Make Your Move 11 - It's Over, Duder!

[Junahu]

Second, hmmmm, can't really argue against your point, though when it comes to making a set for a non-hostile character such as Ayano there aren't too many other options unless they were physical actions that interacted with the toy and all. The F-tilt doesn't actually make Ayano walk; it's designed to be used while Ayano is walking or running as the a F-tilt input can be used out of a walk. I'm pretty sure I listed an animation for most of her moves what with the U-tilt and D-tilt so players knew that the move at least did -something-; I had one of your articles in mind with that though I can accept that players would be confused about most of the move's uses. But then again that's not an easy thing to get around with this kind of style I guess...

I completely sympathise with you in regards to the challenges a character like this sets on the MYMer. Passive characters are certainly a tricky wicket to make work, and in situations like this, it is usually for the best to accept that they will have to get physical and fantastical in order to be playable. I respect you for trying non-the-less, though I get the feeling people are beginning to misinterpret my stance on characterisation.

Character should never come at the cost of gameplay or playability. And, characterisation in Brawl is a different beast to characterisation in a person's source material, or even their characterisation in other video games. It would be fine for Ayano to throw a punch, just so long as it "feels" weak (it doesn't even have to BE weak, audio/visual cues can be used to make attacks feel weaker than they really are).

From my understanding, getting mad at Ayano's stuffed animal being in peril can be emulated simply by making it vital that she keeps hold of it (passive healing? A universal boost in "confidence"/knockback?). This way, when the foe grabs it, the player becomes desperate and agitated, and aggressive in their attempts to reclaim it.

On a more positive note, I was quite surprised at how her FFA playstyle fits her, with her mechanics resulting in her being so strongly ignored.

One thing: I mentioned that allies can't make Ayano angry by hitting Rirattanu at the end of the Neutral Special as that'd be downright stupid and broken at the same time

Aw shucks, I completely missed that. I do end up forgetting details like that during a read.
Simply saying that the foe can't interact with Rirattanu at all would have a similar effect, btw.

 

[Katapultar]

Ayano
So this is that anime moveset you were hoping to finish alongside the streak we had last week, huh? I've got to hand it to you, this is unique, Kat. The playstyle is simply radical. And the gradient headers, though simple, are very appealing. That said, I have to level some of the same complaints against this as Junahu did. With literally no damaging attacks, only subtle visual cues about what's really happening, Ayano is sure to quickly frustrate the player who chooses her. And then there's that conflict of interest between her and the player, where the player wants her precious stuffed animal attacked as quickly as possible to make her mad and score a KO, but that would directly contrast her own reasoning and feelings. To me, this moveset does very well in some aspects, but has a few big problems in others, so in the end, I'm not really sure what to think of it.

There aren't really any new things I can pick up on and speak about here, just getting some general thought. Still, thanks for the comment!

I completely sympathise with you in regards to the challenges a character like this sets on the MYMer. Passive characters are certainly a tricky wicket to make work, and in situations like this, it is usually for the best to accept that they will have to get physical and fantastical in order to be playable. I respect you for trying non-the-less, though I get the feeling people are beginning to misinterpret my stance on characterisation.

Character should never come at the cost of gameplay or playability. And, characterisation in Brawl is a different beast to characterisation in a person's source material, or even their characterisation in other video games. It would be fine for Ayano to throw a punch, just so long as it "feels" weak (it doesn't even have to BE weak, audio/visual cues can be used to make attacks feel weaker than they really are).

From my understanding, getting mad at Ayano's stuffed animal being in peril can be emulated simply by making it vital that she keeps hold of it (passive healing? A universal boost in "confidence"/knockback?). This way, when the foe grabs it, the player becomes desperate and agitated, and aggressive in their attempts to reclaim it.

On a more positive note, I was quite surprised at how her FFA playstyle fits her, with her mechanics resulting in her being so strongly ignored.

I think I understand a little in how you work now: you've made successful sets for characters like Nurse Joy and Penny who don't fight but still make them fight in a similar perspective as everyone else but with their own styles. I kind of objected to that kind of thought before but now that you mention gameplay it makes a bit more sense...that said, it's difficult for me to accept this fact for a character(s) who I see do nothing but regular everyday activities, though I guess it would add far more variety if I make future sets for similar characters.

Your idea of confidence boost almost makes me want to re-make this set or go back and edit it but if anything it should be used for future idea. That said, my viewpoint on the playstyle I made for Ayano was that she remains passive for most of the match until she finally snaps and gets angry....to be honest I based this whole "getting angry" playstyle on a single panel from the manga where Ayano's Rirattanu got coffee spilled on him (the only time he ever appeared so here the raccoon is kind of getting more publicity than he deserves) and it had been on my mind every since when considering a moveset for her. Aside from that one panel and the once-in-a-blue-moon bits of art like the one I put at the end of the set, Ayano is always seen as a passive person; that was generally a high priority when implementing the character. Though I understand what you mean about making the player irritated alongside Ayano, that is something I failed to implement....in that manner.

My idea of the player's experience was to emulate the self-conscious feminine side of Ayano by having the player constantly forced to look after themselves and be in top shape to prevent themselves from dying, though like everyone has said the initial visual indication is extremely weak - I had kind of thought that this perhaps works for Ayano's character a little, maybe? She has a bit of a ditzy side to her and the player would be forced to remember their actions in order to understand Ayano's condition, but I know that there is no excuse I can make for the lack of know-how for the player in the effects of the moves and that there'd be little I can do about that unless there were small thought bubbles that accompanied Ayano and gave an indication to the effect, though that'd probably make the situation worse. When using Ayano the player would feel no anger or frustration during the match; rather an unseen feeling of desperation to stay alive (in both a literal and metaphorical way, Ayano doesn't want to be shunned down, as in the main series she generally tries her best to please her friend Misao) as well as make Ayano angry. When Ayano gets angry there's supposed to be a sense of excitement for the player, and a sense of terror and loss for the enemy, who has just made the normally passive Ayano angry. Then again I guess Ayano doesn't have to get angry in order to achieve her goals or gain publicity but the fact that she can in the first place makes everyone who knows so pay attention to her in a certain way. This may sound like I'm trying to make up random stuff in order to justify my choices but in a way perhaps Ayano is trying to please the player who wants to win the match and has to go out of her way and into theirs to do so....hmm, I'd better stop with this mumbling before I say something I shouldn't.

None-the-less, that is something I can take in for the future. I understand what you were trying to say but I don't want to think that my ideas were entirely wrong either.

 

[Junahu]

None-the-less, that is something I can take in for the future. I understand what you were trying to say but I don't want to think that my ideas were entirely wrong either.

This is why I like you. You're willing to look at criticism, but don't obligate yourself into changing the way you view movesetting, and are fully prepared to stand up to defend your work and its interpretations. It's a good balance of confidence and humility.

I admit that fumbling around with different attack animations that appear to have no base effect forces the player to think of Ayano in a different light, get to know her a little more deeply, and gives the character a level of introspection that is quite unlike Brawl as we know it. Maybe it really does get the player to approach playing as Ayano in a more passive light.
There are many different ways to interpret a single moveset, and there's no way I can claim to know them all. I'm glad to see just how much thought and deliberation you invest in these things.

 

[Kholdstare]

Teru Mikami has been re-uploaded here! (click the link)

 

[Katapultar]

Wow Khold, that's some dynamically awesome organisation you've got going for Teru Mikami, a man I've never heard of before from a series I've heard 1,000,000 times. He looks like a simple man in the first image but that second makes him look like a pimp god.

I'm well aware that you emphasize reading experience in your movesets from your own and the words of others; I must say, it's far more prominent here than anything else you've done in this competition. You seem to be very good at keeping the details simple, which combined with the short description, numberless stats and NSpec image give the set an arguably dark and empty feel that's all too perfect. All the Specials are enjoyable and relevant to the character and world he comes from, though the fun stops there....... Sure, this is a 1-day set along with (probably) all your other MYMXI sets but I kind of wish you didn't just burn out on the organisation and consistency for the non-specials by making them look unimportant. I don't mind all that much if the non-specials and grab deleted individual enemy attacks in a fit of mass redundancy for the most part, though when you try to fill up space with random rantings it does get a bit annoying and irrelevant....though I suppose I can understand where you're coming from in that direction as it'd be no better to have the individual attack descriptions sound boring. I only wish that perhaps you had done a bit more with the non-specials; I'm pretty sure this guy had a good deal of atmospherical potential even outside the Specials department. That said, I don't care if it took you one day or one month to make this set, I enjoyed it quite a lot. You definitely do well in starting up the experience; when I see a set from you that keeps this experience consistent for the entire time I'll be able to truly read and look in awe.


Also, your bold efforts to make a 1-day set have inspired me a wee bit. Awesome.

 

[half_silver28]

DeleteDeleteDeleteDeleteDeleteDeleteDeleteDeleteDe lete

Honestly though, Mikami's a weird set that really requires some suspension of disbelief with him DELETEing the foe's moves and recovering via projectile blood. But this set oddly enough fits his sadistic DELETE obsession, getting rid of the foes' moves one by one until they can no longer resist him. It is indeed a bit frightening to think Mikami was aware of the fake notebook, but the down special regardless provides for some mindgames that remind me of Two-Face's fake coin flip, but more justified imo. The standards are generally bland, yes, but the little story you tell through out makes the set far more fun to read. The grab might be a cop-out, but it's actually relevant when he has to hit with a variety of close range moves to DELETE theirs. This was certainly a pretty cool set: I don't know if many others will like it, but I'm a fan.

Ayano. . . I'm going to have a hard time commenting a set this crazy, but here goes. Outside of Lunge, I couldn't name a set that differs so much from standard MYM and Brawl movesets in their playstyle and goals. She can only resist her opponents by spamming healing moves and just plain stalling them with weird moves like ftilt and dsmash. This set requires more suspension of disbelief than Mikami, but at least Ayano has the benefit of being from a comedic anime (I haven't watched Lucky Star. . . yet (wary)). A large focus on items is obvious with her only method of KOing coming from seeing damage on Rirattanu (though I feel like you could have been more creative with replacing her moves with something other than generic punch). Maybe something that plays into her item focus. There are some nice mindgames with storing items away and tricking foes into spilling tea or hitting Rirattanu.

I particularly like how she plays once separated from Rirattanu. Not only does the foe have to keep him out of harms way, Ayano has rather humorous ways of manipulating her own knockback to make foes knock her into Rirattanu. The dash attack not only gives her a way to take him back and spam more healing, but can lead to him getting ripped if Ayano is at 0% (which is likely with all that healing). Being able to check Rirattanu for damage from a range and forcing them to face her so she can do so is nice, but all these attack speed buffs and debuffs come off as rather weird considering she doesn't really "attack". I really respect this set for what it does and is very unique and interesting in concept, but it's still such a strange thing to read, so much so that I don't know rather to make heads or tails of it.

 

[Katapultar]

Ayano. . . I'm going to have a hard time commenting a set this crazy, but here goes. Outside of Lunge, I couldn't name a set that differs so much from standard MYM and Brawl movesets in their playstyle and goals. She can only resist her opponents by spamming healing moves and just plain stalling them with weird moves like ftilt and dsmash. This set requires more suspension of disbelief than Mikami, but at least Ayano has the benefit of being from a comedic anime (I haven't watched Lucky Star. . . yet (wary)). A large focus on items is obvious with her only method of KOing coming from seeing damage on Rirattanu (though I feel like you could have been more creative with replacing her moves with something other than generic punch). Maybe something that plays into her item focus. There are some nice mindgames with storing items away and tricking foes into spilling tea or hitting Rirattanu.

I particularly like how she plays once separated from Rirattanu. Not only does the foe have to keep him out of harms way, Ayano has rather humorous ways of manipulating her own knockback to make foes knock her into Rirattanu. The dash attack not only gives her a way to take him back and spam more healing, but can lead to him getting ripped if Ayano is at 0% (which is likely with all that healing). Being able to check Rirattanu for damage from a range and forcing them to face her so she can do so is nice, but all these attack speed buffs and debuffs come off as rather weird considering she doesn't really "attack". I really respect this set for what it does and is very unique and interesting in concept, but it's still such a strange thing to read, so much so that I don't know rather to make heads or tails of it.

First, if you haven't watched Lucky Star, go do it :3 (though you won't see Ayano get angry or Rirattanu there, they only appear in one panel from the manga). Secondly, it's interesting to have someone talk about the kill method that Ayano uses; I simply made it a punch because A: seeing schoolgirls punch out other super strong villains in a fighting game like Dormmamu or Shuma Gorath would just be awesome B: Ayano has never done anything violent or comically dark C: I took some inspiration from RWB's AT of Ayano in his Konata set from MYM1, and D: for simplicity's sake; didn't want there to be any real focus on the kill move when that's supposed to be on how Ayano gets angry. When you think about it however I could have actually made Ayano do something darkly hilarious like poison her food or yell at the enemy and KO them with the power of voice, but really Lucky Star has a good limit to how comical a situation can get as it generally follows normality for the most part.

I guess the awkwardness of taking non-attacking moves to the extreme is a rather big deal in this moveset; far more than I thought it'd ever be. Still, I'm glad you harbor some feelings to it.

 

[MasterWarlord]

BEEZWAX​

Playlist

Beezwax is a character from the vehicle combat game Vigilante 8 – a genre that is largely dominated by the likes of Twisted Metal with most competition getting crushed. The main gimmick of Vigilante 8 to differentiate it, aside from a largely over the top 80s flavor, were character specific special weapons. These weapons were generally largely overpowered and were often sought after, with the spawn points of them being set in specific hard to reach locations in each stage. The creative stage design of the game is the main thing that helped this to work, with you having to blow up airplanes or hitch a ride in a cable car (While still inside your car) to snag the pick-ups. Yeah, it’s pretty wacky.

Beezwax himself being a highlight of just how wacky it gets. As you can see from that giant beehive he’s carrying, he’s a bee keeper, and his few voice samples make it quite clear that he’s a country man. He goes on a rampage upon the government polluting his farmlands with radioactive waste, mutating and killing several of his bees. This mutation seemed to empower the bees, though, and Beezwax felt obliged to let them get their direct vengeance upon the government. He eventually joins up with the Coyotes, the villainous team of the game, due to shared interests. Regardless of not being familiar with what all those hip new city folk trends are, Beezwax is no stranger to technology, keeping several nuclear warheads inside of his Stag Pickup. Is he intending to bomb the government to cause even further chaos? Who knows, but they were presumably his pay for working with the Coyotes, so he had to have been planning something catastrophic. . .

STATS​

Size: 20
Weight: 15
Falling Speed: 8
Ground Movement: 1-8
Traction: .1

Beezwax is constantly inside of his Stag Pickup – he’s not Sweet Tooth or anything, he’s a fat elderly man. Aside from that, there’s no way he’d want to make himself vulnerable to all of the explosions taking place outside of his vehicle.

The tallest portion of the pickup goes up 1.5x Ganon’s height, and the entirety of the truck is double Bowser’s width. The truck is constantly solid, enabling you to carry foes on top of it, though the truck –can- be rolled/dodged past and such. . .If you have a roll that goes two Bowser widths, anyway. The truck has to accelerate from a 1-8 in movement speed, and won’t reach 8 until traveling the entirety of Battlefield – look at the bloody thing. When the truck is moving, it’s a hitbox based off how fast it is, capping at 20% and knockback that KOs at 100%. Yes, Smashbot, it’s momentum based, but the truck can dash straight off the edge and has very situational recovery, being unable to even grab ledges, so attempting to ram foes is very impractical.

If you attempt to stop a dash and start up your beyond awful traction, Beezwax will spin the truck around to face the opposite direction, moving a platform forward as he does so and keeping his hitbox in-tact with 1.35x the power. If he had reached half his top speed (4/10 movement speed), he’ll come to a complete stop by doing this. This also generates a wind hitbox above Beezwax twice as strong as Dedede’s inhale to knock foes camping on top of the truck off of it, as well as most MYM goop and traps. If Beezwax was moving faster than 4/10, the truck will tip over, increasing the power of the hitbox to 1.5x how fast the truck was going. If it was going fast enough, it will roll forwards a good distance with this hitbox in-tact. When you’re tipped over, you can “wiggle” back up by pressing left and right in turn with the same logic you can in Vigilante 8.

If you want to stop when moving over 4/10 movement without tipping over, you can input down to slam on the brakes, slowing down 1.5x as fast as you speed up. Just don’t expect the foe to be so kind as to not poke you over the edge if you come to a stop there. Because of the truck’s terrible traction, it can drive in reverse without turning around if you attempt to –walk- backwards instead of double tapping to dash. Due to all of these natural hitboxes, the truck has no dashing attack, but can use all attacks while moving.

The truck takes no hitstun and cannot be grabbed under normal circumstances. However, if you stand on the front of the truck and break the glass (A petty 15% stamina), you can attack Beezwax directly to deal hitstun to him as well as grab him. Just be aware that anything that would separate him from his car, such as, y’know, knockback, won’t work. He gains an immunity to being grabbed for 2 seconds after being released from one, and can still drive the car to move (but not use attacks) while in “hitstun”. Due to Beezwax’s hitstun resistance, weight, and how large his truck is, he has no shield, and it should go without saying that the truck is largely incapable of traditional dodges. Thus, Beezwax has shield button attacks instead of aerials.

SPECIALS​

UP SPECIAL – SWARM!​

Beezwax yells out the name of the move as a horde of bees come out of the beehive on his stag pickup. The bees will patrol the stage back and forth at Mario’s walking speed by default, but if an enemy comes within a platform of them they will home in on them at Mario’s dashing speed. On contact with a foe, the bees will do exactly what they do in Vigilante 8 – juggle the foe upwards. These bees are used to juggle school buses, so Bowser is small time. They deal 8% and juggle the foe upwards .9 platforms on contact, keeping them in range for the bees to continue chasing them. The bees can be attacked and all attacks will out-prioritize them, and must be dealt 40% to retreat back to their beehive at which point Beezwax cannot resummon them for 20 seconds.

If Beezwax inputs this move when the bees are already out and about, he’ll take out a jar of honey and stick his hand inside, grabbing a nice big glob of it. He then proceeds to stick his hand out the car window and throw it in whatever angle you please, traveling 1 platforms horizontally if thrown straight forward/backward, less if angled upward due to the honey obeying gravity. The honey does not vanish on contact with the ground. Bees will constantly hover over honey if it hits the stage, but will still pursue foes if they come in range.

If a foe gets hit by the honey or touches honey on the ground, they’ll get it on them which will cause the bees to relentlessly pursue them no matter how far away they flee, moving at 1.5x their normal dashing speed. To get the honey off, foes must simply dash a platform’s width to spread the honey out onto the floor. Honey increases chances of tripping (25% whenever you start up a dash, 50% whenever you turn around while dashing) and decreases traction and what have you, but who cares about that? In any case, you can’t very well spread out the honey if you’re in the air, and that’s where the bees like to keep you.

Remember when I said the bees were capable of juggling entire cars? Well, that’s the closest thing Beezwax gets to recovery. If Beezwax runs over honey on the ground or simply throws honey directly at his tires, it’ll get all over his tires. This enables Beezwax to spread honey across the stage with ease, spreading a platform’s width worth of honey himself if he drives along. If Beezwax throws honey at his tires when some is already on it, the bees will automatically home in on Beezwax specifically, causing his car to become vulnerable to the bees. This does indeed deal damage to you, so for the love of god, try to avoid driving off-stage. The excessive honey on the tires lasts for 5 seconds, and Beezwax cannot renew this effect until touching ground. If Beezwax uses this move off-stage with bees already out, he will automatically throw honey at his tires.

NEUTRAL SPECIAL – BULL’S EYE ROCKETS​

The wheel on the rocket launcher attached to the truck rotates around during the charge of this move, a charge which can be stored like DK’s Neutral B. The move can be used without complete charge, which is a good thing seeing the max charge is 3x as long as DK’s Neutral B. It’s well worth the charge, though, as once finished you gain the ability to launch six projectiles instead of one. The “rockets” launched appear to be essentially fireballs, traveling at Sonic’s dash speed, exploding in Kirby sized explosions that deal 13% and knockback that kill at 110% on contact. There’s enough of a gap that this move will never combo into itself except at very low percentages, but more rockets are far easier to hit with. The rocket launcher can be angled directly upwards or downwards, but cannot be angled even slightly backwards. There’s enough of a gap between when the rockets are fired for you to change the trajectory before all of them are fired to create a decent spread shot.

The force of the blasts causes this move to propel the truck in the opposite direction the rockets were fired in. Yes, this can propel the truck into the air as emergency recovery if fired downwards, taking him 2 Ganons upwards at full charge, but it’s hardly something to be relied upon considering you must charge this in advance. If you fire all of the rockets diagonally upwards, you’ll cause yourself to tip over backwards, moving the width of the truck, becoming a hitbox that deals 20% and KOs at 100%. You can cause yourself to –start- tipping with less rockets, but will need (immediate) help from outside sources to complete it.

SIDE SPECIAL – SKY HAMMER MORTAR​

Beezwax fires a pink mortar out of the turret on the back of his stag pickup which goes upwards 4 Ganondorfs before coming back down to earth. During the entirety of its’ flight, the mortar will move towards the furthest foe’s horizontal position, albeit at the slow speed of Jigglypuff’s dash. That said, the mortar is awkwardly floaty, coming down at the speed of a floaty character’s fall speed. On contact, it explodes, dealing 15% and knockback in the way it’s going that KOs at 95%. If the mortar hits you while it’s going downwards, it will cause you to enter the footstooled state for half a second, leaving you in prone if you hit the ground during it. The move is fast to use, but cannot be used again until the mortar explodes.

The truck’s natural movement hitbox deals double damage to foes in prone, but no knockback as you run over them – the hitboxes are –both- of the tires, so you’ll probably hit them twice. If a foe attempts to get up from prone under the truck, they’ll fail, though they can still roll about to their heart’s content to get out from under it, simply not getting up at the end of the roll.

This propels the truck downwards 2 Ganons if used in the air, causing the truck to become a hitbox as powerful as Ganon’s dair during the descent. If used while flipped, you’ll propel yourself a Ganon into the air, becoming a hitbox that deals 6% and weak knockback on the way up to enemies above you, and 25% and knockback that KOs at 80% on the way down to foes underneath.

DOWN SPECIAL – ROADKILL MINES​

Beezwax lays down a mine out of the convenient little dispenser next to his exhaust. Beezwax is perfectly vulnerable to this mine, and with how much of a hassle it is for him to get into the air a lot of thought will be required for him to use this properly. When it explodes, the mine does so in a Bowser sized explosion that deals 18% and vertical knockback that KOs at 115%. Not that the mine will explode on contact with any projectiles in addition to characters, meaning Beezwax can detonate the mine from a distance and potentially even start a chain reaction of mines.

SMASHES​

FORWARD SMASH – ROAD RUNNER​

Beezwax fires a single Bull’s Eye Rocket from his Neutral Special with an identical animation, which travels 2-5 platforms based on charge. On contact, this rocket –doesn’t- explode, and instead simply drags the foe along with it with 6 hits of 1% and flinching per platform carried. If you catch a foe shielding with this, they’ll be locked into their shield and get dragged along with the rocket anyway, though it won’t destroy a fresh field unless it carries them 4+ platforms. Obviously an excellent move to bring the foe –exactly- where you want them.

Spoiler

. . .So you might be wondering why I essentially had a move that used the same weapon in a tacky fashion on a separate input. Well, in Vigilante 8, there are Street Fighter style button combinations for each weapon. Some just cause you to fire multiple shots at once, others have entirely different effects from the normal weapon, such as this.

UP SMASH – CRATER MAKER​

Beezwax fires a Sky Hammer Mortar from his Side Special. It has identical lag and travels in an identical trajectory. This one cannot force foes into their footstooled state/prone if it hits them, and the other one does notable shield damage which this one lacks. What this one –does- do, when it lands, is create a crater. The crater is always Bowser’s width, with the depth of the crater varying from half a Ganon to 2 Ganons based on charge. While one might think it’d be a hassle for Beezwax to “jump” over craters, they’re shallow enough for him to drive out of them, as there are slopes on the sides. He’s more indenting the terrain than anything else. If Beezwax drives into a crater at fairly high speed (Or any other sudden downward slope in terrain), the truck will attempt to jump the crater rather than driving through it.

One usmash rocket and one Side Special rocket can peacefully co-exist. Due to it being so difficult to interrupt Beezwax out of his moves, the primary way foes have to prevent a crater being made is to get hit by the rocket before it hits the ground – or rather, shield it. Use Side Special to make them essentially play catch with rockets, then fsmash away.

DOWN SMASH – BEAR HUG MINES​

Beezwax lays a Roadkill Mine from Down Special. These “mines” do in fact not explode, but rather have a gravitational pull that can pull foes in anywhere from a quarter of a platform to a full platform with 1.5x the strength of Dedede’s inhale. These mines are destroyed by any and all attacks, but they wouldn’t want to do that when it could be a real mine, now would they? . . .Well, they would if they’re intelligent enough to shield it or fire their own projectiles at it, so you’ll just have to not give them the time to do that.

SHIELD BUTTON ATTACKS​

NEUTRAL SHIELD – INTERCEPTOR MISSILES​

Beezwax launches an interceptor missile out of the launcher on his truck. These blue winged missiles relentlessly home in on foes, moving at Mario’s dashing speed, but having to make elaborate half circles to turn around. On contact, they explode in Kirby sized explosions dealing 9% and vertical knockback that kills at 160%. There’s no limit to how many of these you can have out and the move is fairly fast, but the missiles explode on contact with anything, including Beezwax. Considering how much smaller and more free to move through the air the foe is, it can be quite easy for the foe to simply redirect the missiles into you. Use sparingly unless you’re at a distance – not necessarily a horizontal distance, mind you. Then again, considering you won’t take stun and how heavy you are, this can potentially be a way to launch yourself a bit.

SIDE SHIELD – BRUISER CANNON​

Beezwax fires his Bruiser Cannon at the foe the furthest away from him, the fireball shot out traveling Battlefield’s width at maximum at Captain Falcon’s dash speed. On contact, it deals an unimpressive 7% and unremarkable (Though not terrible) downward knockback. If the fireball hits the ground instead of a foe, it will create a fire trap that is the same size and largely functions identically to PK Fire. This trap lasts for 10 seconds, though, so foes will have their work cut out for them as they have to actually DI out of the pillar. Beezwax is vulnerable to the fire trap, but due to it being unable to deal hitstun to him it’s far less threatening to him. Yes, if a foe is on top of Beezwax you can potentially start a fire on top of your Stag Pickup, though Beezwax will take all of the damage.

Foes will want to shield this move much like Usmash to prevent you from setting up, baiting fsmash. Alternatively, foes can jump off the edge to make the projectile avoid the ground all together, but then they’re fodder for Beezwax’s on-stage projectile based gimping game.

UP SHIELD – HEADLIGHTS​

Beezwax turns his headlights on at maximum brightness, creating a 1.25 platform width beam of light angled slightly upwards from the front of the truck. Any foe who comes in contact with it will enter their dizzy state if grounded, or enter their footstooled state if in the air for a half a second – a full second based off how close they were to the truck, entering prone once they hit the ground. If you want to angle the beams even higher, you’ll have to use the blast back on your Bull’s Eye Rockets to angle the truck itself.

DOWN SHIELD – EXHAUST​

Beezwax shoots exhaust out of his tailpipe, creating a Bowser sized cloud of it behind him that lasts 15 seconds. Aside from dealing 5% per second to foes who stand in it, if any aerial foe enters the exhaust they’ll enter their footstooled state, it lasting for .4 seconds until they’re out of the exhaust, entering prone if they hit the ground. You can only have one cloud of exhaust out at a time. This move is far more useful in the context of when you have a foe on top of you who’s desperately trying to get off – use Up Shield if they’re going off the front, and Down Shield if they’re going off the back.

STANDARDS​

NEUTRAL A – MOSQUTIO MACHINE GUN​

The most basic of all weapons in Vigilante 8, not even requiring a pick-up. If you hold the move down, you’ll fire out 15 bullets the first second, 10 the next second, and then only 5 per second for each second after that. You’ll have to wait a lengthy 10 seconds without using the move to fully recharge. These bullets travel 1.5 platforms straight forwards at Sonic’s dash speed before vanishing, and each one deals 1% with no hitstun or knockback whatsoever. This move deals amazing shield damage, but unfortunately does no shield stun.

SIDE A – AFTERBURNER​

Beezwax goes to fire an Interceptor Missile, but the missile launcher doesn’t release it from its’ hold. This causes Beezwax to get carried along with the missile, getting a speed boost. This essentially increases Beezwax’s speed by 5, making it take less time for him to build up momentum. . .Which isn’t exactly a good thing a lot of the time, as he cannot attempt to slow down at all during the 2 seconds the missile is active. If you have a big enough stage, sure, go play the standard momentum character. This move’s primary purpose is for horizontal aerial movement, as his aerial movement when forced into the air is piss poor.

