Hello, it’s me, G. Stache. Anyways, hiya, most of you probably don’t know me but I used Looigi in Smash 4 and while I’m no Elegant I’d like to think I know quite a bit about the character. Been using the sucker for years. And looking at the info of what we know so far (new grab, sucky down b, reduced landing lag on aerials, increased running speed(?)) I think Luigi’s greatest strengths from smash 4, close ranged fighting/boxing, damage racking and edguguarding (ESPECIALLY edgeguarding lol) have been nerfed overall. Won’t get into down b nerfs because we all know how much that will hurt Luigi’s recovery mix ups and gimping, but what I will say is that for what Luigi now might lack in his old strengths he may very well make up for with his new toys to play with.
Let’s start with the tether grab. Obviously not the grab any of us necessarily wanted to see (as in nobody wanted to see this because we’ve seen how good tether grabs have been overall in smash, lol) but this one doesn’t look that bad from the limited eye test we’ve been able to use. It seems to come out rather quickly for a tether grab, has decent range and doesn’t seem to have much endlag. I obviously don’t have any numbers or statistics to back this claim up, but it kinda reminds me of Lucas’ smash 4 grab. And that’s not a bad grab at all. One of the better - if not the best - tether grabs in smash 4 in my very humble opinion. Plus keep in mind that smash games have been consistently improving tether grabs from game to game endlag-wise to the point where I can comfortably say that the likes of Lucas’ and (Toon) Link’s tethers were an actual piece of their kit that posed some sort of threat. So don’t automatically assume that a tether grab will automatically destroy Luigi’s viability right away. Give some time to lab out just how reliable this new grab is. But, assuming that it is a decent grab, it gives Luigi another thing that he severely lacked in Smash 4 and that is (Wait for iiiiiiiit...)
A mid range game. Luigi and his short range and below average tilts made for a very underpowered mid range game. In the same game where Bayo and Mewtwo had crazy good d tilts (and everything else tbh), where bowser and DK had long limbs to poke and prod at the masses, where Rosalina had that arse hole sidekick of hers that always picked on OUR favorite sidekick and where Sheik did whatever Sheik thing she felt like doing because any form of the neutral state was what I call Sheik’s World (kinda like Disney World but boy howdy is it less fun. Not overpriced though. If you really want to see overpriced just take a look at that Roy DLC my goodness). But look at what Luigi had in the mid range game: fireball, shield, a short hop aerial or two and prayers. Personally, I usually relied on the fireballs and the prayers. His mid range to long range game, to be quite frank, sucked. And we’re lucky he had decent ground mobility and a God-like close range game and advantage state. But between tether grab, a new Zair and increased run speed (?) (I’m pretty sure he’s faster on the ground but please someone confirm or deny that claim if you know for sure) he suddenly has the tools to at least somewhat contend in the midrange. Tether grab and Zair should compliment his fireball very well since fireballs by their lonesome can be played around fairly easily provided the character has a reliable tool outside of shield to combat them. But Zair, provided that it’s an average Zair and will do basically what Zairs did in smash 4, can contend range wise with just about any aerial that Luigi otherwise couldn’t outspace (like sword-related aerials for instance) and his tether grab now can punish mis-spaced tilts and pokes with a Luigi combo. An increased run speed along with smashes and tilts cancelable out of run should grant Luigi a good way to effectively throw out strong and low risk moves to bully opponents from a greater space away than we were previously accustomed to (dash canceled d smash/ f smash sounds particularly threatening in the right situations tbh). Finally lag reduction on Luigi’s aerials means that short hop aerials become that much more threatening when in the opponents in range.
Overall I DO think Luigi will be worse off in Ultimate than he was in smash 4 just because more and more characters will inevitably cause some sort of power creep and down b nerfs honestly suck a LOT. But he has the tools now to create a more balanced game from the looks of it. I admit freely that I am mostly going off of eye test and speculation and theorycrafting. But just keep in mind that for every change that Luigi has gotten, some aspect of his game changes with it. And just because it’s changed does not mean his kit is ruined. It’s just different (Again, unless it’s down b lol, big mcthankies Sakurai). Try to keep an open mind and let’s continue to see how the character looks the more we get to see him. And golly was this a longer write up than what I originally wanted to do, especially with the limited info we have so far. But I hope I gave some of you guys an adequate reason or two not to fear some of these changes. Top Luigi players will adapt to these changes, I honestly do believe that. So let’s try to adapt as well
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