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Social Lower Norfair
- Thread starter A Distant Demon
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well about it give up 50+ hours at least using ridley and think i am actually getting worse, got it up to 2 million and back down to the 100 thousands which out of the 12 million that bought the game is pretty bad.
and they nerfered k rool recovery and pp seems to be better then rool pre Nerf and don't get me on that stupid ball
and they nerfered k rool recovery and pp seems to be better then rool pre Nerf and don't get me on that stupid ball
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Hey, don't post here as much anymore, but I made a cool thing I wanted to share with you guys and the Kroc fanboys as well.
It's just my buddy and me playing online matches together, compiled into some crazy things we've done. We are just in love with these characters, so hopefully you guys enjoy it!
It's just my buddy and me playing online matches together, compiled into some crazy things we've done. We are just in love with these characters, so hopefully you guys enjoy it!
I don't really see why anyone should take posts of any kind about their personal GSP seriously without photo or video evidence. You can spit out almost any range of numbers without context. All I know is I've never experienced shifts bigger than around 300,000 and am sitting in Elite Smash or close to it with every character I've used, with a roster GSP of around 3,200,000. You may think that's a load of bull and that's fine.
I can't help but feel that if you're the type of person to complain about Kirby of all fighters, maybe you deserve a low GSP, sorry to say.
I can't help but feel that if you're the type of person to complain about Kirby of all fighters, maybe you deserve a low GSP, sorry to say.
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Sakurai was recently interviewed by Nintendo Dream, and he had a lot of interesting things to say. Ridley in particular was one of the topics of discussion.
Sakurai: We’ve included characters that were in high demand from the “Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot” we held in the past. This is the case for characters like Ridley, King K. Rool and Simon.
We now have confirmation that Ridley was indeed among the "ballot newcomers". It makes me feel good that I still bothered to vote for him on the ballot even though I knew he was not going to happen as DLC. I still felt the need to speak my mind that I wanted Ridley to be a part of the roster, and why exactly I wanted him so much. Thank you to all who similarly decided to vote for Ridley despite his deconfirmation and looking very unlikely that he was going to be DLC, and especially thank you to Sakurai for re-evaluating his opinion on Ridley, and his team for making playable Ridley a reality.
Up until now, Ridley has only appeared in the Smash Bros. series as a boss character. What did you have in mind when you were turning him into a playable fighter?
Sakurai: How huge he is, for one. You can see him standing up straight for a moment in one of his taunts – compared to any of the more ordinary fighters he really is colossal. Ridley had to be big, that’s who he is; any smaller and he starts looking more like an imp. I turned to the NES and SNES games for inspiration as to how to implement him in a way that was feasible; using those games as a reference is what led to his current hunched-over appearance. He’s bigger when he stands upright, but his base appearance is based in the quadrilateral sprites of the NES.
I am very happy that Sakurai looked to the NES and SNES games for inspiration for how to scale Ridley. Ridley is basically only a bit bigger than Samus in the NES game, while in Super Metroid he is not much bigger. The hunched over stature for Ridley is an especially nice touch because that is how Ridley is in Super Metroid. I think Sakuai and his team got Ridley's size just right in my opinion.
When you put him next to characters like Bowser and King K. Rool, he’s pure evil isn’t he? In terms of popularity Ridley was a hit overseas, but speaking frankly, he didn’t really click as much in Japan, did he?
Sakurai: I think that if a villain actually looks like one, people overseas probably enjoy it more. There might also be people that think that if Ridley isn’t truly huge it just isn’t Ridley.
Nintendo Dream and Sakurai speculate about why Ridley is as popular as he is outside Japan, and I think aside from his "villainy" it is also the fact that he is Samus's arch-nemesis, and staple to the Metroid series, a series that is far more popular "overseas" than within Japan. Ridley also frankly has a very cool design and very memorable boss battles. His tendency to show up when you least expect him is also another factor that has endeared him to many.
How Ridley is as a character seems to reflect his popularity – or, rather – his appeal. In terms of actual height, he’s the biggest character, is he not?
Sakurai: In terms of sheer volume, though, there isn’t much there. On the whole, Ridley being such a thin fighter actually proved to be a considerable nuisance. Things that had been intended to hit him weren’t actually hitting his damage box. There really isn’t a point around the middle of his character that you’re supposed to hit, so even though an attack would clearly be digging into him, it wouldn’t count as a hit… That kind of thing. It’s kind of like Fox’s blaster – things with thin hitboxes would just pass through. He was one of the most difficult fighters I had to make.
