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Make Your Move 14 - This is Snake, I'm done here

Smady

Smash Master
Joined
Apr 29, 2007
Messages
3,306
Location
K Rool Avenue
If Mami is a sign of what's to come from DM, I'm reasonably happy. What immediately struck me as good about the set was its loose flow to strengthen the ever-simple playstyle. That it focuses on basic elements, DI and prediction, was always going to be a tough sell, however in comes the versatility at melee range and fairly all-encompassing projectile use [basically an instant way to punish far-off opponents]. What results is a straightforward pressure-based character, pressure being one of the keys to actually forcing an approach and what naturally follows is Mami's unerring duplicity. It's the zoning power-up of the rifles hanging around and Mami's ability to trap the opponent, figuratively and literally, that wraps up the playstyle in an appropriately neat bow. I highly approve of the organisation, writing style and characterisation here, it's a subtlety I hope becomes a bedrock of your future set work. The playstyle section in particular was a nice change of pace and highlighted the unique style of this moveset. I have few criticisms to make of the set – the melee versatility and simpler elements, that buffer her unpredictability, do outstay their welcome, but not to any alarming detriment. I can entirely forgive the hiccups as the set largely delivers on its in-smash, in-character promise.

I am not a fan of Darth Vader, but can appreciate the appeal of that set. Mace Windu is paying homage to that set and goes a route that improves the style, utilising descriptive playstyle summaries and a delicate balance of abusive force powers. The blatant use of control thematically is a smart one, the down special becoming a highlight of the playstyle that makes it easy to see the potential for this simplistic character to evolve in a competitive setting. Turning the passive Lucario mechanic into a move or button prompt, is always going to get my approval when put to a great use as it is in the set. The inertia of Windu charging across the battlefield is an obvious source of inspiration, as here the character is able to make use of his specials in particular to approach at an excellent rate. Actually that's my one big complaint, the ground chunk from the start of the set is simply too good of a tool at any stage in the match and stacked on top of the down special and embedding the lightsaber in the foe, that's a scary combination. There was as well blatantly room for a little description on how ridding Windu of his weapon affects all those applicable moves. Those things aside, the set is very well-balanced considering the down special's mechanic effectively splits it into two symmetrical playstyles. Worse than Croagunk but not bad.

I always get hung up on a set I don't like, that happened to be SwallowMan.EXE. For far too long. What may have created this irritating atmosphere for my commenting was the fact that it's really, really bland and admittedly barely held my attention. Once you get past the specials, the rest of the moves are lacking in the usual flow I'd expect from one of your sets. Not to say the specials are great, the bird acting as an active hitbox wherever it goes is about the only thing I like at all about the set, but the rest of the specials are forgettable. So, instead of wasting time by pontificating on what exactly I can say about this set, I'll just be direct and say I hate it. Don't take that as disapproval of experimenting by posting sets you aren't totally comfortable with, but there's just nothing to this one and based on our interactions, I dare say you at least partially agree.

The marriage of a concept like time stop and the typical Roy in-smash execution is a match made in heaven. Kitanji is surprisingly creative in its use of elements like a tether, complex projectiles and DM's hated angling in the up special. This is a total shift away from your other sets but what makes it the best one is that it never abandons the small rock, big ripple philosophy and the parts of the set that take advantage of this are the best. The angling for example, opening up a simple, creative playground wherein walls, lasers and projectiles come into play. Incredibly visceral use of Espeon's mechanic in the shield special and the grab game in general are works of genius, bringing together a very focused "controlling" playstyle that isn't trying to impress with its concept but its execution. I don't think I need to touch on why the characterisation's great, but props on a noticeable improvement in your writing style and organisation. Even moves you'd think would be a throwaway such as the jab actually end up being interesting because of the in-smash spin you give. The repeated use of the walls from the down smash in the up aerial, plus the projectile from up smash in the down aerial, are strange, but serve a good purpose in adding to the contained playground within an already great playstyle. It's not only refreshing, it is reinvigorating to see a totally new approach to these ideas and that's why I really enjoyed reading Kitanji.
 

FrozenRoy

Smash Lord
Joined
Apr 26, 2007
Messages
1,260
Location
Las Vegas, Nevada
Switch FC
SW-1325-2408-7513
For those expecting the Weekly Recap: Something came up when I went to make it today, so it will come out on Saturday this week.
 

JOE!

Smash Hero
Joined
Oct 5, 2008
Messages
8,075
Location
Dedham, MA

Size: 10
It's body is similar in stature to Donkey Kong, with it's massive wingspan adding extra width.

Weight: 7
Being a Bird, Ho-oh is light for it's size. It weighs in at around Ike's level.

Air: 7
It has above average air speed, and amazing control, but it rarely needs to fly extremely fast given it's stature.

Ground: 7
Ho-oh has the same Dash and Air speed given it flies just above the floor.

Fall: 1
Again, being a bird means an affinity for the air. Ho-oh is at home with fans of Peach, Samus and Jigglypuff.

Jumps: 4
Ho-oh has a solid grounded jump, if a tad slow given it's size, and 3 mid-air jumps that each are about the same as ROB's double jump.

Glide: Yes* (Initiated via Special)
Ho-oh of course has a Glide, but we'll get into that with it's Up Special where it is initiated.

Shield: Light Screen
Pressing Shield summons light energy to create an iridescent field around Ho-oh. The Light Screen takes no damage from projectiles, but slides further from normal attacks. A great asset for such a large character, one must still be wary of shield pressure as Ho-oh has little to no counter options out of shield due to the increased push effects.


Basic Animations and Quirks:
While idle, Ho-oh will stand on the ground, with it's wings barely folded to either side, being the size of about Charizard, minus the tail. It's tail feathers thankfully do not have a hurtbox, but it's massive wings do. If left alone long enough, Ho-oh will hover in it's aerial pose, seen above, but still be "grounded".

Walking has it move forward like you'd expect from a walking bird, with above average speed for it's size. Dashing has it fly along the ground, with dodges acting similarly as it leaves the ground for quick maneuvers with a mere flap of it's left or right wing.

Ho-oh grabs edges with it's feet, giving it a unique weakness in how it must go higher than most in order to actually sweetspot, but thankfully this is a legendary -bird- and thus doesn't sweat air time at all thanks to it's low fall speed, multiple jumps and glide Up Special. Edge play may be a drawback for Ho-oh, but it's aerial and on-stage dominance more than make up for it.





Neutral B: Sunny Day
Pressing and holding B will shine a pillar of sunlight on the Rainbow Pokemon, charging it with light energy as well as healing it for 6% per second. If uninterrupted for one second of charging, an orange aura will surround Ho-oh indicating it is now charged with power!

The energy will be stored within Ho-oh until it either spends it or misses with a move that is altered by it. It will also go away upon death, but given it's aerial nature it shouldn't be hard to concentrate and gather your fiery energies once more.

The Sunlight is also a boon for Ho-oh's defensive game as even while charged, you can still heal off of your powers.


Side B: Weather Ball
Flapping it's wings, Ho-oh sends a sphere of wind forward at a shallow diagonally down angle (much steeper diagonal while airborne) that explodes on contact with ground or foe, dealing 5% and flinching. As with all wind effects, this will also cause a large push effect in an area the size of Ho-oh itself, but the flinching damage will stop it from being a true gimper. The projectile in total takes about as long as a super missile to be fired, and travels at the rate of Lucas' PK Fire, with only 1 being allowed on-screen at once.

With Sunny Day active, this becomes Fire Blast, shooting an orb of flames that erupts in an explosion for 18% and high KB that is able to KO at around 100%. Missing Fire Blast will consume Sunny Day, which is an issue thanks to FB having much more noticeable start up and end lag than WB, as well as only traveling a max distance of Luigi's Fireball.


Up B: Sky Attack
Up B has Ho-oh rise the height of a mid-air jump and initiate a glide with 7% heavy armor attached as it trails a rainbow effect. This glide moves at about a 9/10 dash speed through the air, and can be canceled into any remaining mid air jumps he had, air-dodge, Glide Attack* or simply stopped by pressing B. You can only glide once before touching ground again, but otherwise Ho-oh's flight is an amazing recovery option.

If held down instead of tapped however, Ho-oh will charge energy into Sky attack and zoom forward in the direction chosen (like a Space Animal Up B) in a blaze of fire resembling a long-range falcon punch. Similarly to the pawnch, hitting with this maneuver will result in 20% with KB in the direction chosen (hint: juggle a foe to the top blast zone!) but then result in high end lag and special fall. Overall Sky Attack is about as laggy and goes as far as Falco's Up B, but with harsher landing lag if you don't sweetspot.

If you fully charged Sunny Day , there will be no waiting when you smash Up B for Sky Attack, but it will consume your aura regardless if you hit or miss.

*Glide attack is the same as Dash Attack, seen below.


Down B: Extrasensory
Shining brightly, Ho-oh emits a bright aura of iridescent light around itself and halts it's momentum slightly. Those who are touched by this energy take 8% and mediocre radial KB away from Ho-oh. Extrasensory serves as an anti-pressure tool thanks to it's quick start up, especially if you want to counter from shield push-back. But unlike the "shines" found on other characters, Extrasensory's size and damage leave Ho-oh with a moment of end lag before it can act out of it.

With Sunny Day active, ES summons 3 balls of fiery light that orbit Ho-oh in a vertical circle. The orbs are transcendent, but will deal 8% and high hitstun to any enemy they come in contact with (only enemy contact disperses them, projectiles will not). Using ES this way will consume SD, but building another Sunny Day charge with the Orbs all intact will allow you to use ES normally, unless orbs are destroyed in which SD is consumed to refresh them.


Up B After Defeat: Rise of the Phoenix
Showing it's powers of life, Ho-oh explodes onto the field in a mass of fire instead of simply respawning if you Up + B the moment your stock icon goes away. It does not have invincibility if you use this attack, and appears in the center, or middle of the "half" closest to the enemy that defeated Ho-oh instead of a standard respawn platform. RotP will deal 18% and high radial KB in an explosion slightly larger than Ho-oh itself.





Forward Smash: Gust
Ho-oh flaps it's wings forward in place, sending a large push of air the size of DDD in the enemy's direction dealing 10-14%, flinching, and lots of push. Fairly quick for a ranged smash attack, taking about as long as Falco's Fsmash. While it lacks outright power, it can certainly space like no tomorrow for Side B and the like.

With SD , the attack becomes Heat Wave. A wave of flames emits from it's wings instead of just wind, dealing 18-25% and massive - mediocre KB depending on how close you are to Ho-oh (closer = more KB). It has a bit more start up and ending lag to it than Gust but it will not consume SD unless you miss.


Up Smash: Fly
Ho-oh spreads it's wings upward and flaps down with force, rising up with a hitbox for 14-20% and high upwards KB before falling back down normally with enough end lag to cover until it touches the ground again. This has a surprisingly wide hitbox for just a moment as it's wings flap down, which may take opponents for surprise and start a juggle string as you land on a platform, if not outright KO them as an anti-air punish at high %.

With SD , Fly gains a fiery hitbox that deals an extra 6-8% on the way up, and has much less end lag allowing for follow-ups before you hit the ground again, without need of platform-canceling the move. This consumes SD if no enemy is hit.


Down Smash: Whirlwind
Spreading it's wings out to make a -wide- hitbox, about 1.2x a platform, Ho-oh spins just off the ground 2 times before coming to a halt, dealing multiple hits that add up to 21-30% that drag the opponent inwards and down before popping them upwards. As this happens, strong push effects are felt to either side of Ho-oh as the whirling winds sweep along the ground. It's quickest smash attack as it takes only as long as Link's Dsmash, it is also it's weakest in terms of KB as it acts as a grinder / spacer vs traps and the like with the large horizontal coverage. Be wary of foes that DI upwards near the edge of the move, as they can escape and counter.

With SD , Whirlwind becomes Fire Spin. Shooting flames from it's wings as it spins, the range where you can damage foes close to the ground is increased greatly, but the flames won't knock/flinch normally until you are close to Ho-oh's wings. Missing Fire Spin will consume SD.




Jab: Wing Attack
Shooting up a wing forward in a -massive- hitbox that sends foes straight upwards for 8%, this is Ho-oh's go-to move to start juggling from neutral positions. Wing Attack is on par with say, Falcon's Utilt in terms of lag, making it in a sense a neutral tilt. Even if it doesn't have enough power to send foes past a platform's height at high %, the follow ups to the juggle are simply too good for the Rainbow Pokemon to pass up.

Forward Tilt: Pluck
A quick peck forward for 7%, this highly angle-able tilt is amazing for poking at your enemies with a sharp beak and long neck. This takes about as long as Marth's Dtilt to perform and does minor horizontal KB. Useful for spacing vs defensive foes, but not too much else (except the rare Down Angled gimp move when a foe is near the edge).

Up Tilt: Incinerate
Ho-oh looks upwards and swats the tip of it's wing upward as well, creating an area of fire above itself the size of Kirby. The flames deal radial KB to anyone who touches it, dealing 10% and possibly killing at higher %'s and altitudes (platforms). This takes about as long as Bowser's Utilt, and is similarly able to poke through the bottom of platforms, perhaps even better vertically as the hitbox appears slightly above the wing tip.

Down Tilt: Earthquake
Ho-oh stomps a foot down in front of itself as well as flapping down it's wings, creating a ground-hitting tremor before itself for 10% that pops foes straight upward. It's stomping talon deals 15% and high downwards KB if you want to assert your power over foes on the edge, but either move is situational compared to Jab for juggles given the lag of DK's Dsmash. Luckily the large range of the tremor gives way to huge punish and tech-chase options when they present themselves, and can combo into more jabs, grabs, Utilts and more.

Dash/Glide Attack: Flame Charge
Gaining a fiery aura, Ho-oh's speed increases slightly as it blazes by opponents for 10% and moderate radial KB. higher end lag than most dash attacks as it slows and lands, but this dash attack can be ledge-canceled and move off of them to continue to aerial combat as it becomes it's Glide Attack. When used from a glide, Flame Charge increases it's already fast glide speed, but initiates special fall afterward, making platform/edge-cancelling the end of the move an essential art to master if you don't want to be punished.




Neutral Air: Flap
Simply put, Ho-oh brings it's wings up and down once, creating two huge hitboxes for 10% and Diagonally Back (up) or Diagonally Forward (down) knockback. The move takes as long as Ike's Nair, but the rising hit comes out relatively quick with both overall making for a huge hitbox around itself to keep foes airborne, or pinned beneath it. The downward hit also has a small push effect just out of range of the hitboxes, which can serve as a styling gimp when spaced just right.

Forward Tilt: Flamethrower
Ho-oh raises it's wings much like in all of it's sprites and art, and sweeps it's head from top to bottom as an arc of flames emits from it's beak. Hitting multiple times, potentially doing upward of 24% total, this is a fairly quick move for Ho-oh in that it takes as long as it's jab. Flamethrower, along with Flap are it's bread and butter mid-air, and a great rising option to get on-stage.

Back Air: Tailwind
Turning it's head back just a bit, Ho-oh slams it's wings backward to create a wall of wind and embers. Dealing 10% with flinch and high push effects, Tailwind is nigh identical to Gust except for it's shallower range, and how it will also boost Ho-oh forward thanks to being airborne. A good KO option if you manage to time it right off-stage, and a useful option for negating knockback at times, combined with Extrasensory.

Up Air: Air Superiority
Ho-oh faces (away depending on if it's facing left/right) the camera and swings upwards with both wings and beak to create a very wide, high hitbox. It's wings send foes at diagonals with mediocre KB and 10%, while a sweet-spot at Ho-oh's beak deal 13% and high vertical KB capable of killing at 110% or so while midair. An amazing aerial for sure, it's only drawback is the rather high end and landing lag for using it.

Down Air: Talon Attack
Ho-oh stomps both talons down and forward, looking like a diving bird of prey for a moment as it's claws rake at foes. Ho-oh's fastest aerial, this hits much like Wolf's Ftilt with foot and claw alike slashing opponents for two hits of 5%, and weak-mediocre KB with a slight diagonally upward angle.


Sacred Flames: The Sun's power
You may be wondering what role SD plays in Ho-oh's normal attacks. Well, whenever Ho-oh hits a foe with a standard or aerial while charged with power it has a 50% chance to inflict them with it's Sacred Flames, which show as bright orange flames similar to it's own Aura when SD is active. Oddly, this is actually a buff on those it hits.

Sacred Flames purge any negative effects off of those enveloped by them, safeguarding against DoT and Debuffing effects for the next 5 seconds, which is an incredible attribute in team matches as Ho-oh can effectively protect it's team mates with it's own energy, stopping many nasty moves of MYM from harming them for a time. Luckily, sacred flames do no consume SD at all.





Grab and Pummel: Brave Bird
As one may expect, landing a grab with Ho-oh won't be the same as other characters. Standing grab will have Ho-oh actually perform a short hop and lash out with it's talons, making for a unique high-hitting grab that can even intercept aerials! Dashing and Pivot grabs are also similar as Ho-oh will actually glide and take the foe with it in it's clutches, with all three resulting in Ho-oh hovering with it's prey off the ground. Unfortunately, all it's grabs have high end lag due to the movement involved (even if they are quick and surprising to come out), and smaller characters may find it easy to avoid with a crouch. If only it had a way to pop foes up easily to swoop in for the grab....

Tapping A while a foe is in your clutches will have Ho-oh crush them with it's talons with an added fiery effect thrown in. This does 3% per hit with a mediocre pace and the ability to hit foes other than the victim if they are close by.

As a side note, none of Ho-ohs throws are effected by or consume SD, making them viable "neutral" options at all times, given you land it's grab.

Forward Throw: Inferno
Ho-oh will toss the foe forward a good distance for 5%, and then swiftly glides toward them while spraying fire at a 45* angle for an additional 6% and decent, but not killer upward knockback. A good throw in multi-man fights, it also tech-chases itself as Ho-oh often glides right past the foe at lower %'s, and sprays fire in front of itself at the end of the glide. This can equally be risky in multi-man due to the animation time, but 1v1 it is an amazing way to get a foe in the air or yourself off-stage to follow them depending on where they tech to. The end lag is the same as it's normal landing lag from a hop.

Back Throw: Aerial Ace
Ho-oh banks into the back/foreground and drags the foe along the ground for the ride, dealing multiple hits up to 8%, before throwing the foe along the ground for an additional 2%. A basic throw to get the foe in-place for a variety of moves, it also is just fun to show who's king of the skies and who belongs on the ground.

Up Throw: Sky Drop
Ho-oh flies high enough to touch the bottom of the middle BF platform while covered in flames, roasting the foe for multiple hits leading to 8%, then simply lets go of them with them in a tumble animation. Incredibly basic, but leaving a roast prey item next to a Legendary Bird midair is always something to look forward to.

Down Throw: Punishment
One of the very few Pokemon to know this move, Ho-oh's rage is most severe with this throw. Slamming the foe down before itself, Ho-oh launches a fireball for 9% and radial KB straight down at them. Nothing special at first glance, but against foes that have boosted themselves in any manner to try and take down the Rainbow Pokemon will experience these flames a bit differently, exploding once more per boost! So if an enemy was say, under the effects of a Metal Box, their own Boosting Move, and say... Sacred Flames, they would take an astounding amount of damage for their attempts. However, this will not alter the KB value at all for the move.

Easily it's most rewarding move, it is also it's most niche attack as it requires either Ho-oh itself to set it's foes ablaze with Sacred Flames, or rely on certain foes to try and boost themselves vs it. It does however guarantee Ho-oh ditto matches to be quite entertaining.





Legendary Bird: Guardian of the Skies
Ho-oh is a very unique addition to the roster. A Huge, Light-heavyweight aerial combatant with an ability to power-up and really dish out the pain. It's role isn't just delegated to offense however, as it can easily be a support in team matches as a "tank" of sorts thanks to it's ability to heal and relieve pressure, as well as Sacred Flames protecting allies from ill effect (at the cost of a hit, Pluck is often the best method as it has the least sting).