UP A – EAT MY DUST​

Beezwax revs up his engine, spinning his wheels in place. This turns the wheels into constant hitboxes that deal 12 hits of 1% and flinching over the move’s duration, but this more importantly causes dirt to get flung up skywards (If Beezwax was grounded anyway). This dirt goes a Ganon above the height of Beezwax’s car on either side of him, dealing 15 hits of 1% and flinching/dragging knockback as it goes up into the air then comes back down due to gravity. If Beezwax moves his vehicle to catch the dirt as it falls back down, nothing much immediately happens, though it’s a good way to get the foe above you. If Beezwax makes a sudden movement, though, such as attempting to turn around while dashing, the dirt will slide off and become a hitbox again, dragging foes with it as it obeys psychics. All of this also applies to honey on top of the truck.

DOWN A – HONK​

Beezwax slams his fist down on the steering wheel to cause his vehicle to emit a loud honk. This causes two Bowser sized hitboxes to occur – one directly in front of the car, and one on top of the actual truck portion of the pickup, hitting anybody who’s attempting to attack Beezwax himself directly. The hitboxes deal no damage or stun, simply pushing foes forwards with a platform’s worth of set knockback. Because of the nature of this hitbox, dodging will do nothing to help you, so if you’re about to run somebody over and they dodge you can use this to keep on truckin’ and run their sorry asses over as they come out of the dodge.

GRAB-GAME​

GRAB – THE ARMORY​

Beezwax, god forbid, gets out of his truck and goes to walk around to the back of it. He opens up the doors to reveal his collection of nuclear warheads, immediately grabbing one. Beezwax can only use this on the ground and the truck is immune to knockback during this time, but if Beezwax himself is attacked he’ll take double damage and be forced to run back into the truck, unable to attempt another grab for 7 seconds. This is as laggy as it sounds, but if you can buy yourself the time the reward is well worth it.

PUMMEL – NUCLEAR WARHEADS​

Beezwax goes to grab another Warhead out of the truck. If he inputs fthrow or uthrow without a Warhead, he’ll instead automatically perform his Pummel. Beezwax can hold up to 3 Warheads at once.

FORWARD THROW – HEAVE-HO!​

Clearly putting in a good bit of effort, Beezwax goes to hurl all of the warheads he’s carrying forwards. If he only has one, it travels a platform and deals 8% and weak knockback. With two, he throws them half a platform, dealing 13% to the foe and knocking them into prone. If carrying three, Beezwax simply drops them, dealing 18% and pitfalling anybody unlucky enough to be caught underneath.

If it wasn’t obvious enough, these hitboxes are simply from the physical force of the warheads – they don’t explode on contact. To detonate them, you must hit them with a fire/explosive hitbox. When they detonate, they explode in ridiculously over the top mushroom cloud style explosions. The “stalk” of the mushroom is Bowser’s width and 2 Ganons tall, while the actual mushroom itself is 1.25 Ganons tall and 3 Bowsers wide. Anybody who gets caught in the explosion will be dealt 25% and shot up to the top of it with very high minimum knockback. Knockback growth on the explosion is very weak for such a dramatic explosion, only KOing at 135%. Beezwax can indeed get caught in these explosions, making it a great way to shoot himself upwards.

UP THROW – HEFT​

Beezwax attempts to throw his nuclear warheads on top of his truck. He can throw a single one upwards onto it successfully, making it deal 8% and weak knockback, but with more he’ll have to carefully set them up on top one by one. If you have the solid truck in-between you and the foe when you’re attempting to get out warheads, this can catch them as they jump over, but it’s more useful just to ferry the warheads around. If you want to get the warhead off your truck, simply initiate your traction (Turn around while dashing) and it’ll slide right off.

BACK THROW – HITCHHIKING​

Beezwax attempts to initiate a grab on the foe who probably intends to send him scurrying back inside his truck. If he’s successful, he’ll throw the foe through the double doors of the back of his truck, dealing 6% to them. Due to the foe having to maneuver through all of the bombs in the back of the truck without setting them off, they must escape at grab difficulty. This can either buy Beezwax time, or he can potentially go back into his truck to dump the foe out into some traps when they escape and/or create some exhaust.

DOWN THROW – RETREAT​

Beezwax abandons ship on his grab-game and goes to get back inside of his vehicle. Considering that all of his “throws” but this one are pummels in the sense that they don’t make him exit the grab stance, this is needed to exit it.

FINAL SMASH​

Beezwax pulls out an old fashioned walkie talkie before calling the butt monkey of the Coyotes, Molo, to drive by the screen in his gigantic school bus. The 2 platform wide double Ganon height School Bus appears in front of wherever Beezwax is, and then proceeds to drive forwards at the non threatening speed of Ganon’s dash. It drags foes along with it wherever it goes and is solid like Beezwax, dealing 5 hits of 3% and flinching per second. The bus drives off the stage for a blatant suicide KO, though even if the bus entirely whiffs this it shoots out it’s personal special, a crap ton of exhaust from the tailpipe. This creates a trail of exhaust as tall as the bus wherever it goes that lasts for 10 seconds. Anyone who enters it outside Beezwax will not only take 10% per second, but get flinched every half a second. If you’re unlucky enough to get caught under the bus, you’ll be spiked with power 2.5x as strong as Ganon’s dair and be pitfalled on contact with the ground – a blatant insta KO off-stage.

PLAYSTYLE SUMMARY​

When reduced down to a very basic level for casual play, Beezwax can function fine as a camper. His advantages over other campers include his ability to not only easily get away, but attack as he does so thanks to the natural movement hitbox on his vehicle. Beezwax can even continue to send the projectiles at foes as he runs! Beezwax also functions excellently at bullet hell, with his ability to have many, many projectiles on-screen at once, most of them lingering for long periods of time and thus giving the foe more to dodge.

When Beezwax players are ready to move on to something more elaborate, they can add traps into the mix. The main trap Beezwax can lay down without much thought are his mines as he runs, preferably with a dsmash gravity mine right in the middle to suck them into one as they jump over. The main way Beezwax is going to be able to make the traps a non-factor for himself while keeping them threatening for his enemy, though, are the craters created by usmash. You can create a mass of traps inside of the crater, then build up some speed and make a jump over it. Traps are at their most effective when you can make a nice trail of them across the stage to form chain reactions. To actually set it up, you can lay the main traps in the crater, then when you go to flee to the other side lay some mines that can connect to the mines in the middle. If you don’t want to make yourself so predictable, you can simply have the mines be on one side of the crater, then throw nuclear warheads into the center of the stage to “connect” the explosions to the mines.

To actually get the time to get this elaborate set-up, one of the key traps that you’ll want in the hellhole in the middle will be fire from the Brusier Cannon (Side Shield). You can also mindgame the foe as you make the crater with the Usmash/Bruiser Cannon into getting them to shield, then fsmash them away while they’re shielding to get all the space you need. Perhaps best of all, you can enter your grab-game when you know the foe will make it to you, then put a warhead on top of the truck then dump both the foe –and- the warhead into the crater.

This has all been entirely ignoring the bees/honey, which can actually be a good idea sometimes so you can have a guaranteed recovery/can shock the foe and play a generic momentum character, then still be able to survive. If you use the bees as part of Beezwax’s main game, though, you can multitask as the foe tries to prevent the honey from spreading about the stage to properly zone the foe where you want them to go – nevermind how spectacular the bees are at stalling for you. Perhaps most interesting is when you cover the top of the truck with honey. If you do, you can take advantage of your many moves with vertical knockback to launch the foe up and catch them from underneath with the truck to cover them in honey. If you –don’t- cover the top of the truck with honey, you can cover the meat of the stage with it to bait the foe into coming on top of the truck to hide from the bees. From there, you can use your Up A, Up Shield, and Down Shield to make life hell for foes as you go to drop them off into your traps.

If you want to get particularly crazy, you can even chase the foe into the air (Most obviously by setting off a warhead at point blank to launch you alongside the foe). From there, you can aim to drop the foe off into any other traps you may have by using the aforementioned moves and tilting the truck with Neutral B. . .If you tilt the truck with Neutral B to flip it over in mid-air, you can potentially land on top of the foe to deal damage and knockback 1.5x as strong as if you rammed them at full speed. This scenario is where the ftilt speed boost finally becomes truly relevant, as you do your best to stay on top of/under the foe’s horizontal position. You can even delay your fall with upside down Side Special/Usmashes if upside down as you nudge yourself just ever so slightly further to the foe’s horizontal position. If you somehow get above the foe while not flipped, you can use the same moves to propel yourself downwards to crush them.

 

[Nicholas1024]

Ayano is an interesting idea, a character that has effectively zero attacks on her own manipulating the opponent into hitting her/her toy so she can gain the 1-hit KO. However, there's one flaw in that idea, and that's if she ever loses a stock before the opponent, she loses, as the opponent can quite literally just sit there for the rest of the match to win. That problem aside, this was a surprisingly good (if occasionally tacky) move set. You basically took the idea of manipulating your own damage and knock back and made a sandbox out of it, if there's a method of manipulating damage, you can do it in this set. I have no real complaints on that front, but I think the various ways she gets frightened/heals/manipulates her psychology are OOC. Still, on the whole this was an interesting read in a concept almost never explored, so great job here.

 

[Katapultar]

What's this? A moveset where you're constantly inside a vehicle? My my, this is definitely a suitable kind of moveset coming from you in the form of Beezwax. Ironically enough I was planning making something that involved a vehicle but definitely not to this extent; of course, there not being enough space on the stage to roam around Beezwax obviously isn't wanting to drive around too much, just shoot the crap out of enemies like he does in the games - the former seems to be downplayed a bit but you probably weren't intending to make an entire set out of it...perhaps in the future?

From the first two pictures I wouldn't expect this guy to have so many projectile-based moves; he seems to be a bullet-hell genre character who keeps enemies in the air and tries to take advantage of this with his plethora of projectiles, there not being too much focus on the bees or vehicle itself. I've never heard of the game before but it seems to be a crazy one from what I've heard from this set and nothing seems out of place in that retrospect.

I'll admit that a lot of the complications with the projectiles and how they're supposed to work do go over round my head, though I try to avoid commenting too in-depth about that kind of stuff. If anything I can say that you do a fairly good job at trivial matters such as balance for this kind of un-smash style, though I guess you don't really want to hear that kind of thing. The grab game does open up a bit of an interesting aspect character-wise (and has a picture), though I don't really seem to understand the point of it, and it seems to a bit awkward to some degree.

Not sure how this racks up compared to your other sets in MYMXI, though that's something many others would tell you in my place. Although the character isn't too familiar or the most fun or interesting kind it was still great to see a brand new kind of Un-Smash and take of projectiles; the former case was the most enjoyable thing.

Ayano is an interesting idea, a character that has effectively zero attacks on her own manipulating the opponent into hitting her/her toy so she can gain the 1-hit KO. However, there's one flaw in that idea, and that's if she ever loses a stock before the opponent, she loses, as the opponent can quite literally just sit there for the rest of the match to win. That problem aside, this was a surprisingly good (if occasionally tacky) move set. You basically took the idea of manipulating your own damage and knock back and made a sandbox out of it, if there's a method of manipulating damage, you can do it in this set. I have no real complaints on that front, but I think the various ways she gets frightened/heals/manipulates her psychology are OOC. Still, on the whole this was an interesting read in a concept almost never explored, so great job here.

Thanks Nicky! (you're okay with that name right?) You've got a good complaint about the psychological bits being out of character, as I guess unless a character has mood swings they can't as easily change the way they feel as one would be able to throw a punch or kick. I'm fairly sure the emotions Ayano could show in the set would be in-character for her but like you said just not to the extent where she can change so easily. I'd only counter-respond by saying that, in my opinion, Ayano would have to have a good amount of control over her mood and put up with everyone around her; as you'd come to understand she never gets angry 99% of the time. Being frightened obviously doesn't really come into this category, which is why I made the F-air or so require that Ayano be struck by an enemy attack....though considering how she responds to the world of Brawl in a relaxed, orderly manner it does seem a bit out of place.

Also, I realize what you mean about the opponent being able to sit around and win the match if they KO Ayano once, which would of course only apply to Timed or Coin Matches as I'm pretty sure most sets revolve around or imply that the match they're playing in is a Stock-based one. Unless items are in the match or it's a Team Match I suppose that Ayano players would be forced to sit around and let the enemy win...seems kind of suitable for Ayano actually.

You bring some pretty good points into the conversation here, and I'm glad you enjoyed Ayano!

 

[smashbot226]

Nice pun, MW

You know? Because he's in a camper van and you said he could be... never mind. At least this week's plate was a lot easier to deal with.

Ayano is a slightly unusual set. It reminds me a bit of item-centric sets such as Ramses, Fright Knight, and Facilier but not because the character wants to hang onto them. It's the other way around in this case which, like pretty much everyone else has already said, is very problematic in that Ayano will want to be hurt in order to drop... Rirattanu? I don't remember the name to be perfectly honest. I recall another set back in MYMX called Emidius that relied on a single move to win matches and although there are other mechanics separate from Rirattanu that exist... well, that's the problem. They're not really beneficial in helping Ayano achieve her goals. For instance, SSpec could just as easily force foes holding onto Rirattanu to drop the doll when they slip. And for the record, I strangely found the pocket mechanic more interesting than the Rirattanu one. I might actually make a set out of that once Battleheart/Zecora is finished... but I digress. It's a very odd set that actually prefers taking hits rather than dealing them and even though it still has problems, it was a fun read. 3.5/5

Teru Mikami- I almost said Terumi- reminds me of that one Ryuk set that assigned Death Note to NSpec. While the effect is almost literally identical, right down to the 30-40 second time gap, Teru does do things differently. To an extent, he still wants to write the foe's name down and prevent any spotdodge shenanigans from preventing it. Though I'd like to get this nitpick out of the way: his USpec should have SOME sort of negative side effect, he's stabbing himself with a pen while his chest turns into the fountains at Mandalay Bay. Come to think of it, why doesn't he delete the spotdodge with the SSpec? It deletes everything else, why not that? Still, it gives a relatively old idea a new breath of fresh air and I did have a bit more fun reading the comments rather than actually reading the moveset. Doesn't mean it escapes from the genuinely simple gameplan, regardless of whether or not it's a day one set. Oh well, you've probably been planning to list Facilier as your last weak vote option since the Escavalier comment anyway.2.5/5

Beezwax is from a game I swear I thought I was the only one who knew about it. It was blatantly meant to be, MW. Since you clearly have me in mind with the outright reassurance (smirk). I already talked about this in chat, but if I get the time, I should make a Dallas 13 set. That'd be kind of nice. So yes, it's got a momentumesque mechanic, but doesn't simply RELY on it like other sets. There's a primary playstyle that mainly includes getting bees onto the battle and setting up nukes, so Beezwax is perfectly happy with camping in his camper. Sure, there's the occasional nitpick about Exhaust blatantly being stolen by Molo and a car honk dealing any sort of damage, but the second one is passable due to vidya physics and nobody else knows about the first point. It's a very literal take on a camper set and my favorite set of yours this contest. Yeah, I know I said Le'Quack's was and gave it a 5 but in all honesty, I'm feeling it's more 4/3.5ish. Mainly because MOMENTUUUUUUUUM. Which is somewhat present here but the fact that you managed to avoid a momentum-centric moveset for a dude in a car, let alone a CAMPER VAN, is impressive. 5/5

 

[MasterWarlord]

YET ANOTHER NON MAIN CHAR DEATH NOTE SET

People are pretty blatantly waiting for me to comment this set given the obvious invitation it gave to me. This set does definitely come across much more as TAC than Ryuk, and considering how much Silver hated TAC. . .

I don’t see any connection between deleting the foe’s attacks and preventing them from avoiding a KO move. Nevermind how it’s obviously a way to make each input try to be interesting (Something made clear by the writing) when it could be condensed into a move or two, or how much of a magical arcane process deleting the moves of the foe is. As somebody else said in xat, there’s nothing to stop them from shielding and dodging and what have you. Ryuk barely scratched the surface of what could be done, considering he was made 7 damn contests ago, with a single token background hitting attack (Albeit the first) and a stunning fsmash to accomplish it, with the rest of the set delving into generic magic syndrome interactions and various things there just for the sake of characterization. Mikami could’ve been another set where generic rushdown could’ve flowed much like Kabutops – you don’t need random death god magic to have the most generic playstyle ever. So yes, I believe a solo Light set could be made fine and dandy to my ridiculously high standards. Why don’t I do it then? Because I hate the franchise.

Smash is a fighting game you say? Everybody should just roll up their sleeves and get into a bout of fisticuffs, no matter the character? That’s why our beloved Phoenix Wright has next to no direct combat in his entire moveset in UMvC3. Ignoring the awkward animations of the main moveset, the trademark mindgames of the series are only vaguely tossed in with similar animations that even the moveset itself feels are cop-outs. Handcuffs are relevant to the pressuring part of his game, yes, but they’re becoming more and more a trope that is seen –every- time a cop (Which Mikami is in fact not) shows up in any form in a set, and come across awkward when the moveset is so exclusively for his demented persona.

 

[MarthTrinity]

MYmini Entry, rawr

Cook​

Cook is a random enemy from the game Wario Land II. In said game, Cooks would wander back and forth aimlessly until Wario approached them. Once close, a Cook would throw his slice of cake at Wario and then scramble away. If Wario was hit by the slice of cake, he'd immediately and uncontrollably gobble it down and become Fat Wario.

In Smash, Cook acts as a pesky Assist Trophy that does what he does in Wario Land II; throw delicious cake! When summoned, this Waddle Dee-sized rodent will slowly begin to walk left and right a short ways...he's not really in a rush or anything. If an opponent gets within a Battlefield platform of Cook however, he'll swipe his fork forward, launching the slice of cake at you before scurrying off in the other direction! Cook will remain for 15 seconds or until he's tossed three slices of cake.

If your character is hit by a slice of cake, they'll greedily gobble it down and suddenly become morbidly obese! While in your new Fat state, your character's movement speed and jump height will be reduced by half and you'll be unable to attack until it wears off! Fortunately, your weight will be massively increased to the point that you're pretty much immovable. If you want to return to your normal state, simply get off your lazy rear and start moving! Moving around for four seconds will "cure" you of your fatness and return you to normal. Just make sure you don't get cake'd again!

​

 

[Davidreamcatcha]

MYMini Week #7

Since Junahu is too busy writing his story mode (which will likely be level-focused and feature Chief Quimby as a tutor character), Dave is performing a hostile takeover in terms of minis. Yes.

Now, assuming MT didn't tip you off: This week’s mini, in honor of Thanksgiving, is based around two concepts: eating or food. Either may be focused on, make an extra for a big eater or a savory-looking piece of food, make extras that encourage the act of eating, what you do with this one is up to you.

Of course, don’t forget you will still be able to submit entires for last week’s mini, Clowns, until Tuesday. This is due to the delayed start of said mini.

 

[ProfPeanut]

I'm not dead yet: have two MYMinis!

EVENT MATCH: A Happy Happy Game
Clowns aren't supposed to be scary! This one needs a full bout of laughter!
Player: Masahiro Sakurai {1 stock}
Opponent(s): Pennywise the Dancing Clown {Limitless stock}
Stage: New Pork City [Humoresque of a Little Dog]

Your goal is to land Sakurai's fully charged Neutral Special on Pennywise, which should make him laugh for three seconds and thus earn you the event. Of course, you'll probably do this the moment you catch Pennywise with a Side Smash or Forward Throw. If you can catch Pennywise, that is.

Sakurai's well armed against eldritch monsters, thankfully. For one thing, your Kirby alloy almost invalidates Pennywise' ballon gauntlets (unless he uses his Up Special to lead them away, or his Up Tilt to fling them back). Pennywise hardly has any fast moves to deflect the laugher back, and he won't be running around so much with all those Wobbuffets, bumpers and rolling crates you'll be putting on stage. When he's visible, that is. Sakurai's Neutral Aerial makes a wonderful anti-invisbility move too, so long as the Pennywise is close. And if the jingling sound comes to herald an unseen dashing clown, why not welcome him with a gooey bomb or character banner grab?

But it IS New Pork City, a big stage for an invisible ravenous clown to hide around in. Pennywise's Down Aerial gives him a lot of mobility through the massive stage, so Sakurai may need to travel on his Warp Star to catch up. And who knows if it's really just a clone to throw you off, while the real one sets up ballons behind you? Tsk tsk, better start balancing this stage to tilt that clown into a corner then! But even if you surround him with traps, he might just Side Special out of there while his illusion laughs at your folly. Sakurai, you've got quite some work ahead of you.

----------------------------------------------------------------------​

EVENT MATCH: Gourmet Race
Who's this contender in the snack showdown? Kirby can't let her win!
Player: Kirby {Limitless stock}
Opponent(s): Ayano Minegishi {Limitless stock}
Stage: Green Greens [Gourmet Race (SSB64)]

This isn't a battle of knock-out, but of eating! Food items will rain down on the stage like Sudden Death Bob-ombs, littering the arena with edibles. Both characters have a number of points above their percentages that ticks up by 1 for every food item they gobble up. A 1-minute timer is active for this event, awarding victory to whoever has the most points by time it runs out. Given this narrow amount of time, Kirby better get chowing down then.

But Kirby, despite his inhaling prowess, lacks something that Ayano has: moves that create food items! Tofu won't be that much of a problem, but the green tea adds 1 point for each time it heals her, which means a pretty fast 16 points over 8 seconds if Kirby lets her. You'll have to snatch it off of her to take back the lead, and thus deprive her of her tea for the next 16 seconds. Of course, she may just make it harder for you to take items off of her, so you may have to weigh whether the time to pummel the tea out is worth it or better spent eating other food.

While keeping Ayano airborne will slow her appetite down, her Down Smash can be pretty painful for you if it connects, depriving you of precious time. You ought not let her abuse her grab as well; you probably won't suffer too much from staring at her, and instead slow down her eating. Her Neutral Aerial is plain punishing, as it also quadruples her food point count, so abuse it to send her skyward instead.

Wait, what about Rirattanu? Well, Ayano won't be bringing him out until halfway through the event, since she doesn't need to win that way. Getting KO'd will only deprive you of time, so you oughtn't punch him or litter the stage with tea anyway. And please don't consider copying Ayano's ability, because it won't help you at all here, nor even give any points. But if you're reeeeeeeeally daring...if Kirby swallows Rirattanu, he gains a whopping 20 points! He'll also probably get killed instantly when Ayano resummons the stuffed toy to find it covered in Kirby drool. Then Ayano will be zipping around the stage snacking everything in sight while you'll have to wait for her to calm down. It's a buffet, but you better choose carefully what you eat.

{Thanks, Kat! It's alright about the details, no one really thinks about what would happen if Kirby copied this and that ability these days. Also, Kupa, feel free to call me out on anything I may have gotten wrong about your move sets here.}

 

[Zook]

MYMini, let's goooo!

​

FRANK'S REDHOT

Hey look, a bottle of Frank's Redhot has appeared as an item! This hot sauce makes everything better. I bet even Wuthering Heights would be readable with a couple splashes of this stuff.

Anyways, once a character picks up a bottle of Frank's, they carry it with them, and it acts like a weak throwable item when tossed. However, if a character picks up any healing food item (such as the assort foods, Peach's peaches, or Maximum Tomatoes) while holding onto the bottle, they'll splash a little hot sauce onto it and heal an extra 15% in addition to the normal amount. However, it takes a bit longer to eat food this way (increasing the vulnerable animation to .25 second), so make sure you have enough time to savor the flavor.

 

[ForwardArrow]

Teru Mikami
I'm really sorry here Khold, but I think I have to agree with Warlord on this set. This character literally cannot KO a foe who knows how to dodge the Neutral Special, since his other moves basically do nothing to stop the foe from doing so, and he has no other way to win. This is a pretty darn huge problem to begin with... but the rest of the moves consist entirely of deleting the foe's attacks in a manner similar to TAC's. Now I'm no fan of TAC to begin with, but I feel copying attacks is far more interesting and would be more fun in practice than deleting them, just personally. That and he doesn't even go the full distance with it, instead just allowing them to keep their specials and grab game. The whole set just feels like it MIGHT have been decent if you hadn't decided to waste everything on the deleting mechanic. I just don't really see what you were trying to accomplish here, to be honest.

Beezwax
You know I actually really wanted to use the concept of a momentum camper myself, since the concept is actually pretty intuitive in and of itself. It basically allows the character in question to constantly flee from the foe, which goes in tune very nicely with spamming projectiles on them. Anyway though, there's far more to Beezwax than that, what with his ability to set up trap chain reactions, the projectile hell, and the incredibly clever ways to use the warheads and the honey and such. Not to mention it makes very clever use of the nature of the truck itself, as a constant hitbox and how traps can be placed on the roof or you can force the foe to use the roof as their only safe haven, which is generally a terrible idea. I guess you could say this is the ultimate Forward Arrow fanservice set, since it's got a lot of the little things I love in here(bullet hell, chain reaction traps, awkwardly huge character who is made playable in a unique and fun way, highly modular playstyle with a ton of depth). I'd go so far as to say this is my favorite set of the contest so far, even surpassing Death.

Now, if we really want to look for something to complain about, I guess I could say the grab game is a bit awkward... but really that's hardly much of a complaint really. Excellent work here Warlord.

 

[Kholdstare]

Teru Mikami
I'm really sorry here Khold, but I think I have to agree with Warlord on this set. This character literally cannot KO a foe who knows how to dodge the Neutral Special, since his other moves basically do nothing to stop the foe from doing so, and he has no other way to win.

You can't dodge while grabbed. The foe cannot interrupt Mikami if they have no moves to use.

This is a pretty darn huge problem to begin with... but the rest of the moves consist entirely of deleting the foe's attacks in a manner similar to TAC's. Now I'm no fan of TAC to begin with, but I feel copying attacks is far more interesting and would be more fun in practice than deleting them, just personally.

Because clearly Mikami shouldn't be focused on deleting and has loads of options to make his moveset creative.

That and he doesn't even go the full distance with it, instead just allowing them to keep their specials and grab game.

If you have a terrible grab game or Specials that exist only to manipulate/interact with the regular moveset, and/or both, you will probably lost to Mikami. Just saying.

The whole set just feels like it MIGHT have been decent if you hadn't decided to waste everything on the deleting mechanic. I just don't really see what you were trying to accomplish here, to be honest.

You'd rather have generic rushdown character clearly. What I was trying to accomplish was to make a moveset for a character I like with nearly no potential. For fun. And because I could. Evidently that part of MYMing has long gone. Why don't you try to do better instead of puppeting other people's opinions, you ****ing tool.

 

[ForwardArrow]

Just because I don't enjoy the set doesn't mean I don't think it shouldn't exist. Yes, I was harsh, but that's because I don't like the set. If you'd rather I not comment on one of your sets if I don't like it, just tell me because I am willing keep that to myself from now on.

Spoiler

I'm already doing that for Koric, FYI. He's said in the chat he doesn't really want comments, or at least I think he did.

 

[Katapultar]

Ayano is a slightly unusual set. It reminds me a bit of item-centric sets such as Ramses, Fright Knight, and Facilier but not because the character wants to hang onto them. It's the other way around in this case which, like pretty much everyone else has already said, is very problematic in that Ayano will want to be hurt in order to drop... Rirattanu? I don't remember the name to be perfectly honest. I recall another set back in MYMX called Emidius that relied on a single move to win matches and although there are other mechanics separate from Rirattanu that exist... well, that's the problem. They're not really beneficial in helping Ayano achieve her goals. For instance, SSpec could just as easily force foes holding onto Rirattanu to drop the doll when they slip. And for the record, I strangely found the pocket mechanic more interesting than the Rirattanu one. I might actually make a set out of that once Battleheart/Zecora is finished... but I digress. It's a very odd set that actually prefers taking hits rather than dealing them and even though it still has problems, it was a fun read. 3.5/5

Thanks for your input. Of all the commenters you seem to go a bit more in-depth with how Ayano tries to accomplish her goal and how effective certain strategies are compared to the others. With the pocket mechanic, I'd considered making it the Side Special and have the player hold 2 items at the same time with front and back inputs respectively, though one pocket was enough. I was originally going to have Ayano make cookies for the Side Special (which would have players spread crumbs among the stage as they chew on them for some integrated logic) and have Green Tea as the F-Smash but I eventually felt that to be redundant; I had to change a lot of things through the set many times over as I learnt from what I observed in MYMXI. I'm not toooo sure what you mean about mechanics that don't help Ayano with her goal as you don't really seem to elaborate on them but I won't complain too much even so; there's bound to be a more effective way of Ayano getting angry than the other, so I can see why you'd argue such a viewpoint.

In the very end, I guess your consistent rating does fit mine and others' overall place of this set to some degree; I for the most part am fairly satisfied with it and what I've achieved with it. I probably wouldn't run into the same problems I did with this set if my next one is more battle-orientated as I've taken all the complaints to heart and learnt from them.

EVENT MATCH: Gourmet Race
Who's this contender in the snack showdown? Kirby can't let her win!

...to think this kind of Event Match would ever be made (let alone one with Ayano!)....didn't know Ayano was a big eater! I guess if anything this Event Match is, at the very least, a partial bout at what happens when Kirby goes up against Ayano in terms of the Neutral Special....well, I'd say that Kirby probably gets a red Rirattanu (red as in Maximum Tomato) that heals him in the same way but doesn't make him angry as doing so would require his characterization to be affected in the process and it'd cause mass complications. Kirby's Rirattanu would come back to him after a while but really in a 1v1 Match against Ayano the Neutral Special would be a complete waste to use as not only is healing completely unnecessary against Ayano but it also deprives him of his item usage. Not to mention that as you mentioned Kirby can use his normal Neutral Special for damaging/pseudo grab and much to his dismay swallowing Rirattanu...I never really mentioned that Ayano would get angry from such a thing in the set but it'd make enough sense and it does essentially count as Rirattanu going "offstage".

