Make Your Move 26: Top 50 Is In! MYM27 starts on January 31st

[Katapultar]

✯✯✯ WELCOME TO MAKE YOUR MOVE 26 ✯✯✯

Make Your Move (MYM) is a 15-year strong writing contest centered around designing hypothetical movesets for Smash Bros. The moveset can be for any character from any medium - books, video games, anime, comics, films, mythology or real life. You can even invent an Original Character! Character love is the name of the game here.

Movesets are generally made for the most recent installment of the Smash series, that being Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as of now, but movesets for older Smash games or even Project M are allowed.


✯ MYM Overview ✯
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Moveset Creation

A moveset is made up of 23 inputs:​

• 4 Special Moves [ Neutral | Down | Side | Up ]
• 5 Standard Attacks [ Jab | Dash Attack | Forward Tilt | Down Tilt | Up Tilt ]
• 3 Smash Attacks [ Forward | Down | Up ]
• 5 Aerial Attacks [ Neutral | Forward | Back | Up | Down ]
• 6 Grab-Game Inputs [ Grab | Pummel | Forward Throw | Back Throw | Down Throw | Up Throw ]
• Plus a Stats Section [ Movement | Size | Weight | any Unique Mechanics | etc. ]

You can list them in whatever order you want. Most movesets list Special Moves first, since their unique properties often tie a moveset together as a "core" and can be relevant to the rest of the moves. For example, Shulk's Monado Arts change up how the rest of his moves are used, so it'd be helpful to list his Special Moves at the beginning. Similarly, a character's Stats should go in the beginning bit.​

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Outside of that, the order varies a lot, but moves are almost always grouped together into the five sections bullet-pointed above. Do whatever you'd like here!​

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Other optional things you might want to include:​

• Image of the character [ Recommended! ]
• Intro writeup for the character [ Recommended! ]
• Final Smash [ Recommended! ]
• Taunts
• Custom Specials
• Situational Attacks [ Ledge Attack | Getup Attack ]
• Miscellaneous Flavor [ Home Stage | Alternate Costumes | etc. ]

Having trouble writing a set? Just post in the thread or DM one of the five Leaders listed later in this post! We're always happy to check out WIP sets and provide feedback. ​

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Traditionally, movesets are posted in the thread itself, as regular posts. However, a good number of MYMers instead host movesets offsite, such as with Google Docs, for the sake of formatting control, reliability or the like. For Google Docs in particular, there is a handy [ TEMPLATE ] you can use. If you're signed into Docs, just hit file > make a copy and you're good to go.​

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Commenting

"Famous writers got to where they are due to reading a large amount of literature, and it’s the same with movesets. Commenting forces you to articulate that knowledge and put it to word; the helpfulness of this exercise cannot be overstated."​

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Movesets aren't the only form of writing that maintains MYM. All artists seek acknowledgement, whether it's critique for where they can improve or just straight-up praise. Even leaving a "Like" on the set or just saying "I liked it," is a semblance of acknowledgment. The time it takes to receive a comment varies between readers, but these days you can expect to receive at least 2 comments within 3 days of posting your set - one from Arctic Tern and myself. If you would like to write a comment yourself but are having trouble, you may find this article on writing comments helpful.​

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To emphasize the importance of reading and commenting, readers are required to post [ at least 10 Comments ] throughout the contest in order to vote. Reading every moveset in a contest is the hard part, especially when we get 20-30k behemoths, but you'll be a much stronger and more informed setmaker for the challenge - you'll learn how setmakers roll, and you might even receive inspiration for your own movesets.​

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Ranking

An extension of Commenting is to form your own [ Rankings ] - take the movesets you've read and rank them from strongest to weakest in your own opinion. Be it a ten-star system, five-star system or category-based. Make your votelist public, as it were. Ranking sets is completely optional, though.​

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Current MYM26 Rankings:​

• Katapultar
• Rychu
• Arctic Tern (with comments)
• Torgo the Bear
• GolisoPower (comments)
• Slavic
• bubbyboytoo
• Old Man Han
• KholdStare
• FrozenRoy
• majora_787 (with comments)

Jamcons

Created by KholdStare in MYM24, Jamcons are monthly, thematic mini-contests designed to give the contest extra, shorter movesets and more feedback. A participant has 4 days to write and submit a moveset that adheres to the Jamcon's theme. After that, readers - whether they posted a submission or not - have 2 weeks to comment on every entry, then nominate their favourite entry. The winner gets to choose the theme for the next Jamcon.​

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Jamcons are typically held between Friday to Tuesday at PST, which is the weekend for most people. The first Jamcon of a contest normally starts two weeks after the contest opens, to give time for people to read the opening movesets first, but it is up to the discretion of previous Jamcon's winner. I will update the OP with the submission and commenting periods of any Jamcons that are active at the time.​

Contest's End

MYM25 went on for six months, but the sheer quantity of quality sets posted made it an insanely competitive contest. To dial it down, Make Your Move 26's submission period is set to [ end on July 31st ], so little over four months this time around to submit your movesets. After that, it's a reading period where readers catch up on all the moveset submissions, should they desire to vote.​

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Once a reader has posted at least 10 Comments and voting opens, they can submit a votelist to the contests' Vote Gurus on Smashboards via DM. More on reading + voting deadlines and the Vote Gurus when the submission period ends. Voters have up to 44 Votes to use, each split into 3 types of varying strength:​

• 8 Super Votes [ 9 Points ]
• 16 Regular Votes [ 5 Points ]
• 20 Weak Votes [ 2 Points ]

A number of votes from each type can be upgraded into a [ Vote Plus ] (+), which is worth a few extra points:​

• 1 Super Vote Plus [ 11 Points ]
• 3 Regular Vote Pluses [ 6 Points ]
• 5 Weak Vote Pluses [ 3 Points ]

The Super Vote Plus (SV+) is typically awarded to your favourite moveset in the contest, a badge of honour for any movesetter(s) lucky enough to receive it. To give you a general idea of what a votelist looks like, here are all the votelists from last contest. Be warned - 44 votes might sound like a lot, but it won't be enough room to fit in every moveset that you'll like!​

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You can't vote for your own movesets, of course. Otherwise everyone would SV+ their best moveset and so on.​

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The Top 50

Once the reading + voting deadline has been reached and everyone has voted, the Leaders will tally up all the votes, break up the ties and pretty up the presentation to finalize everything. Then it's Top 50 time, baby! It's what MYM lives and dies for: a glorious list of the 50 best sets in the contest, or at least according to the clashing opinions of everyone who chooses to vote. A moveset needs at least two votes or the magic touch of a Super Vote in order to place, but chances are you'll need more than 9 points to place. Top 50s can consists of less than 50 sets, but be warned - MYM contests have become more fiercely competitive and stronger in quality since MYM24. Good movesets have and will missed placing in recent times, but there's no shame in not placing here.​

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After that, we wait a few weeks and then go do it all again in the next contest. It's an endless cycle of movesetting, until the day Make Your Move ends or one moves on with their life.​

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✯ Beyond The Thread ✯
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MYM-Operated Communities and Sites

Our Discord [ LINK ] is the lifeblood of the MYM community - you'll find a ton of conversation that that goes far beyond the Make Your Move threads, including moveset comments and discussion. It is highly recommended to join if you wish to be a part of the Make Your Move community, whether it's for direct movesetting discussion or just talking about hobbies and life in general. Our community is more peaceful than it's ever been!​

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Equally important are our ancient Wordpress websites:​

• The Bunker [ LINK ] archives MYM's older works: moveset lists from previous contests, links to older MYM threads as well as MYM-related articles, which anyone is free to write if they have a Wordpress account. The home page contains handy links to "The MYM'er Encyclopedia" (a list of every set made by every relevant and modern setmaker, including more recent newcomers) and "Every Moveset listed by Franchise", which is handy if you want to see whether an existing character has had a moveset made for them.
• The Stadium [ LINK ] displays an up-to-date list of every moveset that's been posted in MYM's current contest. It also, on lesser occasions, is used to post Top 50 and raw vote data from a contest when it ends, as well as announce a change of Leadership.

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Unaffiliated Resources

KuroganeHammer [ LINK ] and UltimateFrameData [ LINK ] both are treasure troves of technical details about moves in Smash Ultimate, as well as a handful of other games such as Smash 4. The latter even offers frame-by-frame hitbox visuals for every single attack in the game! Check them out if you want a reference point for how much damage a move should deal, how quick it should be, or anything like that.​

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The Smash Wiki [ LINK ] also has a decent amount of data, including statistics like character jump height, terminology, Smash Bros trivia from across the series, and more information of possible interest.​

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Redditor u/Nachowcheese has created an exhaustive spreadsheet [ LINK ] with KO percentages and trajectories for each of Ultimate's attacks, as experienced by the middling Mii Swordfighter from the center of Final Destination.​

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There exists a thread on Smashboards [ LINK ] which houses GIFs for some characters' attack hitboxes. The data is from Smash 4 and not Ultimate, but it's still a handy resource for the range and animation of moves.​

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Art of Smash [ LINK ] is a video series by Izaw about the intricacies of how Smash 4 is played. The first four videos are a little bit outdated, since Smash Ultimate has changes from Smash 4 (see the next paragraph for a better resource). The useful part is the videos that come after: an expansive list of character-specific videos, going over lots of tricks, combos, and techniques which can inspire moves in a MYM set. Most important, perhaps, is the videos' emphasis on the "playstyle" of a character, or the method by which one makes a moveset feel like a cohesive whole. In MYM, understanding this concept separates the wheat from the chaff.​

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There's also an ongoing sequel series to Art of Smash, called Art of Smash Ultimate, made by the same person and for the same purpose: [ LINK ]​

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✯ Leadership ✯​

The [ Leaders ] are five old fossils who have been making their moves for more or less a decade. We moderate the MYM community where needed, and just serve as faces to turn to if any of you need problems or help with Make Your Move stuff.​

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The Leaders are:​

• BKupa666 - Oldest of all the leaders, he's the big daddy with an even bigger association with King K. Rool. Loves Heavyweights, DKC, MCU, Breaking Bad and sneaking giant passion projects into the thread.
• UserShadow7989 - A friendly fellow who goes by the name ProfessorHawke on Discord. Best known for Original Characters and creating the Witchverse - an OC universe with entries from a good few setmakers - but is also big on LiveALive and Yu-Gi-Oh!.
• Katapultar - I'm an agent of esotericism and chaos who will go anywhere for cute and comical anime girls - especially ninjas. My character choices tend to be among the most obscure in Make Your Move.
• FrozenRoy - If it's cool, he likes it. Known for his strong grasp on Smash fundamentals, making joint sets with everyone and being one of the most gregarious members of the community. His comments brim with detail.
• Slavic - Reviver of the User Rankings, Slavic has a variety of tastes that range from classic animes (Madoka, classic Yu-Gi-Oh!, My Hero Academia) to MCU and various video games like Resident Evil, and of course Fire Emblem which 80% of the MYM community loves. A master of comedic writing, you'll never be bored when reading a Slavic set.

There are more reliable members beyond us, too!​

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• KholdStare - An old flame who took a hiatus and returned to us in MYM21. He's a consistently funny guy and now packing great vibes. He has also been working on a grand project to remake all of his first 40 movesets to modern sensibilities - a feat that no one else has undertaken on such a scale so far. Look out for that this contest!
• Junahu - Another old and influential setmaker who returned recently, Junahu is historically known for having some of the most stylish presentation of any setmaker. He is also the keeper of the Bunker - the icons on the site are his handiwork.
• Smash Daddy - One of the absolute biggest and most influential setmakers who truly lives up to his username. Effectively a 6th leader, the grind of real life has slowed Smady down over the last few contests, but he is still a presence and hanging in there with a few joint sets. Also a giant K. Rool advocate alongside Kupa, which is very important for everyone to know.
• n88 - A former leader who returned last contest after a long absence. The original Marvel guy, also associated with Persona 5 and Arc System games like BlazBlue. Sets range from short and funny to big and serious, but they all come with a witty charm. One of MYM's more comedic characters.
• Rychu - An older setmaker and master of stylish Google Docs presentations to fit the character - you'll always find something inspirational with these sets. Currently very associated with One Piece, with two OP 10th placings over the last two contests.
• ForwardArrow - One of MYM's most long-standing and influential members with more wins than any other setmaker. He's a former leader who has stepped back to focus on other writing projects, but he can be relied upon for strong commentary and even stronger movesets when the inspiration strikes. A fan of dark, serious works like the Fate series.
• BridgesWithTurtles - A recent MYM returnee like n88, Jay aims for in-Smash movesets and many characters that could make it into Smash, primarily Nintendo and Sega characters.
• WeirdChillFever - A duck-orientated fellow and enjoyer of Ducktales, Fire Emblem and Nintendo franchises. Tends to put all their duck eggs in one basket with one big, ambitious project every contest.
• GolisoPower - A social butterfly who has picked up some great tastes from MYM, like the Fate and LiveALive series. Goliso is a very frequent presence in the chat, and is perhaps the setmaker who is most associated with modern hypothetical story modes (where we all discuss story mode potential with every set that's been posted in a given contest - it's very fun, and another reason you should join the Discord if you haven't already).
• bubbyboytoo - An advocate for simple sets who can always be relied upon to write clean, pleasant movesets. Strongly associated with Kirby and Hololive.
• Almand - A fighting game guru with a joyous persona. Doesn't frequent the chat often, but the works they do post are big-time passion projects. Their Alex moveset from last contest weighed in at 40,000 words!
• dilliam - A fellow who has recently associated themselves with the Nostalgia Critic. Has been quiet over the last few contests, but is said to have some evil plans for this contest...
• Arctic Tern - A long-time lurker who finally joined in MYM25 and blessed us with quick comments and a dozen quality movesets. Associated with many anime-themed video games like Touhou, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Fate and many others. Also advocates for the Sam & Max games.
• Old Man Han/Daehypeels - Do you know about the FFC community? Neither did we, until they came on the last day of MYM25 and offered up 40+ movesets. Han knows where it's at in MYM with the big heavyweights and villains, while Daehypeels managed to slip into the Top 50 last contest - more difficult and competitive than anay contest before it. With FFC and MYM now one, you can bet that we have more setmakers than ever... and naturally a more competitive MYM than ever.

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Now that you know the crew, take a look at the finest MYM25 had to offer from its Top 10. They're long, but worth the read!​

1. Hakumen by n88 and FrozenRoy
2. Jodie Reynolds by UserShadow7989
3. Elder Princess Shroob by BKupa666
4. Remilia Scarlet by Arctic Tern
5. Sleaze by Almand
6. Oono Tsukuyo by Katapultar
7. Cranky Kong by BKupa666 and Smash Daddy
8. Berkeley and Cartwright by UserShadow7989
9. Kuda Izuna by Katapultar
10. Whitebeard by Rychu and FrozenRoy

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Rules

Make Your Move has [ RULES ], just like the rest of Smashboards. In the rare case where someone does break the rules, make sure you report them instead of replying to their post.​

Now... are you all ready to Make Your Move?​

 

[bubbyboytoo]

It's pizza time.​

 

[Katapultar]

Natusme Iroha from Blue Archive!

 

[OldManHan]

Kasen Ibaraki, the One-Armed, Horned Hermit​

 

[GolisoPower]

Gensokyo. A land full of wonders, mysticism, and mystery.

But inhabiting this place are some of the most dangerous creatures in the world: yokai.

Around every corner, behind every tree, there will be some sort of monster lurking in the shadows of Gensokyo, searching for humans to haunt, or in some cases devour.

But the monsters that one should really fear are the ones of immense power.

An ancient mistress with power over the very concept of boundaries itself.

A sage who serves as the secret god of the entire land.

A one-armed oni disguising as a mere hermit.

A greed-fueled taotie who sought greater power over the Animal Realm and the outside world.

A flower yokai who continues to grow in power over countless years.

A little oni who could shatter the moon.

A one-horned strongwoman with limitless strength

A goddess whose bodies cover the Earth, Moon, and Otherworlds.

But amidst them all, there was one who stood above all else…

A young vampire who could lay destruction to anything.​

 

[UserShadow7989]

It's not my best work, but here's part of a little movement in progress- Rumia, from Touhou.

 

[majora_787]

I'm not at all sorry for the sins I've committed. Happy opening day. Have a moveset.

 

[Slavic]

I'm not at all sorry for the sins I've committed. Happy opening day. Have a moveset.

View attachment 369478

it's friday tho

 

[Katapultar]

Links to Rankings for this contest - stealing from n88 and going pictureless + linking to that set's comment.