Ho-oh is all about air control, with multiple ways to get foes airborne, and take advantage with it's amazing aerials and unique grab in Brave Bird. That said, it can be a hassle to get momentum going with Ho-oh as even though it can shrug off Special Attacks, physical damage leaves little options for the Rainbow Pokemon as it's shield is constantly pushed around, making for hard reads to be necessary against opponents to get the ball rolling.

If you get those opportunities with Ho-oh however, you'll be sure to show them your legendary power as it is incredibly difficult to shake it off once Ho-oh has a beat on you, especially with a SD-charged Extrasensory giving it ~20% for free! Make sure to be light on your feet and create the openings for your power to truly shine, and to truly punish the unworthy enemies before you.






Final Smash: Sacred Fire
Just like it's Pokeball Appearance, Sacred Fire deals titanic amounts of damage and KB at the last hit, and is even controllable side to side somewhat with the control stick!​



Bell Tower: Ho-oh's Roost
The Bell Tower is available after unlocking Ho-oh, and it will even watch matches as long as it isn't participating!​
 

Katapultar

Smash Lord
Joined
Nov 24, 2008
Messages
1,251
Location
Australia
Since you wanted this...

[collapse=Ho-oh]Right from the get go Ho-oh's presentation screams a certain brilliance befitting for it, from the use of its Heartgold box artwork to the Heartgold symbol for the headers - I for one felt quite excited when I first scrolled down to the set. Looking back, some of Ho-oh's defensive powers from the game (what with that uber high SpDf stat) are captured quite well here, from the use of a Light Screen shield to Sunny Day healing off damage in a manner reminiscent to the infamous Recover which Ho-oh gets in a wild battle against it - we all know 6% a second isn't even broken with all those Project Melee Ivysaur videos you've shown us in the chat, though it still feels like a very high number fitting for Ho-oh.

Since I'm an advocate of characterization, if I'm to level any complaint on the set, it'd be that it perhaps doesn't feel -legendary- enough. I know you said in the chat that you felt you downsized Ho-oh a bit too much whereas his Brawl size would be a bit too big, though I don't think there'd be any problem with making him roughly 1.5X as large as he currently is. Being huge targets is, in a way, a good form of characterization for legendaries to give them a sense of overwhelming presence in Brawl while at the same time making them feel coveted. It'd also give you an excuse to increase the range on Ho-oh's attacks (and make them just a wee bit stronger), because right now most of the stuff feels as though it could be put onto any old Pokemon like Swellow or something. You obviously wouldn't need to worry about Sunny Day being less effective either when you can just fly away, where it'd actually be much more useful when you'd be taking so much damage with such a large size. It might be shocking, but I'd say the set would actually be a lot better for me simply by having Ho-oh be up-sized.

For a minor complaint, the Sacred Flames effect is cool but somewhat iffy in how it's handled. It's only useful in Team Matches, but don't most people play those without Friendly Fire? Why not just have allies receive the effect when they stay near Ho-oh for more than one second with SD active? That way you don't have to rely on luck and you're not just randomly buffing your opponent say if they're being afflicted by their own negative mechanic or getting in the way of an ally's gameplan via team matches. You also don't have to randomly hurt your ally in order to activate it, which seems pretty silly.
[/collapse]
 

JOE!

Smash Hero
Joined
Oct 5, 2008
Messages
8,075
Location
Dedham, MA
Doubles macthes are played primarily with team attack on to:

1) Promote non-stupid stuff like 2 falcos infinitely lasering or such
2) creates a more dynamic match where you can actually save your friends by say, hitting them up offstage to try and recover, heal Ness with a projectile, Fill Up GW's bucket, or even just grab them sometimes to let them take a it that normally would have killed them.

However, the Sunny Day granting it is a cool idea.. was more thinking of the Burn effect and how it could be used in tangent with Punishment, thus it being on it's standard moves :p

Also, I think that is the first time I've been told that a character could use beefing up. I thought it was on the border as-is with it's array of moves like Down B which adds a near 24% for free if you grab a guy, combined with high survival (even if it already is combo-food).

Glad you liked it, and are you gonna do a poke-list set?
 

Katapultar

Smash Lord
Joined
Nov 24, 2008
Messages
1,251
Location
Australia
Wow, didn't know that competitive team matches were played with friendly fire. Makes sense though, especially why people were complaining about the stuff like Kang. I would like to make a Poke-list set, though I am juggling between ideas. Rayquaza seems like he'd be a bit too similar to Ho-oh and not too interesting for me to do.
 

BridgesWithTurtles

Smash Champion
Joined
Apr 18, 2013
Messages
2,172
Location
The long road to nowhere
3DS FC
3523-2059-7939
I probably don't have any position to give detailed feedback considering I've only made one set here myself, but after finally finding the time to read Ho-oh, I really wanted to say how pleased I was at its execution. I expected a good set, but I also expected it to fall into the same sort of mold that other "giant" sets fall into. I was actually pleasantly surprised at how much Ho-oh was scaled down, and moreso at how it was scaled down while still seeming rather much like Ho-oh. I really love the concentration on projectile defense at the expense of having problems with close combat; that's something a Pokemon fan would pick up on instantly, and it was a nice pleasure to see that sort of adaptation from another game's mechanics into Smash gameplay.

The Sacred Flames concept had me questioning the idea at first, but overall, it's a pretty good take on the effects of Sacred Ash. I like how it's largely founded with doubles in mind, which is something I love seeing in movesets. Another aspect I like is the focus on air and the push and pull properties featured in moves that make use of the concept, such as Tailwind and its movement properties. The grab as well I find to be pretty cool. It could have functioned as an aesthetically interesting but otherwise conventional action, but instead you instilled it with a unique function that offers up different applications without straying too far from what's established and comfortable. Overall, the set is pretty darn good. Ho-oh seems balanced despite being an OU legendary, and still fun to play even with its abilities obviously having been toned down. If I have one dislike, it's that the Sacred Flames seem a little useless in a singles match, other than its relationship with Down Throw.
 

TheKalmarKing

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Mar 7, 2013
Messages
162
One-Hour Pokeset yay




Samurott

Stats

Size: 6
Surprisingly enough he's not very tall, but he's not a dwarf either.

Weight: 7
He's rather heavy, but not enough to be a heavy-weight character like DeDeDe.

Ground Speed: 5
He's a marine Pokémon, so he's not at his best on ground...

Air Speed: 2
...And even less in the air.

Samurott is overall a rather slow character, but he still can moves around without too much problems. He's like a faster tank, having powerful attacks and being able to take some good damage.

Specials

Neutral B: Water Pulse

Samurott fires a pulsing blast of water forward for two BF platforms, dealing 13% damage and good knockback. There is medium lag on both ends, however, it is really worth the trouble since it's a projectile 1.5x the size of a charged Aura Sphere, and a rather powerful one at that. There is a 15% chance the opponent will be stunned for a little moment if it connects, allowing Samurott to get close or away more easily. It's also a great pressuring tool, since the actual attack is rather fast and covers a large zone. Other than that, it is a rather standard projectile.

Side B: Megahorn

Samurott charges forward for a BF platform and ram the opponent with his huge horn, dealing 15% damage and large knockback. It's easy to punish a mis-timed attack from the opponent with Megahorn thanks to it's quick startup and rather long range, but it's ending lag is rather long, but it's easy to get punished in return. It ploys through projectiles thanks to super-armor and is generally immune to close-range attacks thanks to the large hitbox, but he still can be hit from behind. A good-to-use bad-to-abuse move.

Down B: Sword Dance

Samurott will crouch and growl while glowing swords holograms will begin dancing around him. It deals strictly no damage or knockback and got little lag, but it increases Samurott's attack by 3% for every second he spends in that stance. The buff will disappear 5 seconds after Samurott exits the stance and will reset if Samurott re-enters the stance, making it a complicated move. However, it is worth the risk, as Samurott's already high attack can shoot up the roof with that move, and the buff stays for a rather long time. But to be honest, besides team battles, it is unlikely you will ever charge this move more than necessary.

Up B: Aqua Jet

Samurott suddenly darts at a steep diagonal angle, hitting anybody on his way for 8% damage and little knockback. It covers good distance and is a nice recovery, but it's main force is it's speed: it begins in practically no time, flying through the air at Quick Attack's speed. Basically, it's a straight and further-going Quick Attack. Using it as an attack is possible but not specially recommended, the angle making it a bit impractical. Nothing terrible though.

Neutrals

Jab: Fury Cutter

Samurott quickly swipes forward up to five times, dealing 1%, 2%, 3%, 4% and 5% damage. While the full combo is pretty damaging, it will almost never hit, the first swipes knocking back the opponent little by little. However, if you've cornered the opponent, you can rack up some easy damage. It's pretty fast and can interrupt another move easily, but it's poor range limit it's usefulness.

Side Tilt: Water Gun

Samurott spits water half a stage builder platform forward, doing medium knockback and 5% damage. It's basically a short-range, non-chargeable, damaging F.L.U.D.D. attack, and a very good GTFO move since it's quick.

Up Tilt: Quickdraw

Samurott will suddenly slash upwards with one of his seamitars (A shell-like sword), dealing 7% damage and medium knockback. It also hits before him although you must be close for it to work, but it will launch the opponent in the air, allowing for easy juggles. There is little lag on the end, so it's rather safe.

Down Tilt: Sword Sweep

In a lightning-quick movement, Samurott will quickly take out a seamitar and slash forward, knocking opponents off their feet for 6% damage. A very fast sweep with good range, it's also everything it does. Yup. (Yes, this a very simplistic set, I know)

Smashes

Forward Smash: X-Scissors

Samurott slashes the opponent in an X formation, knocking him away for 15-23% percent damage. With little lag and good range, it's one of Samurott's killer moves, easily killing opponents and also looking really cool. A little quirk of this move is that it is undodgeable by rolling or spot-dodging, so Samurott's opponent should be careful when rolling merrily to dodge his attacks.

Down Smash: Toxik

Samurott will howl, creating a venomous swamp before him. Opponents standing on it wil get poisoned for 2-4% for every half-second they spend on it. While powerful, it is a bit small and is an obvious trap so opponents are going to fall for it that often. Luckily, it can chip away shields, and interact with Sword Dance. When Samurott will use his Down B on the poison, he will instead coat himself in it, so all of his water-based moves like Up B, Neutral B or side attack will now inflict a poison effect dealing 2% damage per second, during 5 seconds. Also, when grabbing or being grabbed by an opponent, he will damage him for 2% damage for every second. All-in-all, it is very advantageous to use this little combo.

Up Smash: Scald

Samurott spits boiling-hot water upwards, burning the opponent for 11%-15% damage and medium knockback. While the damage is rather unimpressive for a smash, it inflicts fire damage while still being a water-based attack, so you can spit boiling-hot poison at your opponent, which is cool. Also it will easily stop attacks like DeDeDe Bomber, making it a good defensive move while being a poor offensive move.

Aerials

Neutral Air: Tail Whip

Samurott whips forward with his tail at short-range, dealing 5% damage and little knockback. A very straight-forward attack, there is virtually no reason to ever use this attack. It sucks.

(More coming tomorrow, I'm already too tired today T_T)
 

JOE!

Smash Hero
Joined
Oct 5, 2008
Messages
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Location
Dedham, MA
Neutral Air: Tail Whip

Samurott whips forward with his tail at short-range, dealing 5% damage and little knockback. A very straight-forward attack, there is virtually no reason to ever use this attack. It sucks.

 

darth meanie

Smash Journeyman
Joined
Jun 6, 2008
Messages
452
Samurott whips forward with his tail at short-range, dealing 5% damage and little knockback. A very straight-forward attack, there is virtually no reason to ever use this attack. It sucks.

(More coming tomorrow, I'm already too tired today T_T)
May I recommend saving your progress in a word file or in a private conversation and coming back to it later when you get to this point?
 

BridgesWithTurtles

Smash Champion
Joined
Apr 18, 2013
Messages
2,172
Location
The long road to nowhere
3DS FC
3523-2059-7939
Zoboomafoo


While walking in the woods one day, Chris and Martin saw something strange: a little leaping lemur who liked to bounce and play. This was Zoboomafoo, a Coquerel's sifaka. Portrayed by a live lemur, a poorly-crafted puppet, a traditionally-animated cartoon character, and a clay figure all in the 22-minute span of every episode of his self-titled show, Zoboomafoo, or Zoboo for short, interacted with Chris and Martin Kratt, two brothers who work as zoologists and nature television hosts. Zoboomafoo was a normal lemur under most circumstances. However, after being fed from the Kratts' animal food machine, he'd be “coaxed” into talking, providing his unenlightened input on the large catalogue of animals that wandered into Animal Junction, the setting of the series. Learning from all of the various animal friends he met, Zoboo learned fantastic facts about the natural world, and that despite all of the differences between creatures, we're really all the same.

While Zoboomafoo isn't a natural fighter and certainly doesn't appear to have a violent bone in his body, his natural energy, inquisitive playfulness, and boundless primate athleticism bestow him with natural physical prowess that lend themselves well to combat. He comes leaping into Smash Bros. with an enthusiastic curiosity about other creatures and a playful attitude, which feature in his moveset.

Statistics
Size ~ 3
Weight ~ 2
Jumping ~ 9
Ground Speed ~ 6
Traction ~ 6
Air Speed ~ 10
Fall Speed ~ 8

Being a lemur, Zoboo is most comfortable with arboreal locomotion, and there's no doubt that he'd be the most mobile fighter in the cast if all matches took place in trees. Unfortunately for the little lemur, that's not the case. However, sifaka lemurs are also excellent leapers. In fact, it's probably the activity that Zoboo enjoys the most, and it grants him the ability to wall-jump and wall-cling, in addition to his natural ability to crawl. Zoboo can even wall-climb! Because his hind legs are developed for powerful jumps, he functions well in the air, and glides through it with ease. His bounding expertise and air speed also bestow him astounding jump length, being able to clear 1/3 of Final Destination with a short-hop; his jump height, while decent, is more lacking. His dash speed isn't the greatest, but it's effective enough to get him out of tight spaces, though he should be relying on jumps for that anyway.
Being an 8-pound lemur lends itself to a weight problem for Zoboo, and his small frame can make approaching difficult. This, of course, should be kept in mind while playing.

Zoboo's Wall-Climbing

The wall-climb is a simple yet significant technique that Zoboo can make use of. While wall-clinging, pressing upward on the joystick causes the lemur to quickly scramble a short distance up the surface, just as he'd climb a tree. However, we all knows walls aren't trees, and their fine surfaces are difficult to cling to. This limits Zoboo's ability to climb indefinitely. After a short scramble only the length of Ganondorf's aerial Flame Choke, Zoboo begins to fall. As such, the wall-climb is not to be abused as an instant savior from death, but is to be appreciated as a small boost to possibly help Zoboo recover should he need just a short distance more, reasoning that becomes apparent after seeing his recovery move. More importantly, it serves as a way to quickly dodge attacks.
Zoboo can also lower himself by pressing downward on the joystick. This causes the lemur to slide the same length down the wall before dropping.

Animations

Idle Stance
Zoboo stands hunched over, arms out in front of him and his knees pointed outward, legs curled. It's a standard way for tree-dwelling primates to keep themselves balanced on a perch or the unsuitably flat ground. Always full of restless energy, he sways back and forth, his tail wiggling around in excitement.
Crouch
Squats down, knees bent, arms held out at his sides. He instinctively swipes his head to scout in front of and behind himself.
Crawl
Zoboo gets down onto his stomach, and crawls by reaching out his right arm to pitch his claws into the ground, then pulling himself forward with his left arm. He applies his tree-climbing prowess to “climb” the ground.
Walk
Zoboo, standing up bipedally, curiously inches forward, shambling sideways, with one leg in front of the other and his front or back facing the screen. He holds up both arms, one in front of himself and the other at his side, which helps him keep balance.
Dash
Putting his great leaping skills to practice, Zoboo bounds forward, hopping off of the ground every time he lands. Leaning forward slightly like a kangaroo, Zoboo kicks off of the ground, raising his arms while in the air and lowering them when touching down. Zoboo actually bounces high enough with each leap that low-flying projectiles (such as Kirby's Final Cutter) and low-sweeping attacks (such as Marth's Down Tilt) can be evaded. While Zoboo's leaping along, he makes sure to make note of this, by constantly repeating “Leap, leap, leap, leap...”
Jump
When jumping straight upward, Zoboo raises his arms and thrusts off of his legs. When jumping backwards, Zoboo turns to the side, holding his arms together, and kicks off of the ground with much force, legs held out straight in front of him. While jumping forward, the lemur leans forward, holding his arms up beside his head, and kicks with great force, legs straight behind him. As he flies forward, he brings his legs forward, bending his knees at his sides, legs curled and feet facing forward.
Aerial Jump
When jumping upward or forward, Zoboomafoo raises his arms and brings his legs apart to push himself ever higher, though his vertical jump distance, while above average, doesn't match his horizontal distance. While jumping backward, he turns around, arms held together at his neck and knees bent.
Shield
Bends his knees slightly, tail sticking up along his back. He places both paws over his head, with one hand covering the top of his head and the other over his snout, blocking his face.
Sidestep
Quickly leaps backward into the background, then returns to the foreground.
Roll
Somersaults forward, paws protecting his face. When rolling backward, the lemur bounds backward by kicking off of the ground with both legs. Has distance to rival Lucario's roll.
Air Dodge
Holding his arms together at his neck, Zoboo twirls around horizontally. He lets out his signature “Woo-ah-ha!” laugh, in excitement at possibly dodging a fatal attack.
Helpless Fall
Like any poor lemur that fails to grab a branch while swinging, poor Zoboo falls back-first, limbs held upward, frantically grasping for something to hold onto.
Edgehang
Zoboo holds onto the edge of the stage with both arms, fingers curled over the rim. He also grasps the bottom of the ledge with his feet, legs curled to provide ample support.
Wall-Cling
Zoboo clings to the wall in typical sifaka fashion, body pressed against the wall, and both hands and feet pressing against it. He holds one arm above his head and the other out beside him, and looks backward, face suspicious of attack.
Wall-Jump
Kicks off of the wall with one leg, arms held outward as if ready to grab onto the next tree branch.
Trip
Failing to make a successful leap, he tumbles forward. Sitting with legs crossed, Zoboo's head dizzily sways, and he scratches his scalp with one arm.
Sleep
Zoboomafoo sleeps by sitting, knees bent and arms resting atop them. He snores, rising his head with each exhale. Immediately upon being put to sleep, Zoboo utters the repetitive phrase: “Sleep, sleep, sleep...”

