Ideal Stages for the Second Member of the DK Crew

[NotEvenAmatueR]

Hello fellow Diddy Kong players. I have noticed that while there is a thread on Diddy Kong's stage selection, it is not updated consistently enough, so I have took it upon myself to make this thread.This thread is intended to inform Diddy Kong players on what stages they should go to, as to avoid picking the wrong stage that could cost them the game. What are our ideal stages for Diddy? For reference, here is the usual stage selection for tournaments. I will add a general consensus for each stage as we go.

Color checklist:

Green- This is a stage that Diddy can depend on and will almost always be a good stage choice for optimal play.

Yellow- This is a stage that is neutral for Diddy but it can sometimes benefit him depending on the matchup.

White- This is a stage that is absolutely neutral for Diddy. You are most likely banning this stage because it is your opponent's best stage. (Or, it is the filler color for stages not fully discussed yet.)

Orange- This stage is sometimes bad for Diddy but can be neutral depending on the matchup. You may want to ban these stages.

Red- This stage is bad for Diddy in most to all matchups, and it is reccomended that you ban these stages.

Stagelist:

Starter:
Battlefield/Miiverse
Final Destination
Smashville

Starter or CounterPick (usually starter):
Town and City
Lylat Cruise

CounterPick:
Dreamland 64
Duck Hunt

CounterPick or Banned (usually banned):
Delfino
Halberd
Castle Seige

I have a poll created for which stage we will discuss first. The choices you have currently are Battlefield, Smashville, and Final Destination since they are practically guranteed to be starter stages. For the next week, feel free to talk about your opinion on any of the legal stages before we decide which starter stage we will discuss. Enjoy the discussion folks!

 

[Pazx]

Get rid of the arbitrary starter/counterpick/banned categories in the OP, just a list of stages would be nice.

Here are my thoughts. Diddy doesn't really have any super good or bad stages, I usually pick and ban entirely dependent on what my opponent's character is good/bad on, so the stages I've listed as green aren't actually great for us they're just pretty safe in most matchups. There are definitely matchups where I'd want to ban Halberd/Delfino/T&C.

Battlefield
Final Destination
Smashville
Town & City
Dream Land 64
Lylat Cruise
Duck Hunt
Halberd
Delfino Plaza
Castle Siege
Skyloft
Wuhu Island

I think Diddy generally does better on flatter stages, although there are some matchups where we can abuse our mobility or time people out and in those matchups I think Skyloft, Wuhu, Siege and Duck Hunt are good choices. Battlefield helps our combo game/mobility/etc but if my opponent is on the ledge/above me/etc I'd rather be on FD than Battlefield, so I think overall it's usually a worse stage for Diddy. Also nerfed uair + high ceiling isn't fun.

 

[Nabbit The Rabbit '02]

we really need to discuss Congo Jungle 64. I know that stage is generally illegal, but in my rulebook, it is legal, and it's a really good stage for Diddy.

 

[Pazx]

we really need to discuss Congo Jungle 64. I know that stage is generally illegal, but in my rulebook, it is, and it's a really good stage for Diddy.

diddy's probably capable of timing people out on kj64, i wouldn't personally pick it as the high ceiling makes uair and usmash less reliable but if you get your kills from fsmash or bair then it might be okay. I think it also has a wide side blast zone, so dtilt bair won't kill very consistently either. The less reliable kill setups are the more important it is to edgeguard, but Diddy's edgeguarding is poor, so I wouldn't rate this as a good stage for Diddy unless there is a huge gap in mobility between the two characters.

Also I've changed my mind about Lylat, I now think Battlefield is our worst stage in general, although I prefer the BF platform layout to that of DL64.

 

[Dre89]

we really need to discuss Congo Jungle 64. I know that stage is generally illegal, but in my rulebook, it is, and it's a really good stage for Diddy.

Why do you think it's a good stage for him? I suppose the high ceiling doesn't hurt him too much because he has bair and fsmash for horizontal KOs. I feel like the slants would ruin some banana stuff though.

 

[Nabbit The Rabbit '02]

Why do you think it's a good stage for him? I suppose the high ceiling doesn't hurt him too much because he has bair and fsmash for horizontal KOs. I feel like the slants would ruin some banana stuff though.

A few things. the moving platforms leave for some fun banana tricks, the platforms leave for lots of kill potential, and tons of places for Monkey Flips.