I actually said for years that Ridley would be a challenging character to develop due to his lanky dimensions. I really want to commend Sakurai and his team for going through the effort to actually make Ridley playable. I really wish I could personally thank Sakurai and his team for doing this. This was a dream of mine for nearly 20 years, and they were able to make it happen. Ridley making it onto Ultimate's roster was truly a miracle.
There is a lot more that is discussed in the interview, so here is a link for any Ridley and/or Smash Bros. fans that want to read it in its entirety:
https://nintendoeverything.com/saku...nha-plant-character-changes-online-much-more/
Sakurai: We’ve included characters that were in high demand from the “Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot” we held in the past. This is the case for characters like Ridley, King K. Rool and Simon.
We now have confirmation that Ridley was indeed among the "ballot newcomers". It makes me feel good that I still bothered to vote for him on the ballot even though I knew he was not going to happen as DLC. I still felt the need to speak my mind that I wanted Ridley to be a part of the roster, and why exactly I wanted him so much. Thank you to all who similarly decided to vote for Ridley despite his deconfirmation and looking very unlikely that he was going to be DLC, and especially thank you to Sakurai for re-evaluating his opinion on Ridley, and his team for making playable Ridley a reality.
Up until now, Ridley has only appeared in the Smash Bros. series as a boss character. What did you have in mind when you were turning him into a playable fighter?
Sakurai: How huge he is, for one. You can see him standing up straight for a moment in one of his taunts – compared to any of the more ordinary fighters he really is colossal. Ridley had to be big, that’s who he is; any smaller and he starts looking more like an imp. I turned to the NES and SNES games for inspiration as to how to implement him in a way that was feasible; using those games as a reference is what led to his current hunched-over appearance. He’s bigger when he stands upright, but his base appearance is based in the quadrilateral sprites of the NES.
I am very happy that Sakurai looked to the NES and SNES games for inspiration for how to scale Ridley. Ridley is basically only a bit bigger than Samus in the NES game, while in Super Metroid he is not much bigger. The hunched over stature for Ridley is an especially nice touch because that is how Ridley is in Super Metroid. I think Sakuai and his team got Ridley's size just right in my opinion.
When you put him next to characters like Bowser and King K. Rool, he’s pure evil isn’t he? In terms of popularity Ridley was a hit overseas, but speaking frankly, he didn’t really click as much in Japan, did he?
Sakurai: I think that if a villain actually looks like one, people overseas probably enjoy it more. There might also be people that think that if Ridley isn’t truly huge it just isn’t Ridley.
Nintendo Dream and Sakurai speculate about why Ridley is as popular as he is outside Japan, and I think aside from his "villainy" it is also the fact that he is Samus's arch-nemesis, and staple to the Metroid series, a series that is far more popular "overseas" than within Japan. Ridley also frankly has a very cool design and very memorable boss battles. His tendency to show up when you least expect him is also another factor that has endeared him to many.
How Ridley is as a character seems to reflect his popularity – or, rather – his appeal. In terms of actual height, he’s the biggest character, is he not?
Sakurai: In terms of sheer volume, though, there isn’t much there. On the whole, Ridley being such a thin fighter actually proved to be a considerable nuisance. Things that had been intended to hit him weren’t actually hitting his damage box. There really isn’t a point around the middle of his character that you’re supposed to hit, so even though an attack would clearly be digging into him, it wouldn’t count as a hit… That kind of thing. It’s kind of like Fox’s blaster – things with thin hitboxes would just pass through. He was one of the most difficult fighters I had to make.
I actually said for years that Ridley would be a challenging character to develop due to his lanky dimensions. I really want to commend Sakurai and his team for going through the effort to actually make Ridley playable. I really wish I could personally thank Sakurai and his team for doing this. This was a dream of mine for nearly 20 years, and they were able to make it happen. Ridley making it onto Ultimate's roster was truly a miracle.
There is a lot more that is discussed in the interview, so here is a link for any Ridley and/or Smash Bros. fans that want to read it in its entirety:
https://nintendoeverything.com/saku...nha-plant-character-changes-online-much-more/
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I find his commentary on the hitbox issues they were having with Ridley quite interesting. I'm quite curious to see the collision hitboxes in the game to see how well they match up with the character meshes. I've actually had a similar issue designing a game. We have a flying creature that can go so quick it had trouble being hit by attacks. Basically, one frame of the game the attack hitbox is in front of the character hitbox. The next frame, the character has entirely phased through and gone behind a hitbox.
