Budget Player Cadet_
Smash Hero
Some people argue that Ganondorf is the best character in the game in Brawl-. This alone should make people wonder what the hell we did to the poor ****er that was vBrawl ganon. Well, I'll tell you what we did. We pumped a mixture of 100% pure **** (49 parts anabolic steroids, 5 parts Captain Falcon sweat, 11 parts Link blood, 30 parts "eau du Charles Manson", and 5 parts catholic priest) into him 24/7 since his loss in twilight princess-the ganon in vBrawl is a shoddy replica (the ones in Brawl+, BBrawl, and P:M are comparable to android copies-better than terrible, but not the **** we needed).
So now, fully charged up with PURE EVIL and ****, ganon is ready to hit Brawl- with similar force to what hurricane ike did to the southern coast. Let's look at some things...
Why should I main ganon?
Ganon is a stupid punisher. STUPID. Make a mistake around him? Boom, stock gone. GONE. Nobody can hit as hard or punish as brutally as he can. Ike and Bowser come close, but no-they don't have things like his Fsmash or Gerudo. Ike can't indefinitely tech chase you and **** you if you make one mistake.
Pros of maining ganon:
-WARLOCK PUNCH DOES 666 DAMAGE OH MY ****ING GOD
-Ganon's tech chase game is the best in any smash game. Seriously, better than Snake, better than melee CF, it is THE BEST.
-Ganon is the most incredible punisher in the game. Roll wrong? Fsmash->Usmash->UpB, you are DEAD.
-Ganon has a very solid and versatile recovery (no really! It's not like MK good, but it's still great)
-He's ****ing manly. Seriously, look at this ****.
-He completely and utterly destroys bowser. This is actually really important in Brawl-. For him, it's almost as if Bowser was hardly buffed at all-virtually every move ganon has goes through his armor, his most important moves are grabs and throws (dthrow>bowser), and all of his aerial finishers beat Bowser's stupid 15% hitstun/tumble armor. It's a really terrible hard counter.
-Super heavyweight, relatively floaty. In other words, he doesn't get combo'd as bad as many of his heavyweight friends, and he refuses to die early. Combine this with the good recovery and you have a character you do NOT want to **** with.
Cons:
-Slow. Really, really slow
-Has trouble with projectile spammers. Well, the ones that do a lot of damage per projectile (Samus, Link mostly)
-Can be walled out pretty well
-No projectile
So let's look a little closer at this guy.
Warlock Punch.
Let's get this out of the way.
ZOMFG MAAAAANLYYYYYYYYYYY
666 damage. Useless, but dear god incredible. If your opponent blocks it, spotdodge or roll as soon as you leave hitlag and they have a broken shield. Punch them again. If they powershielded, the shieldstun is so extreme that you can do it again. :3
Ganon and Approaching
Ganon has two major options, if he has to approach-walk up and whack the ****er, and gerudo.
The former has serious issues. First of all, have you SEEN ganon walk? It takes about 5 seconds for him to get across FD at walk speed! That said, this leaves a lot of options open... However, the better solution is to abuse the **** out of ganon's options out of run. Let's see what those are:
-Hyphen Smash. I hear some of you... "Seriously? HYPHEN SMASH? That thing is tiny and slow!" Not in Brawl-. It's small, but it's very fast. Get an opponent who was expecting the next option on the list with this one, and boom-you've started a brutal aerial juggle combo with ganon. More on that later.
-Dash Cancel Jab/Ftilt/Dtilt. All moderately slow, but at least some kind of option. Also, jab is more or less safe on shield (actually, jab is so safe on shield that you can jab->jab your opponent's shield and they can't do **** about it).
-Dashgrab. Is this a bad idea? **** yes. But if you can get away with it, it will end in a guaranteed 40+ damage string and often a kill.
-Dash Cancel Gerudo. Gerudo is great. Really great.
The second option, Gerudo, gets really predictable after a while. Gerudo also has faults, but it's a great option to punish. First of all, maybe we should mention what changed...
Gerudo
Gerudo is, without a doubt, one of the best moves in ganon's moveset. It's soooo good. And we made it better. Not to say it's perfect... it's just good. So what changed?
Well, grounded gerudo goes exactly half the length of FD. Oh, and it has heavy armor.
