Kushamo
Smash Cadet
- Joined
- Oct 12, 2014
- Messages
- 28
- 3DS FC
- 2165-5525-1625
Junior's biggest utilities are his side and down specials. The Clown Car is great for approaches, spacing, and fake-outs, but it's also easily punishable if you miss or when you rely on it too much. You can jump-cancel out of it to perform aerials, just be aware that you won't have a second jump and can't use his side-b again until you land.
The mechakoopa is a solid stage-control move as long as you can keep pressuring your opponent. Otherwise, they can just grab it and chuck it right back at you. A lot of the mechakoopa's potential has been discussed elsewhere, so I'll just add that I've found it handy to use if you're near the top blast line to deter anyone waiting for you to come down. Keep in mind if you don't fastfall after they'll have time to just grab it and throw at you.
Junior's cannon, although powerful, generally has to much endlag to be useful in a pinch. Don't expect to be able to charge it if the opponent is offstage. I generally use it when edguarding, or when offstage to try and deter edeguards.
His forward and down smashes are powerful, but not always too practical. The drills seem to have wonky hurtboxes and can easily be DI'd out of. It does have its use though, I've noticed it's great against characters with aerial approaches (most notably Jigglypuff) and against characters with side specials jumping into it (like Little Mac and Luigi). Down smash has plenty of end lag, so use it sparingly. His up smash is rather under-whelming, it hardly hits anyone grounded and can be easily avoided from the air. At low percents, Junior can uptilt > uptilt > upsmash for a good 40-ish percent, but it can be hard to set up.
His edgeguarding game is fantastic - Junior has so many options to keep people away from the stage. Drop a mechakoopa or up-b from off the stage to stop vertical recoveries, cannonballs can hit people coming from the sides, and he can slam anyone with his hammer in the upper corner. Additionally, his cart and recovery give him a good offstage game, and he can go under Final Destination with them. Unfortunately, his aerials aren't always good enough for this to be the best option.
The biggest problem I've found is that Junior doesn't have very many reliable kill moves. All of his smashes have good knockback, but I don't use them very much because they're slow and easily punishable. The car's spinout can be a kill move around higher percents, but again, it's easily avoided and you can be punished for a miss. His up-special can be a good option, although it has a deceptively small hitbox. His out-of-cart hammer is also pretty potent, but don't expect to hit anyone on the ground with it. I'm still trying to figure out the most effective and reliable finisher.
Now, Junior's greatest strength is with his down tilt: The cart lashes its tongue out, licking unsuspecting foes. It does decent damage, but it sends most characters too far away to follow-up with a side special. However, the downtilt works wonders as a taunt substitute. I find myself hardly ever using the d-pad as Junior, his downtilt is definitely high up with other top-tier taunts, and it's viable against Shulk's "Show me your moves" taunt, Captain Falcon's "You're too slow" taunt, and even Sonic's "Show me your moves" taunt in Brawl.
Junior Forever!
The mechakoopa is a solid stage-control move as long as you can keep pressuring your opponent. Otherwise, they can just grab it and chuck it right back at you. A lot of the mechakoopa's potential has been discussed elsewhere, so I'll just add that I've found it handy to use if you're near the top blast line to deter anyone waiting for you to come down. Keep in mind if you don't fastfall after they'll have time to just grab it and throw at you.
Junior's cannon, although powerful, generally has to much endlag to be useful in a pinch. Don't expect to be able to charge it if the opponent is offstage. I generally use it when edguarding, or when offstage to try and deter edeguards.
His forward and down smashes are powerful, but not always too practical. The drills seem to have wonky hurtboxes and can easily be DI'd out of. It does have its use though, I've noticed it's great against characters with aerial approaches (most notably Jigglypuff) and against characters with side specials jumping into it (like Little Mac and Luigi). Down smash has plenty of end lag, so use it sparingly. His up smash is rather under-whelming, it hardly hits anyone grounded and can be easily avoided from the air. At low percents, Junior can uptilt > uptilt > upsmash for a good 40-ish percent, but it can be hard to set up.
His edgeguarding game is fantastic - Junior has so many options to keep people away from the stage. Drop a mechakoopa or up-b from off the stage to stop vertical recoveries, cannonballs can hit people coming from the sides, and he can slam anyone with his hammer in the upper corner. Additionally, his cart and recovery give him a good offstage game, and he can go under Final Destination with them. Unfortunately, his aerials aren't always good enough for this to be the best option.
The biggest problem I've found is that Junior doesn't have very many reliable kill moves. All of his smashes have good knockback, but I don't use them very much because they're slow and easily punishable. The car's spinout can be a kill move around higher percents, but again, it's easily avoided and you can be punished for a miss. His up-special can be a good option, although it has a deceptively small hitbox. His out-of-cart hammer is also pretty potent, but don't expect to hit anyone on the ground with it. I'm still trying to figure out the most effective and reliable finisher.
Now, Junior's greatest strength is with his down tilt: The cart lashes its tongue out, licking unsuspecting foes. It does decent damage, but it sends most characters too far away to follow-up with a side special. However, the downtilt works wonders as a taunt substitute. I find myself hardly ever using the d-pad as Junior, his downtilt is definitely high up with other top-tier taunts, and it's viable against Shulk's "Show me your moves" taunt, Captain Falcon's "You're too slow" taunt, and even Sonic's "Show me your moves" taunt in Brawl.
Junior Forever!
