R.O.B. Matchup Analysis #30 - Kirby

[GwJ]

 

[oldkingcroz]

From my experience, Kirby has trouble against heavy opponents. He also has trouble against long ranged opponents. Shulk, Ganon, and DeDeDe all fair very well against him, despite being combo fodder. Luckily ROB has good weight and has decent range (and his disjointed nair/ bair really mess up Kirby in the air). Kirby also can't duck under a lot of ROB's better neutral tools (namely Dsmash, dtilt, grab, retreating fair, and gyro), despite him being tall.

What does Kirby have? Well he's quick- for one. His frame data is some of the best in the game, he doesn't have trouble killing, and tilts/ airs combo into Smash attacks. His grab is quick and up throw can imediately put ROB into disadvantage on stages like Battlefield/ Town and City. ROB has to really play it safe and switch between offense and defense against this character, because ROB doesn't really have anti-combo nairs/ dairs like most of the cast. Oh- and Kirby has some of the best customs in the game, when ROB gets niche gyros and a slightly better up B. Kirby's a little like Luigi, in the sense that once he gets in (or has advantage), it's downhill for ROB. But, unlike Luigi, Kirby starts the match off with no projectiles and can't kill/ combo off of grabs- which is huge.

I'd say it's (very) slightly in ROB's favor to even.

 

[Poupoko]

I main Kirby and nearly main ROB, considering how much I play him.

A decent Kirby shouldn't have too many problems dealing with ROB's projectiles, especially if they know the matchup. Spacing with Nair has to be well done or else you can be punished for it. Kirby's dash grab isn't bad (and he has low percent throw combos on ROB) and his tilts are amongst the lowest startup in the game. And since most of Kirby's strings are vertically based, making sure Kirby doesn't get too many hits in is very important to say the least.

Best part for ROB is that his kill options (Uair, Usmash) outrange Kirby's moves and Uthrow will still KO relatively early on Kirby, while Kirby has a lot of trouble KOing outside of Usmash and maybe Bair. The key to this is that ROB has to keep using his mix up options and stay both unpredictable and mobile. Kirby should be looking to do the same, but he has a hard time using his options against a mobile character. And by options, I mean Inhale. If Kirby lands that, that's very bad news for ROB.

There aren't too many matchups I think Kirby solidly wins, but I can see him winning this one. He's like a less extreme version of Mario: doesn't mind projectiles, but can't return them. Has decent follow-ups on ROB, but no all purpose U-smash and super strong F-smash.

 

[Ze Diglett]

We lose because Kirby can eat the gyro
In all seriousness, I feel like Kirby has a solid advantage here. Once he is in our face, he can build up % on us super quickly as we have a very difficult time getting out of a disadvantageous situation in this MU. Seriously, that frame data is not pretty for us. On the other hand, we can pressure him and keep him away with our projectiles and Nair and we have a super easy time killing him, so it mostly comes down to spacing him out and getting an early kill before he does, though that's definitely easier said than done. And for the love of god, don't let him eat you. The laser is way too good of a pressure tool to let an up-close-and-personal character like Kirby have. I'd place this MU around 40:60 Kirby's favor, though I can certainly settle for a less extreme 45:55.

 

[Lizard_Buttock]

I'd say 50:50 with customs off, probably closer to 45:55 to Kirbs with customs on. Kirby has poor range and lacks a good approach with customs off, meaning it's easy enough to zone him out with gyros and aerials that outrange his. However, Kirby can combo us quite easily, considering our large hurtbox and disadvantageous physics, and he beats us in terms of speed of attacks and movement. However, Kirby lacks good KO options outside of U-smash, and is light enough to KO early with u-throw, so without customs, it's pretty even. With Kirb's advancing inhale custom or whatever it was called, he can approach easily while completely covering gyro, which screws up our zoning pretty well.
So we haven't really had much discussion with later MUs to be added, especially not from pro-er players. Hopefully they can get back into things after EVO's finished.