startup, only forward/upward directions, though), causing her hair to whip out from behind her and whip in that direction. Her hair extends out 1 battlefield platform by default (will be massively reduced if your hair fell out) before being pulled back to her, Bubblegum does not enter helplessness after this. Your hair, naturally, retains the sticky properties mentioned in the mechanic, putting characters hit by this into a grab hitbox.
If Bubblegum hits the ledge, she will not immediately pull up on to it like most tethers. Instead, her hair will stick to the ledge and Bubblegum will fall and start dangling from it. Bubblegum can use her aerial DI to swing back and forth while her hair is attached to the ledge, and can attack. This is an amazing edgeguard tool, as you might expect, as foes will be subjected to Bubblegum's hair and get stuck on it if they make any contact with it. By pressing the up special while in this position, Bubblegum tugs on her hair with .30 seconds of lag, as though she were asking to be pulled up on a rope. She gets pulled up at Sonic's dash speed to the ledge after this, when she finally reaches the ledge, she hangs on it like a normal character. In addition, you can simply fastfall downwards for the hair to snap back to you automatically, you beginning to fall downwards. You can't use your up special after this, but don't enter helpless and can still attack.
If she takes at least 10% damage or any sort of high knockback, however, Bubblegum's hair will snap from the ledge and enter the state described above. This will also happen after 5 seconds regardless, to prevent stalling (she actually falls into helpless in this case). Still, given your ability to swing back and forth on this, there should really be no reason for you to take damage.
You can also hang on platforms and even the underside of the stage with this, though you will eventually fall off after 5 seconds, just as mentioned above. Unlike our good friend, Perches Poxtrot, you have no way to get back to the top of the stage from underneath it. Sure, you can swing back and forth with your DI to get higher, but it's not like your hair is long enough to let you get all the way back up there...something that may have to be solved with SCIENCE!
Side Special: Test Tube Mixture Bubblegum pulls out a test tube and stirrer from somewhere in her dress, before she starts stirring a pink liquid inside the tube. She can maneuver as normal during this, but cannot attack, only able to cancel out by shielding or dodging, or automatically exiting out after 5 seconds. Once you input this after it's been cancelled, Bubblegum drinks what's in the test tube over .50 seconds, gaining DK style superarmor during this. Thanks to the test tube, she gains a speed buff - gaining a point of speed for every second she spent drinking it. Yes, movement speed is actually relevant as a buff considering her primary method of recovery from the underside is swinging up to the stage. In addition, she gains an attack lag decrease of 5% for every second she spent doing this for the next 6 seconds, allowing you to chain her already quick attacks into a madcap offense.
While Bubblegum is first and foremost offensive, this move has a hint of defensive purpose as she'll need to evade attacks while using it, any attack made during mixing it loses progress. Therefore, one of your best times to actually do this is with a foe stuck to the ground or on your hair. You can do this while hanging from the ledge to give more reason for foes to come get you, as well
Neutral Special: Growth Potion Bubblegum pulls out a green potion and lobs it in any given direction, acting very similar to Yoshi's Egg Toss in terms of direction and lag time. Upon contact with a foe or the ground, the glass shatters, dealing 5% damage and hitstun by default. If it hits the ground, the potion lingers in a Bowser width puddle for 3 seconds before evaporating. People who walk on puddles have a chance of tripping, loss of traction, blah blah blah. You're not gonna get that much time to take advantage of this considering it's only 3 seconds.
If the potion hits the foe directly, they will be inflicted by it's effects: they will enter a giant state, akin to a Super Mushroom, for 3 seconds. The brief time in which they have to take advantage of this usually doesn't help them out that much, while Bubblegum has more than enough time to use her small hitboxes on their now-easy-to-hit state, also being able to attach her hair to them with the greatest of ease.
If you lob a potion on top of a hair trap or have your hair fall on to growth potion's residue, it will expand one Battlefield Platform width due to this.
Down Special: Stage Tether Bubblegum whips her hair downwards, sticking it to the stage before she reinforces it slightly with her hands - this isn't all that laggy, to be quite honest, actually coming off as relatively quick. In midair, she will whip it downwards before reinforcing it once she gets onstage. See, this has the obvious effect of having Bubblegum's BFP width hair stick to the stage, with her unable to move more than 1.25 BFPs away due to this, in the air or otherwise. Moves that have the side effect of moving her will work, but she will snap back to her normal distance after the move is done. Knockback will not work in most cases, causing her to snap back once she gets 1.25 BFPs away. This can be stopped by dealing Bubblegum 30% damage, which causes her to snap away, or simply cutting off the hair chunk connecting her to the ground, which is far easier. Bubblegum can also press down special, in the air or otherwise, to pull on her hair over .30 seconds to release herself from the tether.
Now, let's get on to the meat - if you throw your hair down over a growth potion, the end of her hair will turn green for a brief moment before it grows a Battlefield Platform in width, all while it's connected to the stage. This is your main way of growing out your hair, which is useful especially while being tethered down - you'll be able to run and jump about to use your hair as an expansive grab hitbox. Using grown hair in tandem with up special will not only allow you to gain a recovery that reaches a further distance, but allowing you to achieve a height that can actually be swung on in an attempt to get back to the stage if you're on the underside (and yes, you can absorb growth potions with up special, though they'll mostly be on the ground)
You can also reclaim hair traps that have been thrown on the ground using this method, adding them back to the length of your hair. When you grow out your hair, it follows behind you whenever you're not tethered to the ground - allowing you to have a large hitbox behind you to just catch foes who are jumping downwards.
Standards
Jab: Ha-Cha! Taking a note from other stereotypical princesses, Bubblegum smacks her behind outwards behind herself, hitting at her hair. This is a fast motion that deals 3% damage and light knockback, though the main use here is as a pressure tool against foes stuck against your hair - you can use this to hit anything on your hair. In addition, this moves Bubblegum very slightly backwards, so it can give her that tiny extra push she needs to catch a foe.
Forward Tilt: Hand Swipe Bubblegum swipes out both hands in front of herself, angled slightly downwards. This deals 5% damage and acts as a quick poking tool. You can knock foes off the ledge if you're standing next to it - a decent way to cover for your own carelessness in not tethering yourself to it to deal with them.
If used in front of a hair trap without anyone on it, Bubblegum will grab it and turn herself around, reattaching it on to her hair before she stands up. If used in front of a growth potion, Bubblegum will turn around and slather it all on to her hair, growing it by one Battlefield Platform and causing the ones on the ground to disappear. This allows you to gain the beneficial effects of the down special without having to tether yourself to the stage, or just being able to get them while your hair is too small to do it.
Up Tilt: Crowning Achievement Bubblegum quickly pulls her crown off her head, swinging it above herself and holding it there for as long as you hold the input, the crown shimmer brightly. Foes hit by the top of the crown take 7% damage and are launched skywards - this protects the top of your head quite nicely, forcing foes to either come at you from behind you or in front of you, and we all know which one of those options they're going to take...
Down Tilt: Pratfall Bubblegum lets out a small kick, intending to trip up the foe. This is, as you would expect, a generic prone-inducing dtilt that deals about 7% damage. However, one must consider Bubblegum herself - she has a method of countering foe's get-up attacks with her DSmash, and rolling towards her will likely having them tangled up in her hair. Rolling away from here can even be dangerous when you take into account the bubblegum traps. While this may seem generic at first, this actually has a wealth of purposes if you think about it in the context of her gameplan.
Dash Attack: Toss Away Bubblegum reaches out in a grab motion, quick but effective - if anyone gets grabbed by her, she quickly tosses them behind her for 7% damage, not bothering to turn around. This has fairly obvious purpose, as the foe will have to jump over you to attack again - or will just be forced right in to your hair if it's long enough.
Grab-Game
Grab - Bubblegum's Bubbles Bubblegum's grab is a decent one, the range isn't long compared to the likes of Warlord sets but it comes out amazingly fast. It's also harder to escape than the typical grab.
With the foe in hands, Bubblegum takes a small piece of hair and begins chewing it, blowing a giant cartoony bubble in her victim's face - she increases her breathing depending on the size of the foe, though still takes some time. After blowing a bubble for 1-5 seconds, depending on the size of the character, she will have a bubble big enough for them. The foe is sucked into it thanks to their close proximity to Bubblegum before she releases the bubble from her mouth, the foe being encased in front of her.
The bubble will float on it's own, not randomly floating upwards, we're already tacky enough. However, attacks from the person inside the bubble, and outside attacks, will deal the bubble damage and cause it to be knocked back in the direction the knockback was meant for. Any sword/cutting attacks will instantly cause the bubble to lose all of it's stamina. The bubble has roughly 30% stamina before it pops into a giant wad of bubblegum identical to the normal hair traps - once it pops, anything inside the bubble, plus whoever's in a small area slightly around the bubble, will be contained in this trap. The hair trap will remain onstage afterwards, and can be added to Bubblegum's hair and whatnot.
As it would seem, Bubblegum will be trying to knock the foe offstage - where the idea of escaping from a grab hitbox will very likely kill them. The foe will of course be trying to influence their own direction, though Bubblegum has ways of dealing with the pesky foe with her edgeguarding techniques.
Smashes
Down Smash: Explosive Reaction Bubblegum begins a science experiment right in the middle of the stage! She pulls out a beaker and begins mixing it with liquids found in assorted test tubes and potions, before she finally manages to finish. When you release the charge, Bubblegum will lob the beaker a Battlefield forward at Bowser's dash speed before it falls to the ground, landing in an explosive hitbox. Anyone who is successfully hit by the beaker or the explosion will take 10-22% damage and high knockback, being one of Bubblegum's best killers. This is incredibly interruptable though, and the not-lightning-fast speed makes it easy to avoid unless they're stuck in bubblegum...and they usually won't be taking knockback there. You can usually use this as an edgeguarder, but that drives an incredible risk as you could potentially send them skyward. What's the point, then?
Well, if Bubblegum is struck at point during the startup/charging, the beaker will explode in her face in the same explosive hitbox, damaging the entire front-half of her body. However, this will also damage any foe within her radius! Surely you wouldn't want to use this though, right? The damage/knockback isn't worth the risk...unless you're tethered to the stage, in which case you can just brush it off while the foe goes flying. Other than that, this makes for an incredible threat against foes - they'll have to wait for your endlag to hit you, as the entire startlag period is a threat - they can get stuck in your hair or hit by the explosion.
Forward Smash: Knife Toss Princess Bubblegum extracts a knife from the realms of her dress, holding it behind her and preparing to get a decent shot as her tongue sticks out. You can angle Bubblegum during this time to decide the trajectory of the knife. Once you release the charge, Bubblegum throws the knife 3 Battlefield Platforms forward at Fox's dash speed before it disappears. If it hits the foe, it deals nothing but 8-16% damage and some brief stun that halts foes right in their tracks before delivering knockback that will KO Mario at 110% - perfect at disarming approaches should they arise, this will also instantly pop any bubbles the foe is in. Fun!
If your knife ever points at an area of your hair during the charging, that area of your hair will glow red to let you know exactly where you're throwing your knife. Contact with the knife will cause the part of your hair that got hit to sever from the rest of it, causing it to fall down and onto the stage/offstage, depending on where you where, giving Bubblegum a way to sever her own hair. Naturally, this has purpose as you can lop off your own hair to make hair traps without depending on the foe to.
You can also tap the input during charging for Bubblegum to simply slice the knife through the top of her hair, leaving only a Kirby left to it (and leaving it extremely uneven, given her messy cut - it resembles this a bit, though not nearly as neat) You're sacrificing pretty much all of your back grab hitbox this way, though the sacrifice can be worth it on occasion - especially when you can just regain hair with your growth potion/ftilt combo, considering you won't be able to tether this way.
Up Smash: Spin Smash Bubblegum does a small jump, going 1.7 Ganondorf upwards - you are able to influence her aerial DI to choose where she goes in a small radius, before she curls up into a ball at the peak of her jump and spins for the briefest of moments. This spin deals 5 hits of 1-3% and knocks foes away on the final hit. After this brief spin, she falls back down towards Earth - entering her air state until she hits the ground. Incredibly useful, as you can use this to go offstage thanks to your DI at the start of this.
Speaking of that DI, it's a real lifesaver. You can use your smashes in midair, as I mentioned. Remember how you can swing back and forth while you have hair connected to the ledge? You can potentially use that to swing back up to the stage if you have your hair grown out long enough, and use this to give yourself an extra boost of DI - grab on to the ledge, get on stage, and use your dsmash to leave a sticky strand just lying at the bottom of the edge. You're gonna need to grow it back, of course, but it's easy enough to do that. For a much more simple use - you can use this as an actual recovery offstage, just in case you don't want to use your up special for whatever reason, or if you don't have nearly enough hair to have a shot at recovery.
Aerials
Neutral Aerial: Hair Shake Bubblegum begins shaking her hair a decent bit, working wonders if she's tethered to the ground while she's using this, as her hair turns into a hitbox that deals 7% as well as retaining grab hitbox properties. If any characters are on Bubblegum's hair when she uses this, they fall off from the sudden force, taking the normal 7%. This gives it a whole new purpose offstage, as you can dump them off as you should be doing.
