D
Deleted member
Guest
Pre-Brawl specifically, a lot of Smash Bros. characters seem to have gotten the short end of the stick when it comes to their movesets representing their character or series well. So for some of those characters, I wanted to propose changes that I think would make them more fitting of their character.
Mario:
Shooting a fireball makes sense as an iconic move, and Super Jump Punch is supposed to emulate his iconic block punching jump, but what about a stomping move? Or a hammer attack? Both are extremely iconic to Mario. I think his made-up fire palm Smash Attack (despite it kinda showing up in Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga) should be replaced with a hammer smash, as seen in all of the Mario RPG games as well as Mario's first appearance, Donkey Kong. And while Super Jump Punch was clever, I think it could easily be replaced with something more relevant and iconic, such as a recovery using the well-known Wing Cap from Super Mario 64, or even a recovery using FLUDD, freeing up down special for his favored Mario Tornado or a stomp attack or something.
I like the idea of his cape from Super Mario World (my favorite 2D Mario btw), but I think it can be improved and expanded. How about when Mario's grounded, he spins his cape to turn around enemies/projectiles as usual, but when airborne he actually will use his cape to glide, providing a more horizontal recovery (especially if his up special remains a more vertical recovery)?
Alternatively, he could also always incorporate Cappy as a new side special.
Donkey Kong:
Donkey Kong's Giant Punch and Headbutt reference nothing from his source material so they should go. Neutral B can instead be his Coconut Gun, which fires in spurts. Side special can be...throwing a barrel or something, idk. I haven't played that many DK games. Maybe he charges forward on his Rhino buddy, Rambo is it? That'd be cool.
Link:
Link is actually pretty ok, and I think using remote bombs was a great idea. Gotta have spin attack (sorry Paraglider/Ravioli's Gale proponents), so that stays. Boomerang and Bow are also very iconic. The only sad thing is they removed his hookshot, which is another extremely iconic weapon for Link. The funny thing is, I'm almost certain we'll see the hookshot return in the Zelda series (if not the very next game), so I think removing it was kinda premature. They could have come up with a unique Sheikah hookshot design or something.
Samus:
Oh Samus....Samus Samus. On paper, her moves seem great--she's got the Charge Beam, Missiles, Screw Attack, Bombs, etc. But the problem is none of these moves feel like how they do in her games, which are mostly side-scrolling too! Why can't we aim any of her projectiles like other characters can? Why doesn't she incorporate some of her other iconic beams, such as wave, ice and plasma? Why isn't her roll the Morph Ball? Also, why is her Morph Ball so small? It's usually not quite that small in her games, and in the Prime games it's as big as she is.
Screw Attack is great as an up special, but it needs much more horizontal momentum, perhaps even letting you bounce two or three times into an enemy--this move should give her one of the best recoveries in the game, but as it is right now her recovery is sub-par. But in Metroid games, she can jump endlessly like Kirby (once getting the Space Jump)!
I think her down special should incorporate her Morph Ball form as more of a toggle; so you press down B to switch to Morph Ball, then A button to drop bombs. Pressing B again will disable Morph Ball mode. Could maybe even roll into enemies for very minor damage/knockback.
Missiles are fine, I guess, as is the Grapple Beam. In a perfect world, her neutral B would remain Charge Shot but she can swap beam types using a taunt or something, and be able to charge each of them. Power Beam would be fast and weak (perhaps more akin to Fox's laser or Mega Man's lemons), while Ice Beam is slower and can freeze, wave beam goes through all platforms/enemies but isn't very powerful, and plasma beam is strong but slow and has a longer cooldown. Also...update her design to that of Samus Returns!!
Yoshi:
The Yoshi I'll always prefer was the one we saw in Super Mario World, where they had different abilities depending on their color or the type of shell they had in their mouth.
The thing is, Kirby's copy ability has been adapted to Smash Bros., so why not this ability of Yoshi? How could it work? Well, swallowing enemies will still allow you to lay them as an egg, but Yoshi should be able to eat any projectile which will give him various effects (would kinda work similar to how Villager can pocket anything). If he eats a fire projectile like a bomb or Ness's PK Fire, he'll hold it in his mouth until you press B again, at which point he releases three fireballs. If he eats a heavy projectile like Dedede's Gordo or a cannonball, he gains a stomp ability when he lands, until spitting the item back out. Perhaps eating other energy projectiles like Fox's laser will let him temporarily sprout wings to have multiple jumps. I don't know all the details, I just would love a feature like this in the game for Yoshi.