Special Moves
Neutral Special – Gooble Berry
In the magical world of Zobooland, Zoboomafoo lives with his colorful cast of friends. One such friend is Gooble, who absolutely adores Gooble Berries, sweet fruits that also happen to be a token favorite food for Zoboo himself. Gooble Berries are bouncy and make excellent balls; one of Zoboo's friends, Narchi, has a favorite pastimes of playing catch with them.
Zoboomafo makes use of these berries by tossing them as a projectile. He throws one fist-sized berry at a time, which bounces almost exactly like the fireballs of Super Mario Bros., or a tennis ball. It hops as high as Kirby's height, so smaller characters can duck underneath this projectile. The purple fruit bounces forward at the speed of Pikachu's Thunderjolt until it either hits an enemy or obstacle, bounces off a ledge, or hits the ground 6 times (it will then splatter on the ground and disappear). Another berry cannot be thrown until the last one thrown disappears.
When they hit an opponent, berries splatter, bursting into a mess of pulp and juice. They deal 8% damage and no knockback. However, they have excellent stun, delivering a slight recoil to those they hit. This makes them an ever-present threat, in consideration of their travel speed and pattern of flight.
Up Special – Cling n' Swing
As a lemur, Zoboomafoo loves to swing. Vines, ropes, the show's logo, you name it. When this move is used in the air, a vine appears in Zoboo's hand, running to the top of the screen. The vine swings forward as soon as it comes out, with Zoboo clinging to it near its bottom with all limbs. Moving the length of 3 Bowsers, the vine reaches the end of its swing, and Zoboo lets go, falling from that point as the vine vanishes in a semi-helpless state (much like Sonic). If Zob sweetspots a ledge, however, the move instantly cancels and he doesn't fall. The vine is essentially intangible, as players pass right through it and it lacks a hitbox, but the move can be canceled by opponents who attack the vine with a physical move, sending Zoboo into helpless fall. Three actions can be taken during the short duration of this move.
By pressing upward or downward on the joystick, Zoboo will climb or descend the vine for as long as the input is held. Since Zoboo clings to the bottom of the vine by default, holding down will cause him to drop straight down from the vine, essentially canceling the move, though the vine will continue to swing forward until it reaches the end of its swing before disappearing. Zoboo can also climb up the vine, which allows him to gain vertical height from this recovery. However, there is not enough time for Zoboo to climb more than 5 character spaces up the vine, and the choice to increase vertical recovery comes with a cost: the higher up on the vine Zoboo is, the less horizontal distance he travels, as a simple rule of physics.
Pressing the attack button during this recovery causes Zoboo to jump off of the vine prematurely, all four limbs held out in front of him. While he treats the jump as an innocent thrill, his bared claws are capable of damaging an opponent. 6% damage is dealt to those Zoboo jumps into, and this attack's frames linger for one second, after which he enters helpless fall. Little knockback is given, but this move is capable of killing at the high damage of 230%. This jump has overall high priority, but punishable landing lag.
Pressing the special move button during this move will cause Zoboo to perform his Neutral Special as normal, tossing a Gooble Berry. While the projectile can hit an enemy at point-blank range, its main advantage is the ability to be used as an approach tool while approaching. Otherwise, the Gooble Berries function as they do normally.
When used on the ground, this move varies a bit. Zoboo climbs up a vine that spawns from the top of the screen as normal, but ends just above the ground where Zoboo was standing. Zoboo is then free to climb up and down the vine as he pleases, and can perform any action he can while using the recovery version of this move. Zoboo can cause the vine to vanish and cancel this move by shielding. Opponents can force this move to end by attacking the vine with a physical move, just like with the aerial version, causing Zoboo to helpless fall.
Side Special – Kratts' Closet
Chris and Martin have a pretty large closet, which holds all of the gear they need for their adventures in the field. Haphazardly, the brothers spend more time exploring than they do organizing. Their closet is a complete mess, and every time they decide to gear up, they're met with an avalanche of junk that buries them in their own filth. And Zoboomafoo, well, he knows it.
He's seen it so many times before, he'd be crazy to not consider using it to his advantage in combat. When this move is used, Zaboo spawns a large closet unit, about two Bowsers in height and 1 character space thick, in front of him, with the front facing forward. Instantly appearing clinging to the front of the closet, he pulls open the door, releasing a barrage of random gear (more than could logically fit in the downsized container) from its confines, and the closet disappears. A direct hit deals 28% damage and above-average knockback, killing around 140%. This move functions the same way on the ground and in the air.
This move comes out with a bit of startup, as Zoboo takes about one second to pull open the door. Spilling out a bunch of random gear that act as a single, large, irregularly-shaped hitbox, this attack provides a wide-reaching attack that leaves Zoboo completely safe from the front. On the other hand, however, its slow startup makes it easily telegraphed and punishable in its early frames, so it's not the best attack to just throw out on a whim.
In addition to its initial hitbox, Kratts' Closet leaves behind 3 to 5 pieces of gear after the mass of trash dissolves along with the closet itself. This gear can be anything from scuba flippers to canteens or first-aid kits. They can all be picked up like any normal item and tossed as projectiles, each with varying strength. Like Samus' armor pieces, they disappear more quickly than normal items.
Inflatable Inner Tube – 5% damage; kills at 210%
Scuba Flipper – 8% damage; kills at 180%
Canteen – 12% damage; kills at 150%
Bicycle Helmet – 16% damage; kills at 135%
Kayak Oar – 20% damage; kills at 125%
First-Aid Kit – 15% damage; kills at 115%
Spade – 25% damage; kills at 110%
All leftover gear must be disposed of before the special move can be used again.
Down Special – I Feel Smashish!
Zob, always curious about animals, finds that the best way to understand a creature and really put himself into its shoes is by imitating their behavior. That means, always after exclaiming “I feel (insert animal's name here)-ish!”, copying their movement patterns and behavior. For example, when trying to imitate an elephant, he'd say “I feel elephantish!”. This move sees Zoboo trying to put himself into the perspective of his fellow Smash combatants.
Using this move makes Zoboo look straight forward, eyes glinting. If an enemy is within his eyesight (about 3 character spaces), the lemur backflips and claps his hands triumphantly, shouting “I feel (insert fighter name here)-ish!”. After this point, Zoboomafoo takes on the movement of that character.
This completely replaces Zob's dashing animation and properties, including traction. By imitating the movement of another character, the player can cleverly pick an alteration that better compliments their game plan or attack patterns. For example, if the player is having trouble landing their dash attack or reverse grab, they could copy Sonic's dash, giving them increased speed. Contrarily, if the player wants to slow down to land some of Zob's more erratic attacks, imitating Ganondorf would be an option as well.
Now, Zoboo isn't the most dedicated role-player out there, and he gets over the rush of meeting a new creature pretty quickly, so this effect doesn't last forever. It's not meant to be the catalyst for a long-term statistical alteration, but rather a simple aid in three areas: mobility, attack-landing, and mixups to mess with the opponent's head, but all in the short-term. The lemur's fighterishness wears off after 25 second periods, though he can of course change his preference at any time during this window by using Down Special again. If Zoboo is KO'd while feeling fighter-ish, he respawns under a fresh slate.
Standard Moves
Jab – Toothbrush
Zob finds toothbrushes rather interesting, and has taken eagerly to giving his elephant friend, Toothbrush, bristly backrubs with the instrument. Of course, since elephants are so large, he needs a big toothbrush to do the job. For this move, Zoboo procures a large, 3-foot-long red toothbrush, and, jutting it straight out, begins pushing and pulling the tool back and forth so long as the attack button is held. Since none of the Smash fighters are elephant-sized, this large brush is a little too much for them. Players hit by the head of brush are scraped with sharp bristles, and lightly tugged back and forth with the movement of the brush. While not difficult to DI out of, this move can usually secure about 18% of damage, with 2% damage done with each stroke. The neck of the brush is a sourspot that only deals 1% damage and minimal stun. The length of the brush offers great poking ability and spacing, but end lag resulting from Zob putting the brush back away makes this move not entirely safe upon block, and a sourspotted hit leaves Zoboo no time to escape a counter-attack.
Ledge Attack – Lemur Lunge
Zob energetically uses his forearms to push himself up over the ledge and 3 inches into the air for a front-flip, letting out his signature laugh. While a low-range move with relatively low damage output, Zob's tail widens this move's hitbox significantly during the spin, dealing low knockback and 2% damage, with a slight increase in knockback and power (3% damage) if the tip of his tail sweetspots. Zob's body is a smaller hitbox with a slight increase in damage output, at 4% damage.
Ledge Attack (Strong) – Feeling Batish
A unique ledge attack that offers up some usefulness in mind games. Zoboo, feeling batish and saying so, swings back underneath the ledge, hanging from the tip with all limbs, almost like a bat. This provides a stall in the attack that other ledge attacks lack. Zob then swings upward quickly, extending all limbs like a bat in flight, dealing 5-6% damage and low knockback. Woo-ah-ha!
Floor Attack – Lemur Loop
Zoboo quickly recovers from his fall, quickly spinning horizontally in a blur of black and white. His extended tail provides some interesting range on this move, whipping foes for 2% damage, or 3% and moderate sting from a tipped sweetspot. Zoboo's body itself deals 4% damage.
Floor Attack (Strong) – Feeling Snakeish
Zoboo, feeling a bit snakeish, restlessly spins around horizontally three times in a quick loop, as if uncoiling himself, providing three hitboxes; one for each turn, though they don't link. A moderate knockback attack that comes out quickly but has a bit of end lag. 6% damage is dealt from one hit. While using this move, he shouts: “I feel snakeish!”
Dash Attack – Feeling Cowish
Zoboo, imitating a bovine, holds his head down and forward, pointing his index fingers out beside his head to mimic horns. Instantaneously, he dashes forward two character spaces, ramming with his imaginary horns and shouting “I feel cowish!”. Pushes enemies a short distance forward, and has a bit of end lag. Unsafe on block, but Zoboo can jump cancel out of this move in its starting frames. It can also be used in a DACUS in conjunction with Up Smash.
Forward Tilt – Feeling Elephantish
Zob stands firmly, and puts one arm in front of his snout like an elephant's trunk, saying that he feels “elephantish!”. He quickly leans forward on his front leg, exaggeratingly flipping his arm downward like an elephant trunk (dealing 6%), then leans backward on his back leg, flipping his arm upward (dealing 7%). The second hit knocks foes upward, allowing for setups at lower percents, such as a wavebounced Gooble Berry. A fast attack with two separate, linking hitboxes, though the first hit can be DI'd out of past 50%.
Up Tilt – Feeling Flying Squirrelish
Facing the screen, Zoboo, bursting with excitement in the thrill of combat, hops up 3 inches into the air, legs spread and arms outstretched, similarly to a flying squirrel, which he shouts he feels like. This creates an interesting hitbox, with Zob's rising legs, lowering arms, and upward-thrusting head all provide damage (5% from his limbs and 8% from his head). Foes hit by one of Zob's limbs are sent a short distance diagonally upward in the direction opposite of Zob's side. Headbutted enemies are sent a short distance upward. Some end lag withholds this move from becoming spammable, but it can link at low percentages. Attacks aimed low are able to be avoided through precise use of this move's timing.
Down Tilt – Feeling Coati-ish
Mimicking his digging friends, the coati, Zoboo kneels low and paws at the ground with both arms in an alternating pattern. Opponents hit in front of Zoboo's claws are tripped, while those directly contacting his hands are sent behind Zoboo as he shovels dirt behind him. While this attack has a bit of end lag, if the opponent does not DI correctly, Zob can quickly turn and attack, possibly landing Kratts' Closet. A distanced hit deals 7% damage, while a direct hit deals 12%.
Forward Smash – Feeling Kangarooish
Zob lets us know he's feeling very much like a kangaroo and, reeling back while supporting himself with his hands, kicks both legs forward forcefully. Has a .50-second startup, but unleashes the attack frames quickly. This move has an unorthodox property in that rather than knock the opponent through the air, those who are hit slide along the ground, with their distance determined by that character's weight and traction, as well as by their percentage and the charge time of this attack. This move can be dangerous at high percentages, as it may cause opponents to quickly slide off of a ledge and fly in a downward angle. Deals 11% uncharged and 20% fully charged.
Up Smash – Narchi
This attack summons Narchi, one of Zob's friends from Zobooland. .30 seconds after appearing, Narchi, with his trumpet-like nose pointed straight upward, uses his schnoz to blow a Gooble Berry straight upward, with distance determined by charge time. The Gooble Berry is launched at the speed of Pit's arrows, flying straight up and either colliding with a hurtbox or falling back down to the ground at half its rise speed, splattering on the ground (or an unsuspecting opponent's head).
A Gooble Berry from Narchi has more sting than one simply thrown by Zoboo, and kills at about 180%. Uncharged, this attack deals 10% damage and travels 3 character spaces upward before falling. Damage output and distance are increased to 17% and 10 character spaces when fully charged. Damage output is lessened by one percent and knockback is lowered significantly from a falling berry. This move serves as Zob's key anti-air attack and can also be used to KO, especially off the top of the screen. Coupled with thrown berries, it can be an effective pressuring tool, especially when used in a DACUS.
Down Smash – Noggindrill
Zoboo summons Noggindrill, another friend from Zobooland, in front of him, facing the screen. .40-seconds after spawning, Noggindrill flips upside down and spins, burrowing into the stage. If used on a platform, Noggindrill passes right through it and continues into the stage. Zob hangs onto Nogg, who pulls him into the stage for .60-seconds before popping back out before disappearing (if Zob is attacked during these frames, the attack is canceled). During both his entrance and exit from the ground, Nogg acts as a hitbox, and during the first part of the attack, his spinning body has unique properties that reflect projectiles and launch foes at an upward angle. During the second part of the attack, Nogg's pointed head spears opponents straight upward. An uncharged attack deals 10% on the first hit and 13% on the second, while a fully charged attack deals 15% on the first hit and 22% on the second.
Noggindrill's purpose is to be used as a tool of evasion and reflection, and for launching foes away to a safe distance, not KO'ing them.
Neutral Aerial - Tailspin
“Woo-ha-haa!” Zob excitedly performs a backflip thrice in one fluid motion. His extended tail greatly improves the range of this move. Unlike similar moves in his repertoire, the tail part of this attack deals no knockback and only the most minuscule of stun, hitting thrice for up to 6% damage. If the tip of the tail sweetspots, however, the opponent is whipped away in whatever direction the tail was traveling when it connected. Zob's body itself has average knockback with 8% damage. The attack has some sour landing lag.
Forward Aerial – Monkey Bars
A rope-fashioned set of monkey bars, a favorite structure of Zob's from Animal Junction, spawns above the lemur (somehow supporting itself in midair), who grabs on and instantly begins moving along them, with his legs curled up against his body and his feet held forward. With his legs held out like this, Zob's claws provide a weak hitbox that pushes enemies he climbs into a short distance forward and deals 6-7% damage. There are four“bars” in this set of monkey bars, which each corresponding to one character space. After traveling this short distance, Zob drops off. Paired with Cling N' Swing, this provides Zob with excellent horizontal mobility.
During the 1.5 seconds that this move is active, the monkey bars serve as a platform for other players. Zoboomafoo can only use this move once before landing.
Back Aerial – Rope Swing
A short rope, 4 character spaces in length, spawns in Zob's arms, hanging from seemingly nothing. Clinging to the rope with all limbs, the lemur sways backward, swinging the rope in the direction opposite that which he was facing. The sudden force from the jerking of the rope turns Zoboo's body into a hitbox, smacking foes away with decent knockback, killing at 160%. This moves the player 1 character space, and after the short swing, Zob lets go of the rope, which disappears, and falls. Deals 12-13% damage and has a cooldown amounting to 1 second.
Up Aerial – Lemur Lunge
Zoboo spreads all of his limbs, taking on a pose similar to a skydiver, and jerks upwards into the air one character space. This move lacks a hitbox; rather than an attack, it is used to add to Zob's catalogue of maneuverability options. Cooldown on this move is a lengthy 1.2 seconds, preventing infinite stalling in midair; out of a full double jump, Zob can fit only 3 uses of this move before landing.
Used in conjunction with normal air-dodging, Zob becomes a reliably difficult target to attack in the air, somewhat ameliorating his vulnerability on the ground.
Down Aerial – Rope Slide
Similar to his Back Aerial, Zob spawns a rope of equivalent proportions, holding onto the structure as he quickly slides down its short length, rapidly spinning around its circumference. Zob's entire body acts as a hitbox, with a slight vacuum effect. Dealing 12% damage, this move acts a shifter, moving opponents upward to the top of the rope while Zob descends to its bottom. A high cooldown period separates this move from a reuse by 1 second.
Grab Game
Grab – Super Claws
Zob's Super Claws, an accessory created by the Kratts that augments the strength and dexterity of his normal claws, are equipped while he grabs. Leaning forward very slightly, Zoboo attempts to grab down with both arms. This is a rather short-ranged, clumsy, and slow grab, though its pivot version is much faster, albeit with an improved, though still low range problem.
Pummel – Tooth Comb
Lemurs have tooth combs in their lower jaws, a bar of joined, pointed teeth used in grooming one another. Zoboo learned about this application from the Kratts, and uses his tooth comb to scrape the player's scalp, grooming their hair (or where their hair would be). Adds 1-2% per hit, and is relatively fast for a pummel.
Forward Throw – Swing Kick
A short rope spawns in Zob's hands, and he swings forward, kicking the enemy in the way. This pushes the opponent forward with Zob, but after moving 3 character spaces, he lets go of the rope, and the enemy is released, sent forward with 9% damage. While this throw can KO near the edge of the screen, it is also useful as a form of mobility, as it moves Zob almost as much as the grabbed opponent.
Back Throw – Slimantha
Zob's friend, Slimantha, a slippery herptile, spawns behind Zob and, using her slimey feet, slides along the ground behind Zob before stopping 1/5 the length of Final Destination and disappearing. Acting as a hitbox while sliding, Slimantha deals very low knockback and 5% damage to opponents she might contact. This process takes .70 seconds. Slimantha's slimey feet leave behind a slippery trail that Zob playfully “skates” across, still holding onto the opponent. At the end of the trail, Zob slips and tumbles forward, releasing the opponent, who is sent flying. A better kill move than Forward Throw, killing at 130% on most stages. This is also an alternative way for Zob to move around, though the slip at the end and the startup time make this option a risky one in hectic situations.
Up Throw – Vine Flip
A sloping vine, roughly U-shaped and somehow suspended in thin air, spawns above Zob, who hops up and hangs on with his legs, holding the opponent in his arms. Gymnastically spinning upon the vine once, Zoboo lets go of the held foe at the height of his swing, launching them into the air. This throw deals 13% and kills at 170%.
If the player inputs a jump command at the height of his swing, Zob sends himself spiraling into the air along with his thrown opponent, reaching a height of 4 characters spaces and performing a showcase of rapid backflips. During this maneuver, Zoboo can slightly alter the trajectory of his landing.
Down Throw – Duck!
Zoboo always knows to duck when a delivery bird brings a letter, though when the bird actually ends up being an actual duck, it's a special ocassion indeed. This throw's input causes Zoboo to release his hold on the opponent and shout “Duck!”. A bird, randomly generated from several varieties, appears in the air 4 characters spaces above and behind Zoboo, swooping downward to fly into Zoboo, possibly dealing damage. If the player crouches, however, Zoboo will duck, causing the bird to swoop just over his head and fly upward into the enemy, knocking them upward a short distance. The bird flies through the opponent and continues upward at an incline until it leaves the screen, acting as a hitbox the entire time. Different birds have different effectiveness.
Falcon – 10% damage; flies most quickly
Vulture – 12% damage; flies most slowly
Barn Owl – 8% damage; moderate speed
Duck – 20% damage; improved knockback
The first three bird varieties have a 30% chance of appearing, with the duck appearing 10% of the time.
Final Smash
Baby Zoboomafoosaurus
A friend from Zobooland, Baby Zoboomafoosaurus appears on-screen, sized at about half of Groudon's frame, whining in his Barney Gumble-like voice about being hungry and wanting his mommy. Zoboo, as usual, takes it upon himself to placate the infant dinosaur. By tossing Gooble Berries, the player causes Baby Zoboomafoosaurs to gleefully charge in the direction of the fruit, plowing through any other players in the way and dealing 25% damage. BZ is essentially one giant hitbox, and can deal more knockback than normal by hitting enemies with its tail when it turns around. By shooting berries into the air with Up Smash, the player can also get the dino to jump into the air, preventing opponents from simply air-camping to avoid the Final Smash. While the dinosaur's legs often aren't enough to net it a berry bouncing away at twice its speed, it is still possible for it to reach a berry (the player can always through a berry AT the baby). When it does reach a berry, Baby Zoboomafoosaurus gives a big chomp, swallowing the treat whole. Players hit by this large bite are dealt more damage than if they had just been charged (50%), and suffer very high knockback. This Final Smash lasts for about 15 seconds.
Extras
Entrance
A digitized rotoscoping of a real Coquerel's sifaka hops onto the stage from off-screen, and while chewing on a piece of mango, spins around like a record, shouting “Zo-boo-mafoooooo!”. The rotoscoped lemur emerges from the blurred spinning as the recognizable Zoboomafoo puppet.
Up Taunt
Turning to face the screen, Zob's eyes widen as he enthusiastically utters his catchphrase, “Mangatsika!” Zoboo uses this Malagasy word for “cold” as a euphemism for “cool!”
Side Taunt
Zob stands bow-legged, tail drooping. Scratching the back of his head with one arm, he exasperatingly mutters “I meant to do that.”
Down Taunt
Zoboo, turning his neck to view the screen, restlessly jerks his neck back to the action, and hops once in glee. “Woo-hah!”
Victory 1
Zob sticks both arms out, swaying them in a circle in front of himself while he shakes his head in a frantic victory dance.
Victory 2
Zoboo quizzically looks at the camera, eyes wide in disbelief at seeing his own victory. "Leapin' lemurs!" he utters to the players, "I can't believe my mind!”
Victory 3
Zoboo tries to procure food from the chute of Animal Junction's Food Machine, suspended in midair. As usual, the machine is jammed, and after sticking his face up the chute to try and see if he can see anything, a surplus of food falls through the dispensary and into Zob's face, knocking him on his back and burying him in a stream of food coming from the machine.
Codec Conversation
Snake: This is some kind of animal. What'dyou call this thing?
Otacon: An animal?
Snake: Who could it be, this animal who I did see? Can you help me guess this mystery?
Otacon: Uh...sure. Describe it for me, and I'll try and find out what it is.
Snake: Well, it has a furry body, with long legs and a spindly tail. I wanna say I know the name, but I'm drawing a blank.
Otacon: Long legs and a spindly tail. Are there any others details?
Snake: Yeah, it's got dark fur surrounding white fur. Big eyes on the front of its face, and a short snout.
Otacon: Who could it be?
Snake: Do you know who it is?
Otacon: Oh! I know! It's a lemur! And that lemur's name is Zoboomafoo.
Snake: Zoboomafoo?
Otacon: Yes! Zoboomafoo! He's a great leaper, and he puts that to his advantage to try and separate himself and pick off his opponents from a distance. Lemurs aren't the most capable of fighters, so they have to rely on their agility and their wits.
Snake: Well then, it looks like it's just me, and you, and Zoboomafoo.
Playstyle
So, what do we know about Zoboomafoo? We've established that he's most at home in the air, a domain closer to his arboreal home than the ground. While he's not entirely ineffective fighting on the ground, Zoboo is set back by some underwhelming startup and end frames on many ground moves, which also trend toward being easily punished out of a shield. While not incredibly handicapped on the ground, Zob has all the more reason to be in the air as much as possible, as it gives him not only his best approach options (a short-hopped or wavebounced Gooble Berry is a lot more reliable than one tossed from the ground, for example), but his best spacing options. The key word with Zob is actually a surprising one: annoyance.
Zoboo is all about annoyance. Gooble Berries, while small, can occupy quite a bit of space, as there can be several in play at once thanks to Neutral Special and Up Smash. Because Zob can also throw berries while approaching or camping in midair with Up Special he can put an astouding amount of pressure on opponents. He can safely approach while attacking, or back off and bait/harass opponents from his grounded Up Special. Kratts' Closet is a constant threat that can be difficult to see coming, and can be deceptive to dodge while dealing with the pressures of Gooble Berries, which should always be on the field and active for maximum pressure, as they're essentially on par with Mario's Fireballs and Falco's lasers as approaching, interference, and annoyance tools. Because Zob spends the majority of his time spacing, mixing in a close-range Kratts' Closet every so often can be very successful at taking opponents by surprise.
But Zoboo isn't just annoying in terms of approaches and spacing; he's also a frustrating survivalist, making use of a repertoire of great distance-hopping motions that propel him in all directions. Mixing up different movement patterns – downward with Down Air, upwards with Up Air (especially great in conjunction with air dodging), forward with Forward Air – can be very helpful in dodging attacks, and projectiles in particular. Noggindrill gives Zoboo a quick escape while on the ground as well, in addition to doubling as an attack. Coupled with various moves that allow Zob to leap over attacks, including his own dash, it becomes clear to see that the character truly has quite a few options that allow him to negate his foe's attempts to deal damage. Mixing up attacks and movement techniques – and the line between the two is often blurred – is essential for making Zob such a potent mix-up fighter. Zoboo can augment his maneuverability with his Down Special move, giving him new options to mix up his DACUS' characteristics and outperform his opponents movement-wise. Bluntly stated, Zoboo is a character specifically designed to be annoying, constantly avoiding attacks and pestering his opponent from afar with his own spacing tools; it's not really his fault, it's just an effective combination of natural lemur behavior and his own playfulness. Lemurs aren't that big and strong; they rely on speed and outmaneuvering to wear their aggressors out.
It may sound moronic, but Zoboomafoo's voice aids to his playstyle, even if very slightly. The motormouth protosimian is almost constantly yapping away. Over the course of a long match (and Zob tends to make matches long), while it may sound ludicrous, there are only a certain amount of “Woo-ah-has,” “mangatsikas,” and utterances of feeling animalish that most players can take before they want to rip Zob's high-pitched vocal chords from his throat. In concert with his actual moves and playstyle, his voice can possibly serve as the straw to break the proverbial camel's back, and send his opponent into a rage consisting of an inability to overcome pressure and a thought-process consisting of vengeful offense in place of real technique.
That's not to say that Zob can't be put into tight spots himself; his underwhelming vertical movement and horizontally-focused recovery options make playing off-stage dangerous for him. Up Special can be canceled by opponents, and since Zoboomafoo's recovery options are rather limited in pattern, it doesn't take much foresight for a foe to easily gimp the lemur. Being knocked below the stage is especially troublesome for Zob, who has only a small opportunity at moving himself upward. Aside from Up Smash, Zob also has trouble with anti-air, and is very vulnerable from above, which is why using a grounded Up Special is so crucial, to get above the opponent. Since Up Air lacks a hitbox, Zoboomafoo can be easily meteor smashed or spiked if he allows his opponents to do so. While he can go toe-to-toe with opponents and win while airborne, it's another story entirely for those who are still able to dominate the air more than he can. While Zoboo is a bit lacking in some areas, just like every creature, he's got his own strengths that certainly compensate for his weaknesses.
 