Spoiler: Peppino Spaghetti

The first moveset of MYM’s newest favourite game, Peppino is a Wario + Sonic hybrid of a momentum character that would certainly be fun to play in Smash. His Side Special in particular feels like it captures the feel of Pizza Tower gameplay very well. In usual Bubby fare I’ve come to realise more, I really like how you seamlessly throw together information in your sentences “With a similar speed to Fire Fox, he’ll travel up to a full Battlefield length upward before petering out and ending the move, dealing 12% to anyone he hits with strong KO-worthy upwards knockback, making a fun anti-air tool especially as Peppino is super armored during his ascent.” for example - I’m keeping it in mind as a way to improve my own writing style.

“Man, I really gotta stop making movement Specials with a million options you can do out of them.” No need to stop! These types of moves are fun if all the movement options have some kind of purpose.

“ average startup time for a recovery (whatever that is, I’m not keeping track)” Probably 1-15 frames? Like Incineroar’s recovery - slower than something like Mario or Marth’s recovery, but faster than Wolf, Lucario or Sephiroth.

I imagine that if Peppino were in Smash, his Up Special would have him rocket straight up cartoonishly from eating the spicy pizza, which would match the speed movement pace of his character- a lift-based recovery like Robo Burner has a more “calculated” feel to it. Not an issue in this moveset, of course!

Peppino’s Specials feel a bit weak as a “hook” for me, though Down Special comes a bit close because combo-based mechanics are fun. This leaves the non-Specials to carry the moveset: most of these are nice and simple, but I think they’re a bit weak for not talking about some applications that they could, like how they work together with other moves or in the grand scheme of Peppino’s goal in a match. A few examples:

• F-Smash could be spiced up a little by talking about moves and ways that you could goad an opponent into taking that big shot. I am not as sold on its purpose in the set in its current state.
• Neutral Special being a fast grab that moves you forward could bait out options meant to counter grabs like jumps or dodging? You could absolutely do 50/50s not dissimilar to US’s melee style, though I’m not sure if you care about that kind of deeper melee given your comments and your votelists.
• F-air dealing low-angled knockback could lead to tech-chase situations. If a move deals strong enough knockback on a low angle and there’s ground for the victim to land on, they’ll be forced to tech their knockback and can eat a follow-up if they fail to tech. You see this in a lot of Smash moves, and it can bring some spice to your melee game.
• I’m not against simple little grabs. Some advice for improving your grab games: consider how an opponent might DI, DI mix-ups like what Fairy Knight Gawain and Bubble Witch Marin did in MYM24 (the latter you SV’d). Aside from them, simple throws would be carried by the kinds of follow-ups you could get from them, like the possibility of landing an Up Smash from your Up Throw.

This set did have some cool moves though! Dash Attack is fun and funny for its hitgrab that carries opponents along (a different take on the shoulder bash style Dash Attack), U-Smash borrows from Sana’s “more hits = more knockback” trick and has the paralyze effect if only the last hit connects. And B-air’s funny hard-to-hit-with sweetspot is the type of funky melee hitbox that I like to see in movesets. “Once per air trip” gimmicks on Aerials is the concept that would be fun to play around with with a bigger focus on it. Also, D-throw has a funny animation. The collateral damage mechanic is fun - not a particular merit to the set when Peppino has no tools in his set to make use of it, but it would definitely be appreciated in practice. Sort of reminds me of Wheelie’s tag-team mechanics.

In all honesty? Peppino not being some S-tier set conceptually is very understandable for what you had to work with and your current melee skill level. The set is still very fun all the same, thanks to many Pizza Tower references and extras. The intro even got me a little interested and curious about the game, talking about the game’s popularity and development cycle, cool to see that and know a little more about why this game is all the rage with MYM. Peppino is around Wheelie-tier for me, but he was arguably more fun for having a good deal more to work with character-wise - I think you captured the essence of his series quite well, so he’s definitely a successful (and fitting 1st moveset for MYM26) set from you.

Spoiler: Flandre Scarlet

Oh, another Goliso/Tern joint set! Funny how Goliso jumped from Passionlip > Meltryllis w. Tern in MYM24 and 25, and then Tern made Remilia in MYM25 and now we got this set in MYM26. Will this be an ongoing trend between the two of you? Grab Special and destroying stuff is a fun way to translate her destructive ability, and feels kind of similar to Melt Virus in that it has a list of applications in different situations. “Destroying” a blast zone sounds weird to imagine, but I assume it generates a hitbox next to the blast zone that would kill pretty much instantly if you land it. Not being able to destroy your opponent was a pretty smart call for this set, much as I was expecting it (to just deal them damage and knockback, not OHKO).

Neutral Special is actually a very cool take on duplicates: a simple log-in control scheme where you can save your progress by summoning the clones, then use the move again to release them and have them attack one-by-one. Even create your own little “create your own combos” scenario if the cloned moves would connect. It is pretty reminiscent of Elder Princess Shroob, and thinking on it I don’t think it’s too strong in spite of some of Flandre’s projectile-based moves - there’s the 0.8x damage multiplier to consider, and the clones only attack one after the other. The clones and their projectiles also work very well with Flandre’s tag-and-destroy grab Special to detonate their projectiles - I think it would be difficult for Flandre to tag most of the projectiles that she fires on her own, given lag and how slow the destruction orbs move. D-Smash in particular is one of the coolest moves in the set for how it interacts with tagged projectiles, and serves as one of those cool pay-off moves for a great destruction orb set-up that brings things together.

There are a few parts of the set that I’m a little unsure of. Does the Down Special cage stay around Flandre, or does it stay where it was summoned? Its use as a wall for bouncing is well-documented, a bit 50/50 on how balanced it is when Flandre already has clones and projectiles for mass stage control and, though hitting the cage or Flandre landing a hit seem to break it. Destroying the ledge is probably more potent than the set would give credit for - especially when you can do it on demand when you have the set-up, and the set states that detonating stuff is really quick. Perhaps the lag for destroying ledges should be a bit slower? All other moves feel fine, but I think D-air is overtuned for its sheer range + quick start-up and duration, making it feel too powerful as an edgeguarding tool when combined with Flandre’s jumps.

Balance uncertainties aside, I’d say that Flandre is one of Goliso’s stronger sets! (Feels like mostly a Goliso set with a few Tern moves here going by the writing, opposite to Melt) A strong base concept and solid enough moves outside of the Specials, though I think Side Special was weak for a Special and Down Special I’m not sure about. I may well have voted for Flandre last contest - and that’s impressive for Goliso when Veronica and Eldlich felt like bigger and more ambitious sets compared to the shorter Flandre.

 

[Rychu]

More Italian Wario (Peppino by bubbyboytoo )

Another Moustachio'd man to start our contest, and in an archetype I love, the grappler! He even addresses one of my least favorite parts of that archetype, the idea that they always have to be slow and lumbering. The mechanics of the momentum-based moves are super fun and work very well into his grappler-combo playstyle: he's essentially the ultimate snowball grappler. Your move descriptions are easy and breezy to read, making Peppino a very nice moveset to go through.

The Neutral and Side Specials are the obvious stars of the show here and I think there's a lot of really fun interactivity between them, what with Peppino basically never stopping his momentum. I like the implication here for his ability to go absolutely buck-wild and carry foes offstage, then be able to literally claw his way back onstage. It gives him crazy energy that, as far as I can tell from the gifs in the set, gets across the absolute goblin energy present in this man. Pairing off with the two most central moves, Down Special introduces a fun mechanic that really actively builds off of them in the combo meter and a fun parry mechanic that doubles as a way to effectively start and stop your momentum at a moment's notice. Up Special isn't too much to write home about mechanically unfortunately, being the most """""normal"""""" move of the bunch but also allowing Peppino to keep the pressure up with a rob-esque flight mechanic. It's neat, I really enjoy the base of the set!

Not to say they're inherently worse in any way, but moving on to the standards has us encounter more traditional moves that don't exactly break new ground, but each (aside from jab) continues the theme of Peppino being a ground-based combo grappler and giving him some interesting movement options, especially with an up tilt that moves him backwards and two that move him forward varying distances. The smashes bring fun flavor as well, with Side Smash being a big f-off disjoint to keep opponents in check to respect his surprising range and an up smash with multiple hits that each have a different use-case, my favorite being the third hit that effectively acts to reset to neutral (which Peppino obviously excels in). Even down smash, my least favorite of the section, gives him some control over positioning!

If I were to give criticisms, I'd say that they rest in the grab game which feels, while not functional, a bit half-baked and borderline useless when compared to his command grab which can do everything these do, but better and also more. Some of the appeal in a command grab to me is the idea that it provides a some sort of unique option out of it (or into it) without totally replacing the standard mechanic of a grab which, in this case, it feels like it does. TLDR, the grab game is basically a null section because of how good the command grab is and because the throws don't provide any utility you cant find with your much better special option.

Overall, Peppino's a fun if flawed moveset that looks nice and has a lot of really fun ideas going for it at the cost of using up most of its most exciting stuff in just 2 or 3 inputs, leaving a lot of the rest of the set feeling either redundant or without much point thanks to better options existing. Still, its a fun read, and your writing style basically carries the reader through the set so effortlessly it'll shock them that they read 10k words in such a short time! I'm gonna be giving Peppino a C.

Anime Girl #26.1 (Natsume Iroha by Katapultar )

So I really love the art style of this series, very good cute girls in tanks is a great aesthetic. As always, you're a master of making very long and somewhat complicated mechanics (in this case bringing a dang tank) easy to digest with a very to-the-point straightforwardness that gets the veritable encyclopedia of information out in an easy-to-swallow pill. Funny that we were talking about vehicle sets in VC when this was posted, but mechanically there's nothing to complain about and actually quite a lot that, from an imagined control side, feels very natural and good for this thing, especially since the tank is far more mobile than she is on her own. Translating a tactics RPG character into being a construct-heavy pseudo-puppet fighter is one of the most obvious correct choices that one can make in terms of relating the gameplay of a character's series into smash. I worry a bit about her frankly ridiculous recovery being, well, ridiculous along with letting her set up an extra off-stage platform that can just stay around indefinitely, though it has enough set-up built into even making that happen that it seems fine. I dunno, I'm no scientist.

I think giving the tank only a select few specific attacks was the smart way to do this, making this feel more like a giant pilotable construct (which is of course what it IS, Rychu...) than a full-on stance change that completely upends whatever else she's doing, along with the fact that these are rather sparse across inputs and mostly act about the way you'd expect a tank to act (except for the rocket jump, which just helps in the event of platform fighter). Makes sense for a commander to always have tools at the ready, as does the idea of continually forcing opponents into 50/50 situations. Like a real army brat, she's basically made to stress everyone else out with the insane amount of pressure she can throw at them at any time. Shielding in the matchup is basically a no-go given her plethora of options to absolutely demolish it, pick them up, and basically make them do what she wants by incentivizing them to attack her in the way that puts them in the most danger. It's an oppressive set to be sure, though given the Tank's status as being gigantic and easy to hit it balances out well enough. Down Smash is in particular a treat of a move. Personally, I think it's the real MVP here given how much she can do with it on top of it being a crazy pressure tool. Blowing up your own tank to make a big explosion really speaks to me as a player who, when I pick Hero, continuously resets to try and get magic burst or kamikaze.

I'm not without criticism, though it's fairly light: other than not being totally convinced of the trade-off of strength and set-up present in her recovery, there are few standout moves outside of the huge and flashy ones, particularly in her standards and aerials. Not to say there's anything wrong with them, just that they're, for the most part, functional and perfectly fine enough. Caveats here are: Forward Tilt as a very simple and solid utility that, while not the most in-depth move mechanically or interaction-wise is probably her actual bread-and-butter when in melee given its positioning potential in regards to how it interacts with her subordinates or its status as being safe on block, and Back Air which positions itself as being situational in way that I imagine Iroha will always be working to make the situation a reasonable reality. I'm also a big fan of moves that are confrontational in a "yeah this is a hard read, what of it" way.

So yeah, overall I quite like Iroha. It's a very you moveset, if ya catch my drift- just out there enough to warrant careful reading but proficient enough in its ideas that it's not hard to wrap your brain around how it actually works. Going on a gut feeling, Im gonna be giving Iroha a B+: a very good, above-average score for a very good, above-average, and very entertaining set.

Anime Girl #26.3 (Flandre Scarlet by GolisoPower and Arctic Tern )

Jumping just a bit ahead because I know Kasen is going to have some commentary soon (and also because it's a bit longer Im sorry Han I'll get to it hopefully tomorrow), another anime girl. Nice. Don't know nothin bout no toe hoes but the girls sure are cute and the bullets sure are hells so let us see what this vampire can do!

She smol and she is ridiculously powerful. A real Yoshikage Kira situation here, though it looks like she can target theoretical concepts such as blast lines for her destruction. I'm gonna say that Neutral B feels ridiculously strong: I know they're not throwing out their own orbs on attacks, but being able to just store up a powerful attack and have it attached to a clone, as well as then making that clone a pretty powerful moving and attacking bomb that can go off at seemingly any time with (seemingly) very little starting lag with almost no downside other than it being like kinda technically difficult to physically pull off (which is basically not a factor in either execution in irl fighting games or in a hypothetical moveset contest). Gut's telling me that this mechanic is unbalanced in a not super fun way to fight against. I have similar feelings for the Down Special which, while I understand we're translating a bullet hell character (and a very strong one from the read of her lore), is ridiculously oppressive, basically making an 8 second-lasting gigantic area of effect of static hitboxes that either a: will hit the opponent, b: HAVE to be reflected to not (and if you don't have a reflector you're SOL), c: CLANK against your opponent's attacks which is going to lock them into some form of stun giving Flandre free rein to go buck wild, or d: have them hit Flandre through them which is going to be near impossible given options a-c. Good luck recovering through this too, now that I think about it: your recovery's gonna clank against these things if she puts it up near a ledge (which she can obliterate anyway) but, hey, she's got a bad Ness match-up.

I don't mean to be overly negative in tone here because the concepts here are fun and pretty unique, and her normals do give way for the Tohou stuff I'd expect what with the bullets and the hells and whatnot that is, overall, a good time. The sheer (no better way to put it) AUDACITY of her destruction orb and destroy everything mechanics feel very on the level of something like Melt's character-specific virus pool in terms of sheer... Goliso-ness, I guess would be the term I'd use. You've got a pretty unique perspective on how to approach setmaking which, when applied to the right project has been proven to be wildly popular if (In the case of Eldlich) not paid off in Top 50 rankings so far. I'm not sure of how involved Tern was in making this set, to be honest, I read far more of Goliso in this than of Tern, but I'd probably say this is the least favorite of your sets I've read. Unfortunately, I don't think Flandre is the set for me, but I do appreciate the crazy stuff you come up with, and the set does have some genuine high points like her D-Smash which I think is just awesome. I'm ranking Flandre at a D+: a ranking for sets I don't care for but still have a spark I can appreciate.

 

[Arctic Tern]

I don't have just one opening day set... I have three!

Links are provided here, and here. I do believe my other opening day set would take interest in them as well for different reasons, so they're all linked!

 

[BrazilianGuy]

So, not gonna lie, when I entered mym25 on the final day I couldn't really get much done, that was both due to the overwhelming ammount of movesets to read and because I had more important things to worry about in my personal life, such as finishing high school and entering college. Now with both of those things out of the way + being able to read sets as they come out, I hope I can participate more on mym 26. It shouldn't be that hard when compared to the little I did on the last one. With all of that out of the way, happy opening day and nice MYM to all.


Also here is a moveset: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jRCPkjpVHcEYbOWIaPfvR2AXteHR5zG0ABjcKUAqUGs/edit?usp=sharing​

 

[Slavic]

I'm always envious of people who can regularly make really cool introductions for their set link-up posts...

Anyways, here's another pink-haired anime girl!

​

 

[FazDude]

Hey everyone! This is my first MYM post; I've been lurking these contests since joining the site, but now I think it's time I properly join in. I do plan on making a moveset later down the line, but for now... It's Pizza Time!

Italian Man Literally Too Angry To Die (Peppino by bubbyboytoo )
I've had Pizza Tower brainrot for quite some time, so Peppino stood out to me as the set I wanted to read first. I'm really glad I did, too; I'm loving this kit!

First off, I'd like to compliment how well the set captures the cartoony, chaotic nature of Pizza Tower. There's a ton of moves that just sound really fun in the Smash setting, plus some I never even thought of, such as the Up Special. Overall, Peppino sounds like he'd be a blast to play as in 3D just for the raw visual aesthetic alone.

That said, that wouldn't matter much if the kit itself didn't flow well. That said, it flows pretty well! Again, it captures the feel of Pizza Tower to a tee, with an emphasis on speed and finesse. Using Taunt as a counter is a great idea, and again, Satan's Choice isn't my first pick for a recovery, but it's fitting for Peppino's gameplan. Every single move in Peppino's kit feels like it fits, for that matter, and it does an excellent job capturing the chaotic, yet hard-to-master nature of his home game.