Also replace his Egg Roll with something more relevant. Maybe that can be Egg Throw, and up special can be an actual recovery?
Young Link:
I'm very happy Young Link has returned for Ultimate, and sorely disappointed that they didn't update him at all to be more representative of his Majora's Mask appearance, considering Great Bay is his stage and all.
I mean what's the point of half-athing it by giving him a hookshot and fire arrows but not actually giving him his actual hookshot and hero's bow from Majora's Mask? Why is he still using the OoT Kokiri Sword and Deku Shield instead of the way past cool Hero's Shield and reinforced Kokiri Sword from Majora's Mask? And WHY IN TABUU'S NAME is his Final Smash not Fierce Deity Link???? Like wth?? Talk about biggest missed opportunity of this decade. I know having him transform into his other forms might be too much, but...not even holding a mask in a taunt? Really? DID YOU EVEN MAJORA'S MASK SAKURAI??
Ganondorf:
Well, we all know about this one. I do whole-heartedly appreciate the inclusion of his greatsword into his moveset (even if it's not technically "canon"--close enough). Just too bad he can't float at all (besides a fancy taunt) or shoot deadly projectiles. For how to properly depict Ganondorf in a spin-off game, please see Hyrule Warriors. Ganondorf in that game is so perfectly himself in all of his glory that it's hard to contain myself. At least his Final Smash is Ganon, THAT needed to happen for sure.
Mewtwo:
I love the feel of Mewtwo in Smash Bros., but some of his specials are odd choices. Shadow Ball is perfect and iconic, so that needs to stay (though I wish it kept the damaging charge property that Lucario stole). Teleport is....a psychic move, yes. I mean it works, I guess. I think mostly Confusion and Disable need to be reworked. Disable is funny to use when you can land it once every 3 months, but I think a better move would be Barrier, where Mewtwo puts up a bubble shield around him that kinda acts like Shulk's Shield art; increases defense at cost of something else. In fact, we could go full Shulk and give Mewtwo the option to use Barrier, Reflect, Light Screen, Agility, etc. each with different effects.
For his side special, either keep Confusion and make it less risky to use directly on opponents (such as pushing them back or something), or replace it with something more unique like Swift, which would home in on opponents.
Anyway that was super long but I would love for these older characters to be revamped one day, making them truer to their source material. Obviously I'd love to hear what your thoughts are on this as well.
Mario: Shooting a fireball makes sense as an iconic move, and Super Jump Punch is supposed to emulate his iconic block punching jump, but what about a stomping move? Or a hammer attack? Both are extremely iconic to Mario. I think his made-up fire palm Smash Attack (despite it kinda showing up in Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga) should be replaced with a hammer smash, as seen in all of the Mario RPG games as well as Mario's first appearance, Donkey Kong. And while Super Jump Punch was clever, I think it could easily be replaced with something more relevant and iconic, such as a recovery using the well-known Wing Cap from Super Mario 64, or even a recovery using FLUDD, freeing up down special for his favored Mario Tornado or a stomp attack or something.
I like the idea of his cape from Super Mario World (my favorite 2D Mario btw), but I think it can be improved and expanded. How about when Mario's grounded, he spins his cape to turn around enemies/projectiles as usual, but when airborne he actually will use his cape to glide, providing a more horizontal recovery (especially if his up special remains a more vertical recovery)?
Alternatively, he could also always incorporate Cappy as a new side special.
Donkey Kong: Donkey Kong's Giant Punch and Headbutt reference nothing from his source material so they should go. Neutral B can instead be his Coconut Gun, which fires in spurts. Side special can be...throwing a barrel or something, idk. I haven't played that many DK games. Maybe he charges forward on his Rhino buddy, Rambo is it? That'd be cool.
Link:Link is actually pretty ok, and I think using remote bombs was a great idea. Gotta have spin attack (sorry Paraglider/Ravioli's Gale proponents), so that stays. Boomerang and Bow are also very iconic. The only sad thing is they removed his hookshot, which is another extremely iconic weapon for Link. The funny thing is, I'm almost certain we'll see the hookshot return in the Zelda series (if not the very next game), so I think removing it was kinda premature. They could have come up with a unique Sheikah hookshot design or something.
Samus: Oh Samus....Samus Samus. On paper, her moves seem great--she's got the Charge Beam, Missiles, Screw Attack, Bombs, etc. But the problem is none of these moves feel like how they do in her games, which are mostly side-scrolling too! Why can't we aim any of her projectiles like other characters can? Why doesn't she incorporate some of her other iconic beams, such as wave, ice and plasma? Why isn't her roll the Morph Ball? Also, why is her Morph Ball so small? It's usually not quite that small in her games, and in the Prime games it's as big as she is.