And Kirby getting 20 Points for eating Rirattanu? I see where you're coming from and have absolutely problem with it, but lol, what is that toy made of?

But yeah, this is definitely an interesting Event Match you have here Peanut. Alongside with the clown one, of course.

 

[Nicholas1024]

Introduction:​

CloudMan.EXE is one of the darkloids from Megaman Battle Network 5, powerful evil net navis without operators. As you might have guessed from the picture (not to mention his name), CloudMan's fighting style is to use clouds as barriers (he's one of those cowardly navis that hide in the back row), as well as offensive tools, shooting small thunderbolts and the like from them.

Stats:​

Size: 8
Weight: 4
Movement: 3
Air movement: 5
Jumps: 10
Power: 5
Range: 10
Fall speed: 3

Some rather odd stats here. CloudMan has good range for camping... but a large hitbox, low weight, and bad movement making retreating tricky. However, Cloud Man has 4 jumps and a peach-strength float (which he can cancel into and out of at will), making himself rather suited to the air. Of note, during his float, instead of his aerials, he can use his standards and smashes instead of his aerials, giving him access to all his moves in the air.

Specials:​

Neutral Special: Cloud Formation
Cloud Man spreads his arms in a ridiculous looking pose (though I suppose all his poses look kinda ridiculous, considering he's half cloud and half heavyweight male antagonist), causing an innocent-looking kirby-sized white cloud to form a bowser length in front of him. You can use the control stick to change the orientation of the cloud (The clouds are almost spherical, with a slight point on one end signifying which way they're "facing". This can be any of the standard 8 directions, up/down/left/right/diagonal.) Lag is low, you can have as many of these out at one time as you want (but can't have two of them occupying the same spot.)

What do they do? Well this is Cloud Man after all, be patient. One last note, when Cloud Man spawns to start the match, there will be (one + number of opponents) clouds surrounding him.

Side Special: Lightning Bolt
Cloud Man holds out his hands in front of him, with a small pokeball-sized sphere of electricity forming between them. After a quarter second of charging, this will increase to 1.5x its original size (instantly, not a gradual transition), and after half a second it will expand to twice the original size. When you release the button (charge is not storable in this move!), Cloud Man releases the projectile in the direction you hold the control stick, with it doing 5%/10%/15% depending on charge, and low to great knock back. Lag is ok (aside from charge time)

Remember those clouds from the neutral special? Well, as we all know from real life, all clouds are not created equal, there's your "normal" white clouds, grey rain clouds, and dark storm clouds (a bit of a simplification, but good enough). Well, that holds true for CloudMan.EXE's clouds as well, if you hit one with an uncharged lightning bolt, they'll "upgrade", normal white clouds darken to grey, and your mid-tier grey clouds darken to black upon hit. If a black thundercloud gets hit by one of your lightning bolts, it'll shoot it out again in the direction the cloud is "facing".

With charged lightning bolts it's a bit more complicated, but the same principle applies, a medium charge bolt has the same effect as two uncharged bolts, and a fully charged shot has the same effect as three. Any left over charge (after upgrading the hit cloud to black) is shot out again, so if a grey cloud gets hit by a fully charged lightning bolt, it'll upgrade to black before shooting out a medium charged lightning bolt (which could then potentially hit a white cloud and upgrade it to black.) For the sake of convenience, I'll refer to clouds in "tiers", white = tier 1, grey = tier 2, black = tier 3, and use phrases such as "add two tiers".

Of course, your clouds aren't invulnerable, as white clouds have 4% health, grey ones have 8%, and even black ones only have 12% health total.

Up Special: Cloud Monster
Cloud Man's cloud (his lower half, so to speak) grows, hiding himself from view and becoming a giant... cloud fist the size of a giant mario. This moves at 3/4's Ganon's run speed, and does 12% damage (though rather low priority) with decent knock back on contact. If you press the B button while using the move, the cloud will spark with electricity, doing 15% damage with great knock back (and okay lag) and charging up any clouds you're touching a tier, however it reduces your total size, damage, and knockback by 25% (So use this 4 times and you're out of cloud.) One more thing, it's completely invulnerable, and there's no time limit to how long you can have this out. So what's the catch? Well, Cloud Man isn't actually IN that giant cloud, he's actually hiding in one of his other clouds around the stage, which will shake slightly. You can use the A button and a direction to get Cloud Man to instantly switch hiding spots (to the closest cloud in that direction If there isn't one, nothing happens.). If the cloud gets hit, you're knocked out of the attack (after a second, you can cancel out of it with an air dodge.) Another thing, whatever cloud Cloud Man is hiding in will change to black for as long as he hides in it, giving you some more motivation to fill the stage with your tier 3 clouds, as though they're harder to make, they're better hiding spots. Lag is pretty low.

Down Special: Rain Clouds
Cloud Man points in front of him, and the closest cloud (in front of him) will rain over the course of 1-3 seconds (depending on tier). Any opponent caught in the rain (or that gets submerged in any other water source... I pity Leviathan) will be dripping wet for the next 5 seconds, taking double damage and knock back from electric attacks until it wears off. Additionally, if done over the stage, the rain creates a puddle (1-3 stage builder blocks wide) on stage for 7 seconds. This puddle basically acts as an extension to any electric hitboxes, if you're standing in the puddle, and it gets hit by electricity, you get hit. However, the cloud you use for this rainstorm fades away after it finishes raining. Lag is fairly low.

Grab Game:​

Grab: Dark Cloud
Cloud Man spreads his arms in front of him as in the neutral special pose, but this time it's a purple dark cloud that forms in front of him, and Cloud Man is left holding a dark chip. Now, this dark cloud is completely invulnerable, and completely solid to opponents, and it will block any opposing projectiles. If they're hit in to it by an attack (or inside when it forms), they have to escape at double grab difficulty. You can only have one dark cloud out at a time. So what's its weakness? Why, the dark chip, of course. The dark chip you're holding can be thrown like any item, but if it's hit by an enemy attack, it'll break and the dark cloud will disappear. (This includes if you're hit while holding it, by the way.) So how to keep it hidden? Well, if you throw it into a cloud, it'll disappear inside the cloud, and the opponent will have to destroy that cloud to get at the dark chip. (You can't throw it into the dark cloud, sorry.) Also of note, if you cause a cloud containing a dark chip to rain, the dark chip will drop into the puddle that forms. Now the opponent has a choice to make, sure the dark chip's an easier target now, but do they REALLY want to go stand in that puddle with all your electric attacks, or should they wait until it wears off and suffer through the dark cloud?

Now, if you use the grab input when a dark cloud is already out, Cloud Man will remain in place and switch to controlling that Dark Cloud. Then, you can move it around with the control stick at Ganon's run speed, and your actions are as follows:

Standard Pummel: Fire Control
Now, when you first put out the dark cloud, it will absorb all lightning bolts it contacts, however by pressing this input, the dark cloud will now redirect lightning bolts that it contacts in the direction you press the control stick. If you don't input a direction on the control stick, it will instead reflect lightning bolts that it contacts (thus setting up a loop between the cloud that originally sent it at the Dark cloud, and the dark cloud itself.) Additionally, every time a lightning bolt strikes a dark cloud, it gains a 1.2x multiplier to damage and knock back (as well as a slight purple/black tinge) due to the dark power it gains. With a properly cloud setup, this can make your projectiles far more deadly. Double tapping this input will cause the cloud to go back to absorbing the lightning bolts that contact it.

Special Pummel: Dark Lightning
This causes the dark cloud to shoot out an (uncharged) lightning bolt it absorbed in the direction you pressed the control stick. The bolt itself gets anywhere from a 1.2-2.0x multiplier to damage and knock back based on the amount of time it spent inside the cloud (maxes out after 20 seconds, it will always shoot out the earliest absorbed bolt. If a charged bolt gets absorbed, it gets converted into an appropriate number of uncharged lightning bolts. If you have no absorbed bolts, nothing happens.) By holding down the button, you can charge up a shot (it follows the same rules as charging up the side special, there's a visual indicator in how much the cloud sparks).

Shield Throw: Dark Explosion
A very simple move, the dark cloud explodes, dealing 10% with decent knock back, but an additional 5% and small knock back/range boost for every lightning bolt absorbed. (The size of the explosion ranges from that of a bob-omb to that of a smart bomb). This is obviously quite deadly, but of course once you use it, you've lost your dark cloud.

Be warned that if the opponent destroys the dark chip (or if it falls off a blast zone), the cloud will vanish harmlessly. Finally, you can use a grab input to just cancel out of the move. Lag is ok.

Standards:​

Jab: Static Electricity
Cloud Man puts out one hand in front of him, creating a small hitbox of 4% and minor knock back. However, the interesting part is that ALL tier 3 clouds onstage spark and generate the same hitbox, while tier 2 clouds generate a much weaker hitbox of 2% that doesn't even cause the opponent to flinch (like Fox's blaster). Lag is quite low as well, so this can annoy an unwary opponent trying to just run through your clouds.

Forwards tilt: Cloud Control
Cloud Man puts both hands forwards in front of him, generating a short lightning strike (8%, decent horizontal knock back) a stage builder block in front of him (Imagine Lucario's side special). This can be held out for as long as you hold down the button, and if you strike a cloud with this, it'll charge it up one tier every 1/10th of a second. More interestingly, you can overcharge a cloud to a temporary "tier 4" state with this, during which it'll spark with electricity (the same as the jab hitbox). If the cloud redirects an electric projectile (such as the lightning bolt), then it'll charge the projectile up a tier, and revert back to tier 3. Lag isn't too bad. Best of all, whatever direction you're holding the control stick in when you end the move will be the new orientation of the cloud (that is to say, the direction it redirects your lightning bolts in.)

Down tilt: Absorb
Cloud Man grabs forwards laggily, with okay range. Should he grab a foe, he'll shock them for 10% before releasing them with ok knockback, but the real point of this is to grab one of your clouds, in which case he'll absorb it into his own personal cloud, healing 3% per tier. (You can't absorb a dark cloud, they're an exception.)

Up tilt: Thunder
The tier 3 cloud closest to Cloud Man (in front of him) strikes downwards with a bolt of lightning, much like Pikachu's thunder (no range limit aside from hitting the ground, the bolt itself is a BF platform long). This does 12% and decent knock back, overall a rather simple move. The main point of this is to electrify water puddles left from your down special, to catch an unwary opponent, as this move is rather quick, however the cloud sacrifices a level of charge in the process. Of note, should this hit a cloud on the way down, it will be redirected like one of your lightning bolts, giving you another projectile type to add to the mix. (it's considered to have one tier of charge if it hits a non-upgraded cloud or a dark cloud.)

Smashes:​

Forwards smash: Lightning Strike
Cloud Man gets into the same pose from his forwards tilt, but this time he fires a bolt of lightning (not related to the side special, an actual lightning bolt) that travels at pika's run speed and stretches the length of final destination before fading out. However, this can be redirected by your clouds, and charging it (a second for full charge) will put it up to three times that length. Additionally, it will upgrade any white or grey clouds it contacts, but loses a stage builder block off of its total distance per tier it upgrades a cloud. With proper cloud positioning, this can be seriously deadly, as the attack stays out for half a second. Lag is bad.

Down smash: Dark Thunder
Cloud Man pulls out a dark chip, and a purple/black kirby-sized ball of thunder forms in front of him. Once you release the charge, the dark thunder homes in on the nearest foe, moving at mario's walk to ganon's run speed (depending on charge), and on contact it does 10% and minor knock back. However the projectile doesn't disappear on contact with the opponent (or the stage, if they try to misdirect it), it'll just keep tracking the opponent until they destroy the dark chip Cloud Man is now holding. In combination with some other moves, this can be deadly. (For example, a lightning strike to cut off huge areas of the stage, jabbing an opponent trying to sneak through your clouds to delay them so the thunder can catch up...) Anyway, the dark chip you're now holding behaves exactly like the one from your grab game, so hurry up and hide it.

Up smash: Magnetic Field
Cloud Man spreads his arms wide, creating a 2 stage builder block radius sphere of electricity centered on him. This does 5% damage and minor knock back to the opponent, but more importantly it fully upgrades any clouds within the blast. Lag is pretty bad. Additionally, as you hold down the button, you can press left/right on the control stick to rotate the field clockwise/counter clockwise, moving any clouds inside the field with it. The orientation of the clouds rotates with the field, letting you keep small loops intact. (The dark cloud is indeed affected by this, so it'll move with the rest of your cloud structure.)

Aerials:​

Forwards air: Tornado
Cloud Man waves an arm in front of him, causing a small tornado (no bigger than a waddle doo) to shoot forwards at ganon's run speed. This moves a battlefield platform, and will blow opponents (as well as clouds) along with it. (Against an opponent it deals rapid hits of 1%, it's possible but tricky to DI out of the mini tornado.) This is a quick and easy way to push an opponent away (And possibly into projectiles), as well as manipulate clouds. With the control stick you can angle this up to 45 degrees, lag is low.

Neutral air: Data Warp
Much like when a navi jacks into the net, Cloud Man dissolves into a stream of data, before flying in the direction you press the control stick. (Default is straight forwards). He moves at Falcon's run speed, is not a hitbox, and has super armor during this. He'll keep going until you hit a cloud OR fly off a blast zone, though he'll home in ever so slightly on clouds to keep minor aim errors from dooming you. Lag is somewhat noticeable on both ends, however he leaves his lower half thundercloud behind (essentially becoming a new tier 3 cloud in that location, for redirection projectiles its orientation is the direction you teleported in), and reforms from the new cloud, essentially destroying it.)

Down air: Thunderstorm
Time for a big finish. Without warning, EVERY cloud on screen rains for a second (increasing opponent's fall speeds to metal box proportions if they're caught in it, and creating puddles of water/getting them wet as with the down special), and once they've finished, Cloud Man's cloud sends down a powerful bolt of lightning dealing 20% damage and great knock back. As you might have guessed, this is meant to kill, as it removes every last cloud (aside from the dark cloud) on screen, is a ridiculously easy way to gimp (with proper cloud positioning), and can easily hit the entire main platform of the stage. Succeed and you're up a stock. Miss? Well, you're in some serious trouble. Lag is low, you're frozen in place until the move finishes though.

Back air: Cloud Form
Cloud man ducks into his cloud, looking exactly like one of his black thunderclouds. Until you get hit, press air dodge to cancel (or the 5 second time limit runs out), you can move around freely at ganons run speed, as well as use certain moves. (Your side special, down special, up tilt, neutral air, down air, and grab game all work in this form. Of note, your down special and up tilt will affect the cloud closest to you instead of the one you're hiding in, to keep them from being dead giveaways of your location.) This is a great way to hide in among your other clouds and rack damage on the opponent without them being able to even find you, although to prevent stalling abuse you can only do it once per jump. Lag is low as well.

Up air: Windrack
A Battle network 5 battlechip (had to use at least one...), Cloud Man swings an unidentified wind-based object (that looks kinda like a sword) above him, dealing 10% damage and two BF platforms knock back away from Cloud Man. Of note, you can angle the swing in any direction with the control stick, and you can hit clouds with this as well, making it an alternative to your forwards air for quickly moving them, though they'll take 5% damage in the process. Which to use? Your call. This comes out fairly quickly, so it also fills the role of generic attack to keep from being murdered in the event of no clouds.

 

[Nicholas1024]

JJJ I actually read a while back, but I hadn't commented for some reason, so I figured I might as well toss in my 2 cents. You don't need me to tell you that the writing style is quite amusing, and it's been pointed out by just as many people that it at times gets in the way of explaining the moves themselves. As far as the set itself goes, it really just feels like standard stage control. The main mechanic (the cops) while entertaining and in character (as far as that goes with this set) for JJJ, isn't terribly different in execution from a counter combined with minion summon. Still, letting you take photos of the masked menace hitting your minions is a nice touch, and the stage control itself follows the normal Warlordian guidelines. However, in the end this doesn't stand out much aside from the writing style. Still, as that was obviously meant to be a big draw of making the set, it's hard to fault it for that.

Jingoua I more or less commented in private chat, but for a quick recap: The ideas are great, but should have been extended to the whole set rather than just the specials. There's the threads of a really neat risk/reward hit and run game with thunder bug traps, and how Jingoua's power source has to be risked to put his abilities to best used, but a good deal of generic attacks limit the application to the play style, which is a bit of a pity. Still, as I said before, you've definitely gone up in quality, as the ideas are far better here than they were in past sets. A bit of proofreading and this could have been great. (Serious apologies on not getting around to this, by the way.)

 

[n88]

 

[smashbot226]

And now for an experiment in not only using an unfortunately wasted/ignored feature in SSBB, but an experiment in seeing how angry I can make the leadership… or everyone.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
BATTLEHEART
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=​

While Battleheart is not the name of a particular character, I’m at a loss for what else I could call this set. So I’ve copped out and used the game from where these characters originate. Battleheart is an RPG of sorts available for iPhone and Android phones and is probably the only phone-based moveset I’ll ever make. Mainly because Battleheart itself is surprisingly addicting and with the periodic additions of gameplay changes, the developers, Mika Mobile, are definitely interested in keeping it alive. But I digress; the game itself revolves around building up your units by fighting off monsters until the end of the round. While it doesn’t make any revolutionary strides in the genre, it’s still a very fun game; however, you wouldn’t think it possible for any of this to actually translate into Brawl, right?

Well it seems I’m starting to usurp Rool for position of Top Contrarian, because not only is this moveset not a typical Sakurai moveset, it’s not an actual moveset at all. It feels more like you’re playing a boss rush in an RPG than a fighting game. So how does this work? Well, once you select the Battleheart character frame, your player frame opens up a list of eight names. Out of these eight, you select up to four units to use in the coming battle. Now you’re starting to think that this is another Hugo moveset, but that’s where you’re… partially right. It’s Hugolian in that you play as multiple characters, but different from the typical Hugo set in that there are no actual inputs.

“No inputs?!? Smashbot, this is clearly an attempt at a minimalist, rushed, and unoriginal moveset!” While it might seem that way to you, it still required enough thought, dedication, and care to form it without making it flat out ridiculous. But wait, no inputs? Not even with the movement stick? Well, remember when I mentioned the unused feature in Brawl? Said feature is motion sensitivity, specifically with the motion bar. Battleheart is going to be relying on this feature to even FUNCTION. Without it, your units stand around like boobs, only going after opponents when they’re near, or just do nothing. Alternatively, you can be a boring schmuck and use any of the other three controller options. In which case, you use the shoulder buttons to alternate between units, with the switch being instantaneous. I’m guessing I’ve got your attention so I’ll move into how you navigate your units.

So your four units start out in a tight formation, with the first character you picked in the far right and the last character in the far left. To move a single unit, you move your Wiimote at the desired unit and double tap the normal attack button… we’ll call it the A button for this set. In terms of movement, everyone at your disposal can run, leap a fixed distance, and perform their passive action. Most of your units would take about three full seconds to cross the entirety of Final Destination, but you get four units to use, so in retrospect, it’s not all bad. You’ll need to hold down the A button and “draw” a path for your selected unit to follow and as soon as you let go of the A button, they’ll start on that path like an ant in line. If using one of the other control options, you use the movement stick to draw it out. Assuming your motion connectivity to the bar is uninterrupted, you can give orders to each of your units in a time span of less than a second, especially if you have a tactic planned beforehand. If your path ends at an opponent, they’ll travel for that opponent. Actually, let me correct myself; not all units will attack the opponent. For those units, you’ll want to end their path at a friendly unit. Instead of moving, they perform their passive action… but more on that later.

Several of your units will follow to attack the highlighted opponent. If you have difficulty targeting which opponent you want to attack, rest assured that the foe you currently have targeted lights up, to let the player know who they currently have the unit set to attack. Once they reach their mark, they start slashing, bashing, or casting at the opponent, not even requiring any effort on the player’s part to do so. And they’ll continue to pursue their mark, with each pursuit different between units. While the range, speed, and power of each passive assault differ from unit to unit, they still deal enough consistent knockback/damage to keep them off balance. So if you have multiple combat units attacking someone at once, they’re in for a difficult time. If all four of your units are combat-specified, it’ll be a hectic swarm for your foe. Better yet, ALL of your units have to be knocked out in order to lose a single stock and they’re still able to grab onto edges to save themselves and use directional influence. Unfortunately for the player, this is easier than most. Disregarding that most of your units are on the lighter end of the weight scale, Battleheart is the only set in the entire game that strictly follows a stamina meter for every game type. Needless to say, each unit has a different amount of health and a few units recover health, but once one unit loses all their health, they’re gone for the rest of the stock. They also lack double jumps and a traditional recovery move.

So needless to say, you’ll need to play tactically with Battleheart, balancing between protecting your weaker units to help out the stronger units beat the living hell out of your quarry. But… it’s so SIMPLE! Not much else besides directing your units to different locations and generically killing the opponent. Luckily, the game Battleheart is an RPG for a reason; as your units level up, they gain access to new abilities- passive or active- that give the player a choice in how they want to evolve each unit. For SSB, you level up by dealing damage, healing damage, or providing buffs to the other units. Everyone starts at level one. And for the sake of my own sanity I'll be leaving out passive bonuses... Shut up. Each level up adds a small addition to a unit's power and defense.

Each unit is going to have a maximum of three abilities: one the unit starts with and an additional four that the unit can choose from. However, the other four are separated into two other trees, so you only get to choose two out of the four abilities. Whether they are active or sustained, they have different cooldowns, which are very important to take into account. In order to select what ability you want access to, tap the shield button while you have a unit selected. It opens up their power tree, which allows you to select what ability you desire. Keep in mind that you receive an alert over the unit that just recently leveled up, with a red exclamation point that lets you know when a new ability is available. Unfortunately, you're unable to cancel your selections so choose wisely. On the other hand, you retain your level between lives, but you'll have to manually reselect what abilities you want for each unit. Unfortunately, one unit’s abilities must be activated while the unit is grounded.

To access the ability bar, simply tap the special button, or B, once while your cursor is hovered over the unit of choice. Three blocks with different illustrations depicting what ability is in that square appears at the top left of the screen. To activate these abilities, simply move your cursor over the square of choice and tap B. Some abilities require the unit to be actively attacking/healing/buffing someone, so if they don’t activate that instant, you’ll know why. Others come out instantly or even reach across the entire stage. Experiment and see what loadout works for you. But jeez loweez, enough about mechanics. Hell, I almost dived into the playstyle section in the first half of the moveset, and I’ve been told several times how much of a bad idea THAT is. So without further ado, here are the eight possible units at your disposal!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
YOU MUST GATHER YOUR PARTY TO VENTURE FORTH
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
​

The Knight (Shepherd)
Stamina: 450% (The most out of all your units.)
Attack Speed: 4/5 (He wields a short sword and he has enough strength to swing it with ease. His passive attacks have intervals barely over a second.)
Weight: 5/5 (He's as heavy as Bowser, with all that armor on.)
Mobility: 1/5 (He's wearing armor. Slow as Ganondorf.)
Power: 3/5 (His armor lends a bit more momentum to his swings. His normal attacks deal about 3%/4% damage per strike.)​

​

​

A stalwart defender of his friends, the knight is the archetypal tank at your disposal. While his movement leave something to be desired, the knight is an able protector of your softer unit either by attracting the foe’s attention or absorbing the damage done to his allies. While his job in Battleheart wasn't always an easy one, he managed to save the day with his area-of-attack abilities and war cry. While his goal is simple, the manner in which the player does so can vary. The knight can only level up by dealing damage.

Starting Ability: Shield Wall

The knight takes a defense stance, reflecting 50% the damage he receives back onto his attacker. So if he takes 10% damage, he deals back 5%. If he takes 9%, he'll deal back 4%. The percentage rounds down, needless to say. Keep in mind this does not affect the amount of knockback that the knight receives and he won't stun the opponent while the knight is in Shield Wall. The knight remains in this stance for ten seconds and requires a total cooldown of twenty five seconds for subsequent use. Keep in mind the cooldown starts as soon as the ability is activated; in retrospect, it only takes about fifteen seconds for Shield Wall to end.

For a starting ability, Shield Wall defines what role the knight should take. Since his other abilities force the foe(s) to focus their attention on him, the knight can passively reflect a certain amount of damage back onto his attacker, creating a win-win situation for your units that result in a badly bruised enemy waiting to be knocked out by your bread-winning batterers.

Level 5 Choice 1 Ability: Cleave

The knight lashes out at enemies all around him for a full second, regardless of where they are. This rapid striking attack covers his entire hurtbox and comes out instantly, dealing about 10% damage to anyone in the vicinity. It's also the knight's most potent killing move, often finishing his foes at 150%. Cleave requires a twenty second cooldown after use and once the knight uses Cleave, he practically stays invincible throughout the brief second; partially because the start-up of the move is instant and the lashes have great priority.

As opposed to his alternative Level 5 choice, Cleave focuses on damaging every enemy around the knight. It's also a dependable killing move on his part in combination with the lagless start-up and top tier priority. Unfortunately, the range limits when you should activate this move and since the ending lag leaves the knight open to counter attacks, smart foes can wait just out of range and strike back, potentially knocking the knight out of the arena.

Level 5 Choice 2: Intimidate

The knight emits a terrible battle cry, instilling fear in every nearby enemy. This also goes for summoned minions, although in that case, the minions run away from the knight. When it comes to playable characters, the knight instead forces anyone in a three Mario-length radius around him to... well, avoid him. As in they start running away from him for two seconds. Intimidate has a twenty five second cooldown, and using this in conjunction with War Cry ends the entire fight with a Draw, you smug basterd.

This seems like the complete opposite of what the knight was made for; causing enemies to retreat? Well, there are times when the knight has too much pressure at once and this move not only stops enemies from what they're doing, including attacking, but forces them into retreating, putting them into that two second dash during which they can't even use their dash attack. They can run into your teammates, who no doubt have ability/abilities ready for the fleeing foe. There is almost literally no way for the opponent to deal any real damage to your units if you properly prepare a follow-up to Threaten.

Level 10 Choice 1: War Cry

With a mighty shout, the knight attracts the foe's attention, making him the center of attention of any opposing force. In short, anyone anywhere onstage instantly runs toward the Knight in a constant two second rush, during which they can only use their dash attack. If they're airborne, they will DI toward him. The knight has about a full second of super armor during the second and a quarter War Cry requires to fully end, letting his teammates take advantage of the foe's helplessness. Oh, takes thirty seconds to cool down.

War Cry solidifies the knight as your go-to tank of choice, with only the Monk and coming anywhere close. The knight forces the foe to rush at him regardless of what they are doing, the opponent is temporarily rendered helpless, since the only way for the opponent to deal any dent in your squad is by running into the super armored knight. And even then, the knight will no doubt have Shield Wall activated that'll reflect half the damage he receives back.

Level 10 Choice 2: Shield Rush

A fierce rushing attack that homes in on the opponent, the knight's speed temporarily rising to Sonic dash speed until he hits a foe or the environment. He rushes in shield first, with constant super armor until he makes contact. If the knight makes contact with a foe, they receive a measly 5% damage but immense knockback that'll often kill heavyweight foes at 100%. What's also neat about Shield Rush is that the knight will travel fast enough to... run on air. Yes, he'll cross gaps of any size if it means striking the foe. Don't fret about suicides, however; the knight will be able to change his direction in the nick of time to avoid killing himself. As with his other moves, Shield Rush has a twenty five second cooldown before it can be used again.

Shield Rush is a different kind of move for the knight; it's offensive and arguably his best killing move. There's no way of stopping him due to the super armor during the charge and if his victim tries, Shield Wall can potentially deal back half the damage mister knight takes. Couple that with an instant Cleave and you have a nasty one-two punch.

The Cleric (Lucille)
Stamina: 180% (A very low amount of health. PROTECT HER.)
Cast Speed: 2/5 (She passively recovers 25% of her selected unit's health per second and three quarters. If she's not targeting anyone, she'll heal herself.)
Weight: 1/5 (She's not wielding much on herself, so she's about as weighty as Meta Knight.)
Mobility: 3/5 (Compared to her more heavily-armed comrades, all the cleric is packing is a robe and staff. Besides, she'll have to move around a lot to avoid pursuit.)
Power: 2/5 (Her one offensive ability deals no damage, but still knocks her assaulter a fair distance away from her.)​

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Usually the backbone of your teams, the cleric is able to heal 35% of any of your units for every 1.75 seconds as long as she remains in one place. She's unable to heal while moving and activating an ability during movement instantly stops her. She's also very frail and easy to knock out. Lastly, she'll likely be your opponent's number one priority, as she is the only way who can negate all the hard work she's done. If you keep her alive, however, she'll more than make up for your dedication. Between healing everyone in the party at once, providing passive buffs to her target, and just being flat out helpful, the cleric is someone you shouldn't readily ignore. The cleric gains one level for every five heals she performs (Group Heal does not count.)

