Character Dedication/ Playing As Other Characters

[lewisbn11]

Ok so a serious post which hopefuly won't get blocked. Ive been reading the forums today and I can see that its possibly looked down upon to play the same character all the time.

Where I live even accidently selecting som1 elses character is seen as a crime. I am Red Link, My controller is Red And my van in which we play inside is red. I play as red link and my dedication to this character will always remain.

My other freinds are just the same with there characters. I suppose the real question is, is it possible to master all the characters. I believe that by spending all my time with my red link I can go to new levels of play. I can see the replies I will get already "We are so good we can play all the characters", "who are you you can only play one character".

I am happy to be at my best level with red link then just an even level with all characters.
I cannot bring myself to stab red link in the back and change character.

any thoughts.

 

[Umbrasquall]

I play every character because I'd get bored if I only play one. But there are definitely people that only play one character. People who only play one character tend to know the character they use extremely well, but play poorly they ever try using someone else. Even if someone is good at mindgames.

 

[Winston]

Its mostly looked down on by scrubs who will make johns about your character. At least this happens to me all the time. "You only know how to play falcon and all you do is uair"... Same usually goes for kirby or pika mains. Good players will usually not comment on your character choice and just destroy you ingame. ^___^

Don't worry about it too much, especially cause you're maining link.

 

[Thino]

havin a main is normal. play whoever you feel good with , no need to master all characters , as Umbrasquall said , being able to play with other characters is just forr when you get bored of playing ur main

 

[Dylan_Tnga]

I basically only play captain falcon but I like all his costumes. I also play pikachu but I always take the red hat ^_^

SuPeRbOoOm or however the heck you spell that with the caps and non caps has basically 4 stocked me with every character.

I think when you get to the highest level of smash, or close to it anyway with your main than thats when you want to learn other chars, and eventually you just know em all

 

[Box_of_Fox]

Some really good people insist on being 1-character people-- "l;" from Emularena plays only Samus but his Samus is soooliddd and has uncannily quick z-cancelling. He says that he refuses to "taint his skill" by practicing another character.

I favor Pikachu over most other characters, and if I know my opponent is good then I usually choose him/her/whatever first, but I play Mario, Kirby, and CF at around or at least close to the same skill level. I don't think playing these 4 characters has "tainted" my potential with any of them, not even a little, in fact it helps a lot when I can switch characters to someone I feel more comfortable against the character choice of my opponent. My Pikachu is bad against good kirbies, so I just switch to Mario and it becomes loads easier.

Its my opinion but I would favor versatility over extreme single-mindedness.

Also that "red link" thing is getting to be more disturbing than actually cool.

 

[Captain_Obvious]

I think that you can learn something useful with every character, so it's beneficial (as opposed to...taintful?) to master every one.

For example, with Link you learn the value of a defensive projectile game. With Pikachu, you learn that edgeguarding off the stage is awesome. With Donkey Kong, you learn hit and run (gorilla!) tactics and the power of a lucky grab.

These are simple examples of course, but the conceptual framework built around every character is something that you can digest and use in playing your main. To be a true master of the game, you should play every character at least moderately well.

- Captain R.D. Obvious

 

[M3tr01D]

By playing every character you learn all their strengths and weaknesses so when you fight them with your main character you know what to do. I don't like mario's style of play and hence never use him, and when I fight mario I have troubles vs him. If I played him I would be better able to counter what he does, because I would know what he was capable of.

 

[Zantetsu]

Lol one word (If it is a word...)
Ok...
One name...isai ^^

Btw someone look and see if isai is in the dictonary. Just curious :S

 

[greenblob]

Skill is measured by your wins in tournament/ladder matches, not by your tech abilities, ability to use multiple characters, BtT time, etc. You might only be able to play one character competitively, but if you win, it doesn't matter. The only reason you might want to consider playing more than one character is because of the limitations of that character (this doesn't apply if you're playing Pika ).

 

[felix45]

basically what metroid said. By playing and getting good with every character, you know their strengths, weaknesses, combos and how to DI out of them, etc. etc.

having 1 character you are good with is fine and all but really I think to become one of the best you have to learn all of the characters.

 

[epidiOn]

Yay Pikachu!

You can gain from playing other characters against your main by learning the rhythm and timing of those characters, but the time might be better spent just practicing that specific match up instead.