That sounds like what was happening here with Fox's blaster. One frame, the projectile is in front of Ridley. The next frame, it has shown up behind him, never actually having any game frame in which the blaster projectile actually overlapped Ridley's hitbox. Given the discrete nature of game worlds (they have frames, rather than true continuous time), skinny bodies and fast moving objects can often cause these kinds of issues where attack landing can begin to feel random or have intermittent, seemingly inexplicable failures to register.
I bet Ridley's hitbox looks like the Michelin tire dude, where they had to fluff it up well past the bounds of his mesh a bunch to make it register properly and solve this issue.
So have I!
They did such a good job on his animations and sounds, and the character really feels alive when you're playing him.
II love the squawky taunt he does after he tosses someone off the stage with Space Pirate Rush. I love how oppressive and intimidating his attacks are. In particular, the skewer comes to mind. In my opinion, it's the most brutal looking attack in-game, and the game even zooms in for a split second to show it upclose. I really like how proudly he spits fireballs. I love that idle variant he has where he kind of rolls his torso and neck back and forth. His up taunt is just incredible. In general, I just really like the feel of the character and how they portrayed him in SSBU. When you're doing well with Ridley in a match, it really does look insanely intimidating as he just takes command of the entire stage and demands the spotlight. Sakurai really poured passion into how he and his team built this character, and you can really tell the effort was there. He's a star..
That sounds like what was happening here with Fox's blaster. One frame, the projectile is in front of Ridley. The next frame, it has shown up behind him, never actually having any game frame in which the blaster projectile actually overlapped Ridley's hitbox. Given the discrete nature of game worlds (they have frames, rather than true continuous time), skinny bodies and fast moving objects can often cause these kinds of issues where attack landing can begin to feel random or have intermittent, seemingly inexplicable failures to register.
I bet Ridley's hitbox looks like the Michelin tire dude, where they had to fluff it up well past the bounds of his mesh a bunch to make it register properly and solve this issue.
So have I!
They did such a good job on his animations and sounds, and the character really feels alive when you're playing him.
II love the squawky taunt he does after he tosses someone off the stage with Space Pirate Rush. I love how oppressive and intimidating his attacks are. In particular, the skewer comes to mind. In my opinion, it's the most brutal looking attack in-game, and the game even zooms in for a split second to show it upclose. I really like how proudly he spits fireballs. I love that idle variant he has where he kind of rolls his torso and neck back and forth. His up taunt is just incredible. In general, I just really like the feel of the character and how they portrayed him in SSBU. When you're doing well with Ridley in a match, it really does look insanely intimidating as he just takes command of the entire stage and demands the spotlight. Sakurai really poured passion into how he and his team built this character, and you can really tell the effort was there. He's a star..
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to the others sorry if i seem like a sore loser, it gets frustrating when you practice and practice and don't seem to be getting you anywhere, am I destined to just be horrible player 
. i rather gps be a point system that never goes down but the more you win the more points you get. it be pretty much the same thing but it won't feel like your losing progress when you lose.
. i rather gps be a point system that never goes down but the more you win the more points you get. it be pretty much the same thing but it won't feel like your losing progress when you lose.
Oh, it definitely gets frustrating. The biggest thing is to try to identify and correct your mistakes. Do you roll all the time? Maybe try cutting that out, dash instead. Do you find yourself whiffing too many side-B's and getting punished for it? Maybe stop using the move so much, unless you know it'll connect. Those are just examples, specifically that I notice about myself.
There's a match analysis thread in this forum, maybe try posting a few replays there and ask for a critique? That way other players can point out your biggest mistakes.
Specific to Kirby though? You outrange him with, well, basically everything, and he's low tier. That's not a call to mock you of course, seeing how tiers only matter in the actual upper levels of play. My advice against the little pink blob? Try to improve on your spacing. Your tilts are amazing at that, and your aerials have a fair bit of range as well. You can rack up the damage quick, and then you just need one good hit (such as a high percentage up-tilt, or properly spaced f-tilt) and he'll be off to the blastzone.
There's a match analysis thread in this forum, maybe try posting a few replays there and ask for a critique? That way other players can point out your biggest mistakes.
