Design Philosophy: Geno’s moveset practically wrote itself. He uses a lot of projectiles, between his guns, energy attacks, and rocket fists, and I wanted to represent that in the variance of long ranged moves his normals use. Since he was the fastest party member in SMRPG, he’s fairly fast here, and has decent jump height to boot. Geno has very poor defense, a weakness also shared with his original appearance, and is best used as a Glass Cannon, avoiding hits while keeping enemies pressured with his high-damage arsenal.
Jab: A trio of swift spinning kicks.
Forward Tilt: His fingertips swing up on hidden hinges and he jabs his hand forward. A small exploding burst appears from his fingers.
Up Tilt: Swings his arm up while his forearm is in cannon mode. Creates a trail of star energy from the barrel in the arc swung.
Down Tilt: Fires his arm cannon down at the ground in front of him.
Dash Attack: Envelops himself in star energy and dives forward, spinning in a corkscrew battering ram motion.
Forward Smash: Ejects his fist as a rocket, with a brief burst of damage around Geno from the recoil. Travels slightly farther the longer it is charged.
Up Smash: Switches both forearms into their cannon modes and puts them together as he fires above his head, creating an explosion.
Down Smash: Geno’s arms swing up at the elbows and he fires cannons from them at the ground on both sides of him.
Neutral Aerial: Spins around in midair, hitting enemies with his cape.
Forward Aerial: Rapid fires his arm cannon a short distance ahead of him.
Back Aerial: Extends his arm behind him with his fingertip barrels open and creates a small explosion behind him.
Up Aerial: An upward flip kick.
Down Aerial: A downwards double-kick.
Grab: Ejects his hand a short distance from his body, which grabs the opponent and returns.
Pummel: Shoots the enemy with pellets from his arm cannon.
Forward Throw: Sends the enemy flying with a barrage of arm cannon pellets.
Back Throw: Spins around with the enemy and blasts them away with an explosion of star energy.
Up Throw: Tosses the opponent up in the air and blasts them with a laser.
Down Throw: Slams the opponent down off the ground with a short-range explosion.
Ledge Attack: Flips up onto the stage, shooting a laser off the ground.
NEUTRAL B: GENO BEAM
Geno charges up a beam of energy with his arm cannon. Unlike other charge moves where the effectiveness of the move is simply related to the length of the charge, when Geno holds this move, red stars appear above his head, somewhat sliding into place. Up to three appear, then they slide into one shape and disappear. The beam is larger, stronger, and travels farther depending on how many stars are in place, making the move its strongest when released while the third star has just slid into place. If held too long, it will fire a 1-star beam.
SIDE B: GENO WHIRL
Geno throws the yellow energy disc in front of him, which travels quickly across the screen and passes through enemies. On its own, it’s a standard projectile that deals small damage and a bit of hitstun, and can’t be effectively spammed. However, pressing B again after executing the move will cause the disc to spark a bit. If this input is timed at the exact moment the disc makes contact with the enemy, it will deal great damage and send them flying. The disc can only be triggered once, and the window of opportunity is very small, so button mashing will not work.
UP B: GENO BOOST:
Geno slowly rises up into the air, surrounded by upward red arrows. Somewhat slow, making it gimpable, and relatively poor for both vertical and horizontal recovery, but as compensation, the move causes Geno to gain a subtle red sheen and become buffed for a limited amount of time. He becomes slightly faster, jumps slightly higher, and deals slightly more damage until he either takes damage or uses a special move, upon which the buffs leave him with a star effect similar to what appears when Kirby loses a copy ability.
DOWN B: GENO BLAST
Geno takes a knee, and a small twinkling light appears up in the air in front of him. This move uses the same charging mechanic as the Geno Beam. When released, a colored ray of energy shoots down from the twinkling light to the ground, dealing just average damage and knockback. Each star charged adds another beam in a row ahead of Geno, so one beam dry-fired, 2 colorful beams for 1-star charges, all the way up to four possible beams in a row. If used at the stage edge, it does continue downward, however it does not spike.
FINAL SMASH: GENO FLASH
Geno’s entire body transforms into a large cannon, which aims up in the air in front of it and shoots his star form out of the body. His star form then explodes in a large supernova explosion, functioning similarly to a larger and even more devastating Smart Bomb to all caught in the blast. Once complete, the cannon reforms back into Geno.
Stage Entrance: The Geno doll is shown already sitting lifelessly on the stage, where the star spirit flies down into it, causing it to grow in size and become animate.
Idle Pose 1: Stands still and looks on both sides of himself suspiciously.
Idle Pose 2: Switches his arm back and forth between arm and cannon, inspecting it.
Up Taunt: Looks to the camera and nods, a reference to his SMRPG animation.
Side Taunt: Exits the doll body, causing it to shrink. Floats around it for a split second and enters it again, returning it to normal.
Down Taunt: Raises both his arms, shifting them into cannon mode, and jerks them back, cocking them like shotguns.
Victory Pose 1: Turns to the camera and nods approvingly.
Victory Pose 2: A Star Piece is shown floating around Geno, and he rests his hand on it.
Victory Pose 3: Looks offscreen then glances over at the camera.