Forward Aerial: Slashes Extracting the knife seen from her forward smash, Bubblegum quickly lets out a slash in front of herself, dealing 7% damage. She holds out the knife for a brief moment, leaving it a hitbox, before she unleashes a downwards slash, pushing foes hit downwards slightly as well as dealing 4% damage. This acts as an incredible wall of pain against offstage foes, as she holds this hitbox out, allowing you to keep on constant hitbox out instead of spamming multiple hits to keep them offstage.
Back Aerial: Backflip Bubblegum grabs her feet and suddenly flips backwards, propelling her one Kirby upwards and two Battlefield Platforms back before she ends in her normal air state. If anybody hits Bubblegum during her backflip, they take 7% (and get stuck to heir hair if they came into contact with that). More importantly, this allows Bubblegum to space herself - which is incredibly useful for edgeguarding, as you can edgeguard with nair or whatnot before you flip backwards. You can space yourself into a far away opponent before catching them in your normal aerial state, of course, but where's the fun in that? This will only space you the first time you use this in a midair session.
Down Aerial: Footstool Bubblegum grabs underneath herself, if her hands come in contact with the foe, she does exactly what the name states - putting them in a footstooled state and dealing 3% to them. This is actually somewhat relevant when you consider how you're going to be spending a lot of your time hanging from the edge, just edgeguarding foes who come by from beneath you.
Up Aerial: Catch! Bubblegum, in what has to be the most stereotypical up aerial of all time, reaches above herself in a grab hitbox. Once she grabs the foe, she will not pull them down, instead clinging on to their legs as their fall speeds are combined - Bubblegum can still fastfall downwards while grabbed on to the foe, though the foe can deal 15% damage to her to knock her off. She can also press the input again to let go.
Bubblegum can snatch foes approaching her from midair and drag them downwards on to bubblegum or what have you, though your main purpose here is to use this offstage if you have yourself tethered to the ledge. You can just drag them down before releasing them, saving yourself in the process. This generic move archetype is still proof that these aerials were rushed though, just saying.
Zombie Invasion
Princess Bubblegum, upon obtaining the Smash Ball, takes out a bubbling green fluid - her Decorpsinator Serum. She pours it on the ground in front of her, before a zombie rises up, much to her surprise. More start rising from the ground, all in shape of various candies. You lose control of Princess Bubblegum, as she runs into the background and begins evading the zombies, while still unable to be harmed by the attacks of foes. These zombies lumber around the stage at Ganon's walking speed, but dart at his dashing speed if foes are within a Battlefield. Once they are within range of the foe, they grab them and deliver a bite that deals 25% damage and high knockback. Given their overwhelming numbers, you may be swarmed and hard pressed to stop them. Once 15 seconds pass or the foe is KOed, Bubblegum laughs in an extremely unhinged mater before coming back on to the main plane.
Taunts
UP TAUNT - FOR SCIENCE! Bubblegum pulls out a bubbling test tube from her dress, looking at it for a moment and crying out "Remarkable!"
SIDE TAUNT - FINGER TWIRL Bubblegum takes her crown and twirls it around her finger, looking at the foe with a condescending look on her face.
DOWN TAUNT - SNICKER Bubblegum crosses her arms and closes her eyes, doing exactly what the taunt name says.
Project SSB4 Boards [Ends at the close of MYM13]
Unless your head has been buried in the sand recently, you'll know about how Super Smash Bros 4 has been announced for the WiiU and 3DS. There are some very interesting discussions going on in the SmashBoards boards, especially the Character Discussion Board [here]. Longtime veteran Smash Daddy has suggested we try tailor making movesets to post in those boards.
Now, this isn't as simple as just making what you want and dazzling them with loads of words. The key is that you'll be designing a moveset explicitly for this audience (people who regularly visit the Character Discussion Board), so there are all kinds of considerations you'll have to think about. It should probably be cleanly presented, short, welcoming, pragmatic, and at least slightly feasible as a real moveset in Smash Bros. You can check out MasterWarlord's Midbus moveset [here] as a good example of a moveset tailor made for a less patient audience.
Hey, guys... FINAL SMASH. Don't forget your FINAL SMASH. If you forget your FINAL SMASH, I will shout at you. So, stop forgetting your FINAL SMASH
Bubbleman.EXE
Bubbleman.exe is constantly setting up his bubbles, not because he has a lot to set up, but because every bubble he makes has such a tiny lifespan that he can barely get much use out of one unless he immediately pumps it full of water (in which case it loses its ability to move upwards). So he has the unique dilemma of having to set up in order to buy enough time to set up. I kind of like that approach, and it gives Bubbleman a suitably "inept" feeling, like he's really trying, but barely managing to do anything other than blow bubbles in the foe's face.
Conceptually, there's a good core in this moveset, and the "gimping off the top of the screen" genre is fresh enough for this moveset to make some decent advances in this regard. I did have fun trying to come up with game-breaking scenarios with bubbleman.
But the problem is that I kinda succeeded on that. There are a few points where I feel the moveset is tripping over itself to claim an exciting idea works, only for it to not work due to a contradictory detail hidden somewhere. For example, placing traps and set-ups inside a grab bubble is impossible unless you throw the bubble away first. And the number of set-up moves that require you to be standing on something make it absurdly difficult to put anything in a grab bubble even after you've tossed it.
Having the Jab be the ONLY way Bubbleman can pop a bubble is annoying, but barely acceptable considering he can aim it (But... the Wiimote's D-Pad, and the notches around the Analogue stick, mean that he can only reliably aim in 8 specific directions. Never assume the player has more control than that). However, its frankly baffling when Bubbleman pulls out a harpoon for his Fair.... and places it INSIDE the bubble without popping it.
D-tilt could have (should have) been on Up Special as Bubbleman.exe's recovery. As it stands now, he literally has no recovery whatsoever.
Ironically however, Bubbleman has an infinite stall technique. 1)Create a tier 2 bubble next to a tier 1 bubble. 2)Cling to the tier 1 bubble and let the bubbles float out of enemy range. 3)Pump the tier 2 bubble with water to stop it rising. 4)Jump on. 5)Profit
So, in the interests of fixing my issues in the smallest number of moves, here is what I'd reccommend you change;
When Bubbleman is inside of a bubble let him make the bubble descend/ascend-faster by tilting up or down on the analogue stick (have the bubble pop if Bubbleman makes it descend for a accumulative total of 4 seconds or more)
When Bubbleman latches onto a T1 bubble with Up-air, jumping or pressing up makes the bubble pop, propelling Bubbleman upwards slightly. Pressing left/right has the same effect, popping the bubble, but propelling him horizontally this time.
Move Down Tilt to Up Special and allow its use in midair (don't refresh his recovery if he stands on top of an upgraded bubble)
Make Bubbles pop if they have water inside and someone stands on top of one
Sawtooth & Squarewave
So, before even reading the actual moveset, here is problem numero uno; Attack names are not shown in-game (and as far as the moveset is concerned, the names aren't spoken during the attacks either). As cool as a set centered around rhyming is, it falls apart at the fundamental level when the "rhyming" is limited to something that will never be seen or heard in-match. It ends up boiling down to "random moves are related, go figure it out on your own".
And that's a real shame, because the moveset deconstructs a really big element of movesets, predictability. After each move, you can either follow on with a similar input for the Groove boost, or a move that rhymes for the Shade boost. Or you could do neither and trade your boost for sheer unpredictability.
Of course this isn't as smooth or as 'flowing' as simply having moves that work well in sequence, or a set that has its own natural beat. But this moveset's mechanic works wonders to incentivise the player to perform attacks that wouldn't normally be used together. Basically, the system allows players to shove attacks together just because they create a kind of funky rhythm between the two. The Smash attacks (namely any smash attack grooved into forward smash) feel particularly satisfying to string together, just because of the motions involved.
Presentation-wise, I constantly forgot which robot was Sawtooth, and which was Squarewave. It would have been easier on the reader to colour code the names (e.g. Sawtooth, Squarewave).
Dash attack being indefinite sounds ripe for an infinite stall offstage.
Out of all the aerials, the one I didn't like, was the Neutral Aerial. Felt like an input that was there just to explain the items used in the other aerials. Plus it sounded like you could accidentally drop the item using Neutral Air, and render the other aerials useless until you go retrieve it. There are quite enough throwable items in this set already thank-you-very-much
Athena
This Moveset makes Shields relevant in a big way, by having them as the fuel that generates spheres and stoned spheres. Obviously you'd prefer to use the foe's shield, but before then you have to use your own, in a risky but satisfying gambit. The interplay between exterior and interior sphere combat is pleasingly solid and even believable most of the time. There are a lot of good, simple attacks that perform very useful roles in Athena's moveset, while symultaneously being satisfying to clobber the foe with. I appreciate that, a lot. In general, the whole thing clings together very well, but without dumbly smushing things together and calling it cohesion.
... hang on...
Instant death alternative KO mechanics; instant 0/10, would not do...
Oh wait, instant win against Ameno. I stand corrected, 10/10. Instant SuperVote.
Oh wait, no Final Smash. -1/10, would point out in a criminal line-up.
I can tell the instant death theme is there to create a creeping sense of tension for the opponent, who can be KO'd in 5 completely different ways, making Athena into a literal goddess of death. But it's a pet peeve of mine to have so many KO mechanics floating around, especially when some of them literally jump out of the most unassuming inputs imaginable.
But yeah, just a stackable, accumulative poison damage would have done the trick for the gas. It would have been a lot more obvious what the threat was, that's for sure (as is, touching the gas kills you 100 seconds later, so the first dozen or so times it happens, they'll have no idea what on earth is randomly killing them). As for instant stone KO, some large knockback value could easily substitute for that. And the out-of-nowhere D-Air hole... should really have been a Special.
Staled Attacks aren't at all a deterrent when the end goal involves neither damage nor knockback, so no, there is no reason not to have Down Special on constantly . Ya gotta figure out some bigger punishment, maybe extra lag or something.
The owls from Upsmash feel bizarre and rather overpowering, especially since the playstyle makes no consideration of their existance. You do know you have owls all over the stage, right?
[collapse="Flashman.exe"]Another set from your favorite franchise already? You're certainly working hard. From the looks of it, this guy's potential wasn't very bright (lol), much like his level of competency. It's clear the set was made very quickly when 1/3 of the attacks revolve around blinding, and how Flashman is very parched for some actual attacking moves - that doesn't seem necessary when he has an electric blade in the first place, and hence it'll obviously get pretty awkward trying to land that one move. I don't need to say much more when your main goal and KO methods are a bit out of synch, though to be fair it looks as if this guy would win grand prize for most difficult/impractical implication among his peers when it's hard to do anything decent with light. It would be nice if he had more melee attacks to mix in with his flashiness instead of dedicating most his set to the latter, though that might be giving him a bit too much credit when he seems to be the cowardly type who wins by messing with the foe's controls and taking away their moves. That at least balances out the severe lack of kills moves a little. [/collapse]
[collapse="Garble"]I thought this guy was an OC, but then I realized it was far worse than that...joking lol. Anyways, it's fun to see an actual set from you again in the absence of what was essentially one contest, and this character appears as if he was born to have a moveset made by you. This set is similar to Cold Enchanter in how simple it is but while no base concept stands out all the attacks are designed to have their own special uses. I can appreciate the opening statement of characterization at the start of the playstyle in tandem with the fairly unique summons, though based on the fact that you're kinda relying on them it doesn't necessarily leave too much room for uniqueness among the rest of the inputs - this is most obvious in the throws despite generally making sense for all that proning even if the set isn't trying to prone abuse in the first place but rather get enemies off the stage where Garble rocks. Garble at least doesn't seem to dependent on his friends when he has some nice hitboxes, but still gets a huge boost from them being around if a fairly simple one. I can kind of see where you're coming from giving Garble mostly physical attacks over fire-based ones and saving that one lava trap for the fat dragon, though it probably wouldn't have hurt to give Garble some flames for certain underwhelming inputs like the D-Smash given he has a lot of potential with that alone. The main set itself is moderately fun, though I feel it gets a little too focused on certain aspects such as the bullying and summons whenever it's doing so to truly come together in a remarkable way...
Yet on the other hand, over half the set is in fact composed of extras - it's almost as if you're trying to bring back MYM5! It's been too long since a set had situationals, and I remember back in the day when that newcomer posted a set for Zewelious and it had item attacks which you really liked (characters have their Dash Attack replaced with items too). It's great to see your viewpoint at the end of what you were trying to achieve, and really I can relate to that since I did something very similar with my Yutaka set last contest. It massively helps this character feels so fitting to your writing style and personality, and I even felt that way when I didn't know squat about him a week or so ago when you announced him. Regardless of whether he's your best or not, it's a set that earns a soft spot in my books for trying to work outside the bounds of the current MYM, and I'm sure Junahu will love it too when he comments on it.[/collapse]
The following statements are in no mean a professional overview or true critique.
They are very opinionated thoughts that I feel throughout reading your particular set.
My word holds no weight toward the set, feel free to disregard my comment. Enjoy.
= = =
= = = = = =
= = =
Bubbleman.exe - Nicholas1024
Well isn't this just a familiar face we've seen before. Unfortunately, my memory fails me and I can only remember a little bit of the past version of Bubbleman. But let's see what you bring to the table!
I've actually played Battle Network 3, one of the few BN games I actually used to play, and I'm quite accustom to how Bubbleman works in the game, and you did a splendid job translating it into a moveset. The Specials really make him up to the way he is, I enjoyed the process of putting his traps into the bubbles and the entire idea of pushing bubbles toward the enemy and the levels of bubbles. The interaction between them is pretty strong. Which makes it fun to think about when planning your next attack while grasping at the utility of your other moves.
