Social Disciples of Dark Samus

[Downshift]

The only Amiibo I ever bothered getting was Smash Bros Link, that was mostly for the Breath of the Wild bonuses.
However I might be tempted to get Dark Samus is they don't have any tacky looking transparent blue plastic representing phazon glow...

 

[slamallama]

The only Amiibo I ever bothered getting was Smash Bros Link, that was mostly for the Breath of the Wild bonuses.
However I might be tempted to get Dark Samus is they don't have any tacky looking transparent blue plastic representing phazon glow...

They'll probably have to since her pose has one leg floating in the air. At least it can be passed off as Phazon, instead of like with Link and Captain Falcon where it's just an off-color support strut.

 

[Downshift]

Yeah it was dumb that Link's support was yellow instead of clear. Never understood that...

 

[KiwiHusky47]

I want to take the time to say that I am looking forward to playing as Dark Samus! Samus was one of my sub mains in Brawl and it's gonna be amazing to see how Dark Samus fares comparing to Samus

 

[Smashoperatingbuddy123]

Classic mode character located without two players with samus

It’s incineroar you got to use to find dark samus

 

[ChronoBound]

The announcement of Joker further cements just how lucky Dark Samus was to make it in. Reggie pretty much strongly hinted that all five of the DLC characters are going to be third-party.

That would mean of Ultimate's 17 newcomers (the eleven on the base plus the six as DLC), that only NINE (barely half) were actual Nintendo characters:

1. Inkling
2. Ridley
3. King K. Rool
4. Isabelle
5. Incineroar
6. Daisy
7. Chrom
8. Dark Samus
9. Piranha Plant

Out of nine characters, a character whom was less requested than the fourth possible representative for Kirby, Donkey Kong, and Star Fox, managed to get chosen. Dark Samus's slot could have easily been Shadow or Jeanne (especially considering how third-party heavy the character additions for Ultimate are).

There is a reason I added this to the Dark Samus analysis when I posted my full comprehensive analysis

The reason I relayed such a comprehensive analysis for Dark Samus is to serve as a story of hope for fans of many characters that shows that given the right circumstances that even an unlikely or “irrelevant” character can be made playable in Smash Bros. Sometimes there are more factors at play than just popularity or relevancy.

On a sidenote with my comprehensive analysis, I now need to edit my analysis since I did write one of my personal hopes for DLC was Dixie Kong, and with Reggie's statements tonight I do not think that is happening anymore. I am still grateful for all the things that managed to happen with Ultimate (Ridley, everyone coming back, Castlevania, K. Rool). Dixie Kong would have merely been the cherry on top.

However, tonight's announcement shows how lucky the fans of Ultimate's Nintendo newcomers were. Ridley, K. Rool, Inkling, and Isabelle were the biggest names that they could have gone with for Nintendo newcomers. The additions of echoes pretty much were a lifeboat given to a few fanbases to have an opportunity that would not exist to them even if we had 15+ non-clone newcomers for the base roster. Daisy was in a series with tremendous competition. Chrom was in a series where nearly every representative added is the face for the most current installment and his own game is now six years old and two or three games behind. Dark Samus made her last appearance in her own series 11 years ago and comes from a series where it took 17 years to just get the biggest character after Samus added in.

If you told anyone a year ago that Dark Samus was more likely to be in Smash Bros. Switch than Bandana Dee, Dixie Kong, or Krystal, you would have been called an idiot, a delusion fanboy, or worse.

The irony is that it was probably the "consolation prizes" for Chrom and Dark Samus that even made those characters able to be added for Ultimate. Without having been part of Robin's Final Smash, Chrom would never already had a high quality model already in Ultimate for Sakurai's team to re-purpose as a last minute echo. Without Dark Samus having been an Assist Trophy in Smash 4, Sakurai and his team likely would not have been aware of the character's existence (there is barely any Prime content beyond Prime 1 in Smash Bros.), and realized what an easy echo addition she was since they would not have to do facial animations or hire any voice work.

