A detailed analysis of today's update
Which, if you don't know, is Ike's special moves. Two of them, anyway.
Alright, I was wrong about Aether (I thought it would be Ike's version of Flare Blade, but with blue energy). But this is certainly a good representation of it. The move is exactly like Kirby's Final Cutter in terms of execution, and it'll probably have similar properties as well. It seems, though that if you hit the opponent with the first hit the second and third are impossible to escape, not counting DI.
I think if you L-cancel Aether (assuming that in Brawl you'll be able to) you'll probably retain the "invincibility" for its regular duration; I'm sure Ike players will find some way to abuse that. You'll certainly need to L-cancel it, as it looks like there's a bit of delay after Ike finishes the attack proper.
This may be a typo on Sakurai's part, about the "after throwing his sword" bit. The screenshot shows that he's "invincible" after the actual attack...maybe he's immune to flinching throughout the whole thing? That'd be pretty slick, having an unstoppable Up+B attack.
I think the best recovery strategy for Ike players will be to approach the stage from a low, close point, because it doesn't seem like Aether gives that great of a horizontal distance. Or, who knows; maybe it's got a Horizontal form like Roy's Blazer. Since he flips while swinging the sword at the apex of the attack, you might have a good, and unexpected, anti-edgeguarding attack if you sweetspot the ledge (he flips and slashes, and then grabs the ledge).
It's clear to me now that the earlier "single-stroke finishing blow" line had nothing to do with Aether. He was probably talking about Eruption, or just Ike in general, because it's clear he'll have a lot of power.
And speaking of Eruption, that looks like a better Flare Blade to me, because it creates a field of flame in front of Ike that can continuously damage and send the opponent up, probably much in the manner of PK Fire. That could be really good for edgeguarding...I wonder what would happen if he plunged his sword over the edge...
I wanna make something clear right now to all the fanboys screaming for Marth to come back (fortunately there are less here than on other sites). Just because Sakurai said that the heavy characters will get the same "invincible" state after their Up+B moves, doesn't mean Ike is a traditional heavy character. He could be fast, powerful and heavy, like Falco, or he could just be average-speed and powerful but not floaty. Got that? Ike is not necessarily a heavy character, Ike is not the new Roy, Marth still isn't confirmed in any way, and until we hear otherwise that's not going to change. Accept it.
(I have no shame in admitting it: I don't want Marth to return. But that doesn't make what I'm saying any less true)
I still hold to my idea that Ike will be a combination, in terms of character and attack properties, of Marth and Roy. He'll obviously have a totally different moveset (I still think his Side Smash and nair will be identical to theirs), but he'll possess a balanced form of the best of both of their attriibutes, with the exception of power.
