I just thought it was worth mentioning that there was a massive spike in Ganondorf players online, who use smash attacks more than any other move. It's just how people are playing the character now.
Ok, and this is a problem people should care about because?
If they know how to play him, they'll give me a decent fight, if they are Smash attack spammers then they are an easy win. But why should be judging others by who they play as? This line from your OP caught my eye:
It's crazy to me how Ganondorf players went from arguably the most respected to some of the most hated due to the newbies associated with them, and they are associated for good reason... they're taking over the character!
Only insecure people act as if others are "taking over" their character. You are not the first nor last Ganondorf player on the planet. And you were not respected by default by picking Ganondorf before. Respect has to be earned. You are respected by being skilled with a character, period.
Semi clone or not, Ganondorf has always been a popular pick and they appear not more often than they did in Smash 4.
Ganon's jab didn't change.
Ganon's grab was nerfed and comes out 1 frame slower.
The only aerial that changed was up-air. It used to come out frame 6 and rotate 225° , now it comes out frame 8 and rotates only 180°
Ganon's running speed was not changed.
Every character got landing lag buffs on their moves by around 5 frames to keep up with the new pace of the game.
Wrong.
Taken from the wiki:
- Neutral attack deals more damage and no longer has sourspots (8%/10%/6% → 11%).
- It has slightly less ending lag (FAF 29 → 27). So it comes out at frame 7 instead of 8.
- F tilt deals more damage.
- Dash Attack deals more damage with high knockback scaling. And because of faster jumpsquat, it is easier to combo.
- Ganondorf dashes slightly faster (1.218 → 1.34), being nearly as fast as he was in Melee.
- Ganondorf walks slightly faster (0.73 → 0.767), being slightly faster than he was in Melee.
- Ganondorf's traction is higher (0.068 → 0.125).
- Ganondorf's air is slightly higher (0.79 → 0.83), being nearly as fast as he was in Brawl.
- His weight went from 113 to 118.
- Neutral aerial landing lag: 17 frames → 10.
- Forward aerial: 22 → 13. Auto-cancels earlier (frame 55 → 45).
- Back aerial: 19 → 11.
- Down aerial: 26 → 16. And since opponents can now longer tech grounded meteor smashes, this allows for potential follow ups. In some cases, Dair can be followed by an Usmash.
- Flame Choke no longer causes Ganon to go over the edge. It has also has endlag, with the ground version going from 62 to 58 FAF.
- Dark Dive deals more damage and can KO earlier.
- Wizard's Foot comes out faster and has less ending lag.
Additional references:
https://ultimateframedata.com/ganondorf.php
There are some nerfs but the buffs greatly outweigh them. Uair no longer has the late hitbox, but is still a good move. His grab comes out slower but so does almost everybody else's.
And while the faster jumpsquats animation and landing lag reduction were universal changes, this benefits some characters more than others. And Ganondorf is one of those. The mechanical changes were an indirect buff to him.
And see how I didn't even go into his Smash attacks? That's because, like I said, they are the tip of the iceberg. Ganon's everything got buffed and that contributed to him being a superior character than his Smash 4 incarnation. For someone who claims to understand the character, your unawareness in this area comes as a surprise. This raises a red flag.
You seem to think that Ganon's aerials are pointless and that his most of his style is just Usmash till his opponent is dead, so I question your knowledge of the matchup.
Ganondorf was a slow, sluggish combo character. Ganondorf is not a combo character anymore. The smash attacks represent a change in philosophy behind Ganondorf at Nintendo.
So Ganondorf went from king of disrespect who punishes stupid mistakes to being a combo character now? Interesting.
Couple of points here:
Ganondorf has always had some combos, including in Ultimate. That doesn't make him a combo character in the same way Mario, Sheik or Joker are. His combo potential is less than Captain Falcon's.
Most characters have a few combos to work with anyways. Even heavy hard hitters like Bowser, Dedede, Piranha Plant and Ridley. But nobody would think to classify them as combo characters. Same as Ganon.
Also, several characters lost some of their combo potential in Ultimate, so Ganondorf isn't the only one affected. Footstool combos are less effective than they were in 4 for everyone.
And finally, Ganondorf still has a few combos to work with. And if you haven't seen Ganon combos, then that just shows you haven't put work into him or haven't look hard enough.
Also something from earlier I didn't address
When I say I liked Ganondorf more when he was bad does not mean I want him to be bad, I just want him to be good in a different kind of way.
The title for your thread is "I liked to play Ganondorf more when he wasn't good", which clearly implies that you prefer him to be bad over what he is now. So you'll have to forgive me for understanding the point the way I did.
Nothing does. If Nintendo feels like Ganondorf is not what he used to be, obviously I can't change much. What was the point of this? I just say what I think is best for one of my favorite Smash characters.
The point I'm getting at is that you liking a character doesn't necessarily mean you have a good judge of character to decide what's best for him or her. People don't often discuss the darker aspects of being a fan; that word is derived from fanatic which means "a person filled with excessive and single-minded zeal, especially for an extreme religious or political cause".
And I wouldn't bother bringing this up if you at least had some convincing basis of why you think Ganondorf is worse now than he was before. But it's never a straight answer, just some wishy washy bull**** philosophy that you want to impose on the character, even it that makes him objectively worse. You speak merely on feelings, not facts, projecting yourself on the character too much by feeding into your insecurities ("oh no! they are taking over my character!").
You try to tell us what playstyle he should have, and any attempts at elaboration devolve into the non-gameplay concept of "king of disrespect". Imaging that. You can put a label on most characters to accurately describe their playstyle; Sheik is a combo fiend, Link is a ranged zoner, Snake is a trap master strong close combat options, and then you get to Ganondorf who is a king of disrespect... which does nothing to describe him. That's not an archetype.
Then you romanticize Ganondorf's past iterations. Way too much. Quillion has constantly done that arguing that his new moves don't fit his style. And it comes off as zealot speech more than anything.
, who doesn't even have Ding Dong anymore...
