How to counter Diddy?

[2wice]

Is it only me or are many of the new characters pretty imba? Even though I just got brawl and am adjusting to the many nerfs that Samus (and many characters) received, I can only notice that the developers "balanced" the old cast then decided to make new characters, instead of making the new characters and then "balancing" everyone.

My two main in melee is Samus and Link and as an avid Samus player, I was considering to switch to another main (one of the new characters), but then I thought I that I gotta stay true to Samus. I know I have to just play more and understand all of the move set of all of the characters and then see what works and what doesn't. For example, in melee, if I'm up against a Falco or Sheik I pretty much have a game plan before the match even starts.

As of right now, my number one pet peeve is Diddy hands down. Man is he annoying. Besides from being quick, he also has so many moves that'll kill. His dash is just too good and he can just rack up the dmg with tail right afterwards. Then there's the bananas... Don't even get me started with those....

Well I guess I want to start a campaign to bring down Diddy! How do you guys play versus him? I've mainly been staying my distance and shooting homing missiles and short hop zair and if he gets too close i up b. But sooner or later he still will deal dmg and kill. What are your thoughts on snipping the tail off of this monkey?

 

[Doomgaze]

I need to play a lot more Samus vs Diddy before I can make a more detailed and reasonable input in this particular matchup, but one thing I do know (by playing other matchups), is that Diddy's dash attack has really crappy priority, I think as a Samus player there should be several ways to cancel it out.

As for the bananas.. yes they are good.. but are you aware you can pick 'em up and use them yourself? (just got to check. May not be so obvious if you got the game recently).

On a side note I think Diddy's recovery is horrible (because of the start up time and predictability), should be easy to gimp once u figure it out.

Anyways these are just speculations from my part.

 

[2wice]

Yeah I know that we can pick the bananas up but the thing is that when Diddy dash attacks, he automatically picks it up. So even if I throw one at him he just rolls over it and it becomes his. I've gone so far as to picking them up and putting them in odd places because he can only have 2 out at a time. If I get him out of the ledge I can meteor him most of the time because his up b is kinda bad, but Samus loss a lot knock power, so it's pretty difficult.

 

[unii]

diddy is my chacetr well second chacter and toon link but

diddy dash shield and just smack his *** up and do far distant attacks thats what i do with zelda and i kick his face in

 

[DTKPch]

Well, I co-main Samus and Diddy. My Diddy is a bit better, but after spamming some z-airs with Samus and having an insane amount of fun annoying the hell out of other people, I decided to pick up Samus. Anyway, as a Diddy player, the thing I hate most is people using my bananas against me. Oh, and an interrupted recovery. I'm pretty sure guided missiles work really well for edgeguarding, since you only have to hit Diddy once. That's all I got.

 

[FuLLBLeeD]

Chargeshot kills Diddy's dead.

 

[DTKPch]

Except most Diddy's will be pressuring you the entire time. You'd have to knock the Diddy off the stage to buy time to charge your charge shot, which is time better spent edge-guarding.

 

[2wice]

Thanks for the help guys these post really lets me strategize. I'm pretty decent at edge guarding but to get him off the ledge is the problem. Most of the time I'm on defense or "spamming" stuff at him so dealing dmg is difficult. I've been catching a lot of his bananas and throwing them back in his face just cuz im so frustrated but once hes in his rythm man hes a pain. All i can do is just block, then he just throws me around...

 

[Cynix]

ya i can't really give you a good response to this never realy faught against one. best bet id say would be play defensive and own him in the air

 

[0RLY]

Samus's shield grab is crappy, so what you have to do is to shield the dash attack, and as soon as your shield get's touched, screw attack while diddy is still executing his dash attack. Screw attack has a little bit more range than your actual shield. By doing this you will discourage all close range approaches.

To counter the bananas, just know that whatever diddy can do with them, you can too. So if Diddy picks up the banana with his dash attack, you can do the same.

To counter his freaking tail of doom and destruction, DI backwards, always. Even if you are hanging over the edge of the stage, DI backwards and then grapple the stage.

If you happened to get grabbed (which you shouldn't since you should always be approaching with zair), always DI away from where ever he throws you. Diddy doesn't have KOing throws, as far as I know. DIing away allows you to avoid combos.

Missiling isn't very helpful since Diddy is a small target and can dodge them. Still, don't be afraid to SH a homing missle as a filler move while Diddy is retreating to pull out a banana or something.

An easier way to gimp Diddy's recovery is to edgehog. This will force Diddy to charge his b-up a little longer. This is enough time to drop and bair/dair Diddy's face. If you practice with Diddy, learn how long it takes to charge the B-up to get a good distance. Knowing how far he can reach is important.

If Diddy's B-up can damage you while you're on the ledge, drop and grapple. Your tether blocks ledge grabbing even more effectively than edgehogging. This helps because your hogging indirectly and it's harder for your foe to hit you. Also, you can reel in yourself whenever you want for extra invincibility. Samus will automatically reel herself in after hanging for an amount of time, so you don't need to worry about losing the edge.