• 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!

Make Your Move 17: Next contest begins March the 24th; get your Iron MYM'er 1st day sets ready!

ϟPlazzapϟ

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Nov 30, 2014
Messages
95
on the topic of alica vassin

From what i can tell, her f smash is one of her most crucial moves and one of her few kill moves, but it requires alot of charge to be removely useful. Breaking ones sheild must be important in that case and a playstle based on breaking sheilds could be very cool concept thats never really been done.

The problem is if breaking sheilds is really important in her set than i feel like it isnt emphizised much, a large obvious fireball that allows her to approach to dish out damage opponents poor sheild is a great idea however. So why not give all her moves large and obvious hitboxes that are hard to dodge and in most cases must be sheilded, which then takes away alot of sheild, and saince your encouraged to hit sheilded opponents perhaps hitting one will remove any lag caused by hitting them in sheilded mode. This could force opponents to have the skillz to actully dodge attacks in order to punish her, which maybe having a move for setting traps on the stage could make it more difficult for opponenets to evade. More stuff that makes opponents uncomfortable to use sheild should have been incorporated to create a playstyle based on sheild killing.

although i cant nessisarliy say this playstyle whould really fit the character however, which i giess is hypocritical to my characterization disscusion.

also a question open to all, am i being fair with reviews and explaining pros and cons of a setb well enough? This is basiclly my first review and the reason i didnt review before is beacause i felt like i didnt have enough expirience with sets. so i guess a review of my review if you will.
 
Last edited:
D

Deleted member

Guest
I tried to cover everything I could, sorry if I missed you out.

Sealsdramon largely got a free pass because of a busy starting period, but it definitely had some gaping flaws overlooked that need to be explored. For starters, the 10 seconds of invisibility that hides the HUD and has only 5 seconds of cooldown might have worked on set focused around it, but here becomes an afterthought. The ridiculously powerful forward aerial and tripping down tilt alone make it seem broken. Then you add in the forward throw to forward tilt combo and it’s insane. In general, the set borrows many of Fox and Snake’s moves, in the grenades, the forward tilt blaster, the down throw, the up smash, the forward smash. This is fine, but many of these moves are on weird inputs. For example, Snake’s grenades are here on the up tilt and can be angled, and he’s got Falco’s infinite laser on forward tilt… one that deals knockback, and as I mentioned, directly combos after forward throw.

The set is very rushed, even in specials, if you look at the up special. The lock-on down special only affects two moves, one of which is up throw, the other is the broken forward tilt, making it both redundant and I assume makes the forward tilt worse. As the lock-on has no animation when Sealsramon is invisible, all he needs to do is lock on the foe, grab them, throw them off stage with forward throw and do forward tilt. If it homes in at this point, not even DI or a recovery could save the foe. As for the backstabbing in side special, it’s glossed over and too weak compared to forward aerial and up smash. If you go through the motions of landing a “special” knife slash five times, you get a whole extra 5% if you prone the foe, but up smash can KO as early as 115% uncharged, so there’s no reason to bother. The idea was decent, but the execution and balance is just bad, with nothing redeemable.

Exeggcute and Exeggutor was strange to me from the start as you insult the character, but Exeggutor is easily my favourite character you’ve done. The set goes on to denigrate Exeggutor repeatedly and breaks its characterisation by giving it all these brute moves like slam, body slam, jump kick, earthquake and headbutt that it doesn’t even learn in Pokémon. If that wasn’t bad enough, he gets one move besides the grab game where he actually uses his psychic powers, to generically slam himself in backward aerial. It’s also bad when you describe moves with analogies like “spins like a ballerina” or comical descriptions like “crushes them with his butt”. This isn’t a comic relief character. It also states in the Pokédex that the eggs only drop rarely and Exeggutor is always seen to have three heads, but not only does Exeggutor spawn up to five egg minions at a time in this set, but he also constantly is shooting them as projectiles or forcing them to explode.

When you go over to the Exeggcute side of the set, the characterisation becomes truly baffling, because according to this set it’s only when these eggs get spat out by Exeggutor that he can do anything remotely psychic besides his grab game. Only when separated can Exeggutor build sunlight using the eggs, and he has to be hypnotized by them to allow them to do it for some reason. On top of this without being hypnotized his recovery is a stomp, that can even kill the individual eggs, but the eggs are the ones that (only when separated) use the psychic powers to help the useless Exeggutor recover. Speaking of the grab game, it’s bizarre that he can use Psycho Boost (a Deoxys-exclusive move) and honestly some of the moves he does learn don’t even make sense. Acupressure is not actually a damage dealing attack, but here it’s translated into a throw, and moves like Synthesis, Kinesis, Body Slam (using Exeggutor’s legs), slam (slamming with his butt) all jump out as massive Pokémon syndrome. If you want to have a generic stall then fall, it doesn’t have to be named after a Pokémon move, although here it really doesn’t make sense for the character.

Blocks is not a set that does anything new but executes some ancient clichés in a balanced way that makes it refreshing and gives a much needed charm for the character. This is full blown cheese right down to the trademark symbol everywhere, and the playstyle is straightforwardly “build Lego constructs and make use of your bricks lying around the stage”. These come in the form of buffs on specific moves, where it’s easiest to nitpick the exact interaction. The dash attack is weird for example; given he’s now sticking to his own blocks and in general this is where the interactions go a little too far. When the set just takes it for granted Blocks will either have Legos everywhere or forces the player to move them around in a haphazard way. Wherever you take the character though, from the hilarious up throw rocket to the bulldozer actually destroying your own constructs, it’s always enjoyable. You also manage to get mileage from the Lego on practically every input. If this was a more “serious” set I’d say the move copying could’ve been a greater focus, but that would come at the expense of some of the fun inputs and I’m very happy with the approach.

I'd heard Starman (the comic book guy) was the best Kiwi set of the contest, and I can see why, as it's one of your most creative playstyles. This is a projectile manipulator, but one that has a few unique caveats, in that he's messing with the gravity of them and the foe, making little circuits for them to follow in the air, or simply turning off gravity in a limited area. There's not much to talk about with the good portions of Starman as they're very self-explanatory. The set doesn't reach the intensely creative levels of other sets in this genre but then, it has been a while since a really well-received set that solely focused on projectile manipulation. The best thing this set does is at least attempt to make every move interesting, although there are a couple of token KO and juggling moves. On the whole, Starman does manage to keep the aerials and throws relevant, even if it basically just comes down to "this increases or decreases their gravity," or other quasi status effects. The one thing I did think the set could've done with is some more projectiles to actually manipulate, as he really only has a handful and there's plenty of room for experimentation there, just thinking about porting Smash projectiles into a set like this is already fun let alone an explosive/fire-themed set of projectiles.

We had a Batman set followed by Barney and Parasect, what a trio. I could comment Barney but I doubt I could say anything more about it than what’s been said, whereas I feel obligated to throw Batman a comment as Geto has been pretty active so far The editing process was very kind to this set as the first version was just trash, but you managed to make a huge amount of significant improvements, diversifying the aerials, standards and smashes, to the point that few of the problems remain. There are some awkward moves though, like the flash bang forward smash (right after a very simplistic up smash, it stands out especially). There are also a couple of throws where Batman injects the foe or restrains them and while I get why they’re there, it’s weird for the characterisation most of all as he beats the crap out of a guy who is asleep or handcuffed. But overall the set manages to deliver a Batman who fights and has plenty of tools without leaning too hard into either category, making what seems like a very quickly made set into actually one of the more definitive sets for Batman.

There’s been plenty of praise for Parasect and overall I can’t help but agree, primarily when it comes to that throw. That is one of the best uses of that kind of status effect I’ve seen, as well as building into status effects in a way that isn’t annoying for the opponent player. All of the effects have important bonuses for Parasect but it makes sense for the moves, one very impressive adaptation being rage powder, probably the best I’ve ever seen. However the set does fall off a little later on in the standards and aerials where Parasect gets caught up in overly fluffy explanations about “x slashing” moves. These moves don’t accomplish much of anything aside from giving Parasect some more versatility but they could at least spend the time going into their playstyle relevance. I also didn’t think the size increase mechanic actually went far enough simply increasing the size of hitboxes, considering the time commitment on a character vulnerable to pressure. Saying all of that, this is easily your best set.

Not going to pretend I didn’t copy paste Hanasakaji’s name. To segue from that, this is a notable set that attempts to improve your projectile user archetype without spamming the same interaction. Pompy simply batted his fish around in a direction for most moves and that was the case in many of your sets, but this petal-based youkai actually has some depth to his moves. The petal effect reminds me of Parasect, although not as impressive as on that set, as this guy is less focused. I can’t exactly ask that a character this simplistic should have a complex playstyle but ultimately, he’s pushing around the petals in a variety of ways. Nonetheless, this is your best set I think, because you do have plenty of thoughtful ways of doing this through wind hitboxes and plenty of the moves actually feel like remotely interesting standalone moves.

This is a great base going forward, I think you could make a universally praised set eventually if you just make sure the specials are special and not only as an afterthought, but with mechanics that are relevant all the way to the last input section, where you tend to get a bit lazy. When your sets stop referring to earlier sections, it’s as if they abruptly end. I think you should really consider your characters’ potential for a while before you make sets and think about what abilities or powers they have to create a foundation for the set. I say this as you tend to pick ridiculously low potential characters, but even they will have a few things to base a set around, even if they don’t give you ideas for most of the moves. Even an original idea that works for the character can serve as a great basis, as your sets most of all just need some memorable elements besides the overall playstyle.

I mostly read Tahu as I saw you said you updated it in the thread recently, and I figured I could give a hand with you trying to improve the set and your general set making along the way. Unfortunately, I found that n88's criticism is still very relevant. The descriptions were all appropriately beefed up and all the weird references apparently removed. This does now feel like a definitive set, but whilst this set works great on paper for representing Tahu and the series, in practice I'd imagine it wouldn't be very interesting to play once you get over the flashy animations. There's not much depth to how he plays, perhaps because you decided to relegate the specials until the end of the set, the specials as a rule being what the rest of the set flows into, if any section of moves.

The one factor that seems to bring it all together is the shield mechanic, but it's never played into that much outside of the fact he, of course, also has a grab, and I find it a little too powerful. Sure, the foe only has to hit him in the back, but an unbreakable shield even on one side is broken against characters who don't excel in mobility or focus on shield pressure, poking or whatever else. Some other nitpicks I had were things like the forward smash not addressing how the second hit has a more limited reach and therefore on shields would ostensibly push the foe out of range if it works anything like its inspiration (Link's forward smash), which could've been actually kind of interesting as a balancing mechanic or shield pressure move. There's also the one time you say a move has great priority in the air, when aerials don't actually have any priority. In fairness these are nitpicks, but when the set is so focused on individual moves carrying the set, these problems become a lot worse, which is another reason why you should focus on making your specials more prominent in the future.

Syrma’s the first Kat set of the contest, and while it doesn’t disappoint, it does sadly underwhelm. That is because it’s one of those token playstyles that simply repositions, absorbs and otherwise manipulates an opponent’s projectiles. Whereas the best sets of this archetype create their own projectiles as well to ensure every match-up is similar, Syrma basically has a single option in her up smash to manipulate, and that is all. Granted the way this is done in the set is unique, working through a Nana inspired coffin minion that facilitates most of the moveset. In fact this is a case where the set being labelled “Mr. Coffin” might have been more accurate. I can see why this happened as Syrma’s not too interesting of a character and does seem reliant on her minion to do much of anything, but I do miss the in-your-face characterisation of Ryoto. As I said though, the set doesn’t disappoint with the flavour of the character shining through in the animations (literal and figurative). The problem is that the overall playstyle is generic and doesn’t have any connection to the character’s “ego” as was advertised. If it does exist and it’s hidden away in sub-text, I’d find that very unfitting considering that the character, series and developer are anything but subtle.

I did read Silver but Shadow was sitting here without any commentary and I figured I’d do that instead. For starters, I don’t think he needed to take out the Chaos Emerald in this set, it feels awkward, he doesn’t do it in his assist trophy. It would just seem weird in practice, despite probably making logical sense. On the same note, the down special is oddly specific in forcing Shadow to put his inhibitor rings down on the ground somewhere and at some point defend it. Not to mention the balance on this move is not very nuanced, taking 1.5x damage is nothing compared to constant damage, meaning you’re always going to want to have access to put the rings back on and creating a strangely stage control-y playstyle off of this if you ever want to use this move, as Shadow has to keep the foe from just batting him away from the area, as at that point things get very bad. Again I don’t think it was necessary to include the prop here, and it’s honestly a pretty ham-fisted way of going about this kind of mechanic. I imagine just having it last a limited amount of time and have lag or a wait time to use it again would’ve worked more smoothly than the rings being an item.

This moveset does get the “coolness” factor of Shadow down accurately, with a plethora or moves with unnecessary explosions and other flashy animations, like the jet boots. It’s pretty fitting to the character. One minor nitpick would be you don’t use the enter key nearly enough on moves like the smashes where there are giant text walls, which I would think is part of why this set has basically no feedback. After the specials the set basically forgets what it set up. I don’t know what you’d set up with the neutral special being essentially a non-physical counter though, and the side/up special both simply move Shadow around even if they can be cancelled into other moves. Without specials that actually matter, the rest of the set finds it hard to play into a coherent playstyle. It’s a shame as plenty of moves have fun ideas, but you really need a core set of specials to keep it all relevant to the playstyle.

I was excited to read Abomasnow because I savour every Usershadow set at this point, and I was pretty interested reading the entirety of this moveset. It’s not as good as Jodie obviously, but this style of set from you more often would be great, as this set does manage to pull off a good execution. The set’s snow mechanic, working in layers, is simple and well done. The set doesn’t get into any complex mechanics, pretty much working with Abomasnow having super armour in a couple of moves and using the multiple stage constructs as outlets for the playstyle. The one thing I would say is that you probably could’ve put more fitting moves on the specials and branched them out, as you flow off of several non-special constructs multiple times, and having a down smash that isn’t an attack is a little strange even on down smash. That aside, this set is pretty much what you’d want out of the character. Very straightforward stuff and I definitely enjoyed it.

Not sure if Lip is even finished but I'll comment on what's there, as it is technically a complete moveset. The main thing holding this set back is very simple, there are a lot of underdetailed moves that are about a line or two long and don't add anything to the playstyle. The core idea is decent enough, emulating the puzzle origins of Lip into a combo mechanic, it's just not sure exactly how it wants to go about it and comes off as pretty vague, which may be because it's a work in progress. Obviously lining up the flowers to create these effects doesn't naturally create "combos" necessarily, which is where the rest of the set would naturally be expected to deliver on that, but it doesn't. I'm not sure if the moves are going to branch out in that direction, but what's actually there seems to more focus on adding different effects to certain inputs based on what flower has currently been absorbed into the wand.

It's difficult to see how this can be resolved considering what the shorter moves are, stuff like the throws just dumping the foe into prone or behind Lip. Unless you tried to vastly improve those moves, I don't know how you can reconcile what the moveset wants to make into a combo mechanic, when really it's more of a side attraction to a pretty simplistic buffing mechanic. Funnily enough both Parasect and Japanese petal man use the Lip effect from the Smash item, but here it's changed into an entirely different effect. This set's approach seems very muddled, but it at least has some basic idea how to transition Lip's puzzle mechanics into Smash, but feels like it's lacking a needed attention to detail.

I don't think I've commented one of your sets before, MuskratCatcher. Serperior's certainly a good attempt for an early set, with a limited amount of awkward moves. There are a few egregious exceptions like Gastro Acid (which even on his learn set, feels weird for a regal character to do) and dragon-type moves absent from its learn set, as well as stuff lke aerial ace being included. You don't have to reference an unfitting Pokémon move to do a simple slash, which is a common misconception for new set makers doing this series. On the same note, Glare is a special move but doesn't appear on Serperior's learn set either, in general it's best to focus on moves the Pokémon naturally learns and incorporate only the TMs that make sense, which you largely do, but I digress.

The problem with this set lies squarely with the playstyle as there's no real connection between the moves, for example the mechanic compared to Lucario's aura actually is much less interesting because it simply turns on or off, with no scaling dynamic. Another example is how Solar Beam is basically just a chargeable move, compared to the more interesting execution Ivysaur has with it in Project M, where it charges up passively over time. It's also a bit odd, if not outright out-of-character, for Serperior to do things like the up tilt where he summons grass that falls over. That seems more like a special or smash move, if ever on a Serperior set, as he doesn't seem like that kind of grass Pokémon. Generally, what the set does is fairly random, which leads to a pretty incoherent and simplistic playstyle. It's not a set without its perks though, and I do think I prefer it to the other set for the character.

I’ll be the first to say that regardless of the set’s quality, I am glad you ended up making a Polpo set. For many, many reasons, it’s a perfect character for your collection. The set itself has some issues but it’s hard to argue this isn’t the best way to do a “Polpo” set outside of radically changing the way Polpo works as a base. I do think it was a mistake to focus so much on the fact Polpo is “combo food”, as that becomes a crux for the imagined meta in core moves. I don’t think it was necessary to try and counter-balance that aspect of the character, I’d have rather you went full throttle with the power of Black Sabbath in the moves he does appear, perhaps making them harder to land but as compensation strong KO moves, in line with other heavyweights. As is the set feels like a huge slog with the opponent, not solely because of the healing, but the fact he can break out of hitstun and has mechanics that get around lag. It wouldn’t be the worst thing if this character got abused by combos and chain grabbed, if he could still come back. Instead the set tries to create a playstyle that works no matter what the situation and it’s awkward on this incredibly specialized mass of JoJo villain.

That all said, and there’s plenty to nitpick, the overall set is impressively well constructed and in-character. There are some stretches but nothing that the character wouldn’t do, not only that it’s creatively brilliant. The very idea of using Polpo’s fat to create a massive shadow for Black Sabbath and all his food moves using shadows is an actually fitting use of shadows, something that hasn’t been used much in sets for a long time due to an inherent tacky quality. Here it’s a big fat revelation that lets you bypass all the usual difficulties that have left JoJo fairly set-less despite its MYM popularity. If it’s in service of this character I’m all for it. I also really, really loved and applaud the mass food moves. Most are ripped from the manga, but the invented ones fit right in and generally have great animations. Most nitpicks can be directed at the Black Sabbath half of the set, balance aside it’s difficult to argue the greatness of Polpo’s moves.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

zero_breaker

Smash Rookie
Joined
Jul 1, 2015
Messages
10
Location
Hong Kong
On Squid bee's Issac, the most noticable thing is that the moveset has very little description on the moves. While you do have the basic statistics like damage and knockback down, you should explain in what situation should the character use these moves, as well as how it contributes to their playstyle.

That brings us to another thing: Where's the Playstyle section? While it is mentioned as 'not required' in this article, the general consenses is to always include one so people can know exactly what can your character perform, and what unique things it has to merit use over other characters. It can work as a guideline for you when creating moves too, so as not to have too much filler in the moveset.

Also, aside from Down B, it feels like the standards and smashes are more... special-ish then the specials themselves. When your moveset is full of projectiles with different effects, putting a simple one without effects in the special slot doesn't really fit. I suppose you can swap some of the movesets around? Up Aerial looks like it'd be a pretty good Up Special. But still, please do work on the playstyle first.

I'm still pretty new to MYM, so please feel free to expand on or correct my points.
 

JamietheAuraUser

Smash Lord
Joined
Jan 11, 2010
Messages
1,196
Location
somewhere west of Unova
@Squid bee:

Anyone remember what I said about not having every move try to be a super special snowflake? Isaac is a perfect example of what not do to. For example:

Neutral Special is perfectly respectable as a special move, if a little mundane.

Forward Tilt is just a stronger Neutral Special. Honestly, it could have been merged with the Neutral Special as a tap B/hold B sort of deal. Tap B for the faster but weaker projectile, or hold B for a moment to launch a stronger projectile that takes a moment longer to fire or has more endlag.

Side Special is more mundane than half the things on his other inputs.

Now we have the Up Tilt and Up Smash. Do you not understand how percentages work? Unless a pill can have multiple effects (which clearly isn't the case as some of them are definitely mutually exclusive), the percentages should total 100%. That's because "percent" means "per 100". An 80% chance means "per 100 uses, 80 of them will have this effect". Also, is it just me, or are Dice Roll Up Smashes becoming a trope?

Up Aerial is an example of the sort of thing you just don't do ever. Removing another player's control of their character is way up there on the list of "DO NOT DO THIS" MYM tropes.

Down Aerial really looks more like a Down or Side Special than anything else. In fact, the current Side Special could easily have its 2.5% chance of invincibility removed, and then the attack could be placed on Dash Attack (in a manner similar to Bomb Kirby's Bomb Bowl from the Kirby games). Or if you don't want to put projectiles in "silly" places, you could give Isaac a Dash Special and put your current Side Special there. That frees up the Side Special input for Squirt.

In fact, he currently doesn't even have a Dash Attack, so that makes it a perfect place to put his Cartridge Roll attack!

Down Tilt and Down Smash could easily be put on Down Special input with tap B = small bomb and hold B = hot bomb.

Sad Onion could honestly be placed on Down Smash in a manner somewhat similar to Snake's mines, with charging increasing either the duration of the onion or the damage the stream of tears deals.

His jab is just weird. It's a standard jab combo, yes, but also a pseudo-counter that applies a status buff. Main thing to say about that is that it's the wrong input for a status buff, though I guess if he's going to hope to get stabbed by his own hanger he may as well put it to good use rather than simply holding it out in front of him waiting for the foe to attack.

There's also a general lack of description on many moves, even the ones that aren't directly copy-pasted from other characters' movesets. For example, the NAir gives little to no description of its startup, hitbox placement, hitbox duration, endlag, landing lag, or knockback direction. The Neutral Special says it has set knockback, but fails to specify anything about its direction. It also doesn't say anything about the startup or endlag, or about the projectile's speed.

As for more general comments regarding playstyle: Isaac looks like a death-of-a-thousand-cuts camper, plain and simple. At least, as he is now. Down Tilt, Down Smash, and Down Special are all traps or obstructions of various sorts. Neutral Special, Forward Tilt, Forward Smash, Down Aerial, and the Forward and Back Aerials are all projectiles. Up Throw can occasionally aid his camping game with one of its effects due to leaving a floor hazard behind, but it's so inconsistent that he may as well not bother trying. Up Tilt and Up Smash both scream "do not use this EVER" due to their incredibly varied nature and the fact that they usually won't cause hitstun or knockback, leaving him with no way to stop a foe's vertical approach. As such, while he can probably camp characters like Ganondorf just fine, he'll have immense trouble with anyone who can attack from above or any stages that encourage such.

His jab's weird pseudo-counter self-buff is strangely complementary to his gameplan in that it discourages foes from counter-camping him, especially using the sort of weak projectiles that he himself relies on. He can also set it up himself by setting a DTilt bomb and spamming jab when it's about to explode, which is sort of neat I guess. Or, well… it would be, were it not for the fact that the jab's status effect also increases the amount of damage he himself takes, when he's already lightweight and has crappy jumps to go with.

And that's another point: His survivability outside of zoning is just terrible. With such pathetic weight and equally pathetic jumps, the (frankly pretty darn good) height he gains from his Up Special isn't going to be enough to give him any sort of viable horizontal recovery (unless his aerial speed is like Roy-, Jigglypuff-, or Yoshi-tier, but you haven't listed his air speed so it's hard to know), especially since he lacks any moves actually dedicated to such.

All of that said, this does appear to be your first attempt at a moveset (if I had to guess), so for that it's not too terrible. At least some sort of playstyle is very clearly visible despite the overall lack of move description or any other text dedicated to the subject, and even though that playstyle is very basic (camp from across the stage until the foe very slowly dies).
 
Last edited:

MasterWarlord

Smash Champion
Joined
Aug 24, 2008
Messages
2,911
WORSE THAN CONTROL REVERSAL

I don’t know why you thought it was a good idea to make a moveset for a character you obviously hated so much. Your opinion of the character comes through regularly with how you characterize him, as nothing but a gigantic idiot who crushes people with a wooden “butt” he apparently has. Yes, the Pokedex says one of Exeggutor’s heads will sometimes fall off of him and become an Exeggcute, but that’s blatantly not a common occurrence (Even the Pokedex says as much), much less how he would fight. Him doing this voluntarily is bizarre, and I assume you say that Exeggutor instantly regenerates a new head to replace the old one or that the Exeggcute just poofs into existence. Exeggutor then proceeds to horribly abuse the Exeggcutes he creates, usually by crushing them to death. The Exeggcutes aren’t just Exeggutor’s babies, they’re his former fellow heads, he blatantly would not abuse them in such a fashion. The Pokedex you used to “justify” this also says that the heads “get along and never squabble”.

On the other side of the spectrum, the Exeggcutes hypnotize Exeggutor (not foes of course), abusing him just as much to enter some bizarre control scheme. Even though Exeggutor levitates himself with his bair, you force him to make use of Exeggcutes in order to have a levitation based recovery, giving Exeggutor a generic stomp for his Up Special recovery despite filling having tons of other generic stomps throughout the moveset. Based off how you have the eggs hypnotize the tree, you make the eggs look like the “brains” while the tree is some idiot who accidentally murders them. Portraying the relationship this way is pretty offensive when the eggs need a group of five or six in order to even be on par with other Pokemon. When one head falls off the tree, it goes out of its way to search for others due to how helpless it is. The evolution fuses some of the eggs together, and given his psychic type presumably uses the heads to give him greater intelligence. The eggs don’t even have Exeggutor do anything after they hypnotize him, they just become the primary playable character as a terrible excuse to implement a bad control scheme.

You are so determined to portray Exeggutor as a comic relief dumb brute that you give him access to moves he doesn’t have to make him more of a bruiser. The Pokemon Syndrome in this set is some of the worst I’ve seen, to the point I have to break it down move by move.