I do have a few critiques to give, however. I think you poured too much into the Neutral Special command grab; The sheer number of options it gives kinda renders his regular grab irrelevant (which is a shame, since I really like his throws). In addition, giving Peppino his whole suite of Mach Run options feels a little too busted for a platfighter - The climbing up walls thing stands out as something I feel would be broken. (I'd also swap the inputs for Neutral and Side Special, but that's just me and is far from a dealbreaker.)

Overall, though - I had fun with Peppino. Even if half of his specials feel overcentralizing and render his regular grab game a moot point, his kit as a whole is fluid, fun to play, and captures the speed and chaos of Pizza Tower very well. My final verdict?

 

[BrazilianGuy]

Spoiler: Peppino

Oh yeah, is Pizza Time. This set reminds me of why I need to buy this game, it's visuals are so fun, goofy and full of life, controlling Peppino honestly sounds like something tricky but makes you feel like a God once you get the hang of, I mean that both on the actual game and on the set. I love how many options he has out of his Side Special, and even out of it, stuff like Up Air and B-Air sound incredibly fun! I also just found him trying to run in the air with his Side Special kinda funny so thats neat. I didn't see Taunt coming as a Special but I really liked the implementation, I also think there is no better way to finish a combo then by doing one big taunt to end things off. I also like how he has similarities to Wario (mainly stats and the Dash Attack) but with his own sauce to them, much like Pizza Tower itself in a way. The Up Special is fun but also the weakest part of the set to me, not bad just not as cool as the others. His smash attacks tho? I love em all, from Wielding a Gun, to the Up Smash and even the break dance he shares with his mustachio fellas, awesome stuff. Overall a great first set for MYM 26, incredibly solid. I give it a Time to get Funky/10

 

[Arctic Tern]

Opening day comments here!

Edit: Axel, Cu Chulainn, and Petra included!

 

[Torgo the Bear]

Welcome to number 26! I hope to be able to keep myself in the mood to really participate this time around.

so anyway I have some comments and rankings

 

[Perkilator]

"Go Straight!"​

 

[n88]

I have no anime girl to offer, best I can do is anime man.

 

[FrozenRoy]

"I am of the royal family, but I am a warrior before that. I must fight to live and to protect my home."

Petra Macneary​

Petra is one of the recruitable student characters from Fire Emblem: Three Houses, hailing from the Black Eagles house. She is the heir to the throne of Brigid, a lush tropical archipelago and vassal state of the Adrestian Empire who was subjugated after the failed joint invasion of the empire with the continent of Dagda, a war which cost the life of Petra's father and caused her to be sent to the Empire as a "token of good will" (or, in more accurate terms: A political hostage).

Hard-working, fierce and intelligent, Petra hates Brigid's position as a vassal state and seeks to one day force the Empire to recognize it as an equal: If acquired in other routes (and as per her likely original goal), she seeks to break the treaty binding Brigid to the Empire and destroy it, but on Crimson Flower (or if she is not recruited) her loyalty is more genuine and she seeks to become equal partners rather than destroy it (which, in her endings, she DOES succeed at!). This is likely helped by her close relation to the other Black Eagles, as while she dislikes the Empire's current state, she does not dislike the people within it (as Shamir puts it in their Support together: "Makes sense. You can hate a country without hating its people.").

A non-native speaker of Fodlan's langauge, she has difficulty utilizing it but is very eager to learn more. Her problems primarily stem from grammatical and tense issues, which makes sense. She is a natural hunter (as emphasized by her personal skill, Hunter's Boon) and loves the outdoors, which remind her of home, and is an excellent swimmer. She is bad at math.

Like all students, Petra grows up in the 5 year timeskip between Parts 1 and 2, [add more later, thinking of rewriting this and the above section some]

Petra is the primary speedster character of the Black Eagles house, having a strong base speed and excellent speed growth that makes it easier for her to double opponents that combined with her solid (though not spectacular) strength makes her great at one hit kills. It also makes her excellent at avoiding attacks, which is vital for her as she has particularly low defense and Resistance that can seriously do her in. She is primarily a Sword user, but has high versatility thanks to also having strengths in axes and bows. It is not uncommon for Petra to also learn Lance skills, as with her Flying strength she is a natural fit into the Pegasus Knight Master Class. She is highly likely to enter the Thief -> Assassin line, which is the class line she uses when encountered as an enemy, which fits into her strength with both a sword and a bow. She has penalties to both Reason and Faith and a barren magical pool, making her nigh-useless in any magic class. She does not have a Crest.

Her personal skill is Hunter's Boon, which grants Petra a flat +20 crit chance on her attacks when an enemy is at 50% or less health. Combined with her strong Dexterity, Petra can be an absolute crit machine and a master at finishing off even slightly injured enemies: Since if they drop below 50% HP on the first hit, Petra gets her crit buff on the 2nd: Even if she only does 20% damage to an enemy at 60% health, she has a good chance to crit and kill if she doubles!

(Happy St. Patrick's Day, Nate! This was Preview #10 on my previews list.)

Statisticals​

Petra is an extremely fast character, with her ground speed of 2.26 putting her in 8th right below Greninja (2.288) but above Mewtwo (2.255). She also has noticeably low initial dash frames (7 normal, tied with Corrin and Sheik for lowest in the game, 11 pivot) which makes her approaches buttery smooth and an excellent dash dancer. Her overall size is roughly equal to Roy, another quick-twitch swordsman. While extremely fast Petra is also very frail, with a weight of 78 tying her with Sheik as the 6th lightest character in Smash Brothers. She has high traction.

Petra's air speed is just as blazing as her ground speed, with her air speed essentially a hair's breath from Roy/Chrom at 1.3 (They have 1.302, so essentially irrelevant) that puts her 6th. She also has noticeably high air acceleration, with a 0.03 base (tied for 9th) and a 0.07 additional that gives her a max air acceleration of 0.1 (tied for 9th). Her 1.825 fall speed puts her in-between two large ties with the 7th highest base fall speed, which is great for her shorthop game but further harms her durability by making her extremely combo susceptible. Like Roy she has a low to the ground short hop that is just great for short-hop gameplay, but she has better jump height on both of her other jumps (slightly above average first jump, good second jump). Her second jump also comes with a high-flying, acrobatic animation! She can also do a snazzy wall jump.

Personal Skill: Hunter's Boon​

"I am aware of your weakness!"​

Petra's personal skill, Hunter's Boon, enters Smash Brothers as her personal mechanic! This is pretty simple. When an opponent reaches a certain high percent or is struck by Petra's Neutral Special, they are marked as Hunted which is indicated by a glowing, light purple aura around them. The percentage varies based on the foe's weight just like her skill is based on the foe's HP. Higher weight foes take more percentage to activate. For reference, Pichu is marked at 55% while Bowser is marked at 128% and Mario is marked at 91%.

To be exact, the formula is: 55% + (Opponent's Weight - Pichu's Weight). So Bowser is 55% + (135 - 62 = 73) = 128%. Using this, you can figure out what any character's hunted range is!

Specialities​

Neutral Special: Hunter's Mark​

Petra takes out her bow, which has the appearance of the game's Silver Bow, and aims it carefully (she even closes one of her eyes to focus!) before shooting off a single arrow. The attack has pretty long starting lag as a result of this, the projectile itself only dealing 8% damage but it does have pretty dang long range that makes it viable from most of the stage. The ending lag is mediocre and average, allowing Petra to get behind the projectile thanks to her amazing speed but not good at follow-ups except at ranges you wouldn't really want to use this.

While Petra can use this as a counter-projectile too, it is rather poor at that as most projectile users probably have better options given the starting lag, although it can work and gives Petra the option. The main reason to use this attack is for it's on-hit effect, as it marks the opponent as Hunted complete with the aura for the next 10 seconds. The arrow even sticks in the opponent the entire time, falling out when the effect ends!

Further arrows against Marked targets does not cause the effect to stack, but instead the attack is stronger against an opponent who is Marked, striking them in a weak spot for an enhanced 16% damage that kills at around 110%. Note that, as per normal for my sets, this kill percent is for Mario from the middle of Final Destination, so adjust accordingly for lighter/heavier characters. Normally I wouldn't bring this up, but given the nature of Hunter's Boon it is more important to directly state. This is a MUCH better attack and well worth the cost if an opponent is Marked, giving Petra a long range option opponents have to respect to at least some degree, although the laggy nature of the starting lag makes it more than reactable. It also can be a long range whiff punish. Remember that opponents will naturally activate Hunter's Boon as their percentage increases, so this move naturally gets much more useful as the match goes on. Sniping an opponent offstage once their percent is high enough for Hunter's Boon to activate is a great way to finish off stocks!

Marking an opponent early has lots of uses. Some of Petra's moves against hunted opponents are much more about damage racking than killing, so being able to get it off early rather than later can lead to some much stronger damage. In addition, various kill moves of Petra's actually kill EARLIER than Hunter's Boon naturally triggers, so making sure an opponent has been Marked can lead to Petra getting some early kills.

Side Special: Brigid Flip​

Petra flips forward, her entire body spinning horizontally (visually, this looks like one of her dodge animations in the Assassin class), as a command jump forward. It doesn't go very high, although it is tall enough to get over Ganondorf's height, and how far it goes depends on if the input was tilted or smashed. Tilting gives it enough distance to leap from one edge of a battlefield platform to the other edge perfectly. Smashing it goes 1.5x that distance. The actual leap starts fairly fast, after which Petra has a basic question she can choose: She can attack at the halfway point of the jump with a variety of attacks, or she can choose not to attack at all. If Petra decides not to attack at all, she will land with pretty low landing lag if ground is available, or go through slightly-longer (but still fast) ending lag if she ends in the air (such as by going off a ledge or platform).

Before going into the attack applications, it is VERY worth noting that this is a strong movement tool that allows Petra to really mix up her options! Petra can use this in the air as an additional recovery option, which is good because Petra's Up Special is a rather vulnerable recovery, and in the air she can use it to mix up her momentum to a crazy degree (especially when combined with B-Reversing and wavebouncing!) and it can be a nice approaching tool thanks to the low landing lag if you simply land. It's a good mixup with dash-ins, shorthops and fullhops. Side Special can be used once in the air before entering helpless, the second time WILL cause helpless.

Petra has four attack variations out of this move she can use, depending on button press: B, Up + B, Forward + B and Back + B. This attack has to be input in the middle of her jump, outside of that she cannot attack. We'll start with the B attack, since it is the primary attack.

The B attack has Petra perform a wide, swift slash under her as she travels, wide enough to essentially strike anyone under her jump's arc. This doesn't deal a lot of damage, 8%, but it comes out super fast considering its range and knocks opponents forward and upwards. The increased ending lag on this attack means Petra cannot directly combo out of it, but it does leave foes in an awkward position where Petra has a slight advantage in speed and they are above her, if she wants to catch out landings now is the time. The increased ending lag DOES make it more punishable when landing if the attack is whiffed, although for the most part this attack is safe on shield. And while the attack has a wide range under Petra's jumping arc it lacks range outside of that, so a charater can wait next to where she will land and punish her if she goes for this.

This move becomes MUCH scarier if Hunter's Boon is in effect on the opponent. Not only does the damage increase to 12% (which also makes it even safer against shield!), but on hit the effects become MUCH scarier as Petra and the foe are locked into brief, dramatic hit-stop before the opponent is crumpled up the same way as if hit by Ryu's fully charged Focus Attack! Even with the increased ending lag from using the attack, Petra gets a load of advantage off this that leads into combo damage at most any time or can lead into kills. This is one of the most dangerous possibilities for an opponent who is Hunted and makes the Side Special SIGNIFICANTLY scarier as a result, especially with the Up + B option also noticeably increased.

For both versions, Petra can mix up between attacking with it and just landing to go in with a grab as a kind of tomahawk grab or other option to punish their defensive options, for a truly mindgames option she can even go for another Side Special but use this sparingly since if you're too predictable your Side Specials WILL get intercepted and beat out with aerials.

Pressing Up + B causes Petra to make a scooping-style slash right under her with a flourishing flip, which sends her in the air about the same height as her second jump but does NOT use up the second jump. This also deals 8% damage, but the way that it pops opponents upwards will generally put them right above Petra that allows her to combo into all manner of attacks such as Up Special, Down Special, Up Aerial, Neutral Aerial and Forward Aerial (depending on percents and move, Petra may need to double jump to be in range, particularly for the aerials). Note that Petra will flip into the air even if she misses the opponent, which can be kind of awkward since now SHE'S in a "landing" situation the foe can take advantage of. This move has low ending lag, and it is Petra's best option for pure recovery out of Side Special, but remember it doesn't have any hitbox on the way up and a very predictable pattern since you have to use it in the middle of this move. So it is prime for getting spiked in reply or whatnot.

If this move strikes an opponent under Hunter's Boon, then Petra will be boosted 2x her height while the opponent takes increased knockback. This essentially puts Petra and the foe in close to the same position they normally would be, but higher in the air! This is important because this puts them closer to the blast zone, which can make this move into a kill confirm with Down Special, Up Special or Up Aerial. This is rather iffy since as the opponent gets higher in percent, they will naturally be knocked up higher and so out of range, but especially if you get an early Hunter's Boon via Neutral Special you can score some easier kills than normal.

Petra's Forward + B option is rather simpler, as Petra performs a diving thrust to the same spot that she would land normally. This deals a lot of damage, 16%, and has high knockback that will kill at 110%. This has very high ending lag and will be punished if shielded, dodged or whiffed pretty hard, so you need to be very careful with it! The primary purpose of this move is to hit opponents who are just waiting back to hit you when you land, as the sword's stab has very long range with Petra holding the sword out in front of her. If opponents try to charge smash attacks, dash in and out or what have you, this is your go to!

Striking an opponent marked by Hunter's Boon deals MASSIVE shield damage, breaking shields in one hit which makes shielding to punish her (one of the best ways to do it normally as it covers both the stab and landing if you just try and grab) one of the worst things you can do at that distance. Note that the stab won't reasonably hit opponents under her, so opponents shielding for your default B attack are safe. The opponent is then in prime position for any kind of stylish kill you might want to provide!

Finally, the back + B option has Petra perform an acrobatic flip backwards as she slashes in front of her with her sword, stretching a leg out in a limber manner as she flips back far enough to return to her initial position. Think kind of like Bayonetta's Witch Time in animation, but with a sword slash. This slash does a respectable 10% damage and knocks opponents away from Petra, serving as a spacer. The primary purpose of this attack is to stop opponents who try to dash in or jump in and meet Petra's jump. The slash starts low to the ground and ends high in front of Petra, so it snags grounded and aerial foes, but it does NOT hit directly above her and has no coverage behind her.

It also allows Petra to retreat if she doesn't like the situation or to fake out opponents. It has moderate ending lag, but the ending lag isn't bad enough that the opponent can punish you if they aren't already in a good position. With some spacing, you could Side Special to a ledge so that this covers a lot of options and perform mixups with your other attack options, although due to their different attack aeras it is hard to get true mixups with this. Keep aware of it, though!

Down Special: Assassinate​

Petra closes her eyes and takes a deep breath as she holds her sword close to her hip, making a rather cool and dramatic pose as her body blends into the background and becomes invisible! As she does, a dark purple circle appears around her: The size is enough that roughly speaking half of the two side Battlefield Platforms and a small middle chunk of the top Battlefield Platform would be in the ring if she stood in the middle of Battlefield. So it is a fairly large radius. This basically works like Palutena's Autoreticle or Bullet's Lock On Drive from BlazBlue. Petra will remain in this pose for up to 1 second until you hit the B button again, at which point she appears behind the opponent and performs a fierce, assassinating slash that strikes the opponent with the HIGHEST DAMAGE within the radius. The attack comes out very fast after you press B (getting into the pose, which does take a decent moment, is the real starting lag) and deals high damage, 15% damage that will kill at 110%.

This is Petra's primary combo ender, particularly for its high versatility in ending combos as its high range allows it to end vertical combos, horizontal combos, even combos where you're getting the foe below you! It also deals high damage as a combo ender. An example of a combo chain from Petra might be Down Tilt -> Up Tilt -> Sourspot Forward Aerial -> Jump Sweetspot Forward Aerial -> Down Special, which does 46% (if nothing is staled) damage. This can also serve as one of Petra's kill moves due to this, as Petra can potentially attack an opponent off stage or high into the air and then Down Special for an earlier kill, but this usually requires not using Down Special as much of a combo ender as that will stale its killing ability something fierce. There's a bit of a trade-off in using it there.

