First hand play experience with Meta

[xS A M U R A Ix]

So I got some time to play meta in some team games with the NC crew this weekend so I'll give you guys my two cents.

First off, and most importantly, HE DOES NOT LACK KILLING POWER AT ALL.

let me repeat.

HE DOES NOT LACK KILLING POWER AT ALL.

Up B, Down Smash, dair and Glide attack are all amazing. Forward Smash, although slow with start up, also is vicious. The great thing about it is, the start up is kind of hidden so people don't see it coming. It's just this blinding slash out of no where.

His air game is amazing. It has so much priority, you rarely lose to anyone or even trade with them. Also because of DI and the range of his air moves, if you space things properly, you don't get shield grabbed. You can also short hop over them and dair and they can't do much.

His grab range is great. Really really great. While running it comes out fast as hell and slides really far, so it's very easy to punish stuff with throws. None of the throws have much KO potential, but down and up throw look cool and you can combo off of down throw if you're quick it seems like.

His jumping is amazing too, because of how many he has and how low he jumps with each if you short hop, he can do some crazy **** in the air.

Foward B and Tornado are actually ok. Forward B has great priority and will catch people off guard, and works well in team battles, and the tornado is pretty safe to do. They're both useful to get back onto the stage or dive head first into a cluster of people.

Up B takes some getting used to. You can cancel it immediately with B or hit down to cancel, but at first you'll kill yourself a lot with it. It comes out so ridiculously fast though and has a great hitbox. Killing people is as simple as a couple of fairs or uairs and then chasing them all the way off with up B. It seems to hit in different directions depending on what part of the move you hit with. If you hit it while he's flying backwards and upside down, it sends them straight back. Overall an amazing move. Also the fact you can glide and follow up with glide attack makes it really safe to use assuming you're facing the stage.

Down smash is like.....instant and really really stong, AND covers both sides. There's not much else you could ask for in a move.

Neutral A is also great. It feels pretty safe, hits behind him, and you can cancel it into whatever you want really, my choice being down smash.

Running A also goes through people so you can't get punished for doing it. It also sets up for air combos, so it's a good move.

Oh also, Metaknight doesn't have a spike, but it seems that footstool jumping has some decent uses. I saw some kills with it, and considering meta's maneuverability in the air, I imagine it's easy to set up foot stool spikes with him. That'll require some testing though.

Overall, he's just an amazing character. You all will love him when you finally get to play.

 

[Dry Bones]

im glad you like him, and hope he is as amazing as you say he is =)

you know, from watching some matches, i never really thought that Meta Knight had an issue in regards to killing moves. what i think is a much greater problem is how easily he gets killed (in terms of weight that is)

anyway, thanks buddy =) any impressions on his down B?

 

[xS A M U R A Ix]

anyway, thanks buddy =) any impressions on his down B?

Yeah actually, if you don't cancel it into a move, it's pretty nice. It recovers fast and covers decent distance, so it's good for getting out of tricky situations. You can also go through platforms with it and it can sweet spot, so you can use it to recover as well. I'm sure the follow ups have a use but I didn't have time to test them to really see. They look cool though.

As for the dying thing, he does die a little faster than the other characters, not by a lot, but I think it's justified. He's hard to hit and with all those jumps you can just hover around people and pick your fights, so you really don't get hit much unless you play dumb. I think he kinda needs to have light weight to make him fair, lol.

 

[Dry Bones]

ah well, fair point... guess he's gotta be light, he's an evil kirby after all. =) glad to hear there are ways to work around this shortcoming, too. thanks a lot for the info man

 

[Oakwood]

he's an evil kirby after all. =)

-_- No.

 

[Dry Bones]

nice post champ

 

[TheHitmanGuava]

Good post, this seems very helpful.

Question though, do you agree with T1mmy's advice on how to play Metaknight? I mean things like Fair being the main offensive attack, f-tilt and d-tilt being good cautious attacks, and attacking out of the shield with mach tornado or shuttle glide?

 

[xS A M U R A Ix]

Yes those were all affective strategies. I was mostly doing wall of pain with fair and bair (which are like the same move pretty much). It has nice priority and stays out for a while, good range, and knocks them up for jet loop, so it's pretty nice. nair also has good priority and knock back, has a hitbox all around him so in teams when I was surrounded by people, I did that and it got them off of me quick.

I didn't do much out of shielding really other than shield grab, so I didn't test his specials out of it. I'm sure up B is nice out of it though. It's like marth's up B with a bigger hitbox pretty much.

As for on the ground stuff, I used down tilt since it's so fast and down smash as my clearing move. I heard up tilt was good but I ended up using up smash for when people were above me since it seemed to beat out a lot of stuff. I honestly didn't spend much time on the ground though. It's very easy to stay air born for a long long time with him, and he's good in the air, so that's where i tried to be.

Oh also, the more platforms the better. He seems to dominate platform stages. I was on the metroid level with the fire waves and it was 2v1 and I kept going under the stage and jet looping the platform they were on. They couldn't do much about it really.

 

[TheHitmanGuava]

Interesting, thanks!