  • Hypnosis exclusively on Exeggutor, not able to hypnotize enemies. Sleep Powder isn’t in here either, and he doesn’t apply any of the other grass status effects. It feels weird compared to what you do put in.
  • Kinesis is an exclusive move to Alakazam, and is called “Spoon Bend” in the original translation. You use this move in order to do generic levitation and ignore its effect. Not every move needs to be named after a Pokemon move, if anything, you should go out of your way to avoid it less you end up with crap like this. This move is also used to levitate Exeggutor with the smaller eggs, when Exeggutor is more powerful and should be able to do it himself. If anything, I’m baffled that Exeggutor can’t levitate the eggs around with the dumb interpretation you’ve chosen for this character.
  • Synthesis is a relatively harmless move for flavor (still an egg move), but rather than having Exeggutor synthesize himself, you have the eggs do it when they’re the ones who don’t need to heal. The eggs can then somehow “transfer the sunlight telepathically” to Exeggutor…I don’t know what you think telepathy is, but that isn’t even remotely close to how it works.
  • Pound, Quash, and Take Down are moves Exeggutor does not learn. If you hadn’t used up all of the moves Exeggutor needs for an actual moveset on the stupid eggs, you might have something leftover to put on these moves instead of this brutish crap. If you really want to have Exeggutor fall over like an idiot, it doesn’t have to be named after an arbitrary move.
  • Exeggutor does not learn Razor Leaf or Magical Leaf. I don’t think these are that stupid of moves to give him, but again the Exeggcutes are required for some reason to turn razor leaves into magical leaves through some cryptic arcane process. You are consistently portraying them as superior to the tree, who is dumb muscle.
  • I don’t know what could have possibly made you think Earthquake would be acceptable. If you want an especially heavy Pokemon that isn’t Ground type like Hariyama or something to make some small earthshaking hitboxes by stomping, that’s one thing, but you wouldn’t call it Earthquake.
  • He doesn’t learn Thrash, Jump Kick, or Body Slam. He does learn Double-Edge, but largely everything learns that and it’s an excuse for you to put in another move where he crushes people. Even if he did learn Body Slam, falling feet first in a stall then fall certainly does not remotely constitute a “body slam”, that’d be the stupid dashing attack you had earlier. Jump Kick is learned by a whole 8 Pokemon and originated as a Hitmonelee signature move – it’s supposed to be something agile, not something a fat tree is forced to clumsily perform.
  • Telekinesis is learnable, but when you finally cave and have Exeggutor levitate himself here, it’s on the bair instead of a recovery input.
  • When you have multiple levitation moves, I don’t know why you decided to make Psychic, the most common strong move of the type, a generic grab that does no damage.
  • He doesn’t learn Psywave, Wring Out, or Slam. Not every move needs to arbitrarily be named after a new Pokemon move.
  • He doesn’t get the Synchronize ability, and that ability (It makes it so whenever the user gets hit with a status condition, the enemy gets one too) has nothing to do with the throw. You have Exeggutor spin around stupidly like a ballerina because you find it amusing or something.
  • Psycho Boost is the signature move of Deoxys. Not just a signature move, a signature move of a Legendary Pokemon.
  • Beat up remotely resembles what you said, but you don’t have to arbitrarily name the attack after this Dark type move he doesn’t get just to have eggs generically jump on the enemy.
  • They don’t learn Vine Whip, and vines are not part of the Pokemon’s model.
  • You seem to be applying Pokemon move names almost at complete random with Acupressure.

The actual playstyle is just a handful of moves that launch eggs with a bunch of physical moves thrown in, as FA detailed back when the moveset was originally commented. The moveset’s ranking image is what it is because you would probably enjoy an image that is insulting to Exeggutor, given how much you hate the character.

SYNCHRONIZE

It’s good to see you making a moveset for a character you actually like with Pearl after that last one. I don’t have too much feedback for this one, as it’s mostly just generic moves with little playstyle flow. The moveset revolves around the training holograms, but they surprisingly are pretty rarely mentioned. Upgrading the AI of the duplicate sparring with you by blocking 15 times with Side Special is impractical with any remotely competent enemy, and I don’t know why she wants to train with a duplicate in the middle of a fight. Why can’t she just set the level of the hologram to the maximum? Why does she need to counter the foe with Up Special in order to send one after the foe immediately? Regardless of this weirdness, you could’ve had plenty of fun with these things that you mostly miss out on. While Dhoulmagus is a bit too ambitious of a duplicates set to use as a reference for a lower potential character, Shinobu feels like a better example of duplicates to point to for a character like this.

Not everything needs an image. Posting images of things that aren’t the character gets very, very silly. We can picture the most basic of actions without a picture reference.

UNDESCRIBABLE BLOB

I guess Sealsdramon becomes visible when he hits with an attack, but it just seems very frustrating that he can potentially remain invisible for 10 seconds out of every 15. Him figuring out his own position really seems like a very small issue when he can figure it out without wasting time by throwing projectiles. On the other hand, I think his Side Special and backstabbing moves feel weak in comparison to some of the more generic moves he can do, with little reward for the effort he has to put in. I’m not saying it’s really under or overpowered, but the numbers feel off and the moveset feels clunky. The one big offender is that landing the fair sweetspot seems easier than landing the backstabbing attacks while invisible, and the payoff is much larger. Applying the Neutral Special is a large chore in invisibility, and it only even triggers a bonus with 3 very random moves (two tilts and a throw). Either remove the Special for how pointless it is, or let him use it by pressing the Invisibility Special again. Make the stupid taunt have him leave invisibility entirely if that’s so important.

The ftilt and utilt really painfully feel like they should be Specials in the context of the simplistic specials. Having to input utilt of all things for a move that has the primary purpose of generating an item just seems asinine, especially when he will always have to go out of his way to angle it forwards/jab it out of the air. An introduced flow crutch to try to make fox’s usmash interesting is that he can kick around the grenade before it explodes, once the pin is out…That seems kind of dumb. I did something somewhat like it with Kudgel’s exploding barrels, but those seem like they could take more punishment by comparison to a grenade. I don’t really have much in the way of general advice, but I just simply dislike the effects that try to make moves interesting on inputs like fsmash and dsmash and feel the set is disjointed and confused, and when they’re not there it's just kind of generic.
 
Last edited:

FrozenRoy

Smash Lord
Joined
Apr 26, 2007
Messages
1,266
Location
Las Vegas, Nevada
Switch FC
SW-1325-2408-7513
Made some small, band-aid changes to Sealsdramon, mostly upping the downtime between invisibility and some clarity/number tweaks.
 

ϟPlazzapϟ

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Nov 30, 2014
Messages
95
are matchups still a thing, i've seen them in past contests and im not exactly sure why they were removed
 

allison

She who makes bad posts
Joined
Jan 25, 2014
Messages
5,138
Location
Maple Valley, WA
NNID
crazyal02
3DS FC
0216-1055-4584
are matchups still a thing, i've seen them in past contests and im not exactly sure why they were removed
They weren't exactly "removed", they just became less popular (probably because they're difficult to do). I do think that it'd be nice to see a reversal, as imagining your character fighting an existing one is extremely useful for balance.
 

Tocaraca2

Smash Ace
Joined
Feb 22, 2015
Messages
557
Location
Wokingham
on the topic of alica vassin

From what i can tell, her f smash is one of her most crucial moves and one of her few kill moves, but it requires alot of charge to be removely useful. Breaking ones sheild must be important in that case and a playstle based on breaking sheilds could be very cool concept thats never really been done.

The problem is if breaking sheilds is really important in her set than i feel like it isnt emphizised much, a large obvious fireball that allows her to approach to dish out damage opponents poor sheild is a great idea however. So why not give all her moves large and obvious hitboxes that are hard to dodge and in most cases must be sheilded, which then takes away alot of sheild, and saince your encouraged to hit sheilded opponents perhaps hitting one will remove any lag caused by hitting them in sheilded mode. This could force opponents to have the skillz to actully dodge attacks in order to punish her, which maybe having a move for setting traps on the stage could make it more difficult for opponenets to evade. More stuff that makes opponents uncomfortable to use sheild should have been incorporated to create a playstyle based on sheild killing.

although i cant nessisarliy say this playstyle whould really fit the character however, which i giess is hypocritical to my characterization disscusion.

also a question open to all, am i being fair with reviews and explaining pros and cons of a setb well enough? This is basiclly my first review and the reason i didnt review before is beacause i felt like i didnt have enough expirience with sets. so i guess a review of my review if you will.
Your reviews are good... apart from your lack of punctuation and correct spelling. Also, the character isn't really all about breaking shields since she can KO opponents with Flame Waves and not just break shields, but I could definitely make her Fireball Rapids deal lots of shield pressure. Also I think I mentioned massive shiled pressure in her Up Smash; if I didn't then I'm definitely adding that. And actually, I like this idea quite a lot; as someone said before, her fire moves could be wasted by the opponent just avoiding damage from them, and her regular moves are not good enough for her to come out as a character. I did buff her normal moves, however making her moves that use fire shield pressure will really make her both hard to both play as and play against. This would make her a high tier, but a skilled player could dodge well and take the quick non-fire moves, since they don't really play much part without her having any fire power.
They weren't exactly "removed", they just became less popular (probably because they're difficult to do). I do think that it'd be nice to see a reversal, as imagining your character fighting an existing one is extremely useful for balance.
On the subject of matchups, Alica Vassin should have a good matchup against Mega Man and Samus due to her Fireball Rapids, since her fireballs don't disappear while travelling across the stage and they deal high shield pressure, therefore they force the foe to either shield (and risk having their shield broken or being grabbed), or dodge, and this gives Alica a perfect opportunity to approach. And as Mega Man and Samus suffer at defending against people that have got in on them since they rely on zoning and have bad melee moves (especially Samus).
 

MasterWarlord

Smash Champion
Joined
Aug 24, 2008
Messages
2,911
are matchups still a thing, i've seen them in past contests and im not exactly sure why they were removed
We still enjoy matchups, they're just a lot of effort for something that won't directly influence somebody's opinion on a set. Matchups that aren't very even odds wise often also make a character look bad, and you have to go out of your way to seek matchups that are even (they also are generally more entertaining anyway). We've also mostly stopped matchups against existing Smash characters, as most of the appeal (at least to me) is the fantasy aspect. Back when we did matchups against Smash characters, they were generally very simplistic and meant to generically showcase the moveset's balance, saying how they dealt with things like Mach Tornado, Dedede's dthrow, and Falco's lasers (Back before SSB4 was around).
 

Tocaraca2

Smash Ace
Joined
Feb 22, 2015
Messages
557
Location
Wokingham
Oh and Alica Vassin has a bad matchup against Rosalina (especially Luma) since Luma is a hitbox that would take the damage from Fireball Rapids and Ver. 1 Flame Waves, basically making Alica waste her fire power, and it forces her to use Ver. 2 Flame Waves, unless Rosalina has no Luma at that time. And Ver. 2 Flame Waves start deteriorating earlier if a hurtbox is caught in it, meaning it still wastes her fire power. I can't really think of other bad matchups, I'm guessing maybe characters like Fox and Falco due to quick lazers, reflectors, and fast attacks. Reflectors stop opponents having to shield against Fireball Rapids and Flame Waves, and I think Fox's could even protect against Ash Disperse. I wasn't so sure about Falco's matchup against her though because apparently his moves have a lot more lag on them now.
On this subject, I have made fireballs deal high shield damage.
 

JOE!

Smash Hero
Joined
Oct 5, 2008
Messages
8,075
Location
Dedham, MA


SCEPTILE
Sceptile, the Forest Pokémon. Its arms are equipped with razor-sharp leaves, and it moves lightly through tree branches in order to attack its enemies.

In PokeSmash, Sceptile is the definition of Speed and cunning, using incredible movement options on top of stealthy traps to gain an edge.


STATS
Size: 7
Sceptile stands as tall as Marth/Lucina, with his large tail laying on the ground behind him. Like with the FE duo however, his tail is disjointed, having no hutboxes!

Weight: 4

Despite his size, Sceptile is rather lean compared to other starters. It should be easy to send him flying if you manage to catch him!

Run: 9

Sceptile matches fellow speedster Fox McCloud on the ground! Blistering dash speed makes for a commanding ground presence, with even his Walk being fast enough to match the dash speed of some slower characters.

Jump: 9

A master forest warrior needs to be able to get from tree to tree!Sceptile has great jumping ability, with an initial leap that can have his head just reach under the top BF Platform, and a second jump that gains just under the same height, Sceptile can gain some excellent vertical spacing. Sceptile also has the ability to wall-jump and of course wall-cling!

Air: 7

Likewise, his sleek design allows for above average air control and momentum, especially from a running start! While not "amazing" by any means, combined with his dash and jump capabilities (among other moves to be mentioned later), his air speed allows for very fluid movement in the chase for more hits.

Fall: 4

Counting as a semi-floaty by a hair, Sceptile is in no rush to descend to the forest floor. That said he has an impressive fast fall speed for when he needs to hit the ground running, though it may take a moment to accelerate to speed.



OVERGROW
In the Jungle: Speed Increased
Sceptile has a special relationship with the jungle, able to adeptly move about it at lightning speed as he uses the branches, vines and so forth as an extension of his body for added mobility. Conveniently, his Down Special, Up Smash and Down Smash all allow him to bring the Jungle to the battlefield to boost his already great movement to new heights!


These three moves act as sorts of traps in their own right, and interact with one another when place on or just near one another to form a web of ground based, passive zoning to combine with his supreme speed. Furthermore, performing his moves near them will allow Sceptile to use an "overgrow" version and turn the attack mobile. This allows for a change of pace from using say, Luigi's Fsmash to Wolf's in terms of spacing and punishment opportunity and is a key part of his trap/hunting based play style that you should keep in mind when looking to main Sceptile.

Moves affected by Overgrow will obviously be noted below.


SPECIALS
Neutral B: Bullet Seed
With barely any lag aside from a slight shift in stance, Sceptile sprays out a volley of seeds from his mouth! When grounded, the volley will shoot out straight ahead a distance of 1.5 platforms and when airborne he shoots them at a shallow diagonal downward.



A fresh volley will shoot a burst of 5 seeds in a cluster very similar to what you see above. Each seed i the bunch will deal 3% with hit-stun making for an impressive 15% out of the gate! Like in the games, the amount of seeds changes each time you use it though, with each successive use lowering the count by one until Sceptile starts shooting a measly 1 seed per button press for 3% with tiny hit stun. At least you can manage to get 15+12+9+6+3 = 45% out of the move before you run out of ammo, but how do you go about getting it back?

Holding the input down will have Sceptile reach to his back and pull a Berry from (hammerspace), and eat it to refill his ammo bank
! The Berry will restore a seed to the burst per bite he takes out of it (up to 4) which will take up to a maximum of about a second with each bite taking a quarter of one while also restoring 1% per bite, naturally. Sceptile can act by releasing the B button or pressing left/right to roll away with some lag to manage your seed count / escape a badly timed snack, but overall reloading will add significant lag to Bullet Seed's usually slick animation which can lead to bad habits for both you and the opponent. Sceptile may find it advantageous to shoot a full load of 5 shots then take a bite and roll/let go, rinse, repeat to get the max out of the burst fire, but end up leaving himself predictable and wide open for a counter strike that'll hurt way more than the 1% he healed!


Bullet Seed can extend or start combos (the more seeds the better here), pressure zoner-types from a safe distance, and in general allow you to be a nuisance within the bubble space it affords you especially with a running jump to widen the spray area. It's essentially his bread and butter option when in doubt, but just make sure you manage your stock or else your machine gun will literally turn into a pea shooter!

As a slight easter egg, hitting Sceptile from eating the berry will have him drop it and become a food item worth the remaining % (4-1%). If Sceptile eats this normally, he won't get ammo back but still enjoy quick healing.


Side B: Detect
Sceptile's eye gleams briefly to mark the start-up of the move, before he zooms forward a platform's distance in the blink of an eye with an after image trailing close behind! From the moment he starts to move to the halfway mark he is invincible, allowing Sceptile to rush past just about anything in his way safely, but if he happens to come across any attacks in his sprint he will showcase his unique Mobile Counter!


Besides being a command dash, Detect will counter incoming attacks as he boosts forward. Upon intercepting a move Sceptile will spin to avoid the attack and in one swift motion bring up his leg and tail to smash foes up at a 50* angle for two hits of 4% and set knockback of about a platform. The angle and set knockback make for a great combo tool as the attack has little end lag whatsoever if it's triggered, given his great mobility it will be easy to follow-up the foe's DI with an aerial or special, or possibly grounded options on the faster fallers. If he doesn't hit anything, he will skid to a stop after passing a platform's distance for some end lag much like a Space Animal.

In the air this makes up a chunk of his recovery as it is exactly the same as his grounded version only with the caveat that he can only use it once per air time. Allowing a free platform's distance to be covered without special fall is one thing, but in terms or recovering it affords Sceptile a platform-wide column near the edge where he can essentially slip by any edge guard attempt! Foes sending out moves mindlessly his way when he can shoot onto the stage will merely have them bypassed and countered by a tail strike leaving them in the air and Sceptile back on solid ground to chase. A clever foe could bait this option and punish the end lag however, and if you are sent back out you only have your Up B and its admittedly lackluster horizontal momentum to save you. While Bullet Seed may keep foes at bay or catch foes on the run, Detect allows you to slyly close the distance once they try to fight back with style.

Up B: Leaf Blade Lunge / Critical Leaf Blade
Shooting skyward with an outstretched, Glowing leaf Blade raised overhead, Sceptile slashes through anyone in his way back to the stage! Acting essentially like a 3rd jump, Leaf Blade Lunge sends Sceptile a shorter distance than his second jump, reaching under the top platform of battlefield but having a convenient 9%-7% hitbox to cover himself along the top half of his body depending on if you hit early/late. The hit does little more than induce hit stun and light knock upwards and more often than not will leave the foe right next to you when the move ends. Despite a smidge of start-up as he readies and brings up the blade over his head, Sceptile suffers no end lag from the lunge, in fact he doesn't even enter special fall!


Once the lunge is complete, Sceptile is free to act as he pleases, except for using Up B (in either form) again. This makes LBL an incredible vertical combo tool as you can get a free aerial with the foe right next to you, as well as a great vertical recovery option given you can keep your stellar double jump! This plays excellently with Detect as you can make sure you hug the side of a stage from any height with the lunge to allow a safe swoop back to the middle, but it does leave much to be desired in terms of horizontal coverage. When he plays his cards right, Sceptile can have quite the potent recovery though mistakes cost him dearly: being hit offstage after a Detect removes that option, as does burning your double jump which leaves you with only LBL fora last ditch vertical effort, unless you opt to go for the riskier Critical Leaf Blade!

By tilting the stick to a diagonal or completely sideways during the brief start up of Up B, Sceptile will hold his blade to the side instead of on top of him and zoom about 3/4 the distance at a 50-40* angle based on if you went more diagonal or horizontal. This has no hitbox until the very end where Sceptile will swing the large leaf blade with a force strong enough for him to pull a 360* and deal a meaty 16% and stellar knockback! The power is comparable to Captain Falcon's Knee, able to seal kills at 120% or so near sides due to the lesser damage and sharper angle of 45* compared to the Knee's more horizontal trajectory. After the attack is complete and Sceptile goes into the laggy spin, he will be stuck in special fall, making for 3 opportunities to punish the move: before the hit, just after, and the fall. Combined with Detect, this can offer more horizontal recovery but often pales to using a LBL for distance as the height and jump allows for more mix-up potential and drifting. CLB however can be great when already on the ledge alongside Detect as it can make for a hard punish as you clip the ledge to slash at a poor edge guard attempt on the ledge, or for snapping the the ledge quickly from an angle.

Overall LBL and CLB both round out his recovery, combo and punish/conversion game by offering varied movement options, combo starters/extenders and risky punishers/finishers. Be wary of trying to challenge others with the moves however as both have low priority (CBL has technically 0 priority until the actual slash), which iswhy confirming a hit beforehand is the ideal situation to get the most of these moves, or by limiting their options for counter attacking by being under a platform. Speaking of hit confirms and limited options...


Down B: Grass Knot
Kneeling down briefly, Sceptile places his hand to the floor and pulls upwards with a green glow, uprooting a vine! The vine is about the height of a capsule/pikmin and makes a crescent shape about the width of a Mr. Saturn, you can hardly miss it. Taking the same amount of time as Snake placing a C4, the Grass Knot will trip any foe that touches it for 7% damage and break in half, withering away back into the floor. Sceptile can only have one Grass Knot out at a time, having to wait for it to be destroyed to make a new knot. Grass Knots cannot be made mid-air, though Sceptile will still do the motion allowing him to B-Reverse with low commitment as well as land to uproot a knot with slick timing! To avoid confusion in a ditto match, a little marker above the Knot shows which player owns it.

While seemingly unimpressive at a glance, being a mere 7% and a trip, the ability to control your opponent's actions is invaluable. Unlike a C4 which you have to manually detonate, Mines that can be safely exploded, or Bananas that can be used against you, the Grass Knot cannot be destroyed or picked up! It simply sits there, waiting to bring a foe crashing down and setting up delicious tech chases and frame traps. Once tripped, foes only have a few options: Sit there, tech-roll or prone-roll left/right, get up attack, and tech in place/get up. Each of these options has a follow-up thanks to your speed and options, everything but get up attacks can be handled by a high bullet-count Bullet Seed, get up attacks can be Detected, rolls can be chased with your speed and followed up at your leisure (while hitting a bullet seed barrage is great, from a distance it may lead into less damage than getting a free approach for a combo) and so on. Foes will have to be weary of the knot knowing how potent Sceptile's tech chase game can be once he is on the hunt, so they will have to out maneuver your placement of them for at least the 16 seconds they last until breaking and withering naturally.

The downsides of the knot are also some of it's strengths. Once you place it, you sort of have to commit to the placement for the next 16 seconds until you manage to get somebody to trigger it, so an inopportune placement can lead to wasted potential. While foes cannot safely destroy the knot, simply being in the air allows you to bypass it completely as it will only trigger on grounded foes and ones who are hittable (so characters can all roll past it or teleport/whatever through it). That said, their avoidance can all be part of the plan as it forces opponents to react to it's presence in some manner, where you can then capitalize on. Say a foe wants to jump over the knot each time, intercept by holding shield and grabbing them from a hasty aerial or intercept with one of your own. If they roll past just punish the lag, etc, the point being that its mere presence changes the actions of your prey both passively and actively once they get snared.


Overall this makes for a simply yet astonishingly important tool for Sceptile's game plan. Passive stage control combined with killer movement to take advantage and box people in towards the trap for even more advantage is all a forest warrior could ask for! However, even more stage control couldn't hurt.


SMASHES
Up Smash: Jungle Jump
Taking a moment to crouch and look upwards, Sceptile's feet glow during the charge period before being boosted upwards by a sudden growth of vegetation!



Resembling the small trees trainers have to cut in the ORAS, the sudden growth propels Sceptile (as well as acting as a hitbox for 4-6% and minor vertical knockback) as he twists and performs a kick at a sharp diagonal above where he was for 15-21% and strong knockback hitting at about 80* that can KO mid-fall speed types around 130% uncharged thanks to the height. The kick is obviously the meat of the move here with the hitboxes only on his foot/lower leg, which can make for a bit of a learning curve in trying to land the move as it hits so high off the ground.

The plant itself is about up to Sceptile's chin in height and springs up with enough oomph to allow Sceptile to become airborne after the kick animation and actually land on platforms above himself, or back onto the plant if there is no other platform nearby! You see, the plant acts as a pseudo platform/wall for Sceptile and other characters where they are able to attack the plant and hop on top of it. Being a hurtbox, the plant has about 12-18% HP based on charge and will absorb projectiles and such for you as you'd expect, before falling over and withering much like a Grass Knot when the HP depletes/16 seconds pass. This alters the game plan of everyone similarly to Grass Knot's presence since it offers a new platform (even if a little short) to work with as well as a means to make campier types consider approaching since you can hide behind the brush instead of needing to engage their projectiles, however Bullet Seeds can pass through it unhindered.

As mentioned earlier, the plant has various interactions available to it both with Grass Knot, Underbrush (Down Smash), and your other Grounded Attacks. Starting with your ground moves, in general the Jungle Plant will grant you added vertical coverage if the move is performed adjacent to the plant. For example his Utilt normally has him swipe above with his wrist leaf-blade, but next to the plant he will swiftly hop up it for added vertical reach! There will be more detailed descriptions of the interactions within the moves themselves, as will more details on it's interaction with Underbrush below. When Jungle Jump is used on top of / just touching a Grass Knot, or vice versa, Sceptile will take the knot and attach it to the plant to create a Spring-Trap! Under the tension of the Knot, once hit the Plant will snap down forcefully in the direction it was triggered for 11% and smack foes in range for a meteor smash, popping them into the air nicely or KO'ing them outright at higher % if you manage to plant the trap at the edge of a stage without interference. As you may have guessed, the Spring-Trap is a more traditional "trap" in that it has a hair trigger that can be set off by contact or hit-boxes, including Sceptile's! Luckily you have tools to take advantage of manually triggering the trap in Bullet Seed and Detect. The former is straight forward in application: you can shoot the trap from a safe distance to hopefully have it slap down on somebody if they dodge the seeds. The latter is a bit more nuanced with how Sceptile can counter on the move plus how the trap snaps down on the side it was hit. The obvious interaction here is that you can dash past the trap ad activate it safely with detect, but normally you end up on the other side with it snapping behind you. With practice, you can find that spacing and timing the move just so Sceptile passes the trap during the initial lunge will allow him to activate the trap as he moves, setting it off on the side he is on and manually letting him send out his counter-hit alongside the trap's hit for a powerful combo!

He can only have 1 plant out at a time, with another Up smash just making the old plant wither and the new take it's place unlike Grass Knots, allowing him to use his only vertical KO option with some consistency at least! The versatility provided in a new platform for vertical attacks in both his Overgrow interaction and as a literal platform is incredible, subtly changing the stage for both himself and the opponent to add more mobility options and for him specifically to add vertical aspects to his ground moves (as a side note, Up Smash performed on the plant will just do the jump kick, not despawn then respawn the plant) as well as altering the neutral game for many projectile based characters, at least temporarily. Combined with Grass Knot, it can control many options either when used together or when literally combined into the spring trap. Remember how foes want to jump over grass knots? The vertical reach you get by attacking through your plant will come in handy then! Better yet, if you make a Spring-Trap you get the ability to use Grass Knot and Jungle Jump again to get a total of 3 traps on the field, though this is quite a lot of time you are spending setting up and not attacking. If you have a Spring-Trap in play, making another causes the old one to wither which can be a big waste of time going through essentially 4 moves to make the two, so plan accordingly!

Down Smash: Underbrush
Crouching, facing toward the camera, Sceptile's hands glow as he quickly grows an area of jungle along the floor edged by grass much like the area Pokemon battles take place in ORAS!



The circular patch hits anyone on the ground more or less immediately around Sceptile for 11% and upwards, slightly diagonal knockback away from the center. With charge, the size of the circle will increase up to platform size and deal 15% but still be the weakest of his smashes, popping foes up a bit harder than most tilts but with little growth as a foe's % raises making more for resetting a situation or comboing than finishing. Like with jungle Jump or Grass Knot, this patch of jungle growth will last 16 seconds before withering away and another instance of Dsmash replacing the old.

Unlike the other two moves, Underbrush doesn't actually directly affect foes aside from the initial hitbox. Instead, it offers arguably more utility as both a tool to combine Grass Knots and Jungle Plants with as well as providing amazing horizontal reach due to Overgrow. As mentioned before, this will allow Sceptile to quickly move across the underbrush to extend his ground attacks across them, acting as a sort of "extended trap" as it greatly increases his punish range alongside Detect and Bullet Seed to make foes nervous of spacing around underbrush when Sceptile can cross it so swiftly. Like with Usmash, the specifics of the interactions will be covered per move.