It truly shows how much twists and turns there are in life. Staring four years ago, I thought I would never be able to play as Ridley in an official Smash Bros. game, and now within 24 hours I will finally be able to do so. The story of Ultimate is not only that "everyone is here" but also "the impossible made possible".

Ridley. Simon. K. Rool. Piranha Plant. Joker. The Echoes. All of these characters all had major things going against them. Yet they all managed to get in. The only conventional Smash Bros. newcomers we got this time were Inkling, Isabelle, and Incineroar.

Hopefully, within the next 24 hours, I will finally be able to play as Ridley. A year ago, both Ridley and Dark Samus fans thought that them ever being playable in Smash Bros. was unlikely to ever happen, yet somehow, Ridley and Dark Samus will now be fighting side by side to take on their arch-nemesis on the battlefields of Smash Bros.

What a world.

 

[Downshift]

Dark Samus was the 3rd fighter I unlocked. Just had to beat Classic Mode once with Samus.

 

[Diem]

Hello all. So, I finished that Dark Samus video I said I was going to make. The script was about 15,600 words. I spent a few dozen hours working on it between Monday and Thursday last week. There was at least 100 GB worth of B-roll footage, both my own and from elsewhere. There were 244 voice lines, give or take. I edited the Dark Samus fight scenes to look really cool. The video was over 90 minutes long. It was the largest and most ambitious video I've ever made.

It sucked.

So, I won't be uploading it. Seems like a lot of wasted time and work, but hey, it kept me pretty damn occupied last week, at a time when most people were watching the minutes crawl by in anticipation. Thursday in particular went by in the blink of an eye as I rushed to finish editing the video, which finished rendering about half an hour before Ultimate came out.

However, I do plan on attempting it again. The process made me see what was wrong with my approach. I made it heavily personal, like ChronoBound's Ridley essay, except I also added on parts explaining my experience with the Super Smash Bros series independently from Dark Samus/Metroid Prime, as well as some other stuff tangentially related. That in addition to my wordy nature made it really long and a little unfocused. It was more a personal documentary than a video focused on Dark Samus, and I sounded like the biggest nerd on the planet. By the time I realized that that kind of video wasn't working, I just decided I might as well finish the damn thing first and then look back and figure out where to go from there.

So, sometime in the near future I'll cut (heavily), revise, and go again, this time making it solely a video introducing and explaining Dark Samus to those who are unfamiliar, since many people are. Getting rid of the personal narrative and all the non-Dark Samus parts will probably cut the video down to 10 minutes or less, which is much more watchable and engaging. The subjective element will be that it will explain why I think Dark Samus is such a cool character, but I won't be presenting anything more than the Prime trilogy already does. No tangential or unrelated information to make the video any longer or more complicated than it needs to be.

Not rushing myself will also help. Part of the problem was I wanted the video to be in anticipation of Ultimate, before the game came out. Now, I'm under no such restriction, so I can take my time to make it much better.

Of course, some people don't need a video to explain that Dark Samus is a cool character. I've seen plenty of people who say they've never known much about the character or don't even care about Metroid talk about how they think Dark Samus looks awesome based on when she was revealed alone, showing how the Smash team's fantastic work into her model and animations left an impression on people.

An old friend of mine messaged me out of the blue on Friday saying "Dark Samus is the coolest character on the planet." He doesn't care about Metroid and played a bit of the Prime games only because of me over 10 years ago, but he knows that Dark Samus is one of my favorite characters, and by seeing her in action on Friday, I think he gets it now.

Still, too many people are unfamiliar with the character outside of Smash, not knowing how much cooler she is in the actual games, so I'll see what I can do about that.

If you told anyone a year ago that Dark Samus was more likely to be in Smash Bros. Switch than Bandana Dee, Dixie Kong, or Krystal, you would have been called an idiot, a delusion fanboy, or worse.

The irony is that it was probably the "consolation prizes" for Chrom and Dark Samus that even made those characters able to be added for Ultimate. Without having been part of Robin's Final Smash, Chrom would never already had a high quality model already in Ultimate for Sakurai's team to re-purpose as a last minute echo. Without Dark Samus having been an Assist Trophy in Smash 4, Sakurai and his team likely would not have been aware of the character's existence (there is barely any Prime content beyond Prime 1 in Smash Bros.), and realized what an easy echo addition she was since they would not have to do facial animations or hire any voice work.