The only real thing that seems a bit off to me seems to be like the Neutral Special is kind of obsolete in the initial utility as the Down Special does pretty much on its own. After reading through the set, I feel that the Neutral Special could've had the Foaming mechanism. Where he would focus blow some foam some place, and then still have the added effect of blowing up the bubbles he stood close too. Perhaps even inject some kind of foam into the bubbles which would make the stiffening process have some kind of I dunno, backstory? Hahaha, what the hell am I talking about; that's how I would've processed it through. That's the only real thing that I felt that I could have talked about. My apologies.
It slightly bothers me that your headers have some inconsistent capitalization, sometimes within descriptions too, but that's just me and my presentation talk. I feel that some moves were kind of thrown in with the lack of idea for some moves. But I suppose there is only so much you can do to make throws or tilts interesting, so I commend you for trying your best.
Bubbleman is pretty coherent in terms of strong Specials and some interaction with the entire moveset. Keep it up good sir. Just try and get more of your moves to feel as a whole that ties in with everything in a sense, and you'll be good. ;D
= = =
= = = = = =
= = =
Sawtooth and Squarewave - majora_787
Here we have another set of characters I'm familiar with. Ah the great Homestuck comic and it's notoriously toxic fan-base community. But back to the bro bots of Dirk's.
My first impression of the fetch modus implications was actually quite a bit confusing to me at first as I was trying to skin through and see what I could pull from a glance. But now that I've sat down and took the time to read the entire thing. I'm sure to say the idea was actually pretty damn creative. Certainly one can simply think that, "Oh, rows and columns make special effects." I thought it was pretty straight forward until I turned my head and realized that, "Holy hell, you could move down the lines in any fashion you would like." Like, you could start off with a Faygo, Shade Combo - Laying Low, Groove Combo - AR Jack, Groove Combo - Fly Rockets, - Shade Combo, and then Shade Combo - Plant it. And that's simply saying it with the idea of starting with Faygo and going down the lines. I'm sure you could move back up into the same move so like, Faygo, Laying Low, Faygo. Assuming you don't deplete resources like Sawtooth's Rhythm Rockets.
On paper this interaction is pretty sweet, on a more conceptual Smash level, it would be slightly difficult to match up moves and their attack names. I still don't know what half the attacks are called in the original Brawl, though a connection of the technical terms like BAir sucks would be fine. I'm even tempted to say that using an attack would display the name of the move you're using like the RED MILES, as well as some kind of indicator toward what would be granted a bonus. I'm still a bit (tipsy) on the overall implementation, but as a set I'm quite happy to see that I could recognize a lot of it.
Although a lot of the set revolves around the characters, once I feel that there seems to be a kind of tackiness to some of the moves, like I understand they all gravitate with the Groove / Shade combos. But how cool would be if each possible move that Sawtooth and Squarewave could do if each move itself granted itself a greater potential as the string of moves continued? After trying to connect some combination of moves, I'm not sure how well they would flow. The grab seems a bit gimmicky, its actually one of the moves that doesn't really have an interaction with the GrooveShade combo. It kind of deviates and goes on its own by being its own interaction. I'm a bit wary of it. But those two are probably the biggest things sticking out to me. Great work though, it was an enjoyable read.
= = =
= = = = = =
= = =
Athena - Katapultar
And here we are for the last comment of the trio before I start another trio comment set.
I actually arrive at the first moveset I'm not actually familiar with. From a quick overview, I find that Athena is a barrier creating goddess, that entangles the idea of trapping and killing foes by either dropping them into void pits of death or simply destroying them in conjunction with stoning them.
I actually like the concept quite a bit, the versatile ways of putting your opponent into a bubbles or baiting switches into a bubble is pretty nice. I also liked the idea of stoning foes to make them take considerable more damage from moves that would be much easier to dodge normally. I'm not as content with the gas killing idea as I did the stone/barrier killing methods, however, it does add a lot as it's quite a fatal move itself and with other moves its quite annoying to fight against as it will always lead to another attack or at least yourself being more exposed to it over time.
One of the second things I've noticed is that the headers are kind lackluster compared to other sets where it had none of those fancy names for attacks. Capitalization throughout the headers are a bit of a bother for me, but that's of no concern to anyone else. I just like how sets are presented.
The only other thing that leaves me in question is how powerful the entire set is, it's actually quite powerful in all regards, even the slightest weak attack has an endless amount of utility which would make KOing opponents pretty easy. I'm not a big fan of balance, but she is pretty damn strong.
The set seems longer than the usual, but the details really lead toward a more compelling picture. As tempting as it was to give a comment through skimming it, it was less of a chore and more of an adventure. Keep it up.
Both BubbleMan.EXE and FlashMan.EXE on the same page. Are you going to he rounding out the elemental bosses with PlantMan.EXE and FlameMan.EXE? I've toyed with a flameman moveset for a while now.
BubbleMan.EXE I made a set for back in MYM6, which is now closer to the start of Make Your Move than today is. That makes me feel old. You have some good ideas here and I like the concept of gimping off the top, but there are a lot of flaws that need to he addressed too. The tiered levels of bubbles doesn't really seem to add as much to the moveset depth as it simply does to its complexity and doesn't relate much to BubbleMan.EXE character-wise either.
I think what could do the set the most good and improve it were if you condensed most of your bubble interactions together. I think that if all bubbles behaved like tier two bubbles so that they could be stood upon but had the strength of tier one bubbles it would be a lot simpler, and then you could take better advantage of ground moves that are useful from standing on a bubble.
There are also just far too many moves that don't deal damage at all, or exist for a purpose other than damage. Two of the smashes don't even do damage, and are in the input slot they're in not because they are smash-like attacks but because they simply benefit from a charge function. FlashMan.EXE suffers from an even worse variation of this with three smashes that are all variations of one move with direction of the input corresponding to nothing but giggling which one activates, two of which real no damage.
BubbleMan.EXE has too many toys for playing different games with his bubbles when what he really needs is a solid set of moves to help him move the battle further into the air on his stream of bubbles. In some ways the same could be said of FlashMan.EXE but with blindness instead of bubbles. The rushed nature of this set is apparent, random removal of a special from a moveset is really an inexcusable move to use. With random ELEC chips filling up the empty spaces, it doesn't really sell itself at all.
Cold One
Ice movesets should seem like they have it made. Between freezing ice and all the other potential abilities to abuse they have a lot more potential than a lot of characters, but they tend to have cold responses, pun intended. The reason is very simple; they all have so many similar abilities that they all look the same, and Cold Sorcerer fits that stereotype unfortunately well.
The base mechanic of icicles as a power source never really seems to fit with what it does to the move. Every move feels like its own little mini-mechanic using icicles in a different way for a different purpose. Sometimes snow, sometimes ice sculptures, sometimes melee buffs. This makes it a pretty generic everything improves mechanic. The way you tried to counteract this was by making it a tactical choice of whether to use it or not, not a bad idea but it ends up making it worse.
This character is pretty underpowered. He's light, he has bad recovery, and his main mechanic requires him to damage himself and make himself slower in order to improve his strength. For every icicle he takes in to himself he needs to get at least five hits usually just to keep even with the damage he does to himself, and with his weight, that's not enough.
Beyond this lose-lose game of his mechanic his own overarching playstyle revolves around stage control in its most simplistic form. Snake is a character with great stage control because he can put a lot of damage where he needs it and controls just the areas he needs to. For this character though they feel like scattered minor hindrances that don't really affect the enemy main plan. They simply don't create anything compelling or threatening enough to affect enemy behavior that much.
Soundwave is an evil Decepticon who can transform into a cassette player. He controls many miniature Decepticons that all can transform into cassette tapes. Soundwave is cold, calculating, emotionless, and he lives to serve his one and only master, Megatron.
SPECIALS: Neutral Special: Concussion Blaster Soundwave pulls out his Concussion Blaster and fires it. The projectile is very small and travels 5 Kirbys before dissipating. Getting hit by the projectile causes whoever was hit by it to be stunned for 5 seconds and does 7% damage
Side Special: Rocket Launcher Soundwave fires a shot from his shoulder mounted cannon. The shots can be rapid fired and can be aimed after the third shot. Soundwave can only fire 13 shots in a row before overheating and taken 10% damage and stunning him. The shots do 13% damage each, but only go 3 kirbys far and do explosive knockback.
Up Special: Wingthing Soundwaves bat-like partner Wingthing appears and picks Soundwave up and carries him in a upward direction for 4 seconds, depending on the direction Soundwave is facing. The move ends with Wingthing dropping Soundwave which causes 7% damage to anyone under him. The move has 2 second ending lag.
Down Special: Eject Soundwave opens up his chest compartment and one of 6 different colored tapes flies out. Each tape does a different attack. -Rumble: Rumble creates an earthquake that traps anyone who comes a Kirby near him, doing 3% a second. The earthquake can be jumped over, though. It lasts 8 seconds. Has a 70% chance of occurring. -Frenzy: Frenzy creates a blast of high frequency noise that traps anyone who comes near him. The attack does 3% per second and can't be jumped over like Rumble's earthquake. It lasts 12 seconds. Has a 50% chance of concurring. -Laserbeak: Laserbeak flies around the screen shooting lasers that do 5% to anyone they hit. Lasts 15 seconds and has a 40% chance of occurring. -Ratbat: Ratbat flies around shrieking at opponents. The shrieks stun opponents for 3 seconds and does 6%. He lasts 14 seconds and has a 30% chance occurring. -Ravage: Ravage runs at Sonic's speed and latches onto one opponent, doing 3% ever half a second. Lasts 17 seconds and has a 20% chance of occurring. -Beastbox: Beastbox runs at the speed of Donkey Kong's run and attacks people with Donkey Kong's move standard moves, each doing 10% damage. He lasts 30 seconds and has a 5% chance of occurring.
STANDARDS: AAA: Soundwave does a right punch, an uppercut, and finally a left punch. Moving from each punch takes half a second for Soundwave to do. The ending lag is pretty minor. The first punch does 3%, the uppercut does 5%, and the last does 7%.
Dash Attack: Soundwave jumps up and kicks in front of him and shoots fire out of his foot, knocking him backwards half a kirby. The move has a fair amount of ending lag and does 5% damage to anyone caught in the fire, while the opponent struck by his foot receives 7%
Forward Tilt: Soundwave does a quick elbow jab in front of him. The move does 4% and has half a second of ending lag.
Down Tilt: Soundwave spins his entire torso around really fast. Using the attack in rapid succession will cause him to spin around for several seconds. Hitting someone while rapid spinning will cause Soundwave to fly back 1 Kirby. The attack does 3%.
Up Tilt: Soundwave punches upwards, causing upwards knock back. The attack does 4% and takes half a second for Soundwave to recover.
Forward Smash: Soundwave sticks his chest out and blasts a "soundwave" of loud music that does 15% and has a second of ending lag.
Up Smash: Soundwave strikes a heavy metal pose with his fist in the air, which creates an explosion conjured from the power of ROCK N' ROLL! The explosion does 7% while his fist does 17%. Slight ending lag
Down Smash: Soundwave turns into his cassette player mode and spins around real fast. The attack does 13% and has 1 and a half second ending lag.
AERIALS: Neutral Air: Soundwave does a quick punch in front of him. The attack does 3%.
Forward Air: Soundwave pushes his hands out in front of him, pushing opponents away and doing 7%.
Back Air: Soundwave claps his hands behind him. After the move Soundwave will become completely immobile and fall faster than normal. The attack does 8%.
Up Air: Soundwave spins his entire upper body, giving him a slight boost. The attack does 4%.
Down Air: Soundwave turns into his cassette player form and comes crashing down to the stage. Anyone underneath him will get 10% damage, while anyone to his sides will gain 7% damage.
GRAB GAME: Grab Attack: Soundwave opens his chest compartment and traps the opponent in it. For his pummel he tries to close the compartment with the opponent in it. Each pummel does 2%.
Forward Smash: Laserbeak comes out and carries the opponent 4 Kirbys away. Does 13%.
Back Smash: Beastbox pops out of Soundwave and throws the opponent over Soundwave's head and 3 kirbys away. Does 12%.
Up Throw: Frenzy appears from Soundwave's chest and blasts the opponent upwards with a sound blast. Does 15%.
Down Throw: Rumble comes out and slams the opponent into the ground. Does 17%.
FINAL SMASH: OVERKILL
Soundwave summons his ultimate Cassette-Bot, Overkill. Overkill is as large as Bowser, can breathe fire (18%) and can damage opponents just by jumping on them(19%). Sadly, Overkill is incredibly slow and can only move at the speed of Ganon's walk. Overkill lasts 30seconds because of his slow movements.[/SIZE][/COLOR]
Playstyle: Soundwave is about patience, with his powerful but laggy moves and Final Smash. It also takes time to get the right Cassette-Bot to appear.
EXTRAS: Taunts: Side: Soundwave crosses his arms and says "Soundwave superior!"
Up: Soundwave plays some air guitar.
Down: Frenzy pops out of his chest and high fives Soundwave.
Entrance: Laserbeak swoops down a small cassette player which grows and turns into Soundwave.
Win Poses:
Win 1: Soundwave turns into a cassette player and plays The Touch.
Win 2: Soundwave kneels on his knee and holds his arm out, which Laserbeak flies onto.