Knight Dude

Keeping it going.
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I think I might try a Pokemon moveset soon myself, that is if I'm allowed to make more than one per thread.
 

Knight Dude

Keeping it going.
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Ok, for my second moveset, Blaziken:


I'll add Air moves, Throws, and the Final Smash a bit later.

Playstyle Idea: Blaziken's playstyle should be very rush-down oriented. Alot of his moves focus on closing in on your opponents and out speeding them. Speaking of speed, Blaziken would be one of the faster characters both on the ground and in mid-air. However the biggest drawback that Blaziken suffers from is the range department. He only has one long range attack, and said long range attack isn't exactly the best projectile you can imagine. When it comes to raw power, Blaziken is no slouch in that regard either, but still mostly relies on speed to win most fights.

Stats:
Ground Speed 8/10: Blaziken, like most Fire Pokemon, are mostly use speed to their advantage, so it would make sense that Blaziken is fast.

Air Speed 7/10: Blaziken is still pretty fast in the air but is much more reliable on the ground.

Jump Height 7/10: Blaziken's are supposed to have legs that are so strong that they can leap over buildings, so having above average jumping height could be a reference to that.

Fall Speed: 5/10: Given it's average size, Blaziken should fall about as fast as any other average sized character.

Traction: 4/10: Blaziken won't stop on a dime after running, rather he'll slide for a bit like Luigi does.

Weight: 5/10: Compared to most final form Pokemon, Blaziken is bit skinnier than most, weighing about as much a normal human might.

Size: 5/10: Again, compared to other final form Pokemon, Blaziken is is much more humanoid than they are. His size should reflect that.

A moves

AAA: Scratch Combo: A basic, fast, but weak combo attack. Blaziken claws at the enemy with its left arm slashing downward, then its right arm slashing upward, than Blaziken kicks downward with the claw on its left foot. This move should have very, little knockback, but is very fast. The first two attacks deal 3% damage and the last deals 5% damage, for a total of 11% damage if all attacks were landed. This basic combo is mostly good one of two things. The first being that you can either chain alot of moves into it, or use it as a follow-up from another attack. The second advantage of this attack is that it can rack up damage leading into a finisher.

Forward + A: Peck: This attack has Blaziken reel its head back and headbutt beak-first into the opponent. Peck only does 4% damage and has little knockback. But its a very fast attack, that can be used after the Scratch Combo very easily. Peck can also be used as a means of poking the opponent quickly.

Up + A: Aerial Ace: Aerial Ace's main advantage is that its Blaziken's fastest ground move. The attack itself has Blaziken slashes its right arm above itself, leaving a streak of blue energy, while at the same time, slashing upwards again with its left arm leaving a streak of red energy. Aerial Ace deals 10% damage and has decent vertical knockback.

Down + A: Low Kick: Blaziken ducks down and kicks straight in front of itself. Like most of Blaziken's attacks it very quick. However it packs a bit of a punch too dealing 12% damage on contact. But Low Kick has no knockback, instead Low Kick has a 10% chance of making the opponent trip. If the opponents trip, you can follow up with a many different attacks, including B-moves.

Dash + A: Hi-Jump Kick: While running, Blaziken will thrust its leg at the opponent and deal 13% damage on contact. Hi-Jump Kick has a pretty good horizontal knockback, so much so that you can K.O. with it if you opponent has enough damage dealt to it. Hi-Jump Kick should work in a similar manner to Fox's Dash attack but with less speed and a lot more power.

Smash Attacks

Forward + Smash: Fire Punch: While charging, Blaziken holds its hand behind itself while said hand glows slowly, upon release Blaziken's fist is lit on fire and Blaziken quickly punches the opponent, the fire explodes on contact. Uncharged, this attack deals 14%while fully charged deals 28% damage. Fire Punch can be used to the best of its abilities for landing horizontal KO's. It should be noted that the longer the attack is charged the larger the explosion will be once Blaziken actually hits something.

Up + Smash: Double Kick: Double Kick does exactly what you think it would do. Blaziken kicks upward quickly with its right leg and the follows right after with is left leg. What's different about Double Kick is that the first kick has a slight vortex factor to it. This means that the first kick will bring enemies closer to Blaziken to help make sure the second kick lands. Double Kick can quickly help you land vertical KO's on unaware opponents. When uncharged, the first both kicks deal 7% damage, leading to a total of 14% damage. When Double Kick is fully charged the first kick will still deal 7% damage while the second kick will deal 19% damage, leading to a total of 26% damage.

Down + Smash: Low Sweep: Low Sweep also does what you might think it would do. Blaziken will duck down and unleash a powerful sweeping kick. This is Blaziken's slowest Smash attack but it deals the most damage to make up for it. Uncharged Low Sweep will deal 15% while a fully charged Low Sweep will double that and deal 30% on contact. Low Sweep has no knockback, instead, much like Low Kick, Low Sweep can make the opponent trip. However, one thing that sets Low Sweep apart from Low Kick is that Low Sweep has a 100% chance of tripping. The draw back is that Low Sweep has very slow ending lag, making it near impossible to chain multiple Low Sweeps into one another, the same goes for chaining Low Sweep for any other Smash attacks. But it is still possible to chain Low Sweep with the Scratch Combo or Peck, if you have good timing that is.

B moves

B: Flamethrower: By pressing and holding down the B button, Blaziken will let out a powerful stream of fire from its mouth. the Fire does 3 hits per second with each hit dealing 4% damage. Flamethrower can last for about 3 or 4 seconds until the fire fades away. It takes 2 seconds of recovery for every second of that Flamethrower was used. Unlike Bowser or Charizard, Blaziken aims its Flamethrower forward. The range on Flamethrower should equal that of Link's Hookshot. The main purpose if Flamethrower is to more or less edgeguard, or to rack up damage from a mid-range distance. Blaziken should be standing still while using Flamethrower.

Forward + B: Blaze Kick: By pressing B while holding forward, Blaziken will light its leg on fire and kick forward with great strength. Blaze Kick can act as a solid horizontal KO move. In terms of speed, Blaze Kick is about as fast as Ike's Forward + B, while having the same range as the Falcon Kick. In mid-air Blaziken will still travel straight forward. This makes Blaze Kick a useful option for a horizontal recovery move. Blaze Kick deals 15% damage and has decent horizontal knockback.

Up + B: Sky Uppercut: When Blaziken uses Sky Uppercut, it will clench its fist and perform a powerful rising uppercut, said uppercut will leave a blue streak of energy that engulfs Blaziken's arm. Like most Up + B moves, Sky Uppercut acts as a vertical recovery attack. Sky Uppercut does two solid hits per opponent and when it connects, Sky Uppercut deals 22% damage, with the start up dealing 9% and the hit at the apex of the Sky Uppercut dealing 13%. Sky Uppercut has very good knockback and its one Blaziken's main KO moves. Unlike Luigi, Blaziken's Uppercut does not need to connect at a sweet spot to deal full damage on contact. In terms of vertical range, Sky Uppercut as about as much range as Marth's Up + B.

Down + B: Overheat: Overheat can be an incredibly devastating attack, if used correctly. When holding Down + B, Blaziken's entire body will begin to glow slightly, the longer that you hold Down + B the more Blaziken will glow. If Down or B is released Blaziken will release a powerful ball of fire that surrounds its entire body blasting anything or anyone that touches in the opposite direction they were facing. There are for levels of charge when using Overheat. Level 1 can be used by simply pressing Down + B really quickly, Level 1 Overheat deals 15% damage and has very little knockback. Level 2 can be used by holding the input for 1 second, Overheat Level 2 will now deal 20% damage and has decent knockback. Level 3 Overheat can be used by holding the input for 2 seconds, Overheat Level 3 deals 25% damage and the knockback is increased even more. Level 4 Overheat can be used by holding the input for 3 seconds, Level 4 will deal 30% damage and have the same level of knockback as Luigi's Fire Jump Punch. However, there is one major downside to Overheat, after it's used all of Blaziken's attacks will have the power be by half. The Level of Overheat used, will factor how much time Blaziken's power will be halved. If Level 1 is used, Blaziken's power will be halved for 2 seconds. If Level 2 is used, Blaziken's power will be halved for 5 seconds. If Level 3 is used, Blaziken's power will be halved for 7 seconds. If Level 4 is used, Blaziken's power will be halved for 10 seconds.

Air Attacks

A(in Air): Fire Spin: Blaziken spins it's whole body around rapidly. While spinning, Blaziken will be surrounded by a vortex of fire. Fire Spin is a very fast but a very weak attack. Fire Spin does 5 hits per second and 2% per hit. Fire Spin has a bit of a vortex effect as well, meaning that Fire Spin will suck in enemies. The vortex effect will help keep the enemies closer to extend combos, which is the main advantage of Fire Spin. To extend your combos. Flame Charge has little to no knockback.

Forward+Air: Flame Charge: Blaziken's entire body is covered in fire and then Blaziken dashes at great speed. Flame Charge does one solid hit dealing 14% damage. Flame Charge can act as a good combo finisher. But the biggest drawback of Flame Charge is that its slow. The secondary effect of Flame Charge is that you can recover a bit in midair.

Back+Air: Slash: Blaziken uses the claws on its feet to roundhouse kick the opponent quickly, leaving a streak of yellow energy. Slash deals 11% damage and has decent knockback. The main advantage of Slash is to push the enemy away from you or to land a finishing move in mid-air. Slash is a bit of slower move but it also has decent range. Slash is actually the easiest mid-air attack to cancel into other moves, such as Forward+Air and Down+Air.

Up+Air : Ember: Blaziken throws its arm upward and shoots a small burst of fire at close range. Ember deals 14% damage and has decent knockback. Ember is a slow but powerful air attack, acting as a vertical version of Slash. Ember's hitbox large enough to hit enemies closer to it, knocking them upwards as well.

Down+Air: Crush Claw: Blaziken uses the claws on its leg to slash downward with great force. Crush Claw deals 15% damage and has great knockback. Crush Claw mostly serves as Blaziken's Meteor Smash. Crush Claw can be used to keep the enemy on the ground. This move can also act as a combo finisher.
 

TheKalmarKing

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Mar 7, 2013
Messages
162
I'm such a dork. I didn't even finish my Samurott experiment (Because yes it's pretty much an experiment I'm making) today. I gotta finish that by tomorrow and then get serious about Bad Girl.

Oh and Iron Man 3 is really cool. The Mark 42 armor is kicka**.
 

Rychu

Thane of Smashville
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Jul 5, 2010
Messages
810
3DS FC
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I'm such a dork. I didn't even finish my Samurott experiment (Because yes it's pretty much an experiment I'm making) today. I gotta finish that by tomorrow and then get serious about Bad Girl.

Oh and Iron Man 3 is really cool. The Mark 42 armor is kicka**.
Really happy someone else is taking a crack at Bad Girl! Not sure if you know but earlier in my MYM career I myself did the character, and looking back, I'm not very happy with it. Best of luck with the set (and hey, if there's ever a NMH character you 'd want to collaborate on, I'm your man!)
 

TheKalmarKing

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Mar 7, 2013
Messages
162
Really happy someone else is taking a crack at Bad Girl! Not sure if you know but earlier in my MYM career I myself did the character, and looking back, I'm not very happy with it. Best of luck with the set (and hey, if there's ever a NMH character you 'd want to collaborate on, I'm your man!)
Yeah, I've already read your own Bad Girl and to be honest, I don't like it too... So I kinda hope to do better than you, but we'll see! (Also I'll keep that last part in my head if I ever go back to a NMH character...)
 

JOE!

Smash Hero
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Dedham, MA
MYM14- Reboot
After some time to plan it out, a new challenge has been put forth!
To recap, a Challenge Mini is a weekly Mini event that builds upon itself with each iteration. At the due date of each part, I will collect the entries together and judge them similarly to the rankings various people have done. Judging will be based on things such as creativity, balance, practicality, etc, and each week the submissions will be averaged to create each entrant’s overall score. At the end of the process, the top (two) entries will be put up for the community to vote upon, with the winner receiving glory and a custom avatar/signature from me!​
Now, for the premise of the challenge mini:
STAGE WARFARE
An often neglected feature from MYM, Stages are really a titanic part of Smash Bros that we really should put in the spotlight! They can make or break match ups, determine certain playstyles, and in general shape how you play your character just as much as the character's moveset themselves. So for this challenge we will ultimately be making 3 community stages for our characters to play on:
  • A Small stage for 1 v 1 combat
  • A medium size stage suitable both for 1v1, teams and FFA
  • A large stage suitable for teams, FFA and possible other special matches
Each one will be built over time by each participant, creating what could hopefully be a new standard example to use in our sets in the future!
WEEK 1:
FEATURES
This week you are tasked with creating 1 new type of feature that could be seen on the stages, such as an interact-able piece, a new type of hazard, or a new way a stage could behave.
The rules are:​
  • The feature mustn't be overly polarizing (example: whoever touches it first is invincible)
  • The feature must be usable by all characters, but nothing says all characters must use it the same way!
Try and think of either which stage to create this feature for beforehand, or possibly make note of how it could play out on different sized arenas.

You have 2 weeks, good luck!
 

JOE!

Smash Hero
Joined
Oct 5, 2008
Messages
8,075
Location
Dedham, MA
Could everybody do me a favor and tell me if they see BLACK on each side of the videos in Ho-oh?

Important for a future project
 

TheKalmarKing

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Mar 7, 2013
Messages
162
Bad Girl, the Number Two Assassin





Bad Girl is ranked second in the UAA's (United Assassins Association) rankings, and as such, is the penultimate boss of No More Heroes. Nobody knows anything about her: we only know she is a deranged psycopath lurking in the Destroy Stadium's basement, killing clones all day as a game. She mostly acts as a diabolus ex machina, appearing from nowhere armed only with a baseball bat, ready to beat anybody to death.

Important note: I am basing myself on the censored version of the game. As such, I actually talk about clones, not gimps. While the gimps she kill in the non-censored version are indeed clones, in the censored version, they are bluish guys moving in a very alien-like fashion. So yeah, now it's out of the way.

Statistics

Weight: 8/10
Size: 6/10
Ground Speed: 8/10
Air Speed: 5/10
Fall Speed: 5/10

Bad Girl is surprisingly heavy on ground, and isn't that light in the air too. While she got a crazy dash speed, her traction is bad, but still sufficiently good to chase opponents around. While the air isn't her favorite place, she can still defend herself, with pretty good jumps for a heavy character.
She's like a crazy mix between a light-weight and a heavy-weight.

