Geno would be an average fighter stat-wise; decent weight, decent jump, decent fall speed. The only thing about him that wouldn't be average is his general movement speed, which would be slightly above average. In terms of size, he'd be somewhere around the ballpark of Mario's height, perhaps a tad bit shorter.
In terms of how he'd fight, Geno would be a sort of zoner type character, with a good number of his moves being long reaching attacks that hit harder the further away you are from your opponent, with the rest of his moves being aimed at forcing opponents away should they get too close. As most have envisioned, his special moves will involve his home game's signature Timed Hits mechanic that will power up his moves if the button is pressed or released at the right time.
-= Standard Attacks =-
Jab - A basic 1-2-3, nothing special. No rapid jab.
Side Tilt - A quick slap with an open palm.
Up Tilt - Geno thrusts his hands up in the air. Think Wario's Up Tilt.
Down Tilt - A low kick, comes out quick. Think Ness' Down Tilt, only it does more damage and can't be used as repeatedly.
Dash Attack - A sideways roll ending in a kick.
-= Aerial Attacks =-
Neutral Aerial - Geno faces towards the screen and spins around in a circle, using his cloak to attack. I'm probably doing a poor job at explaining this one, but just imagine Banjo & Kazooie's Neutral Air, only Geno uses his cape instead of big 'ol wings.
Forward Aerial - Geno punches forward, with his arm detatching for a split second to grant it some good range. There's a sweetspot at the tip of the attack.
Backward Aerial - Geno thrusts his elbow backwards and opens it up, creating a small explosion.
Upward Aerial - An overhead kick. Think Mario's Up Air.
Downward Aerial - Geno shoots both of his hands downward, basically Mega Man's Down Air. And just like that attack, it spikes if you hit the sweetspot.
-= Grab Attacks =-
Grab - Geno quickly extends his arm outwards. His arm detatches in order to give the grab more range. When done in the air, it acts like Samus's Grappling Beam or Young Link's Hookshot and does damage instead.
Pummel - Headbutts.
Forward Throw - A roundhouse kick.
Backward Throw - Geno tosses the opponent behind him and fires small pellets at them. Think Fox's Back Throw.
Upward Throw - Geno tosses the opponent in the air with an uppercut.
Downward Throw - Geno plants the opponent on the ground, points his gun hand at them, and hits them with an explosion to launch them.
-= Smash Attacks =-
Side Smash - Geno rears back, gun arm in hand. When released, he fires a burst of star projectiles in a narrow cone in front of him. Good range, sweetspot at the tip of the attack.
Up Smash - Geno crouches down, fist clenched. When released, he does an uppercut. His arm detatches slightly to give it more vertical range.
Down Smash - Geno faces the screen and rears back with both arms in the air. When released, he brings both his arms down, creating flashing rainbow columns of light, similar to Mega Man's Down Smash. This is how Geno Blast would be incorporated into his moveset. I know Project M or some such Brawl mod made it his Side Special, but it honestly doesn't look right to me.
-= Special Attacks =-
Neutral Special: Geno Beam - Just about every moveset I've ever seen for Geno has this as his Neutral Special, and it's not hard to see why. The move pretty much
screams Neutral Special. Geno turns one of his hands into a gun and begins charging energy. Red stars appear above his head to indicate the level of charge. When the button is released, Geno fires a beam of light with great range. The more stars that are above Geno's head when the button is released, the more powerful it will be. If the button is not released at three stars, it will fire a beam with the power of a one star beam. This move can be canceled by jumping, dodging, or shielding. When used in the air, the beam will be fired at 30 degree angle downwards. It can only be fired at a one star power, but the very tip of the beam will have a sweetspot the can spike opponets at that same angle.
Side Special: Geno Whirl - Similar to Geno Beam being his Neutral Special, this move seems universally agreed to be his Side Special. Geno tosses out a disk of light at high speed, dealing good knockback and decent damage. This attack is notorious in his home game for being able to deal 9999 damage on whoever it hits if timed correctly. Being able to do that in Smash would make this move way too broken, regardless of how small the window for it is, so instead the disk would deal more damage if the button is pressed at the exact moment he throws it. This would be signified by a bright flash right when the disk is thrown.
Downward Special: Geno Boost - When activated, a star effect will appear over Geno, followed by several arrows. When the animation is finished, Geno's attack will be boosted for around 10 seconds. If the button is pressed right when the arrow effects is about to end, right before the boost occours, his defenses will also be boosted for around 10 seconds, and he will gain super armor for the duration of the boost. Once the boost wears off, Geno must wait 10 seconds before using it again. When used in the air, Geno's descent will be momentarily stalled during the move's duration.
