Kirby Matchups

[WootSnorlax]

By far the most annoying thing for me was his F-air. It comes out so quick and has good priority and combo potential. I think I traded F-airs a few times but it was near impossible to do if I was trying to get back on the stage. Speaking of which, gimping Pikachu is the biggest pain in the ***. His UpB gives him so many options to return to the stage. Not that it's impossible, I did manage to get a few kills off stage, but it definitely isn't as reliable as with other characters.

There are just some characters that make gimping not a viable option. Pikachu especially being one of them, he even has a wall jump! We should just make a list of characters that are hard to gimp.

 

[Aunt Jemima]

How in the world does Kirby counter King DeDeDe's Gordo? I'm not really sure what to use to hit it back other than extremely laggy attacks such as F-Smash, and if I try to rush him, he'll throw one out when I'm about to hit him.

 

[Oblivion11]

Nair. Nair works for me everytime, and it sends it back really fast.

 

[Illuvial]

The Ganondorf MU is one I've been struggling with. He just kills Kirby so damn early in % while it takes Kirby forever to do the same, and it doesn't help that Ganondorf has more range. Not to mention I have to hit three times as much to match his damage, its kinda crazy

 

[Illuvial]

*ACCIDENTAL DOUBLE POST*

 

[Asdioh]

Nair. Nair works for me everytime, and it sends it back really fast.

Good to know. I've been having trouble with Gordos because I keep hearing friends say that some moves work on them sometimes, but other times they randomly won't work. Also on wifi it's much harder to correctly time and hit a projectile back at the user. Do you know if the weak hit "sourspot" of Nair also works?

The Ganondorf MU is one I've been struggling with. He just kills Kirby so damn early in % while it takes Kirby forever to do the same, and it doesn't help that Ganondorf has more range. Not to mention I have to hit three times as much to match his damage, its kinda crazy

Ganondorf is probably the worst character in the game (again) and he's only slightly harder on wifi because offline his moves are all basically slow enough that you can react and avoid them in time. Basically you want to act like you're attacking him but fake him out and see what he does. Run in, roll away, run in, roll away, jump above, jump away, wait until he tries to hit your "attack" with something and then punish him. You can duck under his down B and probably jab and other stuff. Once you get in on him make sure to combo him as much as possible, because there's almost nothing he can do about it. Then gimp him with Dair offstage while watching out for side B Ganoncides.

 

[EMPEROR Eevee]

The Ganondorf MU is one I've been struggling with. He just kills Kirby so damn early in % while it takes Kirby forever to do the same, and it doesn't help that Ganondorf has more range. Not to mention I have to hit three times as much to match his damage, its kinda crazy

Basically what @ Asdioh said. Bait him by floating at a range relatively near him and use Bair to punish any failed Uair attempts. And although Ganon's Up-B has been buffed, giving it a slightly longer vertical reach, he's still pretty gimp-able. Dair works well, and depending on the situation, I sometimes use Bair/Fair to push him farther away from the stage.

 

[FreeGamer]

Lots of moves work against Gordos. I find F-Air, B-Air, and F-Tilt are easiest to hit them with.

 

[Oblivion11]

Now I've come into a problem with Bowser Jr. It seems his FAir comes out stupid fast, he can punish approaches with Up B, or use Up B to chase in air, and he has camp game.

 

[Oracle_Summon]

When playing against Samus I noticed that Samus's down tilt is faster than most of Kirby's attacks. Shielding it is easy, but it seems impossible to beat Samus to the punch using an attack of your own.

 

[Sugawolf]

When playing against Samus I noticed that Samus' down tilt is faster than most of Kirby's attacks. Shielding it is easy, but it seems impossible to beat Samus to the punch using an attack of your own.

Samus's(?) Fair also makes an aerial approach a pain in the ass. Luckily you can crouch to avoid her Ftilt as well as her Fsmash if she doesn't angle it down.

Anyone fight any good Marios? Cause it sure seems like he got buffed in this game. His jab combo comes out faster than anything you have and he can string it with almost no lag from a FF nair or Dair. His FF Nair and Dair also seem to hit after he lands which is extremely annoying. I can't tell you how many times I let go of my shield thinking the attack was finished only to get hit by some seemingly invisible hitbox. His dash attack also has a similar property because you can't sidestep it; it still hits even after your invincibility frames. He can rack up damage at low percentages with tilts and aerials almost as well as we can, and his Usmash comes out fast af and kills at around 110%. To top it all off, his Fair is amazing for meteor smashes and he can retreat very quickly after he uses it. Luckily FLUDD doesn't affect us much, but that's pretty much the only silver lining I could find lol.