Special Moves

Down Special: You're pathetic!

Bad girl takes out a bottle of beer from nowhere, take a good gulp and then spit it forward, for absolutely no damage and low lag. The beer will stay on the floor for a moment, disappearing after 10 seconds. If anybody or anything is caught in the beer, then they will be coated in the beer. While for now, it is totally useless (apart from reducing traction), it outright changes when you re-use Down B near a puddle or a beer-coated opponent/item.

She will now throw a lighter on the nearest beer-coated target, setting the target in fire. A flaming puddle will have his de-spawn timer reset, going back to five seconds before disappearing. A flaming opponent will need to shake off the flames by moving around, rolling, spot-dodging and all the good stuff. The flames will deal 5% damage per second, but are still fairly easy to shake off. Now, if a non-lit beer-coated target comes in contact with anything already in flames, it will catch fire too! Items on flames will burn their holder too, but they will not actually catch fire... if they are not beer-coated that is. Also, anybody coated in beer and hit by a flaming item is lit on fire, but it's almost insulting to think you haven't guessed it by that point.

Last but not least, anybody on fire will deal 3% damage and flinching knockback on contact with anybody else, uncluding Bad Girl. Yes, Bad Girl isn't safe from her own fires... But does she really care?

Up Special: I'll crush you!!

Bad Girl suddenly leaps in the air for two Mario, and come back to the ground slamming her bat on the ground. While it is pretty hard to recover with that special, it is a fantastic attack, dealing 15% damage and medium knockback. Also, there is a sweetspot on her whole bat the exact moment she swings it down, dragging her opponent to the ground, making him suffer 18% damage and high knockback. While it is a pretty devastating and quick special, it suffers heavy lag on the end, and is pretty straight-forward, so spamming it like a blaster is more likely to get you killed than anything. It is still a good surprise attack.

Neutral Special: Clone Summon

A bluish gimp with blades on his arms will fall from nowhere before Bad Girl, with little lag. He will then slowly get up and wander around the stage, hitting opponents for 8% damage and weak knockback. They themselves have 25 HP and are pretty easy to kill, but they are not really used to attack in first place. You see, there can be up to two clones on the stage, and they make good obstacles themselves, but Bad Girl certainly won't stay idle. First, she can light them on fire with beer, making them far more aggressive since their HPs are whittling away. She can also hit someone with her Up B while they are occupied killing the clones, who will cover her while she is recovering. And there's more coming...

Side Special: Berserker Charge

Bad Girl will begin dashing forward after going into a runner pose, dragging her bat behind. Once she comes in contact with anybody, she heavily swing her bat, dealing 12% damage but bizarrely enough, light knockback. But it's not all, of course: there is literally nothing except a powerful attack (15% damage to be precise) that will stop her while dashing. While it is certainly something great against campers , she will also hit clones who are in her way, sending them forward. Thus, you can move the clones around if you so desire. Also, her fires won't stop her no matter what, so the safest way of dodging this is jumping.

Because yeah, don't try to roll past her, she will just turn around. Also, she won't fall in pits. She naturally stops running after two stagebuilder blocks with minimal lag, making it overall an excellent get-in move. Also, there is quite a long start-up while she go into a runner pose, so while it is super-armored like the rest of the move, it makes it predictable.

Standards

Jab: Furious Strikes

An infinite combo where Bad Girl smash her bat on the ground repeatedly, doing 4% damage each time. While it is a powerful infinite jab, it's also a bit slow, but there's a twist: on grounded opponents, it does 6% damage instead, and it's also harder to escape. While it could seem a bit ower-powered, many of her attacks either make the opponent flinch or smash them away, so hitting grounded opponents may be hard.

Forward Tilt: Bat Thrust

One of Bad Girl's only safe attacks, she thrust her bat forward, dealing 7% damage with little lag and some good range. It would be easy abusing it, but some characters are either too small or can crouch under the thrust, making it impractical in some cases. Still, big characters should watch out for it.

Down Tilt: Bite the dust!

Bad Girl, with medium beginning lag, will sweeps her opponent's feet with her bat, making them trip for 5% damage. While an uninteresting attack by itself, the jab will do wonders afterward, so it's mainly a set-up move. Also, you could make an opponent trip into a fire with some chance, so this move can be quite painful if it lands.

Up Tilt: Uppercut

A basic uppercut up tilt, hitting for 5% damage and weak knockback. I admit, it's a filler input, so it isn't great. It can still juggle correctly, though.

Dash Attack: Dropkick!

A quite popular wrestling move, Bad Girl will stop running to dropkick her opponent, sending him flying with 10% damage. It got a quick start but some heavy lag, so if it whiffs, Bad Girl can easily be grabbed or comboed. In terms of lag, it is basically Side B's exact opposite: while it moves clones too, it is now used to get some breathing space, for setting up beer, or something like that.


Smashes

Neutral Smash: Homerun Swing

Bad Girl prepares to swing her bat, and then exactly do that, for great knockback, 15-23% damage and some heavy ending lag. While it is quick to begin, as I said, the ending lag is quite noticeable, so it should be well-timed. The greatest part of that smash, thoough, is that it allow to use clones as projectiles: instead of being merely moved around like the dash attack and Side B do, they are instead lauched at high speed, slicing anything in their path for 8% damage. They will go through opponents but will stop when hitting walls, however, they can easily fly out of the stage and they also get damaged from the smash. So, if you have some expendable flaming clones, they could make really epic ammo...

Up Smash: Killing Attack

Basically, a neutral smash, but upwards. It does change a bit though: it does 13-21% damage, less good knockback but is a bit quicker on the end. For all intents and purposes, it's just an upward neutral smash weakened because of the unnatural motion. It can also shoot clones up, but it is far less practical, unless you're under the opponent where you can directly send your mooks at him.

Down Smash: Enraged Smash

Basically, a huge smash on the ground, creating a small shockwave pushing opponent away. It does 12-20% damage, medium knockback. While there is a good zone of effect, it is laggy, like the other smashes. However it's main use is not damage...​

When clones are hit by the D-Smash, they are sent in the air, but contrarily to the U-Smash, they harmlessly bounce back to the ground, where they stay lying. That effectively means you can easily douse them in beer and/or light them up, because they stay lying for exactly 1 second. After that, you can easily move around or launch them at your opponent. So really the D-Smash is better for « strategy » than for attack.

Grabs

Grab: Stop Rejecting Me...

Bad Girl forces the opponent to the ground, where she sits on him in a suggestive manner. If she grabs Kirby, Jigglypuff and the like, she slams them on the ground with her free hand.

Pummel: DIE

Bad Girl violently smash the opponent's neck with her bat, dealing 4% damage. It's a very slow pummel though, so you should use your grab for something else. Anyway, it stops after 3 hits, Bad Girl jumping off the opponent.

Side Throw: Eat the Dust!

Bad Girl gets up and runs forward, grinding the opponent's face against the ground, dealing 5 hits for 1% damage each. When it ends, the opponent is sent sliding forward, allowing you to throw him into a fire, or something. He won't fall off ledges, however.

Up Throw: Throat Crusher

Bad Girl lift the opponent in the air, strangling him then knocking him in the air. The whole ordeal deals 5% damage. It isn't really useful since you want your opponent to be on the ground and not in the air.

Down Throw: Killing Blow

Bad Girl smaashes her opponent's throat really hard, a sickening « Crack » sound being heard, dealing 6% damage. She then jumps away from her opponent. It's actually a stunning move: the opponent will lay down for an half-second, dealing with the fact that his neck is in pieces. As such, you can either run away, spawn clones, spit beer...

Aerials

Neutral Aerial: Bat Swing

A basic aerial attack, where Bad Girl swings her bat for 7% damage, deceptively good reach and medium knockback. All-in-all, a generic move.

Side Aerial: Flying Dropkick

Basically her dashing attack but airborne, dealing 10% damage and good knockback. However, the start-up is a bit longer here; also, she moves forward for about half a BF platform. However, there is still heavy end lag, so if it whiffs, you're virtually helpless. You can still dropkick clones to move them around.

Down Aerial: Feint

Bad Girl starts her Up Special's animation... but simply swings her bat downward, hitting for 11% damage and a meteor smash. There is medium knockback on the end. It can be used to trick your opponents into thinking you're going to perform your Up Special most obviously; as such, they expect to catch you while you're recovering from the lag. As such, it allows little mindgames with the opponent.

Up Aerial: Upper Swing

Yet another generic move, Bad Girl swings her bat upward, bealing 8% damage and medium knockback. Rather fast on both ends, you can use it for juggling I guess.

Final Smash

Flaming Bat

Bad Girl spits beer on her bat and then light it up. A simple Final Smash, but deadly nonetheless: on top of doing 15% damage and good knockback per swing (All of her attacks become a simple swing except for the specials), if she hits anything coated in beer, it will be set on fire too. Also, clones will be shot as projectiles with any attack. So it's simple, yet deadly.

Playstyle Summary

Bad Girl could be summed up as a berserker with minions and stage-control. Her playstyle is completely centered on attack, her few non-directly lethal moves being used to summon clones or set stuff on fire. While she is naturally fast and heavy, her deadliest move got some heavy end lag: as such, she's a bit of a high-risk, high-reward. If she's kept from summoning clones or using her Down B, she will only have her natural power going for her, but the lag make it risky.

So, she naturally uses the clones and the fires as protection, making the clones tank incoming attacks. An example of that strategy is found in the Up B: while a powerful move, she should use it on a foe battling with the clones to play safe.

But her specials are not her only viable options: her normals pack quite a punch, her grabs being generally powerful, and her other normals being quite good. She can use the smashes either to kill the opponent or launch the clones. Moving the clones around is an important part of her strategy, would could be summed up as « Keep the opponent where it's simple to rack up damage and then kill him ». The clones will pressure the opponent while they try to avoid the fires while Bad Girl will chase the enemy around. Sandwiching them between yourself and the clones is a very good tactic. To get throughyour own fires, you can just use your Side B.

Bad Girl's main weakness is airborne combat, where she's rather poor. She got powerful moves, but they are slow as hell and she's quite heavy, so chasing foes can be hard sometimes. You must keep them on the ground, or else she is going to suffer a rather humiliating defeat. You can use the Up B to bring back foes on the ground, but it doesn't cover that much horizontal range.

So Bad Girl is a rather good character, a berserk capable of controlling the stage but not the skies.
 

Knight Dude

Keeping it going.
Joined
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NNID
Kaine-Rodgers
3DS FC
0232-7749-6030
Could everybody do me a favor and tell me if they see BLACK on each side of the videos in Ho-oh?

Important for a future project
Yeah, I see black on the left side and right below the video.
 

Knight Dude

Keeping it going.
Joined
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Messages
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Location
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NNID
Kaine-Rodgers
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0232-7749-6030
How about now? Are these on the left and right side?

I still see the black blocks. What's even wierder is that when you submit a post with that video, is that one block will be right next to the video. And the other will be BELOW the video. Though that might be on my end only. It's even stranger because I saw a post with a video not too long ago, that worked just fine. So you might have to find another video with that stage or something, if you can.
 

Knight Dude

Keeping it going.
Joined
Mar 10, 2013
Messages
21,229
Location
The States
NNID
Kaine-Rodgers
3DS FC
0232-7749-6030
I'm still getting one below the video, unless I zoom out a bit. Then the bars are on the side.
 

JOE!

Smash Hero
Joined
Oct 5, 2008
Messages
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Location
Dedham, MA
Well, as long as you're able to see black on either side It'll be fine

Also a discovery to all image related sets: the max WIDTH of an image is 800px on the new SWF.
 

Smady

Smash Master
Joined
Apr 29, 2007
Messages
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Location
K Rool Avenue


KOFFING
POKEMON#109

Koffing is a floating bag of gas, so light that it levitates in the air. This Pokémon is dangerous because of its ability to release toxic gases and a tendency to explode seemingly at random. Hot temperatures and feeding off of garbage help Koffing to create more corrosive blends of toxins, making it an even greater threat to human beings.

Koffing is statistically almost universally the same as Jigglypuff in Brawl. Equal to the lightest Brawl character, that may be giving too much credit to the two-pounder poison-type. Its idle animation is sucking in and blowing out gas through its body, but this is purely a visual effect. Koffing is hit by low attacks or detonated traps despite floating a short height above the ground. However, traps won't be triggered by merely hovering above them, forcing their creators to knock Koffing into them.

Koffing can jump multiple times the same as Jigglypuff, but if the up directional input is held, the player enters a controlled float that goes on for a couple seconds longer and is faster than Peach's. Koffing can be pushed and pulled in any direction, even dipping below its normal hovering point, this allows you to specifically position the character. This uses up your jumps and leaves Koffing in a typical free fall if he fails to land on solid ground.

Wherever Koffing goes, he leaves a trail of gas as big as he is that deals passive poison damage of 1% a second, but only lasts for a few seconds. This can be shielded but if the foe is using their shield on passive damage this should make it easy for Koffing to win.

(SPECIALS)
Neutral Special: Poison Gas

Koffing emulates his SSB64 Pokéball attack, releasing poisonous gas in a circular area. At its max size, this area matches half an exploded smart bomb. The attack causes constant hitstun and damage of 1% at an extremely fast speed, this can rack up to insane percentages if the opponent doesn't DI. The stun is similar to Bowser's fire breath - stalling in the same manner where the attack peters out to only directly next to the character, leaving Koffing open for a counter-attack if he overuses the move. When a foe's escape is inevitable, you can still net a good 15-30% depending on how close you were, favouring a risky chase up to the foe's hurtbox with your adjustable float. After Koffing is finished using the move, a cloud of gas lingers afterwards for around ten seconds depending on how long you used the move. The start and end lag is only slight, but as only the start of the move is an attack, you are quickly left vulnerable. All that leftover gas you've created will deal passive damage of 1% every second, giving you the potential to leave massive parts of the stage in your advantage. Falling in the air lets you create shapes of all sorts only limited by the staling of the move and the foe's attacks.

Up Special: Self-Destruct

Koffing grows redder and redder; it self-destructs in an explosion! dealing 20% damage and having the same knockback as a Bob-Omb, as well as the same range on all sides. The move has predictably painful start lag and end lag. The move is called Self-Destruct - this translates to dealing the same knockback to Koffing as an opponent who stood right next to the character, being an easy way to kill yourself at a relatively low percentage. The one saving grace to this is that its straight upward vertical knockback, so if you're near the bottom blastzone you can actually use this to recover. Using this move leaves Koffing in a free fall like many other similar Brawl recoveries. The explosion will spread across all of your gas out on the stage as long as it was connected to your original explosion point, moving at twice Sonic's dash speed. Incredibly, it deals the same damage and knockback. Foes can only be hit once by a single explosion no matter the area of gas used up, keeping the move from equaling total devastation. Your snail trail gas that is generated naturally, works well into this, as at any time the opponent must be weary of where you've been, as everywhere you go may fast turn into a slaughter. It's no easy KO, on the other hand, due to the fast, but not immediate travel needed by the explosion to spread to a distant opponent, who can in the least use this time to defend against the attack. A foe can shield the explosion, but it deals constant shield damage. If a foe is stood in the middle of a patch of gas, the explosion will hit multiple times and easily crack it. Gas that is exploded is destroyed in the process. Fire-based attacks from enemies has no effect on Koffing's gas.

Side Special: Gyroball

Koffing spins in place similarly to Jigglypuff's Rollout, building up momentum. The mechanics here work much the same as well, Koffing dealing the same 18% damage as Rollout does when charged to its maximum. Space traversed is almost doubled.Unlike that other Pokémon's move, Koffing comes to a complete stop once he has hit a surface, not rebounding. This allows you to keep position of parts of the stage easily if you can hit an opponent in the first place. The halt of momentum also lets you stick to a lower portion of a stage like Final Destination, then use your float to ride up over the ledge, as the edge is not a place where the pragmatic Koffing wants to spend time. While spinning around pre and post-attack, gas from Koffing fans out around him. This pushes out any gas that you have around you - if a player was within a gas cloud from your Poison Gas, it would cause that cloud to expand out in size exponentially, at the cost of some damage and durability. For example, instead of lasting for ten seconds and dealing 1% damage a second, it may only last five seconds and deal 0.5% a second, the two traits symmetrical in nerf. This doesn't affect the gas' inflammability, allowing you to expand out a gas cloud before fleeing to a safe distance where you can detonate the cloud and suffer the punishing end lag in relative safety. This is a great way to quickly draw long distances of gas across the stage as you speed across the stage leaving a quickly made trail in your wake. While this may seem to immediately contradict the "push out" effect of the move, that is not the case, as the weakest roll out will hit the edge of the ring of gas you've created by moving the gas.

Down Special: Toxic

Sucking up air all around him like a pufferfish, Koffing expands to about 1.1-1.5x its normal size - not enough to look ridiculous, as his exhausts are still visible. The charge time is in every way similar a smash except for the fact that All gas within a smart bomb blast radius is sucked up. This causes Koffing to move around more slowly and makes him a slightly bigger target. After 1-2 seconds, all gas in a Bowser-1.5x Bowser area around Koffing will have been sucked up. After that time has elapsed, Koffing will spend the next five seconds expelling toxic gas in all direction, having the same traits as his neutral special at its middle range. The differences here are many and crucial, though. This gas will last in the same way, but for the first second of its existence, it deals constant flinching knockback and inflicts the foe with toxic poisoning. Victims of this poisoning will themselves naturally take 2% damage a second without any needed intervention by Koffing. This poison lasts five seconds. The move essentially gives Koffing an aura of super-armour. This effects lasts for a varying amount of time depending on both how long the move is charged and the amount of gas sucked up. At its weakest, with the lowest possible charge time and gas, the effect only lasts two seconds. At around the mid-point, when the move would likely be most used it lasts four seconds, maxing out at six seconds if the player is very competent. The foe is totally vulnerable to Koffing's devices if he does fall victim to the move's flinching knockback as he

can easily combo into, given charge power, any given move in his set. The toxic poisoning does not stack with other types of poison. You shall need room to make the move work in the first place, but the gamble pays off afterward when the foe will want to be anywhere but near you. The way the move will work in game, the foe trying to hit you at first, lets you get the drop on them, or conversely if they flee or stay far away out of fear, lets you pave the way for your success by covering the stage in gas. Create the kind of environment that lets you succeed defensively, then go to town offensively.

(GRAB GAME)
Grab & Pummel: Contagion

Leaning backward, Koffing sucks in air from his forward exhausts, contorting any gas around him but allowing the player to remain 'grabbing' for as long as they want. For reference, the suction is as powerful as Kirby's. Gas will slowly be pulled in and destroyed if it's sucked back up into Koffing, though this does have a small advantage . Opposite to the effect of your Gyro Ball, sucking in gas, in effect clumping it together more, makes it linger for a longer period of time, while tightening its range in closer proximity to where you're using Koffing's grab. A player should still be cautious; overusing the grab will eventually result in completely sucking up all gas. As far as the actual grab goes, it functions exactly as a normal grab does otherwise, expectedly having higher range than any Brawl grabs.

For the pummel, Koffing channels a dark poison from his body directly into the opponents, dealing 3% damage each time. Repeated use of the pummel - 2 or more - infects the foe with the poison and causes them to leave a trail of poison the same as Koffing's, for a period of time depending on how many times they were pummeled, generally 3-5 seconds. The poisonous effect of the lingering gas remains for as long as the opponent is afflicted, allowing for some decent damage racking, though does not stack with poison gas clouds that are already out. At high percentages, this leads to very potent KO options, being that you can contaminate a foe, then throw or release them and quickly coax them into a self-destruct.