It truly shows how much twists and turns there are in life. Staring four years ago, I thought I would never be able to play as Ridley in an official Smash Bros. game, and now within 24 hours I will finally be able to do so. The story of Ultimate is not only that "everyone is here" but also "the impossible made possible".

Ridley. Simon. K. Rool. Piranha Plant. Joker. The Echoes. All of these characters all had major things going against them. Yet they all managed to get in. The only conventional Smash Bros. newcomers we got this time were Inkling, Isabelle, and Incineroar.

Hopefully, within the next 24 hours, I will finally be able to play as Ridley. A year ago, both Ridley and Dark Samus fans thought that them ever being playable in Smash Bros. was unlikely to ever happen, yet somehow, Ridley and Dark Samus will now be fighting side by side to take on their arch-nemesis on the battlefields of Smash Bros.

What a world.

The only hope I ever had was that I was fairly sure that Sakurai recognized that Metroid needed a third character, or rather, a second, since we just have Samus twice. So even if we didn't get Ridley, Dark Samus was a pretty viable candidate. But after Ridley, I didn't think it'd ever happen, since Metroid getting that much love was so unprecedented. If someone said to me that both Ridley and Dark Samus would be in Smash, I'd ask you who bribed Sakurai, so I can thank him/her.

The Assist Trophy definitely helped. Prime 2 and 3 weren't as popular as the first game, and Metroid in general still isn't popular in Japan. Both those games came out later in Japan as well, with Prime 3 coming out after Brawl in Japan, which I think is what had to do with Dark Samus being an Assist Trophy instead of a fighter. She was a very viable candidate--having a unique moveset and aesthetic that would add variety to the game, but not popular enough to be a full fighter. Until Echo Fighters allowed for less popular characters to have a chance. But how Dark Samus was one of the five over Shadow is beyond my comprehension.

I've been enjoying the hell out of Dark Samus and Ridley since Friday. After playing R.O.B. and Dedede for 10 and 3-4 years, respectively, it's so nice to have some fresh characters that I'm personally excited about. Even if Dark Samus is just tweaked Samus, the changes to Samus in this game are enjoyable, and her animations and overall design alone make it feel fresh to me. Ridley gets to be the character with a completely new moveset that, thankfully, is straightforward, rather than gimmicky and technical. I haven't had a character like that before.

I also love Richter, since I've beaten Symphony of the Night about 10 times. His gameplay and moveset are refreshing and not too technical. The only weird thing is that his up-smash is super thin, so it's very circumstantial, and I've had a hard time remembering that. Otherwise, he's a character I didn't know I wanted, but am glad to have. Compared to Smash 4, where I only ever cared about Mega Man a little bit, I'm spoiled.

I'm definitely never going to stop playing this game, and I haven't even touched online yet (although from what I hear, seems like that's for the best, since there's some pretty big kinks that need working out). World of Light was a lot of fun, and the fact that it has New Game+ just increases its replay value. If this game had more of the classic features, like Home Run Contest, Break the Targets, and a Stage Editor, I'd say it's definitively my new favorite Smash game.

 

[Syntherios]

So is anyone else largely unimpressed by Dark Samus and Ridley in Ultimate? I've put some time into both characters and neither seem as good as I expected. Needless to say it's too early to form any conclusions, but for first impressions... not great.

 

[Diem]

So is anyone else largely unimpressed by Dark Samus and Ridley in Ultimate? I've put some time into both characters and neither seem as good as I expected. Needless to say it's too early to form any conclusions, but for first impressions... not great.

Depends on what you mean by good. If you mean whether or not they're powerful enough to stack up to the rest of the cast, they definitely can.

Ridley is the only character I've managed to get 9.9 in Classic Mode with, even though I've gotten 9.8's with other characters.