Let's let that sink in. Hmm... a grab with Heavy Armor (if a move does less than 10 damage, it won't interrupt gerudo) with moderate startup that goes half the length of FD in a very short time and leads into a tech chase... Yeah, it's a winner. The fact that it can be teched is mitigated slightly by the fact that your opponent is at a massive disadvantage if they do. If your opponent techs, you have a massive frame advantage-gerudo them again, or if they tech in place, grab them. It's easier than ever. If they don't tech, well, back off and remember fondly that most get up attacks do less than 10 damage. Alternatively, dtilt the ****er and start a massive combo.
As far as aerial gerudo goes, it goes just under half the length of FD, does not go into specialfall, and has very low lag on either end. Due to the momentum codes, you can ganoncide from ages away (basically, he drags you offstage like the pimp he is).
Yeah. It's ****ing pimp. Abuse the **** out of this on Norfair (especially because on norfair, you can spike them through the lava and live :3), and other stages with very nice platform setups. But wait! There's more!
SideB is not only a pimp recovery move and a great, surprisingly safe guaranteed ganoncide option, no... It also does nasty things to the opponent if you connect it above solid ground.
The murder choke dive has gained an impaling hitbox. You pound your opponent into the ground. They can tech it, and they had better. Because if they miss the tech, they get pounded into the ground, with ganon right above them. Free usmash, dair, or at higher %s fsmash. Usmash is however almost always the best options. If they are at a high enough % to be fsmashed without breaking free, they are almost certainly at a high enough % to die from an usmash. Dair will not lead into anything, but Usmash will lead to uair, fair, or even DARK SHORYUKEN (upB). So abuse his stupidly fast usmash out of gerudo. If they do tech... well, you should know what to do by now. MORE GERUDO!
Killing as Ganondorf
....
Do we really need this?
Get the **** out of here. Ganon has like 3 moves that don't kill.
As far as leading into the kill, you will ALWAYS be able to combo into a kill move out of a grab or a missed tech. Dair the ****er and you get the move of your choice. All of ganon's aerials will kill sooner or later-fair and uair are especially good moves to combo into, but upB or aerial murder choke is usually better
Your best options for killing... Well, usmash is lightning fast, can be done out of gerudo if the opponent misses a tech, and starts killing around 90-100. Fsmash, while slower, is gigantic and kills slightly earlier.
Oh yeah, Fsmash. Let's talk about this one. Ganon's new fsmash is massively disjointed. It's a gigantic, explosive purple hitbox. You can often just throw this out to bait people, and it'll hit. It's big, dangerous, does 30+ damage... yeah, it's good. Plus, added bonus, you can almost always combo into it out of a grab. Dthrow->Fsmash is almost always guaranteed. I don't know when it isn't-sometimes it just doesn't work. If it doesn't though, you're still safe. Fsmash will kill off the top, meaning that if it doesn't do the job, you can finish off with Dark Shoryuken.
Dsmash is decent, but almost always eclipsed by either ftilt, fsmash, or usmash.
Ftilt is just a big, fast straight hitbox of **** that starts killing around 80-90. This move is stupidly good.
Ganon's upB is ridiculous. You can combo into a move with knockback similar to Falcon Punch out of Fsmash, Usmash, et cetera... Make sure you have your spacing lined up well, because the lag on ganon's upB is pretty massive. But yeah, this will kill. Really, really well. The hitbox is where he reaches in the air, shortly before the grab box ends. It's basically a big fat area above him. MASTER THIS HITBOX!
Another big aspect of ganon's killing is his spikes. Let me put it to you this way-if you are above the ledge of the stage, and your opponent has to go around you to get to the ledge, they might as well just die. Ganon's downB is a massive box of **** offstage. It starts killing around 0% off the bottom. :3 Dair isn't bad, but stick to DownB more. Dair is for onstage abuse. Remember, ganon has an incredible horizontal recovery, so don't be afraid to go for the gimp.
Kill %s
Coming soon.
Matchup Data
Coming eventually... What are ganon's hard matchups, anyways? I see Link, Samus, ROB, and Snake above all as potential issues. EDIT: OH MY ****ING GOD ICE CLIMBERS. WHAT IS THIS AND WHAT DO YOU DO TO BEAT THEM. They beat all of your appraoches with ice block->basically anything abusing nana against your gerudo.
Full changelist
Gimme a ****ing minute you demanding ****bags.