Forward Throw: Expulsion

Pent up energy in Koffing's front exhausts blow out violently, dealing a variety of damage and knockback depending on the foe's percentage and how much gas had been sucked up by the grab. The move KOs from 110-160%, depending on the gas built up, and deals 5-15% damage. Off the back of your pummel, this serves as the most straightforward way to follow up into a self-destruct: the foe has to approach from the ground to prevent themselves spreading gas into the air, while at the same time, Koffing has a great air game that allows him to fight this sort of approach well. If you were able to pull a foe into your grab after much vacuuming, this is a powerful KO move and one of Koffing's best. If you are especially sneaky, you can blow an opponent out into your toxic gas and create the opportunity for another follow-up attack in a long combo.

Up Throw: Toss

Crashing to the ground, the foe is dealt 10% damage and carry Koffing along with them in a rebound to the air, the knockback being the combination of both characters' percentage. Koffing is very light anyway, so he practically doesn't factor into this calculation at all. The exact knockback can be determined by the player with a slight degree of angling, letting you deal purely vertical, or slightly horizontal knockback in either direction. The standard input can be held at any time to disengage the foe, or they will force Koffing off once they regain control of themselves mid-flight. Not only is this a great way to let yourself get high above the foe where you can better approach, it creates a line of gas dividing the stage, and off the grab, this requires no danger on Koffing's part to create. A contaminated foe is pretty much forced to approach Koffing if they're high up in the air as well, if they aren't low enough to hit the ground and shield in time for a self-destruct. The move leaves both players flying which can very well be to Koffing's advantage.

Down Throw: Irritation

Koffing grinds its exhaust pipes over the foe's body in a far less threatening homage to Bowser's down throw, resulting in a meagre 6% and leaving the foe in prone. Koffing is left on top of the opponent, I mean that Koffing is hovering in place right over the opponent, creating an interesting situation where the foe has to stand up or roll away without falling counter to Koffing's attacks. This does largely result in a guessing game, but one where the conditions can be altered largely by Koffing's lingering hitboxes out on the stage. An attacking foe risks being dodged and struck back, though this is necessitated standing in the middle of a Poison Gas cloud, given that a roll may not give enough space the escape the resulting blast. On the other hand, a Koffing player may use his Toxic or Self-Destruct in this time if he believes the foe is going to roll out and guess that they're using a typical move from his set, creating an interesting dichotomy for this particular game of luck.

Back Throw: Rollout

Tumbling into the foe, Koffing rolls along in the air, crushing its victim against the floor and dealing damage of 4-8% damage, as the foe will roll for longer if they are a higher percentage. This goes for the speed of the attack too. This move allows you to move from the ground off the side of a stage, dropping down at the combined fall speed of Koffing and his foe. Largely, this means you'll be falling at the foe's speed if they're remotely heavy. On foes who are lighter, they will at least be brought further away from the stage where Koffing's fantastic recovery helps to get back while they desperately try to survive. The awkward part of that is the dynamic nature of the attack doesn't guarantee you or the foe will always finish in a left or right position, obviously if Koffing is the one nearer to the blastzone, you may have screwed yourself. The move can be cancelled out of early to guarantee this in Koffing's favour, but it results in some bad medium end lag. The move comes into its own best when the Koffing player has already dominated the stage control and has gas behind him so that the foe is forced to in the least recover while taking damage.

(SMASHES)

Forward Smash: Toxic Spray

During the charge, Koffing is leaning forward and has the exhausts on his back gather in any lingering gas that is within a Bowser. Koffing then sprays a toxic gas in a cone-shaped hitbox, dealing 10-20% damage without any gas sucked in, or 21-35% with gas sucked in, depending on the amount. The range of the attack is about twice as large as Bowser's Fire Breath. Knockback is forward, KOing at 180-160% or 159-120%. In a basic sense, this lets you move around gas, most importantly allowing you to push a set-up into your foe's 'side' of the stage if they're also camping, forcing an approach. If that isn't the case, simply using a build-up of gas to blow down your opponent's straw house isn't a bad idea either. The option in of itself means that camping away from your gas isn't a viable option for the opponent. If you suck up toxic gas from down special, this will consolidate the gas until it's shot out of Koffing. This delays the wearing out of this noxious gas and lets an advanced player set-up for a strong preemptive strike on, for example, an opponent falling in the air to the stage. This move can be angled like most forward smashes.

Down Smash: Smokescreen

Turning toward the screen and leaning forward, Koffing's exhausts shrivel up for the charge time, then excrete a thick smoky fog that covers an area as wide as half a platform, to a battlefield platform in length. Immediately below and on both sides is a small sweetspot that deals high knockback in case foes were lingering from your down throw or just acting stupidly. The smokescreen is always slightly taller than Koffing's natural position. Everything within the smokescreen is obscured and foes who are within it take flinching knockback and 5% damage once a second, before the lingering smokescreen dissipates after approximately ten seconds. Everything within the smoke is obscured, foes and Koffing as well. Smoke is pulled around and effect just as your gas is, giving you a different ammunition when applicable, but is also fairly useful for Koffing who enjoys playing with his set-up and benefits extremely from working in the dark. Not to mention that a foe who can't see you, won't be able to predict your sleight attacks or know when you're fleeing. It's a great base for Koffing in particular, and the damage and knockback suffices as well if a foe does prove to make better use of it than you. Only one smokescreen can exist at a time.

Up Smash: Sludge Bomb

To begin Koffing pokes one exhaust pipe into the foreground, exaggerating its properties, giving the cue to the player that they can slightly direct the move's upward trajectory. After typical charge time and mild start lag, Koffing shoots out a Pokéball-sized sludge projectile that travels up a platform's length in vertical distance, to triple that distance if fully charged. As a projectile, the Sludge Bomb deals 15-20% damage and knockback that KOs at 190-220%, so no real KO move. For every half-second the foe is in contact of the sludge, it has a one-third chance of poisoning them, leaving them dealt 1% a second for ten seconds. This does not stack on top of normal poison gas, however. The projectile travels at the same rate as Falco's blaster until it reaches it max height, then falls at a similar speed until it hits the ground. Where it lands on the ground will become a trap of sorts, as the sludge remains for another 5-10 seconds before it dissipates. The sludgy trap deals a constant 2% damage but is small in size, only slightly bigger than a Pokéball. What makes it very useful is that it deals no knockback and every half-second the chance of poisoning triggers, meaning if the foe accidentally stands in the trap, they are almost undoubtedly going to be poisoned if they don't know it's there. This not only works into Smokescreen, but forces the opponent into the air.

(AERIALS)

Neutral Aerial: Torment

An easily spam-able whole-body hitbox that deals 4% a hit and comes out at the speed of Captain Falcon's jab combo, allowing you to hit opponents multiple times over and over. The range is unfortunately not that much better than Jigglypuff's Rest. The knockback is a flinch on-par with the weakest of them, meaning the opponent can easily knock you out of the way, but this is the bread-and-butter of Koffing - swoop in with your float and bully the opponent from a position they can't counter. This is also a good way to deteriorate a shield while maintaining your high mobility, being able to fly in and out of combat and avoiding a counter. In tandem with your smokescreen, this move acts as a great poke as you exit and re-enter to hide in the fog.


Forward Aerial: Facade

The air around Koffing seems to become oddly stagnant and motionless. Koffing hurls himself forward in a platform-long tailspin before coming to the end of the move with little end lag, dealing 9% damage and KOing at 240%. The hitbox of the move is extended if any gas is within a short distance of Koffing, making it seem solid as it rolls around as if part of Koffing's body for the duration of the move. This not only makes the hitbox bigger but the shape of the gas clouds changes the direction of the attack's knockback. If gas is formed into a shape that has an edge, mostly only possibly by sucking up sections of a gas cloud, as the edge of that shape travels circularly around Koffing, it becomes a hitbox in its own right. For example, a semi-circle of gas will hit an opponent down rather than up if they are hit by the inside part of the semi-circle as it comes down around Koffing like a hammer. The downside of this move is that it's easily spot-dodged without gas and with gas you make unwanted changes to your gas set-up.

Down Aerial: Will-O-Wisp

Koffing coughs up a fireball out of the chemical reaction chamber inside his body, the fireball being smaller than Mario's but largely similar in shape and size otherwise. Its still big enough to protect most of Koffing's body from harm below. The fireball will fall to the ground at a moderate pace and deal 10% along with flinching knockback for a second, making it a good way to get away from a chasing opponent or stagger them in the middle of an offensive play. When the fireball hits the ground, as it has infinite range, it will cause a pillar of fire on either side that gradually builds to the height of the average Pikmin and peters out after travelling a Wario. This lasts in all only a couple seconds. This adds to your prone abuse options on down throw specifically, as you now have the option to simply jump up and throw down a powerful disjointed hitbox for rolling opponents. This acts as a great way to harass edge-hogs or virtually any foe who is trying to camp at you from below using a good recovery that lets them stand in place and spam. If you're able to get down to the Wisp before it hits the ground and use your Poison Gas neutral special in time for it to hit Koffing, this will immediately initiate a Self-Destruct without the obvious start lag, but with the same end lag. This is obviously a good way of bypassing that limitation but may be more telegraphed, thankfully this telegraphing can be played to your advantage to dupe suspecting foes.

Up Aerial: Spit Up

After using the exhausts to suck up surrounding air, Koffing faces upward and releases a violent wave of poison, creating a purple disjointed hitbox full of poisonous gas that lingers for a moment. Victims of the attack take 15% damage and are KO'd vertically starting at 220%, a high percentage offset by a huge range. This cone-shaped hitbox varies in shape from about the size of Mario to a tall human like Marth or Falcon. The size of the attack depends on if Koffing has absorbed less or more gas, respectfully. The move has a strong hitbox at the very tip of the gas that KOs far lower, starting at 170%. This makes the move a bigger gamble as well, not only are you sacrificing potentially useful gas, you are estimating where exactly the opponent will be and how the gas will effect the outputted projectile. It's also very good at dissuading foes from both camping above you or being predictable in their approach in areas where there is no gas, as the sweetspot is far easier to predicate in those areas. This makes it perfect for chasing down high-percentage foes who have forced you out of poison clouds or waited them out while you went on an extended chase.

Back Aerial: Clear Smog

Koffing's side exhausts, the one facing back, are exaggerated and bursts out a light purple gas, creating a small hitbox that lingers for a moment. This deals 13% damage and KOs at 185%, making it a solid KO move considering its fairly difficult use. While Koffing can move around at will in the air he can't turn around during his float meaning he's in a fixed position and of course, having his back to the opponent means he can't use most of his attacks. The start and end lag on this move is mild which makes it easy to freely use whenever Koffing feels threatened. A foe hit by the attack is erased of any poison status effects. This makes sense when you consider that the foe will most likely chase down Koffing when poisoned to ensure that effects of the poison aren't simply sat out on and try to approach you through your clouds, where they no longer take damage due to no stacking of poison. So while you're making gas in the air and directing it in front of you, keep an aggressive foe away and remove the one advantage they feel they have in attacking you in what would normally be a safe haven for Koffing.

(STANDARDS)

Jab: Screech

The gassy Pokémon lives up to his name as it cries out its distinctive, droning roar from the Pokémon games, having a one-in-ten chance to instead mutter "koffing" as it does in the anime. This alone causes a small area in front of Koffing to become covered in particularly noxious gas that deals constant 3% damage up to three times a second, for one second, and can be spammed as the gas travels slightly forward before it dissipates. This essentially works like Game&Watch's jab, forcing the foe to jump over the onslaught of projectiles or try and get lucky by rolling, but this may just result in further damage. This move can be used consecutively but quickly stales, however it still acts as a great stall move especially when a foe is trapped in a Poison Gas cloud or is trying to get at you while poisoned.

Dash Attack: Tackle

An incredibly simple move befitting of the Pokémon move, Koffing leans slightly forward and barges forward at an accelerated speed, dealing 10% damage and pushing victims a platform back as they slide along the stage, or dealing medium knockback to aerial foes. The sliding effect is pronounced on shielding foes. This is a straight-forward desperation move, but does serve a few purposes given the unique levitating status of Koffing. You can use this move to get off-stage while not leaving yourself totally vulnerable, allowing you to hover over the heads of edge-hogs or off-stage foes, or simply get on level, then start an offensive that isn't as timid. You can also use this to travel between platforms or from one safe poison zone to another. This is more important in the context of Koffing's ridiculous low weight that means he's supremely vulnerable to what would on most others be an insignificant poke.

Forward Tilt: Assurance

Koffing tilts forward, the player able to choose a direction similar to Luigi's forward smash, defaulting to straight forward. Several of Koffing's exhaust pipe shoot a powerful gust of wave that fans out, increasing in size before it reaches half-a-platform away from Koffing, travelling at the speed of Mario's fireball. The hitbox itself is the thin ridge of the wind, the edge of the 'wind hitbox.' As this passes over its victim, they are dealt three instances of 3% damage and flinching that will keep them in place for little over a second, though this is quite hard to land. As you may have guessed, the wind will move around gas and your Smokescreen, letting you pull the curtain from foes abusing that aspect of your set. While it may seem annoying to be so frivolously expending your Smokescreen in that way, it does wear out fairly quickly regardless and it's easy to avoid using this move in a close-range fight inside the Smokescreen, anyway. While the gas is being pushed away by the wind, that ring can increase in size, increasing the range of the hitbox. Normal gas changes the damage done to three instances of 4% damage while the Toxic gas from your down special changes it to three instances of 6% damage, and makes it a KO move on the last hit. This KOs the opponent at around 200%, quite potent for one of Koffing's standards.

Down Tilt: Haze

Performing a neat pirouette in the air, Koffing swirls any gas within the width of his body, and a bumper below and above the Pokémon, eradicating it. This has slight start lag. This area is a weak attack that deals no damage and flinches foes, but leaves them and Koffing simply frame-neutral. Though if the foe is caught on either horizontal side of the whirlwind, they are instead hit by the up-heaved gases as they are expunged by Koffing. This is only a small hitbox but is on both sides of Koffing and deals 10% damage and strong knockback that can KO at 240%. This definitely works well into your prone abuse wheelhouse given that a foe would certainly roll into the range of this attack. What's perhaps most interesting about the move is how it almost forces the foe into a more close-range fight against Koffing, as at mid-range this move can easily stop them in their tracks. However, this move is easily-shielded compared to your dash attack, and then easily counter-attacked, forcing Koffing to mix his usage of the two if it wants to successfully defend itself. The perfectly square cut-out from the Poison Gas also makes this move perfect to use before your forward aerial Assurance, easily making the wanted hammer that you want to change that move's knockback.

Up Tilt: Venoshock

In another fairly straightforward move, Koffing looks up and bites with a hitbox mirroring Dedede's up tilt, a fairly good-ranged move considering much of Koffing's body is a hitbox. The damage ranges depending on if the foe is poisoned. Without poison, the foe is dealt 9% damage and KO'd at 250%. If the foe is poisoned, they are dealt 18% damage and KO'd at 160%, easily Koffing's best KO move. Koffing clearly has plenty of ways to get the foe in the air but not many directly, although he does have many ways of influencing the foe and getting them into the air by coercion. If Koffing can successfully manipulate the foe's behavior the end reward may very well be an early KO, if he can poison them at the same time. Poisoned foes coming after you to even the gap, are going to steer clear of attacking you from above on the ground, especially useful on trap characters who have to hit you into the ground in the first place to trigger some traps. Narrowing the foe's potential avenues to approach Koffing is especially important in the chase aspects that inevitably happen to a character who may live or die if on the end of just a few powerful attacks.

(FINAL SMASH)
Toxic Dance: May It Rain

Koffing has that smug look on his face as always, the camera zooming in on the Pokémon. After a second, the camera pans back out to reveal the stage is covered in gas, from head-to-toe, the sky raining green acid. This is slightly more potent than the usual gas, dealing 2% per second to foes and lasting for twenty seconds. At any point Koffing can use his Self-Destruct to ignite all of it so the opponent is forced to approach immediately, making that initial brief period of a second crucial to staying alive at mid-high percentages. Koffing's own gas will not be replaced or replace this toxic rain but rather pile on the added effects, and all your gas that was on the stage already stockpiles on top automatically.

(PLAYSTYLE)

Scorched Earth: Prepare for Death

Koffing could be said to be ineffectual compared to the Brawl cast considering his short arm in strength and need for set-up to ever KO, but the automatic nature of that set-up makes it less of a ball-and-chain. What is the effective result of Koffing's naturally under-powered state, is comparable to that of Jigglypuff in Brawl - it's a character thriving on momentum and losing on anything less, as the foe gaining an upper hand is the end of the match. Thankfully Koffing not only has a great amount of tools to help at close-range to stop combos from annihilating him, he has many tools to fluster, irritate and annoy foes from up close. Koffing can even string together some unusual combos himself by combining moves like his Down Special, Jab and Neutral Aerial. He works very well as a hit-and-run character but just as good as a run-and-hit character because of the nature of his Rollout and Tackle leaving him in a dominant position while the foe takes a backseat in knockback.

What Koffing relies on more than most is insight. This translates most of the time as luck, but Koffing as a few tricks toi even the odds as a lightweight. His constant gas and moves that cover much of the stage in it mean that the foe will typically be taking damage in a match with a good Koffing, and this makes them only more aggressive. A Koffing should be pushing the foe to approach and make mistakes above all else, as you can easily slip them up with a Smokescreen; once you get the foe grabbed you can easily transition into a KO if you're in the right place, or use the throw to set up. The greatest evener of all is the Self-Destruct, neutral special. This alongside obscenely powerful Up Tilt and Down Special's Toxic gas means that Koffing, while small, is feared, especially by larger opponents who can't help but stretch into the passive gas hitboxes. It only makes Koffing a bigger target for abuse, but the player needs to channel this into a winning combination of moves to truly control a match as Koffing, a necessary must.

Generally speaking, Koffing benefits from having places to hide and unusual stages do greatly benefit it. The dash attack between symmetrical platforms, using the bottom side of platforms to offset a suicidal Self-Destruct, hitting foes above platforms by spreading gas with your Poison Gas... these are all legitimate strategies. On a flat, open field like Final Destination, Koffing isn't totally screwed, though. The foe also has less options and can't hide from the more powerful Will-O-Wisp attacks or Facade creating a huge hitbox across the stage. Without platforms to hide on they can only resort to the ledge once Koffing gets its second wind, and using anything from Torment to Haze to Smokescreen will make it a hard hog's life. Likewise, prone's a bad place for the foe to be given the plethora of options Koffing has in prone abuse. Koffing is a very standard character in many ways, simply advanced in chasing, running away, prone abuse, camping and hit-and-run. To truly excel, combine these factors with the constant passive damage of the gas and use your imagination to create devastating gas creations. It's almost frustrating in of itself, how straightforward Koffing can play while always having this cowardly suicide as an easy way to KO from a low percentage. A good Koffing will use that frustration against their opponent.

In loving memory of Ryan Davis
 
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TheKalmarKing

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Mar 7, 2013
Messages
162
Koffing

My, my. In the same day, I released Bad Girl who is a total tank and Smady released his Koffing who can't take a hit but is far more subtle. I could totally make a matchup for those two... Now enough talk and HAVE AT Y -I mean let's look at the set.

It is a pretty solid field-control moveset, every move being use either to create more gas, to move the gas or taking advantage of the opponent's mistakes... due to the gas. Your second playstyle paragraph about how he forces the foe to approach reminded me of Croagunk of course who was said to rely on the same mechanics. Well I think it's better here (Sorry Froy), because the opponent actually wants to smack Koffing around to make him stop spreading the gas; then Koffing takes advantage of the opponent's mistakes with some sadistic traps and his only powerful close-ranged attacks. That makes me wonder, would Koffing be useful in high-level matches where errors are pretty rare sometimes? Koffing's player could get around that by playing creatively and not using the same strategy over and over, but his playstyle sure is risky. He could lose the match simply because of a misreading of the opponent's approach.

Also a good distance character (Like good ol' Chakravartin who is such a good example I always talk about him) could be dangerous for Koffing, who could be stopped by a good camper from setting his gas up (But perhaps I'm wrong). Also as a side-note, is it possible for the gas to be lighted up by a fire attack, or is Koffing the only one allowed to make stuff blow up?