 

[Oracle_Summon]

Samus's(?) Fair also makes an aerial approach a pain in the ***. Luckily you can crouch to avoid her Ftilt as well as her Fsmash if she doesn't angle it down.

Anyone fight any good Marios? Cause it sure seems like he got buffed in this game. His jab combo comes out faster than anything you have and he can string it with almost no lag from a FF nair or Dair. His FF Nair and Dair also seem to hit after he lands which is extremely annoying. I can't tell you how many times I let go of my shield thinking the attack was finished only to get hit by some seemingly invisible hitbox. His dash attack also has a similar property because you can't sidestep it; it still hits even after your invincibility frames. He can rack up damage at low percentages with tilts and aerials almost as well as we can, and his Usmash comes out fast af and kills at around 110%. To top it all off, his Fair is amazing for meteor smashes and he can retreat very quickly after he uses it. Luckily FLUDD doesn't affect us much, but that's pretty much the only silver lining I could find lol.

Thanks for the tip and for the grammar mistake notice.

 

[Sugawolf]

Thanks for the tip and for the grammar mistake notice.

I actually have no idea whether that's right or not lmao. Hence the (?)

 

[Beethro]

i dont know how applicable this is, but so i was playing this guy on for glory for like 17 games, each one being last stock last hit (outside of a circlepad related sd or two), so i think we were evenly matched. at about game 17, he picks ness, ness being his pick in the first match so i assume he is a regular ness player, and i happened to pick kirby (kirby being a character i rarely play only for certain matchups).

That match, I 2 stock him incredibly quickly with inhale gimps and he immediately disconnects. if you can fall on him with an inhale during the ending frames of his dash attack or something and jump off, then when he mashes out, ness is probably the easiest character to complete the gimp on. between your dair and footstool vs ness's slow double jump and slow (and still interceptible i assume) pk thunder II, inhale-walkoffs are mounds of useful vs ness. dont miss the inhale though because if its anything like kirby vs ness in project m, his smash attacks all outrange inhale. also none of ness's projectiles force kirby into projectile-swallow stun so, assuming his smashes DONT outrange inhale, while he cant use pk fire to swallow-lag you and then get a clean f smash or somethin, he can still probably just get a regular pk fire hit and then grab/dash attack/whatever pk fire follow up ness does in this game.

other characters that are very susceptible to inhale-walkoff gimps are cfalcon with his easily dair'ed up-b, fox with his fall speed and the dairable startup time on firefox, and i assume dk with his poor vertical recovery on dk tornado. ive yet to try it on yoshi, maybe that would sooth the matchup a bit. most other characters you just want to spit off though for the damage because they'll usually just mash up-b right through you.

i hope this is useful information lol

 

[Funkmasterblitz]

Today, I was fighting against this Ike player who often used his jab and counter a lot. I couldn't seem bypass his strategy so I lost most of the battles. Any tips?

 

[Sugawolf]

Today, I was fighting against this Ike player who often used his jab and counter a lot. I couldn't seem bypass his strategy so I lost most of the battles. Any tips?

Shield grab approaches work really well for me against counter happy characters. I especially love when they try to counter right after an Fthrow because it pretty much guarantees me another grab. Also, a good strategy for Ike is to bait out his easily punishable attacks. Ike is heavy so you can string together combos fairly easily on him until around 60%. After that it's all about shielding and spot-dodging attacks and punishing them effectively. If he ever makes the mistake of misplacing a smash attack, be ready to make him regret it. Ike's invincibility during his UpB makes him kind of a pain to gimp vertically, so if he's ever approaching the edge from the bottom I find it useful to stone him for an added 20% or so. Also, if he doesn't time his horizontal recovery well (I.e he misses the ledge) it's fairly easy to predict where he will land. Ike's stature and weight makes him susceptible to Fair strings, so use those often. I've killed many an Ike from low percentages by Fairing them off stage a couple of times.

Granted everything I'm saying is from my own personal experience with smash4 and knowledge of the Brawl MU, so don't take what I say as the absolute truth

 

[Asdioh]

Ike's Jab comes out extremely fast. Shield all hits of it and then punish, it has a lot of ending lag. Counter is just reads, out-predict him. Also grab beats it always. Get him offstage and his recovery is bad, just don't let yourself get gimped by his upB.