Underbrush can be combined with Jungle Plants and Grass Knots to create Tall Grass and Tripwires respectively. When you use Dsmash and Usmash atop one another (much easier to make a combo on top of a Dsmash, obviously) the grass on the edges of the Underbrush will grow as tall as the Jungle Plant, obscuring everything in an area tall enough to cover Ganon and as wide as the Underbrush beneath! This Tall Grass can make an excellent hiding spot for Sceptile as a sort of mind game, given that the new entity does not make further Underbrush, Grass Knots or Plants disappear. A common tactic would be to simply place a Grass Knot somewhere in the grass, or even not at all to make the foe think you may have! This may prompt them to fire an attack into the grass in an attempt to simply hit you out of there, but that is prime bait for a Detect approach. Most anything could be done to mess with a foe when you are hidden in the tall grass, as long as you control it that is! Foes can enter the area and use it to their advantage instead, so keep that in mind when baiting your prey into your game plan.

Tripwires are somewhat self explanatory. The Grass Knot is stretched across the width of the Underbrush to create a much larger trip area but for 3.5% damage. While doing half as much as a normal Grass Knot, this allows you to cover a huge area as a danger zone and even allow you to place another Grass Knot or Spring-Trap onto the field! Underbrush in general is amazing for your tech chasing game due to horizontal move coverage (and it's not too shabby itself given how it is a generally quick smash attack that covers all around you). Finding the space to set up a Grass Knot / Tripwire near an Underbrush patch will make a whole section of floor particularly dangerous for opponents to decide to tech roll into. Sceptile could zoom across it and follow up on their roll with any number of attacks if they decide to risk it, but there is always the double-play of rolling through it when the Sceptile player expects you not to, so keep your eyes peeled for their reactions!

While ultimately time consuming, mastery of Grass Knot, Jungle Jump, Underbrush, Spring-Trap, Tripwire and Tall Grass will allow Sceptile to bring his home field to the Battlefield. Each has their own risk/reward to it, but thankfully Sceptile has the ability to create space simply through movement if he needs to back off and think over the situation, and often can integrate the attack portions of each move into trap-building. For example, a foe that decides to jump a Knot can be intercepted by a running Jungle Jump, making a Spring-Trap in the process, and so on. Both smashes control movement in a subtle way given Sceptile's ability to move across them, which can spook foes depending on your spacing: Sceptile at the edge of an underbrush essentially has double range/speed to punish any sort of whiffed move, and likewise being near a plant can net an anti-air or getting stuck on a platform if falling from above. Knowing when and where to utilize these powerful tools is key to victory in Jungle Warfare.

Side Smash: Leaf Scythe
Brandishing a glowing leaf blade to the opposite side of the arm while charging, upon release Sceptile lets loose a forceful back swing to tear into foes in front of him for 17-24% and great diagonal knockback! While this has disjoint due to the leaf blade (equal to about Toon Link's sword in reach) it is very brief. Most of the swing has his arm out in front of him due to the scythe-like cutting motion, making trading a hit somewhat common if mistimed, which isn't too rare given the seemingly backward lag of the move. The animation is very front-loaded where he dramatically draws the blade across and to the side, the swipe only lasting a few frames and then he is more or less free to act once it slashes through the air. This unfortunately does make it his slowest smash to come out, but compensates with great power (kills around 125% near edges) and very safe end lag.


Being the first move to gain movement with Overgrow, lets lay down some terminology. When referring to the Up Smash interaction, look for V-Fsmash and for the Down Smash look for H-Fsmash. Shorthand for Vertical/Horizontal, you get the idea.

V-Fsmash will have Sceptile hop off the plant during the long wind up, and release on top of the plant to catch aerial opponents with a strong smack back offstage and end standing atop it. H-Fsmash will have Sceptile travel the length of the Underbrush during the wind up and release the slash at the end, having variable distance/timing based on where on the underbrush you began the attack. Both variations are simple yet very strong in their own right as they offers ways to mitigate the laggy wind-up with spacing opportunities and allow you to slash away at new angles and distances.


STANDARDS
Jab: Leaf Blade Combo
Sceptile slashes once with each hand for a 1-2 combo dealing 2% damage per swipe very quickly, and with a third press enters a rapid jab as he stabs forward with the leaf blade on the 2nd claw to swipe. The stabs deal rapid hits of 1% and have a decent disjoint to them, ending with a finishing swipe from the other claw's leaf blade for 3% and medium knockback at a straight horizontal angle. Overall this should deal around 15% in a good string at lower %, getting easier to get out of the multihit with higher %. Like other jabs of this type, it can be jab-cancelled at each stage up until you begin the multihit.

V-Jab has Sceptile perform the 1st two swipes at an upwards angle before transitioning to the multihit at a totally vertical angle, as well as the final swipe now being totally vertical rather than horizontal. This is a nice anti-air to catch people trying to come down and landing on the plant as you can hold out the multihit for some time. H-Jab has Sceptile take a step per swipe instead of the stationary normal/v-Jabs, notably with the multihit he will scoot forward a smidge per hit before a final extra step with the last slice. Over the duration he should carry most folks across the distance of the underbrush.

Up Tilt: Bladed Uppercut
With an animation similar to Leaf Blade Lunge, Sceptile extends a glowing leaf blade outward and slices it upwards much like Ike's Utilt at double speed. Hitting essentially the column of air in front and just above him, his fist and blade each have a separate hitbox for 3%/hit stun and 7%/light upwards knockback respectively. With relatively low cooldown, you can manage a few slashes at low % to juggle somebody in place with the slightly less disjointed inner hit being ideal spacing for the extra bit of damage.


V-Utilt sends Sceptile up the plant as he hops up with a leg mid swing, extending the reach to the top of the platform and leaving him there during the end lag to carry a foe up higher. H-Utilt has Sceptile make a short dash before performing the move, allowing him to perform 2-3 Utilts across an underbrush depending on the width. Not only can this help punish a jump from a distance, but it can allow you to follow a foe's DI as they go left/right off the first Utilt as you can always turn around while standing and go back the way you initially dashed.

Side Tilt: Leaf Knuckle
Drawing a fist back briefly and making a leaf blade, he punches out and forward to strike with the fist for 5% then 7%, each with light horizontal/medium diagonally upward knockback respectively. While it often combos into the blade hit due to the speed, at higher % the punch can send away people at that great angle. After the slug, there is a bit of end lag making the move somewhat punishable on whiff.


V-Ftilt has Sceptile move and hop off of the plant at a diagonal to perform the punch. Unlike the V-Fsmash, Sceptile actually hops off and forward to cover a diagonal distance from where he started the move to mimic a hopped Fair from many characters, with obviously similar use (especially the angle on the second hit leading to Critical Leaf Blades at certain %'s and DI)! H-Ftilt mirrors H-Fsmash in that it will propel Sceptile the distance of the Underbrush, but has very different functionality due to the two hits. Working similarly to Wolf's Fsmash, the punch hit extends along the rush forward on the ground ending with the blade hit at the edge of the Underbrush. This makes for a very wide area of attack instead of just a longer area to punish from, able to cover more options but for relatively less reward than an Fsmash.

Down Tilt: Shin Kick
From a crouch, Sceptile quickly kicks a foot out to smash into foes at a low angle. Comparable to Ness' Dtilt, you can rapidly repeat the action for 3% a pop and hit-stun at a slightly slower rate than the Mother Boy, but with identical usage as you can hit confirm into things such as a tilt/jab/grab string or even a smash attack as they try to DI up and away from the hits.


V-Dtilt is a bit different than the other tilts in that Sceptile uses the Plant itself as the vertical extension! Simply put, Sceptile will be kicking the base of the plant per input, making it shake and become an identical hitbox for 2-1% depending on it the body or top of the plant hits your opponents. The foot > body > tip take priority over one another in terms of spacing, so somebody like Bowser standing next to it wont take 3 hits for 6% or so each strike. H-Dtilt will scoot Sceptile forward across the underbrush per input, taking about 3-5 Dtilts to cross a patch depending on size. Similarly to Utilt, Dtilt can carry somebody back and forth across a patch and now has more acute "micro spacing" opportunities.

Dash Attack: Tail Spin
With momentum from his run, Sceptile turns on a heel and swipes in an arcing tail strike! The tail sweeps in a horizontal arc before him, just off the ground at a slight angle and strikes foes 3 times for 4% as each bristle drags across them, with the final hit launching foes up and slightly towards Sceptile. With little end lag, the only thing to take note of is that this attack ends with Sceptile facing opposite of the direction he was dashing from, and with a foe just overhead he can follow up with Utilt, Usmash, Leaf Blade Lunge or an aerial of his choice. While disjointed and a multihit, it is predictable due to the laggy start up as Sceptile turns his body, so mind your spacing as always.


V-Dash has Sceptile create a more vertical arc with the tail as he grabs the plant and uses it as an anchor to swing his tail upwards from the ground. This hits the same way as before but drags the foe upwards and sends them back at a sharper angle than the standard, though has less overlapping multihit as the tail sweeps by an area rather than staying in the same relative space. H-Dash changes the move up a bit in that Sceptile will slide on the grass and spin a full 360* with the tail spin! The spin has a radius similar to Toon Link's Up B and hits similarly: popping foes back and forth before sending at the same angle (relative to Sceptile) and same overall damage as normal dash attack. The advantage here is wider horizontal area covered to catch rolls and multiple foes, on top of facing forward rather than backwards after the dash attack. His only ground move that doesn't technically move him across either patch of jungle Dash Attack fittingly gets the luxury of movement outside of the patches.


AERIALS
Neutral Air: Claw Swipes
Similar to his jab, Sceptile will swipe a claw diagonally down in front of him for 2% damage, and repeat the action with a second press for a total of 4% and hit-stun. In many ways his Nair behaves just like an air-jab of sorts, able to be rapidly pressed to tear into foes for quick damage off of pretty much any launcher (like Leaf Blade Lunge, Utilt, Etc) and in general is his go-to for fast damage on a shield or coming down on an opponent due to nearly no end lag.

Nair trades power for speed. Low on damage per hit, as well as in range, it is near impossible to win a trade using Claw Swipes. Nearly anything, even grounded jabs, will beat it out head-on! So try and sneak in the Nair wherever you feel it'd be safe, such as after the foe is in stun or from a momentum-driven short hopped approach (especially on a shield) after a whiffed move or a trip.

Down Air: Canopy Dive
Bringing one leg up and the other down, Sceptile immediately plummets downwards at a 50* angle! Zooming at faster than fast fall speeds, Sceptile will ultimately cover less distance than a combined Up B + Double Jump but with radically different properties based on when/where you hit foes with the kick.

The beginning 1/4th of the dive will hit foes for 10% and carry them down at the same 50* angle for a low-mid powered spike with a big heap of landing lag if you do it close to the ground. This can obviously make for a flashy KO option as you Dair somebody offstage and recover back with an UpB+Jump, or a means to pop somebody into the air as they ricochet off the floor. The next portion of the dive is separated into a "Mid Hit" and "Weak Hit" at each half of the remaining distance. The Mid Hit deals 6% and knocks foes away for low power at a 0* angle, making for a semi-spike as gravity drags foes ultimately at a diagonal. This has half the landing lag of the Spike Hit and is a useful combo option from up high, such as after hopping on a Plant from Usmash. Finally, the Weak Hit will pop foes up at a 30* upward diagonal for a mere 2% damage, barely getting any distance but with nearly any landing lag at all!


Like Nair, this is obviously best used when coming right down on top of somebody but with different nuances based on height. The immediately obvious usage comes from Leaf Blade Lunge to perform a Pillar Combo. LBL will drag a foe upwards with you, and then allow you to perform an aerial/jump-aerial with frame advantage, naturally this lets you Dair them back to the ground and repeat the process (if not sneak in some Nairs before a Jump-Dair). The strong hit will spike them to the ground only to then be hit again by the mid/weak hit if they don't tech, which can then follow into a tilt/smash/grab opportunity, another LBL to attempt another pillar, or even into his tech chase game if they tech and roll into a Grass Knot or other trap. Offstage it is a tremendously powerful gimping tool when used properly, but it cannot be stressed enough that it is also dangerous to perform due to you needing both your jump and Up B to recover from the drop! Sticking close to the edge and abusing your wall cling to wall jump -> jump/UpB can save you in a pinch however as Sceptile can wall cling to cancel the move into the corresponding landing lag, just make sure you face the right way.

All in all, Canopy Dive enforces Sceptile's grass typing by wanting to keep out of the air if possible. It is a staple combo from UpB like all his aerials, and one of his few finishers in either raw spike or gimp form. Foes better watch out for this forest Pokemon when he is overhead!

Forward Air: Front Tail Flip
Sceptile ducks forward and performs a front-flip, swinging his bristly tail in front of him in a huge half-circle! As mentioned before, the tail is disjointed and like with Dash Attack will hit multiple times as the leaves of the tail scrape by foes one after the other 3 times for 4% each hit before knocking foes up and away with medial power. After the tail passes by his front half, there is a smidge of lag as he goes back to neutral air position.

With range just short of Marth's Fair and covering the entirety of the space in front of him, Fair is his go-to spacing tool in the air. Catching somebody with the upward hit is ideal as it will drag them into the next two hits and actually cause knockback below you up at a diagonal, allowing for possibly a second Fair, Jump-Nair, or even a deadly Critical Leaf Blade! The multi-hit and disjoint makes it relatively safe on shields when spaced well, but unlike Nair it has landing lag making it easy to shield-grab if you aren't on point with spacing/depending on the Match Up.

Up Air: Back Tail Flip
A mirror of Fair, Sceptile will instead lean back and perform a back-flip to cover the entire half circle above him with his tail! With identical stats all-around, the important distinction here is of course the reverse motion and area of coverage, starting in front of Sceptile as opposed to directly above him, the tail will hit 3 times for 4% as it drags foes behind him and ultimately pop them directly upwards for medial power at the end.

Fair and Uair are big, arcing multi-hits that obviously make up your juggle game off of Utilt, Usmash, Leaf Blade Lunge, etc. Somewhat interchangeable depending on where you want to carry your opponent, there is more overlap than meets the eye between the two: Fair actually hits above you first and Uair hits in front of you first, sort of swapping traditional spacing roles! A foe in front of you would be better off being Uair'd as it would hit and drag them towards the other hits faster than Fair, and vice versa for somebody directly above, though the meat of each move hits their traditional "zones". The two are equally good combo extenders/starters after any of your handful of launching tools (Leaf Blade Lunge) and are your go-to's for aerial damage alongside Nair.

Back Air: Tail Swipe
Looking back, Sceptile will swish his tail back and forth horizontally to create a long lasting, disjointed hitbox! With identical frame data to his Uair and Fair, again the difference here is the area coverage and ultimately the angle of the last hit (like the others, it hits 3 times for 4%). Staying in place means you have more chances to hit all 3 hits unlike the other arcing aerials which may hit for only two or even a single hit depending on spacing, before popping foes away at a nasty 25* angle with low power.


While the lower power is unattractive at a glance, the angle and lingering nature of Bair more than makes up for that when offstage gameplay is concerned. The 25* angle may as well be horizontal for many characters as they fall due to gravity during hit stun, allowing the move to really be a powerful gimp option you can toss out as you fall near the edge of the stage to deny a foe the ledge. With his ability to wall cling and ride the stage with Up B, you can safely try to keep denying a foe with proper spacing of Bair to ultimately land a gimp if Dair spikes are too risk/reward for your taste. The low power also makes for good custom-combo potential as you can launch a foe, follow with a Bair to keep them nearby while still pushing them towards a ledge and following up as you please.


THROWS
Grab/Pummel: Snatch & Scratch
Sceptile has ordinary grab statistics, but his excellent dash speed makes for great grab opportunities especially when combined with his tech chasing game. His pummel is average as well, having him claw into his captive foe for 3% a pop at a medium pace.

Side Throw: Low Toss
Speaking of his grabs playing with his tech chase game, Forward and Back throw supplement the ability to grab off a tech with the ability to force one! Essentially mirroring the same action, just either forward or backward, Sceptile will toss his foe down and away a set distance of a platform for 5%. On impact with the floor, the foe is either prone or can tech, which can lead to very interesting setups for Sceptile just like Grass Knot.


Speaking of, seeing as how the throw is always that set distance: you can toss foes directly onto your traps! Grass Knots, Spring-Traps and Tripwires all get activated by the foe being tossed into them, so be aware of your distance from them when deciding which throw to go for. 5% may not be much, but being able to continue tech chases, guarantee trips or more damage with a pop-up is a great asset to anyone's grab game.

Up Throw: Ground Tail Flip
Sceptile lets go of the foe and performs a backflip in place, kicking them for 6% and hit-tun before his tail follows through and smacks them up and away at an 80* angle for another 4% and low-mid knockback. As the flip continues, the tail can strike 2 more times like your other tail attacks on nearby enemies before you land back in your neutral grounded state.


While a bit laggy, this is your go-to combo throw as you will more often than not have a foe at a great angle above you with 10% tacked on for you to follow up on! Leaf Blade Lunge-> Aerial, Regrabs on fast fallers, Usmash, V-Tilts and the like are all great options since the foe is usually still nearby even at higher %, but past 100% or so they start getting hard to follow up.

Down Throw: X-Scissor
Letting go of the foe, Sceptile quickly crosses his arms, forms Leaf Blades, then slashes them across his victim swiftly for a mighty X-Scissor! Dealing 12%, the foe is launched at a shallow 20* with great power, able to KO near a ledge around 140-150%, but otherwise doesn't lead to much.


Though it is often reserved for a KO, it makes a great reset tool onstage as well. It has the best raw damage of your throws and sends the foe a decent distance away (which with Sceptile's speed and Bullet Seeds isn't too big of a drawback) which is nice when a Side Throw won't reach a trap or you feel the need to make more space for yourself. Side Throw and Dthrow share similar uses near a ledge, but at different times. At lower % you may opt for a Side Throw near the ledge to get them at that low angle for a Bair or Dair gimp, at mid % it's a toss up based on your opponent's recovery (some foes may die to a Dthrow at the ledge due to sheer distance), and at higher % you definitely want to Dthrow for max distance. All in all it rounds out his handful of KO options quite nicely with a more or less safe option at the end of a long chase.


FINAL SMASH: LEAF STORM


Transforming into Mega Sceptile, he turns and launches his tail forward like a missile! Accompanied by a swirling storm of leaves from the forest, the tail will drill foes offstage just like the Drill item in Smash4 but with double the size to catch opponents while the storm of leaves push them at a stead pace while pelting them with 4% leaves over and over again.

You'll want to line up your shot to get the best KO potential with the tail, but the storm of leaves will leave all opponents in a bad spot to capitalize on. Once the tail is shot off, Sceptile turns back around for some lag and returns to being normal Sceptile, able to run around while the leaf storm rages on for another 3 seconds.



PLAYSTYLE:
TRICKY FOREST WARRIOR
Sceptile is a speedy character with a toolkit of nasty surprises. Bullet seeds, Mobile Counters, Vertically Mobile lunges, Grass Knots, Spring-Traps, Tripwires, Tall grass, Plant walls, and mobility-traps with his ground attacks all make for a versatile warrior!

Fitting his nature, Sceptile's on-stage presence is amazing. When close to the ground he has access to stage-controlling traps, top tier ground speed, Short Hopped aerials and his array of Overgrow-boosted normals when combined with his smash attacks. This grants him a great neutral game due to raw speed, disjoints and his projectile, and devastating punish game as foes cascade into mistake after mistake as Sceptile forces them into bad situations for more and more damage with pretty much the entirety of his kit. His bread and butter combos such as Leaf Blade Lunge -> Dair Pillars, Side Throw -> Bullet Seed/H-Tilt/Etc, tech chases off of Grass Knots/etc, and so on are all powerful in these regards, but they are also a bit of a weakness.

You see, Sceptile has so many ways of building up damage by repeatedly slicing at the foe, but very few ways of finishing them off! Critical Leaf Blade, Fsmash, Usmash, Dthrow, and Dair pretty much round out his methods for ending a stock with each option either being very unsafe on miss/a bit predictable around KO %'s, or simply doesn't KO until very high % and only near a ledge in Dthrow's case. Sure, he has other niche KO options with say Bair gimps or Spring-Traps near ledges, but when it comes time to close a stock it is safe to say Sceptile's foe will have it much easier than he does! Once a foe lands a hit on Sceptile, his options become limited moreso than most. Dair and Nair are easy to out-prioritize due to their non disjointed and relatively small range which makes the air a weakness for Sceptile if he isn't the one in control there. Though, with his Up B and Double jump he can skillfully outwit and stall out jugglers to return to the stage with Dair. Once offstage he is safe in that pillar of space where his Up B and Side B can cover edge guards, but beyond that his horizontal recovery is very lacking in how you need to expend your vertical/safety options to gain horizontal distance and thus put yourself at risk for a second hit and certain death!

Despite these flaws, Sceptile still has a host of unique strengths such as the combination of raw movement and traps to keep him on the right end of sticky situations. If speed and cunning are your style, then Sceptile is the Pokemon for you!
 
Last edited:

Tocaraca2

Smash Ace
Joined
Feb 22, 2015
Messages
557
Location
Wokingham
Should I make my moveset for Akullotsoa or the Mutant Creeper first? I think I'm more confident with the Mutant Creeper moveset right now.
 

allison

She who makes bad posts
Joined
Jan 25, 2014
Messages
5,138
Location
Maple Valley, WA
NNID
crazyal02
3DS FC
0216-1055-4584
Should I make my moveset for Akullotsoa or the Mutant Creeper first? I think I'm more confident with the Mutant Creeper moveset right now.
Then make the Mutant Creeper moveset first if you're more confident with it right now.
 

Tocaraca2

Smash Ace
Joined
Feb 22, 2015
Messages
557
Location
Wokingham
Then make the Mutant Creeper moveset first if you're more confident with it right now.
The thing is I was planning to do my 3 own characters first and in the order that I came up with them, then make movesets for characters that had limitations. I still don't know what Forward Smash to give the Mutant Creeper, however I don't know what Jab to give Akullotsoa either. I'm thinking of starting the moveset for Blossomus (the very light character with all ranged moves, and having projectile combos), however there are just so many different types of moves in SSB that it's quite hard to think of what they all should be. I'm actually still awaiting more feedback on my latest edits to Alica Vassin before I want to go ahead with another moveset, but I don't want to ask people to read the set again because... it's long.
 

FrozenRoy

Smash Lord
Joined
Apr 26, 2007
Messages
1,266
Location
Las Vegas, Nevada
Switch FC
SW-1325-2408-7513
Here's some new comments on old sets! I'll try to be doing more comments lately. I've also made rankings though there are only 6 sets there ATM: MY link to it via Aradia in the signature should also be fixed.

Domo Arigato Chibi-Roboto

The first thing I note about Chibi-Robo, reading it now, is that the recharge itself is rather weak: Chibi-Robo takes 5 whole seconds to regen 5%, has to anchor himself, the damage buff is 2% (Though I find this rather reasonable) AND while it is small he is completely immobile for a moment. Personally, I would up the amount he heals for being plugged in for a long time: Maybe make it so the longer he is plugged, the more he heals per second? It also only takes 10% to dislodge the plug, which feels too small, I would up it.

The flowering on Chibi-Robo's Side Special feels very tacky, in part due to the randomness, and the increase from 10% to 15% seems pitiful: Keeping the flower may work, but I'd look for a new way for the water to sprout it, rather than the randomness. is it just me or is his Forward Smash debuffed while charged up or does the spoon only get thrown after the baseball bat-esque hitbox? I'd make the Down Smash also charge faster with more power as well, because it's rather unlikely Chibi-Robo will get so much time to charge it normally. On the note of down inputs, I enjoyed Down Tilt and how it is an alternate move when you're plugged in.

The aerial attacks seem rather lacking here, not so much in effects as in playstyle: In fact, Chibi-Robo as a whole seems to not have poor individual moves for the most part, but a rather incohesive overall playstyle, and I don't really get a sense of how Chibi-Robo would play aside from a general sense of rooting himself, but the set seems somewhat unaware or uncaring of how that'd effect the playstyle aside from the obvious. The throws similiarly seem to lack this kind of awareness.

Still, the set isn't horrible, but it just has a large amount of iffy bits, so it isn't a bad way to start a contest.

Little Lion Man

The NSpec shield on Steven Universe is a fairly fun concept, combining counter and reflector in a rather neat way. I also like the Cheeseburger Backpack Down Special idea, with consumables of limited use that you can switch between to manage, but I don't like that Mr. Queasy is totally useless: Maybe he could have been a very weak hitbox? Could have allowed Steven to do some surprise shenanigans with a hitbox when he seems to just be looking for heals.

Watermelon Steven seems like an interesting idea, a short term minion, but considering they "explode into watermelon chunks" I think it could have been fun if something happened when they died, such as dropping a healing watermelon slice or maybe some kind of final hitbox (You could add a delay when dying by damage to keep it from always hitting, but encouraging using less laggy attacks/using them to catch more laggy attacks). The standards are functional but they tell me little about the playstyle aside from Up Tilt and to some extent jab: The KO %s are fine on the inputs, but felt surprisingly high to me for Steven, though this isn't necessarily a bad thing.

By comparison, Steven and the Lion's smashes feel weak KO-wise, though the KO %s are fine...the smashes help give a little more idea of playstyle, but they aren't especially noteworthy moves on their own, at the same time there's little wrong with them and I kind of like the Up Smash. I feel this is the area most fitting the complains of it feeling like a moveset for the Lion, as the Smashes (often a character's "power" attacks) are all pretty involved with him. Aerials are overall functional but don't add much, though I feel the need to point out Steven's Up Aerial KOs faster than any of his smashes uncharged (Well, ties with D-Smash).

The grab game, however, is where the Lion really takes over: The Lion performs every single throw, KOing better than any of the Smashes on the F-Throw as well, and his Up Throw seems to KO rather fast for a juggler, Down Throw is pure filler, not much to say aside from the Lion takeover.

Overall, Steven Universe has some fun ideas, but the Lion takeover feels a bit much and pushing it to slight dislike to me is some very weird numbers, though the set is rather iffy in terms of a visible playstyle as well.

Pika and Chu

I don't actually dislike Plusle and Minun as Pokemon: When I first played Pokemon Sapphire, a Plusle I captured ended up being my MVP randomly, and was my highest leveled 'mon by the end, just wrecking everything, it was quite fun. My LeafGreen also featured a hard carry Farfetch'd, so there ya go. They always reminded me of Mas y Minos from the Teen Titans cartoon...

The first thing I'll note: Down Special and probably Up Special too could use a single line break, as they are rather "wall of text-y" right now. I actually quite like the Specials, though perhaps the half second of stun is a bit overused as Minun's special thing, but half a second of stun is a level of stun I can handle, and I enjoy things such as the various ways you can seperate (or combine) their NSpec projectile or the weird ways you can move them around with Side Special/Up Special, especially considering unique effects on their attacks and what have you. It's a good start to the moveset, for sure.

The Up Tilt seems a bit potent of a KO tool for Plusle and Minun to have, especially since it seems rather difficult to punish and they don't feel like characters with potent KO tilts: I'm pretty fond of the Forward Tilt and Down Tilt, though moreso the Forward Tilt, and I actually like the Dash Attack, which is a rather clever use of the tether and an interesting ground-to-air transition move.