While Koffing looks pretty fun to play, rather solid and powerful, he's still rather classical in the end and got some weaknesses that are keeping him from being a really good set. Still, it is a pretty good set I think. 6/10
 

DiamondFox

Banned via Warnings
Joined
Jun 4, 2010
Messages
35
GYARADOS

Gyarados is one of the original Water/Flying Pokemon. He’s just as powerful as all the “real” dragons out there, but he also has extra motivation. This guy’s angry as all hell about being abused and mistreated as a useless Magikarp, and he’s ready to go on a RAMPAGE down on multiple cities, seeking vengeance on all the people who refused to buy him for a mere $500. This is no exaggeration, almost always his evolution is used as some sort of gag, as he immediately attacks the people around him in a rage, oftentimes even his owners.

STATISTICS AND BASIC MOVEMENT



Gyarados, if fully extended out, is 3 platforms long, and the meat of his body is a Marth tall. His head is even larger, as tall as Bowser and nearly being as large as Bowser single handedly. While this is absolutely massive, his default stance is the picture above, the “S” shape. For this massive size, he comes in on the scale twice as heavy as the Koopa King.

That said, if you want to you can technically move him out to be fully straight if you so choose. Gyarados’ movement is done by you directing his head around. It moves in any direction in response to the control stick, moving at Mario’s dash speed when dashing. The rest of the body only moves forwards in such a way that his “neck” is where his head previously was, the portion behind that is where his neck was, and so on. If you want to get your body into a particular position, you’re essentially going to have to “trace” your future outline with your head, though there are some moves that change the position of your body more rapidly. If you try to scrunch yourself up too much, be aware that no more than half a platform of Gyarados’ body can overlap at once.

Gyarados is not bound to the ground like some mere snake, as he is a mighty flying sea serpent. He can keep his body entirely in the air for up to 6 seconds, at which point gravity finally kicks in and his trademark magic water levitation powers expire. To be on the “ground”, he must have a full platform’s worth of his body on the ground.

When Gyarados takes knockback, it is specifically only the portion of him that was hit that takes the knockback. The rest of his body simply follows along because it’s attached to him, not taking any more knockback than necessary. If you do a small enough amount of knockback, the rest of his body will barely move at all.

Gyarados’ head is the only part of him that takes stun. It can still be grabbed normally, but all you really have to do to avoid the vast majority of grabs is to keep his head in the air. Foes who intend to exploit this anyway can specifically attack your head with downwards knockback and begin ****** your face with grabs anyway, though. It’s certainly a weakness, but it certainly can be played around. You also must be aware that Gyarados’ entire body functions as a drop through platform, enabling enemies to climb up to his head even when he is playing defensively and keeping it out of reach.

Gyarados’ excessive body can often prove more of a hindrance than a benefit. If you press the dodge input, Gyarados will have his head go into background/foreground. . .And stay there. If you keep moving forward, he will move his head back into the main plane, but the portion of his body that moves into place of where his head was will stay there, in the background. The amount of body that can stay in a background plane is a Bowser worth, and Gyarados can have up to 3 there at the same time before he’ll move that portion of his body back into the main fighting plane. If Gyarados specifically keeps his head in the background, though, then attacking his neck next to it will have it be knocked back into the main plane. Attacks that involve Gyarados’ entire body will have any of these background sections of his body re-enter the main fighting plane. Gyarados does not have rolls, simply being able to continue to move his head as he does the “dodge”. He still does have a shield if no directional input is made, it covering the entirety of his head.

Gyarados can grab the ledge with either his head or his tail, though if the meat of your body is already on the stage the game will assume you don’t want to accidentally grab it with a tail drooping off stage or something. When Gyarados is in the air, pitfalling and prone attacks just do downwards knockback to him in the same way a spiking attack does vertical knockback to grounded foes. If 70% or more of his body is on the ground, he can be put into prone like any other character, though his “get up” from prone” involves him going back to the air and his prone attacks are very good on account of his size. Pitfalling Gyarados simply only pitfalls the body part that was attacked. This causes Gyarados to lose all full body attacks, and to only be able to move portions of his body in front of the pitfalled portion, still unable to move away from where he was pitfalled. Gyarados can use tail attacks and head attacks regardless, unless the tail or head specifically get pitfalled.

SPECIALS

Down Special - Waterfall: Gyarados exhales a Ganondorf tall tidal wave in front of himself. This waterfall will travel forwards as far as Gyarados is long, 3 platforms, but will get progressively smaller as it goes, petering out into nothing by the end. Regardless of size, the waterfall drags foes along with it for 10 hits of 1% and flinching per second.

The waterfall travels forwards at the speed of Mario’s dash, though the speed and distance it goes at can be affected by slopes. Slopes, of course, meaning if you aim the waterfall behind yourself and have it go along your back. The classic S shaped Gyarados is a very interesting take on this, as it will cause the waterfall to gain lots of speed going down the curves, but the waterfall will need said speed to go up the next hump. Aside from being used defensively on foes climbing you to reach your back, it can also be used offensively assuming you don’t just make a portion of your body go completely vertical, keeping a trap around on your back while you simultaneously pressure enemies with your head.

Side Special – Hydro Pump: Gyarados start pumping a massive amount of water out of his mouth in a stream. The water stream is roughly as thick as Wario, and can shoot up to a platform away, ignoring gravity (Shooting it higher means it will go farther). Hydro Pump does absolutely nothing but knockback, pushing enemies along with the stream at the speed of Mario’s dash. Very forceful, but the move has a recharge time like Charizard’s Neutral Special. The stream –very- quickly gets shorter and shorter until it’s nothing after 2 seconds, and requires 6 seconds to fully recharge. This is pretty great for on-stage gimping, and also serves as an excellent panic button for when enemies are about to go to town on your face.

If you shoot this into a waterfall, the waterfall will grow very quickly. Shooting into a waterfall for the full 2 seconds can up to triple the default size of one if you shoot at a fresh one, or bring a minimum size one about to expire up to double the normal size, enabling you to keep waterfalls around for much longer periods. If you think this is too difficult of set-up, keep in mind you can use the push effect of Hydro Pump before it hits the waterfall to push enemies into said waterfall.

Up Special – Dragon Dance: Gyarados begins glowing with a red aura as he starts moving forwards automatically at the accelerated pace of Captain Falcon’s dash. He moves in such a way that he’s attempting to get into the S shape if he isn’t already, though he will still move just as far either way – that is, he will move forward as far as he is long. Even if Gyarados was in the S shape already, he will still move about in a wavy pattern. If Gyarados ends the dragon dance in the S shape, he gains a permanent buff to power and dashing speed of 10%. Not a terribly large amount, but Gyarados is already very powerful and the movement speed buff is more useful to Gyarados than most with his unique movement. Among other things, he can outrun his waterfalls more easily and catch them as they’d go off-stage, then do a steep vertical incline to make it be unable to go up his neck to his head and make it go back the other way. The buffs cap at increases of 60%, and time spent moving during Dragon Dance does not count towards the 6 seconds Gyarados can stay in the air.

While Gyarados is moving in the Dragon Dance formation, he can still attack. The joystick will simply angle Gyarados’ head about so you aim your attacks, but Gyarados will continue moving in the Dragon Dance formation until it’s complete. Inputting any full body attacks will of course end Dragon Dance early, though they can also be quite large threats for enemies who think your head that’s stuck moving in a pattern is your only hitbox. Hitting any portion of Gyarados’ body out of formation will cause him to not get the boost at the end, though there is some leeway if the knockback dealt was very small.

With the very long flight time Gyarados has, one of the more feasible ways of doing this is just to do it off-stage. Beware that enemies can of course land on you and refresh their recoveries, of course.

Neutral Special – Ice Fang: Gyarados’ teeth become enchanted with ice as he takes a chomp forwards, dealing a nice 10% and knockback that KOs at 150% in one of his quicker melee moves. If this hits a waterfall, it will cause it to freeze in place and become a wall with 30 HP. The ice wall can still slide along on Gyarados’ back with gravity, enabling you to potentially slide foes away who are attempting to climb up your back. Only the portion Gyarados chomps down turns into an icy wall, which can be all of it if it’s slightly under the default max size, but the rest of it will keep going on. If you chomp in the middle of an especially large waterfall, you can split the waterfall in two, as one of them goes ahead of the other and gives foes more to dodge, as well as getting an ice wall out of the deal. In addition, waterfalls are made even more threatening now by the fact that if you chomp down with ice fang on a portion of waterfall with a foe in it, they will get frozen as long as a Mr. Freezie while still being fully capable of taking knockback.

SPECIAL SMASHES

Down Special Smash – Twister: Gyarados creates a miniature tornado rather than a tidal wave. It has the same movement patterns/size/etc as a waterfall, and can also go along Gyarados’ back if he so chooses just like one. It even deals 10 hits of 1% and flinching per second, but foes cannot DI out of the twister during these hits before it shoots the foe upwards with vertical knockback that KOs at 160%. Charging this attack can up to double the size of a twister, thus doubling the duration as well, but all other aspects stay the same.

If a waterfall and tornado meet, the tornado will absorb as much of the waterfall into itself based off size as it can. A quarter second later, the tornado will vomit up half of the waterfall in front of itself, and the other half behind itself. The quarter second does not take away from the lifespan of the waterfalls. If a foe comes in the tornado during this time, they will take double damage, and be shot out into the waterfall that goes forward automatically. These waterfall halves will move forwards 1.25X as quickly as usual in the directions they’re going.

If you Hydro Pump a twister, the tornado will shoot out the hydro pump back in your direction with just as much force, using it to propel itself at 1.5x the usual speed. This has a lot of potential uses, but as far as an example…Hydro Pump in an arc over a waterfall into a twister to threaten a foe in the air, then have the twister shoot it into the waterfall? With tools like this and Dragon Dance at your disposal, it is all too easy to do set-up simultaneously with offense.

Side Special Smash – Hyper Beam: Gyarados shoots forth a mighty Hyper Beam, the beam comparable in size/width/range to Hydro Pump. Gyarados can fire the stream for up to 2 seconds, but must hold it out for the full 2 seconds, unlike said move. Like Hydro Pump, enemies are pushed along the beam at Mario’s dashing speed, but they now take 25-35% hits of 1% and flinching per second in addition. The enemy does not take knockback beyond the push, but when they escape Hyper Beam they will be stunned for the amount of hits they took in miliseconds. Meaning, if you hit with every last hit, they’re stunned for .5-.7 seconds. That’s great and all for covering up ending lag…But you’ve got 2 seconds worth of ending lag here.

The most obvious way to go about using this is as a finisher, gen 1 style. Use it an on off-stage enemy and their response will be minimal, and they won’t even die immediately to help you cover your ending lag to boot. You can find more chances to abuse this move than just that, though. If you can push an enemy into a waterfall or twister with the end of the Hyper Beam, you can buy yourself more cooldown time not only from the hitstun they’ll be taking, but with them getting farther pushed away. This move also of course is an excellent one to use during Dragon Dance, as it is easily long enough to cover Dragon Dance’s lag while Dragon Dance moves you away from the enemy.

Speaking of twisters, if you feel like firing this into one, it will shoot the beam out of itself straight upwards, letting you cover significantly more space with this.

Up Special Smash – Aqua Tail: Gyarados looks behind himself at his tail as he has it move for as long as he holds down the button. Gyarados’ tail controls in a manner identical to how Gyarados normally controls, but starting with his tail instead of his head. When the button is released, Gyarados smacks with his tail in another quick attack, dealing a mighty 16-25% and knockback that KOs at 110-70%. Enemies rarely expect non-head based attacks from Gyarados outside of ones involving his entire body. The fact that you can move around the tail a bit before smacking enemies with it means enemies can’t just avoid the fairly small area the tail itself covers up, but the general area around it, making the move a fair bit more threatening.

If the move is double tapped, Gyarados performs Dragon Dance in reverse. Gyarados retains control of his head during the move like regular Dragon Dance, not his tail. If the enemy’s in front of you, this lets you do a retreating Dragon Dance without most of your body in the way as an annoying hurtbox.

STANDARDS

Neutral Attack – Roar: Gyarados lets out a mighty roar for as long as you hold down the button, creating a push effect as tall as Bowser that goes forth 1.25 platforms, pushing characters in the area of effect back at the speed of Dedede’s inhale. There is a cap of holding the move out, up to 5 seconds, before Gyarados has to gasp for air. Since the move can be angled in any direction you want anyway by Gyarados’ movement system, you are given the ability to angle this move during the duration.

Of course the move can speed up and slow down waterfalls and twisters based off whether you use it in the same direction as them or not, though it will do nothing to increase the duration of them unlike Hydro Pump. As such, the main appeal is slowing down the tornados more than speeding them up, as you blow a foe back into one while keeping it in place. Better yet, you can blow it upwards to bring it into the air. Waterfalls will fall quickly back down to the ground, but twisters have very slow fall speeds on par with Jigglypuff, leading for more interesting uses.

Dashing Attack – Headbutt: Gyarados does a dashing superarmored headbutt forwards, dealing 8% and knockback that KOs at 160%. A very fast and weak move, but among Gyarados’ most versatile and most commonly used due to how often he’s “dashing”. The superarmor is obviously the main appeal of the move, though if you’re on the ground you have to be wary due to still being vulnerable to grabs. None the less, this lets you meet Ganondorf’s dair face to face without taking any real punishment for it outside of damage, which Gyarados is very uncaring about. Undoubtedly one of your most important and practical moves.

Forward Tilt – Lurch: Gyarados extends out the front quarter of his body forwards two thirds of a platform, again smacking foes with his head. This deals 12% and knockback that KOs at 140%. While this will straighten out the front quarter of Gyarados’ body, Gyarados will retract back to the general area of where he was before he used the move, making it a good poking tool, a hit and run. Hit and run may seem fairly absurd when you’re as large as Gyarados, but you’re just playing hit and run with his head exclusively here, due to that being the foe’s target.

Up Tilt – Hunch: Gyarados hunches his back to make an arch in the middle, it dealing 9% and vertical knockback that KOs at 135%. If Gyarados was in an “S” shape before this, he will straighten himself out before making a single hump for this move, which sticks around afterwards. This is useful for making a single steep hump in Gyarados’ back, potentially making something too steep for a waterfall/twister to climb and sending it back down Gyarados’ front, or simply sliding it off your back end more quickly.

Down Tilt – Quake: Gyarados slaps down his tail downwards, dealing 13% and a spike on par with Rob’s dair. If the tail is close enough to the ground to hit it, the force of the slam will create an earthshaking effect a platform to either side of where the tail struck the earth, dealing 10% and vertical knockback that KOs at 170%. This earthshaking lasts for a full second. No, there are no interactions with twisters or waterfalls, but the threat of the earthshaking hitbox can make enemies more inclined to land on your back instead of onto the ground, making it an effective “lure”.

SMASHES

Forward Smash – Dragon Rage: Gyarados vomits up a stream of 5-10 Kirby sized fireballs forwards, each one dealing 4% and flinching. The flames vanish go forwards a platform at Mario’s dashing speed before falling downwards at a rate slightly faster than Jigglypuff’s falling speed. They vanish on contact with anything, whether it be a foe or the ground, giving the move a limited spray if used on the ground but a lingering effect when used in the air. They are moved incredibly quickly when moved around by roar, Sonic’s dashing speed, and will continue going a good platform beyond the Roar’s area of effect before coming to a stop. If the dragon rage flames go into a twister, one will be shot up every .15 seconds as the twister goes a platform into the air, enabling you to better spread the flames about.

Up Smash - Wrap: Gyarados starts flying upwards as he spirals through the foreground and background, large portions of his hurtbox becoming invulnerable as he goes through the long start-up animation of the move. Gyarados’ body becomes solid during this move, at least the portions of it in the correct Z plane. When Gyarados is done going through the start lag, he’s formed a mid-air spiral of himself that goes up half his length and is half as wide as he is long. After going through the animation, Gyarados squeezes any poor soul trapped in the middle to grab them. The solid aspect of the move is good for preventing foes from escaping and is the main way you can hit with the move with the lag, as they won’t be able to escape the hitbox with a casual dodge. This grab deals 32-55%, then transitions Gyarados into his grab state as he goes to pluck the foe out of the coil by biting them.

This is most feasible on enemies you have thrown off-stage that you know are going to be able to recover anyway. Obviously it deals absolutely absurd damage if you manage to hit, though that doesn’t give the move much unique purpose in comparison to just spamming projectiles at enemies knocked off-stage. Here, you can lead into a second gimping attempt with a throw.

Down Smash - Thrash: If Gyarados is in the air, he straightens his body out horizontally before performing a stall then fall to the stage that does 25-35% and a spike 1.5-2.25X as strong as Ganon’s dair. Upon reaching the ground, he will automatically perform the second part of the move, which he will skip to immediately if on the ground. Once on the ground, Gyarados thrashes his entire body about violently, causing the entirety of it to become a hitbox that deals 35-58% and knockback that KOs at 100-60%. Despite the move having absolutely absurd ending lag almost as long as Hyper Beam, the starting lag is still about as much as Ike’s fsmash, and the duration is very long regardless. If you use this move, you’re dedicating yourself to a considerable amount of thrashing about. With Gyarados’ sheer size, foes pretty much have to reach ledges to be safe, but Gyarados’ body can realistically limp over ledges in even this move to hit enemies who don’t outright plank. This move is pretty horrifying with just how little escape there is when it’s so absurdly powerful, even if the enemy will come back to punish you after the fact due to how insanely long it lasts.

If you don’t have enough recovery to reach the safe portion of a stage, or indeed, there is no safe portion of the stage, the only way out without getting hit you’re looking at is to attack Gyarados’ head to knock him out of the move. So essentially, you can feel free to activate this move whenever you’ve cornered the foe. . .With your tail, and your head is at the opposite end of the stage.

THROWS AND SUCH

Grab – Bite: Gyarados chomps down with his mouth for good range and grab speed simultaneously. If you’re bringing your head up for a melee attack, you’d better believe you want good speed. Apparently, Bite’s flinch chance has been increased to 100%, given that the enemy becomes stuck in a grab state.

Pummel – Crunch: Gyarados crunches down on the foe in his mouth, dealing 4% while still being an average speed pummel.

Forward Throw – Dragon Tail: Gyarados chomps down with his mouth, but the enemy sort of just “slides” out of his mouth without taking all that much damage, just 2% and a flinch. He then proceeds to whip around the entirety of his body to hit the target with his tail, dealing a mighty 14% and knockback that KOs at 130%. Aside from the sheer power of this throw, it’s notable because it swaps the positions of Gyarados’ head and tail, as he moves his head back into the previous position the tail was in. You can use this to move away from the foe to camp better with head based projectiles or Dragon Dance. It also works if you have a waterfall about to slide off your back, potentially sliding the waterfall off the tail to combo into the throw at very low percentages.

Back Throw – Rebound: Gyarados flings the foe out of his mouth towards his tail, wherever said tail is, with set knockback that goes the length of Gyarados’ body. The tail then slaps the foe back towards Gyarados’ head, dealing 14% and knockback that KOs at 150%. The fling deals stun, but the tail slap does not, meaning foes are fully capable of attacking you on the way there. Assuming they’re at a remotely reasonable percentage, they’ll typically go flying past your head, meaning they can air dodge just about anything you attempt to hit them on the way to you. If you predict this, though, you can launch some projectiles in front of you to catch them after the air dodge. If they predict that, they can hit your ugly mug instead of dodging. Of course, if you predict them attacking, you get a free projectile of your choice, or even a re-grab as you out-prioritize them with grab priority.

Up Throw – Slam: Gyarados holds the enemy only by the feet in his mouth before slamming them onto the ground in front of him, dealing 9%. Gyarados then proceeds to lifts his body up and slam them on his opposite side for another 9%. He will repeat this forever until the foe escapes the grab, at which point the foe takes variable knockback based off what angle Gyarados was going at the time. At the perfect angle, you can KO as early as 100%, though you have little control over it. The grab escape timer resets when you use this throw.

