Destiny Warrior
Smash Apprentice
Now I'll open with saying this: I do not propose items being unbanned. I completley understand why they are banned and stuff, so please keep the "lol items" and "items are for noobs" and whatever else away from this thread.
Now to move to the actual topic.
Items induce randomness, something we obviously dislike in a competitive game. However, not only are they fun, they also bring in some additional mindgames. For example, you may sometimes have to choose between 2 items, because your opponent will get to the other one while you get to the first. You might lose your advantageous position to get to the Maxim Tomato and heal yourself, and then rage because another one spawned right where you had been standing.
Now, onto the items themselves:-
Beam Sword: This item is pretty dandy. It can be used for melee combat, or for a ranged projectile that can be picked up again, but eventually expires. I prefer the first because I really love melee combat(which is why I fail at Fox beyond the basic stuff <_<), but you can use it as a ranged edgeguarder by throwing it too.
Home Run Bat: Do I really need to cover this? Smashing with it is really hard, and arguably the risk nearly equals the reward, but hey, I'm not really sure abou this thing. Good throwing item though.
Hammer: "Lol". Hammer is the single biggest double edged sword ever. I like to try chasing my opponenets with this, but I avoid the edges like the plague because they usually mean death.
Fan: From what I've heard, it's an excellent shieldbreaker due to poor hitlag, but I've never been good at button mashing myself. I can see how quickly its attacks come out though.
Motion Sensor Bomb: In my opinion, it's one of the most competitive items. Getting to it isn't about getting a huge advantage, it's about picking up a spacing tool that could blow up in your face. Here's where I like to place the MSBs on each stage(banned stages included)(also note that if you land on these places, you have to be willing to accept the backfire of 30% damage and good knockback):
Peach's Castle: On the slanted surface of the triangles. People land there quite a few times when recovering from diagonally up-right/left when I've played them, so I find placing the MSBs there really helps to punish them by doing an extra 30%.
Kongo Jungle: The ledges. Helps with my edgeguarding, and also helps with opponents trying to recover directly to the ledge if the barrel is on the opposite side of the stage.
Hyrule Castle: The 2 ledges, and the ceiling of Isai's house. The edges I've covered already, and the ceiling is often hit by people being comboed, so you can take advantage of that.
Planet Zebes: The moving platform, and the topmost platform. The moving platform just to control some random space, and the top one because fights slowly move there due to the lava.
Mushroom Kingdom: Ceiling of the lower left passage, and offscreen on the right side. People often get hit there from experience(due to the walkoffs), so a well placed MSB can add to their misery. There's a chance of you getting blown up too of course.
Yoshi's Island: One on the rightmost cloud, one on the left one. Campers like to go there, so an MSB scuttles their plans, at least temporarily. If they avoid it when they land though,, they *can* break the cloud, causing the MSB to fall, and go back to the main platforms/right cloud.
Dream Land: The ledges. Already covered this.
Sector Z: The curved wall of the fin, the floor next to the right side edge, and the left edge. Edges are obvious. The fin is to get a pseudo KO move when I combo them there
Saffron City: I put it on the floor of the leftmost and right most buildings, and on the helipad.Helipad's a comman landing spot for campers from what I've seen, so an MSB there forces them to be more judicious.
Bob-omb: Really bad item in my opinion. Sure, gives you a quick damage sources, but I just don't like it for some reason.
Bumper: Utility's much less than the MSB by far. I sometimes use it to give myself some breathing space while my opponenet is sent back.
Green Shell: Nice projectile, I like to hit offstage opponenets with this when they near the stage.
Red Shell: The definition of "controlling a platform". It's a shame you can't use the platform though. It's really fun, but not very practical unless you can fling it right at your opponenet so it will chase them.
Poke Ball: What do I need to say? I just toss it at my oppoennet, and hope for the best. I'm not above raging when I get a Goldeen and right after he gets an Onix though....
Ray Gun: It has high utility, but I just can't use it well. I can juggle offstage opponenets with 3-5 hits, but after that they're so far away I inevitably miss.
Fire Flower: I like it for racking up damage. Especially works against an opponenent landing on the stage, who gets caught in it and takes quite a bit of damage(remember, people I play don't really DI <_<). In a DI environment, I can see its use being very little, except as a projectile.
Star Rod: Nice all round item. I always misspace the stars though, and end up too short, or wrongly timed, so I prefer the melee applications.
Maxim Tomato: I usually scarper to it as soon as possible(who doesn't?). Excellent healing item, especially with the lag of the Heart Container in becoming usable.
Heart: It's a better healing item, but the lag makes it iffy. I like the "King Of The Hill" games it causes till it lands though.
Star: Even bigger King of the Hill games. This gives a few seconds of amazing dominance.
While items themselves are inherently uncompetitive, I'd say the most competitive would be the MSB.