Forward Smash is somewhat interesting to imagine, given the fact part of your character is moving during the charging period, and I am rather interested in the combo potential of the fact that Minun performs a Quick Attack back to you, you have a sort of hitbox at whatever angle you Forward Smash (I wonder if the move should be angable?) to protect you during ending lag but a more vulnerable hurtbox and Minun could make some mean follow-up if someone tries to get in close or what have you. Up Smash is rather average, though the wonky knockback scaling makes potentially interesting uses of charge. Down Smash is interesting it that it feels in some ways like a "reverse" Quick Attack from the Up Special and the way it has side-to-side coverage is rather unique thanks to the character movement on a DHD-esque character + the kind of inverse-Down Smash nature of Quick Attacking back to the middle.

Neutral Aerial brings up another thing I sorta like: The way that the direction Plusle and Minun faces can matter a fair amount in their weird DHD-esque duo mechanic. NAir mixes together a GTFO-esque move with an edgeguarder, though perhaps it's KO power is a bit strong for the damage (Raise the damage or lower the KO power), but with it being two-halved that gives both sides exploitable weaknesses. Overall, though, I feel the aerials could be a big source for improvement: FAir seems a bit randomly strong and it feels too much like old moves, while the Up Aerial and Down Aerial are only okay. Back Aerial is a fun idea but 1.5 seconds is far too long for the paralyze when it isn't that hard to land: Lower that amount ASAP.

Up Throw KOs too early for a throw, I'd increase it to around 130%-150% for a strong KO throw, F-Throw and D-Throw are fairly normal, though the D-Throw is the kind of normal I don't mind as a puzzle piece on a throw and the Forward Throw feels like it could offer some interest with the volleyball-esque knockback. I'm not a big fan of the Back Throw though, which is overtuned numerically and is kind of eh in terms of interest anyway.

Overall, Plusle and Minun was a pleasant surprise to me after the introduction as a "clone" moveset, as the moveset hardly feels like a clone moveset at all (The post says it has been edited before, was it edited to be less clone-y?). The aerials and throws have room to improve by quite a lot, but I was actually quite fond of the Specials and it backed it up with some fun Smashes and some tilts I quite enjoyed. This is definitely my favorite set of yours, Muno.

Hard Day's NiGHTs

That's a fairly meaty section on how NiGHTS' flight works! Not a bad thing, but it felt worth noting anyway: I'm not sure how smart it is to entirely restrict NiGHTS aerial attacks while in flight, but since you can just cancel and restart it seems fine overall. The sparkle trail is...interesting, I'm not sure I like it, but it does seem to have safeguards in place to prevent sick abuses.

Neutral Special is rather confusingly worded: While I think I have an idea of how it works, there's no knockback listed, and I don't get how it can keep firing while NiGHTS is Paralooping since she can't use her NSpec in flight? And NiGHTS turns into a...car and stuff, where she loses her normal moveset? Do you get anything to replace it or is this just a straight-up self gimp for no gain? There doesn't seem to be any explanation on WHAT being a car means: This moveset is already confusingly explained two moves in. Up Special seems...okay? I'm not sure I really like the mechanic booster here and it seems potential very gimping of her since Mewtwo AFAIK is not very heavy and it debuffs her weight so much AND makes him take additional damage...and at the same time, the insane movement bonus is quite high. I kind of wonder if it is too swingy.

Down Special is probably the best special, the minion-esque guys have fairly nice effects, they work towards an obvious playstyle with the paralooping and they actually provide some interesting interaction with the paralooping. The standards, however, quickly drop the ball that the Down Special was carrying, two line moves that often give no indication to knockback, no explanations of what purpose they serve in the moveset or how they might work with NiGHTS (Which even if they do serve a purpose, makes it a lot harder to figure out that purpose, though they really do seem to serve none outside generic ones...though it is hard to even tell with no knockback), making them fairly bad.

The Forward Smash continues the trend of "movesets without knockback", though the move is more described than others, though only the Up Smash has any idea of knockback...Down Smash is a cool idea, but how does this sweeping, ranged axis move work into what NiGHTS does? And can it have some indication of knockback too, please? The aerials are a return to small, not very described attacks, but at least they start giving us KO indicators: given how IMPORTANT the air game is, this is a character very heavy on flight after all, these aerials desperately need more explanation of what you do with them with stuff like flying and paralooping, because right now the closest thing I can see is "maybe positioning yourself for sweetspots", but even then the delay of exiting flight seems like it'd mess up such prescision as it is implied to require...

I really don't like this grab! It takes impractically long to execute in a match (it's SO punishable it hurts), just looking at the Up Throw it contains rather easy to set up silly KO moves, the time NiGHTS takes to rotate is rather impractical, it steps on the toes of paralooping to reduce strategic complexity in a way I feel is unnecessary and overall it just feels bad. Up Throw KOs far too quickly to come out of a grab state unless something very weird is going on and NIGHTS' is not that hard if you ever actually grab them. The throws aside from Down Throw are too similiar, all fitting the role of KO throw without much setup or anything to differentiate them aside from direction. Down Throw is fine, though.

I think what I've said about the set and my tone tells you all you need to know about overall opinion.

Meowrio

Three seconds is a bit long for Cat Mario's dash boost, I feel, and could probably be safely lowered some to make it more likely to be used, especially since jumps interrupt it: Dashing for 3 straight seconds is a rather rare event. The first two Specials seem fine, though they'll need quite good support, but I find the Up Special...odd. He summons a platform? Can Cat Mario do that? It seems potentially relevant to how he'll play but not elaborated on and kind of awkward in the set. Down Special has some cool stuff to it, but the lag it has and the restrictions make it awkward, and it has the problem that the two effects feel rather...unconnected. How often are you gonna go for healing while also dropping down on the foe (And that's if the foe can't steal the healing coins)? Or are you gonna just turn into stone from up high very obviously to heal?

The standards are...okay. Not so much a problem with no interactions or anything, but they're fairly average, with a small amount of detail, and I kind of find it odd how they seem to point to a more aerial combo character, and I'm not sure what the focus on his quick attacks is aside from being quick, which wouldn't be a problem if that wasn't the identity of every one of them. Forward Smash suffers from bizarre numbers: They're very low damage-wise, 9% is more of a tilt, yet it KOs at 110%, which is decently fast. Up Smash suffers from the same problem but worse: 4% is JAB level, yet it is the max damage of it uncharged, and it KOs at 80% charged but deals low damage. These aren't necessarily issues, different damage/KB values are fine, but they seem rather extreme to the point that it gets silly AND not very in place for the character/set to justify it.

Down Smash could use some work on various numbers, but is a fine move...on a Special. This is very much something more core to the moveset, actually is rather complex and on a Down Smash feels more tacked onto a move than it should be. This should very, very much be moved to a Special, for gameplay and flavor purposes. We then get to the aerials, which seem overall similiar to the Standards in terms of gameplay flavor, though the Up Aerial randomly deals 10% despite KOing at 100%, the Down Aerial is interesting and fairly good, and the autocancel works well with the aerial combo playstyle...but with every move except NAir KOing at 100%-130%, it can be hard, though I thought the Forward Aerial was a clever use of his autocancel mechanic.

The grab game is fairly eh, though I thought the Forward Throw's animation was great (and a fun way to mess with the usual Mario Bro-style spin throw): You really should have only Down Throw or Back Throw in the set though, for multiple reasons, including redundancy and balance.

Overall, though, Cat Mario is a set that has some cool ideas, but also botches some execution and doesn't play off of those ideas especially well, though it is better than NiGHTS to me for sure. Plusle & Minun are still the early stars, though.
 

FrozenRoy

Smash Lord
Joined
Apr 26, 2007
Messages
1,266
Location
Las Vegas, Nevada
Switch FC
SW-1325-2408-7513
MYM17 User Rankings - Update 1
Post #1 - Post #296

Raw Data
FAQ


ChaosKiwi
Movesets: Chibi-Robo, Android 19, Starman (Wrestling), Starman (Earthbound), Starman (DC Comics), Ryu, Crazy Dave*
304



Munomario777
Movesets: Plusle & Minun, NiGHTS, Cat Mario, Inkling, Silver the Hedgehog, Qbby/BoxBoy, Shadow the Hedgehog
238



Getocoolaid
Movesets: Superman, Starman, Batman
182



MasterWarlord
Movesets: Blocks, Polpo*
145


Bionichute
Movesets: Nightshade, Darkseid, Hanasakajii*
114


Dr. Slavic
Movesets: Exeggcute and Exeggutor*, Pearl
93


Reigaheres
Movesets: Steven Universe, Amethyst
86


ForwardArrow
82


Muskrat Catcher
Movesets: Flygon, Serperior*
77


FrozenRoy
Movesets: Sealsdramon
75


Smash Daddy
71


AlRex
Movesets: Superman, Barney the Dinosaur
69


Staffofsmashing
Movesets: NiGHTs, Springtrap
68


Woohoo982
Movesets: Junk Synchron and Junk Warrior, Groudon
64


BridgesWithTurtles
Movesets: Parasect*
60


Plazzap
Movesets: Hoopa
59


Tocaraca2
Movesets: Alica Vassin
58


UserShadow7898
Movesets: Abomasnow*
45


Conren
Movesets: Lip*
45


Katapultar
Movesets: Syrma
40


JamietheAuraUser
39


Purin a.k.a Jose
Movesets: Uggly Dog
36


JOE!
Movesets: Sceptile
35


IvanQuote
Movesets: Toa Tahu
34


Squid Bee
Movesets: Isaac
31

Zero_Breaker
8


crazyal02
8


darth_meanie
6


n88_2004
6

Mockingbirch
2

Game&Watcher
1

CYBERSHADOW_01
1


ProfPeanut
1​

Score Breakdown
Moveset - 30 points
Iron MYMer Entries - 15 BONUS Points
Joke Movesets - 10 points
Comment - 5 points
MYmini - 4 points
Post - 1 point

Joint movesets - made by more than one author - are counted towards both users.

Bracketed sets are joke sets. Sets with an asterisk (*) are Iron MYmer entries.

The point you gain for a post is negated by anything higher - for example a post of one comment is worth five points. The exception is Iron MYMer entries, which gain 15 BONUS points.

I will not give any points out to posts that have infraction.

Update 1 Summary

Apologies for the long wait: This was supposed to come out at the end of the last month, but issues with images kept it from coming out on time. Because of that, this update is larger than usual, covering almost 300 points!

Although Munomario leaped out to an early lead, including four first day sets (One joint), Kiwi takes the gold for the first update, thanks in large part to his name-confounding Starman movement with 3rd place Getocoolaid: Efforts like this, the Iron MYMer competition and other showings have given us 43 movesets already, promising perhaps an excitingly large contest! Legendary sets like Darkseid have already come along, but there's plenty of room left for all of you to wedge your way into the hearts of the contestgoers. If there's been one disappointment, it's been a somewhat slow start from some veterans, most notably myself...but there might be something planned to turn that around.

See you all next update~

MYM17 User Rankings - Total Scoreboard
 
Last edited:

Reiga

He sold diddy for a switch
Joined
Dec 8, 2014
Messages
1,256
Location
White Noise
3DS FC
1461-7646-7368

Reigaheres
Movesets: Steven Universe
56
Well, I guess you forgot a certain moveset of mine, though I won't blame you at all, Amethyst kinda was only made noticed by a small link on a post, but I guess it's nice to point out.
Unless, of course, you're just keeping that for next update, in which case I'm just being a dum-dum again.
I can't help but notice that the OP still says,

Even though Roy is finally in the game. If you want to keep the alliteration going with another much anticipated character, maybe change "want Roy?" To "Want Ridley?" or something like that?
Then again, Roy isn't anything specific, for all we know, Roy might be referring to the random guy across the street. :p
 
Last edited:

zero_breaker

Smash Rookie
Joined
Jul 1, 2015
Messages
10
Location
Hong Kong
Alright, first moveset post, let's hope this isn't too bad.

----------


Phantasmal Percussionist
Horikawa Raiko


The Extra Stage Boss of Touhou Kishinjou ~ Double Dealing Character, Horikawa Raiko is a newly-born taiko drum tsukumogami - youkais that are born from the resentment of gods living in items after they are disposed. Realizing that her birth is due to the power of the Miracle Mallet, Raiko took the risk of abandoning her old taiko body and inhabiting a drum set in the Outside World, thus making her self-sufficient. Despite being a newborn youkai, Raiko is able to reach Extra Boss status with her 'ability to make anything follow a rhythm'. In all Extra scenarios, Raiko is shown as laid-back and a free spirit, though she does look out for her kind, supposedly working to create a paradise for other tsukumogamis.

Despite only appearing in two games - none of the two are fighting games, to boot - Raiko has two pretty clear theme in her attacks: Electricity and Sound. Her last spellcard "Pristine Beat" even follows the rhythm of her own theme! She also oftenly summons additional drums, either to use as (sometimes explosive) projectiles or to launch bullets.
...Why would you use tools of your own kind to attack?

Statistics
Weight: 8 (About the same as R.O.B. and Wario. The drum kit adds to her overall weight quite a lot.)
Size: 8 (Think Peach sitting on a floating drum kit)
Ground Speed: 4.5
Air Speed: 7
Fall Speed: 2.5
Jumps: 3
Jump Height: 7

Raiko is a somewhat floaty character despite her weight, as pretty much everyone in Touhou series can fly and that translates to her low falling speed. Her jump height, low falling speed and good air speed makes her great at aerial combat, which combined with her aerials (see below) allows her to easily put pressure on the opponent, while her ground speed isn't too bad either.

Also of note is that Raiko cannot footstool opponents. Granted, being hit on the head by a drum set probably feels painful, but you can't really jump on someone else's head if you're floating...

Mechanics
Grazing

Taken from the Touhou fighting games, Grazing in here is an alternative to airdodging; just input a direction when airdodging, and Raiko will dash towards that direction for about a Battlefield platform. During Grazing, only projectiles will not hit Raiko; melee attacks will still hit her. In addition, the end-lag of Grazing is slightly longer than airdodge, though the action itself lasts longer, making it easier for Raiko to avoid being hit by projectiles. Furthermore, This can be used as another aerial movement option for Raiko, allowing her to dash in and follow up some hits.

However, Grazing has more end lag than regular airdodging, and can only be used two times in mid-air which only refills when Raiko lands, so use it carefully.

Thunder Sign "Den-Den Daiko of Rage"
Almost all of Raiko's specials spawns Taikos (see below), and their placement can be important in protecting Raiko. When Raiko is hit by a melee attack, there's a short timing window - about as long as Roy's Counter - when she can input the shield button to make all taiko drums on the field release a shockwave that is larger than the drum by 3 size ranks and does 1% damage. The damage itself isn't important; what's important is that if the taiko drums are positioned well, it could break Raiko out from an opponent's combo. Perfect Shield can also trigger the effect.
Only 4 taiko drums may be on field at once, and Raiko only has 8 drums in stock, needing a second to restock each drum if she runs out. Although, a newly spawned drum will always replace the drum that's the earliest spawned when the drum count limit has been reached.

Moves
Unless otherwise specified, all projectiles used by Raiko are the size of Diddy Kong's Peanut Popgun projectiles.

Specials
Neutral Special: Third Drum "Three Strikes at Midnight"


Raiko put forward her hand, and a taiko drum the size of Kirby appears in front of her. As Raiko snaps her fingers, the taiko drum will start shooting three yellowish-white round bullets from its two side thrice in 5 seconds, then staying for another 5 seconds. As the move is finished once the taiko drum spawns, attacking Raiko herself before she snaps her fingers will not stop the drum from shooting.

Each bullet does 1.5% damage without any knockback, and travels at the same speed of Luigi's fireballs initially and slowing down until at 1/3 of Battlefield where it's at half speed and disappears. The taiko drums spawned by the special has 13% health, so it is possible to destroy the drum before it starts shooting, though risky. Additionally, it can be knocked away from its original position. However, the drum can also be picked up and thrown by Raiko for 7% damage, and it will still shoot bullets while traveling in midair after being thrown. It will always land on its side whether from being hit or thrown, though. If the move is used in mid-air, the taiko drum will stay afloat, and cannot be picked up in such case.

While the bullets are definitely not a kill move, it can help dealing chip damage to the opponent and limiting their movement options, giving Raiko more opportunity to zone out the opponent. Moreover, the drums can be thrown just like Mega Man's Metal Blade, but you'll end up wasting one of the drums you have in your stock if you ended up throwing it off-stage.

Side Special: Seventh Drum "High Speed Taiko Rocket"

Raiko rears her hand, which is now holding a taiko drum the size of Olimar, back, and then throws the drum out as a short laser the length of 1/2 Battlefield platform shoots out from its back, launching it forwards. The drum does 7% damage on hitting, and the laser on the back does 2% without stunning. The drum slows down after travelling 1/2 of Battlefield, and lands at 2/3 of Battlefield, disappearing after 6 seconds. The drum has 10% health, so again, it can be destroyed mid-flight. The move has a bit of start-up lag, about the same as Ike's uncharged Eruption.

This move is great for horizontal coverage, and even if the opponent jumps over the drum rocket they'll still take damage from the laser as they land, so this can be use for chip damage, drum placement, and forcing the opponent into the air at the same time. Using the move, however, leave yourself wide open to attacks from above and behind, so no, don't spam it.

By inputting B twice, this move will spawn a drum that explodes on hitting an entity or the ground; in such case, 6 red energy balls the size of Samus' uncharged Neutral B shoots out in a circle from the destroyed drum, each doing 2% damage, and travels for the height of Mario before disappearing. The explosion does no damage, though. This alternate move can be used to gimp recovery if you hit it, as the bullets actually has quite a decent range. It can also hit opponents who are looking to dodge the drum rocket, as the bullets does a little hitstun, giving time for Raiko to do zoning or approaches the opponent for a kill move. However, note that this still uses up a drum even if the drum doesn't stay onstage, and the earliest spawned drum will still disappear if the drum count is full.

Up Special: Sixth Drum "Alternate Sticking"

Functioning similarly to King Dedede's Up B, Raiko drums at the smaller drums surrounding her as she flies upwards and lands, creating a shockwave on the ground and around her, as well as six yellow energy bullets floating upwards to the height of Ganondorf. The jump is as fast as King Dedede's but travels a longer distance upwards, while the fall is as fast as Kirby's Up B. The jump can be angled, though at a lesser extent when compared to King Dedede's.

The jump itself does no damage, and the drop itself does 8% damage whether during falling or on landing. The shockwave, on the other hand, does 12% damage and the bullets 2% damage each. Raiko also bounces slightly after landing, and then enters helpless state until she lands again. As such, landing on moving platforms can be dangerous. If shield button is imputted as Raiko lands, the shockwave does 1.5x damage, though the shield will not appear, and Raiko will bounce even higher after landing, making it more risky if the move misses. This is mostly used as a recovery move, but the damage it does isn't too bad either, making it good as a high damage output if you're certain you can land it. However, the knockback isn't quite enough to be a reliable kill move, KOing opponents at 180% only.

Down Special: First Drum "Raging Temple Taiko"

Much like Pac-Man's Hydrant, Raiko creates a taiko drum the size of Toon Link from electricity in her hands, and then throw it at the ground, which emits a shockwave the size of 2/3 Battlefield platform on hitting the ground. The drum itself does 8% damage, and the shockwave does 7% damage; If the drum head on the bottom hits the opponent in mid-air, it'll be a Meteor Smash, doing 12% damage, and the drum bounces up slightly before continuing to fall downwards. The taiko drum has 18% health, and disappears 8 seconds after landing. This move is mostly used to place drums, especially since this is the largest drum and thus has the most range for its effect. It can be a great option to kill offstage opponents, too. However, the end lag of the move is slightly long, so it may leave a hole in Raiko's defense.

By inputting B twice, this move will also spawn an explosive drum instead of a regular one, which spawns 8 red energy bullets the same size as Samus' uncharged Neutral B in a circle on explosion, traveling for the height of Mario and each dealing 2% damage just like the alternate Side B.

Standards
Jab: Thunder Roll

Raiko swipes forward with her drum stick twice for 2% damage each, then starts drumming on her small drums to produce bullets in the shape of musical notes in front of her, doing 0.7% damage each hit for 8 hit in total and ending in a shockwave as Raiko strikes her large drum, doing 3% damage.
By hitting the A button in certain rhythms after the first two jabs, Raiko can perform different rapid jabs.
Note: A " . " signifies a tap, and a " _ " signifies holding the button for a bit longer.

Jab 1( . _ . . ): Instead of musical notes, Raiko spawns six yellow wisp-like bullets circling her, and shoots outwards as the jab ends. The wisp bullets does 2% damage when around Raiko, and does 3% damage when shot out, travelling the distance of 2/3 of Battlefield platform. A typical projectile move, this can be used to pursuit projectile users who are trying to zone Raiko out when she's using melee attacks.

Jab 2( . . _ . ): Raiko shoots curved beams of electricity upwards from the ground twice, doing 3% damage each hit and drags hit opponents upwards, then finishes with a larger electric beam, doing 5% damage. The whole jab has a fairly low knockback. The first two wave of beams reaches the height of Kirby above Raiko herself, and the finisher reaches the height of Ness above Raiko. This jab does the most damage, but has quite a bit of end-lag as the beams takes quite a while to disappear, and only then can Raiko move.

Jab 3( _ . _ ): Raiko releases two shockwaves, one slowly expanding with the range of a Battlefield platform doing 7% damage and little knockback, and the other does no damage but paralyzes the opponent in the range of two Battlefield platforms, expanding at a faster speed. While this jab does less damage, at close-range it's pretty much a guaranteed hit, plus the low knockback allows her to follow up with other attacks.

Raiko hits her drums with the same rhythm of the above jabs.

Forward Tilt: Dual Stroke
Raiko strikes her drum sticks forward in a cross shape, doing 6% damage. The attack has a fairly small hitbox, but it has decent horizontal knockback and can reflect projectiles without damage or speed modifier up to 25% damage. Not a kill move, but pretty good for zoning. Can be followed up by the usual aerials or Side B. If the move hits a spawned drum, though, the whole drum becomes a hitbox right afterwards, doing 5% electrical damage; as such, even after the move ends, spotdodging the move may still lead you to being hit by the drum.

Up Tilt: Tomoe Spin
Raiko holds up and spins her drum stick, doing 6 hits and 1.5% damage each hit. Barely any knockback, but it has almost no start-up lag or end lag, and the hitbox covers the whole forearm, making it easy to land the move. Can be used for chip damage during comboes, or follow up with Down Smash.

Down Tilt: Wind-and-Thunder Wheel
Raiko spins the small drums around her, creating a ring of lightning the size of 2/3 Battlefield platform striking at the floor around Raiko. The spinning drums does 3% damage, while the lightning does 5% electrical damage. If you're hit by the ring, you're probably going to be hit by the lightning too. Incredible range for a standard attack, but it has little knockback and a bit of start-up lag. Use it when the opponent is looking to approach you, as it stops them right in the track, giving Raiko space to accomplish her next action, whether it be distancing herself from the opponent or preparing a grab. It can also hit opponents in prone, getting them up for further attacks.

Dash Attack: Bounce Slam
Raiko stops abruptly in her dash, and slams the large drum she's sitting on upwards, dealing 7% damage and good vertical knockback. Another excellent move in getting the opponent into the air, this is Raiko's quickest attack with the function, though the damage is somewhat lacking in comparison to Forward Smash and Up Throw.

Ledge Attack: Rumble Shock
Raiko floats up onto the ground, and stomps down with her large drum, creating a shockwave that does 6% damage. It's not the fastest of moves, having noticable start-up lag, but it has a decent knockback to give Raiko a breather after getting up.

Grab Game
Grab

Raiko extends her arm, grabs the opponent and pull them against one of the small drums around her. A fairly normal grab.

Pummel
Raiko hits the drum that the opponent is pulled against, causing a drum sound and electric effects. The pummel does 2% damage each hit.

Forward Throw
Raiko spawns a taiko drum the same size as the ones in her Side B, slam it into the opponent for 3% damage, then strikes the drum with her drum sticks three times, dealing 1.5% damage each hit, and then a final strike such that the drum explodes in a red aura, dealing 5% to the opponent. If one inputs A button the exact moment Raiko strikes the drum, 1.5% extra damage will be added per hit, making this move an excellent damage dealer if you wants to. However, the knockback is pretty weak, and this uses up one of Raiko's drums too, making it unwise to always use the throw.

If Raiko has used up her drums and tried to use this move, she will simply slam her drum sticks into the opponent, doing 3% damage and almost no knockback.

Back Throw
Raiko grinds the opponent on her drum ring, as she turn around and throw them towards the back. The opponent takes 2% damage from being grinded past each drum - passing by 3 drums in total - and 4% damage from being thrown, for a total of 10%. Similar to Forward Throw, if the A button is inputted when the opponent passes each small drum, Raiko will hit the drum and 2% more damage is dealt per hit, which means the throw can end in a total damage of 16% if you can time the hits. Have a decent diagonal knockback, allowing it to potentially do a lot of damage and help Raiko with zoning.

Up Throw
Raiko twirls around, throwing the opponent upwards for 3% damage, then raises her drum stick upwards and shoots 3 v-shaped projectiles (the ones that appear in her non-spell card segments in the shooting games) upwards. The projectiles move slightly slower than Pit's arrows, but faster than Mewtwo's Shadow Ball, and does 3% damage each. Despite the damage, it has little knockback aside from the initial throw, and even then it can only kill at very high damage. It can be used to juggle opponents, however.

Down Throw
Raiko slams the opponent downwards for 3% damage, then strike the small drums around her to launch electricity on the ground for 5% damage. Forces the opponent to prone as they fall back to the ground. Somewhat similar to Ryu's Down B, it gives Raiko opportunity to setup comboes or projectiles as the opponent gets up, although it has very little knockback, but still enough such that the opponent wouldn't be able to hit Raiko with a get-up attack.

Smashes
Side Smash: Thunder God

During charging, Raiko rears back her hands, then swipes across the small drums, causing 4 beams of electricity to shoot from the ground before her in a distance of 1/2 Battlefield platform. The swipe does 5% base damage, and the electric beams does 4% base damage each. Despite being a forward smash, the knockback is mostly vertical, and can get the opponent into the air where Raiko has an advantage. You can follow up with Up Air to get them further up in the air, or just jump up and follow up with Forward Air. It's an alright kill move too, killing at 123% without charging. Moreover, if the attack hits a spawned drum, they become charged with electricity for 3 seconds (6 if the Smash attack is fully charged), and if the drum effect is triggered during that time the shockwave released will do electrical damage instead, resulting in a longer hitstun for Raiko to take advantage of. The projectiles shot by the drum spawned from the Neutral B will also deal electrical damage if the drum becomes charged from being hit by this move.

