How can a casual player get good with Sonic?

[Astrobot7000]

Hi there. I am a casual player - by both choice and necessity (someone has to work 40 hours a week to feed my kids). But I absolutely love Sonic and everything Sonic related. I see a lot of people talking about how bad Sonic is. Well here is a question for you guys. How can a casual player become good with Sonic against other casual players? I have NO desire to play without items or competitively. I see alot of strategies on this board, but I don't know what a lot of the technical terms mean: ie sweet spotting, dance dancing, priority, etc.

So can anyone give some good general tips on how I can be an effective Sonic player? I have to be able to beat my kids with him eventually or I will never hear the end of it until they go away to college!

 

[TwinkleToes]

Hm well, that seems a lot like asking how Sonic can be played "cheaply."

To be honest, Sonic doesn't have a whole lot to offer the casual player save for a few things:
1) He can grab items quite easily because of his dashing speed. You can also pick items up while using a dash attack over them so that's always useful when grabbing pokeballs and assist trophies.
2) Spin charge attacks are difficult for other casual players to affectively counter, so you could probably use this a lot and not get punished for it.

 

[Astrobot7000]

Thank you for the reply.

I can see why my post would cause you think I want to be cheap. While I can see the cheapness of item spamming, it seems that a Sonic player sort of has to do so, as it benefits his playstyle. But the point of the topic I guess would be to get some good sonic advice for a casual player that lacks all the technical jargon this board throws around, like sweet spots, priority, tilts, that kind of stuff doesn't mean anything to me. Whenever I ask what those things are in threads I just get harassed with no real answer.

 

[TwinkleToes]

Well there's not necessarily anything wrong with being cheap. Put another way, trying to get the greatest results with the least effort is what everyone does; it's just that not everyone has all day to spend practicing.

I think you'll find that an important word even for a casual player to know would be "priority." It means more or less what you'd deduce from it's dictionary definition: if two attacks hit each other, which one will have "priority" over the other? I'm sure you've noticed this by now, but sometimes when you attack someone and they attack you his/her attack will go through yours or vice versa with the end result being that only 1 person gets damaged even though both players used an attack.

With Sonic, a lot of his attacks have low priority, meaning many characters attacks will overpower and effectively override his. This means that to use Sonic well you need to know when other characters will offer you openings-- this isn't the easiest thing to do even if you DO practice, which is why a lot of beginners and casual players prefer people like Pit, Metaknight, Marth, etc.

On the bright side, if you just use Sonic's faster attacks like his dash attack ('a' attack while dashing), dair (down 'a' attack in the air) and spin charges (side b and down b) you can usually land them against novice players because they lack the reaction times and control to stop you.

I feel like if I get more in depth than that it really wouldn't help you, so I'll leave it at that for now.

 

[Majiin]

I think they made sonic too much of a casual killer, because they thought something like "okay sonic is going to be so fast people aren't going to be able to hit him easy, so let's make his smash moves weak due to him being so fast he'll wrack up damage."

The thing is, good players that actually have a good reaction time can completely make sonic like any normal character. Yes his speed is still there, but his moves are too predictable in the sense they thought that he'd be so fast people couldn't react, which they can.

What I'm trying to say is, they thought he was going to be this little speed demon that hit and ran real quick and was untouchable, but anyone that is more than a casual player can actually react to his speed making him a weak character in turn because of lack of finishers to make up for his speed.

-EDIT- TL:DR ~
They messed sonic up for anyone aiming for competitive play, imo. His Bair and Uair chase is his only effective kill moves and when someone sees you playing as sonic, they're already ready for it since the match started.

 

[Catfish_Mike]

Since you'll be playing with items, steal the hell out of them. Like TwinkleToes said, you can pick them up by doing a dash attack while running over them, and since Sonic is so insanely fast you can get a lot of items before most people even notice they're there. This will give you a significant advantage. Keep your distance, and let other players rack up damage on each other, then run in and land a few hits, and run back out. Basically steal kills from other players. There's more, but it would involve getting into "technical" jargon.

 

[Astrobot7000]

Thanks for the help guys.

And in regards to not understanding the technical jargon, I am an old man. Cut me some slack here. If anything me even playing and posting shows how cool I am

One thing I found was that if I use the down c stick attack it messes my son up. He is a really heavy dodger/cape using Mario player. I hate that cape, but this attack seems to be a good counter. This probably wouldn't work well on serious playing levels, but it works for me and my family. Although my kids are far better than I am, I do better than I think most of my generation would. But good news! I did manage to beat my son a few times. I showed him how it done old school! haha. Now if only I could beat my daughter who is so good it is crazy. She plays as Luigi and just destroys me.

 

[SonicMario]

Yo, I'm casual too. Sonic is a BEAST in casual play. Getting the Smash Balls before anyone else. SUPER SONIC IS BROKEN FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! :D

I don't use any adv. techs. But I use info about the Bairs Uairs and such. But that is as far as Competitive I go. But I use items, that automatically makes me "Casual".

Oh and don't forget the Bunny Hood >.>

 

[Mario & Sonic Guy]

Sonic is a smash maniac. You can count on Sonic's f-smash and d-smash to deliver finishing blows when you have the chance.

He's also one heck of a dash grabber, but successful grab attempts have waned in Brawl compared to Melee.

 

[MaceMan11]

Well whenever i use sonic I always dash and do the dash attack for starters and then i start doing his up smash and then keep running around with the dash attack

 

[shimsmash]

He is the fastest character, but some people say he is a bit hard to control because of this. I don't care what they say, because if you practice a lot with sonic, he becomes a good character, besides, a lot of people will play smash as a casual player.

 

[SonicMario]

He is the fastest character, but some people say he is a bit hard to control because of this. I don't care what they say, because if you practice a lot with sonic, he becomes a good character, besides, a lot of people will play smash as a casual player.

This is true. More people will buy Smash for Casual reasons. And not just because some techs were removed from Melee.

In fact, even if Melee got a huge competitive scene. There were 6,000,000 estimated sales of it. Now are all 6,000,000 players competitive? Probably not. Smash will always have this: Number of Casual Player sales > Number of Tourney Player sales.

Oh and don't forget how huge the Sonic fanbase is. (Adding all those who would've not got Brawl if Sonic didn't appear as Playable)

 

[shimsmash]

Casual and competitive

This is true. More people will buy Smash for Casual reasons. And not just because some techs were removed from Melee.

In fact, even if Melee got a huge competitive scene. There were 6,000,000 estimated sales of it. Now are all 6,000,000 players competitive? Probably not. Smash will always have this: Number of Casual Player sales > Number of Tourney Player sales.

Oh and don't forget how huge the Sonic fanbase is. (Adding all those who would've not got Brawl if Sonic didn't appear as Playable)

I agree. I think melee was more of a casual game rather than a competitive game. Now with online play with brawl, without online leader boards and things like that, it is more suited for a casual gamer. Since hardcore gamers will be upset about the absence of the wave dash, L-canceling e.t.c, they will still play on a competitive form because of the online tournaments that are being produced over the internet. So it is a 50/50 affair, it is both a casual game for those who want to play, but it is also competitive because of the advanced moves to be discovered.