Gyarados is a hitbox to outside foes that’s quite powerful during this move, dealing 15% and knockback that KOs at 90%. If Gyarados was already in the middle of a slam, he will still complete it once the foe escapes, meaning Gyarados will always end this throw grounded. If the foe escapes in such a way they’re launched high into the air, being low down to the ground is actually the easy way to get Gyarados’ head out of the picture, and it can also serve as a nice way to refresh Gyarados’ air timer. If the foe escapes on the ground as they’re slammed, then they end up in prone, and with Gyarados’ size he doesn’t exactly need much complicated to do proper prone abuse, so it’s hardly a threat that the foe ends up in his face in said situation.

Gyarados’ size means if you use this next to an edge, Gyarados will be slamming the foe all the way against the side/underside of the stage due to running out of stage. If they escape as Gyarados slams them against the underside specifically, they’ll get spiked thrice as powerfully as Ganon’s dair, truly horrifying. You gain significantly more leverage if use the throw here, as the foe will be far more selective with when they escape, potentially letting you space the foe somewhere more specific or just racking up more damage. If all you’re looking for is damage, also be aware that if you slam a foe past a trap of some kind they’ll take the damage of it briefly without interrupting the throw. Nevermind using the throw off-stage entirely. While this will deal no damage as you have nothing to slam the foe against, foes will have to be very careful in when they button mash out of the throw.

Down Throw – Consume: Gyarados devours the enemy whole, chomping them down for 9% and dealing them 3% per quarter second they stay inside of Gyarados. If they stay inside of Gyarados for a full 2.3 seconds, they are insta KO’d, though given Gyarados’ grab is no more difficult to escape than any other this is nigh impossible. The grab escape timer carries over from the main grab when Gyarados consumes the foe.

While using a move that has Gyarados vomit up a projectile won’t vomit up the foe immediately, when the foe grab escapes they are in the exact spacing needed to automatically be hit by a projectile. If you can predict when they’re going to escape and time your Hydro Pump/Waterfall/Twister/Dragon Rage accordingly, you can get the free hit you need. Having waterfalls/twisters go past Gyarados’ face during this time can help ease timing. Hyper Beam typically has a bit too much starting lag in comparison to combo into this in a remotely reasonable way unless the enemy always stupidly button mashes out as fast as possible in a predictable manner.

FINAL SMASH

Gyarados causes a tidal wave to approach the stage from the background, sweeping across it. Foes can easily dodge it like the norfair background lava wave, dealing similar properties if it hits, though the tidal wave goes through shields. After the tidal wave goes past, the entire stage becomes flooded for 10 seconds, the water slowly draining during this time. While Gyarados cannot use Dragon Rage underwater, he can use Hydro Pump for as long as he wants at full power and move 3x as quickly. Ice Fang will freeze the foe so long as they’re underwater, and will create an ice wall that floats up to the top of the water should it miss.
 

JOE!

Smash Hero
Joined
Oct 5, 2008
Messages
8,075
Location
Dedham, MA
Sorry about spamming the thread earlier, just needed to know what people could see in order for my next project to work.

Once it's done I plan to catch up on commenting and such too, so :awesome:
 

TheKalmarKing

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Mar 7, 2013
Messages
162
Gyarados

I can't really say I like the set. While I certainly appreciate the various interactions with the twisters, waves and so on, the biggest problem is Gyarados' movement. I mean, WHY? It's just a game of Snake with attacks! It's just too awkward to work properly in Smash. In a real game, a majority of players would be just "WTF is up with Gary's body". Also I didn't understand crap to the dodge inputs and the like; so, yeah, I find his movement to be far too bizarre for Smash. Problem is, a lot of his attacks revolve around Gary's body being in various shapes thanks to his movements. I honestly believe very few players would be ready to master such complicated moves.

Honestly there is creativity and good interactions but that's not enough, that can't compensate the weird and strange movements. I'd say 4/10 personally.

*Takes cover*

EDIT: I gave you a 4 instead because I admit there is a hefty ammount of creativity behind this. Still I don't really like it XD
 

tirkaro

Smash Champion
Joined
Jun 24, 2006
Messages
2,808
Location
but a pig in the sun
"You know every world will have it's end.

I'm here to prove it all to you"
MERLINA


Merlina is (omg spoooooiler alert) the main antagonist for second riveting installment of the ill-fated Sonic Storybook series. While she's easily mistakable for any other one-off female companion that were an oddly reoccurring trend among Sonic games at the time, in a fresh change of pace, Merlina figured she wasn't gonna have that silly damsel in distress nonsense, and decides to manipulate the plot of the whole game to fulfill her dreams of creating a Grand Kingdom that never ends. She does this by tricking an obnoxious blue relic of the 90s to jump through hoops to obtain a powerful magic scabbard, as well as tricking the poor sap who laid down 50 bucks for this game to endure truckloads of terrible, terrible motion controls. Curse you vile temptress!
Everything you need to know about her wickedness is in this video.


"I am who you don't think I am
All wrapped up in my evil plan"
STATS AND OVERVIEW
Size- 6/10
Movement Speed- 4/10
Attack Speed- 3/10
Weight- 7.5/10
Jumping- 8/10
Floatiness- 7/10
Shield- 5/10

Merlina is an antagonist which universally without question means she's one sloooow customer. Except she's not really heavyweight (or male), just being sorta average weight. Instead, Merlina trades her speed for a variety of pressure tools that give her an ample amount of presence on the stage, giving her the momentum to deal insane amounts of damage as well as have limited control over the flow of the match.


NEUTRAL SPECIAL- WITCHCRAFT SPHERE
Creates a powerful floating sphere to punish foes!
Press B more to create more weaker spheres!
Damage: 20%/10%/5%

With a wave of her staff, Merlina materializes a floating crystalline sphere about half a Kirby in size. There's a bit of start-up time to this move, so it's not exactly something you can pull out on a whim at any moment.
The sphere remains stationary for a second before slooowly homing in on the opponent for 2 seconds and then disappears. This is a slow and predictable move with low priority, so it's easily blocked or beat out if your opponent is paying attention. But on the bright side, when it does hit, it deals a godlike 20% damage, which is great for a projectile.
This move really comes to shine with it's secondary effect: if you keep mashing B, the sphere will split apart into 2 spheres, and then 4 spheres. These spheres grow increasingly weaker when they split up, but it acts as a great pressure tool that leaves tons of options to follow up with.


SIDE SPECIAL- FIGHT THE KNIGHT
Summon the Black Knight to unleash a barrage of blows
and keep Merlina safe from peril!
Damage: 10%/13%/17%

Merlina opens up a portal behind her, summoning none other than the infamous Black Knight himself riding in on his equally dark steed. He charges forth at about Brawl Ganondorf's running speed for about 2 Stage Builder Blocks before stopping and remaining stationary.
Summoning BK himself is a bit unsafe, having about a second of startup time, but thankfully once the Knight hops out of the portal, you're free to move normally. As you can tell, the Knight and his steed come together to form one HUGE hitbox, making this hard to avoid even if you can see it coming from a mile away. Getting run over deals 10% damage and pushes victims back a safe distance.
Once the initial charge is all well and done with, the Knight will stop and remain in position for about 5 seconds. During this time, pressing the side special button again will make him slash his sword directly in front of him. He alternates between a horizontal and vertical slash, with the horizontal one doing 17% damage and the vertical one dealing 13%. Likewise, the vertical one covers more space, but the horizontal one is slightly stronger with better knockback. While his attacks are slow, they're enough to keep any attackers within range at bay.

UP SPECIAL- MYSTIC VORTEX
Throw your staff in the air and create a vortex
to fly yourself to safety while pulling foes to their doom!
Damage: 4%

Merlina throws her staff a fair distance upwards-diagonally. The staff begins spinning rapidly in the air once in position, creating a vortex that pulls in Merlina automatically, as well as pulling in any character within an invisible radius equal to a fully expanded smart bomb. If an opponent makes contact with the spinning staff, they'll take a continuous 4% damage for about as long as the attack lasts (or until they can DI out of it). The suction isn't very strong though, so you can still escape from it easily. This attack lasts for about 4 seconds.
When not acting as a fairly decent recovery, the mystic vortex makes a good stage control device, if you need to draw the targets close for whatever reason.

DOWN SPECIAL- DARK TRAP
Strike your adversaries down with a dark sword
from the abyss!
Damage: 15%

Our little wizard here will create a dark aperture on the ground about half a battlefield platform in size. About 1.5 seconds later, a large metallic arm holding a sword will lunge upward, creating a huge hitbox 2 Ganondorfs tall before sinking back down again.
The delay between the portal placement and the actual attack leaves room for a limited amount of options to support your pressure game, as to not make this move too easily predictable. Keep in mind only the initial upwards thrust deals damage.

NEUTRAL COMBO- UNLIMITED BLADE WORKS
Create a dark portal that stabs forth
with a hundred blades!
Damage: 2%

With a wave of her fingers, Merlina creates a dark spherical portal in front of her. From this portal, a countless amount of small arms thrusting forth blades materialize themselves, stabbing a short distance forward, resulting in a fairly standard neutral combo.
This has an unusually long startup time for a basic neutral combo, but it's made up for by it's secondary effect; you can keep mashing A to keep this portal of stabby death running for up to 5 seconds while you freely move around. This is one of Merlina's handiest tools when it comes to keeping up her nasty pressure game, but keep in mind it's easily out-prioritized. And once it's out-prioritized, or just hit at all, the portal automatically disappears.

DASH ATTACK- DARK HORSE ONSLAUGHT
Charge your victims head-on by riding in
on the Black Knight's ruthless steed!
Damage: 12~4%

While dashing forth with her clumsily dainty strut, Merlina will decide she's far too good for this "running" business and just manifest the Black Knight's horse below her legs, riding it with a bored expression.
Like a lot of her moves, there's a good amount of startup as the horse materializes itself, though thankfully our evil wizard is completely invincible during this startup time.
You can hold A to keep riding on this horse for up to 5 seconds, with it's attack power getting increasingly weaker the longer it's out. It only moves straight too, this ain't Yoshi's egg roll here. The horse moves about twice as fast as Merlina's running speed, so it's somewhat viable as a means to get around, but keep in mind Merlina can be knocked off her horse by a well-placed attack, and there's a good deal of punishable cooldown time once this horsie ride is over, so it's not exactly safe.

FORWARD TILT- SELFISH SWING
Swing your staff without honor or remorse!
Damage: 8%

Merlina holds her staff like a baseball bat and tries to score a home run on the opponent's skull.
This is without a doubt her fastest and most straightforward move, useful for both spacing and punishing. There's a fair amount of range on it for a melee attack, and deals a fair amount of knockback, making it an excellent maneuver all around.

UP TILT- LAFAY'S TOUCH
Create a cloud of death with a flick of the finger!
Damage: 3%

Merlina points at the air and shortly creates a small cloud of death that lasts for 3 seconds and deals rapid hits of 3%. It has the annoying tendency to go over the heads of most grounded opponents, but it makes for a good anti-air and an effective way to control the skies.

DOWN TILT- AMPHIBIOUS CRUELTY
Counter your opponent's moves,
turn them into a frog, and kick them aside!
Damage: 11%

Tapping the command results in Merlina flashing and turning around briefly. Yes, this is none other than the dreaded counter move, although one harder to pull off than most others due to the counter stance being unusually brief. If the foe falls for this snafu, she waves her fingers, causing the opponent to turn into a frog! After they receive their amphibious makeover, Merlina maliciously punts the frog a hefty distance, making them transform back once they hit the ground, in a collapsed state.
This deals 11% damage with good knockback, but what makes this move truly bad to the bone is what happens when you knock your froggy adversary off the ledge. Once your opponent grows their frog legs, they can only jump once, and can't ledgegrab, resulting in them being horribly crippled if they must recover.

FORWARD SMASH- FACE TO FAITH
Summon your shadow to unleash
a flurry of vigorous swings!
Damage: 15~19%/18-23%/20~25%

A one of Merlina's earlier moves seemed to employ the assistance of a seemingly disembodied giant arm wielding a sword. Well here's the source of all that hubub: an imposing nameless entity henceforth known as The Dark Queen. (No, I don't care if that's technically the name of Merlina once she performs her face-heel turn, you will take my improvised terminology and you will enjoy it, filthy subhuman.) Don't worry, she's not nearly as big as she is in the pic, but she does stand far taller than Merlina herself, being slightly bigger than the big G man himself.
Triggering a forward Smash will make her briefly appear in order to do one of three moves, alternating in order every time she's summoned: a relatively-quick-but-still-quite-slow horizontal swing to the right(15~19% damage), a slightly slower but more powerful horizontal swing to the left(18-23% damage), and an even slower but far more powerful and well-ranged forward thrust. (20~25%)
As per the norm when it comes to Smash attacks, these all have some hefty knockback, making them great kill moves. Merlina just has to work a biiit harder to bait people into getting hit by her's.

DOWN SMASH- GUILLOTINE SLINGSHOT
Summon the arm of the dark queen
to lay a trap that either slices the sky
or slashes forwards!
Damage: 14~18%/17~22%

Similarly to the down special, a far more properly sized arm of the Dark Queen wielding a scimitar rises from the ground, but doesn't deal any damage to anything. Instead, the arm arches itself back, awaiting input lest it disappears after 4 seconds. What you need to do at this point is press the down smash input again for the arm to attack anything. You have two options here though: Tapping down smash lightly will make the arm unleash a vertical slash at a 120 degree arc. This works great as an anti-air, but goes over the heads of just about any opponent in front of the arm.
The second option is to hold the down smash input longer, resulting in the arm hacking horizontally. This obviously covers far less space, but it deals slightly more damage and knockback (as well as obviously covering the previous slash's blind spot.)
This is an amazing tool for harassing the everloving crap out of others. Not exactly easy to pull off due to the slow speed and obvious predictability, but who could say no to a giant arm having your back for 4 seconds at a time?


UP SMASH- GUILLOTINE SMASH
The Dark Queen appears
in the background and delivers
a mighty downwards blow!
Damage: 20~26%

A now suitably far larger Dark Queen materializes in the background next to the closest opponent. She then swings her gigantic sword down like a blood-thirsty guillotine from the heavens, dishing out some truly wicked damage and knockback.
As you could tell though, this move is far, far too slow to be practical in most cases, so it requires a smart pressure game to use effectively. Looking through the previous moves, you should be able to devise at least a few quite easily, no? If not, then hold your horses, here comes a big one...

NEUTRAL AERIAL- POLE POSITION
Position your staff in place,
and use your special moves from that location!

Beyond a shadow of a doubt, the absolute bread and butter of Merlina's pressure game. You will use this move and you will love it and complain why it doesn't say your name when you make love.
Merlina will use magic to keep her staff in place for about 10 seconds. Now when you use any special move, it'll be treated as if the staff itself is using the move, which makes her presence on the stage even more imposing than it once was. Once you perform a move or time runs out, the staff returns to her hand.
When her staff is positioned, her forward tilt is replaced with a weaker but slightly faster slap attack (2% damage).

FORWARD AERIAL- ARMS OF THE NIGHT
Grow arms out of your back and
thrust them forward!
8% damage

Similar in use to her forward tilt, this is another one of her faster moves, although one slightly slower than her ftilt.
Eight smaller arms of the Dark Queen protrude out of Merlina's back, and lunge themselves forward with the tips of their sharp fingers, dealing 8% damage in total with piddling knockback.

BACKWARDS AERIAL- DARK INCANTATION
Grow a giant eye out of your back,
and protect yourself from assualt!
Damage: 9%


While flying through the air, our dark witch here recites a prayer as a giant grotesque eye protrudes from her back. This eye blinks once, shooting out a quickly dispersed cloud that deals 9% damage.
While there's a small bit of startup time, this attack has unusually high priority, and beats out most projectiles. An overlooked attack that's sometimes quite vital to surviving against projectile-happy peasants.

DOWN AERIAL- SWORD IN THE STONE
Become the Black Knight and plunge
your sword down, turning victims
to stone!
Damage: 2%


Something of a silly-looking move, Merlina's upper half is encased by the Black Knights armor, which she materialized herself. This armor of course comes with a devilish-looking sword in hand, which she uses to plunge downward, hopefully landing on some poor fool's head.
This only does a piddling amount of damage, but successfully impaling a poor sucker has an unusual side effect: they've been turned into stone!
While your victim is petrified for 4 seconds, they can't be damaged or knocked back whatsoever, and they can't turn to stone when they're over the ledge. The intention of the move is to set up whatever nasty trick you have cooked up, something your far-too-excitable foe would normally try and avoid. While it's certainly no replacement for a solid pressure game if you're too predictable,(as they could always just dodge whatever you have incoming once they turn back) it's fun to see what you can try and get away with while your opponent can do nothing about it. Be as deviously clever as possible to make the most of this tool!

UP AERIAL- FLIP KICK
Do a flip kick!
Damage: 6%


The Black Knight materializes behind Merlina and does a flip kick.


GRAB- ARMS OF THE UNDERWORLD
Summon the Dark Queen to grab
your adversaries in 3 different ways!
Damage: 10%/14%/7~16%


Instead of getting her own hands dirty, Merlina summons the full-sized Dark Queen to grab her foes for her instead. In a unique twist, the Dark Queen has 3 different grabs, which she alternates between every time the grab button is pressed.

GRAB 1- The Dark Queen appears in the background and grabs the space directly in front of Merlina. This is the quickest grab to execute. Once she gets ahold of the foe, she shows no mercy! She raises them up and pounds them into the ground, dealing 10% damage and bringing the opponent into a pitfall state! The Dark Queen then crosses her arm(s) and laughs before disappearing.
GRAB 2- The Dark Queen's arm rises from the ground, grabbing the area in front of Merlina. If successful, the arm will drag them into the ground, and a gaggle of of swords from around the world materialize above it. They then mercilessly stab the surface, resulting in 14% damage as the opponent is spit out from the abyss. Slightly slower startup than the first grab.
GRAB 3- The Dark Queen's arm protrudes directly out of Merlina's stomach! Probably her most useful grab as the arm travels about 2 battlefield platforms ahead and acts as a tether recovery in the air. While it has decent startup time, the cooldown time is pretty nasty.
Once the arm takes a hold of the victim, a surge of dark energy pulses through the arm and deals 7% damage. You can start mashing the grab button to push even more surges of dark energy into the victim, bringing the damage up to a potential 16%.


FINAL SMASH- HAPPILY EVER AFTER
Merlina has finally obtained the power of the Smash Ball! It may not be the power of Excalibur, but it'll have to do.
Using this awesome power, she finally receives the perfect utopia she's always wanted: a kingdom that lasts forever.
Once she triggers this move, the screen will have a far lighter tint and Merlina herself will revert back to her normal look, not an inch of darkness on her, at complete and utter peace. She can no longer attack, nor will anyone else's attacks do any damage either. Everyone will respawn indefinitely, the timer freezes forever, and peaceful piano music plays in the background. It truly is a perfect kingdom, one at eternal peace, one that'll last forever and ever~.
There is of course, now no way to end the game unless you exit out or just power off your system or something.


"My eyes are filled with curiosity
You think that you have power over me
In this life, there's no room for you and me
So, turn away or face this day with me
With me"

 

TheKalmarKing

Smash Apprentice
Joined
Mar 7, 2013
Messages
162
Merlina

This is a rather in-smash set and I like that. Now the set feels really too OP. I mean, Merlina can throw a sh*tload of stuff and traps on the stage who are going to just chill out, making the opponent's life a total hell. To be fair, I think it's more a problem of scale; you should simply reduce the moves' duration. For examples, the Side B and the Down are so freakin' huge you can make a whole platform a deadzone for several seconds. A Warlock Punch from Big G takes a little more than one second so traps that last lor several seconds are just too good. Also I'm rather concerned with the down tilt: while hard to land, sure, it could be a one-hit kill at 0% which is crazy, and with all her projectiles and stuff, she can easily keep the frog offstage. It's an instant-win button if used near a ledge. Also the aerial down attack is completely off the scale; for 4 seconds? Really? Perhaps the opponent can't take damage but you can just turn the stage into a bullet hell during that time...

While I do like some aspects of the set, I'm just concerned with the balance. I'll give you a 3.
 
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