Up Smash: Blue Lady
As Raiko charges, she puts her hand downwards, and when releasing the smash she strikes her drum stick upwards as 8 musical note bullets burst out of the ground Raiko is floating on, each bullet doing 1.5% damage without stun and reaches the height of two Mario before falling back down. As the charge time increases, the amount of bullets spawned increases instead of the damage, reaching 16 bullets when fully charged. Hits a very large area, more than a Battlefield platform, and the bullets only disappear upon touching a surface or the blastline, so you can use this to do chip damage on recovering opponents. Additionally, if the bullets hit a spwaned drum, they will be enlarged in size and does double the damage, as well as bouncing back up to half the height of the distance it travelled downwards before. This allows Raiko to hit opponents even if they ran away from the move as long as she has the set-up ready. However, this move has noticable end lag, so you can't just go around spamming it.

Down Smash: Primordial Beat
Raiko raises her drum sticks and her feet with the drum mallets as she charges, and then strikes at the drums, creating a shockwave that travels a whole Battlefield platform. The shockwave does 14% base damage, and paralyzes hit oppnents for half a second uncharged, and a full second when fully charged. Long start-up lag, but the paralyze effect allows Raiko to follow up with Back Throw for more projectile game or go for a kill move in Forward Air.

Aerials
Neutral Aerial: Air Percuss

Raiko strikes her large drum, and a circle of 8 gun shell-like bullets spawns around her, then shoots out for the distance of a Battlefield platform, each doing 1% damage. If Raiko uses the attack again before the bullets disappear, the diagonally spwaned bullets will speed up, while the vertical and horizontal ones will slow down slightly. Typical bullet hell-like projectile game, this move has a rather long end lag (for aerials), and should only be used with zoning. The pattern change can be used to surprise the opponent too, being useful in baiting an airdodge from them.

Forward Aerial: Rest Beat
Raiko strikes at the small drums around her, and 3 bullets in the shape of horizontally placed quarter rests spawns, shoots out at a high speed as she points her drum stick forward, travelling the distance of a Battlefield platform. Start-up is a bit long, but each bullets does 3% damage, has a high knockback, and pierces entities. This is Raiko's best kill move, able to kill at 110% from the centre of Battlefield. Of course, you wouldn't be doing that at the centre of the stage; Use Forward Throw or Dash Attack to knock the opponent to the side first, then strike with this move; Or get them into the air with Forward Smash, Up Throw or Dash Attack, making it harder to avoid the move.

Back Aerial: Rage Spark
Raiko swipes backwards with her drum stick, and 3 lightning spikes the length of Kirby's height appears out of the tip of the stick, hitting for 6% electrical damage and decent knockback, and the stick swipe does 2% damage. With the extended hitstun from the electric damage property, this allows Raiko to knock back opponents long enough for her to spawn more projectiles, or even hitting them into the path of one.

Up Aerial: Aya-no-Tsuzumi
Raiko points her drum stick upwards, and 3 v-shaped bullets shoots out in a line, each doing 3% damage and travelling the height of 1.5 Ganondorf from the tip of the drum stick, with almost no knockback. The move has average end lag, and the drum stick is not a hitbox this time, so the distance between Raiko and the opponent doesn't really matter. Rather than projectile spam, this move is more like a segmented laser; It can't kill, but it can do chip damage and keep the opponent in air for Raiko to keep on attacking. Best used when the opponent is recovering from above the stage, as this limits their landing areas.

Down Aerial: Resounding Beat
Raiko swipes her drum stick downwards, and 3 clusters of bullets appears in a fan pattern. The stick swipe does 3% damage, and the bullets does 2% explosive damage each, breaking apart as they hit the ground or an entity. The bullets can be tilted towards the front or the back in a 45 degree angle. Little end lag allows Raiko to safely use this move more oftenly than other aerials. Another typical bullet hell move, this move takes advantage of Raiko's air mobility to rain down bullets on opponents, stopping them from retaliating right as Raiko lands. However, the bullets are somewhat spread-out, making it easier to dodge than other projectile moves.

Final Smash
"Come, my drummer from the outside world!
Let your primal beat echo throughout Gensokyo!"

"Pristine Beat"

Raiko flies to the middle of the stage, and starts drumming on her drum set. The soundwave produced travels indefinitely, so it's not like Donkey Kong's Final Smash where you can just move out of the range. Rather, opponents have to time their dodges and shields to the move. The soundwaves follows the rhythm of the drum, which is different depending on the stage; for a Kirby stage, it's the Green Greens melody, Hyrule Field for Link stages, and so on. Each wave does 10% damage only, but they rack up very, very quickly.

Taunts
Neutral Taunt

Raiko lean backwards, and twirls her drum sticks in her hand.

Up Taunt
Raiko spins along with her large drum, as musical notes appear around her.

Down Taunt
Raiko plays her drum set, following different rhythms for every stage.

Playstyle
Raiko is somewhat similar to Mega Man in terms of playstyle; Both utilizes a lot of projectiles, with only a few physical attacks. However, Raiko mostly utilizes her projectiles in air, and the large quantity of bullets she can fire makes up for their lack of power; Even if each bullet only does 1-2% damage, the damage can stack pretty quickly at which point Raiko can come in and take the K.O.. Her projectiles can limit movements of the opponent, forcing them to certain areas lest they get hit. Generally, your best option when using Raiko is to get the opponent into the air where her projectile game and aerial mobility can be used to pressure them.

Against projectile users and melee attackers, Raiko has her advantages and disadvantages; Grazing allows Raiko to easily bypass projectile spam from other opponents (even herself in a mirror match), but as her projectiles are either close-ranged or spread out at long distances, they can be avoided with relative ease with proper zoning. Raiko can rush in with Grazing and attack up-close, though. As Raiko's close-range attacks are either weak or have somewhat long start-up, she may have trouble with melee attackers... if they can get past the bullet hell, that is. Even then, The drum mechanics allows Raiko to interrupt being comboed if they're placed in the right place, and Grazing, while not as useful against melee attacks, gives Raiko more aerial movement options to control the spacing.

Miscellaneous
Crowd Chant

Raiko Saikyō (Strongest)!

Alternate Colors/Costumes
Raiko's alternate colors are based on other music-related characters in Touhou, including the Prismriver Sisters, Mystia Lorelei, Kasodani Kyouko, and the Tsukumo Sisters.

Victory Screens
Victory 1: Raiko plays her drum to the victory theme, and hums the tunes of her own theme - Primordial Beat ~ Pristine Beat - along with drumming after the victory theme ends.

Victory 2: While having her back against the camera at first, Raiko spins the drums around her with her drum sticks as she twirls around on her large drum, facing the camera up front after the splash, twirling the drum sticks in her hands.

Victory 3: Raiko throws her drum sticks into the air, then catch them and strike at the small drums and the large one she's sitting on at the same time, causing lightning to strike from the sky.

Kirby Hat
Kirby gains Raiko's red hair, as well as the drums circling around her. Kirby gains a tweaked version of Neutral B; The drum placed is even smaller, and disappears automatically after shooting the bullets. It also only shoots one bullet on each side per wave.

----------

"The tools are crying because
of the way you use it so recklessly."


"...You're acting self-important when you're just a tool."

----------

"If I beat these guys, I'll have nothing more to fear.
I will become the new ruler!"


----------
 
Last edited:

FrozenRoy

Smash Lord
Joined
Apr 26, 2007
Messages
1,266
Location
Las Vegas, Nevada
Switch FC
SW-1325-2408-7513
Well, I guess you forgot a certain moveset of mine, though I won't blame you at all, Amethyst kinda was only made noticed by a small link on a post, but I guess it's nice to point out.
Unless, of course, you're just keeping that for next update, in which case I'm just being a dum-dum again.

Then again, Roy isn't anything specific, for all we know, Roy might be referring to the random guy across the street. :p
Oh, sorry, that's actually my bad: I think I missed it because it was edited in later. I'll go fix that right now.

I'm pretty sure Alica Vassin wasn't an Iron MYMer entry.
Also you spelt my username wrong.
I thought she was! I don't think you acually have any issues with your points though, since I only added the asterisk right before I posted because I thought I forgot, but it turns out I was right in the first place and just misrembered.

I'll also fix your name.
 

FrozenRoy

Smash Lord
Joined
Apr 26, 2007
Messages
1,266
Location
Las Vegas, Nevada
Switch FC
SW-1325-2408-7513
It's spelt Tocaraca not Tocaroca, @ FrozenRoy FrozenRoy . Also, if the set actually isn't an Iron MYMer set, doesn't that mean I lose 15 points? :(
My point was I am pretty sure I never gave you 15 because of how I made the error (I thought I'd given you 15 before and forgot the asterisk, but what it actually was is that it wasn't an Iron MYMer set in the first place and I messed up adding the asterisk, so I never gave you the 15 and thus do not have 15 points to take away).
 

Bynine

Smash Cadet
Joined
Feb 11, 2010
Messages
50
hello everyone! nice to meet you all, i'm bynine

so it's interesting to see that this exists at all. i was, on a whim, making some never-to-be character's moves in a google doc, when it occurred to me to check if people were already doing this, and they were! of course, it looks like most of the characters i was thinking about making have already been done (k rool, midna, ridley, adeleine, etc.), but i think i'll still be happy to try and bring something new to the table. gonna lurk first and comment on some people's sets initially just to get my feet wet though, don't want to rush into things.

and just so this post isn't spam, i'll do just that.

Parasect: it takes a lot of creativity to come up with such a unique set for an obtuse character like parasect (a design i personally enjoy), and its playstyle seems really interesting and technical. the forward throw/up-b combo seems like mad fun, and the way its mushroom controls its actions is cool flavor
minor nitpicks:
poison powder: isn't the flower effect usually used for poisonous attacks?
growth: 10 seconds (multiple times even!) seems like a long time to charge something even though it's stored. if this is for project m you're probably not going to get more than a second here and there for yourself, so it wouldn't be able to be used effectively. if it's just for silly four player fun i guess that's okay, but even then i think it should be faster
rage powder: red seems like a more fitting dark color than dark green

Abomasnow: really cool (hoho) terrain-based mechanic. mist confused me at first but then i understood the tactical application, that's a really fascinating way of having an advantage over your opponent, i think i might try something similar to that in a set!

Lip: so this is where lips' stick comes from, huh! well the flower mechanics are really interesting, like some hybrid of villager's tree, olimar's pikmin, and rosalina's luma, you could do some super cool technical play, and the emotional impact from being beaten by some flowers and a cute little kid would be devastating
 

Tocaraca2

Smash Ace
Joined
Feb 22, 2015
Messages
557
Location
Wokingham
My point was I am pretty sure I never gave you 15 because of how I made the error (I thought I'd given you 15 before and forgot the asterisk, but what it actually was is that it wasn't an Iron MYMer set in the first place and I messed up adding the asterisk, so I never gave you the 15 and thus do not have 15 points to take away).
Yay!
hello everyone! nice to meet you all, i'm bynine

so it's interesting to see that this exists at all. i was, on a whim, making some never-to-be character's moves in a google doc, when it occurred to me to check if people were already doing this, and they were! of course, it looks like most of the characters i was thinking about making have already been done (k rool, midna, ridley, adeleine, etc.), but i think i'll still be happy to try and bring something new to the table. gonna lurk first and comment on some people's sets initially just to get my feet wet though, don't want to rush into things.

and just so this post isn't spam, i'll do just that.

Parasect: it takes a lot of creativity to come up with such a unique set for an obtuse character like parasect (a design i personally enjoy), and its playstyle seems really interesting and technical. the forward throw/up-b combo seems like mad fun, and the way its mushroom controls its actions is cool flavor
minor nitpicks:
poison powder: isn't the flower effect usually used for poisonous attacks?
growth: 10 seconds (multiple times even!) seems like a long time to charge something even though it's stored. if this is for project m you're probably not going to get more than a second here and there for yourself, so it wouldn't be able to be used effectively. if it's just for silly four player fun i guess that's okay, but even then i think it should be faster
rage powder: red seems like a more fitting dark color than dark green

Abomasnow: really cool (hoho) terrain-based mechanic. mist confused me at first but then i understood the tactical application, that's a really fascinating way of having an advantage over your opponent, i think i might try something similar to that in a set!

Lip: so this is where lips' stick comes from, huh! well the flower mechanics are really interesting, like some hybrid of villager's tree, olimar's pikmin, and rosalina's luma, you could do some super cool technical play, and the emotional impact from being beaten by some flowers and a cute little kid would be devastating
Welcome to Make Your Move! Wait, there is a Ridley moveset?!
WHERE I NEED TO SEE IT!
 

allison

She who makes bad posts
Joined
Jan 25, 2014
Messages
5,138
Location
Maple Valley, WA
NNID
crazyal02
3DS FC
0216-1055-4584
Welcome to Make Your Move! Wait, there is a Ridley moveset?!
WHERE I NEED TO SEE IT!
The most recent Ridley set was mine, made back in MYM15.

hello everyone! nice to meet you all, i'm bynine

so it's interesting to see that this exists at all. i was, on a whim, making some never-to-be character's moves in a google doc, when it occurred to me to check if people were already doing this, and they were! of course, it looks like most of the characters i was thinking about making have already been done (k rool, midna, ridley, adeleine, etc.), but i think i'll still be happy to try and bring something new to the table. gonna lurk first and comment on some people's sets initially just to get my feet wet though, don't want to rush into things.

and just so this post isn't spam, i'll do just that.

Parasect: it takes a lot of creativity to come up with such a unique set for an obtuse character like parasect (a design i personally enjoy), and its playstyle seems really interesting and technical. the forward throw/up-b combo seems like mad fun, and the way its mushroom controls its actions is cool flavor
minor nitpicks:
poison powder: isn't the flower effect usually used for poisonous attacks?
growth: 10 seconds (multiple times even!) seems like a long time to charge something even though it's stored. if this is for project m you're probably not going to get more than a second here and there for yourself, so it wouldn't be able to be used effectively. if it's just for silly four player fun i guess that's okay, but even then i think it should be faster
rage powder: red seems like a more fitting dark color than dark green

Abomasnow: really cool (hoho) terrain-based mechanic. mist confused me at first but then i understood the tactical application, that's a really fascinating way of having an advantage over your opponent, i think i might try something similar to that in a set!

Lip: so this is where lips' stick comes from, huh! well the flower mechanics are really interesting, like some hybrid of villager's tree, olimar's pikmin, and rosalina's luma, you could do some super cool technical play, and the emotional impact from being beaten by some flowers and a cute little kid would be devastating
For the record, there's absolutely no rule against doing a character that's already been done. Adeleine in particular hasn't had a moveset in ages, but anything goes, really.
 
Last edited:

Munomario777

Smash Master
Joined
Nov 18, 2014
Messages
3,253
Location
Charleston, South Carolina
3DS FC
0387-9596-4480
Switch FC
SW-8229-3157-8114
But... but... they don't link to them :(
At the top of the page, there's a tab that says "movesets". Next to a set, it should say "MYMsomething". Hover over the movesets tab and click the "MYMsomething" next to that set, and then ctrl+f the set again and click the link.
 

StaffofSmashing

Smash Lord
Joined
Jul 5, 2013
Messages
1,100
Location
When you're not looking, I'm there.
NNID
Lolu83
3DS FC
1590-5734-6768
So what if Mach Rider and Springtrap wer a complete fail.

So what if my best movesets were my least complex.

So what if I always take these long dragged on absences?

Well, I'm back. And Ninten is here to.

"PK BEAM!"
 

Junahu

Smash Ace
Joined
Nov 15, 2005
Messages
899
Location
Shropshire Slasher
Sceptile:
As I recall, you've always been adept at the kind of mechanical driven characterisation that Pokesets thrive on. You give characters a strong core that is only as complicated as it needs to be, and I respect the hell out of that practicality.
Sceptile tends to a garden of vegetation that can be converted into traps, or utilised to add mobility to his moves. It's a very sound idea; it's easy to observe, transparent in its useful-ness, and focuses the player's thoughts on creatively taking advantage of these mechanics.
I appreciate that you explain the broader utility of important moves but respect my time enough to not front-load everything. On the whole, the moveset is constructed well and thoughtfully presented

Your input arrangement for Sceptile's tree and underbrush is, for lack of a better term, incorrect. When your moveset has a focus on interactions with an external object, it is common practice that you summon the object with a Special attack in order to give the summoning a memorable input. What you seem to have done, is found the four most pragmatically useful moves and attached them to the Specials, irreverent to the moves that are actually interesting, or the moves that form chokepoints in the moveset's interaction web. It's impossible for me to suggest a fix for this, because you've already constructed the moveset and set up vital links between his specials and other elements of his moveset. But by having Sceptile's smash attacks summon tangible, persistant objects, you've made the character feel clumsy to play. The difference between an up-tilt and an up-smash, in terms of input, is miniscule
Where this small mistep manifests into tangible gameplay problems, is when it comes to replacing your traps. As your Down Special shows, you wanted the traps to be deliberately placed entities that last until destroyed, triggered, or weathered by time. The Grass Knot is virtually irreplaceable until it wilts. The move fails if you try to make a second one, so the player is forced to commit to the trap's placement. But for Sceptile's Tree and underbrush, you take the opposite approach. You allow those moves to be spammed and those traps to be reinstantiated whenever the player wants. It makes for a jarring, illogical contrast, and the justification given is that those two moves need to be repeatable, because they are smash attacks.

A lesser complaint I have is that the Neutral Special's ammo bank mechanic sounds terribly vestigal. What does eating a berry (as a mechanic) achieve that a simple recharge timer doesn't? Player agency? Bullet Seed isn't even close to being the focus of the playstyle, so it ill needs this level of manual interaction. It's distracting; it puts limitations on and draws attention to a move that, by all accounts, should just "work". Nevermind the fact that scarfing berries to reload makes Sceptile look like a total glutton.
 
Last edited:

JOE!

Smash Hero
Joined
Oct 5, 2008
Messages
8,075
Location
Dedham, MA
Snake has trap dsmash, and unlike u/dsmash the grass knot actually interacts with enemies directly.
 

Munomario777

Smash Master
Joined
Nov 18, 2014
Messages
3,253
Location
Charleston, South Carolina
3DS FC
0387-9596-4480
Switch FC
SW-8229-3157-8114
So, we've already had three Links in Smash.

Why not add three more? :D






Tri Force Heroes


What's better than one Link? Three Links, of course! That seems to be the mentality behind the latest Zelda game for 3DS, The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes, where three players cooperate and work together (or throw each other down bottomless pits) to reach the end of a classic Zelda style dungeon. That game stars three Link-a-likes saving their princess from being forced to wear an ugly dress of all things, but they're ready to take a break from being fashion police and fight alongside one another in the world of Smash Brothers! So let's meet our heroes, shall we?

Red is an arrogant, aggressive, somewhat reckless hothead, oftentimes rushing into battle before thinking it through, for better or worse. He's a nice guy once you get to know him, though. Red brings the brute force and power of the team, packing the strength-enhancing Power Gloves for increased attack power, fire magic granted by the Fire Rod (which Red always keeps on his back, and it glows whenever a fire-based technique is used), an extremely heavy Hammer that can flatten foes (not really, that's not how Smash works), and Bombs that are sure to leave a mark! His sword of choice is a rather normal sword, but enhanced with his signature fire magic for extra burning damage. Like his fellow heroes, Red possesses one piece of the legendary Triforce; specifically, his piece is the Triforce of Power. As such, he must use this power effectively by rushing into the battlefield and laying down deadly combos and attacks, but be wary of the weaknesses that this power brings.

Blue, on the other hand, is rather shy, and while he prefers to stay out of the spotlight and instead lay low and stay back and assist from a distance, he's willing, to fight on the front lines whenever it's necessary, and he'll always give the team a few words of encouragement when the situation looks bleak. Blue's preference to keep his distance and lay low led to him adopting ranged weapons such as a Bow and Arrows to go with it, a Boomerang, the magical Ice Rod, and a thin, long, lightweight fencing sabre sword that allows for quick hits that are most damaging at the very tip. Blue possesses the Triforce of Wisdom, and he must rely on this wisdom in combat to know what distance he needs to stay at and which of his many ranged options to use in what situations.

Green is the courageous leader of the team, never afraid to charge straight at his enemies and engage in hand-to-hand combat, and more often than not, he's victorious, but not without help from his teammates. He's basically your standard "Link" personality, although more akin to the Wind Waker iteration; he can be silly at times, but he gets serious when he needs to. Green has a very defensive-based style of combat, as he's the only member of the team with a shield, and he also has the Tornado Rod to keep opponents at a distance. His preferred blade is a durable, long, wide-bladed sword that lacks in speed, but has a good power output and, more importantly, its weight and size allow it to easily parry and out-prioritize attacks. As you'd expect, Green has the Triforce of Courage, and as such, he must be brave and run right up to foes, trusting in his shield to protect him and his teammates, as well as relying on his teammates to retaliate while he holds down the base, so to speak. After all, a leader is only as good as his team.

So, now that you've gotten to know these guys, let's get right into this set! As always, this set is tailor made (haha, fashion puns) for Smash 4 as far as stats, balance, and everything else goes, so keep that in mind. Without further ado, let's dive right into this set!


STATS

This should come as no surprise, but the Links share their stats with Toon Link. Go figure.

This gives them an agile movement speed and small frame to dodge attacks, but the Links' light weight can become a serious problem, thanks to some of their other unique properties.


ANIMATIONS

Note:
Any animations not listed here are pretty much the same as Toon Link's, complete with always holding a sword (and in Green's case, a shield).

Crouching:
The Links lie down on their belly, nothing special. However, Green instead holds out his shield like Toon Link does while crouching, and it's a similar size; this applies for all attacks using the shield unless otherwise stated. The shield blocks all attacks, but not grabs, and many attacks will just go over the shield unless you angle it with a crawl input. If you crouch/crawl as another Link, Green won't hold his shield; he'll just do what the others do.
Crawling:
While a crawl input for Green angles his shield, Red and Blue can shimmy-sham (no, not tap-dance) along the ground Wind Waker-style. It's great for dodging attacks.
Hanging on a Ledge:
The leader Link grabs the ledge as the other two dangle below him as a "human" ladder. Or whatever species the Links are, anyway. I guess you could call it a chain of Links! (haha puns)
Respawning:
While the Links come down on the respawn platform while standing, much like every other fighter, they'll do so accompanied by a fairy. In the original game, these serve as extra lives, so this little visual touch is fairly fitting. Or fairy fitting, I might say.
Entrance/Victory Animation:
The Links all appear in a projection of the Triforce that appears on the ground, each Link in their third of the Triforce. They then do this sort of thing with their swords, and that same music from the Linked (*ba-dum-tiss*) video accompanies them in the case of the victory pose.


UNIQUE MECHANICS

So, guess what? There's three characters in the set, and you know what that means! The set works similarly to the Ice Climbers; the Links are all separate entities, they'll follow the leader, and if they're separated, they'll try to get back to the leader. However, there are some crucial differences. The three Links share damage (so all three Links can add to the percentage meter), but if one attack hits all three Links, it'll only count once. So an attack like the Falcon Punch won't deal 75% of damage if hits all three Links, and sourspots and sweetspots count as one "move." Essentially, it's like they all share a hurtbox. This shared damage is where their light weight can really hurt the Links. Shield damage and the like are also shared, but not stuff like being dizzy, asleep, or being buried. Your teammates also won't attack at the same time as you do.

There's another trait that makes these guys stand out from the Ice Climbers. Using the left and right taunt buttons will switch the leader Link -- the one you control (the position of each Link is unchanged by this action). In the character portrait on the bottom of the screen, the Links will appear just as they do in the header image to this set. Switching leaders will rotate the trio so that the new leader is on the bottom, a lot like how it works in the game Sonic Heroes. Pressing left from the default position, for example, will switch the leader from Green (the default) to Red, and rotate the characters' positions counterclockwise so that Red is in front, Green is on the upper right, and Blue on the upper left. You can swap even while the current or new leader is using a move or attacking, making for some brutal combo potential if you know what moves to use! You can't however switch leaders while you're in hitstun, or are otherwise incapacitated (e.g. being buried, asleep, etc). And the switch isn't instant -- there is a brief period of time after you swap leaders where you can't act. It's only a split-second though, so combos are still possible.

The up and down taunts, on the other hand, function as "commands;" if you press them, then you'll tell the other Links to do context-sensitive actions. The up taunt commands the "right" Link (the one you'd switch to if you pressed right), and down is for the "left" one. Unfortunately, this means that there are no actual taunts, although the "speech bubbles" with expressions on them (lifted from Tri Force Heores) that appear when you command a Link should suffice, and these commands don't interrupt your normal actions either. The bubbles themselves appear in the color of the Link you're commanding, whereas the Link inside the bubble is the same color as the leader.


Pom-poms for best emote. (Indeed, the pom-poms are activated by the up command button if the Link in question is already in your squad. Down, on the other hand, is for the one to the right of that. "Nooo!" is activated when a teammate dies, and the thumbs-up is whenever you switch to a new leader. These also pop up throughout the moveset)

Anyway, I'll get into what these commands can do in the moves that they apply to, but for now, know that these can be used anywhere, at anytime, no matter where the other Link is on the battlefield or what the leader is doing, and if used when the Link in question is idle, he'll be called back to you and use the Pegasus Boots to return to the leader's side at breakneck pace! They can even fly through the air in any direction, but there's a brief starting animation, and the Links aren't protected. As you'll see throughout the set, teamwork and coordination are crucial to opening up loads of new possibilities, and these unique taunt actions are the cornerstone of this mentality. Just make sure not to lose one of your teammates in battle, since there's no way to get them back without either losing a stock or using the Final Smash! (spoilers!)

So in short, the Links function as a modified Ice Climbers. You can switch your leader at any time if the other Link is close enough with the side taunts, and you can command the other Links to do context-specific actions using up and down. Oh, and one more thing. The Links each have their own unique movesets, and I'll be color-coding the headers for your convenience. This may make for a rather lengthy read, but then again, quite a few MYM sets tend to be. :p
I'll add a "TL;DR" summary for some of the lengthier reads though, so if you don't have the time to read everything, well there ya go. (If you do want the full experience, though, it's obviously recommended to read the full descriptions, both for the better, more complete writing and the small nuances present in each move.)

(Real talk though, this set has like, 17,600 words. That's longer than some of the "longest sets" in the OP! Geez.)

TL;DR:
The teammates function like the ICs, but they don't attack with you, they have different movesets, the partners take damage (which adds to your damage counter), you can switch leaders with the side taunts (even during attacks and other actions), and "command" them to do context-sensitive actions with up and down taunts. You can also do cool stuff with the real super power of teamwork.


SPECIALS

Everyone's Up Special: Totem Time

Totem Time is the only special move shared by all three Links, and adds quite a bit to their bag of tricks. Use this move, and the leader Link says "Hey!" and commands the other Links (complete with appropriate emote bubble) and they (rather quickly) become a three-Link-tall tower, increasing their height threefold. The leader is on top, of course. This can be used even while the leader Link is in the middle of an attack animation, prone, dizzy, or doing anything really, but it won't interrupt anything; the leader will simply be picked up and resume that action/state at the top. You can do this in midair too, aiding recovery, since the leader, from his higher position, can grab the ledge and hoist up the others. You'll only gain height with your first midair Totem Time though -- if you disband and then form a totem again without touching the ground, the leader won't get any higher up. If one of the non-leaders is occupied with an action, he cannot and will not join the totem. Using Up Special again while any Links are in range will prompt them to join in, though.