Upward Special: Geno Shift - A lot of people are at a loss for what Geno's Up Special would be, since none of his moves, or anything in Super Mario RPG really, would appear to fit the bill. Of course, Sakurai and company aren't shy about creating entirely new moves for their characters based on who they are and what they're like: Joker's Up Specials, "Grappling Hook" and "Wings of Rebellion", are pretty much Smash originals, based more on Joker's physical anatomy than anything he regularly does in-game. Project M's potrayal of Geno made his Up Special like a less powerful version of Geno Flash, where he turns himself into a cannon and fires himself upwards. Gonna be honest, I don't really like this all too much. I think if Geno is to have any sort of recovery move, it should be something a bit more integral to the character as a whole. As such, I've come up with what I'm going to call "Geno Shift".
Upon using the move, Geno shoots out of his puppet body in the form of a yellow star for a split second, stopping suddenly once he's at a decent distance above it. Upon stopping, his body rushes back to him and he re-enters it. Once again, this may be a bit hard to visualize from this description, so think of it like this: It's kind of like Zelda or Palutena's Up Special where they teleport a set distance away from where they were, only there are several significant differences.
The first difference is that, unlike these two aformentioned Up Specials, Geno Shift can only move upwards. The angle can be adjusted a bit to the sides if need be, but otherwise it's onward and upward.
The second difference is that Geno doesn't become temporarily invisible during it's use, which may seem like a bit of a downside given the kinds of crazy reads people can make in this game, but I assure you that it's not anywhere near a problem for him, because...
The third difference is how the hitboxes of this move operate. Geno's star form cannot be attacked during the duration of this move, and the puppet body becomes an active hitbox as it's rushing back to Geno's star form, allowing you to recover safely. It's not entirely unpunishable, though. Geno's puppet body doesn't become a hitbox until it starts rushing to Geno's star body, so most attacks can interrupt the move. Kind of like Ness' PK Thunder now that I think about it.
Final Smash: Geno Flash - Geno's most powerful attack. He turns into a cannon that fires a bright red sun with a face a set distance, followed by it slowly expanding, dragging anyone caught in the blast inwards. After a bit, it expands and launches anyone caught up in it, sending them flying. Since it's a Final Smash, there's no Timed Hits mechanic. Overall, this move acts sort of like "Black Hole Bomb" part of Mega Man's Final Smash mixed with Rosalina's Final Smash.
-= Misc. Details =-
Up Taunt - Geno crosses his arms and nods. Based on his victory animation.
Side Taunt - Geno extends his hand outwards, as if trying to tell someone something. He does this quite a bit during the course of the game, such as when he's demanding Bowyer give back the star he has.
Down Taunt - Geno's star pops out of his puppet body and spins around a bit before returning. Upon leaving the puppet, it lifelessly falls to the ground, shortening his hitbox for the duration of the taunt. Geno's star body has no hitbox. This allows Geno to dodge attacks akin to one of Jigglypuff's taunts.
Idle Animation 1 - Geno raises his arms up and stretches.
Idle Animation 2 - Geno looks to his sides.
Victory Music - The victory theme from Super Mario RPG. Much like Cloud's victory fanfare, this music will loop indefinitely just like in the original game.
Victory Pose 1 - Geno steps forward, crosses his arms and nods. Based on his victory animation.
Victory Pose 2 - Geno steps forward a bit and dusts himself off.
Victory Pose 3 - Geno spins around a bit, followed by his star form leaving his puppet body. The puppet body falls lifelessly to the ground, and Geno's star form cheerfully dances around it.
-= Alternate Colors =-
I already posed this earlier, but for convenience sake I'll put it here as well.
View attachment 242591
Alt 1 - Default colors, based on his character art.
Alt 2 - Baby blue alt, resembling his in-game in Super Mario RPG. Brighter blue, brown eyes and more faded orange for his hair.
Alt 3 - Purple alt, based on his poisoned palette. I made his hair a bit more brownish, thought it'd look better.
Alt 4 - Yellow alt, based on the statues in Nimbus Land. I opted for blue accents so it wouldn't look too monotonous.
Alt 5 - White alt, based on Mallow. I'm actually impressed with how well this works.
Alt 6 - Green alt, based on Bowyer. I was originally going to make this a red alt, but I was struggling to think of something/someone significant that was green to base it on.
Alt 7 - Red alt, based on Yaridovich. Not gonna lie, I really like this one.
Alt 8 - Black alt, based on Smithy. Originally, I was going to make an entirely grey alt based on the Machine Made versions of the Smithy Gang leaders, but I thought that would be too boring and opted for this.
Imagine; Mario Kart 9 with pretty much all of the characters from MK8 Deluxe (+ Villager, Inkling, Link, and Isabelle), AND the guest appearance of everyone's favorite Star Messenger; GENO!!! (Oh and... Pauline would be awesome too; what a cast!).