 

[_kSo_]

... He says that he refuses to "taint his skill" by practicing another character.

dats kuz samus is so friggin different from every other character

 

[bjdavis420]

I personally like to play different characters because if someone has my current character toggled, then I can switch it up. For example, I like CF, but against a better CF, i will choose Samus, and have a MUCH better chance. This is because, as most of u know, CF can 0-death another CF fairly easily. I hate CF dittos b/c my CF is good, but definetly not on par with say ^^^^that guy (kso). But yeah, its definetly fine to main one character, and even though i have lost a lot of respect for links b/c most of them complain to NO END, link is still a respectable character.

Also, nice job of making us sound like arrogant *** holes.



So, id hate to dissappoint, but we are all so good we can play all the characters. Who are you, you can only play one character?

 

[Rupus]

KSO, are you on a topic-reviving mission? There wasn't any need for this to come back.

 

[bjdavis420]

haha, i didnt even realize that it was from almost a month ago. Kso, your just out fanning the last few burning embers of old topics today arent u, well done.

 

[M3tr01D]

Skill is measured by your wins in tournament/ladder matches, not by your tech abilities, ability to use multiple characters, BtT time, etc. You might only be able to play one character competitively, but if you win, it doesn't matter. The only reason you might want to consider playing more than one character is because of the limitations of that character (this doesn't apply if you're playing Pika ).

I don't think skill is always measured by your wins. There are players both online and offline that can win with their one character, but if they switch to any other character they get completely dominated. Just because they can get first with their main but lose horribly with all 11 other characters isn't really skill, they're just good with the character they chose.

I kind of think of skill as someone like dreday, he plays everyone good and I can't tell what his main is. He is good at the game and getting to pick a character is just a bonus.

 

[Wenbobular]

Wait, so if a player that only played *insert character here* consistently beat Isai, that wouldn't really be skill?

 

[M3tr01D]

Wait, so if a player that only played *insert character here* consistently beat Isai, that wouldn't really be skill?

for example the person that beat him every single match was mario, but when he played any other character but mario he got 4 stocked by isai's anything I would call that skill with character rather then skill at the game.

 

[Wenbobular]

Eh, I doubt such a person would exist though.

 

[Dylan_Tnga]

for example the person that beat him every single match was mario, but when he played any other character but mario he got 4 stocked by isai's anything I would call that skill with character rather then skill at the game.

Who cares if you can win though? Maybe its more like rules at the game and at playing mario, but just sucks with everyone else.

Face it no matter how well you play mario you wont beat isai unless you rock at the game too.

Yes I argue this point because I only play one character. ONLINE.

Offline on ssb64 I play mario and pika and a little bit of kirby and some fox too. Mostly captain falcon as always though..

but Dan might be coming down to montreal and staying at my house so yay! Ill get to play console smash 64 with someone who actually owns at it.

In melee I like to play tons of characters but focus specifically on 2-3

 

[tigerbombz]

then u reach a certain level where as no matter who ur oppoent picks...u can bomb on them with any character you choose n want to play


hence..tigerbombz! aahahahah...funny rite!?

 

[greenblob]

I say it's all muscle memory. Much of learning a character is based on muscle memory. If you decide to pick up another character, you have to start almost from the beginning.

 

[Dylan_Tnga]

I say it's all muscle memory. Much of learning a character is based on muscle memory. If you decide to pick up another character, you have to start almost from the beginning.

I agree completly.

Also I've played you before online ( I'm \m/ Wreak Havok \m/ ) You're pretty good IMO.

 

[_kSo_]

it's impossible to play as fox online

and bjdavis im only doing this kuz i was correcting a mistake i made in a previous post, which actually contradicted what I stated in a later one. I didn't want to be seen as a hypocrite.

 

[M3tr01D]

it's impossible to play as fox online

that's weird cause I do it all the time.

 

[Umbrasquall]

It's pretty hard to play fox if you play the real system on a regular basis. Until you get used to the dual timings that is. I still haven't and screw up a lot when I play fox.

 

[Zantetsu]

it's impossible to play as fox online

that's weird cause I do it all the time.

Ya same here. You ok kso?

 

[M3tr01D]

It's pretty hard to play fox if you play the real system on a regular basis. Until you get used to the dual timings that is. I still haven't and screw up a lot when I play fox.

I play offline at least weekly for a few hours and it takes me about 14 seconds (including the time to set up the game) to readjust to online play.

 

[Dylan_Tnga]

I play offline at least weekly for a few hours and it takes me about 14 seconds (including the time to set up the game) to readjust to online play.

Crazy. I dont play on console at all (though I own both the system and the game) and it takes me like.... 5 matches before I'm warmed up. And I play captain falcon... ONLY captain falcon.