Screw Attack is great as an up special, but it needs much more horizontal momentum, perhaps even letting you bounce two or three times into an enemy--this move should give her one of the best recoveries in the game, but as it is right now her recovery is sub-par. But in Metroid games, she can jump endlessly like Kirby (once getting the Space Jump)!
I think her down special should incorporate her Morph Ball form as more of a toggle; so you press down B to switch to Morph Ball, then A button to drop bombs. Pressing B again will disable Morph Ball mode. Could maybe even roll into enemies for very minor damage/knockback.
Missiles are fine, I guess, as is the Grapple Beam. In a perfect world, her neutral B would remain Charge Shot but she can swap beam types using a taunt or something, and be able to charge each of them. Power Beam would be fast and weak (perhaps more akin to Fox's laser or Mega Man's lemons), while Ice Beam is slower and can freeze, wave beam goes through all platforms/enemies but isn't very powerful, and plasma beam is strong but slow and has a longer cooldown. Also...update her design to that of Samus Returns!!
Yoshi:The Yoshi I'll always prefer was the one we saw in Super Mario World, where they had different abilities depending on their color or the type of shell they had in their mouth.
The thing is, Kirby's copy ability has been adapted to Smash Bros., so why not this ability of Yoshi? How could it work? Well, swallowing enemies will still allow you to lay them as an egg, but Yoshi should be able to eat any projectile which will give him various effects (would kinda work similar to how Villager can pocket anything). If he eats a fire projectile like a bomb or Ness's PK Fire, he'll hold it in his mouth until you press B again, at which point he releases three fireballs. If he eats a heavy projectile like Dedede's Gordo or a cannonball, he gains a stomp ability when he lands, until spitting the item back out. Perhaps eating other energy projectiles like Fox's laser will let him temporarily sprout wings to have multiple jumps. I don't know all the details, I just would love a feature like this in the game for Yoshi.
Also replace his Egg Roll with something more relevant. Maybe that can be Egg Throw, and up special can be an actual recovery?
Young Link:I'm very happy Young Link has returned for Ultimate, and sorely disappointed that they didn't update him at all to be more representative of his Majora's Mask appearance, considering Great Bay is his stage and all.
I mean what's the point of half-athing it by giving him a hookshot and fire arrows but not actually giving him his actual hookshot and hero's bow from Majora's Mask? Why is he still using the OoT Kokiri Sword and Deku Shield instead of the way past cool Hero's Shield and reinforced Kokiri Sword from Majora's Mask? And WHY IN TABUU'S NAME is his Final Smash not Fierce Deity Link???? Like wth?? Talk about biggest missed opportunity of this decade. I know having him transform into his other forms might be too much, but...not even holding a mask in a taunt? Really? DID YOU EVEN MAJORA'S MASK SAKURAI??
Ganondorf:Well, we all know about this one. I do whole-heartedly appreciate the inclusion of his greatsword into his moveset (even if it's not technically "canon"--close enough). Just too bad he can't float at all (besides a fancy taunt) or shoot deadly projectiles. For how to properly depict Ganondorf in a spin-off game, please see Hyrule Warriors. Ganondorf in that game is so perfectly himself in all of his glory that it's hard to contain myself. At least his Final Smash is Ganon, THAT needed to happen for sure.
Mewtwo:I love the feel of Mewtwo in Smash Bros., but some of his specials are odd choices. Shadow Ball is perfect and iconic, so that needs to stay (though I wish it kept the damaging charge property that Lucario stole). Teleport is....a psychic move, yes. I mean it works, I guess. I think mostly Confusion and Disable need to be reworked. Disable is funny to use when you can land it once every 3 months, but I think a better move would be Barrier, where Mewtwo puts up a bubble shield around him that kinda acts like Shulk's Shield art; increases defense at cost of something else. In fact, we could go full Shulk and give Mewtwo the option to use Barrier, Reflect, Light Screen, Agility, etc. each with different effects.
For his side special, either keep Confusion and make it less risky to use directly on opponents (such as pushing them back or something), or replace it with something more unique like Swift, which would home in on opponents.
Anyway that was super long but I would love for these older characters to be revamped one day, making them truer to their source material. Obviously I'd love to hear what your thoughts are on this as well.