Starting Ability: Group Heal

The cleric heals the entire party, including herself, for a substantial 30%. It's pretty self-explanatory and Group Heal only requires fifteen seconds of cooldown. It'd skyrocket her levels if it didn't count toward her leveling. Group Heal is also the only way to heal herself outside of recovery items.

In case you didn't already figure it out, you thick twit, the cleric is built entirely for support. She has one move that acts as self-defense and that's only once she reaches level ten. Group Heal basically highlights the cleric's most useful feature, which is to heal everyone else. The low cooldown basically ensures that as long as the cleric is kept safe, she'll do the same for the other units.

Level 5 Choice 1: Shield

Summoning power from her will to protect her teammates, the cleric surrounds the current unit she's healing with a blue aura that causes any attack they receive to be cut by 75%. So if they receive an attack that would normally deal 100%, they only receive 25% damage. As you can guess, this is a huge difference in how badly your opponent gets hurt and CAN stack with other defensive bonuses. This boost lasts for ten seconds and requires a further thirty second cooldown to be used again. The cooldown begins as soon as Shield is activated.

Further enforcing her spot as the ideal supportive teammate, Shield really forces your opponent to change tactics, as any damage they deal to the selected unit severely lowers. They can be directed into attacking other units that may already be set up to receive blows, such as the knight or monk, so that your other units can further set up for optimal contribution.

Level 5 Choice 2: Power Infusion

Drawing upon an outside and unknown force, the cleric instills great strength within her patient; he/she will glow red as a result for as long as Power Infusion is active. This ability doubles the attack power of her targeted teammate for ten seconds, requiring a cooldown of thirty seconds for further use. The knight's Shield Rush deals 10% instead of 5%, the monk's Wind Walk deals 14% instead of 7%, and so forth.

The opposite of Shield only in effects, Power Infusion can send your foe on the run if you use it on an already threatening unit. Your quarry will either flee until Power Infusion ends or will attempt to target other units, most likely the cleric in this case. However, you'll likely have made a plan for this occasion that ends with your infused unit getting the lion's share of the credit.

Level 10 Choice 1: Guardian Angel

The cleric is filled with divine purpose, doubling her healing power for fifteen seconds. That means that instead of healing 35% damage per auto heal and 30% damage for Group Heals, it's 75% and 60%, respectively. Guardian Angel, however, has one of the longest cooldowns of any ability out there at a full minute, although since the ability itself lasts fifteen seconds, it's decreased to forty five seconds. That's still a hefty cooldown, though.

In my opinion, the choice between the cleric's last two abilities is very difficult, but if your cleric has a pure dedication to healing or hasn't experienced much interference from foes, Guardian Angel is fantastic for bringing your units' health up to almost maximum capacity. By choosing this, however, you lock out the cleric's only real method of defending herself against attacking foes. Don't discount Guardian Angel just for that, however. Better yet, the cleric can move around and retain Guardian Angel for the rest of its duration. She still can't heal while moving, however.

Level 10 Choice 2: Vengeful Angel

The cleric explodes with righteous fury, creating small shockwaves that knock back approaching foes around her and reach about three Mario-lengths around her. These shockwaves come out one at a time per three seconds and protect the cleric from incoming foes. While these shockwaves don't deal any damage, they're still able to kill foes at high percentages- about 200% to take out the heaviest foes. This is the cleric's only way of defending herself outside of running away or letting her teammates come to her rescue. Like Guardian Angel, Vengeful Angel takes a full minute to cool down and lasts for fifteen seconds.

Like Guardian Angel, the cleric can move around while Vengeful Angel is active. Unlike the former, the latter remains active while the cleric moves. This means she can apply pressure to opponents just by walking toward them without hurting her teammates in the process. In fact, they can add on to the pressure simply by attacking or activating other abilities. Vengeful Angel is ideal if you have an opponent who seems to love targeting your cleric.

The Rogue (Robin)
Stamina: 225% (A below average amount of health.)
Attack Speed: 5/5 (She wields a small dagger and leather armor. Her normal attack speed is naturally swift.)
Weight: 3/5 (She's only wearing leather armor, but it does make her heavier than the lighter units.)
Mobility: 5/5 (When you think of Rogue, you don't think of clumsy or immobile. You think of someone who is as fast as Captain Falcon.)
Power: 4/5 (While her auto attack won’t win over anyone at 2% per strike, her abilities are among the strongest of any of your units, which can be further enhanced by Expose Weakness.)​

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The rogue is the most mobile and one of the most damaging units at your disposal, even if the low power rating throws you off. Not only is she one of the only units able to successfully chase down opponents on her own, but she's the only one able to teleport toward her opponent to deliver an instant strike. She lacks the pure DPS factor of the Barbarian and definitely can't last as long in combat as the knight, but the rogue definitely has her merits. You're able to level up the rogue by dealing damage.

Starting Ability: Sneak Attack

The rogue reels her dagger arm back and stabs forward with a precision strike, dealing 10% damage and killing at 150%. A simple sounding attack... although there's a unique perk to it. If she manages to perform this move on an opponent's back, the power of the attack skyrockets to 25%. The knockback for backstabs is even greater, often killing the heaviest of fighters at 100%. With a cooldown of only twenty five seconds, you can use this move very often as long as you're in melee range.

Sneak Attack is one of the rogue's most dependable ways to kill and damage her victim, although it's safe to assume that their attention will probably shift to the rogue once Sneak Attack lands. Thankfully, with the rogue's speed, she's able to perform hit and run tactics with the low cooldown of the Sneak Attack. Better yet, Sneak begins and ends as quickly as her normal attacks, meaning you can practically slide this ability in whenever you want. It's an embodiment of what purpose the rogue serves; high damage in a short amount of time.

Level 5 Choice 1: Expose Weakness

The rogue reveals flaws in your enemy's defenses, increasing the damage they take from all attacks by 50% for ten seconds. Attacks that would deal 10% now deal 15%, 5% to 7%, et cetera. The rogue will still have to be close in order to actually land the move and Expose Weakness requires thirty seconds to cool down. Luckily, factoring the ten seconds when this is active in, you get twenty seconds, the same as Sneak Attack.

Expose Weakness is for the rogue who wants to serve as a support role as well as a damage dealer. You're able to combine this with Sneak Attack and Shadowstep to cause ridiculous amounts of damage in the least amount of time possible. By selecting Expose Weakness, however, you pass up a ranged ability that poisons the foe and gives the rogue a second method of attack. Expose Weakness is still a great ability that should be considered if it fits into your plan.

Level 5 Choice 2: Poisoned Knife

A poison knife is thrown at the target, dealing 5% damage over a period of five seconds on top of the additional 5% damage caused by the knife. The rogue is able to throw this at any range so long as the line of sight isn't blocked. Otherwise, you waste a knife and have thirty seconds to wait for another poisoned knife. Luckily, the knife travels through the air a tad faster than Sonic's dash, tracking down the opponent all the while. If you manage to land this, however, the opponent suffers a noticeable amount of damage with no way or preventing it outside of recovering the damage sustained via recovery items. There's no stun or knockback inflicted for each point of damage dealt during the poison phase.

Poisoned Knife offers the rogue a very nice way to damage the opponent from afar, which can help protect the rogue from losing any of her health that she might lose in melee range. The ability also has a useful damage over time mechanic attached that can build up along with teammate's attacks/abilities. The applications for poisoned knife can also create panic in your victim, causing them to flee. Luckily, the rogue loves a good chase and can no doubt stop the foe in their tracks with a Sneak Attack or Shadowstep.

Level 10 Choice 1: Paralytic Knife

Similar to Poisoned Knife, the rogue tosses a knife coated in a toxin that renders the mark helpless for five seconds. Helpless means that they cannot move, attack, or dodge, basically making them a glowing, "Hey, look at me! HURT ME!!!" sign. They don't suffer any knockback from outside attacks either. As if that wasn't enough, the knife deals a small 5% to the struck foe. Paralytic Knife still has the same limitations as Poisoned Knife and if you miss, well, that's a wasted forty five seconds of cooldown for you. Hell, even forty if you land it is bad enough.

Paralytic Knife can almost entirely change the tide of battle in the rogue's favor. Rendering the foe helpless for even one second, let alone five, opens up several opportunities not just for the rogue and her friends, but for other fighters that might be involved. And unlike Poisoned Knife, Paralytic Knife doesn't have to cancel out Expose Weakness, meaning you can combine the two- as well as Sneak Attack, needless to say- for huge damage. and that's just taking the rogue's damage into account. It does have the most cooldown time of any of the rogue's abilities.

Level 10 Choice 2: Shadowstep

A quarter of a second after activating Shadowstep, the rogue suddenly disappears in a wisp of smoke... and then half a second later, reappears behind the opponent and strikes the victim, dealing 20% damage. Similar to Sneak Attack, except it deals a fixed amount of damage and teleports the rogue directly behind the foe. The teleport can literally take the rogue anywhere from one point to the other (So long as they're own solid ground.) to immediately deal a large amount of damage and knockback- enough to kill at 120%- the instant they come out of their teleport. Shadowstep also happens to have a lower cooldown than Paralytic Knife at thirty seconds.

Yes, Shadowstep sounds as useful as it reads. The rogue almost instantly teleports to her mark and stabs them for a large amount of damage in the span of less than a second. Combine this with Expose Weakness and you can perform ludicrous amounts of damage in a very small amount of time. I say ALMOST instantly because there’s a brief period of time when the rogue comes out of her teleport and telegraphs her strike. It’s not much of an opening, but it’s there. Even worse for the rogue is what happens is if she misses; she lurches forward a bit and trips, leaving herself open for a full second. The foe can feel free to punish the rogue however they want. Luckily, the foe cannot even run from Shadowstep, as it tracks their position and fully comes out as soon as they hit the ground.

The Wizard (Thistle)
Stamina: 150% (The least out of all your units.)
Cast Speed: 3/5 (The wizard shoots out tracking fireballs, with a one and a half second time gap between each fireball.)
Weight: 1/5 (She has a robe and a staff. Falco weight right there.)
Mobility: 4/5 (While she may look no different from her magically inclined cousins, the wizard has one trick up her sleeve in Teleport.)
Power: 4/5 (What the wizard lacks in taking a hit she more than makes up for in dealing out damage at a distance.)​

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The wizard is a cross between the cleric and the rogue. She's a lot like the cleric in that she prefers to stay at a distance and has incredibly bad defense. Like the rogue, the wizard is able to deal a lot of damage but through longer periods of time, as several of her abilities can attack foes from even across the screen. The wizard also acts as a supportive role, either by slowing down her opponents down or peppering them from afar. As for her auto attack, the wizard fires off small fireballs that track whoever she's targeted that travel the same speed as Din's Fire right before the detonation. These projectiles deal 5% damage per strike and deal small amounts of knockback. They're very helpful for the wizard's ranged damage-per-second game due to the relatively high attack and infinite range. Yes, the fireballs WILL travel after the opponent to the ends of the earth... so long as there isn't any stage standing between them, as the fireballs aren't smart enough to move around the stage.

Starting Ability: Meteor

The wizard summons a meteor that falls directly upon her target, dealing 15% damage in a three Bowser-length radius around the blast zone. The meteor itself falls at comparatively slow pace, taking about a full second to reach the floor of Final Destination from the top blast zone. It also instantly detonates once the meteor hits a surface characters are unable to pass through. Meteor is still a very potent way for the wizard to damage her foe, considering you should already have at least two other melee fighters keeping their attention. The meteor won't damage teammates either, so don't worry about friendly fire! Oh, Meteor has a cooldown time of twenty five seconds.

Meteor is certainly a straightforward ability... admittedly much like much of the wizard's arsenal. But it serves the wizard well; it deals quite a bit of damage from any range without causing self-damage. It defines what the wizard does and how well she does the job of long range DPS. However, the wizard is still vulnerable during the entirety of Meteor, so using this ability to ward off attackers is a bit pointless. The Meteor still comes out as soon as its square is selected so unwary foes will trade some damage with the wizard.

Level 5 Choice 1: Blizzard

The wizard summons chilling winds that deal light damage- 5%- with no knockback. Blizzard strikes foes from anywhere on the screen, but it also slows down the movements sans falling and knockback weight of all struck foes for ten seconds. Blizzard comes out in a matter of milliseconds and can save the wizard if she's in a pinch. Blizzard requires thirty seconds between subsequent uses.

While the apparent uses for Blizzard are clear, it's a matter of how you want to put them to use. The slowdown affects the foe no matter where they are on the screen, but it won't help you stop their recovery- it only slows down their movement speed, not their falling/knockback speed. Regardless, it covers the entire screen and will strike and freeze any foe on-screen, even if they're invisible or in super armor.

Level 5 Choice 2: Teleport

In the blink of an eye, the wizard teleports to the nearest living teammate with the most amount of health. If the wizard is the only living unit, she teleports to a random spot on the map. The ending frames of the teleport grant the wizard some temporary super armor, protecting her while she recovers out of the teleport. Taking that into account, the entire teleportation process takes less than half a second to fully carry out. Teleport requires a three second cooldown before it can be used again.

This is basically the getaway option for the wizard, should you pass up Blizzard's fullscreen slowdown capability. It's very helpful in conjunction with Thunderbolt, since you can warp to your fighting teammates, activate Thunderbolt, and then flee. It also works with other abilities, but Teleport is incredibly useful with Thunderbolt as a one-two punch. Even without Thunderbolt, Teleport is still a very useful move just for utility.

Level 10 Choice 1: Conflagrate

The wizard's target is consumed by fire, incinerating the targeted for and causing constant hitstun over six seconds. This totals up to 20% damage, with the foe constantly flinching from the fire. Much like Meteor, Conflagrate activates only when the wizard has a foe targeted. Unlike Meteor, it comes out instantly and has a lasting effect for a longer period of time. Unfortunately, it causes little knockback and has a cooldown period of thirty seconds.

The constant hitstun factor of Conflagrate is very helpful for the wizard if you wish to place her in a support-oriented role. Granted, it still does a heap of damage just from the initial burst, but the constant hitstun basically cancels out all but the fastest attacks. Combine that with your close combat teammates' support and you've got a deadly combo. You sacrifice access to Thunderbolt, but it's an equal but different trade.

Level 10 Choice 2: Thunderbolt

Lightning strikes the caster, dealing some damage to nearby foes- 15%- and knocking them away so long as they are next to or anywhere directly above the wizard. Thunderbolt shoots down to strike the wizard no matter where they are; think of it as Pikachu's Thunder, except it'll travel through any part of the stage and travels much more quickly than Thunder. It's almost instant. Anyway, the wizard also retains super armor during the beginning frames of Thunderbolt and acts as an unusual yet effective defensive maneuver. Like most of the wizard's abilities, Thunderbolt has a twenty five second cooldown period.

On its own, Thunderbolt is certainly a helpful ability. With a primarily defensive purpose, it'll damage foes for decent damage and greatly knocks back attackers, often killing heavyweights at 100%. It's certainly the wizard's best killing move, but you need to be close or directly under the foe to do it. In combination with Teleport, however, Thunderbolt becomes one of the wizard's deadliest moves. Teleport to a unit currently in combat with the target. Activate Thunderbolt. Run away. Wait for the ability to cool down, rinse, and repeat. This is just a suggestion, though it's a highly recommended one and just one of Thunderbolt's possible uses.

The Barbarian (Garrick)
Stamina: 200% (A very low amount of health.)
Attack Speed: 5/5 (It would be a six but that's unrealistic. The barbarian has two weapons that attack one at a time over a short amount of time.)
Weight: 2/5 (While the barbarian wields a leather coat as opposed to the rogue's leather armor, he still has some muscle on him, putting him somewhere in the lower tiers.)
Mobility: 4/5 (While the barbarian is not as agile as his cousin, the rogue, he is still a very competent chaser.)
Power: 5/5 (The barbarian is the strongest close-range fighter, hands down. 3% per strike, and he hits twice in a little over a second.)​

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The barbarian is most interesting in that unlike other melee classes, he wields two weapons. Naturally, this affects his auto attack in that he uses both weapons to deal as much damage as most auto attacks do in a shorter amount of time. Taking the strikes from both blades into account, it takes a little over a second between each pair of strikes. This sounds lengthy and deceptive in relation to the attack speed rating, but keep in mind he attacks twice. Outside of that, the barbarian has abilities that compliment his ability to maximize damage, rivaling even the strongest of fighters. This focus on damage leaves little room for error, less so than other melee classes. Regardless, taking the time to learn how the barbarian works will definitely help kill opponents that would otherwise rip your units apart. Like with other combat units, the only way to level up the barbarian is to deal damage with him.

Starting Ability: Enrage

The barbarian flies into a drunken rage of anger, increasing damage dealt AND taken by 35% for ten seconds. It's certainly a gamble of an ability, since you take much more damage than normal. It's best to activate this when your tank has attracted the attention of the foe you're fighting. Enrage has a cooldown of thirty seconds, but Enrage feels like it takes forever to finish, so it's more like twenty seconds.

On its own, Enrage is a high risk high reward ability that requires patience on the user's part. If you have the guile and tact to combine it with abilities such as Frenzy, the barbarian's damage potential breaks the ceiling and skyrockets into SPACE. You'll still need to be careful of the defense penalty you receive but the sheer promise of being able to deal almost 50% in less than five seconds is certainly a noteworthy feature. The opponent will no doubt want to take advantage of this penalty, however, and may be able to knock out the barbarian in two hits. Four with a Shield up.

Level 5 Choice 1: Frenzy
With a mighty shout, the barbarian’s attack speed nearly triples, considerably speeding up his auto attacks. I’m talking about smacking his foes with the speed of two fans. The pirate’s already significant killing potential increases even more since the constant hitstun from the sped up auto attacks keep them occupied. Unfortunately, Frenzy only lasts for five seconds and has a twenty five second cooldown. That and once Frenzy is activated, the barbarian takes half a second to roar before actually doing anything, giving the foe a chance to escape the oncoming onslaught.

On its own, Frenzy is a fairly standard attack buff for the barbarian that boosts his damage-dealing capabilities and can even act as a substandard tank that at least has the attention-attracting aspect. It expands upon the barbarian’s impressive damage potential by drastically increasing the speed of his auto attacks. But combining this with his other abilities is what makes Frenzy really shine. Frenzy plus enrage makes for the highest damage per second out of all your units, possibly in the game. While it’s true that both forms telegraph themselves right before the barbarian is able to be useful, it results in damage racking that’ll lead to 50% damage in less than three seconds. Even though the alternative, Whirlwind, is a very capable “get offa me” move for the barbarian and meshes well with his other abilities, nothing in his arsenal can possibly match up, in terms of pure damage, to Frenzy with Enrage.

Level 5 Choice 2: Whirlwind
The barbarian begins to rapidly spin with his blades outstretched as he moves forward at an inclining speed. Even though the attack lasts for a mere second, Whirlwind’s ramp-up gets to around Fox speed at the last quarter of a second. Better yet, the hitbox on Whirlwind covers a constant distance of one Bowser-length in front of and behind the barbarian, along with a temporary vertical hurtbox that grants the barbarian super armor. It’ll draw in foes if they try to attack from above or below. Speaking of which, if Whirlwind strikes the foe at any point during the second, they’re drawn in for the rest of the spinning with damage potential reaching to a maximum of 15% with enough knockback on the last slash to kill heavyweights at 120%. Keep in mind that while the beginning frames of Whirlwind are swift, they aren’t as quick as, say, the knight’s Cleave. For a quarter of a second, the barbarian can be knocked out of it prematurely, costing him a wasted twenty second cooldown. He’s certainly dizzy as he comes out the move as well, so don’t whiff it.

This definitely seems like a different move for the damage-dealing barbarian, but it gives him more utility and survivability that benefits him and his team. For one, he can dash through teammates during Whirlwind to protect any relatively squishier units. The barbarian can also use Whirlwind for when he is swarmed by enemies and can’t call upon a teammate to assist him. While you do pass up Frenzy and the deadly Frenzy-Enrage combo, selecting Whirlwind gives the barbarian more to do and can perform in tasks that he could not otherwise cover if he had selected Frenzy. Oh, and if you reach an edge during Whirlwind, the barbarian simply swings his momentum around and moves in the opposite direction.

Level 10 Choice 1: Reckless Blow
After raising his weapons into the air, the barbarian slams them down into the ground in front of him. The start-up of Reckless Blow is certainly lengthy, requiring one full second on the barbarian’s part to reel his weapons back. The range is rather limited as well, with the range reaching out to a mere half a Bowser-length. The least desirable part of this move, however, is undoubtedly this: once the barbarian slams his weapons into the ground, the force takes away 20% stamina from his own gauge. Not to mention the ending lag takes half a second and the thirty second cooldown, regardless of whether or not you land the blow. So, this move must be pretty damn powerful for so many drawbacks, right? Well, lemme put it this way: should the barbarian land Reckless Blow on Jigglypuff at 0%, she’s dead. With some 35% damage added on, but that’s irrelevant since she’s dead.

If you want a barbarian that is purely dedicated to dealing immense amounts of damage at any cost, even at the cost of your own health, Reckless Blow is a worthy expenditure. Granted, it requires careful timing and planning on the player’s part, but the promise of one-hit killing a few characters from 0% and the rest at 50-80% is certainly enticing. Hell, you could combine it with Enrage and boost the damage even further, and the defense decrease from Enrage doesn’t affect the self-stamina loss anyway. Oh, if you’re worried about being interrupted during the beginning frames of Reckless Blow, don’t; while sluggish, the barbarian gets super armor during the opening frames that ensure the strike will follow through, regardless of whether or not is misses.

Level 10 Choice 2: Savage Pounce
The barbarian makes his best 3rd Strike Alex expression and leaps toward his targeted foe… well, it’s more like he jumps into the air and lands where the targeted foe was the moment when Savage Pounce was activated. He can’t pass through solid platforms/parts of the environment and if he tries to, he knocks his head against said solid and is put into helpless. And he’ll land on top of passable platforms, not go through them. But if the path is open, he’ll more likely than not land on or near the opponent. During his majestic flight through the air, the barbarian retains constant super armor for as long as he’s airborne. When he lands, a small explosion occurs on both sides of him that deal meager damage (around 7%, depends on how close you are) but good knockback, often killing at 135% damage. If the barbarian lands directly onto the opponent, the foe receives 15% damage and is pitfalled. When the barbarian lands, however, he’s left quite open. Luckily, you’re able to cancel the landing frames into Whirlwind, Enrage, or Frenzy as soon as you touch ground. Like his other abilities, Savage Pounce requires a twenty five second cooldown.

Just from the description, Savage Pounce is to Reckless Blow as Whirlwind is to Frenzy; while it offers less raw damage potential, it’s much more useful in that it allows the barbarian to quickly move across the field either to intercept a fleeing opponent or to rescue a teammate. Heck, pairing Whirlwind with Savage Pounce is a good idea since Whirlwind covers a whiffed Savage Pounce. Granted, it lacks the damage of Reckless Blow, but it’s a damn useful move.

The Monk (Feung)
Stamina: 375% (A very high amount of health)
Attack Speed: 4/5 (The monk has the fastest rate of auto attack out of all the tanks, and second fastest out of every unit, only lagging behind the rogue at a mere quarter of a second.)
Weight: 3/5 (While the monk lacks much armor, his body is honed to physical perfection. He takes those hits like a man, weighing about as much as Captain Falcon.)
Mobility: 4/5 (He is also the most mobile tank. He sure has quite a bit going for him, aye? Moves about as fast as Samus)
Power: 2/5 (He uses his fists. I know I said he's honed to physical perfection, but everyone else is either using proper weapons or not attacking at all. His auto attack deals about 3% damage per strike, though with enough knockback to kill at 200%. And like so many other units at your disposal, he levels up by dealing damage.​

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The monk is the alternative option for a tank, but with strange qualities. While he is classified as a tank, he lacks a few key abilities that suggest the role. But what he makes up for in attention-getting, he makes up for in damage and mobility. His Wind Walk ability hits anyone on stage at any time for nigh guaranteed damage, as well as the side effect of slowing their movements down for a time. 1000 Palms and Chi Blast help deal out heavy damage and A.O.E. damage, respectively. And representing his tank-like skills, the monk gains access to Evasion, which provides a specific timer of invincibility, and Spirit Trance, which increases his speed and grants health regeneration, both temporary. He might be slightly less armored then, say, the Knight, but he still retains several abilities that, combined with the right teammates, can really help the monk flourish on the battlefield.

Starting Ability: Wind Walk:

With blinding speed, the monk lashes out across the battlefield, attacking everything at once. Well, not at once; there's a slight delay between each strike, although it's almost like the monk teleports around the battlefield to strike anything he can. He's considered invincible during the attack animation, but not during the recovery. He will attack destructible objects, with explosions taking no effect, and dodging or otherwise invulnerable opponents, meaning the latter target won't take any damage or stun. Which reminds me, all struck opponents take a fixed 7% damage and heavy stun. But not heavy enough for the monk to dole out easy damage, since the lengthy ending lag of a second and a half leaves him far too open to make a follow up. His teammates likely can, however, and the beginning lag is very swift. The order in which the monk strikes the opponents differs if there are multiple opponents; as such, they'd be wise to stay on their feet, since it's entirely possible for the monk to attack one opponent first rather than the other. Wind Walk requires thirty seconds to cool down before being used again.

One side effect I failed to mention in the above paragraph is that whatever opponent the monk managed to strike, their movements are slowed down for two seconds. It's similar to the Wizard's Blizzard, though as a starting ability. Keep in mind that the monk will end the attack in the spot he activated Wind Walk in, so don't group this move with Leap just because the Monk moves everywhere almost at once. Wind Walk also applies to aerial opponents as well, although the Monk can only activate Wind Walk while standing still.

Level 5 Choice 1: Evasion

The monk temporarily goes into a sort of invincible state and evades all attacks for five seconds. It's not super armor and if you try to attack the monk during this state, the timer decreases by two seconds. Whatever attack would normally hit the monk, he automatically spot dodges it regardless of what he is doing. He can pretty much run in and wail on the opponent with his allies backing him up. There's no real way for the opponent to take advantage of Evasion's timer other than spamming projectiles. Evasion has an unsurprisingly long cooldown of thirty seconds, considering the power of this move and the side effect that establishes Evasion as a great tanking move.

Whenever the opponent attacks anyone who isn't the monk, Evasion's timer increases by a full second. So the opponent basically has to focus his attention on the monk or run away until the timer ends. This obviously opens up several opportunities for your teammates; otherwise, the monk gets a very large pseudo invincibility timer that the opponent can do nothing about except apply senseless pressure. It's also a great escape for the monk in case he's surrounded, although Chi Blast is better in that case.

Level 5 Choice 2: Chi Blast

A shockwave of pure ki erupts from the monk, knocking surrounding foes away with enough knockback to kill at percentages as low as 125% and leaving them with 14% damage. The blast itself comes out instantly and covers all of the monk's current space, making it about the height of Giga Bowser and the length of a crouched vanilla Bowser. The shockwave soon dissipates after around half a second of subsisting before fading to ash, with the monk back in his fighting stance. Like Evasion, Chi Blast requires twenty seconds to cool down.

The applications of Chi Blast are obvious enough; the instant activation guarantees reliable crowd control, the range of the blast itself is very good, and the killing potential is definitely up there. Better yet, you won't cause any friendly fire should any friendly units be caught in the blast. However, the flaws in Chi Blast aren't in the skill itself, but for what you choose by passing up Evasion. First, you pass up Evasion, which works very well in tandem with other characters. And second, you lose a move that makes you invincible, sort of. That's tempting enough. Still, Chi Blast has its merits and shouldn't be ignored in several match-ups.

Level 10 Choice 1: 1000 Palms

In the time span of a second and a half, the monk unleashes a flurry of blows, dealing massive damage to a single target; around 30%, with enough knockback to kill at percentages as low as 80%. The monk will need to be rather close to land this though, but anyone caught in even one hit in the flurry is stuck for the rest of the ability animation. What's worse, the monk only focuses on a single target, leaving himself open to any other foes. Sure, the first hundred strikes come out fast, but you'll need to be right next to the foe to even start 1000 Palms. But your teammates can cover that, right? Since there's no super armor on 1000 Palms and the final strike requires a full second to recover from? On top of that, it takes thirty seconds to recharge this killer ability.

So yes, this is blatantly the monk's most potent killing move. Catch Jigglypuff in this when she's at 30% and she's dead. This is great in conjunction with Evasion since whenever you autododge an attack, you can cancel that spotdodge into 1000 Palms for a very deadly bait and switch. You can also take advantage of Wind Walk's slowdown to chase down foes and palm storm them to hell. Keep in mind that by passing up Spirit Trance, you lose the chance to dramatically increase your speed and health regeneration. But still, 1000 Palm's killing potential is too good.

Level 10 Choice 2: Spirit Trance

The monk enters a trance, granting increased speed and health regeneration for five seconds. While the rate of regenerated health can easily be offset by continuous damage- the bonus is 1% per second- the speed increase is very noticeable. The monk's run goes from Samus speed to Captain Falcon speeds and the auto attack is sped up from a little over a second per strike to a little under half a second per strike. Better yet, Wind Walk is much faster and Chi Blast ends much more quickly. However, the cooldown for this move is thirty seconds, though if you count the duration you're actually in Spirit Trance, it's really twenty five.