Anyway, the team retains their jumping, double jumping, walking, dashing, and all of those things when in a totem; surprisingly, the bottom Link can carry this load without slowing down at all! He does visibly struggle a bit, though, and can't turn around; he'll instead walk/run backwards. T
his helps for retreating and attacking simultaneously, but limits the Links' ability to react to attacks from behind. The leader can perform grounded attacks (but not the dash attack, as only the bottom Link dashes), smashes, specials, and all other grounded techniques like shielding and spot dodging while on a totem. However, the trio is restricted in their defensive options during this; only the leader Link can shield and spot dodge, and no one can roll or air dodge. Aerials cannot be performed either, since the leader Link is always "grounded" (he's standing on the Link below).

You can move around even during attack and move animations when in a totem form, but the totem will be disbanded if hit with a powerful attack knockback-wise. Commanding one of the non-leader Links with the taunt buttons will, along with creating an appropriate command bubble, command him to toss the Link(s) above him forwards a short distance, and then try to get back to the leader. You can make them toss the leader far distances combined by making the bottom Link toss the middle and top Links, and then having the middle Link toss the leader even farther! This, of course, works out well for recovery as long as the other two Links are commanded before they fall, so that they can return to the leader. Naturally, with less Links, this method of recovery becomes less and less effective. Note that a totem formation will not reset midair jumps, one-use-per-airtime moves, or anything of the sort. Overall, this move enables more recovery possibilities and gives the Links more vertical reach, but makes them a bigger target and removes most of their defensive options.

If you lack teammates, the leader Link will simply perform a tiny, short-hop-height leap upwards, reaching upwards with one hand in hopes of grabbing a ledge with an increased ledge grabbing range. Not a great recovery move by any means, but hey, it's something. It can also be interrupted pretty early, making it a sort of combo extender if you're all alone. Red's hop deals fiery damage to opponents hit by the hand, Blue's goes further, and Green's has some launch resistance during the hop. Unlike the other recovery options for the Links that can only be used once per airtime, you'll get this little "hop" back if you're hit.

Also, disclaimer: using this move and double jumping depletes the midair jump of all Links involved. So, you can't cheat with this and jump a buncha times in midair. As a general rule of thumb, you can only use a midair jump once as the leader, even if you switch. (Geez, team characters are hard to balance...)

TL;DR:

All three of you go on toppa each other, and you're on top. You can use attacks and move around during them, although you're limited in terms of defense. You can get separated by a strong hit, and you can make the other guys throw you. In midair, you'll end up higher, so use this to recover. Also, all three Links share this move, although the other specials (and most of the moveset) are unique to each Link.

Green's Down Special: Shield Stance

Moving onto Green's unique special moves, we have a cornerstone of his defense-based playstyle. When you tap the button, Green holds his shield in front of him as it grows in size to match his own height, kneeling down and holding it firmly a lot like Pit's old Mirror Shield move from Brawl. This shield will block all attacks and projectiles, and it can be moved to any angle by holding up and down on the analog stick, although this movement is a bit slow. The shield acts as a wall if it's vertical (although it can be dodge rolled around, but you can however wall jump off of it) and a soft platform if it's horizontal -- only the shield, though; Green is no more solid than he was beforehand. It's also rather laggy at the start and end of the move (you can end it by tapping the button again, by the by), so this is more of a long-term action than a regular R-button shield, and it deals
no damage and no knockback. You could just use this when playing with Green in the lead, but there's also another big use for this move using a technique that pops up in many other moves as well, and this seems like a good time to explain it.

If you swap leaders while Green is in the stance, Green will keep kneeling and shielding at the same angle you set him to while you control a different Link;
he won't put the shield away. This makes Green similar to what might be considered a "minion" or a "construct," but of course, it's just the same character doing something else, so he'll still add to your damage if he's hit. This sort of thing pops up quite a bit throughout the set, so be on the lookout for that. Using the shield like this allows the other Links to use Green as sort of a barrier to block attacks while they attack from behind, or as a platform to aid attacks and setups (e.g. extending a combo upwards). Of course, if Green is hit during the stance and the shield isn't at the right angle to block it, he'll be knocked out of the shield stance, but you can also manually end it by commanding Green (complete with "use item" command bubble, which is the case for a lot of command actions), causing him to put his shield up and come back to the leader; if any opponents are next to the shield, he'll shove them away for a bit of knockback, but no damage is dealt. This is a great tool for positioning and protecting from attacks, and increases the overall potential of what the Links can do as a team.

TL;DR:
Green holds up his shield, like Pit's old down special but it doesn't reflect stuff. It can be angled too, and acts as a wall or a soft platform. Switching leaders has Green stay in place and keep holding the shield, which the other Links can then hide behind, and commanding Green makes him drop the stance. This kinda thing happens a lot, so keep an eye out for it.


Green's Side Special: Spinning Shield
Green holds up his shield with both hands as it grows slightly, and then he starts spinning around at high speeds. Any opponents that are hit by this are dealt 7% of damage and knockback that can KO at around 130%, and this spin will also reflect projectiles! It multiplies the speed of the projectiles by 1.25x their original speed, and this move will also reduce Green's falling speed. It also has high priority thanks to his shield. He can move sideways during this at his regular air speed, and the other two Links will also spin around and follow Green, halving their falling speed as well, although only Green will reflect projectiles. The other Links will each deal 5% of damage, though.

If you use this during a totem formation, the stack of Links will spin around together, but again, Green is the only one that can reflect things, and the other Links deal less damage. The spinning will last for a maximum of two seconds, although Green can cut it short by letting go of the button. Swapping out during this will, like most other attacks, have Green simply carry out the attack while you control someone else, acting kinda like a weird pseudo-projectile. If you hold the button, Green holds his shield in front of him, delaying the move's start. Swap out, and you can command Green to have him use the move at any time, moving in the direction he's facing. This move is useful enough for recovering, but it does have quite a bit of ending lag, and can only be used once in midair. This can be effective for maneuvering, too, since Green can move left and right during this, and approaching with this can prove effective. Or you can send Green out and go behind him if you want.

TL;DR:
Green spins around with his shield, reflecting stuff and dealing damage. It can be used during a totem and is good for recovery since it reduces falling speed, but can only be used once in midair. Hold the button and swap out before releasing, and you can command him to have him perform the move.


Green's Neutral Special: Tornado Rod

Green pulls out the Tornado Rod from A Link Between Worlds, which takes the appearance of a lime green staff with matching propellers on top. The rod's propellers start to spin around, creating a small cyclone about twice his height. This tornado deals
no damage, but acts as an upwards windbox that will push opponents, items, projectiles, and anything else upwards. It has about the same strength as the fountain in Wuhu Island; that is, it will cause fighters to simply "float" in midair without rising or falling, including teammates. The rod and its windbox can be aimed with the control stick.

You can push opponents away from the ledge (it's not as OP as the Gust Bellows, don't worry), you can blow things upwards, and you can switch out of this just like the Shield Stance; Green'll just keep on spinning the rod. You can shoot projectiles into the gust to speed them up, slow them down, or change their direction; you can hover in midair to throw out aerial attacks; and much more! Of course, commanding Green will cause him to put away the Tornado Rod.

If used in the air, Green will simply spin the Tornado Rod in the opposite direction to rise up into the air about 1 SBB (up to 2 SBB if mashed) while creating a downwards windbox, and while this won't put him into helpless, you can only use it once in midair. Use it again, and it'll simply be spun repeatedly to halve the falling speed as long as the button is held; even if you're hit in between these two uses, you still can't ascend again. Use this move for recovery, edgeguarding, and creative team-based tactics.

TL;DR:
Green uses the Tornado Rod to create an aimable windbox. Can be held for a long time, and when switched out of, it acts much like the down special. The wind can redirect projectiles from the Links, keep them hovering in midair to use aerials, or blow characters around for edgeguarding and positioning. In midair, it instead acts like a helicopter to help recovery.


Red's Neutral Special: Fiery Charge
Now onto Red's special moves. Red holds his sword above him, pointing it straight up into the air as fire energy emerges out of the glowing Fire Rod on Red's back and then swirls around the blade. This charge ends after two seconds, and then the sword will flash yellow. It'll deal 1% of damage per half second and flinching kinda like Roy's up smash, but this isn't the main use. It'd be kinda terrible if that was. The charge can be paused and resumed later like Samus's Charge Shot can, to build up a charge over time. It'll be stored after the full two seconds pass or the special button is pressed again (a defensive maneuver will also suffice); Red's sword will gain that intense flame energy that was charged up after it's charged.

The next sword-based attack that Red uses will then be powered up based on these flames; at full charge, it will deal twice the regular damage amount, and this scales with the varying amounts of charge (so a half charge powers up attacks by 1.5x). Knockback, when fully charged, is multiplied by about 1.5x, which is pretty massive. Note that this only applies to sword-based attacks, and it only has one use per charge. So you can combo into a sword move with non-sword moves, and then finish the opponent off with a super-charged blow; just make sure not to miss, since this is a one-shot deal! Get it while it's hot! Which is... always, actually.

If you press the special button after the charge has already been stored, Red will hold his sword up again, but won't gain any more charge; you can do this for as long as you want. If you swap out of Red during this period, he'll retain this special state, a lot like Green did with his shield and Tornado Rod. (You can also swap out during the initial charge; Red won't stop after the sword flashes yellow in that case, instead going into this "infinite charge" I just described.)

What does this do, you may ask? Well, simple. When you command Red (complete with command bubble, of course), he'll send his charged fire to the leader, powering up their next action! This gives that Link a "universal" charge; in other words, it applies to any attack, regardless of what weapon he uses (whereas Red only applies it to his sword). This will add
10% of fire damage to that attack, multiply the knockback by 1.3x the original amount, and can be used wherever Red is, regardless of distance (he'll need to have a full charge, however). As an aside, the fire, while travelling to the leader, will deal the same damage and flinching as the move itself.

This works for attacks that don't normally deal damage, too; for instance, Green's Shield Stance has the shield catch on fire and gain a hitbox as a result (dealing the base 10% of damage), and the Tornado Rod's cyclone turns into a fire tornado that will also deal fire damage (again, 10%). The Fiery Charge is another great "assist" option, and of course, this can be used to enhance other "assist" options. For example, you can use this move as Red, switch to Green, use the Shield Stance, command Red to light the shield on fire, switch to Red or Blue, and now Green is holding a flaming shield! Yeah, this set is kinda crazy complex like that. However, the flames will disappear after three seconds if the attack doesn't end by then; this applies for all moves that are enhanced by the Fiery Charge. Use this to power up your attacks, whether it be Red's own sword attacks or any other attack from Green or Blue, and use your charges wisely.

TL;DR:
Red charges fire energy into his sword, and it'll power up his next sword attack by doubling the damage and giving it 1.5x knockback, but the charge is lost if a sword move is used, even if it's a whiff. Switch out to have Red keep charging, and command him to have him give you the charge, powering up your next attack. It can be done mid-combo too.


Red's Side Special: Leaping Counter
Red, after crouching down for a brief moment, leaps forward into the air with great agility, this leap reaching about 2 SBB high at the top of the arc and travelling 4.5 SBB horizontally before landing on the ground again (assuming that it's flat, of course). This is the distance you can get if you hold the button for a moment, but the distance can also be halved by simply tapping. It's like performing a short hop versus a full hop. The jump is extremely quick, both in terms of startup lag and the speed of flying through the air. Not only that, but Red has super armor during the startup and the beginning of the leap, allowing him to easily evade and counter enemy attacks! Thing is, you can only use this move once per airtime, even if you get hit.

This jump by itself is a great mobility and recovery tool, but when combined with aerials (it can be interrupted super-early into the leap's animation), it can be used to great effect for follow-ups, combos, approaching, and more. I'll get into that a bit more in the section covering Red's aerials, though. For now, just know that Red's teammates -- if they're not already doing something -- will come along with him, as Red signals them with the "Over here!" blurb and a "Hyah!". No Link left behind! If you use this in a totem formation, Red will leap off of the totem, and then the other two Links disband and follow him. You can use this technique to get some extra height and distance for this move for combat, or use it for recovery as well. Nice!

You can also hold the button to keep Red kneeling down in the startup pose, and you guessed it, you can swap out to keep him in that pose. Then you'll just need to command him, and he'll perform the leap; if a foe is in range, he'll perform his Down Aerial automatically. It's a good way to extend a combo.

TL;DR:
Red leaps forwards high into the air, with super armor at the start. Great for evading attacks and countering with an aerial, as well as recovery.

Red's Down Special: Bombs

Red pulls out a bomb that's about as big as his own head (quite a bit bigger than Link's and Toon Link's bombs, isn't it?) and holds it above his head. When the special button is pressed, he'll throw it forwards a decent distance; the direction can be changed by holding a direction, and pressing the attack button will simply drop the bomb in front of Red. It won't explode when it lands, though; it'll simply remain there. In fact, the fuse isn't even lit! What gives? After all, it only deals, like,
3% of damage if it hits an opponent without exploding, and it doesn't even launch opponents that far with its minor knockback!

Red's fire magic might be able to fix this! When Down Special is pressed while a bomb is already onstage, Red will snap his fingers and, using his Fire Rod, ignite the bomb remotely no matter how far away it is! The bomb will flash red for a split second before exploding once the fuse is lit, but it's still pretty quick. You can even explode it in midair if you can press the button quick enough, making for a potent projectile option! Attacking the bomb will make it explode as well. Oh yeah, and the explosion will deal
10% of damage and knockback that can KO at around 120%. The bomb will also be detonated on contact with a fire hitbox from any player, or even a stage hazard or item; so while a Fiery Charge will allow the other two to detonate the bomb, it's perhaps not the best use of a stored charge.

However, this move only gets more impressive when you swap out of it. Swapping out when Red is holding a bomb will cause him to stay there in that orientation, and commanding him will cause him to throw the bomb forwards (complete with the "Throw!" blurb). Commanding Red while there's a bomb in play will have him ignite the bomb; it's better to swap out and do this, since Red is occupied with the ignition animation and can't fully capitalize on the bomb's explosion. Another Link can grab the bomb either in midair or on the ground by pressing the grab button (as can Red if you're controlling him), and this bomb also has some unique interactions with moves. For instance, Green's Side Special can reflect the bomb and send it in the opposite direction, while his Down Special blocks it and stops it and the Tornado Rod pushes the bomb. You can throw the bomb on top of another Link to have them automatically pick it up, and then function the same as Red does: stay in place and throw the bomb when commanded to do so, although only Red can ignite the bomb remotely (thanks to his fire magic). There are some more applications with some of Blue's moves involving the bomb, but I'll get into those in a minute.

TL;DR:
Red pulls out a large bomb and throws it forwards when the button is pressed again. Using the move again ignites the bomb remotely; otherwise it just kinda sits there. Switch out of the move and then command Red to have him throw it, or ignite the bomb if it's already out.


Blue's Neutral Special: Bow

Last but not least, we move onto Blue's special moves. For the Neutral Special, Blue pulls out his signature bow, with matching arrows. He enters a pose that's pretty much identical to Toon Link's bow, and pulls back the drawstring, charging it. The charge lasts up to one second, and the bow will have those little flashes of light that move from either end of the blade to the arrowhead when fully charged like in the Zelda games (and Nintendo Land). What a neat little touch! Anyway, the bow can be aimed anywhere between 45* up or down, and the arrow's trajectory will change accordingly. This arrow will deal
5~11% depending on the charge, and it can KO at around 150% at full charge. While the move comes out quickly, it has quite a bit of endlag as Blue reloads, pulling a new arrow out of his quiver and inserting it into his now for his next bow-based attack. That's not very convenient. Too bad it applies to all moves that have Blue shoot his bow. Nevertheless, it's always good to be prepared!

It isn't as simple as that, though. As you may expect, this move can interact with the other Links and their items in interesting ways. Switching out during the charge will keep the charge going, and Blue will fire the arrow when you command him. This allows for some interesting setups. For instance, you can shoot it into Green's Spinning Shield move to reflect it back at an angle into opponents, or his Tornado Rod to blow the arrow to a different trajectory. These tactics can take foes by surprise, but take some preparation.

Red also has some interactions with this move. Of course, he can light the arrow on fire with a Fiery Charge to create a Fire Arrow, which deals more damage and will stay in the ground to create a lingering hitbox (which deals only the added 10% of fire damage and flinching). Blue can also shoot at Red's bombs to create a Bomb Arrow! The arrowhead is basically replaced with the bomb, and while they're much heavier (with less travel distance), bomb arrows certainly pack a punch! This arrow will explode on impact with an opponent or surface, making for a potent projectile, but a Fire Arrow will explode a bomb instantly! Use these options wisely, and make sure your shooting is sharp.

TL;DR:
Like Toon Link's, but can be aimed. Switch out of it and command Blue to have him shoot the arrow whenever you want, allowing for unique combo potential. It becomes a fire arrow when powered up by Red's neutral special, and a bomb arrow when it hits his bombs. All bow-based moves have quick startup but quite a bit of ending lag, as Blue reloads for his next attack.


Blue's Down Special: Ice Rod

Blue pulls out the mystical Ice Rod, using its power to create a chunk of ice about his own size 1 SBB in front of Blue and about 1.5 SBB up in the air. You can actually hold the button to keep it floating there, but it won't increase the attack power or anything, although it is good for delaying your attack. When you release the button, the chunk of ice will start plummeting downwards, dealing
5% of damage to and freezing any opponents it touches; this damage can also be dealt when the ice is hovering. If it lands on the ground (rather than breaking from hitting a foe), the chunk of ice will turn into a patch of ice about 2 SBB wide. This will not act like normal ice; instead, fighters will slide along the ground as if they're wavedashing (without the skidding animation of normal ice sliding), allowing for a variety of options for movement and approaches. It must be magical or something. Anywho, the patch of ice will melt and disappear after seven seconds, receiving 13% of damage (from the Links or from opponents), or after coming in contact with a single fire attack (again, from the Links or opponents).

But wait, there's more! If you use this move on a teammate that's currently in any kind of state (i.e. Green's Shield Stance), he'll be completely frozen over, encased in a chunk of ice! This has a rather interesting effect. You won't be able to command teammates if they're in this state (unless you unfreeze them by attacking them), but don't worry, they're not completely useless during this period of time. As aforementioned, attacking a frozen teammate will unfreeze him, and opponents can also do this with their own attacks. While you can't deal damage to your own teammates, opponents can! If they're encased in ice, however, damage received will be halved. Once the ice is broken, that Link will then do whatever he'd normally do if you commanded them, powering through whatever attack hit them with one-hit super armor! For example, Blue shoots his bow if he's charging it, Red throws a bomb if he's holding it, et cetera. This makes for a sort of counter-esque technique, which adds another layer to the various stances. A layer of ice, to be specific. Thing is, like Ryu's Focus Attack, multi-hits are effective against this stance -- they'll hit the Links again before they get the chance to attack.


If you swap out while holding the button (when the ice is hovering in the air), Blue will continue to hold it there, and it can still deal damage and a freezing effect to foes. It's an effective trap, to be sure, but the shard will shatter after one use, so you'll have to set Blue up again. You can command Blue to have him drop the icy chunk if you'd like. This move also doesn't benefit from the Fiery Charge, but doesn't use up your charge either -- ergo, you can freeze a foe, and then use a powered-up attack to finish the job! Overall, this move is good for edge guarding, mobility, stage control, and enhancing attacks. It's pretty versatile.

TL;DR:
Creates an ice chunk in front of Blue that falls down and freezes opponents. It'll also create ice patches that allow fighters to slide like a wavedash, and freezes teammates. They can't be commanded, but when the ice is broken by an attack, they'll do whatever they normally would do if they were commanded. So if Red is frozen while holding a bomb, then if anyone attacks him, he'll throw it.


Blue's Side Special: Boomerang

Blue pulls out his trusty boomerang and throws it forwards, or at an angle if you angle the control stick. This is done similarly to Toon Link's Boomerang, but it has a much wider range of angles; you can even throw it straight up or down! Unlike that move, this boomerang travels more horizontally animation-wise, like a frisbee, as opposed to the vertical angle of Toon Link's. This gives the move unique attributes. If it hits an item, the boomerang will pick it up and carry it back to Blue on the return trip! It can also do this for things like Red's bombs and even the other two Links, making for some powerful positioning tools (if you throw it at a teammate and switch to them, you can attack whilst on the move!). However, it won't do this to opponents; to them, it'll simply deal
7% of damage and moderate knockback. Use this for spacing and positioning in combination with your teammates and their abilities, or for retrieving items and the like. Or, y'know, just as a projectile. That works too, I guess.

TL;DR:
Like Toon Link's, but can pick up items and teammates, and can be thrown at a wider variety of angles.


STANDARDS

Green's Jab: Single Swift Swipe
So, now onto the standard grounded attacks, and Green, the Hero of Courage, is up first! In classic Zelda fashion, Green quickly and swiftly swings his sword in a horizontal slice, dealing 5% of damage and moderate knockback. You can repeat this at an average jab speed, but this is one rapid-fire attack. It's just like if you kept mashing the "sword" button in 2D Zelda games like A Link Between Worlds, or even Tri Force Heroes itself. You won't get more than one, maybe two hits on one opponent by mashing since it knocks them away quite a bit, but the speed of this attack means that you can use it to great effect for starting combos. Of course, like most moves involving Green's sword, this has high priority as well.* Use this jab for starting combos, or in a pinch to get opponents off of you. It also works as a sort of "wall" to force your opponents to bypass, which limits their options.

*While attacks normally have priority based solely on their damage, Green's sword attacks get 5% damage's worth of priority added on top of the normal priority that comes from the attack's damage. So basically, Green is more effective than usual at beating out foes' attacks.

Green's Forward Tilt: Shielded Swing
Green's forward tilt is very unique as far as tilts go. When you press the button, Green pulls up his shield as it grows a bit bigger, so that it covers most of his front. He'll hold it in this position for about three quarters of a second, and this will block most attacks. After this shielding period, Green will deliver a powerful overhead slice with his sword, similarly to Toon Link's forward tilt. This will deal 12% of damage and can KO at around 100%. These unique properties make for a move that's sort of a semi-counter; it can block attacks and then deliver a powerful slice. It's a bit like Ryu's Focus Attack in that sense, but it can block multiple attacks. While this isn't very useful as a normal tilt due to its long startup, it gives Green a powerful punishing option, although opponents may catch on and punish your punish. Punish-ception! Anyway, use this wisely, or risk taking damage instead of dealing it.

And as an example of the aforementioned priority stuff, 12% + 5% = 17% worth of priority. 17% - 9% = 8%, so any attack that deals 8% or less, will be beaten out by Green's ftilt, and it can't be beaten out itself unless an attack deals at least 26%. This is a boon for up-close combat and powering through a foe's attacks!


Green's Up Tilt: Heavy Swing
Green holds his sword firmly in one hand and performs a wide overhead swing with it, rather similarly to Toon Link's up tilt, and this deals 9% of damage and moderate knockback. It's a bit slow, but also has high priority like many of Green's sword moves. You can use this for covering a wide range of angles, and it's a great move to just get opponents off of your tail (erm, tunic) no matter where they are.

Green's Down Tilt: Shielded Stab
From a crouching position, with his shield up, Green stabs forwards with his sword (in a motion not unlike the crouching sword attack from Ocarina of Time), still being protected by his shield. This will deal 7% of damage and trip opponents, and it can be used similarly to the forward tilt, but it's quicker and provides less protection, as well as dealing less damage. It can be used to start combos, but it is a bit easy to avoid. Of course, the priority is very high on this attack, like many of Green's moves, so you can use it to get the edge on foes in straight-up grounded combat.

Green's Dash Attack: Advance and Defend
Sometimes the best offense is a good defense, and Green knows that better than anyone. While dashing, he holds up his shield to ram into opponents! It'll block all attacks that hit the slightly-larger-than-normal shield, and any opponents that Green hits are dealt 5% of damage and moderate knockback. The shield will stay out as long as the button is held, and Green can absolutely plow through opponents -- and their attacks or projectiles -- for an excellent approach! You can follow this up with an aerial attack, or any of Green's plethora of options. Only problem is, if your shield gets shielded, Green is stopped in his tracks and stumbles back a bit from the impact. So use this wisely, lest you get shielded and punished.

Red's Jab: Hand-to-Hand-to-Foot Combat
Red, rather than using silly things like a sword or weapon, takes a more... direct route. He simply punches his opponent with a powerful body blow, his fist surrounded in fire magic. Kinda like a mini Falcon Punch. The key word here is "mini", as this first hit will deal only 4% of damage and lead right into the second hit. This second hit takes the form of an uppercut that knocks the opponent a short distance up into the air and also deals 4% of damage. Then Red jumps into the air that same distance and dropkicks the opponent downwards, causing the opponent to bounce back up (unless it's teched) and dealing 4% of damage once again. Red is left in an aerial state after this, opening up quite a few options. While the first hit is a bit slow and tricky to land, the jab is a great tool that Red can use to get opponents in the air for a powerful aerial combo. Near the ledge, it's a surprise spike option that can catch foes off guard, and net a KO in the process!

Red's Forward Tilt: Flame Sword Thrust
Red grips his flaming sword, pulls it back, and thrusts it forwards, sort of like Toon Link's final jab hit. The attack comes out pretty quickly and will deal 11% of damage and can KO at 170%. While this attack comes out very quickly, it isn't Red's strongest move, although powering it up with a Fiery Charge can give Red a quick, powerful finisher! When it's not powered up, though, you can also use this for general poking and "get off me" purposes, or just combat as a whole. Nice!

Red's Up Tilt: Upwards Swing
Red holds his sword tightly in both hands, this time moving it downwards so that the blade touches the ground. He then swings it up with great force in an arc, which goes above Red's head before he pulls the sword back. The swing is similar in motion to Toon Link's up tilt, and it'll deal 14% of damage and upwards knockback that can KO at around 110%. It's not a very quick attack, but it certainly packs a punch (erm, slash), and can be a potent KO option. You can also use this to great effect by anticipating an attack, rolling behind the opponent, and using an up tilt for some good damage and possibly a KO!

Red's Down Tilt: Low Kick
Red, from a crouching position, leans back, putting his hands on the ground for support, and kicks forwards with his right leg, powering it up with fire magic as the Fire Rod glows. This deals 10% of damage and pops opponents up into the air a short distance. This, combined with the move's quick ending and starting lag, makes this a good tool for beginning or continuing combos. You can also use it for general poking purposes and such.

Red's Dash Attack: Running Stab
Red, while dashing with the Pegasus Boots, holds his sword in front of him like Link always does when using the Pegasus Boots in the Zelda games. He can hold the sword in front of him for as long as he wants by holding the button, and it will deal 8% of damage and moderate knockback that sends opponents upwards. You can use this as a combo starter since you can jump out of it very quickly for a swift aerial follow-up! Of course, this is also a good, if predictable, approach option, so use it to great effect, but be careful not to get dodged and punished.