Win 3: Soundwave sits on a throne made of Energon cubes with Frenzy and Rumble standing next to it.
Lose Pose: Soundwave plays a recording of people clapping.
Icon: A Decepticon emblem.
Kirby Hat: Kirby gets the top half of Soundwaves head and the ability to shoot the Concussion Blasts.
Alternate Colors:
-All of the blue on Soundwave's body turns red.
-All of the blue on Soundwave's body becomes yellow.
-All of the blue on Soundwave's body turns green
-All of the blue on Soundwave's body turns black.
-All of the blue on Soundwave's body becomes white. ------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is probably terrible I'm sorry.
I think the main thing you need to work on is "number balance". A lot of attacks are measuring their lag times in .5 seconds or greater, but Ike's FSmash is what .5 seconds of lag translates to. Similarly, 10% is average damage in Smash Bros, but Soundwave seems to have really lopsided damage damage with a lot of them doing 5% and the other half doing 13+.
Conceptually, I like how his cassette form is utilized in specific attacks since it's not really something that could be used as a full alternate form. However, I think his minions could have been handled better. I like the idea of adapting to a randomized summon but right now it feels too unreliable to players that might have a preferred summon. Maybe have 2 sets of 3 minions to choose from when you use the move, then it randomly chooses from those 3.
Finally, I would highly suggest not using a single color for an entire moveset, especially that blue. Might I suggest royal blue instead? Giving the move names underlining or bolding would also work wonders.
Bubble Boy
Indeed, while the primary idea is strong, I feel like the execution can falter a little. The Up aerial seems sorta odd, given he can hang on to any bubble: The tier 1 bubbles being so weak and all. Up Smash seems sorta...there-ish, somehow not really meshing well with the rest of the set, even if it does make some sense for stalling purposes, and I would have liked to have seen some more detail on if it has any purpose other than just generic stalling. Not really sold on it workin' well with the Up Special crabs...
I would have also liked to have seen some more direct attack abilities: This guy almost suffers as badly in this department as Luxord, but without the concept that allows it to work. I would have liked to have seen a real Up Smash attack in place of the current U-Smash, maybe an actual up aerial or a throw that deals damage or something. Overall, it's good, but...just that: good.
In the game BubbleMan.exe floats over gaps (technically tiny paths he's far too large to actually walk on) due to being as light as foam. So him using a bubble to float up on isn't exactly out of character. The Up Smash is there more for the sake of being needed for setup, considering it actually has some HP to work with, and can help him get the opponent into the air simply by virtue of them needing to jump over it. Once that's done, he has a somewhat easier time moving them higher up into the air.
And regarding more generic attacks... he actually does have a reasonable number of moves he can use this way. Although things like the F-tilt and N-air aren't designed for close combat, they can definitely be used that way. This also ties into the character and general playstyle... BubbleMan.exe has always fought by hiding behind a wall of bubbles, in actual point blank combat, he's done nothing noteworthy. Still, I gave him enough normal attacks that he's not completely screwed if someone's right next to him.
For example, placing traps and set-ups inside a grab bubble is impossible unless you throw the bubble away first. And the number of set-up moves that require you to be standing on something make it absurdly difficult to put anything in a grab bubble even after you've tossed it.
BubbleMan.exe can get away with this simply due to the fact that bubble creation/improvement has such low lag, and his bubbles are almost everywhere. Even if there isn't a T2/T3 bubble close at hand, he can create one to stand on pretty quickly, or just stand on top of the grab bubble itself.
[/QUOTE]
Having the Jab be the ONLY way Bubbleman can pop a bubble is annoying, but barely acceptable considering he can aim it (But... the Wiimote's D-Pad, and the notches around the Analogue stick, mean that he can only reliably aim in 8 specific directions. Never assume the player has more control than that). However, its frankly baffling when Bubbleman pulls out a harpoon for his Fair.... and places it INSIDE the bubble without popping it.
Well, the reason for this is that BubbleMan.exe rarely wants to pop his own bubbles. With the sheer number of ways he has to manipulate them, there's almost always a better option than just getting rid of the bubble in front of him. The jab is there for getting rid of an up smash barrier or perhaps helping avoid friendly fire in a 2v2 or 3v1. But in general, BubbleMan.exe doesn't really need to destroy his bubbles any more than CloudMan.exe needs to destroy his clouds.
D-tilt could have (should have) been on Up Special as Bubbleman.exe's recovery. As it stands now, he literally has no recovery whatsoever. Ironically however, Bubbleman has an infinite stall technique. 1)Create a tier 2 bubble next to a tier 1 bubble. 2)Cling to the tier 1 bubble and let the bubbles float out of enemy range. 3)Pump the tier 2 bubble with water to stop it rising. 4)Jump on. 5)Profit
These are some pretty good points, you're pretty much correct on both counts.
So, in the interests of fixing my issues in the smallest number of moves, here is what I'd reccommend you change;
When Bubbleman is inside of a bubble let him make the bubble descend/ascend-faster by tilting up or down on the analogue stick (have the bubble pop if Bubbleman makes it descend for a accumulative total of 4 seconds or more)
When Bubbleman latches onto a T1 bubble with Up-air, jumping or pressing up makes the bubble pop, propelling Bubbleman upwards slightly. Pressing left/right has the same effect, popping the bubble, but propelling him horizontally this time.
Move Down Tilt to Up Special and allow its use in midair (don't refresh his recovery if he stands on top of an upgraded bubble)
Make Bubbles pop if they have water inside and someone stands on top of one
These are definitely some things to consider, although I'm unsure of MYM's policy (so to speak) of making changes to a moveset after posting (beyond clarifications or adding in a missing dash attack or such).
[collapse="Flashman.exe"]Another set from your favorite franchise already? You're certainly working hard. From the looks of it, this guy's potential wasn't very bright (lol), much like his level of competency. It's clear the set was made very quickly when 1/3 of the attacks revolve around blinding, and how Flashman is very parched for some actual attacking moves - that doesn't seem necessary when he has an electric blade in the first place, and hence it'll obviously get pretty awkward trying to land that one move. I don't need to say much more when your main goal and KO methods are a bit out of synch, though to be fair it looks as if this guy would win grand prize for most difficult/impractical implication among his peers when it's hard to do anything decent with light. It would be nice if he had more melee attacks to mix in with his flashiness instead of dedicating most his set to the latter, though that might be giving him a bit too much credit when he seems to be the cowardly type who wins by messing with the foe's controls and taking away their moves. That at least balances out the severe lack of kills moves a little. [/collapse]
FlashMan was actually made as a quick set a while before the contest started. The idea with FlashMan was basically to blind the opponent continually, use shining browser crasher to slowly disable them, and then go in for the kill once they're completely crippled. However, I did run into the problem of there being only so many things you can do with blindness as a concept, which really does show. By the way, this is only the second-worst boss for potential in Battle Network 3. If anyone can make a good moveset for BeastMan.exe (http://megaman.wikia.com/wiki/SavageMan), I'll be impressed.
Both BubbleMan.EXE and FlashMan.EXE on the same page. Are you going to he rounding out the elemental bosses with PlantMan.EXE and FlameMan.EXE? I've toyed with a flameman moveset for a while now.
Unlikely, I'm afraid... I've thought about the idea, but the only other bosses from that game I might do are DesertMan and Drill Man... and the former is more likely to be a Sandman(as in the marvel character) set.
BubbleMan.EXE I made a set for back in MYM6, which is now closer to the start of Make Your Move than today is. That makes me feel old. You have some good ideas here and I like the concept of gimping off the top, but there are a lot of flaws that need to he addressed too. The tiered levels of bubbles doesn't really seem to add as much to the moveset depth as it simply does to its complexity and doesn't relate much to BubbleMan.EXE character-wise either.
I think what could do the set the most good and improve it were if you condensed most of your bubble interactions together. I think that if all bubbles behaved like tier two bubbles so that they could be stood upon but had the strength of tier one bubbles it would be a lot simpler, and then you could take better advantage of ground moves that are useful from standing on a bubble.
I'd beg to differ on this count, actually... BubbleMan.exe did much the same thing in his actual boss fight. Most of his bubbles were the same as T1 bubbles, which would explode upon impact, but a select few of them (the ones containing mines) were sturdier, taking a lot more damage to destroy. If I were to make everything into tier 2 bubbles with just 1 HP, then the opponent would have much less to worry about, as anyone with a spammable attack could cut right throw any amount of bubbles (just picture MK using N-air endlessly). It's true the way I did it added some more complexity, but it's necessary.
There are also just far too many moves that don't deal damage at all, or exist for a purpose other than damage. Two of the smashes don't even do damage, and are in the input slot they're in not because they are smash-like attacks but because they simply benefit from a charge function. FlashMan.EXE suffers from an even worse variation of this with three smashes that are all variations of one move with direction of the input corresponding to nothing but giggling which one activates, two of which real no damage.
It's true that there's a few moves that exist for a purpose aside from damage, but this is more of a stylistic difference I feel... in fact, Junahu made a set last contest that never dealt damage at all. I don't really see why a move needs to deal damage so long as it's playstyle relevant. Even in Brawl, we have moves like Mario's fludd that can't deal damage (and others that exist for purposes aside from dealing damages, like the reflectors.)
BubbleMan.EXE has too many toys for playing different games with his bubbles when what he really needs is a solid set of moves to help him move the battle further into the air on his stream of bubbles.
Again, I'd argue that the moves he has are completely sufficient. When everything deals vertical knockback, and the bubbles the foe's standing on are moving upwards, it's the foe that needs a solid set of moves to get back to ground. In fact, it'd be OOC if BubbleMan were to focus on anything aside from playing games with his bubbles. He spends his entire chapter running away, and never leaves the shelter of the back row in his boss fight.
In some ways the same could be said of FlashMan.EXE but with blindness instead of bubbles. The rushed nature of this set is apparent, random removal of a special from a moveset is really an inexcusable move to use. With random ELEC chips filling up the empty spaces, it doesn't really sell itself at all.
I agree with you on this one... partially. FlashMan's problem isn't so much tackiness (the shining browser crasher is something he uses to give Megaman some severe bugs, taking away all his battleships in one sequence and crashing the PET), but moreso that I feel the set doesn't do enough with blindness (simply because it's a limited concept) to make it compelling as the sole focus of the set.
BeastMan.EXE is separated body parts. MYM eats that up
DesertMan.EXE interests me, what with his entire gimmick being that he is permanently stagebound and collapses into sand if touched by so much as a light breeze. How you intend to make a set out of that makes me cautiously curious.
Too respond to some of your responses, I of course think that moves that don't deal damage are okay... to an extent. But that is a role reserved for special moves, not attacks you use with the A button. Smashes are another role entirely, and moves like the down tilt and up aerial should either be special moves, internal mechanics of the bubbles themselves, or be dropped completely.
And let me also correct myself on one thing. Of course BubbleMan.EXE is going to be hiding, cowardly and playing with his bubbles, but be shouldn't need half of his moves dealing no damage and instead focusing on outlying extra mechanics to add in. There is plenty of potential without two moves to fill bubbles up with with water or a dash attack that exists just to turn bubbles around while he is inside. Junahu had some great suggestions on how to address that and make the set much smoother.
BUBBLEMAN.EXE
For what you openly admitted was a simpler set, Bubbleman does introduce a handful of unique annoyances to assist him with his straightforward vertical KOs. In a way, he occupies the air with rising projectiles, enabling him to keep pushing his foe toward the blast zone, as they fall down onto additional bubbles, even after escaping from the surface of an initial one. Bubbleman’s option to spin bubbles with F-Throw or dash attack to keep opponents attacking new portions of bubble brings to mind elements of Luxord, or even Dingodile, occupying them as they continue their ascent.
An additional aspect of the set that seemingly became underplayed as it progressed was Bubbleman’s methods for controlling certain ‘tiers’ of bubbles with others; a larger bubble, for example, may hold back an increasingly large amount of homing smaller ones, eventually releasing a massive barrage of projectiles at foes to pop them upward bit by bit. While these smaller portions of the set are all well and good, Bubbleman also contains a number of odd inputs, as well as filler moves scattered here and there that prop up certain strategies well, but don’t contribute much coherence to the set as a whole (this is especially evident in the throws, IMO). The conceptual tackiness of larger characters standing on bubbles is also arguably humorous, but might turn-off others in the process. This Bubbleman is a strong enough reboot of his previous MYM incarnation, though I suspect it will fade into the background as your later efforts leave it in the dust.
SAWTOOTH AND SQUAREWAVE
The importance of versatility in a moveset can’t be understated, as various playground sets have proven over MYM’s history. Though the characters’ animations are noteworthy here, creating a literal chart they must follow in order to adapt one of two playstyles is absolutely forced, and rather predictable to boot. The characters have the base for -some- degree of projectile gameplay with their aerials, though when the rest of the set seems mainly focused on trying to be unpredictable and flashy, it never really picks up speed. I don’t want to rag on the set too much, considering the clear effort that went into its various playstyle paths, but its befuddling restrictive nature (in addition to its unnecessary bias against robotic foes) holds it back when the characters could bring more to the table than they do here.
Just as a reply to this, since it's a question and I read the set: The Neutral Special doesn't only affect robotic foes, just does more damage to them.