Specific to Kirby though? You outrange him with, well, basically everything, and he's low tier. That's not a call to mock you of course, seeing how tiers only matter in the actual upper levels of play. My advice against the little pink blob? Try to improve on your spacing. Your tilts are amazing at that, and your aerials have a fair bit of range as well. You can rack up the damage quick, and then you just need one good hit (such as a high percentage up-tilt, or properly spaced f-tilt) and he'll be off to the blastzone.
to the others sorry if i seem like a sore loser, it gets frustrating when you practice and practice and don't seem to be getting you anywhere, am I destined to just be horrible player . i rather gps be a point system that never goes down but the more you win the more points you get. it be pretty much the same thing but it won't feel like your losing progress when you lose.
. i rather gps be a point system that never goes down but the more you win the more points you get. it be pretty much the same thing but it won't feel like your losing progress when you lose.
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last I check I am 54 percent win rate for last 50, don't sound good. thanks for the constructive critique I got him up to 1.5 mil but 2 mil is a tough barrier to cross.
couple of questions
1) is it me or is ridleys reaction time slow, if you fire your fireballs and your opponent dodges to a platform straight above you have to wait for the fireballs to stop before being able to hit them and the chance is likley gone.
2) if your in the air and use the fireball or the tail jab thing your stuck until it's done before you can recover, is there a way to cancel out it>?
couple of questions
1) is it me or is ridleys reaction time slow, if you fire your fireballs and your opponent dodges to a platform straight above you have to wait for the fireballs to stop before being able to hit them and the chance is likley gone.
2) if your in the air and use the fireball or the tail jab thing your stuck until it's done before you can recover, is there a way to cancel out it>?
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Well yeah, you need to wait for your attack animation to finish before you throw out a new one, that's not just Ridley, that's every character.
1) You have to wait for him to finish spitting all of the fireballs that you've charged before he can move, but he can move while they're still on-screen and you can use them to cover an approach. Though I think you're biggest mistake here is that you're charging fireballs against an opponent with a platform directly above them and expecting that to cover an approach to help you land a hit, unless the other player just had a lobotomy then they're probably not just going to stand their in the path of your fire when there's an escape option just overhead.
I think the main utility of Plasma Breath in neutral is that it can force approaches. If you're on a stage with platforms like battlefield and facing a camper who is glued to the edge like Link, Robin, or Duck Hunt then the Plasma Breath already did it's job by making them change their gameplan and move to the platform. They're now in a position that's more favorable for you to work with and might think twice about using that tactic again, though I'll say in those situations semi-charging will often better than a full charge. You should be looking at Plasma Breath more as a tool to force action from the other player and not as a tool to score you free hits and follow-ups, and if you're facing a quicker more aggressive player who wants to close in on you then you probably shouldn't be charging Plasma Breath in neutral at all.
2) You do need to commit to the move you make. Forward air (the tail jab thing) has a long forward disjoint and good duration which can make it the most useful in certain scenarios, but if you're just looking for a quick safer attack with less commitment then you should be using Nair.
1) You have to wait for him to finish spitting all of the fireballs that you've charged before he can move, but he can move while they're still on-screen and you can use them to cover an approach. Though I think you're biggest mistake here is that you're charging fireballs against an opponent with a platform directly above them and expecting that to cover an approach to help you land a hit, unless the other player just had a lobotomy then they're probably not just going to stand their in the path of your fire when there's an escape option just overhead.
I think the main utility of Plasma Breath in neutral is that it can force approaches. If you're on a stage with platforms like battlefield and facing a camper who is glued to the edge like Link, Robin, or Duck Hunt then the Plasma Breath already did it's job by making them change their gameplan and move to the platform. They're now in a position that's more favorable for you to work with and might think twice about using that tactic again, though I'll say in those situations semi-charging will often better than a full charge. You should be looking at Plasma Breath more as a tool to force action from the other player and not as a tool to score you free hits and follow-ups, and if you're facing a quicker more aggressive player who wants to close in on you then you probably shouldn't be charging Plasma Breath in neutral at all.
2) You do need to commit to the move you make. Forward air (the tail jab thing) has a long forward disjoint and good duration which can make it the most useful in certain scenarios, but if you're just looking for a quick safer attack with less commitment then you should be using Nair.