So with Spirit Trance, the monk becomes a much bigger problem for the foe- he gains health back over time and is much faster in every respect. The foe will undoubtedly turn his attention toward the monk to stop his regeneration, or he can continue whatever he was doing and let the monk easily pursue and ravage the opponent. Granted, the pure damage potential is less than 1000 Palms. Still, it means the monk is the only character who can regenerate his own health should you choose to pass up his most reliable killing move. Tough choice, I'd say.

The Witch (Wynter)
Stamina: 250% (A strangely good amount of health considering her role.)
Cast Speed: 1/5 (The witch has the slowest auto attack in the party, nearly taking a second and a half between each auto attack.)
Weight: 1/5 (Much like the wizard, the witch doesn't have much going for her. Hell, she's lighter than the wizard, possibly even less than Jigglypuff.)
Mobility: 1/5 (Unlike the wizard, the witch lacks a teleport option. Combine that with her Ganondorf-like dashing speed and we've got a very sluggish unit.)
Power: 3/5 (Much like her wizard counterpart, the witch can deal out quite a bit of damage, though in a different manner than several other units. Her auto attack does deal slightly less damage at 4% though.)​

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The witch is odd. She shares the same mechanics of the wizard's auto attack but with slightly less damage. She's also like the wizard in that she likes staying far away from her opponents, but she lacks the raw damage potential of the wizard. Her auto attack is the slowest of them all and she has more health but less weight than the wizard. However, she's possibly the single most effective jack of all trades you can use. Sure, she can't tank to save her life for obvious reasons, but she can heal herself and your allies as well as poison and debilitate your enemies. In other words, she lessens the duties of other support units that may be on the field, although she certainly stands on her own as a support unit. Although she works much better alongside a dedicated supporter such as the cleric. Very few characters can match up to the utility that the witch offers. She's also the only character that can level up either by damaging foes or healing allies.

Starting Ability: Drain Life

Dark magic steals life from the witch's nearest victim, dealing about 10% damage with no stun or knockback whatsoever, and darts toward the most damaged member of the party. If all health levels are equal it always goes to the witch. The witch takes about a quarter of a second to summon the magic while there's another half a second for the magic to actually surround the opponent, then an indefinite amount of time to get to its patient. Of course, this spell can attack anyone onscreen, so they're never really safe from Drain Life. Better yet, the cooldown is very low at fifteen seconds.

This is the witch's killer app- she damages foes and heals her allies at the same time. She takes tons of pressure off other supporters while providing a few other bonuses that stack up very well with Drain Life. Better yet, combine it with other buffs to make the damage and recovery output even stronger. With the low cooldown, Drain Life just makes everyone's lives easier. Not much else to say other than limitless, unavoidable, and heals your most damaged ally for a small percentage.

Level 5 Choice 1: Plague

Noxious fumes are unleashed over a large area in the form of a Giga Bowser-sized cloud. Any unfortunate foe who strays into this cloud take a rapid amount of damage over time, about 2% per half a second. That's only when they're inside the cloud; once they leave the toxic zone, they continue to take damage over another second and a half as soon as they leave the fumes, although the damage done over time is much lower at a mere one percent per three quarters of a second. If they manage to find themselves in the cloud once more, say from an outside force, the timer is reset. The cloud itself cannot damage any of your units and lasts for five seconds before disappearing, requiring twenty five seconds of cool down time.

While the fumes sound easy enough to avoid due to their immobility, it has a big advantage: the fumes are automatically summoned at the witch's current target, practically guaranteeing they will be poisoned for a bit at the least. So you can carefully plan when multiple foes are together and activate the cloud to kill several birds with one stone. Of course, the moment when the fumes appear don't deal any amount of stun to the target, meaning that even though they'll start taking damage the instant the fumes appear, they won't suffer any knockback or stun. Still, Plague is quite helpful, especially when combined with movement-impairing moves such as Blizzard or Wind Walk.

Level 5 Choice 2: Debilitate

The witch casts an enfeebling curse upon her target, regardless of where they are or what they're doing, that deals no damage, knockback, or stun. However, their attack power is decreased by 75%, even if there is fixed damage on the attack. So normally crushing character such as Bowser or King Dedede deal considerably less damage even from fully charged smash attacks. Better yet, any attack that deals less than 7% off a single hit has its knockback/stun completely ignored to anyone attacked. This sounds overpowered already, right? Well, take this: five second duration, thirty five second cooldown.

Debilitate is very powerful, no question about it. More so than Plague, I'll admit, but the main drawback is the increased cool down, which compared to Plague, is ten seconds longer. So it's more a choice of whether or not you want the witch to have a damage-over-time ability with relatively short cooldown or a crippling nerf that lasts for much less time and with a longer cooldown. Though both have basically an infinite amount of range and can snag the opponent anywhere regardless of where they are onscreen. Not to say that Plague doesn't have its merits, but Debilitate's debuff is huge yet demands precision. In combination with another defensive buff, you can make your entire team as sturdy as the knight or make one unit invincible. Yes, I said invincible.

Level 10 Choice 1: Horror

Fear consumes every enemy on the battlefield. The effect varies on their proximity to the witch. If they're three fourths away from the witch on Final Destination if the witch is on the edge, nothing will happen except aesthetic fidgeting and you'll have wasted a move with a thirty five second cooldown. If they're they're in the middle of Final Destination, they actually run from the witch, similar to the knight's Threaten, though for a much lesser time and still able to perform their dash attack and aerials. If they're close to the witch- say, two Bowser lengths away in any direction- they're scared stiff. Well, technically stunned, but let's not sweat details. They're stuck in an unmashable five second stunned state and takes no knockback from any autoattacks, but will take 1.25 as much knockback from the next ability that causes it. Horror, like all of the witch's moves, affects every foe anywhere on-screen and like I previously stated, Horror has a thirty five second cooldown.

Horror acts as a repellent of sorts for would-be attackers. Because if they get too close to the witch, they're open for a slew of damaging options that usually end in a free kill. Better yet, the witch instantly activates Horror the moment you activate the ability. However, the foe CAN spotdodge Horror and avoid the effects entirely, but it would take incredibly talented reflexes to avoid, let alone predict, an oncoming Horror activation. While the witch lacks actual killing options, you can still use Horror's effects dependent on range- at point blank, you can activate Plague to add on absurd amounts of damage and regardless of the range, your allies will certainly benefited with a stunned or retreating foe. Even with the long cooldown, you get a very helpful option for the witch if her personal space is getting invaded. It's a little strange though that a long-ranged support unit would have an ability that can potentially stun everyone around her for a fixed five seconds.

Level 10 Choice 2: Witching Hour

The entire party is imbued with a new breath, though some would claim it feels unnatural, that instantly refreshes the cooldown of every ability. The effect is in the description, silly, and happens instantly, though the witch leaves herself open for punishment afterwards. Worse yet, this ability has the longest cooldown in the game at fifty five seconds. Still, the very promise of Witching Hour's instant resets are tremendously powerful.

You can probably guess the choice between Witching Hour and Horror is similar to the one between Plague and Debilitate, except multiply that by five. Don't get me wrong, both abilities definitely have merits; Horror ensures that foes either take a very cautious approach when dealing with the witch while Witching Hour pretty much ensures the witch is the most powerful support role on the battlefield next to the cleric while you neglect her most powerful form of self defense. Both abilities mix well with those of other class's as well, though the synergy of Witching Hour and... everyone else... is pretty forced. Still, instantly refreshed cooldowns. Thank God you can't use more than one witch, right?

The Bard (Edwardo)
Stamina: 300% (The physical trials on a travelling bard- as well as the mental and physical hardening of Edwardo himself- temper a hardy support unit.)
Cast Speed: 1/5 (A little over three seconds, although he doesn't have any cast speed per se; his passive effects happen constantly over time.)
Weight: 4/5 (He's constantly holding onto his rather heavy lute.)
Mobility: 2/5 (Bards are good at running away. Well, this guy would be if he wasn't holding onto a large lute.)
Power: 0/5 (What? Zero? Yep, he has absolutely no way of dealing damage on his own.)​

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The bard has an unusual auto attack, if you want to even call it that. You see, he's sort of like the cleric in his auto attack; he buffs the targeted unit by applying his own stats to the ally, by which I mean he adds a percentage equal to his own level to the ally's attack and defense. And keep in mind he levels up for every three seconds he spends buffing a unit. So he can level up very fast. The best part about his buffs is that they apply to each individual strike, meaning multi-hitting abilities such as 1000 Palms are much stronger. Granted, he lacks any real way of defending himself, so he's even more dependent on his teammates than anyone else. However, he wields some of the most powerful abilities in the game, and proves himself to be an incredibly strong support unit.

Starting Ability: Song of Renewal

The bard instantly heals 30% of his current target's health, requiring a cooldown of only twenty seconds until he may use it again. Similar to the cleric's auto heal, the bard is unable to use this while moving around the battlefield. Still, the combination of a heal and short cooldown make Song of Renewal a very helpful ability, especially considering the bard's sole purpose is to support his friends. You know, so they can make sure he doesn't get his arse kicked.

There's really not much to say here other than the bard can heal his teammates using this simple ability. However, he can further amplify the power of his heals through his other abilities, as well as the powers of other units. But as of now, we're only covering Song of Renewal. It's a very safe move for the bard to perform, although it leaves him slightly open during the ending animation. Still, it mean she carries quite a load off of any other support units you might have on the battlefield, should you have one. Or two.

Level 5 Choice 1: Song of Vigor
The bard's soothing melodies slowly but surely recover the health of his teammates over an indefinite period of time. While the rate of recovery is average at one percent per half a second, and the rate of healing ramps down after five seconds to one percent per second, the regeneration continues so long as the bard isn't hit. This means that the party can continue to heal over time no matter what, despite how minimal the gains become. Oh, Song of Vigor has a cooldown of twenty seconds.

The bard sure is starting to sound like a male version of cleric, doesn't he? Why, other than the cleric's auto heal, there's little reason to even use her over the bard! That's hardly true, but I digress. You get the choice between two very tasty abilities, but Song of Vigor is great for any team as a healing ability. It further enhances the recovery of all your units when added alongside cleric's Group Heal and Witch's Drain Life. Additionally, Song of Vigor affects the entire party while the bard maintains his singularly focused auto buffs. Better yet, the bard can still move around and Song of Vigor will remain active though, like before, he still needs to remain still for the auto buff to continue.

Level 5 Choice 2: Song of Sanctuary

The bard strums an inspiring tune that strengthens the party's resolve, resulting in the entire group taking 25% less damage from individual attacks for fifteen seconds. Keep in mind that the 25% is subtracted from the original amount, so if a move does 10% normally, it instead deals 8%. Also, the cooldown time of Song of Sanctuary is thirty seconds, but if you take into account that the buff lasts for fifteen, the true cooldown is a measly fifteen seconds. Be warned, as the bard remains in place for a full second before he can do anything else. He requires a lot of patience with his songs.

Seems like a simple buff, right? Everyone in your party takes less damage from all attacks for a long amount of time. However, the hidden beauty in Song of Sanctuary is that you can add onto other defensive effects for an even hardier team: use the ability when the knight has his Shield Wall up and while the cleric casts her Shield over him. Suddenly, you have a very deadly unit and a defensively sounder three helpers. Better still is the bard's ability to add onto this buff with Song of War, to compliment the defensive boost with an offensive one. This choice basically constitutes what you'd rather have as a defensive buff ability; a healing one that is dependent on the bard's well-being or an ensured yet minor defense increase?

Level 10 Choice 1: Song of War

Oh hey look it's that one ability I was talking about back in Song of Sanctuary. Well in this one, the bard empowers the party with a rapid and ascending series of notes, increasing their attack powers by 25% for fifteen seconds. Again, the percentage boost is based off their base power and the thirty second cooldown minus the fifteen second duration equals a fifteen second cooldown. Basically, think of Song of Sanctuary except with offense instead of defense, though Song of War may not help out as much as Song of Sanctuary, as the bard cannot attack at all and the cleric only has one truly offensive ability.

There are similar applications for Song of War, though there are less offensive buffs spanning across the units at your disposal than defensive ones. However, much like an offensive buff I vaguely recall earlier, Song of War's 25% increase affects each individual move. And like Song of Sanctuary, you can stack these effects, with each percentage bonus taking its bonus from the base number. In short, you can boost normally weak attacks to absurd levels, and all in an ability with a measly cooldown. That is, of course, unless you wish to pass up the alternative, which is certainly a helpful tool for any team.

Level 10 Choice 2: Song of Inspiration

Sensing a drop in morale, the bard plays this tune to inspire the party in their darkest hour. On first glance, it appears that nothing has changed other than the other party members glowing slightly. Which, in case you're wondering, lasts for five seconds. However, the bard has set off a time bomb within each of his teammates; after five seconds have passed, every teammate on the battlefield gets one full second of super armor. There is no way for the foe to prevent this outside of killing the affected ally, which hopefully you'd have a problem with. One other thing; the cooldown of Song of Inspiration is a rather lengthy fifty seconds, so be sure you know when to use it, since a properly timed super armor charge can turn the tide of battle. Just youtube the Battle of Pelenor Fields.

While the effects of Song of Inspiration sound defensive, the nature and purpose is not: Song of Inspiration is meant to get your party's nerve together, to break free from any bad situation, and to turn the tides in an instant. It defines the role of the bard as a support character, and combining the defensive boost of Song of Sanctuary with the healing properties of Song of Renewal further transform your allies into defensive behemoths. And that's not even taking into account what everyone else can add onto. True, you lose the bard's one actual offensive buff, but take into account what Song of Inspiration offers; a chance to fight back, even in your darkest hour. Just keep the cooldown in mind, there's not much of a way to circumvent that outside of Witching Hour.

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Playstyle continued in next post:

 

[smashbot226]

So I asked some users in the chatbox yesterday to conjure some random teams for me to use in my Trainer Joe-like playstyle section. You know, that one set nobody fully read but me? Anyway, on with the show:

The thing about playstyle with Battleheart is, well, there are so many options available for the player that sticking to one plan really isn't helpful enough. For every foe, there's a tactic, for every player, there's a counter. But let's see what the people had to say:

Team Phaticus

The Rogue

The Monk

The Witch

The Wizard

Analysis: An alternative to the tried and true staple of Battleheart, with some variations here and there. With the monk acting as the damage sponge, it is his duty to keep foes off the wizard and witch, so that both may get to a far enough distance so that the witch can begin her support duties and the wizard long ranged assaults. The rogue is also there to assist the monk in attracting the opponent's attention, though the foe may fully focus on her unless the monk activates Evasion.

If either close-range fighter starts hurting a little too much, there are a couple of different relievers. First is the wizard can slow down the foe with Blizzard, Teleport close by, then knock them away with a Thunderbolt while the witch drains their life, transferring it to the weakest unit. If possible, the monk can activate Spirit Trance during this time to add onto the effects. Really, this team's plan is to first distract the foe's attention long enough with the monk's aggro-drawing capability and the very threat of the rogue so that the witch/wizard can get into position. Then, it's a matter of keeping it that way until the melee fighters are starting to get hurt.

Marthy's Quad

The Cleric

The Witch

The Rogue

The Knight

Analysis: Ah, a very fine team. You have a tank, the knight, an accompanying damager, the rogue, and two support units, though the witch can also maintain a role as a long range damager with her auto attack. The knight plays a pivotal role in keeping the foe's attention, more so than the monk in Team Phaticus, since everyone else really cannot afford to take even a single blow. His ability to control where his opponent travels is also key, since he can direct the foe into a position that allows the cleric and witch to escape while simultaneously putting the rogue in a position to deal as much damage as possible in that window of opportunity.

From there, the cleric can keep a constant auto heal on the knight, activating Group Heal every so often if necessary, while the witch can add onto the healing with Drain Life, making the cleric's life much easier. In case either are threatened, the cleric has Vengeful Angel and the witch Horror. This directs the foe back to the knight and rogue, who should be more than prepared to deal with them. This is a simpler team that requires a slightly lower degree of micromanagement for an equally rewarding outcome, thought you still shouldn't dawdle about. That goes without saying for every Battleheart team.

Hyperion Rush

The Knight

The Wizard

The Barbarian

The Witch

Analysis: A different set that swaps out the rogue for the barbarian and opts toward a more offensive output. The knight is still there for the everpresent damage absorption, allowing the witch and wizard to create some distance from their foe. Afterwards, the player has two options: either aggro his enemies with the knight or with an enraged barbarian. Granted, an enraged barbarian will fall in battle relatively quickly, but this can be offset by the witch's Debilitate and knight's War Cry, which incredibly hinders the foe's ability to focus their attention on the defensively frail barbarian. After that, well, he can go to town while everyone else does as well.

A playstyle with a high risk high reward method. Sure, you can keep the usual plan of using the knight to attract attention while everyone else does their own thing, or you can use the barbarian as your unconventional aggro while ensuring your others unit are willing to put their attention toward the otherwise at-risk barbarian. Otherwise, it's a waste of an ability and you can be sure the barbarian will fall. If the pressure gets to the knight or barbarian, however, the wizard can still force the foe back while the witch heals the most damaged member of the party. Which will no doubt be the barbarian in this case. At that, the knight can use Threaten to further scare the foe away and provide more time for recuperation.

 

[Akiak]

Teru Mikami

Let me start with the graphical layout. It's awesome.

Now the set itself. Your inclusion of the Death Note is very interesting, I really like the whole mis-spelling idea, mostly because you sticked to the actual DN rules and were able to make them work in Brawl. The Up Special is completely absurd, but it made me lol so I'll let it pass. I guess the Down Special is a good addition playstyle-wise, but you could have easily implemented it into the Neutral Special and put something more interesting in that slot, like, I don't know, squirting ink onto the floor with his pen which trips foes or something. Okay that was stupid but you get the idea.
Now the whole move-deleting thing which takes up the rest of the set is a great idea and, again, it makes for a very interesting playstyle. The fact that it takes up about 80% of your set isn't really a problem, since there's practically nothing else you could've used (maybe throwing cellphones?)and the anecdote kept me hooked.
Overall, great job, you managed to make a very interesting moveset with almost nothing to work with. Very impressive, Khold.

 

[ForwardArrow]

Cloudman.EXE
Obviously, there are comparisons that can be made here to Sheep Man and Huff n' Puff, but I will spare you that, since you did not read either of those sets. Past that, Cloudman's games with his clouds are obviously pretty cool(the effect has dulled though, due to again, reading those sets) and he has some fun stuff with the rain and mindgames. I think my favorite part of the set was the grab, which was ridiculously clever and gave a lot of depth to his game. I still feel like some parts of the set come across as awkward though, the Up Special teleporting him into a random cloud strikes me as really tacky. That and there's some redundancy in the set, especially with the Forward Tilt, Forward Smash, and Dair, which feel a lot mildly tweaked versions of previous attacks. This is certainly an enjoyable set, though those few key flaws hold it down a bit in my mind.

Spoiler

That, and really it's a bit hard to appreciate the set when the lightning and clouds game has been done twice before in two sets I really liked. I'm aware you didn't read them so I won't say you ripped them off but it's a bit hard to get it out of the back of my mind if you know what I am saying.

Jeff Madrox
Let's not kid ourselves, there is no way this set is not extraordinarily overpowered. He creates duplicates at an obscene rate, and attempting to get rid of them will likely make more. This would not be a huge problem in and of itself since he can't really abuse a massive number of duplicates all that well, and then we get to the Down Special and he basically becomes nigh invulnerable with the ability to put so many duplicates between him and the foe to begin with. That said, I do like the set for what it is, with his ability to drag foes down lines of himself and playing a very interesting little spacing game. Not to mention the character/concept you picked was balance hell to begin with, and it's clear you were trying to make him fair. Yes the balance problems are very heavily a part of the set, but I don't see them as end-all, be-all.

Battleheart
You came into this set with taking a huge risk with that concept... and as much as I really don't want to say it, I don't think it ended up paying off. The individual characters are hilariously predictable with only one attack they spam over and over again, it would become an absolute joke to avoid them. Yes, yes there are the extra abilities and there are a few working on a team, but because of their lack of any real recovery you could probably just separate them and shove them off an edge to their doom with hilarious ease. Not to mention due to the cool-down times the extra abilities end up also being way too easy to see coming, and ultimately end up highly ineffective. The ideas here are admirable, but past dealing damage or knockback the set really doesn't feel like it's meant for Smashbros, with no real movement and such to the attacks that makes them come across as ineffective and awkward. Yes I am sure that was your intention, but you were trying to make them a playable Smash Brothers character and I feel that they barely qualify as playable and feel so ridiculously out of place amongst the other characters in that they take almost no advantage of the Smash Bros engine what-so-ever. I have plenty of other things I could complain about(some of the spells and abilities are horrifically tacky for one), but suffice to say I think I've made it clear this set is a train wreck.

For what it's worth though, don't view this set as a failure on your part. It was an experiment and you were well aware some people were going to hate it. I just felt the need to voice why I did not like the set at all.

 

[BladeKnight420]

I haven’t died out entirely yet, still been reading sets here and there. I was waiting for a long while for my roundtable review before I got back into MYM again, but it seems that’s not going to happen any time soon.

Mikami: I don’t know about the rest of you, but even Mikami’s set fairly mundane set can pressure a poor sap with nothing but Specials and a Grab-Game left, especially one of these MYM sets who relies on all these interactions between each and every individual move. If Mikami’s smart, he can go to eliminate the key interactions first and foremost, and he has the grab-game to prevent dodging from the foe anyway. I like the set itself…I’m just not sure how much I like it on Mikami. I’m not going to give you a pass on Up Special because it was “funny”, and him having otherworldly move deleting powers feels like too big of a stretch. Maybe the moveset should’ve been for a Shinigami?

Beezwax: You’ve already heard enough reasons why people like this set, Warlord, and I agree with most of them. You’ve created a unique playstyle while going out of your way to avoid all of the beginner traps; the set seems almost paranoid it’ll turn into a momentum set sometimes and does everything in its power to go in another direction. What I don’t like about this set is how overpowered it feels. Gangreen have very clear weaknesses, but I’m not finding much of anything here. His one vulnerability to hitstun and grabs is quickly made a non-factor thanks to honking, and on top of that he weighs 15 and actually has a pretty good recovery. He can afford to save his recovery and play without honey, you yourself say he’s perfectly viable as a camper. It could be fixed if you just toned down his weight, but if that didn’t fix it, not much else would. Maybe decrease the stamina of the bees, so he’d have to use them more sparingly like you intended?

Cloud Man: I definitely like all of the various control over the clouds you have in the set and having them zap things at various angles. I’m curious what would happen if you angled clouds to zap lightning into each other, but the clouds have very low HP anyway so the enemy can come in and stop it whenever they want. My favorite part is when Cloud Man hides both himself and his chips inside of the clouds. For the one move that turns him into a cloud, though, wouldn’t moving around at all give away his position? You didn’t give ways for the other clouds to actually move, outside the grab-game cloud. I think that might’ve been a good thing to put in.

Madrox: Warlord’s probably going to say that this doesn’t introduce anything new to duplicates or something along those lines. I’m certainly no expert on them, but I did have the common sense to read Gengar and Pennywise after the top 50 came out. Madrox doesn’t focus on mindgames, and simply is more about overwhelming the enemy like all of these Hugo sets. What’s he got to be unique? The sheer quantity of duplicates he has. You take great care into ensuring he doesn’t get unbalanced by dealing very little stun and ensuring the foe is free to move during most of this. There’s just one catch. He starts by himself, and he’s very very weak and vulnerable before he creates duplicates, not even having a recovery. I don’t really like him being so reliant on set up, and in that bland main moveset I think you could’ve given up some sort of turtling options or something to buy him time.

Battleheart: I can say this is the moveset, out of all the complicated ones I’ve read, that I’d want to play the least in an actual game, hands down. Having so little influence over the game immediately turns me off from this moveset. I thought Gangreen already was plenty controllable to actually play, the solution is to give more options to do very basic things, not less. The only thing this set has going for at all really is the whole multiple characters thing, but I don’t think that’s enough when so many others have done it so well, and to put it bluntly, far better than this.

 

[n88]

Comments, away!

Commenting catch-up time? I think so.

QWOP
[COLLAPSE="Kholdstare"] The main appeal of QWOP, the game, to me was that it took a simple function taken for granted in just about every game ever made, and made it frustratingly, ludicrously difficult. This set certainly accomplishes the "frustratingly difficult" bit, but I don't think it really captures that feeling of going back to basics. It does manage to be funny though, which I daresay was the main point.[/COLLAPSE]

Vol Opt
[COLLAPSE="ForwardArrow"] I do like a lot of the concepts presented here - the way Vol Opt separates his real hurtbox from the character who does most of the actual fighting is a trick I pull all the time, so how could I not? - but some parts of it throw me off a little. I don't usually like to complain about balance, but it seems to me that with Vol Opt's pillars, suction, and wire that never disappears, it wouldn't be hard for him to cook up an infinite trap. Also, I question the electrifying mechanic. He just wants to electrify everything he's created as soon as he's created it, which sounds suspiciously, easy, powerful, and boring.

But yecch, I'm getting awfully negative here. Vol Opt is a fun read, and does sound for the most part like he'd be quite fun to play, though he struggles a bit in the "fun to play against" department. (Dammit, there I go again! I swear I'll say something nice in a second) The insane obstacle course that Vol Opt creates is really cool to watch unfold, and while I prefer Homura's simpler approach, this is still good work.[/COLLAPSE]

Box Man
[COLLAPSE="Akiak"] This is a very fun set, and actually one of my favorites this contest. It seems like Box Man could use more ways to keep foes busy while he sets up his crazy structures. He has his grab (which could be used in conjunction with that lovely Forward Special, I suppose), but not too much besides. There isn't a lot in the way of strictly defined playstyle here, but the moveset manages to pull of a nice sandbox feel. It would be nice if his aerials played into his ground game a bit more. My biggest gripe with the set is that the aerial moves don't really play into the theme of the set that well. Still, it's great to see you back, Akiak, and I'm looking forward to more from you.[/COLLAPSE]

Pachirisu
[COLLAPSE="getocoolaid"] It's really too bad that you posted this right before the explosion that was Halloween. I think it would've gotten a bit more attention otherwise; the organization is quite good, and Pachi is well-characterized (for the most part. That Up Throw raises an eyebrow). The set has this great squirrely feel to it, and is really quite charming. Unfortunately, it never seems to pull together all that well. It seems to be building towards a hit-and-run playstyle early on, but it sort of falls apart as soon as the Smashes, and in the end we're left with something that's a bit lacking in focus. Still, the set has a unique charm to it, and I do believe it's your best yet. Keep chuggin' along, Geto. I thin kyou're on the verge of a breakthrough.[/COLLAPSE]

Iggy Koopa
[COLLAPSE="MasterWarlord"] Iggy is an excellent read, and I definitely liked it better than Gangreen. I do like the way you handle the Chomp here; I was afraid of seeing some convoluted control mechanic, but you do manage to keep it relatively straightforward, wth the closest you get to overcomplicating things being the "chain grab," which I can't really say I'm a fan of. Why not just have Iggy's normal grab animation reach extra low, or have him grab the chain by default if there are no foes in range? The down-grab feels a bit unintuitive. Also, the Forward Smash feels a bit awkward to me as a Smash rather than a Special. It would disrupt the Smashes-controlling-Chomp theme, but I think it would benefit from being switched with Forward Special.

But quibbles aside, Iggy does do a good job of building on a series of unique ideas, as your sets nearly always do. Iggy plays king of the hill, with the hill hooked up to a giant minion. How sweet is that? You may have pulled a bit too heavily from Iggy's New Super Mario Bros. Wii apearance, but that's certainly forgivable, since the Chain Chomp Chariot really is the most interesting thing he ever does, and it's hard to resist building a set around it. I might also add that the characterization tickles me here - one moment he's staring at his wand in "childlike wonder" and hte next he's using a move called "SKULL BASHER." It really does fit with Iggy's demented, evil childlike persona.[/COLLAPSE]

Teru Mikami
[COLLAPSE="Kholdstare"] I'm not familiar with the charcater, so I really can't judge what you could have done instead of this, but I do have to say that I'm not crazy about this approach. Perhaps you could have made it possible for him to toggle between this set of standards and another with a Special? I don't hate this moveset, but it's a bit hard for me to like, as it lacks so much substance, and I don't know the character at all.[/COLLAPSE]

 

[Deleted member]

Dumping these because why not.

Bass.EXE is a set I’m randomly commenting because I can, more-or-less. It’s arguably your best moveset, because, if nothing else, it has a far stronger playstyle and makes an asset out of your dedication to in-smash through the use of cancelling knockback. It’s a very intelligent, well thought out mechanic and lets you give Bass plenty of options to manipulate it, with a lack of moves that don’t work into it in some way [the up special is pretty abominable, though]. Despite how generic a lot of the moves are, you are conscious of their profoundly different purpose with knockback turned off and it makes for a unique fight with Bass where the opponent is glued to the floor in a similar fashion to a player in Battle Network. My complaints squarely lie with some of the tackier glitches, which don’t accomplish much past some very basic balancing of individual moves and could easily have been left out. And yeah, though the use of set knockback and mindgames is definitely more relevant in this atmosphere with Bass, to me it felt like you used those concepts too many times.