[collapse="Princess Bubblegum"]Surprisingly enough, I came into this set expecting quite a bit from the nicely polished organization and lengthy lines despite being a one-day set. Funny how that works. The set's somewhat weak in many areas, however, as much as I kind of wish it wasn't (we're talking about a character voiced by Hynden Walch here!). The bubblegum hair is interesting as a passive mechanic on Bubblegum, but is downplayed by making it a simple grab hitbox and nothing much else (naturally, it could have been more elaborate given it's gum). This obviously affects the performance of the rest of the set, which is actually likable in terms of execution despite being a little bland - while you do have the knives, I was expecting more creepiness and scientific breakthroughs of which could have been used as a nice playground, as not too much is done with what you do have like with the giantness. Despite the general negative nature of my comment, I can't help but feel your movesetting is improving a little, becoming more natural and self-proficient - it's just here that the idea was taken in an underwhelming one-dayer, but that can't be helped from the excitement that came from that first day. I do look forward to seeing what you do later on, however.[/collapse]
Let's start with the really good stuff, which is a really nice playstyle, primarly based around shield pressure and a semi-unique stun that doesn't completely destroy the foe's defensive options, just their offensive ones. Garble doesn't have a ton of particularly unique moves, but many of them serve competent and interesting playstyle functions, the back aerial being a favorite of mine in this regard, with it's multiple uses, both simple and advanced, along with functioning as shield pressure, all without delving into being too...special for a non-special.
Garble combines this with a basic minion game whose use allows it to be slightly different, working not on numbers, but rather their abilities to have out multiple hitboxes to cover for Garble's issues, especially the somewhat bad overall ending lag of his attacks. Because they take time to come out, have cooldown and are unique, as in you can only have one out, timing and thougtfulness is required in their usage, turning what could have been a somewhat dull addition into a more thoughtfully complex with a simple approach idea.
Garble's aerial prowess is, of course, large. He is, after all, a dragon that seems to be a pretty fine flyer. His aerial game, while largely simple, is also very effective, especially with the cool Neutral Aerial, which essentially gives him an air jab combined with a pretty cool special air dodge rolled into one. This allows him not only to be competent without his minions, but even fairly good, combining a somewhat keep away and stun ground game with it's strong aerial game. It's fortunately not without his weaknesses though: Garble has trouble hitting anyone who can get above him in the air and even on the ground, his anti-air options are not always the best.
Plus, this set has extras, tons of extras, and generally some pretty fun ones too. Even has a cool final smash. I like that.
Overall, some graceful flow, combined with a decent concept and some excellent execution, along with the presence of some nice extras, puts it at the top for the start of this contest.
Where's my baseball card?
Lesse...Princess Bubblegum, eh? Never seen Adventure Time, but it apparantly has a princess with science and presumably at least one episode worth of zombies, so I should check it out.
The set itself, however, is actually really fun. Princess Bubblegum here has a grab hitbox behind her because, well, she has long, sticky hair that drags behind her, sort of obvious, don't you think? Using this as a base, Bubblegum works her sticky web onto the stage, as opponent's have to choose between cutting off her hair to make it easier to be behind her and leaving behind sticky traps or trying to avoid being behind Bubblegum at all, which is certainly troublesome. She can also cut off her own hair to remove the middle man, though this carries the same risk-reward of losing some of your own hair to create the traps, not to mention Bubblegum herself isn't immune to the traps.
But this base is built upon nicely with the addition of other moves, most notably two types of tethers: One is more of a tether recovery, while the other is a stage tether, where she gums her hair to the stage and forces the foe to either hit her extremely hard to hit her out of it or cut off the hair...which in turn, creates the aforementioned hair traps, a nice catch-22. And Bubblegum even brings something new to the good ol' tether recovery, as instead of merely being a normal tether, Bubblegum hangs from the stage, free to swing to and fro via DI or even use some of her own moves to help out, though she can also pull herself up in a more convientional manner if need be...and of course, her hair is still a grab hitbox.
Finally, the science part I mentioned? Not kidding, as Bubblegum will gladly whip out some genius in the form of potions, most notably a growth potion, which can grow the foe to large levels for easier comboing or to make them a larger target for your hair or for you to actually grow your hair large, similiarly making it bigger for the grab hitbox or to give you more to cut off. Did I mention she can also capture a foe in a bubble via her standard grab for added gimping? Yeah, Bubblegum's a great gimper, given the grab hitbix nature of her hair and her aerials, which are pretty chill for it, especially her Back Aerial and Up Aerial.
As some minor complaints, the F-Tilt and D-Tilt should probably have had their inputs switched (Edit: This has now been actually done), and I really wish that Bubblegum had a standard grab game in addition to her bubble: The bubble could be put on pummel or special pummel, while allowing the Princess a full four throw grab game, which would be able to play into the hair game via Back Throw and give her even a few more options, especially a way to launch the foe into the air more reliably with a UThrow or something. Not a complaint, but might I also add I love the way the DSmash interacts with the stage tether? Very nice.
By far, this is my favorite of any set of yours I've read, with the only notable one I still need to read being finishing Dutchman. It's not quite equal to Garble, but in my opinion, it is still leagues above any non-Garble set posted so far, and actually a very pleasant set overall.
FLAAAAASH...AAAAAAAAAAAAH!
Apologies if this comment is short, but well, there is little to discuss and what is discussed already has been.
The set actually has a kinda neat base, as the idea is to blind the foe via your Neutral Special and destroy their moveset via Down Special or just beat on them. I think the biggest failing is that it is a bit too easy to do this: Down Throw is really quite broken for this, as it all but assures that you'll get off a Neutral Special, which means you'll probably get off the Down Special. It might have been a better idea to combine the three smashes into one move somehow, as having all three dedicated to the lamp game leaves Flashman a bit poor on the options and attacks end, given the throws being hypnotism, the specials almost all non-damaging and such. It could have been a good idea to place it on the Forward Special with some way to shuffle through them and had the current Side Special as the Forward Smash, while freeing up two smashes for whatever purpose you want. This would also allow you to transfer the very awkwardly placed Up Aerial onto a more natural Down Smash location.
Finally, there isn't really too much interesting to the set, with the hypnosis being okay but not really playstyle relevant, flow probably pretty average, execution shaky. Can't say I really enjoyed it, though it's not really a hateable set, just sorta...blah. Oh well. You still have Bubbleman, at least, so that's good.
BeastMan.EXE is a generic NetNavi antagonist from Mega Man Battle Network 3. I'd like to say I'm wrong but given that the entirity of what I know of him comes from childhood memories of his maybe one appearance on the show and the Wiki page, I think that is really all there is to say on the matter.
On the plus side, he looks awesome.
Catistics.EXE
BeastMan.EXE, hereafter referred to simply as "BeastMan" for simplicity, stands in a somewhat hunched over or crouched down posture, like a cat ready to pounce on unsuspecting prey. While this lowers his vertical size, it makes him a bit more bulky horizontally. Overall, he's about the same size as Snake, but a little bulkier on the sides. On the plus side, however, BeastMan is much faster than Snake: His movement speed is about the same as Sheik's on the ground, giving him plenty of stride in his step to chase down foes. He's got above average traction.
Aerially, BeastMan is not as proficient of a hunter, but he does have very fast aerial speed and average control. On the flipside, however, he falls very fast, and while that is good for his vertical endurance, it's bad for his actual combat ability and makes him a bit more of combo and juggle fodder. This is not helped by his weight, as while he is not a true HMA, he does clock in as heavy as Ike, meaning he is pretty combo-able without the survival of heavier characters.
BeastMan has the ability to Crawl and wall jump, but cannot glide or float. He can wall cling, but only with the help of a move that you will be seeing shortly. As a side note, BeastMan's wall jump is quite sizable, going about 3/4th the height of Falco's first jump.
Specials.EXE
NeutralSpecial.WildRush
Wild Rush is an ability shown by BeastMan in his battles: The ability to seperate his claws and head to attack the foe. And while BeastMan won't be detaching his head in Brawl, he will be utilizing the claw.
When this move is used, with minimal startup lag, BeastMan simply leaves one of his arms wherever he is when he used it, seperated from his body. While seperated, the claw isn't too big, about 1/3rd the size of a Battlefield platform, maaaaaaybe slighty larger. The claw will remain stationary wherever it was and is completely unaffected by attacks, as if it was part of the stage. It functions as a platform wherever it is and, if used on the ground, stays at the level BeastMan's arm would be at there, usually about a Jigglypuff above the ground. The platform is non-dropdown and both sides of it act as walls, so yes, you can wall jump off of them.
The part you are all probably waiting for is here as well: The claws will mimic any claw-based attack BeastMan makes when he inputs it, usually doing something a bit different due to, you know, being detatched from his body and all. You can detatch both of BeastMan's claws if you want, which will cause his claw-based attacks to be replaced with different, almost always worse, attacks, while the claws will perform their usual gig. The claws always perform the attack when inputted, so you may wish to be careful when attacking the foe. If BeastMan is performing a move that does not cause the claws to do anything, he can input a move that would cause them to during the starting lag, ending lag or during the move itself to have the claws do that. He can't do it during hitstun or being grabbed or anything, though.
If this move is attempted to be used with no claws out, nothing will happen. BeastMan has other ways of getting his claws back.
SideSpecial.BeastRay
BeastMan leaps forward with one claw at the ready, before striking at the apex of a somewhat small jump with a strong slash. This move has a bit of startup as BeastMan prepares his leap, but not much, and has a modest end lag. Visually, it is similiar to Wolf's Side Special, but with a slightly higher jump and distance. The leap itself deals 3% damage and set knockback that will usually combo right into the slash at the end, which deals 11% damage and decent knockback that KOs at 180% or so, which is largely vertical in nature.
This move has a few special quirks to it that make it pretty cool. First off, remember how I said BeastMan can wall cling with a move? This would be that move, though it requires you to have at least one claw: Press B when you hit a wall and BeastMan will cling to it. BeastMan can actually move up and down the wall by moving the control stick, moving at his walk speed. With one claw, he can hang on two seconds at the most: Two claws doubles this to four seconds. If you press A when you hit a wall, though, you'll instead wall jump off of the wall, at 1.5x BeastMan's normal wall jump height. Given that the sides of many stages count as walls, this gives BeastMan quite the recovery. By the by, if you want to jump out of the wall cling like normal, just press the jump button or A.
Finally, if you hold down B through the entire move, BeastMan will pick up any claws that he put down along the way and, if he had no claws, use it to perform the last part of this move. If BeastMan has no claws, he cannot perform the wall cling portion of this move and the attack at the end of the move is removed. This move does not send BeastMan into helpless, but like Diddy's Monkey Flip, it can only be used once in the air. BeastMan's claws will not react to this attack.
UpSpecial.JumpingClaw
BeastMan prepares a moment for somewhat above average startup, before suddenly leaping up a great distance! This move goes about 3/4th the distance of DeDeDe's Up Special, but unlike the Up Special, you have full DI the whole time and can grab the ledge without cancelling. At the apex of the jump, BeastMan will perform a single and low power but quick slash, which deals 3% and freeze frame knockback. Freeze frames are those things that make the foe stick in place when you hit them with Wolf's Forward Tilt, by the way, which this move's freeze frames last the same as.
This is move has another added attack to it, however, if you press the B button after the little slash: BeastMan will leap at a 90 degree angle downwards, claw or claws in front of him, dragging any foe he hit with the first attack down with him due to the freeze frames, or anyone that he happens to hit otherwise, in rapid 1% flinching hits. BeastMan won't stop this attack until he self-destructs or hits the ground, but if he hits the foe with this, the rapid hits will make sure the opponent takes the same route as him, making it a good suicide KO option. If you do hit the ground with the attack, the impact deals 5% damage and set knockback that puts the foe half a Battlefield distance away in sliding(ala D3's D-Throw), with both in frame neutral, to anyone who happens to be right where BeastMan landed or was caught in the descent attack. While this added attack is very risky, it's ability to surprise suicide KO or rack up some decent damage should not be underestimate. BeastMan will not sweetspot the ledge during his descent attack.
If BeastMan has no claws, this attack turns into strictly a high jump with no attack at the end, and BeastMan loses the ability to use the descent attack. Any claws out, when this move is used, will attack a Ganondorf's height at a 90 degree angle upwards to whichever side the sharp claw part is facing, then turn around and attack the same way back to where it was before. This attack deals 11% damage and knockback that follows the trajectory of the claw. In addition, the sharp part of the claw will be turned around. The fact it hits upwards like that makes it decent for covering this attack, but you'll never really want to use it as an attack, due to having to use the Up Special with it.
This move puts BeastMan in helpless.
DownSpecial.BackSlash
BeastMan flashes for a moment, putting up a single claw as defense. That's right, it's a counter!
If BeastMan is hit with this move, which comes out about as fast as Marth's counter and lasts slightly longer, he'll disappear from dashing just that quickly behind the foe, slashing for an attack which deals 1.2x the damage and knockback of the move it countered, with all of the knockback being converted into pure vertical knockback from the upward striking slash. This is a pretty solid defensive move, although like all counters, it's weakness is grabs. While it can counter projectiles, if you are too far away, the attack will be slowed down due to travel time to get there and the foe can probably just shield it, though you at least now have approached them pretty easily.
If you have no claws, this attack changes slightly, as BeastMan instead gets into an armless defensive posture, with half the frames of actual counter, with the other half turned into end lag. In addition, BeastMan merely headbutts the foe, dealing 0.8x the damage and knockback of the countered attack. The claws don't do anything for this attack, for the extremely logical reason of them usually being immune to attacks and thus having them do a counter move is pants on head ********.