Blue's Jab: Sabre Jab
Blue isn't one for up-close combat, but he feels obligated to carry a sword, since he's a legendary hero and stuff. He chooses the long, thin sabre type of blade, almost like a fencing sword. For the jab, Blue turns his head back and winces, poking forwards with his sword at a bit of an upwards angle. He thrusts it forwards a bit clumsily, as he isn't accustomed to up-close combat, but it still has a rather long range and decent damage output. It will deal only 2% of damage for most of the blade, but 4% at the tip. If it hits at the tipper sweetspot, the blade will bend and the opponent will be knocked away a short distance. You can use this very rapidly by tapping the button, and you can hit multiple times with it unless the opponent hits the tip, as the majority of the blade has barely any knockback. You could probably get about 10% of damage from this before an opponent gets out. Not too shabby.

Blue's Forward Tilt: Sabre Thrust
Once again using his trusty sabre sword, Blue thrusts it forwards and winces once again, this time with more buildup and more force. It will deal 5% of damage for most of the blade and 13% at the very tip, and the sabre will bend if the tip connects. The tipper hitbox can actually KO at around 140%, but its small hitbox and moderately long starting lag can make it a bit hard to hit. Of course, Blue is best at a distance, so this is to be expected.

Blue's Up Tilt: Sabre Stab
Blue takes out his sabre and points it upwards, pulling back for a moment, before thrusting it upwards into the air. It's a similar motion to Marth's up smash, in fact. The tipper deals 13% and the rest deals 5%, and the sword will bend if the tipper connects. This won't KO either way; both hitboxes deal moderate upwards knockback. However, you can follow this up with an aerial combo for quite a bit of damage. It's also a great, long-range anti-air move, and it's quick to boot.

Blue's Down Tilt: Sabre Poke
From a crouching position, Blue firmly holds his sabre in one hand and slides it forwards along the ground to hit any foes unfortunate enough to be standing there. It has great range and is rather quick, dealing 11% at the tip and tripping, or 6% and flinching at the rest of the blade. It's best at a distance (obviously), and the tripping can allow for consistent follow-ups. You'll want to use this for poking at opponents, and with its long range, it's great for doing that sort of job, and you can follow up with, well, a follow up attack. A tripped for will slide along the ground a good bit, so you should use either a ranged attack from Blue like a projectile or perhaps a strategically-placed teammate to follow up on the attack.

Blue's Dash Attack: Fast as a Speeding Arrow
Blue isn't a fan of using his up-close weapons like his sabre, but he is proficient at using his long-range weapons for up-close combat. While dashing, Blue draws his bow and fires an arrow, which travels through the air at Blue's dash speed, without stopping. It will travel about 5 SBB before hitting the ground, and its speed means that Blue can run behind it, essentially creating a constant hitbox in front of himself. You can stop instead and use it as a projectile if you want. The arrow will deal 5% of damage and moderate knockback to opponents, and this is a great approach tool. However, the endlag due to reloading the arrow (just like the other moves involving the bow) makes it less spammable. What a shame.

SMASHES

Green's Forward Smash: Shield Shove
Now onto the smash attacks, starting with Green. For this attack, he holds his shield in front of him with both hands, and then shoves it forwards. It deals 9% and moderate knockback at no charge, and 13% and can KO at around 100% at full charge. Green is somewhat protected from attacks during the charge and shove (but not during the sizable endlag, as Green loses his balance a bit from the forceful shove), and the attack itself can reflect projectiles.

Now for the cool stuff; you can switch out of this mid-charge! If you do this, Green will hold the charge indefinitely, although the attack won't gain any more power beyond the one second of charging a smash attack normally has. Anyway, commanding Green will cause him to release his attack, damaging foes. The shield, by the way, can push teammates around if they're in a special stance, and also, the "switching out and commanding" deal works for the
other smash attacks, not just Green's. So keep that in mind.

TL;DR:
Shoves his shield forward, which protects him, attacks foes, and reflects projectiles. Switch out of this -- or any smash attack -- during the charge, and you can command him to make him fire the smash attack at any time.

Green's Up Smash: Tornado Rod Spin
For the up smash, Green pulls out the same Tornado Rod used in his Neutral Special. This time, he puts it on the ground, holding it with his feet and legs, and twists the blades, twisting them about once each half-second. This means that Green will spin the blades two full times when the attack is fully charged, and won't at all if it's used uncharged. After the charge is released, Green lets go of the blades, wincing and holding his head back away from the blades, and they instantly start spinning around to create a high-up multi-hit hitbox.

Each time Green turned the blades during the charge adds two additional spins, which act as hits of
5% for a total of 20% if you fully charge the attack (uncharged, it still spins once). The increased speed of the blades also adds knockback to the final hit; at full charge, it'll KO opponents upwards at around 80%. The hitbox is rather small, though, and it has quite a bit of starting lag. Oh, and it creates a downwards windbox, which has the same effect as the Neutral Special, and it's rather large, so you can actually use this for gimping near the ledge. Grounded foes are sent sideways away from Green by this windbox, covering a whiffed attack. You might also try swapping out of this to open up a lot of potential combos.

TL;DR:
Spins the tornado rod above him for a multi-hit. Creates a windbox downwards, which can be used for edgeguarding against opponents below the ledge.

Green's Down Smash: Spin Attack
For the down smash, Green, in classic Zelda fashion, crouches down and holds his shield in front of him and his sword behind him (like this, but with a shield in front) during the charging period, as his sword gets a glow that travels from the hilt to the tip of the blade; it reaches the blade at the end of the charge. Uniquely, the shield will actually protect Green from the front. Green can also move around a bit during this charge, but only left and right; he can't jump or anything, and it's rather slow. This is still good for inching forwards, protecting against attacks, and approaching, though.

After the charge is released, Green spins around once (like in the video), his sword having an impressive range of 1.5 SBB. It hits in front first, and then behind, and it will deal
10~14% of damage and can KO at 100~160% depending on charge. The attack is rather quick, and is similar to the forward tilt in that Green can defend from attacks and then immediately counter attack. It covers a wide area as well, making this a great tool both defensively and offensively, but of course, it leaves Green wide open from the top, and the animation gives opponents plenty of time to counter the attack with, well, a counter attack. Not an actual counter like Marth's down b, but just an attack that cou-- nevermind. Next move.

TL;DR:
Blocks with his shield during the charge, and can move left and right during it. Afterwards, he spins around once like the classic Spin Attack (not the smash bros version with multiple spins), dealing good damage.


Red's Forward Smash: Jump Attack
Moving onto Red's smash attacks, we have his forward smash. Gripping his sword in both hands, Red crouches down during the charging period as his Fire Rod glows brighter and brighter. When the charge is released, Red leaps up into the air, holding his sword back behind his head. This leap brings Red 1 to 2.5 SBB into the air and .5 SBB forwards, and when he reaches the apex (after about .5 seconds), Red swings his sword around once, in a circular motion, and then slams down with his sword held horizontally in front of him. The motion is similar to Link's new dash attack, which in turn resembles the Jump Attack from games like Ocarina of Time.

During the ascent, Red knocks foes up for 2% of damage, dealing set knockback that leads into the sword spin, which deals another 2%, and again leads into the next hit. On the way down, Red's sword will deal 14~20% of damage and a powerful meteor smash, great for KOing near the edge. If Red hits an opponent right when he lands, they will be dealt the same amount of damage, but instead of the meteor smash, the slash delivers powerful horizontal knockback that can KO at 90~60% depending on the charge! This move is extremely powerful, but it's also rather slow, and it has a ton of ending lag, so a missed attack can be devastating! If you use this from a totem formation, Red will leap off of the totem as the other Links disband and follow him. This makes for a good recovery mix-up option, and it's kind of like Ike's or Kirby's recovery moves. Other than recovery, this is great as a finishing attack to a combo, especially with a Fiery Chage stored up!

TL;DR:
Jumps up in the air for a leaping sword attack, like the one from the Zelda games and Link's new dash attack. Can meteor smash on the way down, and is powerful but is slow and has a lot of ending lag. High risk, high reward, and powered up even more with a fire charge.


Red's Up Smash: Flaming Sword Burst
Red pulls out his sword and grips it tightly with both hands, holding it at a downwards angle with the tip touching the ground during the charging period. When this charge is released, Red pulls his sword up slowly and moves it in an arc above his head. This actually acts as a multi-hit move, with four hits (with a ton of freeze frames, by the way) as the sword moves from above and in front of Red to in front of and behind him. Each hit creates a small explosion of flames, damaging the opponent for 3~4% each, dealing a total of 12~16%.

After the final hit, the opponent is dealt upwards knockback that can KO at around
100~70% depending on how much it's charged. The attack comes out quickly, with a similar speed to Toon Link's up smash; if you land the move, the abundance of freeze frames makes for a dramatic effect. Not only can you power this up with the Neutral Special, but since the move has upwards knockback, you can KO much earlier by forming a totem, and perhaps even jumping up into the air in totem form for a ridiculously powerful KO option! This might also be a good move to switch out of during the charge, thanks to its speed and range -- it's good for knocking foes into the attack.

TL;DR:
A multi-hit move, with an animation similar to Ike's. Comes out quickly, but takes a while to complete, and is punishable. KOs earlier with a totem, since it has vertical knockback.

Red's Down Smash: Hammer Time!

Remember when I said that Red had a hammer? Well, now's the time to use it. Red pulls out his trusty, heavy hammer and grips it in both hands, pulling it up and behind his head during the charge period. When the charge is released, Red slams the hammer down onto the ground in front of him, dealing
9~17% of damage and diagonal knockback that can KO at around 110~90% depending on the charge. It will deliver a potent meteor smash instead to midair foes.

The attack is a bit slow, so it's tricky to hit opponents with. While the hammer is pretty big (the head grows to be about as big as Red himself!), it only hits in front. There is a weak hitbox in the form of a shockwave that extends behind Red, though, but it only deals half of the damage and knockback (it doesn't meteor smash foes either). If you try using this during a totem formation, you can still hit opponents with a meteor smash, but you'll end up hitting the Link below you in the face! Ouch! It's a lot like how you can mess with your teammates in the original game. This does have some use though -- while Red will lose his balance and go into an animation, the Link that you hit will be sent flying backwards as a projectile of sorts! It's like they were shot out of a cannon in a custom stage, dealing
10% and 45* upward knockback that KOs at around 100%. While this does leave that Link incapacitated for some time, and you'll need to call him back if he's sent offstage, it can be a surprise option that your foe may not expect!

TL;DR:
Slams his hammer onto the ground, hitting in front of him. Has powerful knockback, and a meteor smash if used over the ledge. Has a weak shockwave hitbox too, which extends behind Red. Can hit the middle Link in a totem, sending them backwards as a projectile.

Blue's Forward Smash: Light Arrow

Blue usually uses traditional arrows, but he does carry a couple of specialty arrows. For instance, in the side smash, Blue's arrow turns into a Light Arrow. Blue draws his bow as the arrow flashes and turns into a more elegant-looking, golden Light Arrow, while he charges up and aims by pressing up and down on the control stick; a golden light emanates from the tip, and intensifies the longer it's charged. These Light Arrows have different properties from the normal arrows; they're unaffected by gravity, so they shoot in a straight line. They're also faster than regular arrows, and they can pierce right through foes and shields (not break shields; just bypass them).

Anyway, when the charge is released, Blue fires the arrow and reloads, adding ending lag to the attack. The arrow deals
9~13% of damage, and at full charge, it won't KO until about 110% -- in return, though, these arrows pack a little bit of stun, keeping targets in place for a moment. This stun is perfect for following up on the attack by switching teammates! Light Arrows also have the unique property of bouncing off of surfaces -- including Green's Shield Stance! Use this for trick shots, utilizing the Light Arrows' immunity to gravity and bounciness to your advantage. Oh, and since the totem formation allows you to move and jump while using smash attacks and the like, you can use this move in combination with that to become a mobile turret! Not only that, but switching out of this has a lot of potential uses -- while similar to the normal arrow from the Neutral Special, its special properties give the Light Arrow other uses.

TL;DR:
Shoots an aimable light arrow that isn't affected by gravity, but is weaker than regular arrows from the neutral special. They ignore shields, though.

Blue's Up Smash: Shooting the Skies
Blue readies his bow and aims it straight up during the charge, the animation being similar to the nspec but aimed straight up. When the charge is released, he will of course fire an arrow straight up, traveling 4~15 SBB up into the air depending on charge, before coming straight back down. (It takes about 1.5~5 seconds for it to hit the ground again.) If you hit with the very start of the move (before the arrow travels 1 SBB), it deals 10~14% and upward knockback that KOs at around 120~90%. Hit with the rest of the upward trip, and it deals 5~7% and moderate upwards knockback. Hit with the downward-flying arrow and it deals the same amount of damage, but it has increased hitstun as well (disproportionate to the knockback).

This move has a variety of uses -- anti-air, vertical KOs -- but the most interesting by far is its combo potential. While the reloading gives Blue a bit more endlag than is desirable for comboing with the arrow, another Link can use this to its full potential! Combo a foe, command Blue (who is charging the usmash since you set that up earlier) to release his arrow, keep comboing, and let the arrow hit the foe to extend your combo further! If the arrow hits on the way down you're rewarded with extra hitstun, so plan accordingly.

TL;DR:
Shoots his bow straight up, and the arrow comes back down (the height it travels is dependent on charge). Use this like you would Tink's bombs after thrown up into the air -- they can extend combos by raining down at just the right moment. Commanding Blue remotely is perhaps the best way to go about this. On the way up, they can KO early in the arrow's flight -- on the way down, they have more hitstun than they do knockback, ideal for comboing.

Blue's Down Smash: Bombchu

Blue reaches behind his back, and pulls out a Bombchu! He will put the Bombchu on the ground immediately, even if you charge the move. It'll then start travelling along the ground at Charizard's dashing speed, having no effect on foes it hits. Stop charging the move, though, and the Bombchu will detonate! It's a manual detonation, essentially; it won't explode on impact. Uniquely, you can hold this "charge" for as long as you want, and the Bombchu can even wrap around platforms like the Bombchu item. (How about that?) Anyway, Bombchus won't get more powerful if the input is held, unlike most smash attacks -- it deals a consistent
7% of damage and a bit of upwards knockback.

Use the move uncharged, and Blue simply throws the Bombchu diagonally downwards, and it'll explode on impact with anything as it tumbles through the air. You can attack foes below you if it doesn't have anything blocking the path! If there's a decent amount of ground in front of Blue, though, it'll explode right in front of him. If you do charge the move, Blue can't do anything until the Bombchu is detonated; he'll just crouch down, watching the mouse-like explosive. What you can do, though, is swap out of the move and command Blue to detonate the Bombchu; you might use this for comboing, and other such setups. Another neat tactic is using this in a totem formation; you can either throw it downwards at the foe, or remotely send it going along the ground! It's also a great way to attack grounded foes during a totem, which isn't easy for the other two Links. If you swap out of the move, you can pick up the Bombchu as a throwing item, and if thrown, it'll do the same thing as the uncharged version of the attack. While this may be beneficial in some circumstances, a Bombchu travelling along the ground grants more flexibility in planning a follow-up attack, and is easier to overwhelm foes with.

TL;DR:
Deploys a Bombchu. If charged, it'll keep going along the ground until the button's let go of, which causes it to detonate (it won't activate on contact). Uncharged, he throws it at a downwards angle to have it explode on impact. Great for swapping out of for setups and combos, and you can pick the Bombchu up by switching to another Link; throwing it does the same thing as the uncharged version.

AERIALS

Green's Neutral Aerial: Spin Attack
Green's spin attack isn't only useful on the ground; unlike in the original Zelda games, he can also use it in midair, and it actually has a rather different use. Green whips out his sword and spins it, going from in front of him to behind him to in front again, but for this third hit, Green slashes upwards with his sword. This functions as a multi-hit attack, and each of those positions that I just mentioned acts as an attack that leads into the next one. They'll deal 3%, 3%, and 4% respectively for a total of 10% if all three hits connect. The final hit deals some nice upwards knockback that can KO at around 120%, and while the attack is rather lengthy (ergo, easier to punish if whiffed), it does pack a decent punch, and its startup is nothing too major. Its angle makes it good for stage spikes as well as vertical KOs, and while it won't make Green ascend unlike the traditional version of the spin attack (the one that Link uses for his up special), he can actually use this to his advantage, falling downwards for stage spikes or jumping upwards for a ceiling KO! It's also much safer, since it won't cause a helpless state.

Green's Forward Aerial: Shield Shove
Green holds his trusty shield in front of him, gripping it with both hands, and shoves it forwards from his chest, outstretching his arms as he uses his shield to both block attacks (like Palutena's bair) and damage opponents. It will deal 7% of damage and moderate knockback, and its speed makes it a great "get off me" move. Not only that, but it's also a quick option to block any attack in midair, although this will push Green backwards since he doesn't have solid footing. While Green has trouble following this up on his own due to the amount of knockback, switching to a team mate allows for combo opportunities. Try sniping the opponent out of midair with Blue, or perhaps using Red's Leaping Counter to approach with an aerial.

Green's Back Aerial: Sword Hold
Green puts his sword-holding hand (and his sword) behind his back, and then grips his sword firmly with both hands. He holds it vertically, with the hilt at the top and the blade pointed downwards. The blade covers a tall area, and deals 8% of damage and moderate knockback, both of which are halved if the lingering attack hits late. Covering a large area and lingering for a while, this attack is great for keeping foes away, acting as a wall of sorts. It has low landing lag too, so it can be used from a short hop for approaching.

Green's Up Aerial: Upward Sword Swing
Green grips his trusty sword firmly in both hands before doing a backflip and swinging his sword above him as he flips. This relatively simple attack deals 8% of damage and moderate knockback, and it has good range as well as high priority. It is a tiny bit slow, though, due to the backflip acting as ending lag. Use this for juggling, as well as anti-air purposes, or just general aerial combat. It's decently quick, after all, so use this to your advantage.

Green's Down Aerial: Shield Bounce
Green holds it below himself like he's riding a sled or something, and if he lands on an opponent, he'll bounce off of them and deal 10% of damage! This will also deliver a meteor smash to the opponent in question, and although Green's limited aerial mobility while on the shield (he can't influence his direction at all, but he retains aerial momentum) makes it somewhat hard to land, the move comes out quickly, and the shield's hitbox is rather large. This will also block attacks like the shield does normally, but Green can still be knocked back by attacks as he has no solid footing; he just won't suffer hitstun, or take damage. Use this for defensive purposes, or even for a KO over the ledge!

Red's Neutral Aerial: Fire Burst
Moving onto Red's aerial attacks, we have one that perhaps makes the most use of his fire magic out of all his moves. Red's Fire Rod glows intensely as Red is engulfed by a large explosion of flames, burning any unfortunate foes near him to a crisp! Well, not to a crisp. It does, however, deal 12% of damage, have a good range, and deal moderate radial knockback. The attack is nice and quick as well, but the downside here is that it will knock opponents a bit too far back to continue a combo, but not quite enough for a KO. It can be used for edgeguarding, approaches, and such, though, and when it is, it's certainly a potent tool!

Red's Forward Aerial: Hammer Smash
Red uses his hammer again for this attack, and it's rather similar to the down smash, but in midair. Red whips out his hammer and swings it downwards in an overhead swing. This will deal 14% of damage and a powerful meteor smash, but it's rather slow. In fact, after Red finishes the swing, the weight of the hammer causes him to suffer heavy ending lag as he does a front flip, but he manages to put the hammer away during the flip, so the flip is the only endlag you'll see here. It is still pretty major, though, and makes the move rather risky. Nevertheless, a successful meteor smash can lead to an early KO! Alternatively, you can bounce the opponent onto the ground and back up into the air for aerial combos and such: landing the meteor smash hitbox bounces Red up a bit, which helps when comboing.

Red's Back Aerial: Double Fiery Kick
Red once again resorts to using his body instead of his weapons to fight, as in this move, he kicks backwards twice, his feet covered in flames. This is, of course, a multi-hit attack, with the first hit dealing 7% of damage, and the second hit dealing 8% and KOing at around 120%. The attack is very quick, and just like Captain Falcon's neutral aerial or Link's back aerial, you can land on the ground before the second hit comes out to extend combos from the air to the ground, greatly improving Red's combo game; this is possible because the first hit traps foes in place, priming the second hit. Try powering up with a Fiery Charge, knocking the opponent into the air with Jab or Down Tilt, knocking them back down to the ground with Forward Aerial so that they bounce back up, performing Back Aerial and cancelling the second hit, and then finish the opponent off with your choice of sword-based moves, whether that be Forward Tilt, Forward Smash, Up Tilt, or Up Smash for a devastating combo! That's just one example, of course, not to mention the team-based shenanigans you can get away with.

Red's Up Aerial: Upwards Sword Stab
More sword attacks, yay! For this particular attack, Red grips his sword in both hands and brings the hilt down to his hips before thrusting the blade straight up into the air, somewhat similarly to Toon Link's up aerial. It deals 14% of damage and KOs at around 140%, and it's rather quick. It has great reach as well, making it a good fit for vertical KOs. It's already a powerful attack as-is, but since it uses Red's sword, Neutral Special amps its power up to eleven, making this attack an amazing combo finisher! It has a lot of options for comboing into it, such as Back Aerial, Jab, Down Tilt, and more. Geez, with this many combos, he may as well be Ryu or something!

Red's Down Aerial: Downwards Spinning Slash
Red grips his sword firmly in both hands, and after a very brief start up, does a front flip and swings it below him. It starts at a 20 degree angle below and in front of Red, and the attack ends when the sword is behind Red. The attack is rather quick, and deals 10% of damage and backwards knockback that can KO at around 130%. This is a bit unconventional for a down aerial attack, due to its backwards knockback. While it is rather different, this move is great when combined with the Side Special, as when offstage, you can use this on an opponent, sending them behind you for a possible KO and recovering back to the stage at the same time! While the attack is very quick, it does have a rather small hitbox, making it a bit tricky to land. Powering this up, of course, makes it even more powerful, making for a devastating finisher to nearly any combo.

Blue's Neutral Aerial: Ice Rod Spin
Blue pulls out his Ice Rod, and then performs a spinning attack with it, similarly to Marth's nair. The attack will hit foes only once, dealing 4% of damage and minor knockback. It's not a sword or anything, after all. However, what the ice Rod does do is create two small snowflake-shaped hitboxes about 1 SBB out from the rod's tip; they're active at the same time as the normal hitboxes for that respective side. These distant sweetspots will deal 9% of damage and moderate knockback, with especially high hitstun -- signified by the foe gaining a "chilly" visual effect. The move is rather quick, and while it's not very good up-close, the distant hitboxes make this move amazing for spacing, as well as comboing thanks to the extra hitstun. This attack is a staple to Blue's long-ranged gameplay style, as it allows him to keep his distance, attack from afar, and even land a follow-up attack!

Blue's Forward Aerial: Sabre Swing
Blue's sabre is better for more than grounded combat. In the Forward Aerial, for instance, Blue swings his sabre in a horizontal arc. This attack is very quick, has good range, and deals 5% of damage for most of the blade and 10% if you land the tipper. The tip will also KO opponents at around 120%. While this attack covers a good area and is very quick, it is a bit lacking in terms of damage and knockback.

Blue's Back Aerial: Sabre Spin
Blue's sabre is good for more than grounded combat. In the Back Aerial, Blue quickly spins around 180 degrees and swings his sword in one horizontal slice, similar in a way to Marth's Neutral Aerial. It deals 6% for most of the blade and 12% for the tip, and the latter hitbox can KO opponents at around 100%. This is quite a bit slower than the Forward Aerial, but it packs more of a punch. This move will also turn Blue around, so if you hit the opponent with the regular hitbox's moderate knockback, try following up with a Forward Aerial for a combo and to get yourself some distance. If you land the tipper hitbox, though, you're in the perfect position to use Neutral Special and snipe them to get a bit of extra damage and knockback in!

Blue's Up Aerial: Shooting the Skies
Blue demonstrates his aiming prowess with his bow once again in his Up Aerial. He once again draws his bow and pulls the arrow back during the brief startup, but this time Blue aims it upwards. He then quickly releases the bow, shooting an arrow up towards the heavens. It'll travel about 2 SBB before reaching the apex of the arc (the arrow will have a horizontal arc if you shoot it while moving), and like the Forward Aerial, it will deal 8% of damage and moderate knockback to foes. If the bow is falling downwards, it can deal a (somewhat weak) meteor smash to opponents, but it's tricky to land. This attack can be great for vertical KOs and follow-ups as well as anti-air attacks, however.

Blue's Down Aerial: Feint Shoot
Speaking of meteor smashes, this move makes use of Blue's bow in a bit of a different way. Blue draws his bow, pulls back the arrow, and aims straight downwards, but when he releases the arrow, it stops before it leaves the bow; the "fins" catch on the bow, and Blue pulls it back and reloads the bow. The arrow does extend a good distance below Blue, and if it hits an opponents, it's pretty devastating; it deals 13% of damage and a powerful meteor smash, and while this move lacks in range with its tiny arrow hitbox, the power and meteor smash make up for it.

GRAB GAME

Green's Grab: Gripshot

Meet the Gripshot, the Hookshot's equivalent from Tri Force Heroes. It functions mostly the same, with range very similar to that of Toon Link's grab. It also works as a tether recovery, and has the same range as Toon Link's. The aerial Gripshot won't damage foes, but both versions, grounded and airborne, will pull items, foes, and teammates straight to Green! In midair, though, this doesn't initiate a grab state, instead acting like the Hookshot from the Zelda games: bring a foe right to you, and slash away! You don't have a frame advantage in this situation, though, so act wisely, and prepare for an attack from the foe.

Red's Grab: Just a Normal Grab...
Just a normal, average-ranged grab. Next.

Blue's Grab: Grappling Arrow
upload_2015-11-17_19-52-20.jpeg

I thought this sounded familiar...
Blue has a variety of arrow types that he can put to use. We've seen his standard, fire, light, and bomb arrows, but he's got one more trick up his sleeve! For the grab, Blue's arrowhead splits into three claws, like Link's Clawshot. Blue then fires the arrow forwards, but it has a rope attached to the bow, and after it travels about 1.5 SBB, it stops in midair. It falls to the ground, and retracts back to the bow; this arrow has an oddly mechanical appearance. If it catches an opponent, they're pulled back to Blue and the grab state is initiated. It can also be used in the air, and it has the same range and damage as Toon Link's aerial grab. Yes, unlike Green's midair Gripshot, this arrow damages foes and knocks them away instead of bringing them close. Blue likes to keep his distance, so this works out nicely.