And when I got to the end of World of Light,

Spoiler: World of Light spoilers

I tanked the entire boss rush with just Dark Samus, though I got KO'd partway through the final boss after that.

Between the two of them, I'm able to have most of my bases covered against Spirits as well. If a job is better for a ranged character that needs to zone, then Dark Samus will do the job. If more aggression and power is required, Ridley will handle it. Only on a few occasions have I needed to use another character.

What kind of specific issues are you having?

 

[Shog]

Ridley feels good, just needs an improvement for B-Air, his normal throws and above all, his Up-B

I think Samus is ok, I don't know what's missing for her though ...

 

[Syntherios]

Depends on what you mean by good. If you mean whether or not they're powerful enough to stack up to the rest of the cast, they definitely can.

Ridley is the only character I've managed to get 9.9 in Classic Mode with, even though I've gotten 9.8's with other characters.

And when I got to the end of World of Light,

Spoiler: World of Light spoilers

I tanked the entire boss rush with just Dark Samus, though I got KO'd partway through the final boss after that.

Between the two of them, I'm able to have most of my bases covered against Spirits as well. If a job is better for a ranged character that needs to zone, then Dark Samus will do the job. If more aggression and power is required, Ridley will handle it. Only on a few occasions have I needed to use another character.

What kind of specific issues are you having?

The Samuses just feel so slow. Combo follow ups are almost never possible, and the slow startup on the missiles makes them more of a nuisance for the opponent than a good "getting in there" option for neutral. I don't know, I just don't remember Samus feeling so sluggish in Smash 4.

And Ridley isn't bad by any means, but there are some things about his kit that definitely need improvement. Recovering is a nightmare due to his up-B's limited trajectory choices (up, down, left, and right? Seriously?), his down-smash takes far too long to have any effect after letting go of the button, his f-smash has piss-poor range, up-smash has a deceptively narrow hitbox, and his down-B is reserved for only the hardest of reads and not something a player should rely on very often at all. Of all the newcomers I've put the most time into Ridley, but for some reason I seem to get more work done with K. Rool or Incineroar and I've used them far less.

Or maybe I just suck with Ridley, who knows.

 

[Diem]

The Samuses just feel so slow. Combo follow ups are almost never possible, and the slow startup on the missiles makes them more of a nuisance for the opponent than a good "getting in there" option for neutral. I don't know, I just don't remember Samus feeling so sluggish in Smash 4.

And Ridley isn't bad by any means, but there are some things about his kit that definitely need improvement. Recovering is a nightmare due to his up-B's limited trajectory choices (up, down, left, and right? Seriously?), his down-smash takes far too long to have any effect after letting go of the button, his f-smash has piss-poor range, up-smash has a deceptively narrow hitbox, and his down-B is reserved for only the hardest of reads and not something a player should rely on very often at all. Of all the newcomers I've put the most time into Ridley, but for some reason I seem to get more work done with K. Rool or Incineroar and I've used them far less.

Or maybe I just suck with Ridley, who knows.

Samus seems to be less of a combo character and more of a projectile/zoner character, especially with the way knockback works in this game. Crystanium found some D-throw combos over here, though they require a little finesse since they need to be done quickly. In the "Dark and Not Dark Samus" Discord, people are working on combos as well, trying to learn what works and doesn't.

From what I've picked up, Charge Shot is the key tool in the moveset now, as it's more powerful than it's ever been and can be charged at more times. Playing Samus/Dark Samus well will depend on learning when to charge and when to fire, which isn't entirely intuitive. I'm sure as everyone collectively starts figuring out strategies and forming a cohesive playstyle, things will improve. Right now, since the game is fresh, no one is entirely sure what the best strategies or playstyles are. Once people find out how to start really using the Charge Shot, though, I think things will turn around.

Ridley's Up-B is terrible, and almost everyone knows. I can see what they were going for, trying to make it less of a recovery move and more of a neutral move, showing how he can just plow into people, but they should've made it control like Fox's, not the weird four angles we have now. It might just be something that takes getting used to since it's so unintuitive, but we'll have to see. I'd like to see them make changes to it in an update at some point.