Standards.EXE
NeutralAttack.TripleCombo
BeastMan quickly slashes from the right, then quickly slashes from the left, then performs a quick headbutt for a 1-2-3 combo jab. The first two slashes deal identical 4% damage and flinching knockback, while the headbutt deals 8% damage and knockback that KOs at 225%. The first two hits combo into the last hit, although the hitstun is a bit too small to combo the first two hits into itself reliably against people who know how to smash DI.
While a nice method of racking up a sweet 16% damage, this move becomes steadily less effective as you lose claws. Having only one claw causes BeastMan to slash only once before the headbutt, while having no claws means he goes right to the headbutt, making it essentially a quicker Ganondorf jab. This move also does not cause the claws to do anything, though this is not necessarily a bad thing, as it means you have a quick attack to use without messing with your claws. Whether you're damage racking with both claws or quickly getting a monkey off your back when you're claw-less, the jab's quick strike capability and potential damage racking make it a staple of BeastMan's game.
DashAttack.HeadRush
BeastMan rushes forward, putting his head down and forward for a vicious headbutt. By putting all of his weight behind the attack, it gets a little bit above average startup, but it's also crushingly strong for a dash attack, dealing 14% damage and knockback that KOs at 155%, making it a decent late KO move. Ending lag isn't particularly bad, but not particularly good, either.
This, along with your jab, is a ground move that doesn't involve your claws, allowing you to combine it with your claws during the move or safely throw out without worrying about the claws. A particularly fun combination is to use your dash attack and quickly input a Forward Tilt that will cut across the opposite direction, catching the foe in a pincer plan. What Forward Tilt, you ask? The Forward Tilt that is the next move, of course.
ForwardTilt.ClawClash
BeastMan very quickly slashes his claw forward, a blistering fast movement which has very quick startup and very little ending lag, making it very easy to throw out. Unfortunately, it also lacks good damage and knockback, dealing only 9% damage and moderate at best knockback. At the same time, it's still a very good attack, due to the ease of which you can throw it out, while usually getting a bit more of a breather than the jab.
If you have a detatched claw, though, you're also introduced to a bread and butter move of BeastMan's ground offense, as the claw rushes forward with a stabbing motion an entire Battlefield platform, before coming to a rest. This allows you to have a very active, very long range hitbox to interact with, especially as it can come around during or after an attack, covering end lag, creating simple and small two hit combos or even coming from another direction to cut off escape, all kinds of combinations. This attack is actually a bit stronger than BeastMan's F-Tilt with the claw on him, dealing 10% damage and knockback that KOs around...oh...190%. As a note, the claws always rush in whatever direction the sharp, pointy part of the claw is facing, even if you input the opposite direction.
And if BeastMan has no claws? Then he'll rear back for a headbutt, then slam his head forward with it for a nice hit. While it's still pretty fast on startup, it's in no way the blistering normal Forward Tilt, though it does a better 11% damage that KOs at 190%...it's ending lag, however, is horrible, as BeastMan has to right himself without arms. The ending lag is more fitting for a smash than a tilt, really. Maybe some properly placed claws could cover the ending lag...?
UpTilt.LionChase
BeastMan quickly gives an upward slash with his claw. While not as quick as his Forward Tilt, it is still pretty fast, and it doesn't have much end lag. It does a crisp and clean 11% damage, with no caffeine, and strictly vertical knockback that KOs at 175%, making it an excellent launcher to transition the foe into your air game. Just like Forward Tilt, this is pretty safe to throw out, but with a more general function of air game transitions. It also hits slightly in front of BeastMan, as many up tilts do, if that wasn't obvious.
With a claw hanging free, the claw will turn vertically, then rush upwards a Battlefield platform, dealing the same damage that Forward Tilt did. If you forgot, that's 10% damage and knockback that KOs at 190%, though this knockback is strictly vertical given the angle. The claw will stay vertically aligned after this, making it more like a wall than a platform, and moves which would cause it to move treat up as forward. As an example, the Forward Tilt would cause it to move upwards instead of forwards. Or, in more crystal clear terms, the way the claw is pointing is always forward for the claw. At low damage %s, this claw-Up Tilt can combo into itself.
If you happen to have no claws while you use Up Tilt, BeastMan will instead perform a generic upwards headbutt, which deals the same damage as the normal Up Tilt, with the same startup, but a lot worse ending lag: While not as bad as non-claw Forward Tilt's, it is still heavily punishable, so don't go around abusing it.
DownTilt.PantherPounce
BeastMan does a quick little swipe with his claw. As you may have guessed, BeastMan's tilts have speed in mind, and just like his other two tilts, with similiarly small end lag, though it's kinda close to average. This move deals 11% damage and has the most knockback of BeastMan's tilts, KOing at 165%, and has a bit of an odd trajectory to it, popping the foe up with primarily vertical knockback, but also backwards knockback, letting the move be used as an effective setup for a backwards chase or to space the foe behind you.
With a claw hanging free, as you may have guessed, the claw swipes downwards and, if it is in the air, goes down up to a Battlefield platform down, depending on if it is possible, with the same damage and knockback as the other two free claw tilts...with the exception of the downward knockback being much easier to KO with off the stage, due to effectively acting as a spike. You can also use this to bring down claws, of course, though it's range of use is slightly more limited than the Forward Tilt or Up Tilt due to it being more easily stopped by the stage existing. If you use it while the claws are vertical due to Up Tilt, this will turn them back horizontal.
With no claws, BeastMan performs a generic low sweep with his claws, dealing a quick but weak 6% damage that lightly pops the foe up with pure vertical but very weak knockback. Even at 999%, it won't KO, though this does mean that due to it's low end lag, you can try chaining them against larger low % characters. It's also the fastest of any of his arm-free tilts, though you have the jab for such a situation anyway.
Smashes.EXE
UpSmash.ClawThrust
BeastMan thrusts his claw up while pointing it slightly up, dealing a pretty strong 15%-20% that, while not an insane KO move, still offers KO potential, killing at 140%-100%. Knockback is 100% vertical. Startup is fairly quick for a smash, but it's above average ending lag makes it punishable, especially with grabs or strong tilts. Still, it has some nice range with good power behind it, making it an excellent launching option for getting the foe in the air.
But what you're really going to use this move for is it's effect on your claws. Using this does not necessarily cause them to become a hitbox, but instead causes them to simply move "up" like a moving platform as the insane speed of Sonic's dash, with how far they go depending on the charge: From one Ganondorf at none, to three Ganondorfs at maximum. Remember how they work as platforms, non-drop through? Now imagine suddenly throwing one of those under the foe, possibly right up and off the stage, or maybe just make them have to travel further down to get to the ground, letting you further your aerial game with the time...but even more dastardly is when you use this with a claw that has aligned itself vertically via the Up Tilt. Since "up" is now the side, this will of course cause the claw to move sideways! Given it's a solid wall and all, that's very deadly to someone returning to the stage, letting you shove foes from the ledge without getting yourself in harm's way or letting them get their recoveries back, or even shove them off in the first place! The possibilites are vast. Not to mention combining two claws together for multiple shenanigans...
If you have no claws on your personage, then this move turns into a strong backwards headbutt, which deals merely 13-16% damage that KOs at 180%-140%, but it does still almost entirely vertical knockback, along with very slightly behind BeastMan, with the biggest let down for this attack being it's massive end lag, similiar to the end lag of many of the laggier end lag smashes in Brawl, though it's startup is still faster than average.
ForwardSmash.CrescentHowler
BeastMan rears his claws back before slashing forward, the slash looking a bit like a crescent in how it is slashed. Unlike most of BeastMan's moves to this point, it's startup is slow, and it's ending lag isn't gotten through quickly either. But it's also his most powerful move and KO potential among smashes, dealing a crushing 18%-23% and knockback that KOs at 90%-65%. This move's application is obvious: It's your best KO move and tossing it out trying to get an early KO is an entirely viable idea.
It's use with the detatched claws is very simple, as it performs the exact same move as BeastMan does, simply seperate from his body: It's a very simple effect for a very simple move, but the ability to perform a strong KO move in two places is not something to be taken lightly, especially since it means BeastMan can perform it from a long enough distance not to get burned by the end lag.
Without any of his claws, BeastMan provides a strong kick in front of him, which is slightly faster than the default Forward Smash startup-wise, but laggier on the end lag, in addition to being weaker, dealing 16%-19% damage and KOing at 115%-95%. While a weaker attack, it means you've got three pretty strong hitboxes coming out, so it can actually be really neat, and it's still a pretty strong move. It does also lose out on some range, though.
DownSmash.SpinSlash
BeastMan sweeps his claw to the front, then the back, of him. Startup is average, possibly just slightly below, but it has low ending lag, making it the least punishable of BeastMan's smashes, while still dealing a strong 16%-20% and knockback that KOs at 135%-105%, which sends at a shallow angle up and away. Range is pretty nice due to the claws as well, which makes it an excellent GTFO move.
Detatched claws do a fairly fancy little trick when you use this, as they jolt forward about half a Battlefield platform, then quickly turn around and jolt backwards 3/4th of a Battlefield platform, meaning it ends up 1/4th of a Battlefield platform to the back of wherever it started. This entire motion is done swiftly, covers good range and deals some vicious damage, 13%-15% and knockback that KOs at 150%-135% at the same angle as the Down Smash itself. In addition, this move's movement causes the claw to turn around, letting you do so without having to take to the Up Special. Using this in the air allows more precise movement, but also allows you to cover some insane vertical space, not to mention punish air dodging it, making it very dangerous given it's good knockback and decent damage.
Without claws, this move becomes bit more awkward, as BeastMan kicks forward and then backwards, like Ganondorf's Down Smash. Just like the big lug's Down Smash, it is also a two part combo, with the first hit dealing backwards knockback and 3%-4% damage, which causes it to combo into the second hit of 14%-18%, with knockback that KOs at 140%-120%. It also has more ending lag, making it more punishable, even if it deals more damage, and loses out on some range compared to the clawed version, though when combined with the claws, it can cover a LOT of space.
Grab Game.EXE
NormalGrab.GrabClaw
BeastMan grabs in front of him with his claw, aiming a bit up, which can cause him to miss really low crouching characters. It's quite quick and it has very good but not quite D3 range, so use it liberally.
When BeastMan grabs, so do all of his detatched claws. Thanks to the slight upward movement of the grab, the claws will grab anyone on top of them, so the platforms are pretty much only safe for BeastMan. The claw will hold the foe in a completely normal grab and be able to use any of BeastMan's throws by using the Shield Button + Direction. Shield Button + A allows him to Pummel and Shield Button + B activates his Special Pummel, which we will get to in a moment.
If BeastMan has no claws, he cannot grab, but using the grab still causes his claws to grab. Remember this defensive lack if you remove all your claws.
SpecialGrab.ClawGrab
If you input the Special Button as a grab while near a claw, BeastMan will reattach the claw to him. This is the simplest and most effective way of getting a claw re-attached. If you are standing on a claw, this will reattach it and send BeastMan into aerial mode. This has no other use.
NormalPummel.ClawCrush
BeastMan or his claw tightens their grip on the foe, dealing 2%. Pretty fast pummel, so feel free to pile on some damage here. Nothing special here.
SpecialPummel.PreyCalling
BeastMan's special pummel may only be used if the foe is grabbed by a detatched claw. The special pummel causes the claw to grip the foe tight, dealing 2% like the pummel, and rocket towards BeastMan, reattaching to him and continuing the grab there. In essence, it allows you to reattach a claw and reposition the foe to where you are instead of where the claw grabbed them, in addition to allowing you to reposition a claw or what not. Note that the foe can still escape from the grab during this and any struggling they do counts towards escaping the grab, but even if they escape mid-flight, the claw will return to BeastMan. The claw will go around any obstacles it can and, if it cannot, the Special Pummel ends and returns to normal grab mode.
DownThrow.ChokeSlam
BeastMan or his claw lift the foe up, before throwing them straight down in a slam. This move deals 9% damage and has pretty powerful downward knockback: If they hit the stage, they'll end up in prone, allowing either a certain Down Tilt or for Beast Man to tech chase the foe, which can be even more deadly when combined with possible claw placement, though it's impossible to truly chaingrab with it. However, this move is very deadly when combined with the detatched claw, when used off the stage, sicne as I said, pretty powerful downward knockback...so it essentially turned into a spike. And while it's no Ganondorf DAir, it's still pretty strong. That's all I have to say on the matter.
UpThrow.ClawHurl
BeastMan or his claw grip the foe and give them a hard upwards chuck, dealing 9% damage and decent but not great upward knockback, enough to transition into an aerial game at higher %s, but not at low %s. Something special about this move is that the claw will burst up half a Ganondorf before tossing the foe, letting it gather the energy required to make the toss...and making it that much easier to KO the foe off the top, especially if you just used the detatched claw Up Smash to get them right up there. In other words, it's like a reverse spike, being a great KOer off the top.
ForwardThrow.CheetahToss
BeastMan or his claw rush forward a Battlefield platform, or if he hits a ledge early for BeastMan, then tosses the throw forward with the momentum gained from this, dealing 12% and impressive knockback, which thanks to good knockback scaling can KO at 160%, though the fact the claw rushes forward during this can cause some impressive early KOs if you place it off the edge, rushing towards the edge a Battlefield platform before tossing them and all. And BeastMan's ability to travel the same distance can also help the knockback and, if nothing else, it functions as a GTFO throw, good for spacing or KO power. In other words, pretty neat.