If Petra presses B and nobody is in range, then she will re-appear in place as if she had tried to attack and failed, taking high ending lag and becoming vulnerable. When choosing targets, Petra does NOT include allies even with team attack on, but they CAN be hit if they are in range of the slash. The ending lag on the slash itself is pretty long, and you will get punished if the attack is shielded, dodged or whiffed so be careful of that.

There are two additional options Petra can perform out of this attack. First off, she can do nothing until the 1 second timer runs out. If so, she cancels out of the move with somewhat low (but not TOO low) ending lag and a hefty sigh. If you don't have an opening to get the attack in, this is sometimes the best option, and it can mindgame foes a little since the actual attack is so fast once in stance by, for example, hitting B at the last moment.

Finally, Petra can instead move the control stick in any of the four cardinal directions or the four diagonals. This causes Petra to, still invisible, flash-step in that target direction. Smashing the control stick produces a longer flash-step and tilting it produces a small one. Petra then re-appears for a moment of ending lag, it isn't too bad but it IS longer than the normal cancel. With fast fingers, an attack input can be done after choosing the direction as it takes a moment to flash-step. If so, Petra will perform that attack when she appears! This follows the normal rules of attacks, if she is in the air she will use aerials and on the ground use grounded moves, and Petra cannot choose Down Special itself. Petra will stay invisible for the starting lag of the attack, but appear when the attack's active frames begin.

This can be a pretty potent tool, as Petra can perform some slick mix-ups with what invisible attack she chose and further confound her opponent with movement between this and Side Special. But it IS a bit more linear than it might seem: Petra can only choose 8 angles, after all, so there's some noticeable blindspots between the diagonals. Furthermore, since Petra has to go through starting lag opponents can throw out attacks to predict when she will jump, particularly because she only has 1 second before the attack auto-cancels. There's also only so many angles that will make sense for her to attack from, which further gives the opponent more easy predictions. For fun, try mixing in going AWAY from the opponent and using Neutral Special! Since you start invisible until the attack's long starting lag is done, opponents can be tricked into thinking you're simply waiting invisibly and then have to deal with a projectile!

Petra can only use this flash step technique once in the air, although if she began on the ground and ended in the air she may use it again. On that note, since downwards directions are an option Petra can use it as a landing mixup. This can further be used to give Petra a funky recovery, for example Down Special Upwards -> Side Special Upwards allows Petra to recover high suddenly. Petra becomes visible instantly if she is hit at any point of the move.

If an opponent has been marked by Hunter's Boon, a second ring appears outside the first one that has a brighter purple hue that matches the Hunter's Boon aura. This radius would barely include all platforms on Battlefield if Petra were to use the attack from the middle of Battlefield. Any marked opponent in that radius is also counted as a valid attack target, essentially expanding the attack's range on marked opponents. This can allow Petra to do some combo ending she normally couldn't and kill confirm somewhat easier.

Up Special: Slash Loop​

Petra's Up Special has her leap up with an extremely fast, sudden upwards slash that sends her flying into the air: Think Meta Knight's Shuttle Loop if he merely did the first part where he rises rather than looping. This is based on one of the Assassin crit animations in Three Houses. At the very apex of her leap, she performs a fierce looking horizontal slash makes her entire body spin once acrobatically. This attack come out VERY FAST for the start, which deals 3% and knockback that true combos into the second hit that deals 14% damage and kills at 105% (making it one of Petra's better KO moves). Petra then enters helpless, with somewhat long ending lag before she can move herself. If Petra would sweetspot the ledge before the second part of the attack happens she WILL NOT do so, somewhat akin to Cloud's Up Special, which adds a wrinkle to her recovery and is a big reason she wants to mix it up so much with Side Special and Down Special. This attack goes about 1.2x the distance of Meta Knight's Shuttle Loop, with a small hop of height added at the end akin to Yoshi's Up Special or Shulk's Up Special when she slashes that can let her sweetspot the ledge.

This move will combo out of the Up variant of Side Special from about 80% to 110%, longer on fastfallers, which can make it a kill confirm that can be particularly potent if the opponent is Marked and sent higher into the sky. Down Special, by comparison, KOs later but is much stronger on floaties as they will be in range AND higher on the screen and so closer to the blast zone. This move's speed also means that akin to something like Mario's Super Jump Punch, it can be used as a combo ender on opponents who are too high up for most attacks, but you will usually prefer Down Special for superior range and because it can fail to link on opponents above you if the first hit lands incorrectly (since it normally knocks opponents "up" into the second hit, it can knock them PAST it).

This move is both great and awful as an out of shield option. On one hand, it is incredibly quick and can scoop up opponents in front of Petra like nobody's business, so when it comes to attacks in front of Petra or approaching shorthops it is great at stuffing them. But the attack starts in FRONT of Petra, so it has absolutely no coverage above or behind Petra, so it is viciously weak to cross-ups. On top of that, the non-optional second half of the attack which even has long ending lag before you get to drift means Petra eats a BIG punish if the attack gets baited out! This is a contributing factor to Petra's poor defense: Her Neutral Aerial and Forward Aerial both hit in front of her, her Back Aerial is not good out of shield, and her Up Smash is kinda long by out of shield standards, so Petra's options for dealing with cross-ups or high movement when she's on the defensive is not great.

Normalcy​

Down Tilt: Slide Pride​

Petra performs a quick, feet-first sliding kick against the ground that sends her forward a fairly good distance (she can slide across the entire Smashville platform, while Cloud by comparison stops juuust short). This move only deals 6% damage, but the knockback is light and sends the opponent up for a natural combo. In particular this move combos into Up Tilt for a pretty long time which then leads into aerials, this move can also combo into aerials themselves if the situation calls for it, Up Smash at very low percents and Up Special. It comes out quickly and has low ending lag, but the slide's duration and the fact that it is approaching the foe makes it unsafe if whiffed. Shielded, it is usually unsafe but if you use it close enough you can cross-up for safety. But keep in mind that opponents who can hit behind them with good out of shield options such as Mr. Game & Watch, Link and Ridley will still be able to punish you.

Petra slides fairly close to the ground for this attack, so she can slide under some projectiles that are high enough off the ground. It is one of your juicier combo starters but less safe than others. The movement forward can be used to trick people a little out of Down Special: If people like to linger just outside of your sword's range to punish you for an expected attack, Down Tilt can quite suddenly give them a good reason to reconsider that strategy!

Up Tilt: Dance of Swords​

Petra slashes her sword above her in a horizontal spinning pattern, doing a lovely spin in the process! The upward slash to begin the spin hits in front of her, allowing her to scoop up opponents in front of her with the attack as well. Getting struck by this attack causes 7% damage and upwards, slightly forwards knockback that is pretty ripe combo food. In particular it leads into Neutral Aerial and Forward Aerial, which themselves can potentially be more combo fuel. At mid-percents the opponent will have enough hitstun that you can combo straight into Down Special, although unless you cannot land another attack on the foe this is usually not recommended. This attack comes out quickly and ends quickly, being another fast attack in Petra's arsenal of combo food.

It serves as a fairly solid, disjointed anti-air for Petra that leads into good reward as well, which her Up Smash is also solid at. It also means this move is pretty good as a combo extender and in the middle of combos, since it can hit opponents in the air well, this move particularly combos out of Down Tilt until around 65% at which point you need to switch to aerials. In addition to more combo-oriented options, Up Tilt will lead into Up Aerial at a lot of percents. This not only allows Petra to send enemies hit into the air for landing traps, but eventually just flatout kills. This move is not safe on shield.

Jab: Repelling Strike​

Petra's Jab animation is fairly simple, starting with an outward slash and followed by an inward slash, with the final hit being a shoulder bash with a step forward. The first two hits deal 2% damage each, while the last hit deals 5% damage for a total of 9% damage. The step forward gives Petra enough range this jab will true combo, so don't worry about that. This jab comes out very fast, making it good for quick interruptions or to throw out as a low commitment option. The ending lag on all of the hits is fairly low, but all three of them are unsafe on shield nonetheless, although punishing the first two hits will be tricky since she could press A to continue the jab combo if you try to lower shield. But if she goes all the way to Jab 3, she will eat at least a grab.

The third hit of Jab causes a tech situation at medium percents, aound 35%-60%, merely pushing opponents away earlier and being more of a spacing launcher higher. Since Petra has high speed and mobility Specials, she is pretty good at getting in off this launcher and has very strong tech chasing options. In particular, a properly spaced Down Special can easily avoid any 50/50s on what direction the foe chooses and instead become a matter of pure timing. While this move does not kill at any reasonable percent (although it will in Sudden Death!), it can launch foes far enough to be an okay off-stage starter near the ledge and at high percents.

If you want to get a bit frisky, the opponent being just pushed away at early percents of Jab 3 can allow Petra enough frame advantage that she can go for a Side Special. Opponents who aren't fast either hit the Neutral B attack for it, or they shield in anticipation of something else and Petra doesn't attack to cross-up and potentially get a grab. You don't want to do this TOO often, though, or opponents will just throw out a quick attack and interrupt you. It's best used as a surprise option.

As the foe gets to higher percents, Petra can stop at Jab 2 in order to perform a combo off of it, most commonly a Neutral Aerial or Forward Tilt, although she can potentially go for a Forward Smash read but that is risky. Forward Aerial's hitbox trajectory and speed make true comboing into it a bit fuzzy. Against fastfallers, Petra can potentially loop into another Jab 2 once or twice at the lower percents of the range, while floaty opponents are susceptible to an Up Aerial out of this at earlier percents that can lead to kills on lightweights in some scenarios. Jab 2 begins to combo starting at roughly 65%. Generally speaking, this is what you will want to go for once the opponent is out of the tech chase range of Jab 3 and can be a very quick combo starter. In exchange, the combos tend to be smaller, and as percents rise you'll definitely need to read some DI.

Dash Attack: Assasin's Slice​

Based on one of the Assassin's critical animations, Petra spins forward with her sword slashing horizontally, before stopping with a single, final and powerful slash! The spinning deals fast, multiple hits that add up to 9%, while the last hit deals 4% damage and has pretty solid knockback. It'll kill at around 120%, which makes it one of Petra's secondary kill moves, although that isn't all that impressive. Petra spins pretty quickly and travels her 1.15 Battlefield Platforms of distance swiftly, so Petra can use this as a more blunt and immediate mobility-punish option compared to her specials.

Thanks to its fairly average starting lag Petra can also utilize this as a combo ender for combos that end low enough to the ground (Neutral Aerial is pretty good at this), which can be pretty nice if you want to avoid staling your Down Special (which will almost always kill earlier out of combos). The mobility options of this attack make it good for punishing moves after dashing away that you otherwise might be slow to and can, again, serve as an alternative to Down Special for punishes as well. It also can catch out rolls well with its strong horizontal range and movement.

On the other hand, the ending lag of this attack is quite long. Despite the fact this attack can easily cross-up shields the ending is nonetheless punishable since opponents have plenty of time to deal with it. And while this attack has a lot of horizontal range, the vertical range is non-existant and so this attack loses to shorthops something to fierce. This is NOT an attack to throw out as an approaching option, even with that movement!

Something worth noting: Dash Attack and Down Tilt both have distance added to them, but not the same amount, in addition to Side Special's unique movement. If you don't mind the risk, this CAN be good to add into Down Special as a mixup with those options, the starting lag is good enough opponents can't just react to the mixup. Oh, and to input Dash Attack with Down Special, you have to smash the control stick and then hold it there a moment, merely smashing it gets F-Smash. You can Dash Attack in either direction.

Overall, Dash Attack is a snap-punish and combo ender option that is dangerous to throw around recklessly as a kill move and is not remotely meant to be a neutral tool. Use it properly and it has plenty of value with high damage and solid knockback, but use it improperly and good opponents will eat it up.

Forward Tilt: Sword and Bow​

Petra performs a pretty swift, one-armed diagonal slash in front of her that looks pretty close to one of the standard Assassin attacks in Three Houses. This attack isn't quite as blazing fast as Petra's other attack but still has reasonable speed, dealing a pretty respectable 11% damage and spacer knockback. It won't kill opponents until around 200%, but the base knockback is enough that Petra gets opponents out of her face and can start edgeguarding situations. Petra is normally more someone who wants to get in the foe's face, but getting the opponent out of your hair in dangerous situations can be very important. This move has pretty poor ending lag, so the opponent might want to consider baiting it out when they are being aggressive to get a larger punish.

There's a follow-up attack to this you can perform akin to Link's Forward Smash, which has Petra performing an acrobatic twist back while taking out her bow, before pulling back the string in an active firing pose with one knee on the ground. This has mediocre starting lag and tag the opponent for less damage than the first hit, 7%, but it has good pushback and shield push on hit: While the normal Forward Tilt is very unsafe on shield, Forward Tilt 1 into Forward Tilt 2 pushes enemies far enough away to be safe if they aren't against a ledge. Petra can aim the bow 45 degrees up or down by tilting the control stick, aiming upwards can true combo into the slash's knockback at various percents that are extremely dependant on the foe's size and fall speed. Floaty characters are combo'd early (being higher in the air), fast fallers are combo'd later (being lower in the air) and bigger bodies can be combo'd for longer.

The ending lag of the bow hit is still pretty long, however. If Petra misses the attack there is a pretty good chance she eats a faily hard punish. The arrow fired travels 2/3rds of Battlefield and could be used as a long range option, but the awkwardness of telegraphing it with the slash and the poor ending lag mean this is generally a poor strategy. But maybe Ganondorf can get annoyed by it. You also could just use the first hit of Forward Tilt at range as a mindgame to fake going for the bow, but the high ending lag of the slash makes it risky.

If Petra strikes an opponent under the effect of Hunter's Boon with the slash, the follow-up attack gains a few changed properties. First off, the starting lag is faster as Petra both takes out and prepares the bow while she spins back, which allows her to fire the arrow as soon as she gets into position. This reduces the starting lag and in turn allows Petra to get to her ending lag faster, so she gets to move from it faster.

Secondly, the arrow now auto-aims at the opponent's location, and will specifically aim for the end of their knockback trajectory if the opponent is still taking knockback. In most cases, this means it true combos off of a clean Forward Tilt 1 hit, although at very high percents or with very specific DI / stages this may not be true.

Finally, when the arrow hits a non-shielding foe the knockback is changed to be light knockback TOWARDS Petra! At pretty low percents, Petra gets to combo this into a Neutral Aerial or Up SPecial. At most percents it would be reasonable to land this, though, the opponent is simply hit towards Petra but too far away to true combo, essentially forcing the opponent into an awkward defensive position even if you do not get a true combo off of it. If this move hits a shield, it retains the same knockback away from Petra and so still allows you to hit a shield safely rather than pulling them in.

Grabbability!​

Grab: Swiftness​

Petra performs a swift hand swipe, as if trying to grab a small bird out of the air, close to her body. This is one of the quickest grabs in the game, but the range is also on the low end for Smash Ultimate. This leaves Petra's grab to be more commonly used as an aggressive tool than a more reactionary one, since it is pretty easy for the foe to space around. Petra's strong movement, ability to box the foe out and Side Special / Down Special make tomahawk grabs a staple diet in her neutral play. Dashing in after well spaced moves for a grab in general is also something you'll see a lot. Petra gets solid reward off her grab, at lower percents particularly her Down Throw, so it is always a nice one to land!

Pummel: Knee​

Petra knees the opponent in the chest for a pretty standard 1.3% damage with a slightly fast speed.

Down Throw: Gutting Prey​

Petra does a little leap into the air as she tosses the foe down, holding her sword under her and coming down on the opponent for a stab. It looks a lot like the image I used for her Specials, or like Pyra/Mythra's Down Throw. The setup downwards toss deals 2%, while the stab itself deals 4% for a total of 6% damage. While it has no flashy effects, this throw is a big reason for Petra to want to land her grab. The short knockback ahead and above of her, with only mediocre growth, against the level of hitstun on it makes it Petra's primary combo throw! At low percents, Petra can go into basically anything that isn't laggy. Down Tilt, Up Tilt and fastfall Neutral Aerial are all some of Petra's greatest options since all of them lead into further and longer combo strings. Forward Aerial (sourspot OR sweetspot) is another one that Petra can totally mix in.