His F-smash is amazing for how fast and powerful it is, but it does lack range to balance that out. I honestly consider it one of the best in the cast with how many times I've gotten KO's with it. His U-smash is fast and powerful, too, but it doesn't hit right next to him, even though it kind of looks like it should. D-Smash is the move that's not very good, having a really long startup.

The Down-B has been stated by both Sakurai and elsewhere to be more of a move that works better in 3+ player games, so for 1v1 its uses are limited. It's not that much unlike Falcon Punch or other high-risk, high reward moves that are often not optimal for high-level play. And in terms of those moves, it's one of the most damaging, so it makes sense that it's difficult to pull off. I landed it on my brother once, and he got super salty when he realized that his percentage was through the roof.

EDIT: Here's an example of the kind of things people are working on for Samus/Dark Samus:

Small combostring concept (no true combo).#SSBU_SAM #SSBU_SAMUS #SSBU_DSM #SSBU_DSAMUS pic.twitter.com/5KQF1ccf1i

— KayJay (@KayJay_EU) December 6, 2018

 

[The Goldenbrawler]

Back into a main crisis it seems. Luckily, Dark Samus is seeming much better than people have given her credit for, which makes me hopeful in using her competitively. Gotta learn to play a little more defensively though, rather than going all in. Still not sure if I'm 100% sold on maining her for certain, but she definitely seems like a choice I'd be confident with, like has been.

 

[Ffamran]

I'm going to guess you all know about this. This looks like, and as pointed out by Anragon, useful for landing deceptively. I'm not sure, but it also looked like this could let you feint a fully charged Charge Shot.

More visual example (both samus can do it) #SSBU_SAMUS #SSBU_DSAMUS pic.twitter.com/jx8GqYqDm6

— Anragon (@Anto_anragon) December 12, 2018

For those wondering, Anragon is a French Smash player who has been liking Dark Samus (and Falco) in Ultimate.

 

[strike42]

So how does zair work now, sometimes I get one hit that does like 2% and other times I get it to hit twice and do slightly more damage.

Feels really weird when compared to smash4 zair.

 

[Ridley_Prime]

Not sure if this detail was pointed out before (don't think it was), but wow, seeing Metroid Prime's eyes behind the visor is a perfect touch.

There was a problem fetching the tweet

 

[Reila]

Not sure if this detail was pointed out before (don't think it was), but wow, seeing Metroid Prime's eyes behind the visor is a perfect touch.

There was a problem fetching the tweet

That is awesome.

 

[meleebrawler]

Not sure if this detail was pointed out before (don't think it was), but wow, seeing Metroid Prime's eyes behind the visor is a perfect touch.

There was a problem fetching the tweet

It's a bit creepy how closely this ressembles the SA-X's face... and also a bit weird how it makes her look a bit more human than normal armored Samus, if only for an instant.

 

[Diem]

They're not Metroid Prime's eyes, but they're her eyes, which resemble Metroid Prime. Eh, doesn't matter either way. It's still awesome.

Odd how that detail is there, but in the clash screen before a match starts, the highlight where the fighters' eyes are only has one highlight in the middle of Dark Samus's visor for some reason, instead of two (or three) for her.

 

[Reila]

She is the Metroid Prime, so the Metroid Prime's eyes are her eyes lol

 

[Syntherios]

Samus seems to be less of a combo character and more of a projectile/zoner character, especially with the way knockback works in this game. Crystanium found some D-throw combos over here, though they require a little finesse since they need to be done quickly. In the "Dark and Not Dark Samus" Discord, people are working on combos as well, trying to learn what works and doesn't.

From what I've picked up, Charge Shot is the key tool in the moveset now, as it's more powerful than it's ever been and can be charged at more times. Playing Samus/Dark Samus well will depend on learning when to charge and when to fire, which isn't entirely intuitive. I'm sure as everyone collectively starts figuring out strategies and forming a cohesive playstyle, things will improve. Right now, since the game is fresh, no one is entirely sure what the best strategies or playstyles are. Once people find out how to start really using the Charge Shot, though, I think things will turn around.