BackThrow.HuntersCycle
BeastMan or his claws spins around three times with the foe, the first two to pick up speed, before throwing them away on the third rotation for 15% damage and decent knockback that can KO at...oh...180% or so. While this throw does not have as many uses as the other throws, especially detatched-wise, it is BeastMan's highest damage throw and deals some decent knockback, so it's another good GTFO move or the best damage racker if you don't wish to use Down Throw to D-Tilt or if it has staled any. It also turns BeastMan around, if that's important for some reason.
Aerials.EXE
UpAerial.HeadButt
BeastMan does a quite swift headbutt upwards. This move comes out quick, deals a solid 12% damage, pops the foe up high for continued juggling, doesn't have a lot of ending lag and doesn't mess with your claws, which when all combined, makes this BeastMan's go-to attack for aerial striking and juggling. It's greatest weakness are that it only hits above and right around the middle of BeastMan, making it a bit easy to avoid, it's short duration making it easily air dodge-able and, of course, BeastMan's own falling speed, which can make aerial juggling either very easy or very hard depending on your claw formation and the stage.
Some fun stuff to do is to use this, then land on a claw as a platform and quickly perform an Up Smash, allowing you to swiftly move up a Ganondorf to chase the opponent and go from there: If they are below you, odds are your fast falling speed means you can catch them with a fastfall, while if they are even or above you, you can either attempt to transition back into a juggling game or land a FAir/DAir depending on the situation. If you can catch them on the claw, you could even use an Up Throw for dangerous KO potential, not to mention making the claw a bit unwanted to land on. Or even just pop them up, land on the ground, chase with a detatched claw U-Tilt or some such. Lots of possibilities, you dig?
NeutralAerial.SweepClaw
BeastMan juts out both claws to the side, then sweeps them up, causing the foe to be hit up vertically somewhat strongly, dealing 11% damage and knockback that KOs at about 135%, making it good for popping the foe up...but the startup and end lag is slower than the Up Aerial, the end lag actually being kinda bad for an aerial, though it's somewhat long duration makes it great for punishing spot dodges. Choosing between the Neutral Aerial and the Up Aerial for your juggling game generally depends on the situation, with Up Aerial generally winning out, but Neutral Aerial good for spot dodges punishing, attacking to the sides as well and possibly comboing with it's detatched claw attack.
As a note, this is one of the rare attacks that changes if you have one claw as opposed to two, as BeastMan will do more of an upward sweep from the direction of his remaining arm, dealing the same damage and such, but only getting the side-damage on one side, though it still has good range.
This move's detatched claw attack is fairly useful, as the claw spins dangerous in place for a fair bit, dealing a solid 10% damage to anyone who touches it and popping the foe horizontally with good vertical knockback, though it's by no means a KO move. Combining this move with the Neutral Aerial's attack can create a great hard to escape situation, with fairly long hitboxes all around, or be used to keep the foe even more weary of the claw. Or you could even hit someone with the Neutral Aerial into the claw for some massive damage!
Without any claws, BeastMan simply does a generic sex kick, which deals 9% damage that eventually goes down to 5% at the end of the sex kick and light upwards knockback. While not exciting, it's duration makes it impossible to air dodge, and it can still be used to pop the foe up into the spinning claws. It also has very low lag on both ends, making it actually a very good short hop approach option, if you want to pressure the foe while armless.
ForwardAerial.SlashStrike
BeastMan performs a quick sweeping slash with his claw, dealing 13% damage and good knockback on the hit, which KOs at around 120% with primarily horizontal knockback. Although it comes out fast, it's ending lag is quite poor, which makes BeastMan punishable and can mean some serious landing lag, meaning this move's use should probably be chosen wisely. Still, it's KO potential should not be underestimated, as at the least it can be very scary to for edgeguarding purposes or even used as a primary KO option for a very aerial-based BeastMan.
With a detatched claw, the claw performs the exact same attack as BeastMan does, with the exact same properties as the above attack. Much like the Forward Smash, it's a very direct use for a very direct move, as simply spreading multiple KO hitboxes around, especially in the air, can be extremely dangerous. Plus, unlike you, the detatched claws can't be punished, so the endling lag isn't as bad.
Without any claws, BeastMan instead performs a quick roundhouse with his leg, which starts up just as fast as the normal version, deals 11% damage and has KO potential at 155%, though it has even worse ending lag than the normal move, which means even though it doesn't lose too much damage/KO potential, it's quite the risky move, especially with BeastMan's fall speed. Still, considering you will also have two claws using Forward Aerials, this move can create some very strong and powerful aerial pressure, if you can get the foe near them.
DownAerial.SwiftImpalement
BeastMan raises his claw before bringing it down for a vicious stabbing spike. This is quite the strong aerial, dealing 15% damage and straight downward knockback that is quite strong, making it a nasty little spike. It's average starting lag and hefty ending lag make it a somewhat risky attack however, though it does at least also hit above BeastMan at the very start of the move, which can make it a fun way to end a combo or, if you prefer a more ground-based BeastMan, get the opponent back down ASAP. And if nothing else, it deals 15% damage, which makes it pretty good.
Detatched claws will deal a much swifter downward slash when this move is used, although they can't get nearly the power behind their attacks as BeastMan can, dealing only 10% and a much more average spike if it's sweetspotted at the tip of the claw. Non-sweetspotted hits can also be quite useful, however, dealing 8% and popping the foe vertically with decent knockback, though the risks of the main move make this somewhat hard to do....unless you have no claws, anyway.
With no claws, BeastMan instead simply performs a strong kick with his legs down. And while it only deals 11% damage and an average spike, probably a bit less than Mario's FAir, it also comes out pretty fast with only average ending lag, making it much safer to throw out than the normal Down Aerial. Depending on how you play BeastMan, it is arguably more useful than the normal Down Aerial, though the loss of the ability to also hit above BeastMan with the move is much mourned. It does allow you to better abuse the detatched claw moves, though...
BackAerial.LionThrust
Probably BeastMan's most generic aerial, BeastMan simply does a quick kick behind him with his sharp feet, dealing 12% damage and good knockback that KOs at around 145%, primarily horizontal in nature, with quick startup but slightly above average ending lag, though it's not exactly too hefty. Because it's a non-claw move, it doesn't interact with your detatched claws, which can make it useful in it's own way, and being a quick backward attack is useful, but there's not much to it. Kicking is good.
Final Smash.EXE
FinalSmash.ArmCrash
If BeastMan has no arms, he will reattach them laglessly for this move, which causes him to send an arm flying forward at the speed of Link's Triforce Slash. If he hits the foe with this amr, he will launch his other one as well, as the two arms fly at the foe and repeatedly pound them, dealing a total of 50% over a long span of attacks, before finally adding 10% as they smash into the foe at the same time and then return to BeastMan, dealing somewhat underwhelming knockback that can KO at around 100%. But if the foe just took 60%, you should be killing them soon anyway, shouldn't you?
Playstyle.EXE
BeastMan has a lot of different ways to play him, primarly depending on how you configure your arms, so let's go over those. The most basic is simply to play BeastMan as a quick hitting character, using his quick tilts and good jab damage along with good recovery and weight to make up for being combo fodder, that sort of thing. It's not terribly interesting, but it's playable, you know? You even get some basic tech chasing with your D-Throw.
But the real meat of the moveset comes when your friends don't dance and if they don't dance, well, leave your arms behind. BeastMan can do a lot with his arms once they get detatched, and what he will do will primarily depend on which type of KO you want to go for: Vertical or horizontal.
People going for the vertical knockout are going to want to abuse the Up Smash and be much more willing to lose both of their arms. By getting the foe upwards with the Up Smash if they happen to get under a claw, you can swiftly combo into deadly keeping your opponent in the air, especially by getting off an Up Throw while they're on the claw, swiftly climbing up 2+ Ganondorfs into the air plus the vertical knockback from the Up Throw...and then BeastMan still has his nice combinations with the Up Aerial's solid damage and juggling ability, though they must be weary of an aerial BeastMan's worse enemy, his own fall speed, which can cut aerial combos short and generally be annoying. Landing on your own claw can help to alleviate this by refreshing your jumps, though a platform on the stage works just as well. Another option, if you have a claw aligned vertically via Up Tilt or properly placed otherwise, is to wall jump off of it to continue the chase through the air: You can even Side Special into a claw to hop into the air via it's wall jump while attacking at the same time! And don't forget, you can Up Smash while ON a claw, using it to carry you up swiftly and without using a jump. Same with Down Tilt down or Forward Tilt forward.
There are some aerial advantages to keeping one claw around, though, and that's the Forward Aerial and Down Aerial, both of which can be powerful damage and KO tools. Generally speaking, a BeastMan who goes this way will not abuse Up Smash, but will use his claw more as an extra platform from which to refresh his jumps or establish a NAir hit, with the end goal generally being Down Aerialling the foe into the ground for better KOing, spiking them off the edge with the Down Aerial or, if not staled a lot, a straight-up KO with the Forward Aerial.
However, BeastMan can also stay in his more natural ground habitat, where he does not need to contend against his own fall speed, and instead use his good ground mobility and claw multi-attacks to strike the foe. Generally, a ground BeastMan will keep one claw for himself, due to the sheer quality difference between grounded claw and non-claw attacks and will abuse the jab's decent damage potential and the Forward Tilt's ability to combo with itself or cover it's own lag to keep the foe aggressively attacked. They also love abusing that low-risk Down Smash, as with the claw, it will cover a great area with good damage and allow the claw to turn around for re-use of Forward Tilt, though they will also do well to not forget their Dash Attack, due it's strength, ability not to mess with the claw and semi-unique knockback properties. They can also have fun with their grab to create more hard to tech situations than the aerial versions and, finally, have a shock knockout move via Forward Smash, especially with a claw that can catch the foe in the middle. This version will also abuse the Up Smash in it's own way: Watch out if the claw is vertically aligned, as the BeastMan will likely attempt to gimp you off the side with an Up Smash to throw a solid wall into your face and, if you're not down for the count there, try to follow up with a Down Tilt or Down Throw.
BeastMan's biggest weakness is his own issues: He is extreme combo fodder thanks to his high fall speed, high but not great survival weight and traction make him a target for aerial juggling, chaingrabs, that sort of thing. BeastMan's own fall speed also hurts his ability to juggle, which he has to attempt to compensate with his own abilities. And while his arms can provide a ton of hitbox spam and fun tricks, it also will leave him even more defensively bad if he removes both his arms, which only makes the issues even worse. Still, with proper battle ability, such defensive deficiences can be made up for.
Author's Note: This was a fun little set, made solely due to Nick's challenge, which sparked some ideas. It was made in a span of seven hours or so, but I feel it is my second best set yet, so take that what you will. If nothing else, I enjoyed writing it.
I don't plan on making 300 edits to Sawtooth or anything, but this is the one thing I think should be fixed. Sawtooth and Squarewave now has an ACTUAL grid on it, and it has been changed in the set so that the move name actually pops up in the game in a very unintrusive way. If this merits any sort of shift in opinion, then there you go. If it doesn't, then at least the new grid looks nicer.
A bully playstyle is a surprisingly underutilized concept and one that this set really runs with. You did an excellent job of using the character's own personality to sell the moves, and even though I've never seen the series I can tell a lot about who he is from this set.
A lot of the credit for that goes to well thought out animations. The dust cloud effect could have been a forced tacky move in other hands, but you made it an attack that fit his bully nature and I suspect may have actually been used in the series.
Some of the other moves seemed to be a little more awkward though, like the extra effect on the forward tilt or extra fireballs from moves that hit lava, but for the most part you avoided too many problems. Maybe it would have been better if him moving into lava created the fireballs rather than some moves but not others.
You did a goof job of balancing between him being competent enough on his own to rigjt but still bring reliant on his gang buddies to win. Good job.
Princess Bubblegum
The bubblegum hair mechanic is interesting, but there is a major flaw I noticed looking back on this set. The opponent gets 2 seconds of immunity from getting stuck to her hair after being stuck, which is really necessary to keep her from trapping opponents, but she's practically defenseless for those two seconds. Enemies can easily strike back at her while they are immune to her hair and there is not much she can do.
The grab is a really clever way to gimp, using two different grab hitboxes with different properties to drop them right offstage, and I really like that idea.
There are other elements that don't work so well though. Why does she need a separate down tilt to pick up her own items instead of using the sake system every item does? Being able for her to use her smashes in midair also feels very much like the mind of forced specialness that doesn't make much sense in any context.
Some of the moves feel more like they exist to justify their own existence rather than as a part of her character, and the forward tilt is a good example. It doesn't trip because its what she does but because she has ways of taking advantage of that. But so does every character in some way or another, and having that as really one of her only decent ground attacks makes it a tad too predictable. This feels like nitpicking and it is, but my point is that moves like this really don't contribute to playstyles as much as it might seem.
Soundwave
Welcome to Make Your Move! The main takeaway I get from this set is that it seems like you tried to make it very quickly. There are more than a few typos and some inconsistencies, like his summons all having a chance of being summoned that adds up to far more than 100%.