 

[Aunt Jemima]

yoshi has an infinite so kirby is screwed lol

 

[GrnFzzTgr]

As if he wasn't screwed against yoshi already x.x

Also on the topic for gordos. You can send them back with nair or fair. Doing so with fair looks pretty cool, but it's a bit harder than using the nair, I've also done so with the break spin.

Anybody have advice for villager? I've been playing against jigglystep from these boards. I don't have issues with the tree or the bowling ball, or even lloid since I can copy villager and pocket those. (we've even been practcing a villager and Kirby team together) But it's his quick smashes, set ups, aerial slingshot that disrupts movement/attacks, and absurd recovery.

For Sonic, I find myself having to play very defensively because he seems hard to pursue and punish. .. They also usually end up killing themselves..

Zero Suit Samus you can duck under a lot of her moves.

Lucario, with his aura is a nightmare.

Little mac I've gotten pretty decent at dealing with, thanks to playing a little mac from these boards.

 

[GrnFzzTgr]

Samus's(?) Fair also makes an aerial approach a pain in the ***. Luckily you can crouch to avoid her Ftilt as well as her Fsmash if she doesn't angle it down.

Anyone fight any good Marios? Cause it sure seems like he got buffed in this game. His jab combo comes out faster than anything you have and he can string it with almost no lag from a FF nair or Dair. His FF Nair and Dair also seem to hit after he lands which is extremely annoying. I can't tell you how many times I let go of my shield thinking the attack was finished only to get hit by some seemingly invisible hitbox. His dash attack also has a similar property because you can't sidestep it; it still hits even after your invincibility frames. He can rack up damage at low percentages with tilts and aerials almost as well as we can, and his Usmash comes out fast af and kills at around 110%. To top it all off, his Fair is amazing for meteor smashes and he can retreat very quickly after he uses it. Luckily FLUDD doesn't affect us much, but that's pretty much the only silver lining I could find lol.

I fought a good mario, kept comboing the hell out of me. with his up tilts and up airs.

The kills I did get on it were with the F-air. I dragged him near the border of the screen with it. We played back and forth for a while and I learned some nice things. For glory unfortunately decided to keep giving us stages with walls, so any time I tried to gimp him with Dair he was able to recover. He got a pretty awesome Meteor KO on me with the fluud + Fair, but after that I never fell for it again.

Unrelated to for glory. Kirby's stone still walls Mario and Doctor Mario's final smash.

 

[Lord Viper]

yoshi has an infinite so kirby is screwed lol

Confirmed to be fake not too long ago thank goodness, Smash 3DS doesn't need more game breaking techniques, lol. ★

That said, I need to fight a good Yoshi, all the Yoshi's I played wasn't too threatening. :/ ★

 

[chaosmasterro]

I played a a few Rosalina and found the matchup being a bit more manageable when you take her power since Kirby's Luma shot out prioritizes Rosalina's version.

 

[Agent Emerald]

Kirby and Shulk have a pretty interest match up on their hands. The second Kirby gets Monado arts, It becomes a game of counterpicking. Shulk can outspace Kirby, but he has a fairly hard time doing it, but his best spacers are kinda slow. Buster Kirby can combo faster than Shulk, but has be quick because of the lessened hitstun is just asking for a vision. Sheild Kirby increases survivability, but He can't punish anything Shulk does outside of jabs. Jump Kirby gives Kirby air speed that makes him look like Jiggs. Speed can let Kirby appoach and give Shulk no space; this is a double edged sword as while Kirby can abuse Shulk's weakness to fast attacks, Shulk hitbox-wise is Roy but actually good. Using Smash Kirby is super risky, but super rewarding if you can safely pull out bairs and grabs.

Our best opportunity to inhale Shulk is during more moves, Back Slash in particular. Shulk can Vision Inhale somehow, but it's difficult. Haven't tested it yet, but possibly whiffed smashes can present a good opportunity for an inhale.

 

[Unknownkid]

Wait... Shulk can Vision Inhale? What the hell, Sakurai? Is Inhale not a grab move anymore?

 

[GrnFzzTgr]

..... Dedede can eat the shock wave from cutter. On that note I used that to punish the dedede who was trying to ledge camp and dededecide me.. He did not seem to like it.

went to training mode to see if Kirby could do the same, but I can't get the CPU to use final cutter.

 

[GrnFzzTgr]

Speaking of Dedede, I find him pretty tedious to deal with when I run into a good one. Now I already said I'm not that great, but I feel like this is one of the harder match ups I run into. Correct me if I'm wrong, but his aerials have more range and priority than Kirby's and he has a silly grab range?

Do we have a list of poor match ups for the puffball yet? It could be my lack of skills, but tt feels like he has it rough with the majority of the cast?