As percents rise, the combos tend to become more vertical in nature. Neutral Aerial drag down viability becomes character dependent, with larger or fastfalling characters being in the blender the longest, while Forward Aerial becomes one of the main tools out of it. Up Aerial also starts to become more of an option, being more of the strong finisher compared to NAir/FAir. And at high percents, Up Aerial is the only finisher you can land and the foe can DI away to make it untrue. Up Aerial is strong enough to potentially kill off of this. This becomes especially dangerous near the ledge. If Petra is facing away from the ledge, this becomes a DI mixup with Back Throw to start an offstage edgeguard vs. the Up Aerial combo. When facing the ledge, deciding to DI away from the ledge will make it more difficult to avoid her edgeguard (especially if she gets aggressive with Forward Aerial or Neutral Aerial). From mid percents, Petra could also decide to mix in Assassinate. This won't usually combo, but holding it for a moment will let Petra catch out air dodges out of her combos with the rather strong hit. Up Special can be combo'd into at low and medium percents and is a mixup at high percents with an earlier potential kill hitbox than Up Aerial at the cost of being VERY punishable if the foe stays on top of things.

Up Throw: Heartstealing Hunter​

Petra lightly tosses the foe into the air (so their back faces Petra), before thrusting her sword straight upwards to catch the opponent on it. The end result looks very similar to when Sephiroth's Up Tilt pierces an opponent. This deals 9% damage with knockback that won't especially kill. This primarily exists to be a vertical spacer and to allow Petra to start juggling the foe, with her Up Aerial lasting long enough to be a bit of a pain to dodge around and her Up Smash being great at foes high in the air. At low percents it can do things like set the opponent on the topmost platform of Battlefield and force a tech, where Petra can land an up aerial on a correctly read tech roll.

This move gains a particularly great bonus when the opponent is Hunted! Petra narrows her eyes, drawing back the sword for a more dramatic and powerful thrust as she aims for the foe's heart! The end result is the sword piercing through the foe's back and out the other side (this is non-graphic, it just sticks in one side and out the other), with some long freeze frames to emphasize the power of the hit. This deals a stronger 15% and is Petra's kill throw! This kills at a cool 130%, rather strong, and is a good alternative when Down Throw -> Up Aerial isn't landing late or when the foe might DI with it. Not much else to say about it, direct a kill move as they come.

Forward Throw: Grace of Brigid​

Gripping the foe tightly, Petra thrusts her elbow into the foe while swiftly rushing forward. Petra will rush forward a full Battlefield Platform at incredibly fast speeds (stopping early at the edge of platforms), the elbow dealing 5% damage in the process of carrying the foe along. Petra removes the elbow from the foe at the end, with the foe being dealt essentially no knockback! This leaves Petra and the foe at near-frame neutral, with Petra having a 3 frame advantage. This is too little for Petra to combo into anything in her moveset but forces the opponent into a very close range situation with her, where her fast attacks like Jab, Up Tilt and Down Tilt can bully characters with slower options. Alternately, Petra could jump back and space with attacks like Neutral Aerial, Forward Aerial or a RAR Back Aerial, giving herself safety while boxing the opponent wherever she left them. This is great if Petra leads the opponent towards a ledge, where their defensive options become more limited and troublesome. Speaking of ledges, if Petra stops at the edge of a platform the opponent will automatically ledge slip! This will force foes onto the ledge at the edge of stages, which Petra can try to take advantage of with edgeguard techniques, while on platforms the slip off can potentially lead her to drop through the platform into a Neutral Aerial or a Jab Lock.

While jumping back and throwing out aerials is a safe way to box the foe out, a more aggressive option is to dash back and use Side Special towards the foe. The dash back will get opponents who try to attack out of it, while an opponent who played defensively gets thrown into the Brigid Flip blender and has to pick the right way out of it. If the opponent gets wise to this, such as attacking Petra out of Brigid Flip a lot, then she can delay with a dash dance and try to instead go in with a regrab or tomahawk grab or bait out an attack to punish with either Side Special or a move like Dash Attack. In short: Forward Throw has less assured to it than some of Petra's other throws, but it puts the opponent in a vice of a situation of stress!

If the opponent is Hunted, then she'll have time to slip her legs under the foe to lock against their ankle for a moment, sweeping it out from under them and placing the foe into prone! This lets Petra start a tech chase, very powerful given her Down Special's range, Side Special's movement and projectile attacks like Neutral Special or Forward Smash, although Petra remains only having 2 frames of advantage so no combos. Ledge slipped opponents on non-grabbable now always enter their untechable knockback to assure jab lock possibilities, while if the ledge is grabbable the attack is essentially unchanged.

Back Throw: Rejection​

A very fast throw, Petra spins with the opponent while digging in one of her heels and tossing the foe off her shoulder in one single motion. This throw does 7% damage and low starting knockback but with good scaling. It kills at 195%. At low percents, it will lead into combos if the foe DIs in, but is otherwise probably her worst throw. At mid percents this elegantly sets up for edgeguard situations and is good for reversals getting back to ledge. Perhaps the most key thing is that the attack is far too fast to DI on reaction, giving it a DI mixup with Petra's Down Throw. If the foe DIs away to start trying to avoid her combos, they will DI in with this attack, which leads to Back Aerial or Forward Aerial to become combos that can even kill near a ledge! If they DI back to avoid this with Back Throw, then Down Throw -> Up Aerial connects. Both of these require Petra's own reaction in order to be true (too slow and the foe still has time to dodge) and it stops working at high percents (the foe is sent too far away from Back Throw to threaten a combo).

If the foe is Hunted, then she will take out her bow while the foe is being slung off her shoulder, firing an arrow at them Fox/Falco style after they are flung off! This removes the attack mixup that Petra can have, but adds on its own advantages. It deals 10% damage and the knockback will cause the throw to kill at about 145% if it hits them, making it Petra's most damaging throw if it all comes together. The arrow isn't assured to hit, since the foe can gain control of themselves before it does. At low percents this will never realistically happen, meaning that Petra can get a cool 17% if for some reason her Down Throw combos wouldn't work. At medium percents, the foe can get away enough to use a defensive option...if they DI away. A DI in will always work out, allowing it to fulfill the niche of Petra's DI mixups normally. At high percents it will essentially never truly combo, but it still puts an opponent in a bind either way. For example, if you throw an opponent offstage with this, they COULD use their air dodge to avoid it every time. But now they're offstage without any air dodge and possibly stuck recovering low, a very vulnerable position (especially to Assassinate). Getting hit can in turn force them very far and close to the blast zone even if it fails to kill, so that's no good either. Although the verticality from the arrow's hit can help them not get too messed up recovery-wise. Point is, it puts the opponent in a catch-22 that is good for Petra either way, so just take advantage of the bad option the opponent picks.

Oh, but, DO be careful if the foe has a reflector. This arrow is considered a projectile, so someone like Fox can just put that reflector up and return it to sender.

Smashing!​

"What I am thinking? I am thinking that you remind me of prey."​

Forward Smash: Deadly Shot​

Taking out her bow, Petra spins the arrow she is to load into it for as long as the charge is held (and for just about two spins otherwise), the arrow appearing like a blur in the process. The arrow is not a hitbox during this time like Corrin, so don't worry. Shooting off the arrow takes little time after charge release, with the arrow going two Battlefield Platforms of distance regardless of charge. Damage is modest (only fair for a projectile), dealing 13%-18.2% damage and failing to kill until 150%-115%. The starting lag on this is also modest for a projectile (Frame 20, 1 frame later than Mega Man) but with faster than average ending lag (6 frames less FAF than Mega Man). This even allows Petra to move while the arrow is in flight, although the arrow flies quickly so this would be for but a brief time.

Remember how Assassinate lets you go invisible for starting lag? That includes charging lag, which makes Forward Smash rather interesting in that context! If Petra dashes away and cancels into this early, she could charge the attack the entire time the foe is anticipating an Assassinate if the foe doesn't try to actually hit one of her grounded teleport spots during the one second. Release the charge before Assassinate finished naturally (which gives the game up) and you can catch 'em offguard! Another option would be to just release it instantly, letting Petra get the projectile off for free at the cost of the opponent probably being much more ready for it since a defensive reply against an immediate Assassinate is a good idea. And if you charge it PAST when Assassinate would run out, opponents will know it must be a move either used at the very last moment or chargable, but won't know if it is a close ranged one like Down Smash or a ranged one like Forward Smash which can lead to a moment of decision paralysis!

This can be combined with Forward Smash's own mechanic. By smashing a cardinal direction while Petra is charging, she'll perform one of a few actions! Down causes Petra to perform a hasty spot dodge in place before firing the arrow forward, allowing Petra to dodge attacks with some brief intangibility (4 frames) at the cost of more starting lag (+9 frames in this case)! Note that for this and all other options, Petra cannot resume charging after doing it and instead instantly fires the arrow. This can be used to dodge projectiles from counter-camping before shooting away Petra's own shot, opponent's wildly swinging at her or the like. Forward/Back are for the most part very similar outside of one distinction, having Petra roll forward or back roughly 3/4ths the distance of her normal roll with intangibility before firing off the arrow. This adds more starting lag than the spot dodge to the arrow (+12), with the roll having intangibility for half of that time. Compared to the spot dodge, this offers Petra additional movement and a touch more intangibility at the cost of making the attack even MORE reactable. Forward is of particular note, however, because just like a forward roll it turns Petra around! This allows her to suddenly side-swap with a foe and fire the arrow behind her, a tricky maneuver that can get under the opponent's skin.

Up is perhaps the most expected outcome, as Petra jumps up! This is equal to 3/4ths of her first jump and her legs tuck in a little at the moment, reducing her hurtbox. This adds the least starting lag to the move (+6 frames), but it has NO intangibility on it! This thus serves as a "pure" dodge, exchanging safety for even more speed. The air also allows Petra to aim the move, allowing her to shoot it at a somewhat diagonally upwards or downwards angle. The downwards angle is good for striking the ground the Forward Smash originally aimed for, while the upwards angle can be an anti-fullhop, strike at opponents hiding on platforms or hit people recovering high. Not angling it covers shorthops and tall foes.

Finally, we come to the effect on Hunted foes! When an arrow impacts a Hunted foe, there's a special freeze frame as it strikes them. It looks like Petra just scored a Critical Hit! It even shares the graphics with Hero's Critical Hit. This deals the same double damage as a Hero crit but the knockback increase is not as high. It will kill at 100%-65% with a critical, but remember that it IS a projectile and can easily kill much earlier with a sick snipe! This is definitely one of the main reasons foes need to be wary of becoming Hunted, lest they turn into Petra's prey.

Down Smash: Lethality​

Petra's eyes narrow as she crouches down, her feet shifting position as if ready to pounce as she holds her blade in a position ready to stab during the charge. Upon release, Petra leaps into the air, disappearing in the process. Mere frames later, she reappears in the air diagonally behind where she started, thrusting downwards as she leaps towards where she started! She's so fast she leaves behind violet afterimages, and she disappears when she lands before doing the attack again, but starting from the front instead. Basically, imagine a V where the bottom of the V is where she starts and each of the slants is the attack angle, although the angle would be a bit more shallow than a V. This is a long attack startup for a Down Smash, but once it comes out it goes through its entire attack animation quickly, and the ending lag is low as Petra stylishly rolls to where she started and pops to her feet. The few frames where Petra disappears gives her intangibility, and the same is true when she disappears after the first attack for the second pass.

The attack itself shares the same hitbox to both hits, dealing 15%-21% damage and killing at 130%-95%. The damage and knockback are a bit low for what you'd expect from the lag, but there is a secret to this as one might expect from a technique based in the Assassin class. If this strikes an opponent in the back, it deals enhanced damage! The damage is increased to 19%-26.6%, but the knockback goes up to 95%-65%! Remember, Petra's overall knockback is pretty low, so that's a dang good kill move for her. Rather specific to hit with for a move like this, a way to attempt it would be from a prone position with a roll read. A very silly option is to perform this after Forward Throw. While the opponent should by all means be able to avoid it, people who shield and then see it might drop it at an inopportune time and whiff an attack on the intangibility frames, followed by Petra appearing impersonally behind the foe and cutting them down. This shouldn't ever happen against a good player, but it is a Quickplay Killer!

Being Hunted has both a general and a specific buff. The general buff is that the general hitbox is now equal to the normal back hitbox, making it Petra's strongest no-frills kill move. The specific buff, however, is on the back hit! This turns it into a Critical Hit with immense power, the damage doubling ala Hero, although the knockback "only" kills at 60%-32%. Remember that the foe being Hunted only occurs via high damage percents or Neutral Special, though, so this killing at low percents will only meaningfully happen if you set up with your Neutral Special first, and then you're also going to have to hit with a specific back hitting blow on a laggy to start move. It's a flashy and cool kill, but don't expect to get it reliably. This DOES mean that Petra has a move that'll almost certainly kill when the foe becomes Hunted naturally, though! This attack also deals massive damage to shields, nearly breaking it in one blow (and with some charge WILL do so), so it adds some fear factor to shielding opponents.

Up Smash: Arrow Rain​

Getting down on one knee, Petra takes out her bow in one hand and three arrows in another, each arrow held in-between a different finger. Drawing all three back on her bow, Petra lets them fly stylishly! This takes slightly longer than Palutena's Up Smash to come out, although this attack has MUCH less vertical range but more horizontal range. It goes up to about the midpoint vertically betweeen the two Platform levels of Battlefield, the width of the hitbox starting narrow (basically the width of the bow) and expanding outwards to 2/3rds of a Battlefield Platform at very max range. Petra suffers somewhat high ending lag from the bow's recoil after firing it, but nothing too devastating.

This move has three hitboxes to it: The initial hitbox right above Petra that is essentially melee range, a second hitbox which goes on for a while, and then a sourspot that makes up the latter half of the hitbox. The initial hit is the strongest and works like a traditional Up Smash, dealing 16%-22.4% damage but lacking knockback that refuses to kill until 160%-130%. That's pretty good damage! The next hit deals 10%-14% and modest knockback that won't kill until 220%-195%, but the base knockback is good enough to consistently launch opponents nicely into the air. The sourspot deals 5%-7% damage and little more than a flinch, making it largely poor to hit with except for a tiny bit of damage racking. Some foes, such as Sephiroth with his Down Aerial, can even punish it on hit!

While the damage of this move is rather nice, the main purpose of this attack is coverage. Petra's combo tools can become more of juggle starters later and Up Throw is an evergreen starter, while her Up Aerial is one of her best aerials and something she wants to chase the foe around with, so having an option along with that which can cover horizontal options (Up Aerial's hitbox is narrow) or catch opponents landing from the ground is highly valuable. Anti-airing foes trying to catch out Brigid Flip or using platforms to try and avoid it is another good value use of it, and it can also counter opponents who recover high. Ultimately more of a gadget-versatility tool than her power Down Smash, Arrow Rain still finds a nice niche in the hunter's arsenal.

Aerialness!​

Neutral Aerial: Two-Sided Slash​

Petra performs a quick reverse grip 1-2 slash, with the first slash inwards and the second outwards, performing an agile spin in midair from the momentum of the second hit. The first hit deals 4.5% damage and the second does 7.5%, for a total of 12% if they both land. The knockback of the second strike is pretty mid, failing to kill until 170%, but it can be just used as a bit of a standard spacer at various percents. Most frightening is this move's speed, being even faster than fellow Fire Emblem alumni Lucina with a Frame 5 startup on the first hit (Frame 13 for the 2nd) and slightly lower ending lag. Combine this with the very low landing lag and this move is absolutely critical to Petra being a total combo gremlin, with a shorthop, fastfall Neutral Aerial to land the first hit being her premiere combo extender and one of her best combo starters. Neutral Aerial, Down Throw, Up Tilt and Down Tilt form Petra's "combo core" so to speak, with Petra able to potentially transition from one to another in her combo sequences. In a general sense though, a fastfall Neutral Aerial that lands will get into just about anything of Petra's that isn't slow, so you can really freestyle on the opponent with all the tools I already provided and work from there. Compared to her other combo options, Neutral Aerial's works even until higher percents and thus is good synergy with Hunted. Petra could go for Brigid Flip mixups out of a Neutral Aerial hit here, but Neutral Aerial is best reserved for pure combos and the Flips to other scenarios.

The second hit doesn't have much else to it. You're going to primarily use it for a bit of anti-air dodge (although note that it does not last long enough to catch a spot dodge on its own usually), to space opponents out rather than combo, or just for general aerial combat. One note is that while it is primarily for spacing, it usually has enough hitstun while not hitting the foe far enough to combo into an Assassinate, making it a reasonable combo ender as well. This ceases to work well as the Neutral Aerial stales though and instead becomes a 50/50, so keep that in mind when you're going full Roy on the foe with Neutral Aerial. Something else to keep in mind is that the reverse grip Petra holds this move with reduces the attack's range slightly compared to what you might expect, so it is not quiteas good at boxing out as stuff like Forward Aerial or Forward Tilt.