My biggest recommendation I can give you is not to rush making a moveset. Take your time, read other movesets, and think about what you want him.to feel like in the end. You'll get the feel of what you want your sets to look like in no time.
BeastMan.EXE
I get the feeling from this set that you researched him on the MegaMan wiki but didn't actually watch a video of his boss fight. There are some cool tricks with the floating claws, but he never had them away for long and used them solely for his desperation rush attack.
In this set, its played off more as a tactical choice of where and how to use them, which is a bit too methodical for a program as bestial as he. Too much of the set seems to revolve around different ways to move around his claws rather than actually attacking with them. The ideas are cool but they don't feel like BeastMan.EXE to me.
Either way though, I think the set could have been improved if BeastMan.EXE could much more quickly get his claws attached and detached more easily so that he could spend more time attacking rather than moving them back and forth.
I get the feeling from this set that you researched him on the MegaMan wiki but didn't actually watch a video of his boss fight. There are some cool tricks with the floating claws, but he never had them away for long and used them solely for his desperation rush attack.
In this set, its played off more as a tactical choice of where and how to use them, which is a bit too methodical for a program as bestial as he. Too much of the set seems to revolve around different ways to move around his claws rather than actually attacking with them. The ideas are cool but they don't feel like BeastMan.EXE to me.
Either way though, I think the set could have been improved if BeastMan.EXE could much more quickly get his claws attached and detached more easily so that he could spend more time attacking rather than moving them back and forth.
1. I did not watch the video, as I am on quite a ****ty laptop and it would take too long to load when I was making a quick set.
2. I don't see how the bit about moving them around is true. Every tilt, smash, in addition to the majority of the aerials and thanks to the way the grab works, the grab all attack with the claw in competent and playstyle relevant ways, so I don't think that the actually attacking with them part is very accurate as a complaint. The bit about it not feeling like BeastMan.EXE are perfectly valid, though.
It's not just that they're not being used as attacks, but that there are so many moves that you need to use just to move your flaws around. I think it would work better if he could easily get them back and reuse them rather than spending so much effort maneuvering them.
It works, but its more complicated than it needs to be.
Whoops, looks like I’m a bit late to the party, huh? Derp.
Anyway, critique time!
***
BUBBLEMAN.EXE
The interactions here are great! Naturally for a guy named BubbleMan, everything revolves around those bubbles. And there’s a lot you can do with them as well. You can damage rack a little with tier 1s (best accomplished via the bubble fountain), stick missiles in tier 2 bubbles to make people avoid them, or obstruct everything with the tier 3s, all enhanced by those surprisingly annoying crabs. An interesting zoning game here. And that’s just the specials. You can also make the bubbles slippery, hide inside them and upgrade them, stick mines in them, make them sink by filling them with water, hang from them… need I go on? Heck, you can combine these to really mess the opponents up if you have the time. I also like the Jab: useful to the playstyle in the way MYM likes, while keeping to the simplicity I favor.
The grabgame is a little overpowered; 25% damage to one spot seems a bit excessive, especially since you can stick traps in it and make it bigger and thus harder to hit that one spot with other bubbles or just the Up Throw. Still, I like the basic concept here. In fact, the only things I don’t like about this are the lack of stats (which are important), and a Final Smash (not quite as important, but I like to see them). Still, a great way to start the contest!
***
SAWTOOTH AND SQUAREWAVE
First, a nitpick: you might want to indicate more clearly which one’s which in the intro, because I was having difficulty figuring out which was which. Similarly, a definition of Faygo would have helped. Just a thought.
Now, as for the actual set: it was kinda confusing, to be honest, with the Grooves and Shades thing. It took me a while to get what you were talking about, and to be honest, while it seems to make sense with the characters, I can’t think of anyone who would actually want to play trying to remember these combos. I also find it odd that Squarewave’s even here; what purpose does he serve, other than being the one throwing random bottles of soda and turning into a cube? He just sits there, only occasionally attacking. Like Kululu from the Keroro Platoon, only less playstyle-relevant.
I did like some of the concepts, like the bottles of Faygo and the grab, but I can’t say I really liked this set very much.
***
ATHENA
You really like your wordy sets, don’t you Kat? :D So, Athena, goddess of… Death? Well, Campione! has gone and messed that up. But whatever, that has little to do with the actual set.
This set has some interesting ideas; I especially like the interactions between the Neutral Special spheres and a bunch of other stuff, like the mists of Death, the teleport, the stoning, and the Forward Tilt. Lots of neat ways to play around with that. The Forward Smash, too, was good; I like how it splits even if blocked or out-prioritized, making it much harder to completely avoid. The owls were interesting as well, a good way to throw people off. The main problem I had with this set, though, was its complexity, which made it somewhat hard to follow what you’re supposed to do with Athena. Sure, you kinda get the idea that she’s angling for those extra KO methods, but each individual attack is complex enough that I at least couldn’t keep it all straight. Nonetheless, a very well-crafted set (even if the source material went and messed around with Athena’s domains; what happened to Hades and Thanatos?)
***
COLD ENCHANTER
And you go and start off with possibly one of the most brilliant mechanics ever: the NSpec ice crystals. They boost your attacks, which is good on its own, but then the option to embed them into yourself to keep the buffs around? Marvelous! Nice and double-edged, giving this a bit more character.
And then we get some more cool (pun unintended) stuff. Cold Enchanter being able to dash through his ice walls, his ability to put spikes in said walls with the Bair, the spikes involved with the FSmash when you have crystals (especially since they go up walls), the icy obstacles you can leave lying around, that horrible and yet still funny pun in the USmash. I found a couple of oddities: for example, if the UAir wind hitbox pushes the foe out of range of the snow, what’s the point of the snow? Nonetheless, a great set with some pretty darn impressive interactions!
Also, I find it ironic that this came from you, FrozenRoy. XD
***
FLASHMAN.EXE
I don’t like Blinding Flash. I’d never use it, because if there’s one thing I hate, it’s restricted visibility (if the Nintendog ends up murdered, you’ll know who did it). If this only did that to the opponent, that’d be fine, but since it messes with everyone… And then you introduce the Up Smash, which does pretty much the same thing on a smaller scale. Why exactly do you need Blinding Flash (or the DSmash for that matter) if you have the USmash? Still, the potential interactions here are interesting. Neon Lights in particular is a clever move, especially in light of the combo with the blind effect. Heck, if I was playing him, I’d probably just spam that a lot with different directions each time to make it harder to dodge. Good luck approaching, even without blind.
I’m torn about Shining Browser Crasher; on one hoof, disabling a Special seems really overpowered, but on the other hoof, 1.5 seconds of charge time. Meh, take or leave it, I guess. The hypno-throws seem a bit overpowered as well, mostly in terms of duration. 7 seconds seems a bit excessive. Also, a Final Smash and a Playstyle section would have been helpful.
Overall, I’m not a fan of this set, but Neon Lights redeems it a little. Still, I suppose this was kinda rushed.
***
GARBLE
Finally, someone I’m familiar with! :D
This actually feels quite a bit like Garble: perfectly willing to do whatever it takes to win. If he can win on his own, sure, but if not, he’s not above grabbing a friend or two to help chase people down. The interactions with the lava pits are interesting as well, if not always intuitive; how come Garble’s fire breath makes fireballs but his purple cohort’s doesn’t? The Forward Smash makes perfect sense, though, and I personally would probably never use it if I didn’t have a lava pit to land in. The Down Aerial, too, works really well for the same reason. His air superiority makes perfect sense as well, being a dragon and all.
The standards are pretty simple, the way I usually like them; still, I can’t help but appreciate the perfectness of the Down Tilt, because that too is totally Garble. He’ll happily cheat if need be! Then come the Aerials, which once again emphasize how happy Garble is in the air. I can picture a skilled Garble player deliberately staying in the air and lording over the more ground-bound folk.
Garble’s grab is also intriguing: a basic grab normally, but the tail wrestling should they grab each other is an impressive little Easter Egg. The Pummel, on the other hoof, just made me grin picturing him doing that to Ganondorf. XD King of the Hoard is a great Final Smash: heavily competitive and thus totally Garble once more. The Extras are also great: you obviously put a ton of work into this set, and it shows. The Up Taunt in particular made me laugh. :D
This set brims with character and great interactions and is definitely my favorite set so far this contest. I absolutely love this set. :D
***
PRINCESS BUBBLEGUM
Y’know, I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone who could make the foe giant and benefit from it. That’s certainly a new one on me.
For a character that’s primarily offensive, that Down Special strikes me as a camping tool, slowing foes down, especially with a growth potion involved. In fact, between hanging off the edge with Up Special to buy time to make a Side Special doesn’t strike me as offensive at all. Only after you do the Side Special does it make any sense to take the offensive. So really, I wouldn’t call the Princess offensive so much as an offensive setup character: she can take the offense very well, given the right setup. Throw some hair in strategic locations, set up your speed, then pressure foes into a DSmash or a grab. Although the problem with the offensive here is that you can’t really KO any other way. Your other Smashes either give you more ways to stick the foe to the ground or aids your recovery without really dealing damage like a good Smash should. So this can't even be called an offensive setup char, just a somewhat ineffectual camper.
I realize that this set was done quickly and thus lacks polish, but this could have been done better. You’ve got a decent foundation here, though.
***
SOUNDWAVE SUPERIOR
I do have to agree with Hyper here in that your measurements are off. A five-second stun on the Neutral Special? Way too much. Two-second endlag on the Up Special? I don’t see why anyone would want to use that unless they absolutely had to, because that’s leaving you way open for… however much distance Wingthing carries you. Which is another measurement problem: without knowing the distance on some of these things, we have nothing to compare it to.
In terms of the concepts behind the set, Down Special is really the main thing here. Everything else is fairly standard: you’re got a couple of projectiles, a recovery, some basic melee attacks. The grab is mildly interesting as well, but the Down Special is your main unique thing here. An interesting take on randomized minions, although one can’t help but wonder if they can be hurt while they’re out. Similarly, what’s to stop you from just spamming that and causing cassette chaos? Who needs other moves when that 5% chance of a Donkey Kong powered cassette coming out is increased simply by hitting the input a lot? Once again, more elaboration is needed here, which is this set’s main weakness.
I do recommend trying to spice up the specials at least. They’re solid, which is good, but the problem is that MYM doesn’t do solid much these days (much to my chagrin when I first started). In general, the more imaginative the specials are, the better, because that’s what keeps people’s interest. Just a thought from somepony who was once in a similar position.
***
BEASTMAN.EXE
Okay, so here’s my question: why bother detaching more than one claw? Your lag becomes horrible on nearly every move if you don’t have at least one claw, and the extra moving hitbox isn’t exactly worth it. The only strategy that makes sense is to detach one claw and carefully maneuver the foe into damage racking combos. Maybe throw the foe off of the claw platform, but then again, why would anypony stick around for that? In fact, anypony with a lick of sense would stay off of said platform (especially since they can be grabbed from there), rendering the effect on claws on the Up Smash fairly useless. Between that and his own fall speed, vertical KOs are gonna be pretty hard to land on a skilled foe, especially since you never addressed what happens when the arms go off the blast zone.
That said, this is a fairly solid set that executes pretty well. Zone the foe into making careless mistakes, or just being too cautious to strike back. Either-or. It’s a surprisingly simple set, but that doesn’t change its effectiveness, which appeals to me. As the above paragraph attests to, my main problem with this one is that the benefits of detaching both arms are lackluster. Still, I do like how a player can change strategies based on what they’re comfortable with: beginners can leave arms on, while more experienced players can mess around with arm positioning. Overall, a good set. Not great, but good.
Up Smash under someone and they can't help but be on the platform, as it will catch them and is a non dropdown platform, thus you cannot air dodge under it or such. USmash/UAir give decent vertical KO power either way.
Detatching two claws is mostly for more vertical combos or fun stuff with three hitboxes: You've got two other hitboxes to cover your increased lag on most attacks, after all, and at least one quick move on the ground or in the air.
@ DM: Yes, it may have been more complicated then it needed to be.
Up Smash under someone and they can't help but be on the platform, as it will catch them and is a non dropdown platform, thus you cannot air dodge under it or such. USmash/UAir give decent vertical KO power either way.
Detatching two claws is mostly for more vertical combos or fun stuff with three hitboxes: You've got two other hitboxes to cover your increased lag on most attacks, after all, and at least one quick move on the ground or in the air.
Okay, you've got a point there. I still stand by my belief that detaching two claws is more trouble than it's worth, but I'll concede on the USmash issue.
The main issue with having two claws out is control. You have to control both claws at once from different places and if the opponent can stay on a diagonal from them, they can easily stay out of the way while BeastMan.EXE has a limited moveset to attack back with.
The main issue with having two claws out is control. You have to control both claws at once from different places and if the opponent can stay on a diagonal from them, they can easily stay out of the way while BeastMan.EXE has a limited moveset to attack back with.
But yeah apparently I do need to clarify a little better which is Sawtooth and which is Squarewave. I mean I can tell just by looking, mostly because Squarewave has a square-shaped mouth going on. And Sawtooth is the other one. But yeah I'll fix it. Here. Eventually.
. The main drawbacks to this move are that there is no hitbox on it, and like Pit’s up-special it doesn’t refresh until landing. You also can’t cancel the float, but this is a dragon we’re talking about, he LIKES the air!
. Ya gotta figure out some bigger punishment, maybe extra lag or something.
My apologies. 