What’s most important about Octavia is that you capture the essence of the character perfectly, which is impressive this early in your career. Here, you show a distinctive style and there’s no move that seems overly tacky or that doesn’t aid the playstyle in some way. Personally, I felt like the way you manipulated the musical notes was interesting from a concept angle, but that you didn’t go far enough with it to make an amazing playstyle. I only say this because of how well-received the playstyle is, and I wouldn’t say it’s bad in this respect, but I feel like you have a lot of improving to do. Stuff like making the notes into grab hitboxes is nifty in a psychedelic Sakurai way where obscure things become literal, which is how the set deals with the character and generally does it well. I do feel like, though, you needed more of these sorts of unique interactions and for them to be more complex, which should be the aim for your next set. Despite my mass complaining, it’s a very big improvement over Tetra and shows huge and genuine progress for you as a MYMer.

I’ve been debating to whether comment Firebrand, as I have little to add, but considering how the set is largely ignored I reasoned that it was deserved. The set largely focuses around an adaptation of Firebrand’s original Ghost n Ghouls appearances, expectedly sidestepping what most newcomers do in adapting the Marvel vs Capcom set, which is the same logic that created Mario Remix. The set is very, very hard to read into, as most of Firebrand’s moves are extremely in-smash and the ways he has to expand on his playstyle, like his clones that appear alongside his standards, tend to feel awkward. You succeed in pulling off this troll-y playstyle based around picking off the foe from a distance, but it’s at the expense of making the character feel like more of an accessory. On the plus side, it would work easily just slotted right into Brawl and Rool was right to say that it’s fairly down-to-Earth game design.

Fright Knight is at its most interesting when playing around with the concept of the sword in the stone, pressuring the opponent into picking it up and gimping their own moveset to stop an amassing storm of minions, projectiles and other crazy business. Fright Knight has some cool ways to work into this, largely building up a very in-smash and unique rushdown that focuses around his original gameplay pretty well. There are a couple of dark spots – namely, Nightmare doesn’t really exist to be much beyond a way to execute more generic hitboxes [FK isn’t a Brawl set but by MYM standards his hitboxes are already generic] and the grab game is fairly obvious. I think that’s my one problem with the set – the design is convenient; the chanting feels awkward with the way it works, as well as the original forcing of pulling out the sword. Once you get beyond that, the set manages to carve out a good amount of originality without having to get tacky, but this is only because of the original forced interaction. However, I appreciate that may be the only way to truly do the character justice, and it’s a smartly-constructed playstyle. It’s hard to dislike and at least conceptually, far more up to the standards I associate with your sets than DarkMega.

Hammerhead definitely feels like it’s reaching for the kind of cartoon characterisation that feels far too functional to exist in Looney Tunes – the concept of unique pitfalling I actually didn’t dislike, but it just isn’t that interesting all on its own. You take the character as far too much of a challenge – it’s respectable to limit yourself and this can aid to the designing process as you begin to adjust your own style to fit the character more as a result, but here it’s pretty obvious that you were limiting yourself too much and should have allowed for some more interactions besides the pitfalls. There’s a good deal of redundancy – particularly, lots of similar head-hitting-ground inputs that are overly rushdown-focused and nothing that remotely works into separating his head from his body. This set is definitely your worst in years... but it's significant as part of your roster. You sometimes need to make missteps to improve, and I feel like you're actually making significant headway this contest because of being more experimental, this set being a prime example.

Facilier is the opposite of Fright Knight in terms of format, introducing a flood of mechanics and integral specials at the very start of the set and simply snowballing from there until the playstyle is bursting with flow. This actually almost becomes overwhelming – Facilier has a seemingly endless amount of tricks to play [versatility] and the combinations with the shadow, the ‘deal’ and voodoo spirits are pretty much entirely left up to interpretation on part of the player. As usual with your sets, you make a fascinating playground and leave it up to the reader to put together these really interesting parts of the puzzle, which is especially good when it’s so open-ended. Individually, the concepts are handled well – the simple way you pull off the shadow clone is just differentiated enough from similar concepts to make it worthwhile. It’s surprising how little redundancy there is, which was your biggest problem before, though considering this is by far your easiest character choice ever, it just goes to show where the problem really lay.

Generally your only real flaw here is in some of the implementation of concepts. For starters, I do feel like you make too much of a hurrah of the deal by making it an overly elaborate special mechanic and feel like you could have fairly easily condensed it into a special. Likewise, stuff like the dust – while allowing for cool dynamics with the clone and opponent – ends up feeling quite forced in how specifically it works into Facilier’s playstyle. These are the biggest offenders, but you should work on making these wackier inputs feel more natural – again, in this regard it’s still an improvement over your older sets. Same thing with your writing style, though I have to admit that the random interludes with Facilier helped to like the set more on that level. As previously stated, the set is largely left up to interpretation, despite the playstyle section, which could be far more helpful than it is. Overall, a very good moveset.

So, Mummy Men, a novel idea for a pairing if ever I saw one. You approach the moveset with enthusiasm that can be seen carried over to the design as well – allowing creative freedom with the wrapping and the “pyramid building.” The way the building works is reminiscent of Kabutops, simply spawning the cubes onto the stage and messing around with them like playing blocks. It's very enjoyable when you get to take advantage of these structures, allowing you to play king-of-the-castle with your own pyramids while the other mummy dim-wittingly attacks the opponent from down below. Considering the easy way you have to transport control over to the CPU-controlled partner and how the pair can work together to create structures makes this one of my favourite sets to make use of CPUs, though along with Krillin, I think you have this concept down to a science. There are some minor quibbles – the crawling under the pyramid is a bit odd and there's some redundancy here and there – but I must say, quite a great set you have here, Junahu.

 

[Deleted member]

MYM11 User Rankings #6​

Welcome to the User Rankings! Every Monday, I'll be compiling the entire of the last week's activity in the thread and showing off, just who is the most active member? The point of this exercise is to recognise the most dedicated among us – those make your movers who are currently pushing the boundaries, as well as highlighting all movesets made by them.

To get on this list, you need to have made a moveset in this or a previous Make Your Move, as well as having posted in the Make Your Move 10 thread. The cut-off point for tallying usually is 3:59PM on Monday EST, 5:59PM PMT or 11:59PM GMT, however this week proceedings rolled over to Tuesday due to a delay. Other removals or changes are at my own discretion. The breakdown of points is as follows:

30 points for a Moveset
5 points for a Comment
4 points for a Secondary Submission
2 points for a Secondary Submission Comment
1 point for a Regular Post
+Regular Posts do not stack
+Secondary Submissions are MYminis, Joke Movesets and other miscellaneous submissions
​

While this week was nothing to write home about, we're deliriously close to the one-hundred mark for sets, which we managed in far worse time last contest. With Christmas a month away, it seems inevitable that this will still be the most active Make Your Move in years. Nonetheless, lets not take away from what was a respectable week on its own.

In first was Smashbot, continuing his nefarious rampage across the land with his short, to-the-point commenting and even delivering us a very experimental set in Battleheart. If you're up for a bit of a romp in terms of concepts, certainly wouldn't hurt to read that one. Nate was up in second, posting a bunch of comments and a one day set, Jeff Madrox. A nifty comic villain [Nate's first ever!] and apparently stock full of interesting concepts. In third is the king of F&E, Katapultar. It was a delight to see Kat back in town with a lot of long, analytical comments, replies and even a moveset - Ayano Minegishi. Like the other sets mentioned, people say this is a very different sort of moveset. Sounds interesting to me.

Remember to check out the stadium to find all of the sets mentioned.

Overall User Rankings

Points: 91, Movesets: Dr. Facilier, Battleheart

Points: 60, Movesets: Boom Boom, Dark Star, Kanden, 88 Teeth, Jeff Madrox

Points: 54, Movesets: Ayano Minegishi

Points: 51, Movesets: Vol Opt, Kyubey, Fruit Yummy Mummy, Gatsaf, Kyoko Sakura

Points: 43, Movesets: Gangreen Gang, Le'Quack, Hammerhead, JJJ, Iggy Koopa, Beezwax

Points: 41, Movesets: QWOP, King Ramses, Knight Man, Escavalier, Phantom, Zombie, Jukebox Jaw, Teru Mikami

Points: 36, Movesets: Swalot, Death

Points: 35, Movesets: Fefnir, Harpuia, Phantom, Leviathan, CloudMan.EXE

Points: 30, Movesets: Sayaka Miki

Points: 25, Movesets: Batman, Penguin

Points: 22, Movesets: Linebeck, Mask DeMasque, Gruntilda, Copycat, Giant Bat, Medusa, Mummy Men, The Creature, Piggybank

Points: 20, Movesets: Farfetch'd, Chaos 0

Points: 10, Movesets: Sweeney Todd

Points: 10, Movesets: Box Man

Points: 8, Movesets: Octavia, Jack Skellington

Points: 6, Movesets: Marvin the Martian, Freaky Fred, Pussycat Puss, Count Chocula, Princess Kraehe

Points: 4, Movesets: Reznor

Points: 4, Movesets: Kobold Clan, Fire Snake​

 

[Zook]

Hey party people, I've decided that I'm gonna start an original character movement. PM me if you're interested so I can gauge interest and ****. I promise I'll be back to my normal semi-regularness and start posting more comments and whatnot once Goodgamevember is over.

 

[MasterWarlord]

JOE’S WORST MOVESET CONCEPT X100

Battleheart having almost no control whatsoever makes me bother wondering why this character is even playable. Why not just have it be a computer exclusive character? It handles almost everything already as is when you “play” it. I presume this design choice was carried over from the –cell phone- game, but there are certain compromises that must be made when incorporating characters into another genre. You’re not turning the game into the game that the character was from. This was why I hated the mentality of Sonic and Tails so much, and while this is truer to the approach it’s trying to go for which Sonic and Tails failed to do, the consequences are far worse than even that set could’ve imagined. We’ve progressed beyond the point where passive sets with literally no reason to ever approach were common fare, enabling our sets to actually fight against each other (Ignoring balance). We aren’t full of offensive combo crap, though, and still manage to make traps and such work with this new philosophy.

Seeing we have done that, something far, far harder, I should hope we wouldn’t be making any more complete abominations like Sonic and Tails that don’t belong in any game, no matter how far you stretch your imagination. I’ve been proven wrong. More shocking, neither of these sets were by Roonahu. Come on, guys! You’re being outdone.

DUPLICATES OF DUPLICATES

I was wondering just what the hell the shocking pay-off was going to be for this moveset full of attacks that insisted on letting the foe be free to move at all times when the foe was what would be a state of stun in any other moveset, but just stared at my phone screen blankly when it was revealed that all of those boring moves were just for balance purposes. The big payoff of the set is more of the dreaded duplicates from the previous MYM.

Yes, you don’t go for mindgames. I really doubt this would’ve attracted any attention at all if it was more mindgames, so that was a good decision. However, the premise of the set basically amounts to. . .Gang up. So basically, it’s trying to be a Hugo set without any fancy interactions, making Pedestal look like a Warlordian moveset. What makes this weirder is that he has no means of using attacks of the duplicates. This means he has to play off an AI like the dreaded Penny had to with her uncle, but it’s far less in-character here. To give the set some credit, you can be selective in what you play off of considering the sheer quantity of duplicates you’ll have, but I can’t say I’m remotely a fan when the entire set is building up and then there’s almost no reveal when you go back to look at all of those bland attacks. . I just really can’t think of a Junahu style reveal with worse pay-off than this set, and it’s very well known I hate them in general. You want basic spacing among duplicates with no fancypants mindgames? Vlad Plasmius. You specifically were a fan of that set, weren’t you?

HUFF’N’PUFF X SHEEP MAN

The set seems a fair bit better now that you’ve given Cloud Man the ability to move clouds around – it seems to have been the missing thing to tie the set together I couldn’t put my finger on before. The one thing that makes me prefer the actual cloud set-up itself to Sheep Man’s is your ability to angle where the thunder will come out of each cloud, enabling you to make a giant circle of clouds constantly firing at each other. Cloud Man can also actually move the clouds from a distance while this is going on, enabling him to nudge them slightly as it goes on. This does feel very open ended with tons of set-up possibilities and feels competent without a playstyle summary, much like the two sets this is comparable to (Huff’n’Puff’s summary was very tacked on – it even had a Capture the Flag summary). The fact that you manage to do everything good about these sets while still remaining fairly unique and not invalidate either is truly an impressive feat. While the Sheep Man comparisons are more obvious, the mindgames are much more based on Huff’n’Puff as you hide chips/yourself inside clouds, and provides all the more reason for elaborate and differentiating cloud formations, fully taking advantage of Cloud Man’s many potential set-ups.

 

[LegendofLink]

Pichu​

Size: 1
Weight: 1
Ground Speed: 8
Traction: 9
Air Speed: 8
Air Control: 5
Jump Height: 5
Special: Pichu can wall jump
Pichu's pivot while dashing is increadibly fast, a little bit faster then Sonic's. This allows for pseudo-dash dancing and quick turnarounds.​

Pichu is the pre-evolved form of the iconic Pokemon Pikachu, and was a playable character in Super Smash Brother's Melee. Most notable about the pokemon is that it is often portrayed as being incapable of using powerful electric attacks without harming itself. This makes Pichu far weaker than Pikachu for all intents and purposes. Luckily, it has a lot of tricks available to make up for it.


Specials


Down Special: Thunder Wave
Pichu isn't strong enough to use powerful electric attacks without outside assistance and not harm itself, but luckily this electric type staple is extremely low voltage. Pichu generates an electric field one battlefield platform in diameter around itself, dealing a paltry 3% damage to enemies caught in it, but also stunning them for 1-2 seconds, depending on their damage percentage. In addition to this, All surfaces caught in the field become magnetized for the next ten seconds.

Opponents on a magnetized surface are held tightly to it, preventing them from dashing, jumping, or using any move that would move them around or off the ground, including dodge rolls (though spot dodges are just fine. They are also incapable of taking any knockback while stuck to a surface, instead taking hitstun proportional to the knockback they would have taken. Opponents who dash onto a magnetized surface automatically trip as they are forced out of their dash, and their traction is increased to maximum, preventing slippery foes from simply sliding out the other end. Foes who end up prone on a magnetized surface still cannot roll, and take twice as long to get up than normal.

Things aren't all that great for Pichu though, as the end lag on this attack is so severe that stunning opponents at low percentages gives the little rat barely enough time to stage a counterattack or run away, and almost guaranteeing punishment if Pichu fails to sun the foe, unless they get tripped up by the magnetized floor of course. There is no limit to how much of the stage can be magnetized at a time, but the move is too slow to be spammed all over the place.


Side Special: Substitute
Pichu creates a duplicate of itself out of its own life-force, taking 7% damage to create a duplicate with just as much stamina. Pichu can charge this move to put more energy into it, up to a max of 20% stamina after two seconds of charging. Depending on whether you smash or tilt the side-b input, the substitute Pichu (which is easily distinguishable from the original by a slight glow and a faded color scheme) will come out either walking or dashing. The substitute is always moving in the direction you used the attack and never jumps, shields, or dodges, but otherwise copies your button inputs exactly. This means that a walking substitute will, for example, use a forward smash or tilt regardless of whether you are in the air doing a forward aerial, on the ground doing the same move, or in the middle of a dodge or roll. The final feature of the substitutes is that they also function as Pichu's recovery, because a substitute created in the air is positioned perfectly to allow Pichu to footstool jump off of it. Substitutes can only be used twice in the air without touching the stage.

Spoiler

Now, before everyone goes and cries Pokemon Syndrome on me, This was an important part of my original Pichu set, and it is also a reference to the Pokemon Special Manga, where Red's Pikachu gets a lot of mileage out of the technique, doing much weirder and more creative things with it than I'm doing here.

Up Special: Agility
By pressing and holding the input, Pichu begins charging energy. The charge can be stopped any time by releasing the b button or shielding. When the charge is stopped, Pichu's movement speed, both in the air and on the ground (but not its fall speed) is doubled for 5 seconds for each second spent charging, up to a maximum of 15 seconds of speed. Pichu must charge for at least one second to gain the speed boost. A simple technique, but very effective.

Neutral Special: Electro Ball
Pichu generates a small sphere of electrical energy around it that harnesses the power of Pichu's momentum. The orb is only slightly bigger than Pichu itself. The ball remains around Pichu for half a second before disconnecting itself from Pichu and flying off in whichever direction Pichu was moving at the moment as the same speed Pichu was moving at the time. Contact with the orb deals 3-20% damage, depending on how fast the orb was moving at the time, with the lowest damage being dealt while the orb is standing still, and the highest damage being dealt with Pichu moving at it's dash speed after using agility. The knockback is always in the direction the orb was moving, and ranges from flinching at no speed, to KO-ing around 100% at top speed. The orb lasts for three seconds before disappearing, and also disappears on impact with the ground or an opponent. Only one orb can be on stage at any one time.


Grab
While standing still, Pichu hops forward a short distance in an attempt to grab onto the foe, and somersaults forward about 1.5 battlefield platforms with a sleigh boost of speed if dashing while attempting a grab, latching on to anyone hit by this maneuver. Pichu can also attempt a grab in the air, though the range is pitifully short. Because Pichu is so small, Pichu can't so much grab and throw foes than simply climb on to them and slow them down. Opponents grabbed by Pichu have their speed reduced by 25%, and cannot attack as they are preoccupied with shaking the rodent off at normal grab difficulty.

While Pichu can't immobilize the foe, it does gain the perk of being able to use all of it's specials while grabbing. Neutral special immediately hits the foe, dealing more damage the faster Pichu, and by extension the foe, are moving, making it a sort of enhanced pummel that encourages the opponent to stand still. The side special leaves the duplicate grabbing the the opponent as the real Pichu hops off, and the other two specials behave the same as normal, except that Thunder Wave does not stun the opponent, preventing infinite chain grabs. Pichu simply zaps the foe lightly for it's pummel, dealing 2% damage at a moderately quick rate with causes no flinching to the opponent.

Up Throw: Thunder
Pichu calls down a bolt of thunder from the sky in a manner similar to Pikachu, but since Pichu would be harmed by the bolt, it jumps off at the last second, leaving the opponent to take the full brunt of the attack. Now, a particularly fast character could be able to dash out of the way of attack, but if they're standing on a magnetized surface, they're out of luck. The bolt deals 14% damage with upward knockback that KO's around 110%. If you so choose, by holding down the throw input you can have Pichu remain grabbing the opponent and not dodge the thunderbolt, which then deals 5% damage and moderate knockback to Pichu in addition to the damage to the opponent. This prevents the opponent from shielding the attack.


Down Throw: Trip
Pichu climbs down to the opponent's legs and grabs ahold of both of them, tripping the foe (in the case of a legless/floating opponent, he simple pulls them down or disrupts their movement in such a way that they trip). This move does no damage, instead simply leaving the foe in prone with Pichu next to them. In the air, Pichu instead simply footstools off of them.


Side Throw: Quick Attack
Pichu performs a dashing tackle past the foe in the direction you point the control stick, dealing 3% damage with flinching knockback that becomes light forward knockback at higher percents. If Pichu has the speed boost from Agility, then it can turn around and grab the opponent again out of hitstun for some damage racking at lower percents, but is unable to do so once the throw begins causing actual knockback.



Standard Attacks

Jab: Charm
Pichu strikes an obscenely cute pose for a brief moment, and all opponents who would have hit Pichu with a melee attack during this time find themselves unable to, instead skipping straight to the end lag of the attack. There is just enough lag on the end of this to be punishable if you miss, but otherwise this is a great move for opening up the opponent on the ground if they have superior range (which they will).

Forward Tilt: Sweet Kiss
Pichu blows a kiss forward in a playful manner, creating a pikmin sized, heart shaped projectile to fly forward about a battlefield platform worth of distance at the speed of Falco's lasers. Opponents hit by this projectile become confused, tripping over themselves at a massively increased rate and immediately entering a tumble if they jump into the air, similar to being caught in Luigi's final smash (minus the random taunting, sleeping, flowers, etc.). This effect lasts for three seconds, and additional hits from this attack do not refresh the effect. This attack is somewhat slow, especially compared to most of Pichu's other attacks, so be careful not to miss.

Up Tilt: Tail Whip
Pichu ducks low as sweeps it's tail above it, dealing 5% with light upward knockback. It can juggle at low percents, and can rack damage nicely when the opponent is stuck on a magnetized surface. Otherwise it serves as semi-useful anti-air attack.

Down Tilt: Magnetic Anchor
Pichu magnetizes the ground immediately below it if it wasn't already, except much stronger than a typical surface. Pichu then magnetically anchors itself to the surface for as long as you hold the A button, granting it super armor for up to as long as the more powerful magnetic surface lasts, which is three seconds. If Pichu uses this attack on an already magnetized surface, it instead increases the magnetism across the whole surface, completely rooting opponents on the surface in place, but granting them super armor as well (just remember that super armor doesn't stop damage from projectiles or grabs). This increased magnetism also lasts three seconds before expiring, removing the entire magnetic surface. Lag on this move is negligible, allowing for near immediate action out of the super armor. The small patch of magnetized ground Pichu creates when using the move off of a magnetized surface can still root opponents in place, though it is much harder to get them to step on such a small patch of ground.

Dash Attack: Static Charge
Holding the A button as Pichu dashes causes Pichu to begin storing the static electricity generated by the motion. For every battlefield platform of distance Pichu dashes, Pichu build up one level of charge, with small electrical graphics around pichu as an indicator of charge level. If Pichu comes in direct physical contact with an opponent, whether by grabbling them, attacking them, simply running into them, or being hit by a melee attack the static charge jumps from Pichu to the foe, dealing 3% damage and stunning them for 0.2 seconds for each level of charge Pichu has. Now, this technique isn't perfect. All of Pichu's charges immediately dissipate if Pichu ever stops moving or is hit by any attack (Though melee attacks shock the opponent). In addition, If Pichu builds more than five charges, it is no longer capable of containing the energy and overloads, dealing the damage and stun from the charges to itself instead.



Smash Attacks


Forward Smash: Shockwave
Pichu releases a small wave-shaped burst of electricity in front of it, only about as tall and wide as Pichu itself. The wave deals 9-13% damage with forward knockback KO-ing around 160-120%, depending on the charge. The wave's range is abysmal, unless it is used on a magnetized surface. If the attack comes in contact with a magnetized surface, it shoots across it at the speed of Fox's lasers, dealing the same damage and knockback it would have dealt normally, just remember that opponents stuck on a magnetized surface don't take knockback, but large amounts of hitstun instead.

Down Smash: Discharge
Pichu releases a small burst of electricity around it , dealing 5-10% damage with knockback KO-ing around 200-160%, depending on the charge. Now this is pretty weak by itself, but if Pichu is standing on a magnetized surface, it will take the residual energy to power up the attack! Pichu consumes the entirety of the magnetic surfeit it is standing on, ending its effect. For each battlefield platform of magnetized ground Pichu uses, the radius of the attack increases by half a battlefield platform, the damage increases by 7%, and the attack KO's about 20% earlier.

Up Smash: Gravity
Pichu takes a moment to build up energy before supercharging the ground below it, creating an area of increased magnetism below it. The energy is much more concentrated, so it only covers had a battlefield platform of distance, but it's power now extends to the area above it. Opponents within the area of twice Ganondorf's height above the supercharged group have their falling speed multiplied by 2-3 times, depending on the charge. If this move is used on already magnetized ground, it spreads the effect to the entire area of magnetized ground instead of creating a new patch of it. Supercharged ground lasts for five seconds instead of the usual ten, and any previously magnetized ground that is supercharged has it's duration raised/lowered to five as well, regardless of how much time it had left before.


Aerials

Up Aerial: Tickle
Pichu does a front flip and lightly swipes it's tail above it, dealing a meager 3% damage to opponents hit by it, but causing airborne opponents to immediately enter a tumble state. Grounded opponents simply flinch.

Forward/Back Aerial: Quick Attack
Pichu performs a short ranged Fox illusion style dash, traveling about one battlefield platform in the direction the move is used in, with the momentum of the dash carrying over after the attack is over, leaving Pichu flying through the air at its max air speed with Agility, regardless of whether it has the speed boost or not. Opponents hit by the attacks are dealt 5% damage and light upward knockback. Pichu can cancel this attack into its grab at any time, allowing it to perform a sort of flying grab to catch shielding opponents off guard. Be careful though, because Pichu can only perform this move once in the air without grabbing a ledge or touching the ground.

Down Aerial: Quick Drop
Pichu performs what is essentially the same attack as the forward aerial, except that this version is aimed straight downwards. The landing lag for this attack is almost nonexistent, making this a great way to dodge an attack or get to the ground quickly. As with the forward aerial, this can be canceled into Pichu's grab at any time, though an aerial grab does have a bit of landing lag, so it shouldn't be abused.

Neutral Aerial: Spinning Slam
Pichu performs its classic Melee neutral aerial, rapidly somersaulting in the air, dealing 10% damage with good horizontal knockback away from Pichu. A pretty basic move, but quite functional.

Final Smash: Thunder Call
Using the power of the Smash Ball Pichu summons a powerful thunderstorm, and lightning bolts rain down from the sky, striking each magnetized portion of the stage, dealing 20% damage with upward knockback that KO's around 70%, and is capable of knocking opponents off of magnetized surfaces. For the next twenty seconds, every new patch of magnetized ground you create also calls a thunderbolt down on it two seconds later.


Playstyle
Pichu is a playful little critter, and its movement and attacking style reflects that. Scampering around the stage, Pichu can easily harass the opponent with hit and run tactics while magnetizing portions of the floor to slow them down and limit their options. Once the opponent is made vulnerable, either by stunning them with the down special and dash attack charges or by causing them to fall into prone on a magnetized surface, then it is time to strike. Pichu's best damage dealing option is it's grab, as it has plenty of options to both rack up some hits or disrupt the foe even further. So many options in fact, that Pichu's grab game is very open ended, allowing for . Just about every special and throw has a great use for building damage on the opponent expect for the up throw, which is instead Pichu's primary KO method. Pichu only becomes more dangerous if left alone for any amount of time. With Agility charged up, Pichu can easily overwhelm the foe with a combination of neutral special and forward special, and a single shielded substitute attack or neutral special leads to an easy grab. You have to be careful when using the dash attack with Agility on though, as it is quite easy to charge up too fast and stun yourself. Pichu could also choose to take the time and magnetize as much of the ground as possible, ruining the mobility and momentum of any characters trying to attack or run away. Those magnetized surfaces are also essential to Pichu's second KO method in the down smash, as an opponent stunned by a particularly strong attack (as hitstun scales with knockback while they're stuck to the ground) or even held in place by a grabbing substitute are free game for consuming a large field of energy and blasting them off of the stage.

With the ability to play keep away, hit and run, or straight rushdown as the situation calls for it, Pichu easily makes up for it's weakness and incredibly light weight Strong opponents with great melee reach can easily give Pichu problems though, especially if they are don't need to be mobile. Aerial opponents can also be problematic, but if they touch down on a magnetized surface, they won't be able to take to the skies again until they get off, and Pichu's up smash can assist in bringing them down.

 

[n88]

Marvin the Martian
[COLLAPSE="Davidreamcatcha"]This is one of my favorite sets of the contest. The interactions are very organic here, and you manage to nail the props (and the wacky things like being turned into a pile of ash) to really give the set that Looney Tunes feel. I also prefer this to Dutchman by quite a bit; this set is more Dave-ish, as it should be, and the end result is very enjoyable. (as a minor note, it seems you've made changes and forgotten to update other move descriptions, there are quite a few references to side special that don't seem to make sense, for instance) I don't have that much to say about this set that hasn't already been said, but I figured I'd comment to let you know how much I enjoyed it.[/COLLAPSE]

Reznor
[COLLAPSE="MarthTrinity"]Oh hey, a random Mario enemy not made by me. Looks like whatever I have is starting to catch. I do like how much you spin out of Reznor's sitting on a wheel and belching fire at you (it's really admirable that you've got a full set when it would have been so easy to cop-out), but I'm not crazy about some of the way you go about it. Some of his wheel shenaigans do sound like a lot of fun to play, but Reznor seems a bit overpowered, and playing against him really railroads you into playing his way. Granted, it would be tricky to make Reznor in a very different way, and this method really does do a good job of capturing the feeling of his boss fight. But I feel this is just a bit too forceful. Anyone who can't play Reznor's game (the slow, the defensive, and the like) would really struggle against him, which is not particularly fun. It would be difficult to fix the problems I have with the set, but it still feels a bit strange to me. I've got mixed feelings on this one.[/COLLAPSE]

This was meant to be a bigger block, but life happened.

 

[ForwardArrow]

Pichu
I admit I enjoy the basic concepts of the set with the magnetism, largely because it doesn't just mean instant combos and such. That said between the Substitutes and the grab game it becomes rather difficult to interact with him... I get a feeling he'd probably have something of an infinite between those two and his various abilities to stun foes. The stuff you have when he's dashing around is neat as well, and it actually flows with the magnetic fields because he's not attacking the foe AS he's dashing. That said, I'm not really all that fond of the generic magnetic field abuse that just makes the magnetism more powerful in different ways, which comes across as sort of tacky because they both just increase the power of the field but have completely different effects. I sort of feel like rather you should be trying to take advantage of the benefits the magnetism provides at close range. I personally feel that this set could have been considerably better than it turned out, but I'll give you the ideas are fairly interesting.