I think people are saying fox is difficult online because theyre not as good as you metroid, most people including myself aren't so bear with us

I believe the reason for this fox online opinion is the fact that due to his weight, fox is incredibly easy to kill and can end up dying after so much as one mistake.. ESPECIALLY vs a character like captain falcon who can usmash him and have it result in a damaging combo that can lead to an edgeguard EVERYTIME, unless DI'd in one way or another.

Dunno, really.

 

[Umbrasquall]

Yeah. I can adjust back to the system after a game or two, but it takes me a long time to adjust back to online play after I play on the system. This is probably both because I haven't been playing this game for very long and also of the extra online lag on stupid Vista.

 

[Dylan_Tnga]

Windows just keeps getting worse, eh? I'll just stick with XP cuz im used to it.

 

[master_yoshi113]

I ussually just play with 2 characters (mario and yoshi) but I ussually pick someone that realy annoys my friends. by the way i have no other version of ssb and can only play 64.

 

[_kSo_]

that's weird cause I do it all the time.

I'm just saying that when you play as fox, you require so many precise inputs, that on an emulator, it doesn't always respond. besides my computers sucks for playing online which is why i only play falcon online

 

[bjdavis420]

I say it's all muscle memory. Much of learning a character is based on muscle memory. If you decide to pick up another character, you have to start almost from the beginning.

Really? Personally, I disagree, but maybe thats just me and thats why i have 3-4 pretty good character, 3-4 mediocre, and a couple that im just not very good with...So interpret that as I don't have 1 MAIN that i can pwn with, just a bunch of different picks that hopefully i can counter with. For a long time I only played Ness (this is before i played online, so it was a pretty noob ness) and then once i became what I considered pretty good at the time, I started to pick up other characters pretty easily (obviously they werent that good, but i got use to their play style/move set). Now that I have played online for a short while I have found it pretty easy to play with most characters (MOST, not all). I think that once u get use to z-canceling, short hopping, tilts etc. and once you have seen how other good players use a character, you have a good idea how to use them and can be fairly competitive. Now im not saying that if you pwn with jiggs, and you watch a great CF, then you can pick up CF and pwn, but you PROBABLY have a good understanding of his moves, and you can play him fairly well.

But maybe there is just 2 kinds of smashers, those that continually want to get better with one character (and dont get bored with him) so they only focus on that one character. And those that do get bored with 1 character, so they try to improve their other characters, jack of all trades, master of none (but then of course there is malva, master of all trades, pwned by none).

 

[SuPeRbOoM]

over time I stuck with a character, got good with him then they got a bit boring and then I moved on to another character to improve

 

[greenblob]

Well, then you've developed muscle memory for different characters, just like how you can have the muscle memory to play more than one song on a musical instrument.

From my progression, I find that when you start out, you don't have the muscle memory required for any one character so you tend to branch out, maining maybe 5 characters. After that, you really grasp on to one or two characters, and those tend to be either the ones you play the most out of your original large pool of mains or the ones that are the easiest to learn via muscle memory (mine was the latter--Jigglypuff has very basic combos, and this also explains why so many newer players play Kirby). Then once you reach a certain level, you might begin to branch out again, learning the muscle memory required for other characters while retaining your already learned muscle memory.

 

[bjdavis420]

Hmm. I guess I can agree with you on that greenblob. It is muscle memory, i guess, that allows you to z cancel, use tilts, and do combos. But I also think that once you see different combos being performed (with other characters that you dont main), if you are a good enough player, then you can then go and learn those combos with that character, and it will not take nearly as long as it did for you to learn combos with your main when you first started playing. I think that becoming a really good player is a combination of muscle memory, and an understanding of the different combos, lag times,hit boxes, z canceling, etc.

 

[Captain_Obvious]

I have to agree with Greenblob. Though it takes practice with any given character to excel, general experience with the game makes it easier to pick up any given tech with any character. I play both Melee and SSB, and comparing the ease with which I pick up new techs in either game, my 5 extra years of experience with SSB classic allow me to easily pick up more difficult stuff while I STILL can't consistently ledgetech in Melee.

The more you play the game, the better you'll be in general.

- Captain R.D. Obvious

 

[okaygo]

I like to start my warmups with my Pikachu, then switch through the following characters: Fox, Link, Kirby, DK, and my new addition of Mario.

I find that playing a variety of characters helps you play your main better. You understand the moves a whole lot better, thus you know what to do.