Up Aerial: Lunar Drill​

Petra draws her sword back, before thrusting it upwards while performing some fast spins. The end result looks a lot like Corrin's dash attack (but vertical) or Mii Swordfighter's Up Aerial (but with faster spins). A little faster than Mii Swordfighter's Up Aerial to come out (Frame 8 vs. Frame 11), the initial hit is a sweetspot that deals 16% damage with solid kill power. It kills at 140% on the ground and at about 100% on the topmost Battlefield Platform, with stronger kills the higher the foe is. The rest of the attack is a sourspot that deals 9% damage and mediocre upwards knockback with kill power not worth discussing. This part of the attack is primarily used in an attempt to catch out air dodges (or rolls / spot dodges from platformed foes), allowing Petra to continue or start a juggle but otherwise is lacking in usage. While the starting lag is better than Mii Swordfighter's, the ending lag is worse and in fact quite bad. This gives it a feel much like K. Rool's Up Aerial in usage, so don't miss it if possible!

Where Assassinate is her universal combo ender and Dash Attack is her big grounded finisher, Up Aerial is the ideal combo finisher for Petra thanks to its high damage and killing knockback. Down Throw as mentioned is a great combo tool for it, but stuff like Forward Aerial can work out with platforms and Up Tilt will lead into either a combo or a 50/50 depending on damage percent, fall speed, hurtbox size and so on. While the latter hit is largely a consolation prize, it does make air dodging against Petra harrowing if she is in a spot she can Up Smash OR Up Aerial the foe, since one has great coverage while the other has great range. Speaking of range, that is this attack's main weakness outside of the bad ending lag: The hitbox on the sword is pretty narrow (more narrow than Mii Swordfighter), so landing it can be a rather precise affair.

Down Aerial: Archer's Grace​

Athletically contorting her body as she jumps, Petra performs a brief flip into the air while splitting her legs in the air and with her bow in hand. Loading arrows into her hand, Petra fires a spray of them below her at the apex of her jump! Petra then returns to her normal aerial neutral with some longer ending lag, making it rather punishable with the starting lag being on the longer side as well. The spray of arrows has the vertical range of Mega Man's Down Aerial, but some extra horizontal width. Nothing to the level of Up Smash, though. Using this attack multiple times in the air will have Petra still contort in the air, but lack the jump so she can't infinitely recover. As for the hitbox itself? Well, it has three elements to it. The initial hitbox is reeeal close to Petra and doesn't deal the most damage of the group at 9%, but it IS a spike! The spike is only modest in its knockback strength, but having a spike on a disjointed-projectile move is already powerful enough to begin with (even if the spike itself is not disjointed). Forward Aerial's sourspot can potentially combo into it at lower percents, but it becomes untrue later. Note that this attack is considered a disjointed attack and not a projectile, Bayonetta/Joker style.

The next segment, which makes up the middle of the hitbox, deals the highest damage at 12% and upwards knockback. This knockback tends to put the foe about a Petra height above her, and until high percents is a combo into an Up Aerial. It also will combo into Assassinate until rather high percents, which can serve as a kill confirm if Assassinate is now stale and otherwise is still a solid combo ender. The rest of the hitbox deals 4% damage and knockback that barely pops foes up while dealing pathetic hitstun. While you can pelt foes with damage here, the tiny knockback will allow recovering foes to refresh their Up Special and the hitstun is too small to even be plus on hit, so...don't do that.

The little leap at the start of Down Aerial helps Petra mix up how she lands a lot along with Side Special and Down Special, while the spray of arrows having nice range helps as well. This makes Petra tricky to pin down when she's landing (like a lesser Zero Suit Samus), but do note Down Aerial is her only aerial that really allows her to hit foes directly under her, so she does have to avoid being predictable. When a foe is Hunted, she gains two pretty big buffs to her attack. The first is that the spike gets stronger as the arrows impact the foe more compactly, now dealing 14% and being a more legitimate threat to kill by itself. The second is that the sourspot at the end of the attack is massively reduced to basically just the "tip" of the spray, with most of it becoming the second, 12% damage hitbox. This especially makes the move more effective against Hunted foes offstage, so beware when she's on the prowl and you're off the ground!

Forward Aerial: Hunter's Moon​

Petra performs a downwards, half-crescent slash in the same manner as Lucina. Fast to come out, Petra's attack has a sourspot and a sweetspot to it, with both having their own purposes. The sourspot is the close hitbox and deals 6% damage with very light knockback away from Petra. The sourspot's knockback is low enough that she can follow-up with another Forward Aerial or a Neutral Aerial, with Up Special less true but able to be mixed in for a higher knockback option as well. Put a platform in the mix and the combos only open up further, although this move is not as good as Neutral Aerial when it comes to opening up fastfall combos. In general, think of the sourspot as more of a combo extender than starter, which you'll then finish off with something like a Brigid Flip, an Assassinate, a sweetspot Forward Aerial, you get the picture. The attack's lag in general is very close to the Lucina/Marth Forward Aerial.

By comparison, the sweetspot deals 12% damage and has modest kill power at 147%. The sweetspot's primary tool is as either a great neutral tool, having more reach than Neutral Aerial and being better for boxing the foe out, and as a combo ender thanks to the solid damage. This is especially true if one does not want to stale Assassinate. Although speaking of Assassinate, until higher mid percents Forward Aerial keeps opponents close enough Assassinate can combo out of a sweetspot Forward Aerial, making it a small combo extender as well! This goes away at higher percents, so no kill confirms for you, but it is a good way to sneak in that extra damage.

While using this move to box out the foe is generally good, I do want to specifically point out that Forward Aerial is the most common move for you to want to use if the opponent is meeting your Brigid Flips with aerials. That's when you can maximize the coverage advantage and is a big reason that it is more useful than Neutral Aerial, along with the fact you don't need to fastfall for the best reward (which hurts the anti-ait coverage aspect of NAir).

Back Aerial: Trick Shot​

Bending her self backwards without turning around, Petra shoots out a single arrow behind her from her bow. This arrow lacks the reach of, say, a Villager Back Aerial but is a chunkier projectile by comparison. The arrow itself deals 11% damage at point blank range with up and away knockback that'll never kill, while past that it deals 7% damage with even worse up and away knockback. The starting lag is similar to Villager's starting lag, but it is laggier and much more punishable after use than Villager while having moderate landing lag as well. Given Petra is really good in melee, that is only fair. The main purpose of Back Aerial is to snipe recovering foes, to finish combos out of range of other attacks, and to generally help Petra control neutral past the width of her sword. This makes it a bit more of a toolbox move than anything. Note that Petra doesn't turn around for this move, so she can rain down multiple arrows in the air if she so chooses.

Against a Hunted foe, this arrow will score a Critical Hit against the foe! In addition to the sweetspot now dealing massive damage, the single hardest hit in Petra's aerials (and thus a new niche for this move) with a reasonable kill percent of 180%, the 14% damage and modest knockback of the later hit cannot be understated for sniping people away. The nature lf being Hunted, requiring either high percents or to hit with a projectile in the first place, reduces the value of it for those cheesy early edgeguards. But there's still plenty of value in keeping a mid or late percent foe dead instead of a weaker hit allowing them back and Neutral Special CAN open up some silly early stuff, so it is fairly good.

 

[Rychu]

Anime Girl #26.2 (Kasen Ibaraki by OldManHan )

Another day another Touhou. I'm not gonna lie, I think this might actually be the first set I'm sitting down to read by you invaders, and seeing the different approaches to conveying information is quite interesting. Giving a general summary of the events to come along with a list of advantages and disadvantages at the very beginning gives this a different bend to the usual MYM go-to of letting the information trickle out as the set progresses, so having it up front is a nice change of pace. I feel the same way about how Goliso does short TL;DR quick and dirty descriptions of move functionality at the top of each input - variety is the spice of life I guess!

Yes, excellent, I actually love transformation characters and have never really done one myself (perhaps until this contest), and to be honest I didn't even pick up on the down special being missing until you brought it up later! A fun little bit of bait-and-switch, though I'm sure the more, uh, observant among us won't get that surprise. I simply cannot read so when it happened it was like a nice little surprise, I dunno. Anyway, the rest of the set plays a lot with some fun pressure tools and a neat snowball mechanic with her Vengeful state either powering up a big hit or playing with more awareness and letting it snowball into a very fun hard interaction with Kanda in the up special. If I had one nitpick here or there it's that I, personally, could use more specific distance indicators throughout the set, though it's not a game-breaker. Your definition of "long-range melee attack" may be different from mine, so having some measurable units thrown in to make the kind of spacing this set is playing with more clear would be nice.

True Form is really where the set kicks in for me and honestly could be a fun set if posted on its own. Playing with extremes like this is always a really fun dichotomy when it's pulled off well and I think this does just that. I like the committal aspect of the evolution too: no dancing around it, if you're gonna go all out you're stuck with it especially if you're going to commit to a move whose fast version still takes nearly 2 seconds to complete. If I had one big thought here it's that, at least for me, as a player I'd basically be fishing to bust that out as soon as possible given just how strong the True Form is compared to the original. I know she gets way slower as far as her actual attack speed is concerned and her disadvantage state is theoretically way worse than her regular form, but she also gets some frankly absurd armor against projectiles and a whole host of attacks that other characters would be lucky to have on specials (which is to be fair not unheard of in MYM), but IMO the optimal match flow is basically going to be to go into vengeance state as quickly as possible to speed up the transformation and just kinda fish for an opportunity to do so. Not that it renders the first half of the moveset useless, mind you, but if True Form was posted by itself I don't think my opinion on the set would change all that much. And that opinion? Uhhhh.... B-, good job set's pretty cool and it has a birb.

Anime Girl #26.4 (Rumia by U UserShadow7989 )

Toes. Hoes. Insert joke, wrap it up, and call it a day because we've got a US set that's shorter than some of my own. Never thought I'd see the day and it brings a tear to me eye :.).

Despite the bite-sized length of this set, you manage to cram in all the excellent little attention-to-detail tidbits I associate with you now (including the incredibly detailed animation descriptors!). And what we have here is a neat little set that utilizes a smokescreen mechanic as one of its central mechanics with the twist that it's not really there to conceal any huge setups or play 5D chess, but rather to play the simplest sort of mind game available in a moveset: a guessing game. Is she going to poke or smash? Is she going to use a projectile or bait me out and counterattack if I go for the offense? It's all simple stuff but from what I understand that's very in-character for her, and playing a character whose offense is based around an opponent coming close to her is fun.

Given my limited knowledge of Touhou (intentional), this seems about as bread-and-butter a set for that franchise as you can get! It's got the elemental magic, the bullets what cause hells, and a tiny girl that hits like a truck hits an average high school student in an isekai. It's a simple enough set that I don't know if I have too much to say about it: UserShadow has an excellent grasp on how to make a functional and interesting moveset even if the character doesn't have that much to offer and also water is wet. There are some standout inputs here outside of the specials with their cool darkness effects: a nice little 50/50 dash attack that's safe on block, a zone-controlling projectile forward air that once again plays with that sort of simplistic mind game of "choose one or the other" as a foe is recovering, an Up Throw that sets her up for her incredibly solid aerial combo game. This is a pleasant enough set that obviously isn't going to blow minds like Jodie or Lucky Louise, but at this point I think it's impossible for US to make a "bad" moveset. When your absolute bottom tier is "fine" then you've basically established yourself as a hitmaker, ya know? Giving Rumia a B- because I'm a cruel teacher.

Everything Before Part 7 is Filler (Jonathan Joestar by BrazilianGuy )

Joey Joe Joe's Quest for Peace is one of my favorite Chinese cartoons. Recently I started a write-up for all the main heroes and villains for this series that I haven't progressed that far in, but I did concept out Jonathan and Part 1 Dio, so I'm interested to see if there's any overlap in our way of approaching this character. Not that I'm gonna let my ideas influence my opinion of your interpretation mind you, just something I'm gonna inevitably be thinking about. The first thing is that Speedwagon being there automatically makes this moveset better than any dumb ideas my brain came up with, so I suppose I concede this point to you right off the top.

So the idea of a meter mechanic in smash that gasp actually functions the way meter burns in other fighting games do is really fun on a basic level (and also lines up with my own imagined version of Jonathan). Outside of a few quirks here and there, Jonathan is fittingly a pretty straightforward character without many frills. He's got the melee, he's got the meter, and he even has a sort of neat trap for his down smash that is an odd but understandable translation of his attack from the Jack the Ripper fight. Unfortunately, outside of the joy of seeing a character I quite like finally get his dues in a moveset, Jonathan doesn't really do all that much for me outside of a few of those neat meter burn ideas and fun interactions with the Interfering Weedspagon. FCC has a really different way of organizing information which is nice and fresh, however, I do think something that you could look at (this isn't an indictment of the set's quality but rather just a tidbit to help with readability) is to think a bit more on how moves are actually dispersed throughout the set. I've certainly been guilty of just going down the move list and writing as they come, but when you introduce something as central to the experience as the Hamon Breath meter it could probably stand to be in the first attack, just so the reader knows what's up. Of course, this isn't a hard and fast rule; I literally just praised Kasen for withholding a major mechanic until about halfway through, but unless you're going for something like that where the late information is meant to contextualize what you've read so far stuff like that should probably come first. Or, like, don't, I'm not your boss and I know that you guys have a sort of different philosophy of how movesets are constructed, so maybe I'm just showing my MYM bias here.

Unfortunately, I don't have a ton to say outside of that: Jonathan is functional, he's got his whole kit here and the moves definitely feel Jojo, there's just a sort of ineffable "wholeness" to the set's mechanics outside of the meter burn. You clearly love Jojo's and that definitely shines through here, though and I'd love to see that enthusiasm come on through again with another character from the series! Who know, maybe Jonathan's non-filler counterpart will make an appearance later this contest....

 

[Katapultar]

Spoiler: Nonon Jakuzure

Oh yeah, another Kill La Kill moveset! Probably my favourite KLK character design-wise, too. Very funny how Nonon and Flandre both have ways to mess with projectiles by non-reflector means. The Specials are all simple but nice: freeze projectiles, tether to multi-chain projectiles and send them along a path, and minions that bop foes towards you and can be tethered themselves (attack speed/start-up is a little under elaborated, but not a big deal). A good hook for a quickie set. I even like how Up Special - a rare twice-per-use recovery - gets slower but stronger when it’s used a second time!

Aerial section is strong, just as promised. N-air drag-downs and D-air projectile moves are fun, and I like F-air’s firing delay and how the set is self-aware of the difficult timing in freezing a missile as soon as you fire it. B-air is a great move in general too, for how it plays off of F-air and D-air. Standards are a bit more simple, and understandably so when Nonon’s ground moves are meant to be weak balance-wise. Seeing the soft interaction on Jab does make me wonder Nonon could have had grounded moves that made use of her Students for little hard interactions, but they might not have been necessary and would have made the Students more centralizing than they’re meant to be (it’s a nice touch that while this set has minions, Nonon doesn’t rely on them heavily and they’re not mentioned a lot - it feels pretty in-character).

Some of the last half of the set was a bit weaker I’d say (could have brought the set up to 8 stars for me), but B-throw was a fun little way to make use of your tether in a way that makes sense with the animation, and F-Smash being a “big move you use all those projectiles to lock foes for. Also D-Smash interacting with your tether + Students is a great way to end the set by referencing back to your Specials. I almost think this set could have done with more projectiles, and that not putting any on the throws or Smashes was a missed opportunity.

A throw that creates a projectile (maybe one is spat out from the trumpet after the foe via U-throw? Multi-hits for potentially easier F-Smash?) would give Nonon an extra reward to grab and still play into her no-combo throws. I could also see her having a move where she commands an existing Student to launch themselves as a projectile like Luigi’s Green Missile, the idea being you let that Student fly pass you so you can casually freeze them with your Neutral Special. A student launching themselves like a rocket might sound really tacky for anyone who isn’t familiar with Kill La Kill, but it surprisingly makes sense in the series, trust me.

On a minor note (no pun intended), I love the little detail about the Students having good posture, and foes having bad posture in Nonon’s F-throw. Being able to tether your Students and use your opponent as a living record player in B-throw + stuff them in the trumpet via U-throw have a zany, cartoony feel, which is very welcome in a moveset for a Studio Trigger character. This detail will probably be lost on more people than Kronk & Yzma’s masterful characterization though, given Disney and all.

All and all, a set that was more fun than I was expecting. Nonon would have been a vote in MYM25 like Isabella, so a good start to this contest for you!

Spoiler: Cu Chulainn

Cu is what I assume is a test in how good of a moveset you can make with the shortest wordcount, something I quite welcome. Also to accompany the upcoming Akechi 0.2? I for one really like the way information is presented here through bullet points. Very helpful to keep note of for other people who want to make their own short sets in this style.