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1) I useally like to hit them with the fireball and right before there damage ends rush it and hit them. thing is it don't always run and instead walks and the time is missed. not sure what I am doing wrong since I swear I am doing the same thing to run as last time. also it seems other characters I can change attack faster so when my opponet may dodge my attack I can readjust to counter his counter 
2) also the platforms are hard to phase threw, a lot of times it turns into him just crouching down
3) god I hate ness and lucas spammers, I swear they just spam pk freeze or pk thunder the entire game, and even if you win the match was more work then fun. Also makes me laugh when they tebag like there so skilled.
2) also the platforms are hard to phase threw, a lot of times it turns into him just crouching down
3) god I hate ness and lucas spammers, I swear they just spam pk freeze or pk thunder the entire game, and even if you win the match was more work then fun. Also makes me laugh when they tebag like there so skilled
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1) I useally like to hit them with the fireball and right before there damage ends rush it and hit them. thing is it don't always run and instead walks and the time is missed. not sure what I am doing wrong since I swear I am doing the same thing to run as last time. also it seems other characters I can change attack faster so when my opponet may dodge my attack I can readjust to counter his counter
2) also the platforms are hard to phase threw, a lot of times it turns into him just crouching down
3) god I hate ness and lucas spammers, I swear they just spam pk freeze or pk thunder the entire game, and even if you win the match was more work then fun. Also makes me laugh when they tebag like there so skilled.
2) also the platforms are hard to phase threw, a lot of times it turns into him just crouching down
3) god I hate ness and lucas spammers, I swear they just spam pk freeze or pk thunder the entire game, and even if you win the match was more work then fun. Also makes me laugh when they tebag like there so skilled
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SSBU online uses an Elo-based matchmaking system. What this means is that you should, regardless of your level of skill, steady-state into a 50% win / loss rate. If you are beating people more than you are losing to them at your current Elo, it will adjust such that you're matchmaking against players with a higher Elo. If you're losing more than you're winning, the opposite occurs. Eventually, assuming constant skill, you will even out at a 50% win / loss over time. Many did not realize this, but this is why Sakurai's findings on the W/L rate of Elite Smash yielded very close to 50% W/L rates for all characters, regardless of the tier lists constructed. It doesn't actually mean the game is inherently balanced. It just means the players in that bracket have, regardless of their choice of main or skill level within the Elite Smash category, settled at their appropriate skill level and are now tussling back and forth around the same Elo. I'd personally love to see some stats of various character densities as a function of the Elo rating built into Smash's matchmaking system, a number which is currently not exposed to the player. GSP appears to be the summation of all players with a lower Elo than you.
A win loss rate has got more to do with Elo systems than your particular skill. In fact, often times newer players may see a higher win / loss rate in any Elo-based game matchmaking system because they're likely to improve through the brackets faster than a player who has played a lot, winning 60/70+ percent of their games as the Elo rating tries to catch up and match them with appropriately skilled opponents. After all, it takes orders of magnitude more effort to break through the higher ranks than it does to improve through the middle of the pack, so really strong players will likely settle near the top and start fighting other strong players, going about 50 50.
I should mention one footnote here. If there are not sufficiently sized player pools for extremely adept players to match against, they likely will see significantly inflated win / loss rates. That's got more to do with an inadequate player pool at that skill level than anything else. The vast, vast majority of people will not be in this situation. You may see smash legends have exceedingly high win / loss rates online due to this.
A good proof of concept of this is to have a player deliberately sandbag their rating. Wipe the slate clean and do 30 games after hitting rock-bottom. You'll likely be fighting people who cannot keep themselves on the stage, let alone win a battle against you. Sure' you'll go 25/5 as your Elo rating settles back down to where it should be, but that's not a stat to boast about. It's just the way the system works.
From what I've seen online on these forums, however, it sounds like Nintendo's Elo system very rapidly corrects a player towards their intended Elo rating, thus making it harder to deliberately sandbag like this just to go on a winning streak.
3) god I hate ness and lucas spammers, I swear they just spam pk freeze or pk thunder the entire game, and even if you win the match was more work then fun. Also makes me laugh when they tebag like there so skilled .
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Keep in mind that it's much harder to go through platforms directly after dropping shield. No matter how hard you press down, you'll just crouch instead. You have to wait for the shield dropping animation to end before you are allowed to input downward, since you can't buffer a platform drop. (And from what I know, you can't drop through a platform while holding shield like you could in 4. So that option is removed.)