Ridley's Up-B is terrible, and almost everyone knows. I can see what they were going for, trying to make it less of a recovery move and more of a neutral move, showing how he can just plow into people, but they should've made it control like Fox's, not the weird four angles we have now. It might just be something that takes getting used to since it's so unintuitive, but we'll have to see. I'd like to see them make changes to it in an update at some point.

His F-smash is amazing for how fast and powerful it is, but it does lack range to balance that out. I honestly consider it one of the best in the cast with how many times I've gotten KO's with it. His U-smash is fast and powerful, too, but it doesn't hit right next to him, even though it kind of looks like it should. D-Smash is the move that's not very good, having a really long startup.

The Down-B has been stated by both Sakurai and elsewhere to be more of a move that works better in 3+ player games, so for 1v1 its uses are limited. It's not that much unlike Falcon Punch or other high-risk, high reward moves that are often not optimal for high-level play. And in terms of those moves, it's one of the most damaging, so it makes sense that it's difficult to pull off. I landed it on my brother once, and he got super salty when he realized that his percentage was through the roof.

EDIT: Here's an example of the kind of things people are working on for Samus/Dark Samus:

Small combostring concept (no true combo).#SSBU_SAM #SSBU_SAMUS #SSBU_DSM #SSBU_DSAMUS pic.twitter.com/5KQF1ccf1i

— KayJay (@KayJay_EU) December 6, 2018

I've put more time into Dark Samus and I think I'm starting to hit my stride with her. I've started utilizing the charge shot more in neutral and stopped reserving it only as a kill move. Between missiles and charge shots, I can reliably find an opening and capitalize on it. As for Ridley, I've pretty much given up on him. I mean, he's fun to use, but I don't see myself ever choosing him for a serious battle.

In other news, it looks like Ganon will be my new main. He's a ****ing monster and I love it.

 

[Diem]

So, here's an official image from within the game.

 

[Garo]

It definitely took some time, but I think I've finally found my sea legs (space legs?) with Dark Samus, and by extension Samus in Ultimate. Big part of it was getting out of the habit of using dash attack in neutral. Now I save it exclusively for reads or punishing landings. Charging in the air and canceling the charge by jumping feels huge. I'm sure this will lose effectiveness once people get used to it, but it feels great to just jump out of charge and f-air people in the face when they try to jump in expecting a charge shot.

I'm not sure of the exact percentages, but I've gotten kills with both back throw and up throw under 200%. It's nice that at least some characters now have a reason to fear our grab at high percentages.

 

[Ryu Myuutsu]

Ridley's Up-B is terrible, and almost everyone knows. I can see what they were going for, trying to make it less of a recovery move and more of a neutral move, showing how he can just plow into people, but they should've made it control like Fox's, not the weird four angles we have now. It might just be something that takes getting used to since it's so unintuitive, but we'll have to see. I'd like to see them make changes to it in an update at some point.

Hopefully, people will make enough noise about this to catch the devs' attention and fix it. This seems more like an oversight to me rather than a design choice. Who knows anyways.

 

[meleebrawler]

Hopefully, people will make enough noise about this to catch the devs' attention and fix it. This seems more like an oversight to me rather than a design choice. Who knows anyways.

Seems pretty deliberate if you look at the way Ridley is animated for each of his directions. It's not like any of the spacie's up bs where all that changes is the direction they face in, but Ridley has a distinct pose, such as a foot dive for the downward one.

 

[osby]

Seems pretty deliberate if you look at the way Ridley is animated for each of his directions. It's not like any of the spacie's up bs where all that changes is the direction they face in, but Ridley has a distinct pose, such as a foot dive for the downward one.

I guess it was a balancing move. He's already pretty good in the air for a heavyweight, so it's a trade for weak recovery?

 

[Ridley_Prime]

Could be worse. At least he’s not Incineroar far as that. Now I like the attack path trajectory of his up B, but it makes for legitimately terrible recovery all around (far as I can tell at the moment), while Ridley at least has a little other options to compensate for his.