 

[GrnFzzTgr]

Okay, I know I post a lot but.. I need help, I just got 2 stocked by a captain falcon 3 times in a row, All he did was attack and then spam dodge roll backwards, or shield grabbed me when I tried to punish. I didn't learn anything from the matches. ugh same just happened with a lucario once I got him up to aura damage. I'm in a funk I think.

 

[Asdioh]

I need to figure out way to play the best/really good players of each character, so I can comment more on matchups. The only matchup I've played so far that feels exceptionally painful is Greninja. Yoshi's also tough. I haven't played a Sheik/Rosalina that were extremely good yet, so all the ones I've played felt pretty manageable for Kirby, especially if you have their power. I feel like those matchups could be in Kirby's favor as long as he's in control of their power.

As for Dedede, it certainly doesn't feel harder than Brawl. Kirby lacks the power and weight, but he should be able to run circles around Dedede and punish. He can also combo him pretty well, and hit gordos back at him pretty easily.

 

[Unknownkid]

I don't know what to really tell you, GrnFzzTgr but to relax, record most your matchup and watch them to see what you could have done better. Then afterward you go to Smash or Training and face a level 9 computer. Of course, A.I. and human characters are different but just training against A.I.s help you learn what you can and cannot do against the character. Otherwise, it is best to switch characters and see what predictable tactics the opponent does.

For example, I was verse this decent Japanese Villager with Kirby and I was losing few times in a row. After a while I switch to my other mains (Yoshi, Pittoo, Fox, etc) the matchup became easier. Then I just switch to other characters just for the heck of it. My winning was increasing. I was understanding his playstyle. Finally, I switch back to Kirby and beat him three times in a row. I felt so proud of myself. So, don't give up. Live and Learn, bro.

 

[Zumakito]

Yoshi 100% beats the hell out of Kirby in this game. Rather than relying on pivot grabs like in Brawl, he just runs away with his superior airspeed, superior ground speed, superior jump speed, and camps with his great projectile. Even if you do get in close to him you have to be careful, because Nair and Jab can be used as combo breakers, and all of his aerials have weird disjoints and beat things they feel like they shouldn't.

Kirby can do well against some of the characters that are seeing some popularity right now, like Mac, Bowser, Robin, and Shulk, but he retains his Brawl problem. Any character that can outrun Kirby and camp him has an advantage. I thought projectiles were nerfed pretty hard in this game (look at Fox and Falco) but obviously it wasn't done consistently, if you look at characters like Sheik and Yoshi, who don't have insane lag upon using their projectiles. The plus side with Sheik is at least you can Copy the needles and outcamp her, but I haven't found a solution for characters like Yoshi. If Kirby just had faster movespeed and airspeed that would pretty much be all he needed... same as in Brawl.

I actually got destroyed by a Yoshi today. I spiked him with Final Cutter on one of the matches we played, so it was all good Kappa

 

[SapphSabre777]

I need to figure out way to play the best/really good players of each character, so I can comment more on matchups. The only matchup I've played so far that feels exceptionally painful is Greninja. Yoshi's also tough. I haven't played a Sheik/Rosalina that were extremely good yet, so all the ones I've played felt pretty manageable for Kirby, especially if you have their power. I feel like those matchups could be in Kirby's favor as long as he's in control of their power.

As for Dedede, it certainly doesn't feel harder than Brawl. Kirby lacks the power and weight, but he should be able to run circles around Dedede and punish. He can also combo him pretty well, and hit gordos back at him pretty easily.

Granted, all we need is to play competent players of each character, but that works too. But I digress...

I simply agree with Greninja, he is hands down the worst matchup for Kirby. The frog has all the tools to just walk around the puffball: outright faster and more range/priority. All I can say as a piece of advice is that one can use U-Tilt more because of the speed of its falls. Combine that with my utter hatred with them and that most online ones from my experience are huge tryhards/spammers... (no offense to those that are just learning the character)

Yoshi...I think we have beaten this matchup to death. Its bad as well.

Sheik and Rosa can be dealt with...they are disadvantageous, but the gap can be closed with getting their power, as you said (momentum-stopping Needles or a superior priority Luma Shot).

Falcon is a little tough of Kirby, but when Capt. is on the ground, he's susceptible to be gimped (apparently N-Air out-prioritizes Raptor Boost of all things). Falcon loves to U-Air and F-Air to try and rack up damage or to KO Kirby, and the dash/pivot grab must be taken into account.

Please correct me if I have made any fallacies.