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I've had some success getting past it by just playing more defensively. Most players I see online spam it, so more likely than not, you can shield the first blast, watch them pull out another, then run in with a grab or attack before the move ends and they can react (thank god Ridley has a decent dash to close the gap).
Things might change if they're a little smarter than that and they detonate Freeze closer to themselves, predicting the rush in, but if you're good on shield again, you might be able to avoid the damage and still get the attack out.
Those two boys are annoying little s****, but just taking a more defensive approach has helped me a lot. Plus as stated before, sometimes just using Plasma Breath to make them absorb it, then rushing in for an attack will throw them off guard. Just make sure it's not a full stream, just a little to make them think they'll gain the upperhand by absorbing it before you go in with Ridley's best.
Things might change if they're a little smarter than that and they detonate Freeze closer to themselves, predicting the rush in, but if you're good on shield again, you might be able to avoid the damage and still get the attack out.
Those two boys are annoying little s****, but just taking a more defensive approach has helped me a lot. Plus as stated before, sometimes just using Plasma Breath to make them absorb it, then rushing in for an attack will throw them off guard. Just make sure it's not a full stream, just a little to make them think they'll gain the upperhand by absorbing it before you go in with Ridley's best.
Speaking of Lucas / Ness, I just had the pleasure of fighting Lucas 3 times in a row tonight on the ranked matchmaking system, though I admittedly elected to rematch after losing the first match to rack up some practice. I won the second two games!
At first, it was pk fire pk fire pk fire, oh you want to back off? pk freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze! I didn't do very well. I actually died to the pk freeze off the edge of the stage while trying to recover.
By the end of the first game, I had started picking up on a strategy that seemed to work particularly well against this Lucas player.
Whenever he'd start pk firing, I typically did one of two things and liked to mix it up. I'd either stand just out of range of his fire and shoot a stream of plasma breath, or I'd come from above and hit him with a neutral air.
With Plasma Stream, usually I could get one plasma stream out and get him with it if he was already committed to pk firing. If he was able to cast a fresh one, I'd hold back on all my fireballs and only shoot a couple to bait his magic absorbing move. Sometimes he'd try and pk freeze me while I shot fire at him,, but they weren't too hard to avoid given the projectile is quite slow. I usually shielded if he did that.
With an attack from above, he started sometimes jumping up and fighting me in the air with some kind of hexagon shaped attack, but as long as I kept out of his hitbox, my neutral air was outmatching his. He'd sometimes pk freeze to try and hit me while I came from above instead of jumping up, but then I just air dodged and hit him while he was controlling the freeze projectile. It definitely was effective at getting around the seemingly insurmountable wall of pk fire.
It worked quite well! It seemed that just going up and over his pk fire was not a bad choice of strategy. That's how I managed to take on a Lucas this evening just now.
At first, it was pk fire pk fire pk fire, oh you want to back off? pk freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze! I didn't do very well. I actually died to the pk freeze off the edge of the stage while trying to recover.
By the end of the first game, I had started picking up on a strategy that seemed to work particularly well against this Lucas player.
Whenever he'd start pk firing, I typically did one of two things and liked to mix it up. I'd either stand just out of range of his fire and shoot a stream of plasma breath, or I'd come from above and hit him with a neutral air.
With Plasma Stream, usually I could get one plasma stream out and get him with it if he was already committed to pk firing. If he was able to cast a fresh one, I'd hold back on all my fireballs and only shoot a couple to bait his magic absorbing move. Sometimes he'd try and pk freeze me while I shot fire at him,, but they weren't too hard to avoid given the projectile is quite slow. I usually shielded if he did that.
With an attack from above, he started sometimes jumping up and fighting me in the air with some kind of hexagon shaped attack, but as long as I kept out of his hitbox, my neutral air was outmatching his. He'd sometimes pk freeze to try and hit me while I came from above instead of jumping up, but then I just air dodged and hit him while he was controlling the freeze projectile. It definitely was effective at getting around the seemingly insurmountable wall of pk fire.
It worked quite well! It seemed that just going up and over his pk fire was not a bad choice of strategy. That's how I managed to take on a Lucas this evening just now.
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This is telling. I’ve actually been trying to remember this when practicing with him. He’s an alien with distinctly non-human biology, and Sakurai didn’t gloss over this fact when designing him.