 

[Ryu Myuutsu]

Seems pretty deliberate if you look at the way Ridley is animated for each of his directions. It's not like any of the spacie's up bs where all that changes is the direction they face in, but Ridley has a distinct pose, such as a foot dive for the downward one.

Then I hope they reconsider their decisions.

 

[meleebrawler]

Could be worse. At least he’s not Incineroar far as that. Now I like the attack path trajectory of his up B, but it makes for legitimately terrible recovery all around (far as I can tell at the moment), while Ridley at least has a little other options to compensate for his.

Between a non-helpless side b, decent airspeed, two jumps and not falling too fast... he has plenty of options to get back as long as he isn't semi-spiked at ground level. Side b and a forward or backward aimed Wing Blitz should be all that's needed to reach the edge, you only need to worry about active edgeguards but Ridley can fight them off with his aerials or dodge past them, he shouldn't die for airdodges if he preserves his jumps (this cannot be said enough: do not use Ridley's jumps to recover unless you really need the vertical boost or to dodge attacks) and his up b is difficult to contest once started. The only thing left to worry about is counters which can hurt a lot, but that is why you preserve your jumps as much as possible to keep them guessing.

 

[Izanagi97]

Between a non-helpless side b, decent airspeed, two jumps and not falling too fast... he has plenty of options to get back as long as he isn't semi-spiked at ground level. Side b and a forward or backward aimed Wing Blitz should be all that's needed to reach the edge, you only need to worry about active edgeguards but Ridley can fight them off with his aerials or dodge past them, he shouldn't die for airdodges if he preserves his jumps (this cannot be said enough: do not use Ridley's jumps to recover unless you really need the vertical boost or to dodge attacks) and his up b is difficult to contest once started. The only thing left to worry about is counters which can hurt a lot, but that is why you preserve your jumps as much as possible to keep them guessing.

I mean I sure as hell wouldn't want to be hit by them what with Side B being able to stage spike and Up B hitting like a truck and having high priority on the wing tips

 

[Reila]

I really need to adapt my mindset when playing Dark Samus. Everything I play (pretty much only Inkling and Poké Trainer in this game), I play with a rushdown, very aggressive playstyle, but with Dark Samus it just doesn't seem to work. I really want to play her thought because she is the coolest boss in the whole Metroid series to me. She oozes "badass".

 

[Platysaur]

Reila

She's definitely a zoner, but she's still deadly up close if you know what you're doing. Her dash attack is really good, and her grab game opens for some great combos.

 

[slamallama]

Just gonna throw out there how happy it makes me that most people who aren't familiar with Dark Samus do seem to recognize that she isn't just an edgy version of Samus. I have of course seen some "Zero Suit Dark Samus" stuff floating around, but to counter all that nonsense have been great jokes on what she actually looks like under her suit (the fact that it's actually her skin being the common punchline). I recently saw one of those tier list memes, this one weirdly sorting them by number and type of eyeballs- and sure enough, Dark Samus was down in the "3" category with just Bayonetta for company. And there have been countless comics and tweets illustrating the differences between her and Dark Pit, mostly consisting of Dark Pit being edgy and Dark Samus simply spitting out guttural shrieking noises in response.
It's nice that despite having no significant differences from Samus as far as Smash fighting goes, her aesthetics are so well done that outsiders realize how different Dark Samus is as a character. Possibly even enough to spark interest in playing the games- like me when I started playing as that cool-looking "Samus" person I'd only vaguely heard of before, back in the Brawl days.

 

[Diem]

Just gonna throw out there how happy it makes me that most people who aren't familiar with Dark Samus do seem to recognize that she isn't just an edgy version of Samus. I have of course seen some "Zero Suit Dark Samus" stuff floating around, but to counter all that nonsense have been great jokes on what she actually looks like under her suit (the fact that it's actually her skin being the common punchline). I recently saw one of those roster organizer memes, this one weirdly sorting them by number and type of eyeballs- and sure enough, Dark Samus was down in the "3" category with just Bayonetta for company. And there have been countless comics and tweets illustrating the differences between her and Dark Pit, mostly consisting of Dark Pit being edgy and Dark Samus simply spitting out guttural shrieking noises in response.
It's nice that despite having no significant differences from Samus as far as Smash fighting goes, her aesthetics are so well done that outsiders realize how different Dark Samus is as a character. Possibly even enough to spark interest in playing the games- like me when I started playing as that cool-looking "Samus" person I'd only vaguely heard of before, back in the Brawl days.