Potent Hypnosis is cool, never even thought about a mechanic where a fighter takes bigger status effect multipliers (big points here for factoring in stale-move negation and rage). This makes Cu’s self-damaging moves all the more satisfying so he can build up his rage. Jab getting buffed and an extra hit when it’s staled is a neat idea, works well with how quick Jabs are in general. Could be a really potent idea on a Neutral Special move that say, fires a projectile. There are little things I like across this set:

• Neutral Special debuffing you for some seconds, then it flips to a buff for a moment.
• Side Special’s wind effect when the move is fresh.
• Up Special w. Options in general, plus how it works with Aerials. I like how the Aerials section points out the ground spear-throw trick at the start of the section.
• Down Special having armour at the cost of taking extra damage.
• D-tilt booty forward on whiff.
• F-Smash being angleable individually so you can choose to shield-poke or go for a shield-break.
• Froy has rubbed off on you with that N-air. He did something similar with Toramaru in MYM23.
• Throws that launch yourself as well are cool @ B-throw.
• D-throw as a sudden end-of-set mechanic booster.

Though naturally limited by his unusually short length, I honestly think Cu Chulainn might be the most successful shortest moveset in modern MYM. I can see a lot of people appreciating this set from that perspective. Definitely a short memorable n88 set like Mordo and Firebar, and one that I could see being more successful.

Spoiler: Goobbue

It’s been a long time, Majora! No doubt you’ve been informed how FA has immortalized two of your book-based OCs in MYM, Knight and then Belzeb - the possibility of the author showing up to make further OCs from these universes would be intriguing.

Between his super duper short length (by today’s standards) and more traditional way of measuring stats, Goobbue is certainly a blast from the past, but not in an unwelcome way. While it’s probably common sense and something most readers would guess themselves, it would be neat if the Goobbue’s transformation into its stronger forms were described in some way. That would enhance the flavour of the set and sell the fact that it is an actual transformation.

Moves are understandably short on detail, as I assume you’ve just jumped back into the game. Some thoughts:

• The idea of an Inhale-style attack that hurts you bad if the foe escapes is neat. This could be expanded upon to turn the move into a fun risk/reward scenario when you do swallow a foe. For example, you could press A to chew on a swallowed foe to deal strong damage + heal yourself (heal back down to low percents and stay in your stronger form), which increases the more you mash A in quick succession. Or you can press B to spit the foe out for damage + knockback so you don’t have to go through the risk of your captive escaping. Maybe charge the spit for stronger damage? Food for thought anyway. From what I see, the set doesn’t mention Goobbue having any options when it does swallow a foe, meaning they will always escape from its mouth at some point.
• Side Special reminds me of Ode Iou’s poison spit from last contest - if you’re interested in getting into MYM further, you might want to check out that move for the type of applications you can get from a glob-spitting + trap when it lands type move.
• Up Special could potentially be a fun Robo Burner style move where you can use your Aerials while flying - not having a hitbox on your recovery as a big character would be troublesome.
• “Goobbue shudders and charges up to release a short and low-hanging cloud of spores. These spores can be charged for up to four seconds, and for every second the move is charged the length of the affected zone is increased by half of a battlefield platform.” - might be undertuned for modern sensibilities? I would be fine with the max charge time being reduced to 1.5 seconds for the same effect, or increasing the area the spores cover. Having a healing move on a big heavyweight is nice, and a neat twist that you get healed less on stronger forms but the spores deal more damage to opponents (maybe it’s worth mentioning whether you get to keep your form upgrade if you heal below the percent where you would normally transform?). I also wonder whether the spore areas should have a timer and just be quicker to make, as from what I understand they effectively stay out forever.
• Jab’s numbers feel very undertuned for what I imagine is a meaty Ganondorf Jab-style move: I’d up the damage to something like 11-17% depending on the form that you’re in. Even if the attack was intended to be a super quick panic button, it would still be cool dealing an extra 4% in each form.
• What is a Sylph? @ Forward Tilt. Item interactions are cool, the kind of thing that would be neat if Goobbue could generate items in his set. I’m not sure how in-character it is for Goobbue to command what are presumably other monsters, or whether it would be in-character for it to display that kind of intelligence.
• Down Tilt’s last sentence is unfinished.
• F-Smash’s grab properties could be cool if it was like a Cargo Carry on an F-Smash: grab your opponent, carry them around with limited mobility and send em’ flying for the move’s damage when your time runs out. Just a little idea I’ll keep in mind.
• Spawning minions on your Aerials is very funky - I’m cool with it in general. Minions feel like they would be very helpful for the heavyweight Goobbue, like distracting opponents who would try to combo you.
• Poison damage that spawns minions on damage ticks is a very interesting concept.

The set’s very short length means that all the moves are naturally under-elaborated upon: what purpose they serve in Goobbue’s set and how different moves work together. On the plus side, there are a few concepts here that have some promise, making for a nice and harmless set and worth the short read. Not sure what your plans are from here on out, but it’s always a treat to get new movesets from really old setmakers, even if they’re just passing by with only their knowledge from old MYM.

 

[n88]

Goobbue by majora_787
Cool to see another old-timer resurface in modern MYM! Goobbue is a pretty short lil guy - short sets are alright in my book, but I do think even in a light-touch approach there are a couple places he could generally stand to be doing more.

A lot of moves don’t really address how fast they are, which is pretty key to determining how moves can be used. I feel pretty differently about SSpec if that’s something he can casually toss out or if he’s leaving himself vulnerable by doing it in neutral. (You don’t have to be a maniac and write actual frame data, but general notes on speed are good)

Building on that, there isn’t always a sense of attacks having well-defined intended usages. This is an area where MYM maybe sometimes overdoes explanation. It’s fine to keep it short and leave some things up to the reader’s imagination, but I think a set always benefits from at least having a broad-strokes “how is this meant to be used” sales pitch for a move. Combo starter? Poking tool? Finisher? Also (for me at least), including those notes makes writing easier and keeps me aware of what I’m building, so it’s helpful for that reason.

So anyway, I don’t wanna discourage you from writing short sets if that’s what you’re feeling, but I do think speed/usages are essentials that it’d be cool to see worked in.

I did find myself vibing with the design a bit in the Specials, and there are some cool attacks throughout. I have the odd quibble here or there, but I enjoyed the way the forms progress: particularly the way NSpec and DSpec change (gotta use that big tummy mouth for something). I like the dynamic of self-damage on a character that transforms (even increasing weight) at particular percentages, there’s some fun tension there.

Glad to see you make a comeback, and curious to see where you go from here!

Stray thoughts:

• Hard number stats are a little more customary in modern MYM but I myself don’t mind just seeing the vibe laid out, like it is here. You can find pretty good references on in-game stats on ssbwiki if you ever want to nail down specifics though.
• NSpec might play a little dry since it seems like there isn’t anything for Goobbue to do while he’s got a foe eaten, besides just wait for them to break out?
• The phlegm puddle is pretty big - I guess it depends a little on how fast the move is, but that sounds like a pretty great stage control move.
• Poison feeding back into inhale is neat though!
• Patch 5.3 sounds pretty exciting. Very good recovery for such a meaty guy. Again I like the way the move progresses into a less-vulnerable but less-flexible recovery as he takes damage.
• Not sure what Goobbue’s got to feel so much grief about, DSpec is a pretty great tool for him. Might be a bit much though particularly when it’s not his only stage control tool.
• Side Tilt is wacky - might benefit from a few pictures for the different summons? Not sure it’s a great idea to put summoning on a tilt but I respect the boldness.
• Down Tilt has an incomplete thought about Bombadeel form.
• Does FSmash let him grab someone and just eat them with NSpec, or can he only inhale other foes while he’s got someone grabbed?
• “Both hits of this smash attack can be charged separately” - this is kind of a low-key wild idea that I dig.
• Ah, here’s the Ahriman pic I needed back in side tilt. Ahrimans’ movement debuff is pretty harsh (even if they’re easily dealt with), just cutting movement by a little bit can be significant.
• The Bombadeel aerial moves are kinda terrifying, but I like that given the fact that his aerial movement is so limited. The way the summoning works gives him a boss monster vibe I like.
• Not sure I like the choice for Gourmand/Bombadeel to lose the throws and get its Specials - it feels kinda indirect for Bombadeel in particular and a bit at odds with the ‘maximum bloodshed’ kinda feel the Bombadeel changes otherwise go for.
• Throws are a bit bare-bones but they’re tricky sometimes, so I sympathize with that.

 

[Daehypeels]

Here's my thoughts on Peppino, looking forward to more work from you and the others!

Spoiler: Peppino Comments

PEPPINO:



-ah, Pizza Tower… what a delightful game, and I’m super glad people are making movesets for it. I’ve played the game and adored it, as such, I’m quite familiar with this spaghetti pile of anxiety already – it’s just down to seeing how you implement him

-I believe I read part of this already, and quite liked what was there, but now it’s time to jump back in, eyes open and mind fresh.

-super enjoyable introduction btw, love the jokes thrown in (the entirety of WAR is basically just a PTSD flashback version of the Navy Seals copypasta bass-boosted into oblivion), and I kinda like how the blog doesn’t waste a single bit of time, jumping straight into stats like no big deal

-also before we get into the moves, the constant gifs and sprites thrown around are a nice touch, help show off the move while also contributing to the manic energy of this character



Specials:



Neutral B:

-it’s kinda weird mixing MYM and FFC terminology, it makes sense but I’ve never really seen “Battlefield platform” abbreviated in that way - works though and keeps the pace snappy if you know what it means

-I really like how smoothly you integrate some strengths and weaknesses of the move into the animation/function description. It feels quite natural that you’re not even done describing the animation yet, but you’ve already told me the move’s a nice quick burst option with some risky lag thrown in… the pacing moves along at a quick yet not too overwhelming pace

-this upbeat pace continues into the rest of the move (and presumably the rest of the moveset), particularly in the throws where I quickly know exactly why Peps wants this move as often as possible - also I REALLY like the niche detail that this works on minions or other summons like that, both fitting from the source-game and sounds like it’d make summoner-type opponents quite the wacky matchup for him

-Super pleasant way to start the blog… there’s almost always more you can write in these movesets, for Neutral B in particular I feel like you could add a lot about how this affects playing and fighting Peppino, i.e. this risky yet highly rewarding command grab that’s super difficult to react to, where you know the marinara sauce in his veins is constantly boiling and looking for this move all the time, the opponent has to play in certain ways to avoid getting hit by it (picture something like fighting a way faster Incineroar), and Peppino can then start abusing that fear if he so chooses, you get the idea… but I do like how fun it is to read this, and it’s a command grab with basic throws out of it, you don’t need to elaborate all that much more



Side B:

-I will ask though, what’s “short, yet reactable” startup? When mentioning more vague or open-ended details like that, having a bit of reference to something concrete helps a lot, especially when the description is almost oxymoronic (if it’s reactable, it’s rarely considered quick – for comparison, I wouldn’t call something like Banjo’s Wonderwing quick, when relatively, it doesn’t start up too slowly and it moves decently fast). This is the kind of move where having a good grip on the startup speed can greatly influence how I see it, especially when it’s both a speedy mobility tool he’s designed around, and something that deals a sharp 14% and threatens to kill, even if that’s just the point-blank hitbox.

-I like the detail that he doesn’t instantly die if he turns in the dash while falling off a grabbable ledge, although I will say that felt like a perfect opportunity to throw in something like ledgetrumping, or the cancelling abilities of that – while it’s not always something that comes up, if an opponent’s recovering and about to reach the ledge, you can threaten them with the dash, only to turn and grab the ledge. If timed right and they grabbed the ledge before you, you could force them off the ledge and perhaps pressure the (or even finish them off) with your aerials. Or if you’re quite early, you can use that moment to jump off and B-Air them or something like that. You don’t need to say all that, but even just throwing in a nugget of acknowledgement for use cases like that would go a long, long way

-If Peppino collides with a shield, what happens? Does he bounce off of them like a wall, does he go through them? How punishable is he? Again, this is the kind of move where these details matter quite a bit, if you’re aware of how characters like Sonic tend to play when their hyper-fast mobility tools aren’t punishable by shielding them… And you clarify things like the down-input roll being far less laggy upon hitting a wall, so it feels odd that I have no idea how good this is against block

-Also I’ve played the game so I know for a fact he can jump out of the dash (I’m guessing he can in the moveset as well), but I don’t think you actually say he can in the moveset, other than implications? It’s a natural thing to guess, and it IS strongly implied, but actually having the blog clearly state whether he can jump during it or not is always nice.

-Back to positives though, I like how this style of move-writing allows for this whole move to be described clunk-free… it’s often really easy to slow a move down to a crawl by needing to explain every attribute of it in a row, “for his Neutral Special he can do a thing, but also if you do X he does another thing, but also if you do Y he does another thing, but also if you do Z he does another thing, except when you did X first in which case he does a completely separate thing…”. Obviously it’s rarely that bad, but I just like how yours is a rather engaging “okay so he can do a thing, here’s all the good and bad of that thing, but also he can do another thing, which has its own ups and downs, oh btw here’s another thing…”. Keeps things smooth and simple to keep reading.

-please never stop making movement specials with a million options out of them, despite my criticisms, again, your style makes it really fun to read and see how you feel/think about these moves

-Doing the Super Jump out of the run seems like the grossest low-profile-into-kill-move thing out there, imagine trying to throw an aerial at Peppino only for him to become as flat as paper on the ground, dodging it and then rocketing his fist straight into your jaw – does feel like another opportunity to mention something like that, but it’s far less missed potential, the Kirby comparison is nice and gets the reader thinking about stuff like that just fine

-also imagine doubles combos or FFA nonsense where a combo ends with the shoulder bash shinespark, that’d be the coolest replay fuel

-okay I kinda love the fakeout of “oh btw you can’t use this move in the air… instead it’s this completely other, quite useful move”, really like the idea of a sort of airdash mixed with a weak hitbox, especially on a mobility-centric character like this. As always, would like a bit more nuance in the description, but what’s there gets my brain running in a good way

-I think compared to Neutral B, your briefer and less detailed pace hurts the move a lot more, especially since some game-changing details such as the speed of the move or how safe it is against opponents are completely omitted – as cool as it is to hear all the movement applications for this move (and they ARE really nice, don’t get me wrong), don’t forget that in the hands of every player on the planet, they’re gonna use this move to ram into opponents… so knowing how boned they are when the dash is inevitably blocked would do a lot. Hard to be disappointed though, the writing was clean, just needed a bit more time in the oven imo.



Up B:

-Unrelated to any critique, but is he just constantly chugging omegaspicy pizza throughout the match, every time he needs (or wants) to use Up B? For a one-off gimmick that most players eat once before moving on with their lives, that’s pretty funny, but I can only imagine how miserable his stomach is going to feel.

-The idea of a ROB Up B which sacrifices an entire half of the fuel tank (a huge sacrifice, you could get away with IRL murder with how forgiving and long-lasting that recovery is), but compensates by giving the user the Screw Attack item on command is… uh… that’s kinda broken

-There’s not too much else to say since Up B is over and done pretty quickly, and it’s not too complex of a topic, but there are a ton of ramifications that come from Peppino being able to instantly and laglessly turn into a combo-friendly Palu N-Air hitbox at will, especially when he gets quite a lot of them and he can immediately cancel into any move he wants. Especially since you can Up B out of shield… gross, a fun variety of gross, but that’s REALLY powerful

-I guess some extra clarification on the speed this move starts up on would be nice? I think it’d be neatly balanced if it had just enough startup that it wasn’t the miracle “press a button and bam it’s a combo now” option, but also not too slow that it’s difficult to make use of, but I’m far worse at suggesting balance changes than anything else, so take that with a grain of salt



Down B:

-I remember having a problem with this one when Han and I previewed it, balance-wise, but there’s some stuff to praise about it

-It’s easy to give mobility characters a way to fly around at Mach 9, but it’s always super interesting to me when people give them options to suddenly halt their momentum, especially when that sudden halt completely grinds them to a stop. Love both the practical uses you mention, as well as the physics joke.

-Switching moods a bit, the counter aspect of the move is another thing you should probably delve into a bit more. TL;DR version, Smash has very few (if any) moves which can act like Frame 2 or quicker escape options – since airdodges are only Frame 3 at the earliest (Frame 4 if Sakurai hates your character), that means for 99% of characters, their quickest way to escape getting combo’d or juggled is to airdodge. But once something like intangibility, invincibility (Luigi’s Cyclone being a good example), or a counter is useable quicker than an airdodge, that means this character’s going to be able to either escape/counter entire frames earlier than anyone else in the game, which can affect a shocking amount of interactions in the game – and it doesn’t have to just be combos, it can be juggles, frametraps, buffering it after moves or rolls, doing it OOS… loads of things. Although I’ll ignore the balance side of it, since that’s a whole other conversation and not really one worth going into… these are all still things that are sitting there, begging to be described or even mentioned. This character has a literally instant counter, what sorts of ways do you think it could affect how he’s played or fought? I’d love to hear what you have to say about these sorts of things, so it’s a little bit of a shame that you brush over it.

