Uh how are they punishing you for your unsafe shield moves if, when you graba mechakoopa twice, you have a bomb in your hand that doesn't hurt you? It means they have to shield through both my hit and my bomb or they explode when they try to punch or grab me. That with the 50/50 sideB mix-up makes you an approaching nightmare since all your unsafe moves are in-fact safe if they commit to shield. Like yeah you're DEPENDANT on the mechakoopaling defense and how it modifies your game, almost like how Tink pretty much always needs a bomb is his hand, but having that option, and the fact the it can be blow up by them hitting it (hence the ability to double explode when they attack it as it explodes) means it's not timer based and covers multiple punishes. Having a koopa out even on the ground magnifies your game, since it means if they commit to shielding your incoming approach raw then if you properly spaced yourself in relation to your mechakoop they can't punish you.
It literally fixes every problem you listed (forcing them either to jump into awkward aerials or shield to offer grab opportunities even for your bad grab), which creates more of a problem of dependency than lack of said options.
Then that just leaves the dismal disadvantage state to overcome.
It literally fixes every problem you listed (forcing them either to jump into awkward aerials or shield to offer grab opportunities even for your bad grab), which creates more of a problem of dependency than lack of said options.
No it doesn't, the Mechakoopa is
not that good, I think you're givin' it way too much respect. The mechakoopa is pretty damn scary for stage control and can even lead into combos if your opponent is caught unaware, I'll admit. For all the other stuff you brought up though, not so much.
- It takes too long to deploy these little robots, and you can easily be punished if you try to use it under pressure. And if your opponent knows the matchup and plays a character who can walk all over you, you're kind of always under pressure, and Junior doesn't really have the tools to deal with pressure effectively.
- They can simply be picked up if walking on the ground.
- They don't really do anything to a shielding opponent. If it touches a shield, it'll simply walk right past the enemy.
- They can be caught even if you throw them. Might be a little tricky to do sine they fly a little fast, but it can be done.
- If your opponent does catch it, they can throw it back and use your own weapon against you. Granted, it does limit their options while they're holding it, but it still kinda sucks that it isn't your property.
These robot thingies are indeed a great tool, but when they're slow to deploy and can be used against you, the future is not that far off. His grab is terrible, his approach options are limited, his out of shield options are limited, his killing options are limited; the mechakoopa is good, but isn't good enough to "fix" any of these.
It means they have to shield through both my hit and my bomb or they explode when they try to punch or grab me. That with the 50/50 sideB mix-up makes you an approaching nightmare since all your unsafe moves are in-fact safe if they commit to shield.
And you say that like its a hard thing to pull off, shielding both of those at the same time is fairly easy to do Using them so close together also opens a possibility of them capturing your little buddy and then lob at you, which WILL beat you out of your kart no matter where they hit you with it. Your opponent can also just jump over both you and the robot and air dodge if they know you're going to try and attack from it, which allows them to escape or even get a free punish. And SideB and the options from it are definitely
not always safe, even if you do follow after a mechakoopa. If your opponent blocks it, there is literally no safe option you've got other than jumping and air dodging, which gets old after doing it for like 5 times. The mechakoopa can shield poke if you've whittled down their shield enough, so I guess I can
kind of see its use a an approach situationally. The reason I claim SideB is a **** approach is because in
neutral positions, your opponent is expected to have pretty much all his/her options available to counter yours. When driving your car you can't grab anything, can't shield anything, and the only attacks you can use are the spinout and your aerials. You don't have enough choices out of this thing to warrant it being called a good approach. Its the same with
, shield and he can't really do anything. Both characters are pretty bad at raw approaches, but Sonic has the speed and surprises to scare the crap out of his opponents and has far more options out of his SideB, Junior doesn't really get those luxuries sadly. What the Kart is good for though, is making your movement unpredictable (jumping backwards away from your opponent is usually the safer, preferred option), comboing, recovering, and fake outs. Don't get me wrong, the Kart and its customis a pretty large part of Junior's play and a fairly good move for multiple purposes, but approaching is not one of them
No offense man and I don't mean this as an insult, but if you think his approaching is nightmareish and that he doesn't rely on punishes to get in, it doesn't look like you've got too much experience playing as or against him against competent opponents. Junior's moveset is reliant almost
entirely on punishing mistakes, and the key to defeating him is patience. If you're really cool, calm, and collected during the fight, you're unlikely to make too many mistakes for him punish and you can either force him to approach with risky, punishable moves or try to hit you with his 2 projectiles: One of which is slow, telegraphed, and a horrid move overall, the other takes too long to make and can be thrown back at him. If your opponent knows the Koopalings and their player, it's gonna be way harder to win and you might find yourself disappointed in competition.