Could I get some critique on my Kirby?

[Captain Pretzel]

Hi all!

I'm not sure how active these boards are anymore, but I figured I'd post anyway. I'm a solo Kirby main from Illinois. I started playing competetive Melee about a year and a half ago, and I've been solo maining Kirby since I started. I decided to register and post on SmashBoards since I'm finally at the point where I feel I have solid (though certainly not perfect) fundamentals / tech skill / matchup knowledge. I have a few (or actually many) ideas regarding areas I could use improvement, but I was hoping other Kirby mains could give me some critique / advice regarding my play style and what I could be doing better.

I've been wanting to ask for critique for a while, but I thought it would be better to wait until I had several streamed matches. The oldest ones are on top, and the latest ones are on the bottom, to give a general sense of progression. Anyway, here are my recorded matches:

Me vs. RBJ (Marth)
Me vs. Neesh (Falco)
Me vs. Deegs (ICs) (#4 on our PR)
Me vs. Daijobu (Sheik/Marth)
Me vs. Dad (Fox)
Me vs. Nude (Falcon)
Me vs. 7ent (Sheik) (#0 on our PR)
Me vs. Juice (Fox)
Me vs. Zamu (Fox) (#10 on our PR)

Any and all advice / critique would be appreciated. Thanks!

- Captain Pretzel

 

[bboss]

Yo man! just saw some of your vids!

Wow.

You are one of the best kirbys i have ever seen. Looking at your matches it seems that you have a very good knowledge of kirbys combo game and you utliize tilts quite well. great use of duck under grab / projectiles and cc. you are good at ledgehop uair, which is good. Lots of fairs against recoveirng opponents. You are safe on shield and make the opponent guess. ya got great movement. you seem to know the stages that favor kirby (are there any? just kidding.) For a fairly limited character you play quite well. u good at reads.

what i think you could improve on is actually di. There were a couple of times during your matches, and i dont know if it was just nerves or what, but sometimes even for kirby you died horizontally a bit early. Try utilizing sdi a bit more, it honestly didnt look like it was being used to its max extent.
Try to roll a bit less. This is important for everyone but personally i just saw a bit too many unsafe roll ins.
I don't even know if this is in melee but try using a bit more agngled final cutter for mixups, a couple of times you had a bit of trouble getting back onstage.
Whaaat a kirby beating a fox?! I never thought id see the day...
anyways you seems like a very good player and are probably among the top 3 kirbys i have ever seen!

 

[Captain Pretzel]

Thank you for the feedback!

I know I definitely need to work on my DI. I especially need to learn / work on my combo DI, but against opponents that throw out moves quickly, I sometimes forget to DI or DI in the wrong direction entirely, which gets me killed by more Marth Fsmashes and Fox Usmashes than I care to admit. SDI is even more difficult for me; the only time I really use it is getting out of Up throw Up air. Can you point some specific instances where I could make better use of it?

I'm definitely trying to break out of my roll-out-of-panic habit. It's generally a good option, but people catch on after a while, and I tend to be bad at adjusting my approach habits mid-match. I'll definitely work on that as well.

Recovering with Kirby is incredibly difficult. The angled final cutter thing doesn't apply in Melee, unfortunately. Usually, I try to recover high and do fastfall mixups, recover low and bait them to do something silly, or hug the stage and spam aerials mixed with tech inputs. I'm still trying to lab what else I could do!

 

[bboss]

In your match vs redjellybean, he consistently fthrew-> fxmashed you at low percent. Most Marths who know what they're doing do this against low % Kirby. I would suggest finding out the percents, where you go with no di, di in, di out, etc.
As for roll-out-of panic, you can do once or twice and be okay, but after this your opponent will noticed a pattern and punish you big time. Alternate ways to get out are shuffled dair, spotdogdge, and roll out.
Yes, recovering with Kirby seems like a struggle. If Kirby had a wall jump it would help, but he doesn't (it is a he, right? I've played smash for three years and still don't know). How about jumping high over the stage, up to the blast zone, where they can't see you, and then landing with fair / dair / fc mixups?
Hope I helped. Thanks.

 

[ChivalRuse]

You should up-throw fast fallers more. D-throw is not very good except on platforms or in the corner.

 

[Captain Pretzel]

Thanks for your help, guys! I had only been playing Kirby for a few weeks at the time I played RBJ, but I'm still very bad at DIing Marth's throws in general. It's 50-50% mixup between DIing in / out and getting tippered depending on if Marth Dthrows / Bthrows.

I've been trying to experiment with downthrow into SHFFL drifted dair against spacies that tech away and shine immediately, but I'm not sure how well that works. I don't like using up-throw as much because I can't really get anything when they DI away. It does do 1% more damage though, so maybe it's worth it if Dthrow isn't working out either?

 

[bboss]

Thanks for your help, guys! I had only been playing Kirby for a few weeks at the time I played RBJ, but I'm still very bad at DIing Marth's throws in general. It's 50-50% mixup between DIing in / out and getting tippered depending on if Marth Dthrows / Bthrows.

I've been trying to experiment with downthrow into SHFFL drifted dair against spacies that tech away and shine immediately, but I'm not sure how well that works. I don't like using up-throw as much because I can't really get anything when they DI away. It does do 1% more damage though, so maybe it's worth it if Dthrow isn't working out either?

I like dthrow with kirb more. leads into more optinos.

 

[Hiiro]

Decent movement, all in all. Use wavedash more often to lose your habit of rolling into everything.
Another neat trick triangle jump. short hop triangle jump behind opponent, uptilt.

for your combo game: you used bair after uptilt way too often. Instead use upair, thats your primary kill option in mid-high percentages.

for recovery,try to understand when you will hit the edge (I know there is no sweetspot but still you probably get what I'm onto) and when you will recover on stage. Try to practice on battlefield. For example reverse turnaround up B

All in all use upB more often for example as edgeguarding tool, you can cover one level with it and still have time to edgeguard with other moves tilt for example.

also go offstage for edgeguards more often. you got five jumps, what should happen.
Also drop from the ledge backair against most char, who try to recover low.

And last but most importantly incorporate inhale in your game.
Works brilliantly against recovery of most of the cast, and you will most likely survive those supposedly SDs

any keep it up,

Hiiro