Alright, I now think I am in good position to give some matchup knowledge on
.
Now in my eyes, when it comes to fighting Bayonetta, you pretty much need to approach her similar to
except even MORE carefully. Like ZSS, she's a fast faller so Kirby can do some nice low percent combos on her. However, you need to be VERY cautious about do strings on her as an overextension can result in getting Witch Time's and eating a nice hard smash of her choosing. And if you are around 60-80% you'll pretty much die to any Smash of her choosing. (Fortunately there seems to be a blind spot in the F-Smash that Kirby is just small enough to squeeze in if he's close enough). Now the way I see it, the most dangerous move in her arsenal is the Afterburner Kick. It's stupidly safe on shield and any attempt to punish is almost bound to end in getting up kicked or beaned by an aerial Afterburner or aerial. If you want to punish this move, you'll have to either dodge it or shield and retreat and wait for her next move and try to punish that. I am serious. It has like ZERO cooldown. It's like
's limit attacks. You just can't punish it safely. Speaking of no lag, as far as I can tell, all but her Down Air have almost no cooldown so just like ZSS, do not try to contest her air game head. Most characters can't Kirby is definitely not an exception.
Now other things to watch out for:
- If the aerial After Burner kick hits your shield, she can immediately do another so resist the temptation to drop shield and try and get an immediate punish.
- As many of you know, Bayonetta's prime option for killing appears to using After Burner and Witch Twist in combination to take you up to heaven. When this is happening, the best means of escaping is DI'ing out and mashing Air Dodge. Fortunately since, Kirby is small and floaty, it's relatively easy for to escape the early death strings this way although you're bound to eat some percent in the process. When it comes to Kirby, they'll often want to get an Up Air out near the ceiling.
- At kill percent, (80-100% I think for Kirby) she can D-Tilt into an Up Air to kill Kirby. Be wary of this when approaching.
- Keep an eye out for her jab. It's probably the best multi-hit jab in the game as if it touches you there's practically zero chance of getting out of it.
- When recovering, she'll often charge her Bullet Climax (neutral B) on the ledge. But more often than not this is a fake out as it can be canceled as she pleases. To edge guard, they'll often do a Down Air as you're floating on in. DO NOT get hit by this. For some reason, her Down Air is stupid powerful and getting hit off stage at anything about 70% and above means almost certain doom. She can also Down Smash to dunk us on the ledge so watch that Final Cutter spacing.
- If she holds out her inputs, extra shots will come will come out that work like Fox lasers. Thus, don't even bother crouching from a distance as she'll just hold D-Tilt and get free percent.
- When it comes to edge guarding her, I personally wouldn't recommend it. She appears to have a "triple jump" glitch which allows her to jump twice in the air. This combined with all the After Burner and Witch Time's makes gimping her with aerials a big gamble. Heck, if they might even try to revenge gimp you with a D-Air and depending on where and when they do it, it may be risk free for them as unlike most characters with crashing D-Airs they can actually recovery safely after do there's off stage.
- Forward Throw near the ledge can kill at about 100% or so try not to shield to close to the ledge at death percent.
Now here are the things I've found success with:
- When it comes to Inhale, GO FOR IT. Bullet Climax in this matchup is better in Kirby's hands than Bayonetta because her taller frame means her shots will often go over us at mid range and further without even needing to duck and on the flipside, out bullets can even hit her at a distance if she doesn't crouch. This makes it very effective a racking up percent from a safe distance, messing with her recovery, and disuading her from spamming aerials in our face. And since she's a fast faller, you can Up Tilt juggle her and easily land it Inhale. I suggest you do this instead of extending a string that might get Witch Time'd.
- If a Bayonetta is getting aerial happy, Final Cutter can be nice anti-air. And in general, it's not super risky to throw out as Bayonetta due to her average speed if properly spaced and timed. It can make for a nice mixup.
- Grab is your best friend. You can get some nice early and mid percent combos with aerials and Final Cutter respectively and our Up Throw will kill her at about 143% without rage on FD. There you should not feel force to overcommit with a killing B-Air or Smash and risk getting Witch Time'd though since she's as heavy as Sheik (84) she'll die early to them if they do connect.
- While her smashes are powerful, their hitboxes will be removed if they clank with anything so if you're hesitant about going in, N-Air and its many hitboxes can keep her from getting a free smash if you get caught in Witch Time.
- While crouch camping isn't that effective because of After Burner and D-Tilt, crouching as you approach can be effective as it goes under F-Smash, jab, and grab.
For stages, I think we should avoid Smashville and Town & City. The latter amplifies her already broken recovery and gives us no space to avoid her After Burners while the latter will probably lead to stupid early deaths off the top. Final Destination and Duck Hunt are probably the best stages as they give space to run away, make her aerial game less scary with the lack of platforms, and have low enough ceilings so that Up Throw isn't hindered with the Tree being able to enhance it on Duck Hunt. Battlefield and Dreamland could also work though I fear the platforms could help gets nasty cheezes although Battlefield has good survival blast zones and Dreamland works great with the Up Throw and the bottom can pineapple her recovery if she's careless. Got to them if FD or Duck Hunt are banned. Not sure how Lylat would work.
As for as the competively level,
@MikeKirby actually played against Aerolink at a Shockwave during a stay at Texas. He lost game one on Final Destination (although I could tell he was still getting a feel for the matchup), won game 2 on Duck Hunt, and lost game 3 on Dreamland. Although the last game was very close and I think he would have done better had he went for the Up Throw at 9:38 as Whispy was blowing him towards the platform and even without it I think with the rage it would have killed anyway and he wouldn't have lost his stock first.
And as a bonus, falln, a well known
main, surprisingly whipped out Kirby, his apparent Brawl main, against aphro who's also an accomplished Rosalina and coincidentally the number one Bayonetta (and player) on the Smash Ladder at the time of writing. He went Kirby game one on Town and City. After first he let himself get cheezed. But then he took the power and began going for grab combos and Down throws and was able to win it with an Up Throw. He then switched to Rosalina after that and lost a game and won the next.
In my opinion, I think this matchup will feel hard at first due to needing to adjust to Bayonetta's kit and powerful options. But I think the long run the matchup will be pretty close. That's just me though.
NotMegaMan
You main Megs and Kirbs too? You. Are. AWESOME!!! :D