Everyone's Grab State: Hold
Whenever one of the Links grabs an opponent, they simply, well, hold them in place. They can pummel for 2% of damage by hitting the held opponent in the face with the hilt of their sword, a lot like the other Smash Bros. Links' pummels. Here's the thing, though. If you have another teammate on the battlefield, you can switch to them while you're grabbing the opponent, and the grab state will continue! You can command the grabbing Link to have them pummel the opponent, but more importantly, you're free to attack the grabbed opponent during this! It does become a good deal easier to escape a grab if you're not controlling that Link, and if you do attack a grabbed opponent like this, you'll also deal equal damage and knockback to the Link holding the opponent, so use this sparingly! (If you're at 0% and you hit a grabbed foe and your teammate with a charged smash, they'll take equal knockback to the foe, all but guaranteeing a KO on that teammate.) It might be better to use the throws instead and follow up with an attack by swapping out. Another solution would be to charge a smash attack with one Link, swap out, keep that charge going, and then grab the opponent. Throw them into the charging Link, command them, and BOOM! Devastating combo! Heck, why not throw in one of Red's signature Fiery Charges to spice things up a bit?

Oh, and disclaimer: the one-second grab cooldown is shared by the Links, so you can't chaingrab by switching between them.

Green's Up Throw: What Goes Up Must Come Down
I didn't mention this before, but Green has been holding the grabbed opponent with his Gripshot. Thus, for his throws, he makes use of it. For his up throw, he'll aim it up (bringing the foe along with it), and then shoot it straight up, sending the foe up about 3 SBB above the ground. He'll then retract the Gripshot, but it won't let go of the foe right away -- it'll pull the foe downwards for a moment, which is the direction of this throw's knockback. It also deals 5%, by the by. Green has some time to follow up on the foe being pulled towards him with an attack (although the foe has a chance to air dodge), but another more interesting use is swapping out of the throw. The foe hangs at the top of the arc for a moment, so you can use this throw, swap out, and then hit the foe out of the throw animation with an aerial attack! This can even start combos. Since Green doesn't undergo a lot of lag from this either, one idea is to use a meteor-smashing aerial to send the foe downwards towards Green, and then follow up with one of Green's attacks!

Green's Forward Throw: Cast Out And Reel In
Green fires his Gripshot straight forward, with the foe once again attached to it. They'll travel 2 SBB along the ground, with the same general idea as the uthrow -- he'll pull the foe back in -- but this time, it won't release the foe. It'll just initiate the grab state again! This does give the foe a bit more "breaking out progress" from the grab though, so you can't just do it forever or anything. It deals 5% of damage, but you'll really want to use this in order to send a foe straight to a teammate -- preferably one who's charging a smash attack. It's an effective strategy to be sure!

Green's Down Throw: Gripshot Propulsion
Green puts the foe lying on the ground, still attached to the Gripshot, and then fires it straight downward! This will damage the foe due to the Gripshot's force, dealing 5%, but it also sends Green 2 SBB up into the air! This also leaves the foe in a prone state when the Gripshot detaches (at the height of Green's ascent). Green is of course in an aerial state when the throw ends, but due to some upwards momentum from the Gripshot, he won't be able to capitalize on the prone state. But you know where I'm going with this -- teammates! Swap out to one and send the prone foe upward, and then Green can hit them with an aerial attack as they come right to him! You could also of course do something entirely different -- it's up to you!

Green's Back Throw: "GET OVER HERE!"
Green fires the Gripshot backwards, with the foe in tow. They'll once again travel 2 SBB before being yanked back towards Green, as he holds out his sword straight in front of him! The yank itself deals 5%, with the sword dealing another 5% and KOing at 130% near the ledge. Below KO percents, you can use this extra time to prepare a teammate follow-up that requires more setup to perform, such as toteming and then using an attack (it sends the foe at an upward angle, so grounded attacks may not work). It's also a good option for KOing a throw near the ledge -- not only through being a KO throw, but also with setups into a meteor-smashing aerial from a teammate!

Red's Up Throw: Leaping Slam
Red leaps up into the air, grabbed opponent in tow, about a normal jump height. He'll then essentially perform an elbow drop and fall with the opponent, dealing 9% and moderate upwards knockback. The throw takes some time to complete, so aside from getting a foe in the air, this can also be used for combos using the other Links. You can swap out and then attack after the throw, or even while they're still falling! (It's worth noting that attacking a grabbed foe during an actual throw animation won't harm your teammate.) It's also possible to perform sacrificial KOs with this throw by using Green's Tornado Rod to push Red and the foe off of the ledge! Just be aware that you'll of course lose Red. Also, this can go on top of platforms, kind of like Kirby's uthrow but obviously not as high.

Red's Forward Throw: Jumping Kick
Red leaps forward again with the foe in tow, at pretty high speeds and traveling 1 SBB up and 3 SBB forward. Once reaching that distance, he'll push off of the opponent with his feet, which deals 8% of damage and moderate 45* upward knockback to the opponent. It also sends Red upward and backward a fair bit, like a Falcon Dive. This isn't excellent for combos, but it is good for getting the foe close to another teammate (if they're charging an attack or something), and this can even bring a foe offstage to set up a meteor smash from another Link!

Red's Down Throw: Sword Stab
Red lets go of the foe as they drop down onto the ground, and he grips his flaming sword with both hands before slamming it down in a powerful downward stab. The animation is similar to Ike's Eruption, and it deals 12% and moderate upwards knockback. At very low percents, it can be used to combo with another one of Red's attacks, but it's good for comboing with another Link at nearly any percent. With a Fiery Charge stored up, this becomes a viable kill throw, not only dealing more damage, but also KOing at around 100%! But this isn't Red's only kill throw...

Red's Back Throw: Leaping Spin Throw
Red leaps backwards whilst holding the opponent, and begins to spin around in a manner similar to Mario's bthrow. The distance traveled is identical to the fthrow, but when Red reaches that distance, he'll release the foe, sending them flying backwards! It deals 6% and knockback that KOs at around 80% if you used the throw at the ledge. This is mainly because it can also go over the ledge with the leap, which by the way applies to the fthrow too. This is also a good way to get a foe close to a teammate who happens to be behind Red.

Blue's Up Throw: Ice Rod
Blue tosses the foe upward a bit at a forwards angle, dealing 3%, and then uses the Ice Rod to freeze the foe with an ice chunk that's placed right above their head, dealing 5% and freezing the foe. The opponent is sent up pretty high, but it is possible to capitalize on the frozen state with a follow-up by another Link -- toteming, Red's side special, or just using the stage's platforms are good strategies. The throw can also KO on its own, the ice chunk sending the foe to the upper blast line starting at around 150% (on FD).

Blue's Forward Throw: Toss n' Shoot
Blue spins around once and tosses the foe forward, much like Mario's fthrow -- this deals 3%. and set forward knockback at an upward angle that goes about 6 SBB (9 if it were to go uninterrupted). He'll then ready his bow and shoot a single arrow at the foe, dealing 5% more as well as moderate 45* knockback. Near the ledge, this can kill at around 80%. The arrow shot by Blue will auto-aim at the foe, regardless of their DI -- you can take advantage of this by hitting the foe as another Link after they're thrown by Blue, and then he'll shoot the arrow at them even if you hit them away from the original trajectory! It's a very interesting tool for combos and the like.

Blue's Down Throw: Point-Blank Shot
Blue puts the foe onto the ground and stands on top of the prone opponent (oppronent?), aims his bow down, and shoots an arrow at point-blank! It deals 8% of damage, and uniquely sends the foe sliding forward along the ground in a prone state. It can go pretty far depending on the opponent's percent, and they won't be able to choose a getup option until they've traveled at least 2/3 of the way through the slide. This can be used to great effect when using a follow-up attack with another Link! It's also possible to tech chase the opponent after they've gotten back up again.

Blue's Back Throw: Reverse Sniping
Blue turns around and shoots his bow backwards, with the foe right in front of the arrow. This time though, the foe is brought along for the ride! They'll be dealt 3% from the get-go, and be carried along with the arrow (the trajectory being the same as a normal, half-charged arrow aimed up a bit). This can KO near the ledge, but the foe can "escape" the arrow at 3/4 grab difficulty, so you'll need some percent on the foe to keep 'em from breaking out before reaching the blast zone. This is also excellent for landing follow-ups with another Link, and for repositioning the opponent. Got a Link behind you with a smash attack on standby? Use this throw to send the foe right to 'em!

MISCELLANEOUS

Everyone's Final Smash: Tri Force Slash

All the other Links have a Final Smash involving the Triforce, so why not these guys? When the Final Smash is used, the Links take a formation as a projection of the Triforce appears on the ground below them; Blue is in the one triangle in the back, and Green and Red are each in one of the triangles in front. By the way, this will respawn any KO'd Links, even if the Final Smash misses. Sweet! If an opponent is close enough, they're sent to the center of the Triforce. Green and Red then start whaling on the opponent with their swords, dealing a total of
40% of damage. Red then sends them flying forwards at an upwards angle, and finally, Blue snipes them out of the sky with a Light Arrow. This deals an additional 10% of damage, and when all is said and done, the opponent will usually be KO'd when they're as low as 20%! (As in, they were at 20% before the Final Smash started.)

TL;DR:
The Links slash the guy a bunch, and there's a triforce for some reason.

Alternate Costume: Doppels

...Shy Guy? Is that you?

If you want, you can play as a trio of "Doppel" dolls, the single-player mode of Tri Force Heroes' stand-ins for the other two Links; you'd switch between controlling each of them to solve puzzles that'd otherwise require three players. Normally there's only two Doppels and one normal Link, but here you play as three Doppels. They've got a bunch of color swaps too, plus unique command blurbs. Funnily enough, the style of this set is actually closer to how the Doppels worked in the original game!

Oh, and one more thing. On the character selection screen, clicking on a Link in the portrait starts you off as that Link. Click the same one again, and you can change their colors individually! You can have a combination of colors, or maybe one Link and two Doppels, or whatever you want really. But again, the hair will stay the same, and two players can't have the same color-haired Link use the same alternate costume.

More Alts: Outfits
Other alternate costumes include the various outfits from Tri Force Heroes. In that game, they'd alter your stats. They don't do that in Smash, but they do look pretty snazzy! The costumes will also change to match that Link's color. Of course, you can mix and match just like with the doppels. Want one regular Link, one doppel, and one ninja Link? Go for it! Alternatively, synchronize your costumes to avoid confusion if there's more than one team in a battle.



How many team characters in parkas do we need?!


Old-school Zora, nice.


Ninja Link! Yeah!


Go-go Power Rangers!

PLAYSTYLE

Man, where do I start with these guys? Well, I guess I'll start with an overview of each Link's playstyle:

Red is a very aggressive, combo-oriented character, who prefers to get up close and personal to unleash deadly chain attacks. He bears the Triforce of Power, and as such, he has the strongest attacks out of the trio, especially when you power up with a Fiery Charge! His attacks also lend themselves wonderfully to combos, keeping the opponent rather close, and the Leaping Counter allows him to chase opponents quickly if they get too far away, or escape pressure if they're too close. Neutral Special is a great move to use whenever you get some time to breathe, and can make nearly any of his attacks a powerful finishing blow to cap off any combo! However, this also makes playing as Red rather tricky, since you need to refrain from using any sword attacks until the end of the combo. Since he has so many, this can prove to be quite a challenge. Nevertheless, mastering Red's plethora of attacks and options and knowing which ones to use at which time will lead to great results!

Whereas Red is an up-close, aggressive fighter,
Blue is a very strategic, methodical fighter, and prefers to keep his distance. His ranged attacks give him more time to contemplate his next action, which reflects his personality and the Triforce of Wisdom that he possesses. Blue's playstyle focuses on keeping your opponent at a set distance, so that you can land the sweetspots of your sabre attacks and also charge up your projectiles. Bombchus are also an amazing option for keeping foes away, since Blue can escape the animation quickly if the foe gets past his line of defense. Blue doesn't have the approaching and mobility tools that Red has, so he might have some trouble getting away from opponents if they're up close, but the three Links have decent mobility in general, so you should be fine if you just keep throwing out attacks and spacing them well. He's a lot like Toon Link, really. Blue's recovery is pretty bad, though, with only a tether, a slightly higher Up Special leap, a wall jump, and a midair jump to his name if he's flying solo, so try to keep foes at a distance to avoid getting knocked away. Blue's many ranged attacks can do a great job at keeping opponents at bay, and if you make sure your shooting is sharp and you make sure to think about your actions, you can use Blue to great effect!

Finally,
Green has a very defensive playstyle, as hinted at by his shield. Many of his attacks can either block attacks, out prioritize attacks, or push opponents away, and while this does create a sort of "zoning" playstyle like Blue, he has more of an up-close combat style as well, although quite a few of attacks have good reach. He lacks a projectile, so using the defensive options to approach is a key part of Green's playstyle. He revolves mostly around blocking attacks and letting the opponent make the first move, and then delivering a swift counterattack, much like the combat in 3D Zelda games like Ocarina and Wind Waker. The Forward Tilt is a great example of this; Green anticipates an attack, blocks it, and delivers a powerful slice with his sword. A similar thing happens with the Down Smash, Forward Smash, and other attacks. However, this isn't restricted to simple canned animations. Moves like Down Special and even just crouching allow him to block attacks and then follow up with whatever attack he wishes, while Forward Aerial, Down Aerial, and the like both block attacks and damage opponents all at once! He also has a pretty good out-of-shield game, with a ranged grab (albeit a pretty punishable one if whiffed), as well as some good, quick, protective aerials. Green wields the Triforce of Courage, and as such, he must have courage and rush into the heat of battle, trusting his shield and his reads to get him through the fight and make him victorious.

As you can see, the Links have very different playstyles despite their identical stats, and unlike, say, the Pokemon Trainer, where you're encouraged -- nay, forced to switch characters (lest your favorite Pokemon get tired), here, you can choose your favorite and play as them as much as you want! However, that's not to say that the other teammates should just be neglected. Teamwork is still a core theme and focus here. After all, you can switch Links even during animations, and the Links' unique "stances" compliment the other characters' playstyles beautifully. What with inter-Link comboing, switching between teammates, and the like, this trio is a very powerful force if mastered. A lot like the Ice Climbers, but less chaingrabby. Anyway, how can the Links utilize and benefit from their teammates? To start off, Blue is best at a distance and likes to throw out projectiles, so you can use Green's Shield Stance to provide a safe area of cover. Meanwhile, you can have Red prepare a fire charge for you, and when you want to finish the opponent off, you can tell him to give you the extra power you need to knock them off of the screen! Alternatively, you could form a totem in order to become a practical moving turret and mow down foes from above! Or maybe mix and match, having Green form a small totem while Red prepares to give you a boost with his fire magic. There's a lot of possible strategies, and I'm only scratching the surface here.

Red will benefit quite a bit from the vantage point that Green can provide if he angles the Shield Stance upwards in order to extend his combos, although using a totem formation can also enable him to use smashes in midair for a powerful aerial combo finisher! Of course, Blue can snipe opponents from a distance as well to extend one of Red's combos or deliver a finishing blow at high enough percents. Green will benefit mostly from Totem Time's added mobility, since he can use his shield during this, and like with the other two characters, it opens up a lot of aerial attack options. He can also use the other Links' tools to great effect, though, like the Fiery Charge and Blue's long-ranged support options. Each Link can be used either for attacking, or for supporting the leader -- for supporting, Blue's combo-extending and approach-covering ranged attacks, Red's attack-enhancing Fiery Charge, and Green's protective Shield Stance come to mind.

Of course, these guys do have some weaknesses. Aside from the steep difficulty curve in managing all of these characters, there's also the fact that teammates can be KO'd quite easily thanks to shared damage and light weight, making proper management all the more crucial. It's almost like you're playing a doubles match, but with one more character and one less player! Without their teammates, the Links aren't very good individually -- they lack in terms of recovery (Red having the best in Leaping Counter, and Blue being the worst, with only a tether to his name), damage output, setups, combos, and lack the crucial ability to cover each others' weaknesses. The trio are more difficult to manage and master than a regular character as a result, but also more rewarding to pull off, and they have tons of potential for combos, follow-ups and more. Overall, these three legendary heroes benefit greatly from teamwork, aiding each other's attacks, coordination, and proper management, and they're super hard to master, but once you do, you'll certainly be a force to be reckoned with! As always, feedback is greatly appreciated, and I hope you enjoyed the set! :)

TL;DR:
Use the real super power of teamwork and MURDER EVERYTHING.

Like what you see? See some more over at my Make Your Move Hub! :D
 
Last edited:

Junahu

Smash Ace
Joined
Nov 15, 2005
Messages
899
Location
Shropshire Slasher
Snake has trap dsmash, and unlike u/dsmash the grass knot actually interacts with enemies directly.
Personally I think Snake's a bit of a technical mess that just happened to be fun to play. But I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, and assume that his moveset is a correct application of Smash's design that still applies to Super Smash Bros for Wii U (even though his moveset makes no appearance in it)

Snake's moveset embraces its deliberate surrealism in order to make a point of how out-of-his-element Snake is in this wacky brawl. It stylistically fits Metal Gear to play the absurd completely straight. What I'm saying is; Snake does it because it works for Snake. It's like how Ryu has a bajillion extra inputs that vary the strength of a few simple attacks; the style of the moveset fits with the style of the series and plays into a character's crossover status. If your input arrangement doesn't have a point to tell, then it's almost always better off following the norm.

Incidentally, my complaint was mostly aimed at Up-Smash, whose wall generating properties are impossible to ignore, and could have probably been folded into the Up Special. Making some grass with the Down Smash is incidental enough that it can pretend to be aesthetic.
 

ϟPlazzapϟ

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Nov 30, 2014
Messages
95
alright ill be commenting more often to review sets, this comment is on mobile so the pacing may sound werid
The true super power of TEAMWORK!
Muno i'll admit this is probably your best set I've seen you do this contest, a team of three is a really ambititious concept but also pretty easy to screw up, fortunately you had a decent amount of ideas to make the set feel more like one big interactive set rather than t"hree sets in one". But before I get to anything I strongly advise you to stop using characters as stats, this set is somewhat justified as all of them are three toon links but not on future sets, It does do a very good job of giving the reader a mental image of how fast or heavy a character is but also takes away the feeling of somthing new and fresh. What I mean is by using characters as stats the reader will just see a character as a generic quilt of other character's attributes, by using numbers you get a sense of something new and unique to that character, if that makes sense.

Moving on to the actual review , if theres one thing that truly shined in this set, its all of the moves where you can hold a link's stance and then activate the attack by switching back, each is really clevrer and gives off the teamwork vibe you were aiming for. The stance attacks not only give the set alot of competative options but makes some aspects plain fun, like the boomerang for example which can move links that are in a stance, or the grabs which can provide interesting setup options. In short your team actions make it feel very interactive and id say your best set so far.

That's not to say the set is perfect, for starters there a quite a few moves that felt like filler, which is expected due to each link having its own set but still a blemish nevertheless Also, I felt like there werent enough moves that had links enter or interact with other links in a stance which is dissapointing, not saying every move needs to but after greens f smash i was left waiting for more. Not gonna lie tho ice rods effects were just really bad, the buff didnt really fit into the playstyle and maybe it couldve acted as armor for stanced links but you have to wait for the ice to thaw before you can activate them. Also side taunt was a good input for switching but the fairy bottle not only has a bad input but is also a terrible move, the. fact that you can just revive teammates takes away the fear in losing them, making the teammates feel less important and disposable, id reccomend to straight up remove it.

overall you have a pretty good set that makes clear what it wants to get across; teamwork, but has a few flaws that were meant to boost it but instead hinder it
 

Munomario777

Smash Master
Joined
Nov 18, 2014
Messages
3,253
Location
Charleston, South Carolina
3DS FC
0387-9596-4480
Switch FC
SW-8229-3157-8114
alright ill be commenting more often to review sets, this comment is on mobile so the pacing may sound werid
The true super power of TEAMWORK!
Muno i'll admit this is probably your best set I've seen you do this contest, a team of three is a really ambititious concept but also pretty easy to screw up, fortunately you had a decent amount of ideas to make the set feel more like one big interactive set rather than t"hree sets in one".
Thanks! :)
But before I get to anything I strongly advise you to stop using characters as stats, this set is somewhat justified as all of them are three toon links but not on future sets, It does do a very good job of giving the reader a mental image of how fast or heavy a character is but also takes away the feeling of somthing new and fresh. What I mean is by using characters as stats the reader will just see a character as a generic quilt of other character's attributes, by using numbers you get a sense of something new and unique to that character, if that makes sense.
There aren't exactly any ranked numbers for Smash 4 out yet, although I could give either a 1-10 number from Brawl or a raw data number from Smash 4, and then put the character after that (i.e. weight 10/10; around Bowser's weight).
Moving on to the actual review , if theres one thing that truly shined in this set, its all of the moves where you can hold a link's stance and then activate the attack by switching back, each is really clevrer and gives off the teamwork vibe you were aiming for. The stance attacks not only give the set alot of competative options but makes some aspects plain fun, like the boomerang for example which can move links that are in a stance, or the grabs which can provide interesting setup options. In short your team actions make it feel very interactive and id say your best set so far.
Thanks! :) My main goal to this set was to capture the elements of teamwork and make use of the other Links while still allowing you to play as whichever one you want. If you like playing defensively, you can stick to Green for the most part and use the others to assist his playstyle. That sorta thing.
That's not to say the set is perfect, for starters there a quite a few moves that felt like filler, which is expected due to each link having its own set but still a blemish nevertheless Also, I felt like there werent enough moves that had links enter or interact with other links in a stance which is dissapointing, not saying every move needs to but after greens f smash i was left waiting for more.
Oh oops! I meant to say that all smashes could be switched out of; not sure what happened to that. Lemme fix that real quick.
Not gonna lie tho ice rods effects were just really bad, the buff didnt really fit into the playstyle and maybe it couldve acted as armor for stanced links but you have to wait for the ice to thaw before you can activate them.
Good idea. Perhaps it could act as a sort of "counter"; when you freeze a teammate, they'll automatically attack whenever they're hit (but they'd still take damage). I'll play around with it and see what I can come up with.
Also side taunt was a good input for switching but the fairy bottle not only has a bad input but is also a terrible move, the. fact that you can just revive teammates takes away the fear in losing them, making the teammates feel less important and disposable, id reccomend to straight up remove it.
Good point.
overall you have a pretty good set that makes clear what it wants to get across; teamwork, but has a few flaws that were meant to boost it but instead hinder it
Thanks for the feedback! :) I'll go back real quick and edit the set.
 

JOE!

Smash Hero
Joined
Oct 5, 2008
Messages
8,075
Location
Dedham, MA
Personally I think Snake's a bit of a technical mess that just happened to be fun to play. But I'll give him the benefit of the doubt, and assume that his moveset is a correct application of Smash's design that still applies to Super Smash Bros for Wii U (even though his moveset makes no appearance in it)

Snake's moveset embraces its deliberate surrealism in order to make a point of how out-of-his-element Snake is in this wacky brawl. It stylistically fits Metal Gear to play the absurd completely straight. What I'm saying is; Snake does it because it works for Snake. It's like how Ryu has a bajillion extra inputs that vary the strength of a few simple attacks; the style of the moveset fits with the style of the series and plays into a character's crossover status. If your input arrangement doesn't have a point to tell, then it's almost always better off following the norm.

Incidentally, my complaint was mostly aimed at Up-Smash, whose wall generating properties are impossible to ignore, and could have probably been folded into the Up Special. Making some grass with the Down Smash is incidental enough that it can pretend to be aesthetic.
That's a valid observation, and upon further thought I could have the Side B do the Dsmash effect when grounded, and the same with the Up B doing the Usmash effect while grounded (and when not a critical leaf blade perhaps). The Usmash would then be the kick and the Dsmash would probably still be the same but only with aesthetic jungle stuff rather than trappish.

How does that sound?
 

Reiga

He sold diddy for a switch
Joined
Dec 8, 2014
Messages
1,256
Location
White Noise
3DS FC
1461-7646-7368
Reigareview 3 and Knuckles Serperior
I WAS going to comment on 3 sets, but only one of them I actually have something decent to talk about, I mean, the others were Crazy Dave (which much can't be said, as it's just another short-and-simple Kiwi set) and Isaac (which 2 people have already talked about, so no need for me to refrase the same critiques), so I'm only doing Serperior, also because it's by the time I'm posting the only one I've written up, so I guess it's a win-win situation.

Smugleaf
Down to the write up of Serperior, something already urks me, and I guess it can be considered a beginners mistake: the way the moves are displayed aren't really at they're invoking and eye-catching nature, in the moveset template there is the moves input accompanied by the name and then, in the same line, there is the move itself, which to be honest, while an upgrade from Flygon's ugly always yellow font, still makes the experience less enjoyable, for a better idea for how a template could work out, check some vet sets and see how they introduce they're moves, toy around with sizes and even fonts for the reader to really feel wonders when reading the set!
As for the set itself, the Overgrown mechanic while a bit bare bones as said by other users, due to only either being on or off, actually still has some GREAT potencial, as the mechanic delves into Serperior's personality, which could really direct something like the stats, I mean, imagine: before 50%, Serperior slithers around like a snooty b*stard, while after such percentage it surely must be now getting competitive, so wouldn't that affect it's movement and speed? Just a though. On the moves too: maybe for her Grass Pelt, before the 50 mark she will show off and create a grand pillar of grass covered in exquisite flowers, while when things get serious Serperior creates a simpler yet powerful pillar? Use your noggin man! Also, some moves like Giga/Mega Drain restore Serperior's HP, possibly decreasing from the 50% mark, which can actually make for an interesting playstyle for mechanic, might Serperior intencionally debuff itself so that something like the Grass Pelt idea has more range? Seems mighty interesting, so it would be nice for that to be more than just 2 moves.
The moveset also suffers from a good deal of Pokémon Syndrome (a set that has moves that are or work unfitting to the Pokémon itself), for example, it just seems rather out of place for Serperior to have it's tail become made of steel, remember, it learns tht move through TM, so it's not natural for it (Slowpoke can TM learn Fire Blast, but you don't see that thing randomly spitting fire, right?), as said by Smaddey the Gastro Acid move seems unfitting for such an exquisite Pokémon as Serperior. Glare and Giga Drain are also kinda Pokémon Syndrome'd, despite from how it's treated in the anime, Glare is a move where the Pokémon scares the opponent with a mean ol' look, not some red laser beam shot from they're eyes. Giga Drain on something like a Pokémon like Serperior would either involve it's snake nature and bite the opponent, or use it's plant controling powers to use them to absorb the opponent, not some red green laser beam shot from they're eyes mouth.
 
Last edited:

JamietheAuraUser

Smash Lord
Joined
Jan 11, 2010
Messages
1,196
Location
somewhere west of Unova
That's a valid observation, and upon further thought I could have the Side B do the Dsmash effect when grounded, and the same with the Up B doing the Usmash effect while grounded (and when not a critical leaf blade perhaps). The Usmash would then be the kick and the Dsmash would probably still be the same but only with aesthetic jungle stuff rather than trappish.

How does that sound?
Actually, I think the weirder thing is that his FSmash doesn't create terrain like his other two smashes do. Either all his Smashes should create terrain, or none of them should, I feel.

Edit: @ Reiga Reiga : Actually, Glare seems quite fitting for Serperior, though I agree that it shouldn't be an eye beam. Not a "scary face" sort of glare, but rather a haughty, imperious, almost disdainful expression. A look that gives the image of royalty saying "you have displeased me".
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom