As Slick as a Banana: A Guide To Diddy Kong

I created this guide for people who already know how to play well against other people. This means you are good at timing your shield, dodging, grabbing, and are able to play the game well in general, especially with Diddy Kong. This guide is specifically meant to make players who main Diddy Kong, but are having a hard time winning to become a much better player.


Combos are at the BOTTOM of the guide. It may be helpful to read them first, then read the notes.

A very important tip for players who want to be competitive, but find themselves struggling to beat other players online:

The main goal in competitive matches is to make the opponent unable to escape your combos, allowing you to deal massive damage while receiving very little damage at all from the opponent.

This guide is all about setting up combos that are difficult to escape, deal quite a bit of damage, and are hard to predict.

These tips have allowed me to win over 15 matches online in the past 2 days.

Good luck!



Diddy Kong Notes:

• Edge guard by staying near edge and doing quick aerials such as Neutral air, Back Air, Up Air, and Forward Air to keep the opponent from recovering.

• After being launched off of the stage, Don't get back on stage immediately; instead, do a wall hang, then lead into a back-air.

• Diddy Kong's combos depend on the weight of an opponent. For example, Pikachu goes higher when hit by a down throw, so do an up air to effectively combo.

• Use bananas to either lead into a grab combo at low percents, The Launch combo at moderate percents, and for a Side Smash at high percents.

• Don't edge guard with the peanut popgun; instead, use the peanut popgun to disrupt opponents that are trying to combo. You can also stall with it if you're good with it.

• Try to mix things up; don't use the same exact combo over and over again. The opponent can easily predict it and punish repeated combos. If you change your combo throughout the match, the opponent will probably panic and won't know how to react to you.

• Use your side special wisely! If your opponent shields, expecting an attack, then use the side special to grab him/her to punish it. You can also use the kick from the side special to punish edge guarding, but don't use it too often, for they will anticipate it and punish it if you do.

• Try to change your throw to match the opponent's percent. Use a grab-to-down-throw combo when the opponent is at percents lower than 110%. Once they are at 110%, start trying to get them near the edge of the stage, then do a forward throw or back throw to keep them from attacking you.

I mentioned a few combos that you should use when playing as Diddy Kong. These are the combos:

The Essential Diddy Kong Combo: Grab -> Down throw -> Jump -> Back-Air x2
This combo is the most-useful combo Diddy Kong has. It is very hard to escape the combo, and it deals quite a bit of damage in doing so.

The Diddy Kong Combo Part 2:
Grab -> Down Throw -> Jump -> Up-Air
(Optional): Continue combo with a: Jump -> Up-Air
This combo is very useful against opponents that have a percent of over 100, because this can very easily KO opponents.

The Diddy Kong Combo Part 2 (Alternate):
Down Special -> Side Smash
This is a very simple combo in which you can easily KO opponents with over 100% damage.

The Launch:
Dash Attack -> Jump (Maybe twice) -> Up-Air
This combo is almost guaranteed to hit the opponent and can easily win you the game. This combo will throw off (Confuse) opponents who do best on the ground (Little Mac) and can easily earn you a KO by keeping them in the air.

Tip: While the opponent is in midair as a result of The Launch or has just been KO'd, take this time to use you Down-Special to get a banana for later use.

The Essential Diddy Kong Combo (Alternate):
Grab -> Down Throw -> Turn towards opponent then Jump -> Forward Air
This combo is very useful when the opponent's damage is around 50%. This move is very useful for early launches, because of its higher damage and longer launch. This move can be used to keep away physical opponents such as Marth, Little Mac, and especially Pikachu, who launches more easily.

A Grab-To-Down-Throw Combo is when you grab an opponent, and then press down on the Directional Pad (D-Pad) to throw the opponent down, which you use to combo into an aerial attack. The Essential Diddy Kong Combo is an example of this.

I hope you found this guide helpful. For those of you who want to play Diddy Kong competitively, this should help you a lot.

(Go to Online, then Spectate Diddy Kong players, you will probably see them doing combos and actions mentioned in this guide)