Spoiler

Sorry if I came across as overly nitpicky. If it makes you feel better I've come to realize that Chaos 0 is actually really good.

 

[Davidreamcatcha]

Everybody lies.

Dr. House​

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Playlist​

Statistics​

Size - 8
Weight - 6
Aerial Movement - 5
Fall Speed - 5
Traction - 5
Ground Movement - 4
Jumps - 5

Specials​

Neutral Special - Diagnostic Conversation
House brings out a cellphone and dials his diagnostic team before raising the phone to his ear. This is an incredibly quick process, much quicker than I described it. Once he dials the number, he begins discussing the foe with the diagnostic team; any psychological illnesses they might have, witty remarks about them, etc. House will talk to his team for 5 seconds, he can cancel at any time by pressing the input again. He can attack and move normally as he talks, so no real reason for you to cancel it exists.

Now, what is House doing here? During the move, House analyzes the foe. He watches their every move, pondering. What the foe does during these five seconds is key to House's gameplan; are they acting defensive or offensive?

If the foe is acting defensive, House concludes that they are cowards and hangs up. If the foe is acting offensive, he claims they are extremely brash before hanging up. House will simply hang up if the foe mixes their playstyle between the two during this time.

Now, what do these conclusions mean to the foe? You'll see soon enough...

Note: In FFA, House will target the foe closest to him.

Up Special - Vicodin
House gains superarmor as he extracts a bottle of Vicodin, plopping a single pill into his mouth, the superarmor slips away once he places the pill in his mouth.

This pill, this one pain-reliever, is one of the few sources of happiness in House's life. Once he downs it, he feels completely revitalized; both of his jumps are restored, his speed is doubled and he only takes half the stun he would normally take for the next 5 seconds. Quite powerful, yes? House can only pop a pill every 15 seconds, we wouldn't want him to overdose, would we? If House is next to an ally, he will reluctantly give him them a pill. If they double tap the up special input while they have a pill, they will gain the buffs from the Vicodin. Why would House give his ally one of his few sources of happiness? When you want to survive, sometimes you'll do crazy things.

Side Special - Offensive Approach
Changing approach is something doctors perform a lot, when confronted with a new probem or when performing surgery a doctor can change his approach in seconds. House uses that here, as he begins looking at his wrist and tapping his foot. As soon as he enters this lagless pose, he will begin quietly counting down to himself, from 0 to 30. The counting is done at a rate of one number for every .50 seconds. House can count for 30 seconds before he is automatically. House can shield to retain the count, much like Giant Punch. He will lose count if he is attacked as he counts or if he cancels into an attack. House can crouch during this move, though he can't use his crawl.

If House double taps the input or counts to 30, House cracks his knuckles with the lag of Ganon's forward tilt. Once the seconds you have counted pass, House will enter an automatic offensive mode, changing most of his moves to be much more offensive.

This might need some explaning. Lets' say House counted to 12 seconds; after House exits this pose, he can move and attack as normal. However, after 12 seconds, he will change into offensive mode. House obviously can't start this countdown again while he is waiting for the 12 seconds to pass.

Using this while House is in offensive mode will have him transition into his normal mode. Obvious usage is to take down those foes you have forced to be defensive, yes?

Down Special - Defensive Approach
House performs his side special.

No, seriously. This is identical to the side special with a major exception: House will transition himself into a defensive mode once he has completed the countdown.

One of the most obvious things here is how the dspec and sspec look identical, making for some interesting mindgames with two seperate countdowns. There is also an interaction for this: if House presses the dspec input while performing sspec, or vice versa, he will take .50 seconds to transition to the other countdown.

On that note, if House is attacking in offensive mode, and automatically switches to defensive mode in the middle of the attack, he will continue the attack in defensive mode. The same goes for transitions from defensive to offensive. This allows you turn your extremely offensive maneuvers into a defensive maneuver in the blink of an eye.

Standards​

Jab - Cane Movement
If House is in ofensive mode, he will walk 3 Battlefield Platforms forward. As he walks, he swings his cane back and forth on the ground in front of himself before he grinds to a halt. The cane swinging deals multiple hits of 3% (5% if in offensive mode) damage to the foe, dragging the foe with House. If they choose not to DI, they will be knocked to the ground in front of House, allowing him to follow this up with a low hitting move.

If he inputs this while in defensive mode, House will walk 3 Battlefield Platforms backwards, sweeping his cane along the ground in front of himself. The cane is a hitbox dealing 5% (8% if in defensive mode) to foes who are hit by it. This also causes foes who attempt to it hit to trip. If the foe attempts to roll at House directly out of their trip, who is to say they just won't roll into the cane again? This creates a very effective spacer against the foolish foe, or forces them into an aerial approach.

In normal mode, he can walk in either direction, which can be determined in the very short startup. However, he will not deal any damage to foes who come in contact with him during this time. He can, however, use this straight out of the countdown and continue to count as he walks to space. Alternatively, you can mindgame into thinking you're in one of the two modes when you're just normal House.

If you can time this correctly with side special, you can easily turn House's assault into a spacer or vice versa.

Forward Tilt - Cane Spacer
In normal mode, House grasps his cane and hoists it in midair, pushing it forward a Battlefield Platform. This deals no damage, but turns the cane solid, any foe or ally who is hit while he is pushing the cane forward will be pushed a Battlefield Platform away. They can also use it as a platform during the brief time he has it out, but House can hold the cane out indefinitely. Certainly could work wonders in team matches, where you could give a small platform if your ally needs a boost...

In offensive, House pushes the cane with much more force, actually dealing 6% damage. House can angle the cane during the startup, this comes with an interesting side-effect. If House strikes the foe's neck with his cane, he will strike a pressure point, causing them to fall down and enter prone for a second or so. This works wonders with his various prone abuse if House can angle it so it hits the foe's neck (in the case of some characters, just below their head).

In defensive, House will push his cane forward, only to bring it in front of himself, grasping it in both hands as a sort of barricade. In this stance, House can angle his body. This is beneficial, as the cane acts a shield for House, alebit it covers a small area. While it's hot, he can angle the cane to ensure projectile protection and whatnot. House stays in this stance, unable to attack, until he presses any button. This causes him to shove the cane forward, shoving a foe hit by it 3 Battlefield Platforms forward.

Up Tilt - Cane Sweep
In normal mode, House sweeps his cane above his head, covering both decent vertical and horizontal ranges with it. If anyone comes into the path of the cane, House makes sure it gets caught onto something on the character (clothing or something). When he catches the foe, he has 2 seconds to launch them in any direction, if you do not do it within this timeframe, House will take temporairy stun and the foe will break free. House can catch allies and launch them as well.

In offensive, House will swing the cane more harshly, covering the same area. If the foe gets hit, House will grab them with the cane and launch them down to the ground, acting as a grab hitbox that deals 8%. They are in prone for about... .10 seconds, so you're going to want to be quick and follow up.

In defensive, House will sweep the cane in a more calm manner. This actually causes a small wind hitbox around the cane, pushing anyone in the range of the cane away from himself. This, obviously, acts as a decent spacer. However, they will remain the air as they're pushed, unlike most of his other spacers.

Down Tilt - Cane Stomp
In normal mode, House lowers his cane to the ground in an actual attack for a change. Albeit, this has such a poor hitbox that it really doesn't help him all that much. It does deal decent knockback and 5% to foes actually hit by the small hitbox, making a decent GTFO or a setup for your ftilt.

Should House press the input as he is lowering his cane, he pushes the cane down into the ground. In this state, it is about as tall as Pikachu and acts as a solid wall, meaning foes are unable to walk or roll past it. They can jump on it, though. House cannot use any cane-based attacks while he has it buried in the ground, and can extract it by using any standard next to it. If the cane somehow goes offstage, by a scrolling stage or something, he will automatically gain a new cane. This does allow House to gain some more defense, as his crouch (which has him go Snake-style) gain let him hide behind the cane quite nicely to get some counting time in.

In offensive mode, House stomps his cane in a much more offensive manner, dealing 8% and some small knockback. He deals 10% to foes lying on the ground, allowing House to rack some great damage against those foes he has grounded. This is a bit laggier than his normal mode, however.

In defensive mode, House lowers his cane in an even harsher manner than his offensive mode. If he hits the foe, the cane hits their feet and buries them in the ground, dealing 4%. The foe must stand still for a moment to get their feet out without any harm. If they attempt to dash, they will trip, but get out of the ground.

Dash Attack - Cane Push
House hunches over a slight bit before he uses his cane to give him a slight bit of a jump, moving a Ganondorf off the ground. If he was in the middle of walking or dashing, he will transfer his momentum into the jump. He does no damage to foes, but will push his foot onto anyone's head he comes in contact with, giving him yet another boost upwards. He can do this to allies in team matches as well.

In offensive mode, House hunches over and uses his cane to boost himself off the ground, lunging at the foe. Pressing the input causes him to drop to the ground instantly, entering prone if he misses. If he hits the foe, he grabs them and pushes them down to the ground, dealing 5%. If the foe is already on the ground when he uses this, he will push them into the ground, pitfalling them for half the normal pitfall duration.

In defensive, House hunches over and lets his cane drag along the ground. While this reduces his speed a bit, it creates a dirt trap as he moves. The dirt causes anyone with a high speed to pratfall, meaning they must walk or crawl across it. Anyone who trips into it will fall in face-first, facing twice the pratfall duration. He can also use this in combination with USpec to increase his speed, so as to cover the stage in dirt traps. This works well with your jab, as you can easily force foes to trip into the dirt and face a bit more prone than normal. The dirt trap lasts for about 8 seconds.

Smashes​

Forward Smash - Punch
House will allow you...to throw the first punch.

Don't want to take him up on this offer? Your choice.

In normal mode, House leans back and rears back for a mighty punch. He punches forward with all his might, dealing 8-15% and good knockback if the foe is right in front of it. The range doesn't extend very far, meaning it's best used against foes getting in your space. All of the punches share the same startup animation, despite your current mode.

In offensive mode, House's punch executes slightly faster. Instead of punching at first, however, he stumbles forward at his dash speed for 1-3 Battlefields, depending on charge time. If he comes into the path of his foe during the time, he will punch them downward, sending them into prone and dealing 10-18%. This deals no knockback, however, and House will stumble and enter prone if he doesn't come into contact with the foe.

In defensive mode, House's punch executes slight slower than his normal punch. However, he gains superarmor all during the charging phase, not allowing him to be knocked out of this attack. Once he hits the foe, he deals 6-12% damage and delivers stun to them for 1-3 seconds, depending on charge. Naturally, if he times it to change to this mode as he charges, he can trick the foe into thinking he's using one of the two other punches, only to deliver a superarmor-powered punch. Of course, you can just retreat...

If House's mode is changed as he is throwing a punch, or during the end lag, he switches punches. Your obvious starter is defensive, given he can just punch them out of their stun.

Down Smash - Smoke Bomb
This is one of House's few moves that isn't changed by offensive/defensive mode. House pulls a grenade from his coat, pulling the pin with his teeth and tossing it at the ground.

As soon as the grenade hits the ground, a thick smoke leaks from the grenade, following House around. The smoke is the size of Ganondorf and the width of Bowser and is thick as most MYM smokes are, nothing is able to be seen through it. The smoke follows House's movement for about 5 seconds, allowing him to spread the smoke in key portions of the stage. Having Vicodin activated certainly benefits you here, as you can spread more smoke around in a shorter amount of time, to make bigger smoke fields or to heal allies in a great space. After the smoke stops following him around, the smoke lingers for about 5-12 seconds, depending on charge time.

Certainly you could move into the fog with House's jab, but the obvious usage of this is to add to your playground of mindgames. Who's to say that the foe would ever suspect a transformation while in the smoke? Even then, you could easily mindgame the foe into thinking you're going to transform in the smoke, making them extremely paranoid. You can also leave your cane in there, not allowing the foe to move past your wall as you rear back for an FSmash.

Up Smash - Flashlight
Once again, one of the few moves not affected by House's "modes".

House extracts a custom-built flashlight and adjusts the brightness as you charge it, the same one he used to make a co-worker puke in Risky Business. This flashlight has 160 LEDS, each sending lights of a different wavelength to the target's eyes, triggering their autonomic nervous system, the effects being more severe the brighter the light is. House likens the effect to "being on a ship in bad waters".

For this move, he automatically shines the flashlight above himself, releasing a cone of light as wide and as tall as Bowser exactly 1 Kirby in front of the flashlight. While this is primarily upwards, House can angle this during the actual move as though it were a Cracker Launcher. If House shines this on a mid-air foe, they act as though they were footstooled, making for a good anti-air.

If House can keep the light shined on the foe for 2 seconds, with the foe facing the light, their autonomic nervous system will be triggered. This causes them to turn their back to the screen for a second, puking in the background and being dealt 8-14% damage. The puke stays on-stage for 10 seconds, and is purely cosmetic unless it's dodged into, causing them to trip. House keeps the flashlight out for 4 seconds, meaning you have to be careful using this, as you are easily punishable.

House has uses for this in both modes. In defensive, he can cause them to puke as they're attacking, giving him time to get away and set up a dash attack trap, among other things. In offensive, House can use this on a prone foe to add to their suffering, as well as creating puke that will cause them to trip if they attempt to dodge House's attacks.

Grab-Game​

House attempts a grab, bending downwards before reaching upwards. This allows him to grab prone or grounded foes, he can grab foes standing normally, but it's slower to do so. As soon as House grabs the foe, he brings out a generic bottle of pills and smirks at the foe.

Note, none of House's throws deal knockback, instead releasing them right in front of the doctor once they're over. House can be easily punished by this if he isn't careful.

Back Throw - Defensive Modification
House plops open the bottle of pills, shoving a pill down the foe's throat. Note that all of House's throws share this same animation, making it near-impossible to tell the effects of the pills House is prescribing you.

What are these drugs, you might ask? Why, they're behavior modification pills, of course! If House hasn't diagnosed the foe with up special, these pills have no effect outside causing the foe to let out a mild cough and be stunned in place for a brief moment (dealing 3% damage). If House has diagnosed his "patient" as being overly offensive, the pill forces them to act defensive; the foe cannot perform any motion that would be deemed as offensive or face 20% damage and some light hitstun. This change lasts 8 seconds, the foe is able to act completely normal during once their time is up. They also become immune to the pills for 8 seconds after the pills have passed. What is determined as "offensive" and "defensive" is judged on a character-to-character basis.

Forward Throw - Offensive Modification
This is almost identical to House's bthrow, except with the opposite effect: offensive characters will be forced to act defensive or face the same damage. All other properties are the same.

These are House's favorite ways to get inside the head of his "patient"; screwing with their very mind and making them into something they're not, something he can defeat. Force those defensive trap-layers to move on the offense or face damage, force those offensive MYM6 Combo Characters to camp, waiting for House to make his approach. Really, who's to say House will ever make that approach?

Down Throw - Aerophobia
House extracts another pill and forces it down the foe's throat, before releasing them.

Now, the foe seems to have no difference in any sort of w...Wow, that air sure looks a lot more intimidating, doesn't it? While the foe is affected by these pills, any height gained by jumps or recovery will be cut in half. Any aerial used will have 2x the normal landing lag as well. Naturally, this works well with any of House's mode: they can become subject to House's mad offensive rush or be tossed into a dirt trap quite easily.

Up Throw - Terraphobia
This is almost identical to House's dthrow, however, the foe will find their ground-based attacks become slower and slower...they'd much rather take to the air, where their jump and recovery height has been doubled. Naturally, House can damage rack them quite nicely up in the air, but it's much more selective than the dthrow.

Pummel - Detox
House extracts a scapel and turns the foe and himself, making his own back face the screen so you can't see anything happening. House begins the surgical procedure of detoxification, removing all those harmful status effects from their body. The procedure lasts about 3 seconds, after which the foe is released from their grab. All buffs and debuffs that the foe is currently facing are removed once the grab is complete.

However, House can easily mindgame the foe by tapping A during the surgery. Once he releases the foe, they will still have all status effects, meaning that they can easily attempt to fight, only to be affected by their debuffs.

House can perform the surgery on an ally if he grabs them (and yes, he can grab them), which can be useful for relieving their debuffs. One last note: yes, House can stack throw effects on the foe.

Aerials (which suck, as usual)​

Neutral Aerial - Begin with a Spin
House reaches one forward and faces his cane hand towards the screen, before he spins about in place (almost akin to a slower Mario down special). If anyone comes into contact with his hand during this time, House grips onto to them and holds them in front of them. In this stance, they are essentially a meatshield for House, at least until they manage to buttonmash out with average grab difficulty.

House can move back and forth with someone shielding him, and can toss them in any direction by pressing A, provided they don't button mash. Note: House goes into helpless when they button mash out.

On of the more notable effects here is with allies, if they are attacked, they will not be knocked away or be dealt any hitstun if they are in House's grasp. Considering how quick it is to get someone grabbed, House can easily protect his ally from getting knocked away.

In offensive mode, House extends both palms out and spins, dealing 7% damage and low knockback if the foe is caught within his grasp. This has next to no ending lag, meaning it has the potential to be a great damage racker when shorthopped.

In defensive mode, House performs the same spin as normal mode. However, here he simply tosses the foe downwards, just in position for a footstool. Useful enough when he needs a bit of an extra boost, I suppose.

Down Aerial - Coat-Tails
House faces the screen and removes his coat, before holding it above his head as though it were a makeshift parachute. This surprisingly works rather well for the doctor, as his fall speed is slown by 1/4 until you press the input again. House can move from side to side in this stance, obviously. Your primary strategy, however, is to start a midair countdown from this stance or resume a grounded one as you stall. You can move back and forth regardless of whether you have a countdown going, and can cancel out of it by dodging, as per usual. If House is hit while in this stance, he hastily puts his coat back on.

In offensive mode, House removes his coat before throwing it forward in a tether grab, of which can be angled during the startup. If House's coat touches anything, it will catch onto them, causing House to become tethered to his foe. The foe must stay idle for about a second to remove the tether, which causes House to fall into helplessness. Of course, they can't remove it while they're being attacked...fortunately for them, the tether is very fickle and will come apart after 3 seconds regardless of their involvement, causing House to fall into helplessness.

In defensive mode, House chooses to remove his coat and sweep it in the air like a cape. If the foe gets caught by this, they get tangled in the coat, having to button mash out. House still has a grasp on the other end of the coat, however, and can drag the helpless victim around while he has them in his grasp. He can also attack while he has it, obviously.

Back Aerial - Behind you!
In normal mode, House simply strikes his head back, almost entering a laying down pose as he headbutts the foe. This deals about 6% damage and quite a bit of backwards knockback, acting as a simple damage option for the good doctor. This can hit allies as well, meaning you can launch them backward for a fast moving aerial attack. Despite all the good things this move has, House doesn't have any super human head strength, and takes about .10 seconds to rub his head if he successfully hits someone.

In offensive mode, House doesn't bother lying on his back as he simply performs the most dramatic defense method he can possibly thing of: he strikes his foot backwards, attempting to kick the foe in the nuts. If this actually his a foe in their lower area, they cringe in pain for a second or so, allowing House to turn around and start to follow up.

In defensive mode, House stretches his arms out, laying on as his back as he begins a dramatic stall and fall, dealing 5% to anyone hit on his way down. This is, obviously, his main way of getting himself back down to the ground, but it can also work quite well if a foe is trying to attack from under. If you want to drag the foe downward, you can tether them with dair and use this to bring them down quite nicely.

Forward Aerial - Sweeping
House begins sweeping the air in front of himself with his cane, as though it were a broom. If he does not have a cane due to dtilt, this is a simple haymaker that deals 8% in all modes. Now, when House sweeps in normal mode, foes are swept along with the movement of his cane if they are hit by it, dealing 5 hits of 1% or so. When House lets go of the cane after a second, or by pressing the input early, the foe will DI in the direction they were being swept in. Good get-away tool.

In offensive mode, House's sweeping is a bit harsher as he sweeps the cane faster, dealing rapid hits of 2%. House's arm is a bit more extended than the other modes, meaning he is able to catch further off foes. Your primary use of this, however, is for quick shield damage. You can easily give your foe the choice to shield or to take the hit, and you can quickly remove the option of dodging by backing into an area where puke is.

In defensive mode, House sweeps the cane in a much more deliberate manner, dealing 1% hits, but holding the cane out for about 3 seconds, of which he can use to catch the foe and drag them down to the ground.

Up Aerial - Catch!
In normal mode, House throws his hand above himself in what seems like an attempt to catch someone. Albeit, it is. If anyone comes in contact with House's hand during this time, he grabs them and tosses them upwards! ...Another tossing move, Dave? C'mon, you can't be serious. Don't you get it by now? House has been tossing his allies up on the stage so he can get them to star KO the foe! Why the hell else would he give them his Vicodin?

In offensive mode, House does attempt to perform that stereotypical "drag them down" throw that we've all seen too much of. If he succeeds in pulling the foe down to his level, he will headbutt them for 8% damage and good knockback, being a decent killer at high percents.

In defensive, House will grab the foe and immediately lie down on his stomach, riding the foe down to the ground. Foes can button mash to take control, riding House downwards, meaning it can turn into a button mashing battle between the two. Whoever is on the bottom when they meet the ground will find themselves entering prone.

Final Smash​

House falls asleep...oh no, it looks like he's having another one of those zombie fantasies...

House wakes up, startled. There seem to be no differences...is the screen darker or is it just me? Suddenly, the undead rise from the ground! About 4 zombies appear at first, each being identical to Romero's zombies, however, there is one key difference: the moment anyone is converted, they lose a stock and respawn. This doesn't apply to House, who will lose a stock and cause the final smash to end instead of respawning. 1 more zombie will spawn every 5 seconds, meaning the stage will eventually be over-run.

Fortunately, House comes prepared for the zombie apocalypse. His defensive mode now has his cane become the axe cane. This cane deals double the damage, as well as double knockback if it hits the foe's head. If it hits a zombie's head, it is instantly cut off.

Offensive mode? Well, you get the shotgun cane. Every single time House makes a move with his cane, bullets are fired that act identically to every other shotgun ever in MYM. You can easily swap between the two to go from long ranged goodness to axing the foe.

In addition, House has prepped himself to undo the zombies! You can now grab Romero's zombies and detox them with your pummel to convert them into one of the humans from Romero's side special. This will also cause your ally or the foe to stop converting.

House snaps out of the fantasy after 30 seconds, or upon losing a stock.

Extras​

Up Taunt- Confidence
House takes his cane and raises it over his shoulder, smirking at the foe.

Side Taunt- Return to the classics!
House facepalms, regaling in the stupidity of his opponent.

Down Taunt- Denial
House glares at the foe, simply stating "It's. Not. Lupus."

Victory Pose 1- Martini
House raises a martini glass, turning to the foes and raising the glass before downing it.

Victory Pose 2- The Reason You Suck Speech
House snaps at the foes, turning to them and yelling. "Maybe the reason you can't beat me is because YOU SUCK!"

Victory Pose 3- Diagnosis
House raises his hand to his chin, speaking in a dry voice. "I think I've found an accurate diagnosis for you: you're a douche."

Victory Theme - Titular Theme
Isn't it obvious? The end segment of the House theme, Teardrop, is played to celebrate the doctor's victory.

Credits Theme - Revenge of the Titular Theme
The European version of the House theme is played.

 

[BKupa666]

No one brawls like

GASTON

Gaston is the main antagonist of the 1991 Disney film Beauty and the Beast. He is essentially the polar opposite of what one would expect to come out of the film's setting of France, being a massive muscular hunter with the ability to draw a crowd in a pub simply by singing about his hairy chest. Despite attractive blondes and a tubby ****** swarming him everywhere he goes, Gaston seeks a mate who will be an actual challenge to woo, and thus has eyes only for the local inventor's bookworm daughter, who is conveniently falling for a horrible monstrous Beast instead. Gaston's obsession with marrying said daughter results in him evolving from a comical blowhard into a murderous villain, manipulating the town's fear of abnormality to form a mob against the Beast, torches and pitchforks included.

Gaston has also become somewhat of an Internet meme, due to his ability to perform various tasks better than anyone.

< - - - STATISTICS - - - >​

Size = = = = = 8.5
Weight = = = = = 8
Fall Speed = = = = = 7.5
Traction = = = = = 7
Jumps = = = = = 4
Movement = = = = = 4
Aerial Movement = = = = = 3

Gaston is quite a large and in charge character, due to him eating five dozen eggs every morning to retain his manly state. He's comparable to Ganondorf physically, with his muscle mass contributing significantly to his weight, although of the two villains whose names start with 'G', Gaston is by far more mobile. His aerial capabilities are somewhat sluggish, but who cares? No one has a ground game like Gaston! Plus, he's equipped with a helpful recovery to counter the number one Disney killer of villains and heroes alike: gravity.

< - - - SPECIALS - - - >​

Neutral Special - - o - - o - - o Arrow Rope
Gaston takes out his hunting bow and an arrow from his quiver, placing it in and drawing back the bowstring. The execution of the move is quite similar to Link's Neutral Special, with the slight differences of Gaston being able to aim his arrow while charging and having some (slight) actual lag shooting it. However, this is far from one of those visually similar Brawl moves with one or two changes...you know, the ones that are somehow entirely unique and acceptable to the competitive community. Gaston's arrow isn't a great camping tool either. While Gaston may be the greatest hunter in the whole world, he's certainly not going to wimp out and leave this fight without getting his hands dirty.

When fired, Gaston's arrow is shown to have a rope of varying length attached to it, flying along the arrow's path, which increases from half to one Final Destination length with extra charge time. The rope and arrow vanish harmlessly if Gaston misses his shot. If he manages to shoot an opponent, on the other hand, the arrow becomes embedded in their flesh, as Gaston ties the rope to his waist, tethering himself to them. The arrow deals 7-15% initially, depending on charge time, as well as 1% per second the opponent is impaled. The victim can dash away from the arrow, pulling the rope taut and removing it from their body; they must dash against the full length of rope for one second to remove it at lower damage levels, with the difficulty increasing at higher damage levels. Opponents can pull against the rope's maximum length in the air for the required second and escape, although those with poor jumps and recoveries might be unable to dos so. Of note, knockback will hit characters to the maximum range of the rope, but instead of being pulled free, are snapped back toward Gaston, retaining their momentum. Gaston can shoot up to three arrows out at once, impaling multiple opponents in a FFA, or the same opponent multiple times to double or triple their escape difficulty. He cannot be dragged around by any opponent he's shot, due to his incredible strength and endurance. Gaston is tree, he won't budge.

If the player taps B once an opponent has been impaled, Gaston handles his rope, rather than firing another arrow. Tapping B and holding the control stick opposite the opponent causes him to pull in the rope, decreasing its length until it is taut, upon which his victim is dragged toward him at Ganondorf's dash speed; speedy mashing pulls the opponent in at faster speeds, up to that of Mario's dash. Lighter opponents obviously require less mashing to drag around than heavier ones. Tapping B and pointing the control stick toward the opponent has Gaston toss more slack into the rope as fast as he removes it by pulling away, giving him the range to hit opponents into distant traps or stage elements without freeing them from the arrow, or simply to lower them right to their doom if they're hanging by a thread offstage. Gaston can dash away from the rope to pull opponents around without diminishing the rope's length. He can switch which rope he handles after multiple foes have been impaled with a flick of the control stick.

If Gaston shoots an arrow into the stage, he'll tether himself to it, hanging on to his own rope to stay alive. Excuse me, sir combo character...are you dashing offstage to gimp Gaston (again)? Better think twice...these opponents can be shot with an arrow, forcing them to waste their mid-air jumps or recoveries trying to avoid being pulled down with Gaston, possibly meeting the same fate. Gaston also does not become helpless after shooting an arrow, allowing him to pull up to any non-ledge portion of stage, falling down again while being able to angle and shoot his arrow at a higher and higher portion of stage until he's reached safe ground. Gaston cannot stall by tethering infinitely to the underside of a stage, due to the lag from aiming and shooting his arrow, combined with his fall speed, leading to his doom if he attempts to do so.

Side Special - - o - - o - - o Mob Torch
Gaston pulls out a lit wooden torch and casts it forward the distance of a Waddle Dee toss, over .55 second. While soaring through the air, the Ray Gun-sized torch has incredible priority, dealing 5% and a bit of set knockback. Rather than vanishing upon impact, however, the torch travels through opponents to reach the ground, where it bursts into a pillar of flame. The flame grows from Mario's height and width to Ganondorf's height and Bowser's width over two seconds, flaring for an additional three seconds before going up in smoke. Naturally, this can't feel that good to get hit by; characters in contact with the pillar of flame suffer 2% per half second, with each hit dealing a bit of stun. While he can have up to three flame pillars out at a time, Gaston can be damaged by his own flame, due to not being magical and therefore able to pass through his own traps.

Now, if Gaston tosses his torch onto a portion of his own rope, the flame pillar will flare up overtop the rope. This also occurs if he fires a rope arrow through an existing pillar of flame. Gaston can deal some nice damage to opponents he's impaled with an arrow through a combination of torch throwing and rope handling. Drag impaled opponents right into the middle of a flaming pillar, or trap a foe between two pillars to contain them for target practice. By casting torches onto his rope, Gaston can also intimidate opponents he's impaled, most often by torching the area just past the rope's maximum length, where they must pull past to free themselves. Until the flame goes out, the hapless sap will have nowhere to go except toward Gaston...if he's not pulling them in to begin with.