I think a lot of the initial Ridley detractors were expecting his movement to be as self-explanatory as other heavies like the more anthropomorphic DK and Bowser. Instead he benefits from things like more carefully spaced tilts and pivoted smashes. As this is realized we've seen him creep up tiers and in representation.
I think a lot of the initial Ridley detractors were expecting his movement to be as self-explanatory as other heavies like the more anthropomorphic DK and Bowser. Instead he benefits from things like more carefully spaced tilts and pivoted smashes. As this is realized we've seen him creep up tiers and in representation.
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Yeah, it took a good moment to get a good grasp on Ridley. With Donkey Kong you're a big bruiser who closes in and wallops your foe, everything flows and has the right momentum for that as you grab them and toss them around, send them packing with a super-armor punch, or get them off the stage to dunk them. Going from that to Ridley takes some getting used to since he's not a character who gets results by throwing his weight around, perhaps true to his character, he is deceptively calculating in a way that betrays his appearance.
I think the most telling about this is that every single one of his specials has notable startup. Plasma Breath has a charging phase where you'll eat 20% damage if you get hit before he spits out his fireball, Space Pirate Rush is the slowest command grab where it can sometimes feel like he's trudging knee deep through molasses trying to reach them, Wing Blitz sits still for a good second before firing off, and Skewer is a lengthy windup that requires very precise spacing, and they all four can leave us quite vulnerable on whiff as well.
I feel like there's a lot of characters who can afford to just throw out moves without much risk even if it's not the most optimal play, but Ridley has to be very mindful of every special he throws out and when and where to use them since they all need you to be able to read the situation correctly in order to gain off of it. We have a quite a few options for edge-guarding and deciding which is the best option to go for in given situations and also recovering ourselves, so I believe he does require more thought and patience than a lot of the more straightforward characters.
Though I figure we're still not on the level of Pac-Man shenanigans or desync Ice Climber in how high your IQ needs to be to play.
I think the most telling about this is that every single one of his specials has notable startup. Plasma Breath has a charging phase where you'll eat 20% damage if you get hit before he spits out his fireball, Space Pirate Rush is the slowest command grab where it can sometimes feel like he's trudging knee deep through molasses trying to reach them, Wing Blitz sits still for a good second before firing off, and Skewer is a lengthy windup that requires very precise spacing, and they all four can leave us quite vulnerable on whiff as well.
I feel like there's a lot of characters who can afford to just throw out moves without much risk even if it's not the most optimal play, but Ridley has to be very mindful of every special he throws out and when and where to use them since they all need you to be able to read the situation correctly in order to gain off of it. We have a quite a few options for edge-guarding and deciding which is the best option to go for in given situations and also recovering ourselves, so I believe he does require more thought and patience than a lot of the more straightforward characters.
Though I figure we're still not on the level of Pac-Man shenanigans or desync Ice Climber in how high your IQ needs to be to play.
I'll definitely agree with that. At first, I tried to play him like Bowser or Ganondorf because he was big and was instantly just losing horribly. I actually ended up almost giving up at the start, because I was just getting destroyed so badly.
To be fair, however, prior to even playing Ridley, I never used tilts and kind of just spammed smashes the entire match. To say the least, that did not get any kind of results with him at all.
To be fair, however, prior to even playing Ridley, I never used tilts and kind of just spammed smashes the entire match. To say the least, that did not get any kind of results with him at all.
Ridley is the heavyweight character noobs weren't expecting. You can't spam Smash attacks and expect to get very far. You have to bid your time and poke at your opponent with his tail while you wait for an opportunity to strike.
It's kind of bittersweet. Ridley has a lot of potential, but he's rarely used online over characters like Ganondorf and K. Rool because of his learning curve. Basically, people are too impatient and would rather settle for being one of the dozens of Clouds online if it means seeing results almost instantly.
It's kind of bittersweet. Ridley has a lot of potential, but he's rarely used online over characters like Ganondorf and K. Rool because of his learning curve. Basically, people are too impatient and would rather settle for being one of the dozens of Clouds online if it means seeing results almost instantly.
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I’m okay with Ridley not being a near braindead character for people to go to as a shortcut for results. Just means he won’t be overused and will be underestimated at people’s own peril.
Like how no one in Smash has made me have to learn spacing quite like Ridley, which makes getting a handle on his playstyle all the more satisfying.
Like how no one in Smash has made me have to learn spacing quite like Ridley, which makes getting a handle on his playstyle all the more satisfying.