 

[kirby_queen]

Eh anyone have tips against Link players? I feel like it's just a horrible matchup with the projectiles everywhere. once in awhile I'll meet a link unleashing tornado, bombs, and arrows all over the place and find it hard to get close.

I mostly have trouble with Link, Yoshi, on occasion but rarely, little mac.

 

[Aunt Jemima]

Granted, all we need is to play competent players of each character, but that works too. But I digress...

I simply agree with Greninja, he is hands down the worst matchup for Kirby. The frog has all the tools to just walk around the puffball: outright faster and more range/priority. All I can say as a piece of advice is that one can use U-Tilt more because of the speed of its falls. Combine that with my utter hatred with them and that most online ones from my experience are huge tryhards/spammers... (no offense to those that are just learning the character)

Yoshi...I think we have beaten this matchup to death. Its bad as well.

Sheik and Rosa can be dealt with...they are disadvantageous, but the gap can be closed with getting their power, as you said (momentum-stopping Needles or a superior priority Luma Shot).

Falcon is a little tough of Kirby, but when Capt. is on the ground, he's susceptible to be gimped (apparently N-Air out-prioritizes Raptor Boost of all things). Falcon loves to U-Air and F-Air to try and rack up damage or to KO Kirby, and the dash/pivot grab must be taken into account.

Please correct me if I have made any fallacies.

Greninja can break out of combos with Shadow Sneak, similar to Mega Man. Good Greninja players will just fly out of your U-Tilt strings with a kick to your little puff ball face.

 

[Asdioh]

Eh anyone have tips against Link players? I feel like it's just a horrible matchup with the projectiles everywhere. once in awhile I'll meet a link unleashing tornado, bombs, and arrows all over the place and find it hard to get close.

I mostly have trouble with Link, Yoshi, on occasion but rarely, little mac.

Every time I see a Link I still think "what a joke, free win" :x Even if they play keepaway and rack up nearly 100% damage before I can get a hit on them, once I finally get close he's combo and gimp bait. Once you start combooing him you just need to watch out for his jab, which comes out very fast and all Links love to do it when you're close, but it's punishable at the end. And if he's in the air his best combo breakers are Nair or Dair, which can both be shield punished.

Little Mac I still feel Kirby beats with ease, but the big problem is when you meet a Mac that's good at mixing up Counters, because then the free edgeguards become risky. Just stay in the air and bait him out. Abuse your jumps and shield, the worst he can do is grab you, and his grab isn't too good. Also you can't shield KO punch for some reason so keep that in mind :/ you can duck it usually but apparently it can sometimes hit if Kirby's crouching idle animation brings him up a bit. Also dtilt->KO punch is a combo at some percents.

Greninja can break out of combos with Shadow Sneak, similar to Mega Man. Good Greninja players will just fly out of your U-Tilt strings with a kick to your little puff ball face.

I'm starting to think Greninja was designed by someone other than who made most of the other characters or something. It just seems they gave him everything for the hell of it.

 

[GrnFzzTgr]

Jigglystep from these boards plays both villager and greninja. Both are a pain to deal with. Villager being able to recover from the bottom blast zone repeatly or from the sides with little effort, greninja with his ridiculous range, attack speed and movement speed. I have to use the lock on feature just to follow it. Good player though. We started doing a villager and Kirby team. People complain that the fight is unfair or that team attack being on its inbalancedshouldn'. We love passing the tree and bowling balls back and forth after I copy villager'svillager's ability. Were also working on a Kirby/greninja team. Double shurikens seems like like they make for great pressure and stage control

 

[Aunt Jemima]

Villager is a pretty easy MU if you can grab his Copy Ability. He can't really combo, although he can kill Kirby at lower percents with a good read or punish.

 

[GrnFzzTgr]

I think the most annoying thing about villager besides his recovery is that stupid flinching slingshot. I've even been KO'd by the slingshot bullet before. High percents, but still.

 

[Aunt Jemima]

If I really want to secure a kill on Villager, D-Air to FF Footstool to another D-Air to FF Footstool right after the other works well. He also can't really do much because his recovery doesn't hurt opponents. Also, you can pocket the little slingshot rocks. They seem to work as a kill move at lower percents, as they do 1.9x the damage and knock back.

 

[Asdioh]

Rosalina cannot downB Kirby's Luma shot.
This is HUGE.

 

[GrnFzzTgr]

@ Aunt Jemima That sounds good to me. I'll have to try that. Still doesn't get rid of the offstage issue where I've had them survive a triple, even quad, f-air into the side blast zones and still came backback. X.x