Do post with your thoughts etc. on items and their applications(in item matches ofc)!
Now to move to the actual topic.
Items induce randomness, something we obviously dislike in a competitive game. However, not only are they fun, they also bring in some additional mindgames. For example, you may sometimes have to choose between 2 items, because your opponent will get to the other one while you get to the first. You might lose your advantageous position to get to the Maxim Tomato and heal yourself, and then rage because another one spawned right where you had been standing.
Now, onto the items themselves:-
Beam Sword: This item is pretty dandy. It can be used for melee combat, or for a ranged projectile that can be picked up again, but eventually expires. I prefer the first because I really love melee combat(which is why I fail at Fox beyond the basic stuff <_<), but you can use it as a ranged edgeguarder by throwing it too.
Home Run Bat: Do I really need to cover this? Smashing with it is really hard, and arguably the risk nearly equals the reward, but hey, I'm not really sure abou this thing. Good throwing item though.
Hammer: "Lol". Hammer is the single biggest double edged sword ever. I like to try chasing my opponenets with this, but I avoid the edges like the plague because they usually mean death.
Fan: From what I've heard, it's an excellent shieldbreaker due to poor hitlag, but I've never been good at button mashing myself. I can see how quickly its attacks come out though.
Motion Sensor Bomb: In my opinion, it's one of the most competitive items. Getting to it isn't about getting a huge advantage, it's about picking up a spacing tool that could blow up in your face. Here's where I like to place the MSBs on each stage(banned stages included)(also note that if you land on these places, you have to be willing to accept the backfire of 30% damage and good knockback):
Peach's Castle: On the slanted surface of the triangles. People land there quite a few times when recovering from diagonally up-right/left when I've played them, so I find placing the MSBs there really helps to punish them by doing an extra 30%.
Kongo Jungle: The ledges. Helps with my edgeguarding, and also helps with opponents trying to recover directly to the ledge if the barrel is on the opposite side of the stage.
Hyrule Castle: The 2 ledges, and the ceiling of Isai's house. The edges I've covered already, and the ceiling is often hit by people being comboed, so you can take advantage of that.
Planet Zebes: The moving platform, and the topmost platform. The moving platform just to control some random space, and the top one because fights slowly move there due to the lava.
Mushroom Kingdom: Ceiling of the lower left passage, and offscreen on the right side. People often get hit there from experience(due to the walkoffs), so a well placed MSB can add to their misery. There's a chance of you getting blown up too of course.
Yoshi's Island: One on the rightmost cloud, one on the left one. Campers like to go there, so an MSB scuttles their plans, at least temporarily. If they avoid it when they land though,, they *can* break the cloud, causing the MSB to fall, and go back to the main platforms/right cloud.
Dream Land: The ledges. Already covered this.
Sector Z: The curved wall of the fin, the floor next to the right side edge, and the left edge. Edges are obvious. The fin is to get a pseudo KO move when I combo them there
Saffron City: I put it on the floor of the leftmost and right most buildings, and on the helipad.Helipad's a comman landing spot for campers from what I've seen, so an MSB there forces them to be more judicious.
Bob-omb: Really bad item in my opinion. Sure, gives you a quick damage sources, but I just don't like it for some reason.
Bumper: Utility's much less than the MSB by far. I sometimes use it to give myself some breathing space while my opponenet is sent back.
Green Shell: Nice projectile, I like to hit offstage opponenets with this when they near the stage.
Red Shell: The definition of "controlling a platform". It's a shame you can't use the platform though. It's really fun, but not very practical unless you can fling it right at your opponenet so it will chase them.
Poke Ball: What do I need to say? I just toss it at my oppoennet, and hope for the best. I'm not above raging when I get a Goldeen and right after he gets an Onix though....
Ray Gun: It has high utility, but I just can't use it well. I can juggle offstage opponenets with 3-5 hits, but after that they're so far away I inevitably miss.
Fire Flower: I like it for racking up damage. Especially works against an opponenent landing on the stage, who gets caught in it and takes quite a bit of damage(remember, people I play don't really DI <_<). In a DI environment, I can see its use being very little, except as a projectile.
Star Rod: Nice all round item. I always misspace the stars though, and end up too short, or wrongly timed, so I prefer the melee applications.
Maxim Tomato: I usually scarper to it as soon as possible(who doesn't?). Excellent healing item, especially with the lag of the Heart Container in becoming usable.
Heart: It's a better healing item, but the lag makes it iffy. I like the "King Of The Hill" games it causes till it lands though.
Star: Even bigger King of the Hill games. This gives a few seconds of amazing dominance.
While items themselves are inherently uncompetitive, I'd say the most competitive would be the MSB.
Do post with your thoughts etc. on items and their applications(in item matches ofc)!