I've felt the same exact way, and it's so relieving and satisfying.

I was really worried that Dark Pit would've poisoned the well on "dark" characters, since he's just alt-colored Pit with an attitude. Most of the people who played Smash 4 think he's a ridiculous inclusion and joke about him all the time. I was worried people would just think "Oh, Dark Samus, of course, another stupid Nintendo dark character," or worse, complain about her inclusion over another more "unique" character.

Instead, I've seen people who have never even played Metroid Prime say they liked the character based on her appearance and aesthetics alone, and some people have even said they'd try her out. She hasn't exploded in popularity, which I'd prefer, but she did turn some heads and hasn't been received negatively, so it's about as great as I'd hope.

Then, when the Grinch hoax happened, I was worried that when it inevitably was revealed to be fake, people would naturally turn inwards and complain about which characters took their favorite's potential spot, and Dark Samus would be on the top of the list, since Metroid is relatively unpopular and already got a newcomer with Ridley. But then Piranha Plant showed up as a lightning rod of hate and took all the attention, so no one's complained about Dark Samus.

Similarly, I was concerned about the direction fanart would go, worried that "Zero Suit Dark Samus" would become a thing, but instead more artists have chosen to appreciate Dark Samus's uniqueness instead of going for the obvious lowest-common-denominator art that plagues Samus's image. Granted, many artists have the misconception that Dark Samus is just Metroid Prime stuffed into the Phazon Suit, forgetting that she, well, has a skeleton, so that wouldn't make sense, but I'll take it over the alternative.

Out of all the possible outcomes of Dark Samus being added to Smash, things have turned out very well.

 

[Aetheri]

I've actually encountered several Dark Samus players online. So I'd say she's popular enough despite her echo status and essentially being second fiddle to Ridley as far as character support goes.

That said, even though Link still remains my best character, Dark Samus so far has actually been a fairly consistent character for me and is so far my second most played. I knew I'd play her frequently enough but so far she's proven to be quite a decent character despite how low she's been rated during the release of Ultimate.

Utilt seems to be a pretty good combo starter, especially on stages with platforms where there's more cover. Her missiles do a decent enough job of covering her and possibly setting herself up for shield breaks with her charge shot. And the ability to charge shot in mid-air gives her a lot more to work with since now she can mix up charging and aerial attacks to get herself set-up even when the opponents are pressuring her.

 

[Reila]

Like I said she is just really cool, it is hard to not want to play her.

 

[Cheryl~]

As someone who usually never touched Samus unless the Random button set me to her, I never expected to like playing as Dark Samus this much. Her (It's?) kit just feels really nice to me, and being able to charge the Charge Shot in mid-air alleviates one of the main problems I had playing as Samus in previous Smash games. Now I can play more flexibly alternating between the Charge Shot, missiles, and the rest of her moves. And let's not forget just how cool Dark Samus is. Her animations, her colors, even her Charge Shot just reeks of badassery. Her victory pose where you can see the eyes behind the suit is easily one of the best in the game, and it just makes me want to play as Dark Samus more and more. Right now she's just a secondary but I honestly could see Dark Samus becoming one of my mains with how much I've been enjoying her. And to think that in the last game she was just some Assist Trophy to me...

 

[Ffamran]

Neat movement and I'm guessing from a (Dark) Samus player who you already know about.

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[I Chizl I]

I like Dark Samus a lot in this game. It feels like she's finally getting back to her Melee days. I play her as an offensive powerhouse and it works well.

How many Dark Samus / Samus mains are in Elite here? I haven't fought a single one yet but that seems strange to me. I think a lot of people are underestimating the character.