"Easy" to pick up character?

[Nidtendofreak]

I'll quickly do the break down of what's going on.

My college occasionally runs game tournaments in support of the local hospital. Last time it was SSB4. I entered, I won, good times all around. This time around, its SSBM. I'm going to enter again, I figured its only fair to let the people I beat last time get their revenge against me. I haven't played Melee since pre-Brawl, I'm going to lose the moment I run into somebody who knows what they're doing.

Because it has been such a long time since I played Melee and because of all of the time I put into Brawl/SSB4, what little tech skill I had with any particular character in Melee is long since gone. The tournament is on the 24th. I'm not looking to win, I overheard several people at the SSB4 tournament and they seemed like they actually knew what they were doing when it came to Melee. What I am looking to do is not embarrass myself. Right now, I'm essentially a clean slate in terms of Melee. However, the tournament is on the 24th and I have a good 5+ tests/midterms between now and then. Not a whole lot of time to dig into multiple characters and figure out who I want to use.

So what I'm wanting to know is: who is the easiest character to get decent at? Not amazing with, not great, not necessarily even good with: just decent. Who is "easy" to pick up the basics of, and still do okay with? I believe I can pick back up wavedashing and L-canceling, but I was never particularly proficient at them in the first place given that I only discovered them a few months before Brawl came out.

 

[dan smith]

when i think of characters who are relatively easy to pick up and be successful the first that come to mind are sheik, jigglypuff, and mario. marth maybe. i'd say sheik is probably the best bet. the playstyle is pretty self explanatory. watch a few videos of high caliber players and try your best to emulate their tactics and movesets.

 

[KevJames]

Marth and Sheik seem to be characters that require the least amount of tech skill for the decent results that they can get for doing so. Easy input -> Good Output

 

[EPsilon933]

Peach has the highest skill floor once you learn how to float and wavedash. All you need I is cc dsmash, float (fair, nair, Bair, dair), grab (f throw kills at 150%), dash attack (antiair), and turnips. She's the queen of the neutral game. She doesn't need combos

 

[JustYuck]

If you're not playing pros Marty fsmash is what it's all about. Back in the old days wavedash to fsmash WAS Marths meta game and always is a viable option, especially when playing less adept players.

 

[AirFair]

Marth and Sheik are good characters to start with imo.

 

[m0ll0y]

Yeah i would agree marth , just watch a few recent videos of PPMD at apex , and you will get the idea

 

[JediLink]

Pick Peach and just spam downsmashes. Even if you're not good you'll get some stocks with it.

 

[Valar Morghulis]

Jigglypuff is easy to pick up. Just remember to spam back airs and learn how to use his multiple jumps to stay airborn. He's an annoying character to play against if you don't know how to play against him.

 

[AUS]

Definitely Marth, wavedash back Fsmash is in some points all you need especially if your fighting in non-competitive sets. I dont play that much of him but when I have hes been fairly simple, due to his range on each attack being so incredible you should be able to space your way to victory. Jiggly is another option but at a high level Jiggly needs a lot of skill, just spamming Bair wont cut it.

 

[TehGuitarLord]

Jiggs or Marth. If u don't mind camping and if u can rest, jiggs is ur bestbest bet. Recently tho, my Marth got randomly good. I've been a Mario main for 2 years and no other character has questioned my skill with him, until I picked up Marth 2 weeks ago. If you watch top players like M2k, ppmd, pewpewu, the moon, etc, then you know what combos to do. All you need to do then is learn how to execute them, and if your fundamentals are good (which is l Iikely because smash 4 is very fundamental based) then you should have success.

 

[xXJu$t_Em0xX]

id say marth or roy, preferably marth because he is easier to get spikes. first off go into training mode and practice some combos like Utilt into Uair into Fair into Nair, then once you get that down, you can use marth's range to your advantage for areal combos

 

[Fortress]

Sheik, Marth, Ganondorf, and Doctor Mario are all fairly simple to pick up and play. With solid fundamentals, you'll be able to perform pretty well with any of them, not needing to learn all of the advanced tech in the game at the same time. Marth will teach you how to space opponents and move around really well, Sheik will teach you how to read opponents off of throws and how to edgeguard off-stage, Ganondorf is a nice mix of all of those things, and Doc is just a straightforward all-rounder.

 

[Nidtendofreak]

After a near heart attack with my memory card not wanting to read the old save file, I got Melee to work and began mucking around, just trying to get L-Canceling and Wavedashing back down. L-Canceling I've gotten to about 75% success rate. Wavedashing... I think oddly enough I'm pressing the inputs too quickly. Only thing I can think of that would explain the jump never happening and instead getting a shield or a roll half of the time. Even when I do get an actual wavedash, it ends up being a Light Shield during the slide.

I happened to be using Marth, and for kicks found out that his dash dance (foxtrot?) is pretty easy to do. Not going to worry about the character until I get the more universal fundamentals down, but seems to be that Marth, Sheik, Peach, and Jigglypuff are the common choices?

 

[milligraham]

I would say either Sheik or Marth. I think they can both be picked up quickly and start seeing success.