Down Special - - o - - o - - o The Mirror
Gaston extracts the hand-held magic mirror he stole from his belt and holds it in front of him over .25 second, showing some unthinkable monster roaring and foaming at opponents (he holds the mirror so the camera cannot be rotated to show it). Opponents on Gaston's level who appear within a Battlefield platform of him turn around and dash away in horror for one second. Gaston can performs his standards while holding out his mirror, allowing him to use his stunners to hold an opponent in place in front of the mirror. The exposure to such an awful sight increases the time an opponent flees from Gaston, with them running away for as long as they were stunned in front of the mirror, in addition to the usual second. Of course, forcing an opponent to dash into a stunning flame or directly off the stage are clear useful strategies.

Gaston can hold out the mirror until the input is pressed a second time, although he is unable to move while it is out. If the control stick is moved around, however, Gaston will wave the mirror around angrily, removing the terror hitbox but creating a green trail of energy as thick as Mario wherever he drags it. The trail lasts for three seconds and bounces anything that hits it lightly away, dealing 5%. Gaston can reach up to a Bowser away in place to spread his trail, and can even move around before pulling out the mirror again to connect two trails. Gaston can create the usual anti-ground or air traps with his trail, and, if he gets particularly risky, can attempt to enclose an opponent in a trail circle, bouncing them around inside the circle for damage. Trails can defend from enemy projectiles as well by reflecting them, but will also repel Gaston's ranged ammo as well, returning them with half their initial momentum (read: they will not hit Gaston). Opponents who dodge an arrow with a trail wall to their back may not be as lucky as they think. Unlike fire, trail energy does not damage Gaston.

Up Special - - o - - o - - o Duck Hunt
Gaston takes out his blunderbuss and begins twirling it around on his finger above his head, with it becoming a Wario-sized circular blur over .45 second. This can be held out for as long as Gaston wishes (default time being a second and a half), dealing 8% and set vertical knockback to characters it hits. The spinning weapon slows Gaston's descent to one-third its regular speed for two seconds before he slowly starts picking up speed again, giving him plenty of time to DI closer to the stage before firing his tether to recover. Gaston can angle his blunderbuss blur in any direction while holding it out for disjointed defense against gimpers. The blunderbuss also reflects all projectiles no matter where it is angled, although it clearly will serve this purpose better when aimed in front of Gaston.

But Gaston's not finished with his gun yet...if you tap A while Gaston is spinning his blunderbuss, he'll immediately stop and shoot three rapid shots into the air. Each shot deals 9% and spikes opponents toward the stage, putting them in prone upon landing. He can fire more shots with multiple taps of A, due to Disney logic not requiring him to reload, with each shot spaced .2 second apart from each other. Gaston can aim his shots with great flexibility while shooting, allowing him to take down opponents attempting to recover free from an arrow before pulling them in for the kill. If he can trap an opponent in the air, likely with a pillar of flame on either side to prevent them from DIing to safety, he can kick back and declare open season on the prey in his sights, building copious damage in little time at all. No one shoots like Gaston!

< - - - STANDARDS - - - >​

Jab - - o - - o - - o Backstabber
Gaston unsheathes his dagger and performs a quick two-hit slicing attack, stabbing out a Kirby in front of him over .4 second, then tearing down rapidly. The first hit stuns opponents briefly, while the follow-up deals average set knockback; both hits deal 5%, although the damage is doubled if Gaston manages to stab the opponent in the back. If Gaston's dagger hits his arrow rope, he'll slice through it instantly, disconnecting himself from his victim automatically. Although Gaston will rarely have to slice his rope to escape from an offensive opponent, due to his melee dominance, he can slice through his rope as an opponent is dashing against its full length. The opponent's sudden forward momentum causes them to stumble into prone, biding time for Gaston to toss out more torches or fire another arrow or three.

Dash Attack - - o - - o - - o Tromping Around Wearing Boots
Swinging his arms cockily, Gaston begins taking long, exaggerated strides forward, stomping the ground with his boots once each .7 second, making satisfying thundering noises as he goes. This is yet another keep on...actually, never mind, this is the first keep on -walking- dash attack out there, with Gaston traveling forward at slightly slower than Ganondorf's dash speed. Contact with his boots or the area immediately around them on the ground deals 6% and slight forward knockback. Larger characters and prone victims can be hit multiple times by Gaston's tromping, although this isn't the safest maneuver out there, as their priority is strictly jointed.

If Gaston stomps down on a rope pulled taut by a fleeing opponent, he'll forcefully rip it out of their flesh, using their momentum against them to launch them away, dealing 9% and knockback KOing around 120%. The threat of Gaston performing multiple arrow-ripping stomps may be enough to coerce opponents into becoming conservative with escape attempts, giving Gaston more time to drag in the victim simultaneously. For nice, clean KOs, Gaston can scare his opponent to the end of their rope with Down Special, before stomping them away from the arrow, toward their doom. No one performs Warlordian staples like Gaston!

Forward Tilt - - o - - o - - o Rough Shove
Leaning forward slightly for extra force, Gaston pushes his opponent down to the ground, as is expected from any bully. This is a quick action that deals a light 6%, but forces opponent to roll a Battlefield platform forward in their prone state. Gaston can generally use this move a few times in a row to push an opponent forward on the ground, although he may be pushed back himself by a get-up attack eventually. If he manages to push an opponent snagged by an arrow, their rope will coil around them as they roll forward, dealing 1% per second and preventing them from attacking or dodging (jumping and dashing are left in tact) until they mash free with grab difficulty. Gaston can wrap his opponent in multiple coils of rope to prolong their state of vulnerability, and can even push a wrapped foe into a fire if he's feeling ruthless, forcing them to mash free before DIing to safety.

Down Tilt - - o - - o - - o Double Headlock
Gaston stretches his arms a Mario to either side, hoping to grab a victim or two. If he succeeds, he'll pull the character(s) in close, clamping down on their neck with his elbow to deal 5%, with an additional 1% each second he squeezes before they mash free with grab difficulty. With an opponent in hand, a flick of the control stick causing Gaston to grab and throw his victim using one hand in that direction, demeaning them while dealing 5% and knockback KOing around 135%. With two opponents grabbed, Gaston throws the first one he grabbed, or the lightest one, if they were grabbed simultaneously. Although Gaston can toss opponents to convenient locations in a regular match, his effective management of multiple opponents gives this move extra use in FFAs, whether or not both opponents have been impaled by arrows.

Up Tilt - - o - - o - - o Rocket Fist
Pulling up his sleeve ominously for .3 second, Gaston unleashes a scooping uppercut, blasting opponents skyward a Battlefield platform for each 15% they have. His arm hits a short distance in front of him, with as much vertical range as Bowser's F-Tilt, dealing 6-9%, with more damage closer to the fist. As Gaston swings his fist around to complete the punch's rotation, he suffers from .45 second end lag. During this time, multiple taps of the input cause him to repeat the uppercut multiple times, without the startup lag to boot. This essentially creates a large circular hitbox, perfect for boosting foes into the air or even off the top blast zone. If Gaston punches an opponent impaled with an arrow, the knockback will be cut short as the rope yanks them back, although the damage-building properties of the move become amplified; multiple uppercuts can turn the opponent's plight into a bullish game of paddleball for Gaston.

< - - - SMASHES - - - >​

Forward Smash - - o - - o - - o Shoulder Barge
Gaston crouches slightly before jutting out his bicep and sprinting forward at opponents, who will doubtlessly be shocked by roughly the size of his barge. Heh. He charges from one and a half to three platforms before stopping, traveling from Mario to Fox's dash speed, based on charge time. If foes smack up against him, they'll suffer 15-21%, with horizontal knockback KOing around 130-115%. Gaston suffers from .7 second end lag and has entirely jointed priority; if he doesn't launch his foe a good distance away, he can be punished swiftly and harshly. Of course, the move's damage-building capabilities are nothing to sneeze at. Charging at an impaled foe may result in them flying to the end of their rope before snapping back, smacking into Gaston two or three times if he's charged the duration long enough. Gaston does not stop charging after he hits a foe, rendering this tactic useful, as well as that of charging into crowds during FFAs to dish out the pain.

Down Smash - - o - - o - - o Roundabout Barrage
Gaston bends down at the knees, extending his fists in front of him in a boxing stance before performing a flurry of rapid punches, turning around in a circle to smack opponents all around him. His fists are extended a Mario in front of him, dealing 8-12% and knockback KOing around 155%.

Gaston rotates around over 1.2 second, although with multiple taps of the A button, Gaston spins around slightly faster, covering up to two and a half rotations with fast mashing. Moving the control stick side to side causes Gaston to move side to side at a moderate pace while punching, while directing the stick slightly up and down results in him angling his punches in that direction. Gaston’s ability to rotate around at various speeds while punching freely to hit multiple opponents, not to mention surprising dodging opponents while punching into the background, makes him a formidable opponent in any match.

Up Smash - - o - - o - - o Lavish Lunging
Gaston snarls, preparing for a powerful upward punch, somewhat similar to U-Tilt. After spending quality time charging this move, however, he's not going to end with just one measly blow. Gaston's first punch is uplifting, literally boosting him a short distance off the ground, and can be angled diagonally to either side. If the move is charged anywhere from a fair amount to completion, and the control stick is flicked during the punch's half second end lag, Gaston can follow up by lunging a platform in any direction with one or two strong punches. His style of punch varies, depending on the angle he is attacking; for example, upward punches are uppercut-esque, while lower punches are generally either haymakers or overhead spiking blows. Regardless, all punches last .65 second and deal 7-12%, with corresponding directional knockback KOing from 160-145%.

Gaston has multiple ways to put the beat down on his victim, or preferably, victims. He can lunge after a single foe multiple times to punch them over and over, or bounce between multiple targets to spread the hurt around. Against dangerous foes, he can lunge in, out, then back in again to punish, or merely use the move defensively to flee from attacks or his own fire pillars in directional bursts. Finally, he can lunge after an impaled foe trying to pull free from his rope to add some slack, holding them in their predicament for longer and possibly getting in some hits as well.

< - - - AERIALS - - - >​

Neutral Air - - o - - o - - o Bicep Vortex
What good are juiced-up appendages if they can't be put to use for a spinning N-Air? Gaston extends said appendages and spins around twice over .7 second, hoping to clobber those around him and deal multiple hits of 3-4%. His spin has miniscule lag on either end, enabling him to cycle around several times to terminate his horizontal momentum; two consecutive spins will stop momentum of any speed, possibly saving Gaston from a powerful hit.

If A is tapped while Gaston is buffeting a foe around in the move's multiple hits, he'll grab them and sling them over his shoulder before plummeting, holding them toward the ground. Upon impact, the victim suffers 10% and becomes pitfalled into the stage. Gaston can also dive into a mirror trail or fire pillar with a foe, or even take them down all the way offstage, although the latter two options can harm Gaston just as well as help him.

Forward Air - - o - - o - - o Chest Scare
Gaston winks for .45 startup lag, before ripping open the collar of his shirt, unleashing just a few of his hairy inches. He lets the shock of his revelation set in for half a second before stashing his pecs safely away again. Depending on the foe's proximity to Gaston, the move's hitbox can be twofold; Gaston's chest itself deals 6% and light forward knockback. This has clearly close range and low priority, but can still direct opponents forward through the air to a strategic locale, such as between two fire pillars. The second hitbox is slightly more captivating, both for the player and opponents; you see, if an opponent is directly horizontally lined up with Gaston's chest and within two platforms distance as he exposes himself, they become stunned briefly in awe.

The closer the foe is to Gaston, the longer they are stunned; there is a half second discrepancy between the stun time on foes directly in front of Gaston to that of foes at maximum range, two platforms away. Unfortunately, this hitbox decays rapidly, as the foe quickly becomes more annoyed than startled by Gaston's flamboyance. The initial maximum stun period of .75 second drops by .15 second each time Gaston uses the move, making the move difficult to use at close range and near useless further away. Of course, Gaston's chest hitbox is still intact, giving him the option to try and DI into foes after stunning them, however briefly, to get some use from the move.

Back Air - - o - - o - - o Muddy Boots
Gaston tilts his lower half back slightly, thrusting both feet carelessly back in a quick motion. This is a straightforward attack that deals 8% and fair knockback, getting the foe a short distance away from Gaston conveniently. Of course, the mud stuck to Gaston's boot from tromping around frequently isn't lost on opponents. For every two seconds Gaston spent dashing around the stage, he'll splat the stuff onto his foe's face for four seconds...bleck. This creates a nasty splattering noise and cuts the opponent's aerial DI in half, blinding them with the gunk. Although Gaston must dash for some time to build up mud on his boots, it only takes one muddy kick to keep a foe from DIing away from Gaston's other aerials or traps.

Up Air - - o - - o - - o Headbang
Gaston thrusts his head upward with speed and force, dealing 10% and knockback KOing vertically around 130%. The fact that no one's neck's as incredibly thick as Gaston's leads to no one having a more powerful headbutt. At lower damage levels, this is a convenient juggler, while it can KO cleanly at higher ones. However, Gaston may find the fear instilled in foes by the move more useful than its actual effects. If a foe feels pressured and intimidated when Gaston is jumping up underneath them to attack, they'll be more willing to jump toward another area of stage to avoid him. Set up a few pillars or a trail to greet them in this scenario, or threaten them right off the stage for a gimp.

Down Air - - o - - o - - o Piledriver
With a grunt, Gaston leans an elbow downward, putting his weight behind it as he plummets toward the ground at double his regular fall speed. Although he can exit this pose with half a second of lag, he still falls while doing so, possibly suffering the move's painful landing lag. Opponents caught under Gaston as he falls are spiked down for 7-9%, with more damage being dealt closer to Gaston's arm.

Should Gaston spike an impaled foe, he can bounce them down and back up at him multiple times to deal damage; if he misses with the superior arm hitbox the first time, he can DI slightly while falling to hopefully land it. Without ground beneath him, Gaston can sink foes right to their doom, or at least to the edge of their rope, allowing him to toss in slack and lower them off the blast zone. He may be better off performing the spike while onstage, however, as his large body can ensure a partially offstage attack while keeping Gaston free from the danger of suicide.

< - - - GRAB-GAME - - - >​

Grab - - o - - o - - o Leaping Tackle
Gaston bounds forward at his opponent, arms outstretched, with minimal startup lag. If he whiffs his leap, he'll collapse to the ground laggily, but if he lands on a victim, he'll begin pummeling the living daylights out of them. A Bowser-sized cartoon dust cloud forms around the characters (he can attack crowds of characters at once), as various limbs flail around inside and various grunts are sounds are heard. Opponents automatically suffer 1% per half second while 'grabbed', although to escape, they can simply DI out of the cloud to safety, rather than mashing free. To hinder his foe's escape from his fabulous multi-character throws, Gaston can use his pummel, or B-Air a foe to bog their DI down with mud before leaping at them.

Pummel - - o - - o - - o Chow Down
A series of loud punching noises erupts from the struggling cloud of dust, along with the occasional echoing chomp, due to no one biting like Gaston. While this pummel is tapped, Gaston will deal 2% per half second, as well as gain slight control over the flow of battle. This is, to say, he can direct the cloud left or right at Ganondorf's walk speed. When this happens, foes in its path had better steer clear, as if the cloud touches them, Gaston will extend an arm and drag them into the barfight. While tumbling along the stage in a dust cloud deals no extra damage to foes inside, Gaston can offensively pummel a foe into a flame pillar or a mirror trail to do so (although the former damages him as well). If a victim has the gall to try DI away, Gaston can also move the cloud in the same direction to keep them in his clutches.

Forward Throw - - o - - o - - o Bully Bowling
Gaston grabs his foe in one hand, mocking them; with a second input, he rolls them along the ground in front of him. This deals 5% initially, with 1% each half second the foe continues rolling. By button-mashing for a short time dependant on their damage, the foe can drop into prone out of this roll. The time Gaston spends holding his foe charges the speed of the foe's roll; if the input is mashed twice, he rolls them at Ganondorf's dash speed, while after the maximum charge of one second, they travel at Fox's dash speed.

Considering Gaston can throw multiple opponents caught in his dust cloud (with him holding those not being immediately thrown in a chokehold), he can switch up the speed at which he throws victims to cause a collision. These painful crashes can deal from 8-15% and surprising knockback, depending on the collision speed. Aside from its FFA implications, Gaston can bowl impaled opponents to the edge of his rope before stomping against the taut rope to launch them, or just be a real jerk and send them into a trap or offstage.

Back Throw - - o - - o - - o Hammer Throw
Gaston begins jerking his victim(s) around him in a circle with one arm, turning them into a high-priority spinning blur over a second, holding this pose for another second before releasing his victim. Upon being launched, the foe suffers 6% and knockback KOing around 140%. While spinning, Gaston can angle the victim diagonally up or down to ensure they travel in the chosen direction. When handling multiple opponents, Gaston spins them all at once, but throws them one at a time, one after the other, allowing for foes to be thrown either into the same traps or into different directions, setting them up for different types of KOs.

Down Throw - - o - - o - - o Sitting on One's Problems
Gaston releases his foe into prone on the ground before stomping onto them and striking a triumphant pose. This deals two hits of 4% and holds the foe in prone until they decide to roll or get-up. While punishing these options may sound fun, Gaston can also find enjoyment in using the throw in between two fire pillars with a mirror trail overtop the foe; no matter where they go, they're in for trouble. As with B-Air, if Gaston has muddy boots, the sludge is transferred to the opponent, behaving identically to its aerial counterpart. If Gaston regrabs the reacting victim, they'll have a tougher time DIing to safety. He is able to stomp down on multiple foes at once, still dealing all the throw's regular effects, albeit standing on a taller heap of characters.

Up Throw - - o - - o - - o Biceps to Spare
Gaston lifts his victim up into the air with one arm and begins hoisting them up and down repeatedly, as if they were an inanimate weight. The foe is now able to mash free with grab difficulty rather than DIing free, although Gaston is not about to let them escape so easily. He can hold his weight-lifting animation for as long as he pleases, although as soon as A is inputted, he'll brutally slam his victim down to the ground, as if to deter them from leaving. This deals 7% and puts his foe in prone, leaving Gaston free to react to the victim. If he's lifting up multiple foes, he'll slam them on top of each other; not only does this deal 5% per collision to all victims involved, the characters may stack a little extra damage on each other using get-up attacks, indirectly aiding Gaston in the long run.

< - - - FINAL SMASH - - - >​

Final Smash - - o - - o - - o Mob Scene
Gaston doesn't look too pleased...you must be against him, since you're not with him! With an angry yell, he summons a swarm of generic angry villagers, wielding a massive wooden battering ram, half the length of Final Destination and as thick as Mario is tall. Wherever Gaston travels onstage, his mob follows, carrying the log at Mario's dash speed, stopping a short distance behind him to avoid a collision. Of course, if a foe hits the moving ram at any time, they're in for a massive throbbing hit of 29%, with knockback KOing around 75%. The log can also be used as a platform by any character. Of note, flame pillars become twice as large on top of the wooden surface, allowing Gaston to transport around a massive weapon with two potentially devastating hitboxes for up to fifteen seconds. After this time, the mob marches off into the background, leaving Gaston on his own again.

< - - - PLAYSTYLE - - - >​

Gaston puts all his hunting and fighting expertise to great use on the battlefield, as he becomes able to stick a foe with a central arrow weapon, before using fearsome traps to position them where he wants them as he draws near. Although he does possess ranged attacks, Gaston reigns supreme when pummeling his opponent to dust while sneering directly into their face. He can also force his impaled opponent around the stage and into a zoned-off area, before letting loose on them while they are preoccupied with their situation. While doing so, however, Gaston must play defensively to a certain extent, as he can fall quickly to pressure, especially where his own traps are involved.

No match should begin without Gaston attempting to impale a foe with an arrow; once he has the rope in his hands, he influences the course of the battle much more directly. If he has exceptional aim, Gaston can try shooting one or two additional arrows into his foe to make their life just a bit harder, although he may wish to begin capitalizing on the one arrow he has landed before the foe pulls free. To prevent this, Gaston can either approach with moves such as dash attack or F-Smash, or pull the foe in, using the occasional fire pillar to deter the opponent from pulling back. When the foe is close enough, Gaston can begin his beatdown; the possibilities here really speak for themselves. Gaston can seal a foe inside a mirror trail to bounce them around while he pummels them from the outside, paddleball a foe around with U-Tilt, or wrap them in their own rope with F-Tilt, among other options.

Gaston's management of traps opens up an additional area of play for him to threaten foes with, in tandem with his arrow rope. For starters, he can add slack to his rope, before knocking an opponent back and forth between a trap. By pursuing a foe with D-Smash, U-Smash, or any combination of aerials, Gaston can pressure a foe into these traps as well; two fire pillars, spaced a short distance apart, are your friend here. If Gaston can catch a foe inside the inferno, he becomes able to stand safely outside and fire his blunderbuss at foes trying to jump over the pillars. Setting up mirror trails here and there can also give Gaston a leg up on foes. Vertical trals are able to turn enemy projectiles against them or prolong the air time of his own arrows with a vertical trail, while Gaston can spike a foe repeatedly onto a horizontal trail with his aerials. Traps are usable as both a supplement to Gaston's melee game and as a secondary, admittedly dangerous strategy. They can prove useful against equally offensive brutes, but Gaston must continually replenish both pillars and trails, and is quite vulnerable to the former. This is not the kind of burn he wants to feel.

Also worth mentioning are Gaston's effective crowd control methods; while he has difficulty managing the ropes of multiple impaled foes all at once, Gaston can impale a single foe and use them as a weapon against the others. In a scenario where Gaston would be paddleballing his victim into traps, he can smack them with moves that will send them right into their fellow combatants or teammates, damaging two birds with one...arrow. Traps become slightly more potent in FFAs as well, for Gaston can snatch up multiple foes with moves like D-Tilt or D-Air, before plopping them right into a fire pillar or mirror trail. Gaston does possess a few other moves effective when fighting several foes at once, such as D-Smash and U-Smash; the pinnacle of his FFA dominance is his grab-game. Even if he misses a crowd with his initial lunge, Gaston can pummel a single victim into other foes, pulling them right in before smacking them around with gems like F-Throw and U-Throw. Slop a bit of mud on your victim with B-Air and D-Throw to simultaneously shorten their DI and prolong your bullish enjoyment.

With such strong damage-racking options, it's only fitting Gaston has a number of mind-blowing KO options. Once his opponent is good and battered up, Gaston can send them back to the edge of their rope by frightening them away with his mirror, or using any attack with set knockback. He'll have to finish his foe quickly once their rope becomes taut to avoid accidentally releasing them, so...what are you waiting for? Stomp down on the rope to rip the arrow free and send your foe reeling! If his rope is slack and this tactic proves bothersome, Gaston can launch his foe right off the blast zone with U-Tilt, without even freeing them from the rope. The same aerials capable of forcing a foe into a dangerous locale can also bring them off the stage, where Gaston can make use of his various spikes and suicide methods. Adding slack into the rope to lower the foe right off the bottom blast zone is a safer onstage gimp, although this can be tough to pull off against some recoveries. As soon as Gaston has KOed his foe, there's no time for him to rest and get his feet massaged...get back to where you have a clear shot and take aim again!

It doesn't take fifty Frenchman to be right about the simple fact...no one fights like Gaston!

< - - - EXTRAS - - - >​

Up Taunt - - o - - o - - o Scary Chest
Gaston performs an exaggerated version of F-Air, winkling devilishly before opening up his shirt, showing off his hairy chest for all to see before closing it off again.

Side Taunt - - o - - o - - o Flex Those Pecs
Gaston bends down slightly, flexing both arms in front of him, before raising them above his head and doing the same.

Down Taunt - - o - - o - - o Expectorating
Gaston suddenly leans down and spits at his feet, leaving a simple spit visual on the ground for three seconds.

Entrance - - o - - o - - o Barstool Break
Gaston appears, sitting in the background on the massive furry chair seen in his tavern while enjoying a beer. After he finishes, he tosses the empty mug into the background before springing forward and flexing, prepared to fight.

Victory Pose #1 - - o - - o - - o Town Hero
Gaston holds his muscular arms in the air, waving at the spectators in a conceited manner. Perhaps they wish to go into town and take a look at his trophies?

Victory Pose #2 - - o - - o - - o Chair Lift
Gaston is seen sitting in his beastly chair, being hoisted into the air by a crowd of villagers. They parade him around for a short time, as Lefou trails around underneath, but eventually stumble, dropping the chair onto Lefou. Gaston continues grinning at the crowd around him, unaware of the heap of villagers behind him or where his ****** friend disappeared off to.

Victory Pose #3 - - o - - o - - o Mirror, Mirror
Gaston peers into the magic mirror, looking at his reflection. Despite everything appearing perfectly normal, he grunts, running his tongue over his teeth to clean them up a bit. Satisfied, he begins admiring himself, occasionally peering over at the screen suggestively.

Victory Theme - - o - - o - - o ...
Do you really have to ask? No one has a victory theme like Gaston!

Loss Pose- - o - - o - - o Sulking
Gaston sits in his chair in the background, greatly disappointed over his public humiliation. Lefou scampers around the chair, trying to pat Gaston on the back to improve his mood, but is repeatedly slapped away by his angry master.

Credit for the 'sharp' Neutral Special concept goes to Davidreamcatcha...no one finds potential in seemingly-generic Disney villains like Dave!

 

[n88]

My commenting is momentum-based

Pichu
[COLLAPSE="LegendofLink"]Pichu has some interesting ideas behind it. The way you handle magnetism is simple and effective, which is welcome, since the mechanics of it could easily be made convoluted and boring. Pichu also has a nice sense of mobility, between the quick pivots, the Side Throw, and the Up Special (I'm tempted to say that tripping would render dash-dancing capabilities unreliable, but I'm sure random tripping would be the first thing to go in SSBMYM) I can't say I'm crazy about this one, though.

The playstyle is there, and it's interesting, but it doesn't feel much like Pichu. You've got the hit and run, and latching onto the opponent, but then you've also got. . . creating duplicates to footstool? Pinning the opponent to the stage and blasting the crap out of them? You also do very little with self-damage, or the accidental electric discharge that nearly every Pokedex entry makes a point of. Those traits only appear in a move or two each, unless I missed something. There's also that obscenely tacky forward tilt that bothers me to no end. Pachi did the same thing. Why are giant flying hearts the only way MYM can find to interpret this attack?[/COLLAPSE]

House
[COLLAPSE="Davidreamcatcha"]First off, may I start by saying that I'm really glad you actually made this set? It's awesome that you managed to find a way to make a character you once considered impossible. Now, getting into the set itself, I do have a few quibbles. . . yes, that healing grenade makes me cringe a little. Also, "offensive" and "defensive" are very vague terms. What category would a character who keeps their distance, but is constantly launching attacks at the foe fall under? What about hit and run behavior? Is the difference between the two simply "creating hitboxes" vs. "not creating hitboxes?"

But moving beyond that, House seems well put-together, with a solid mindgame playstyle. At first I felt there might be a bit too many cane hits, which feels strange on a doctor, but looking back, you do mostly keep them to the Standards, which isn't so bad. It's also very respectable that you avoided relying on props, which would have been the easy way out, I think. I can't say I like it quite as much as Marvin, but this is still an achievement. Good work, Dave.[/COLLAPSE]

Gaston
[COLLAPSE="BKupa666"]I've been looking forward to this set; I'm quite impressed with it, and daresay it's your best of the contest. It's got that signature Kupa writing style that works so well, and has a lot of fun with its character. The lowpoint of the set comes fairly early on, with that strange mirror that feels a bit odd on Gaston, even though he does have it in the movie. The effect is similar to Pokemon Syndrome, in that you've got him using a tool that he does have, even though it's a bit strange for him to use it.

But with a character like Gaston, that's a forgivable problem, and past the mirror, everything is smooth sailing. The highlight of the set for me wasn't the tethering centerpiece, which was well-done and perfectly enjoyable, but the brawling grab game (it's even more fun to imagine in CTF) that lets Gaston tackle a mob of opponents at once. Between the grab game and tethering multiple opponents, Gaston really feels like he'd be a lot of fun in free-for-alls, which earns him quite a few brownie points. I'd say this compares favorably to Edgar, which is no small feat.[/COLLAPSE]

 

[half_silver28]

• No one tethers themselves to foes like Gaston.
  Spoiler

  except those other characters with chains
  
  
• No one randomly uses a magic mirror but mostly sticks to brute force like Gaston.
  
  
• No one paddleballs foes between himself and traps like Gaston.
  
  
• No one spaces themselves with their rippling muscles like Gaston.
  
  
• No one fights (multiple foes) like Gaston.
  
  
• No one has a grab game like Gaston
  Spoiler

  But it strikes me as a little OOC seeing as he isn't a Looney Tunes char
  
  
• No one makes tacky mud effects relevant like Gaston.
  Spoiler

  Especially since the rope tether and the grab make DI so important.
  
  
• No one sends foes tumbling off the edge and gimps like Gaston.
  
  
• No one is perfectly characterized by a bullying playstyle with a FFA specialization like Gaston.
  Spoiler

  No one starts bar fights like Gaston, after all.
  
  
• No one makes awesome sets for Disney characters like Kupa!