-Although I do think balance is worth mentioning for at least one thing – you say that the taunt lasts for 12 frames, and the counter lasts for 6 frames… 6 frames of vulnerability is basically nothing, you can spam this thing 5 times per second. For comparison, this is kind of weird, but Mii Brawler’s counter is by far the least laggy counter in the game, and if you boot up Smash and try it out, you’d probably find you can spam it surprisingly quickly. For comparison, that move has 15 frames of vulnerability, and since it’s 38 frames overall, you can’t do more than a single full counter in one second. If Peppino can mash his counter over 3 times faster than that, I think it undermines the comment about needing a brain to use it.

-Other than the relative nitpicking, I do like the idea of a counter/reflect being tied to this momentum-stopping mechanic. Being able to counter immediately out of his dashes is one thing, but the fact that he stops dead-in-place is quite amusing.

-The Super Taunt is implemented a lot cleaner than I thought it could be, taking inspiration from Tabuu’s Off Waves was a great call with how it’s a giant, potentially devastating but still avoidable move if you keep your resources close to you. It probably just effortlessly deletes characters with limited/linear recoveries reliant on their airdodges, if you get them offstage, but sucks to be them I guess



-Overall, not a bad bag of Specials fundamentally, Neutral B is sound and there’s not much of a problem with Side B other than the details (or lack of them) mentioned, although I do think Up B and Down B affect Peppino far more severely than you let on. But what’s there, honestly, was still a joy to read and it’s hard to mind these negatives when I can ignore everything I said about Down B and just appreciate the wonderful way you describe these things.





GROUNDED MOVES:



-Jab is an immediate jump back to a scenario (but not the only scenario) where your writing style shines, a simple move seasoned with lighthearted descriptions and some short yet sweet applicability; here’s this move, it has a funny animation, it’s good for these purposes, nice. F-Tilt and U-Tilt are in a similar boat, although I also like U-Tilt setting the standard that you’ll be putting every resource the game gives you to good use.

-D-Tilt is an interesting place to put the goofy infinite slide he can do out of the grab. Although that just raises the question, what if Neutral B could be cancelled into D-Tilt on the ground? That’d be interesting to talk about, maybe… but not super necessary, just something I wonder since that’s what it can do in the game. That being said, it does feel super natural to put it on D-Tilt as a slidekick-like combo tool, adds to the “momentum monster” theme

-ooh, I was going to complain a bit about Dash Attack just being Wario’s, but the fact that you basically turned it into a hitgrab Special with the ability to jump or keep going is rad. That’s a little gross, being able to do something like Jab -> Dash Attack at the ledge at higher %s where you could just hop forward and launch them as close to the blastzone as possible, DK style, but this character’s nutty enough, shouldn’t be a big deal

-F-Smash is a pretty respectable place to put the shotgun, especially since in the source game, as good as it is the shotgun still guts your momentum every time you use it (meaning it’s something to be used wisely, not spammed). Keep in mind that something like Dedede’s F-Smash is REALLY slow, like borderline useless and “worst F-Smash in the game” slow, so this would be very difficult for Peppino to land a lot of the time… but details like the charging not starting until the very end of the animation (something that Snake’s F-Smash does, which makes releasing that move almost instant and is a giant part of why that move doesn’t blow) or the pretty safe endlag can make this an interesting move to think about.

-U-Smash is a surprising amount of detail. But that’s really cool! A multi-hit U-Smash where the reward/use actually varies quite heavily based on how many hits you’ve landed is fascinating, y’all have been doing these things for a very long time, huh? It kind of falls into that territory where it’s got enough going for it that I’d love to hear more about it, though – stuff like how each form is probably progressively harder and harder to land and how that might affect risk/reward, for example. Still, that’s a really creative idea.

-read D-Smash completely convinced it’d be a multi-hit, but no, having it essentially be two Mario D-Smashes in a row is fun and not often seen. Imagine it in Melee where crouch cancelling is a thing and this move would be an excellent counter for that… if you’re familiar with the hitbox nightmare that is Peach D-Smash. But even in Ult, the moving nature of this makes this sound amazing.





AERIALS/THROWS:

-Oh, N-Air mentions that you didn’t add the cancel animation to Neutral B for applicability/repurpose uses. Good call on that in a way, since this is a neat way to use it, but that does remind me again of the D-Tilt slide also being part of the grab… would have been interesting if you mentioned that since you did mention something similar for N-Air, but no diss to this move, the details here and the little thrown-in playstyle bit about Peppino’s slightly lackluster air presence is nice (even if his Specials and what looks like pretty good aerials below are convincing me he’s not as weak as you’re describing)

-yeah no, F-Air and B-Air, there’s no way Peps is bad in the air. Love the idea of the chainsaw being a safeish shield shredder/prodding tool, and the spicy airdash is a fully expected yet perfectly fitting B-Air, but these are really potent moves. Also again, not a complaint, but how much spice is Peppino chugging throughout the match, if every Up B he eats Satan’s Choice and every B-Air he eats some spicy chicken? Poor guy. Nice move descriptions, though.

-already always a huge fan of K. Rool-type U-Airs that boost you upwards, but the fact that you went the extra mile and gave the goofy little flourish Peppino does at the end a sweetspot… I want to play this moveset really badly, that sounds so much fun to go for. Hype as hell indeed.

-Where else would the ground pound go? I guess the RoA mod put it on D-Smash, but honestly this place feels way better. Loving the extra detail of the Wario Land 4-style boost in power he gets if he falls far enough, you technically didn’t need to do that, but you did and it’s appreciated.



-looooooooove throws with random animatioons, that’s always a delight – Peppino shaking the everloving **** out of his victim for the pummel is also perfect, always wished Wario’s pummel was his Shake It! shake, and here you are doing it properly

-hey, you’re writing throws quite nicely! Certainly better than what FFC thought throws could be, as far as we were concerned for the longest time, throws were just an automatic damage and angle you could get as a reward for grabbing, but lacked so much of a regular move’s nuance when it comes to stuff like landing the hitbox or spacing or timing or anything. As far as we’re concerned, these are nice throw descriptions. Maybe as far as MYM is concerned they could be better… but eh

-U-Throw and D-Throw are pleasant additions as well, D-Throw in particular being a rather merciless pummeling sounds like loads of fun, not to mention the extra added detail of being great for his combo count.



-Sorry I had less to say about the throws and the aerials, but they weren’t any worse of a read, just on the simpler end. There’s always room for more detail and added flair to each move, off the top of my head you could probably elaborate on how safe F-Air is to use (so Peppino’s good at poking and shredding shields, but what happens if an opponent rolls behind him or it’s whiffed entirely?) or something like N-Air’s use as an out-of-shield option… but when a move is on the simpler end, it’s not always necessary to force in more detail, and I do like how there isn’t a single millimeter of bloat in your writing.

-Oh, also the Final Smash is nicely done. Flavor-wise, it’s pretty cool and fits like a glove to have him pull an Unexpectancy on anything he sees, although balance-wise I think giving Peppino the ability to deal an unblockable 20% on any move with zero timelimit other than “don’t die”, and the fact that you called him getting 4 of these + a final one that does 50% a DOWNSIDE is… curious. Hard to complain though, I’d be laughing my ass off if I got to use this in Smash proper, it’d be a blast. I guess the two weird things to me though are… do other players get to use their Final Smashes while Peppino’s is active? And how does stuff like max-range F-Smash work with this, does he just shoot them from as far away as possible before warping over to beat their snot out of their ears? Still cool though.



EXTRAS/FINAL THOUGHTS:



-skipping ahead a bit, the extras are appreciated~ special credit to the Mr. Stick assist trophy Nabbit-ing your literal stock icon away from you and forcing you to beat him up to get it back, and LOOOOOOVE how D-Taunt can be held for as long as you want before he screams, that’s such a genius touch, massive props

-Playstyle’s not bad… oh, THERE’S the Frame 1 counter acknowledgement, good to see (still think it’s weird you point out multiple times how short the counter duration is, but never how the vulnerability period is exactly as short before you can mash it again)… it’s a bit too brief for my liking, overall? As always, wished there was a bit more meat on those bones there, you’ve got a great foundation and some pretty tasty seasoned sauce on it, but it’d REALLY shine if there was at least a bit more for me to sink my teeth into. Not gonna repeat myself even more than I already have, but perhaps a simple strengths/weaknesses table would help out a lot with zeroing in on exactly what’s good and bad about him.



-And that’s the moveset done! I had a great time with it overall, I might have some criticisms when it comes to a couple of moves being a bit overly potent, or wish there were more details added to various moves, but what you gave MYM is a rock-solid interpretation of Peps, and it’s hard to disagree with pretty much any move choice you made – these are just some excellent fits for a Peppino moveset

-Not sure what else to say without repeating myself, especially since this comment took way too long to finish, but best I could recommend is trying to look at these moves (and overall kit) from every angle possible: while you don’t need to overbloat things that are fine with simple descriptions, the more complex a move is and the more variable/useful it can be, the more scenarios you should think about its use in. As much as I loved your description of the Mach Run’s crazy speed and hilarious amount of variations, I was left with zero idea of how applicable it truly was as an attack in neutral, and stuff like that is a bit of a letdown when you’re pretty great at throwing in details and observations here and there.

-Regardless though, looking forward to what comes next from you! Not sure what you’re up against, as this is only my first-read MYM26 moveset, but I hope to see Peps or some potential future work from you getting some solid votes.

 

[Katapultar]

Spoiler: Kasen Ibaraki

I was curious about this infamous and supposedly overpowered FFC contender, so it’s neat to see Kasen finally make a MYM appearance. Being nearly double the length of Illias and Adramelech is promising, too.

Neutral Special being a quick counter and having that unique vengeful state are fun. Up Special is a neat, multi-option recovery (I like those types of Up Specials), and Side Special is low-impact by comparison but its applications are justified. Using your Vengeful Neutral Special projectile to create a beacon that works specifically for an option on your Up Specials feels a bit random flavour-wise, but I do like the amount of work you have to go through to get the projectile - only affecting your Up Special hawk throw, which is optional in the first place, means that the rainbow aura doesn’t feel too intrusive or centralizing to Kasen’s gameplay.

(For Jab and other moves, might it be good to put developer’s notes like “Old move used to do this…” in a different kind of font? Just to make it more notable to readers that that part of the write-up has no bearing on understanding the moveset? Otherwise I’m cool with stuff like this being in the set, even though I’m kind of skipping over them for the sake of getting through my reading log.)

• Does Dash Attack just deal its big damage and downwards knockback no matter when it hits? I was a little confused and thought it might be a “dragging Dash Attack that deals downwards knockback at the end”, which could be a cool - if potentially overpowered - move for moving towards the ledge and dumping your opponent below it.
• N-air does feel a bit powerful for its reach and comparatively high hitstun and good frame data, but I do like how the tipper’s high placement requires Kasen to be precise when using it for combos, and said hitbox placement dampens how effective the hitbox can be in neutral.
• I like D-air for its bouncy and getting a spike if you chain it 5 times.
• D-throw goes a bit more fun and funky with the mummification hard interactions on your other moves.

After that comes True Form and the main reason for this set’s longer-than-usual length. I can see that you had fun conceptualizing a “top-tier heavyweight” character from the stats and playstyle + F-tilt and B-air write-ups! I like that being in Vengeful state reduces the huge start-up of Down Special, which seems to be the main thing holding back Kasen from using her true form. Lets you punish opponents for trying to camp you out with projectiles, or just flinging stray projectiles to deny you breathing room. The projectile armour kind of reminds me of Funny Valentine’s Corpse Part mechanic in JoJo All Star Battle, where he ignores projectiles if he’s standing still - the animations here certainly help showcase how powerful Kasen is by casually brushing off projectiles (between this set and /v/-tan, FFC seems to have a fondness for “I don’t care about your projectile” type super forms). Also funny that some of True Form’s moves used to be more busted. With no time limit for True Form, I assume that the only way to stop it is to KO TF Kasen or just prevent her from attaining it in the first place - that’s fine here.

While packing some nice gimmicks between her two forms, I ultimately found Kasen to be a more fundamental-focused set, taking more about combos, mix-ups, conditioning and scary moves that make for a solid melee foundation. Where the set gets particularly cool is on two of the True Form throws: F-throw and D-throw, the former being my favourite move in the set. I like attacks that make use of Ultimate’s teching control scheme to trick your opponent into doing something other than teching, in this case shielding at the risk of eating the instant shield-break kick. D-throw being a “bury your opponent deeper than usual” is really cool, not only for selling Kasen’s absurd strength but also limiting what options she can follow up with (bonus points for the self-awareness on super strong D-Smash). The psychological mix-ups between these two throws (doing nothing can work against F-throw, but is dangerous against D-throw, while mashing against D-throw is dangerous for F-throw) makes TF Kasen’s grab game pretty peak for a fundamental-based set. A big improvement over your previous grab games, it improved my opinion of her set, for sure.

I like this set’s smart and self-aware sense of restraint on True Form Kasen’s Specials, which are slow and a bit more niche to balance out some of True Form’s ridiculous options. Her Neutral Special having 2 seconds of start-up feels perfectly in-place given Kasen’s speed, raw knockback and the fact that your base mechanic will probably condition foes out of using projectiles against you anyway. Skeletons not being able to attack - but Kasen being able to smash them around, is a nice touch and works well with her power and how the set has already been through her non-Specials. Side Special is fun for its animation and being able to pop up opponents beneath you and throw them instead of the pillar! Down Special reminds me a bit of Alcohol Witch Daniella’s Down Special, which is in turn based on big mix-up FG Specials (different options for beating out different reactions) which are in turn very cool and commendable. The special ledge-cancel move is particularly unique - we don’t get those kinds of moves much in MYM.

All and all, Kasen is easily my favourite set of yours so far, and has proven that your melee is up-to-par with most of MYM - very impressive to see this from your first moveset that’s tailored for MYM. Kasen would have been a WV+ last contest if not a RV (which would have been guaranteed in MYM24 or any contest before that), and a 100% guaranteed vote this time around (contest is already hot, and with 4 months this time around instead of 6 I don’t think it will get notably more competitive than MYM25). With a big, really fun hook to play off of, I could certainly see you making a moveset that I would RV or even SV in a very competitive contest. Great job here, Kasen definitely lived up to her reputation in FFC!

 

[GolisoPower]

Those who've been around for last few contests, y'all know the drill by now...

THIS IS GOLISOPOWER'S COMMENT LIBRARY!

Featuring the following comments:
Way Earlier Than 30 Minutes (Peppino Spaghetti by bubbyboytoo )
Chicks Dig Giant Tanks (Natsume Iroha by Katapultar )

 

[Katapultar]

Spoiler: Rumia

A fun little set that makes good use of obscuring yourself in a fair way: a small lightweight who needs to work for a darkness sphere that can potentially be used against her, the sphere not fully obscuring her attacks as it reveals you during your start-up, and of course a counter to punish foes who attack blindly. Up Special’s “bump into opponents and walls” is a nice touch to reflect on Rumia’s lore, to.

Apologies if I don’t have much to say here - that's a tricky thing when Rumia is your usual solid fare with her talk on 50/50s, tech chases and DI mix-ups. She is a little overshadowed by sets that I thought had cooler concepts (don't think Rumia's Down Special added a lot), though to be fair Rumia doesn't have too much to work with, and main gimmick of obscuration is tricky to sell in MYM in a super compelling way. If anything, Rumia's character trait of being super weak definitely has Wriggle Nightbug vibes - it's cool when characters that a setmaker makes from the same franchise have obvious traits in common.

Spoiler: Axel Stone

Welcome to MYM! The promise of a recoil character in the vein of Pichu is neat, and Axel really does have a unique take on that with his meter - which lets him use Special moves without suffering recoil! Quite a cool concept that I'll keep in mind for myself.

Neutral Special mentions being able to add more punches for more damage by mashing B, but only one set of damage values are given - for what I assume is without mashing? Recoil seems a bit low when your meter exists (feels like Pichu-esque recoil that’s not a huge deal), but I assume you take more recoil the more punches you throw out.

Definitely seeing that Axel only has punches to work with from his game. Moves are understandably low in detail for MYM’s standards, but everyone starts here! Solid attempt here, with describing basic move applications. For some starting advice, you could go about how moves fare in neutral, like being safe or even good poking tools like Terry’s F-tilt (which has lag intangibility) since Axel notably doesn’t have projectiles. Mix-ups in 50/50s, moves that can combo into each other so there’s a better sense of how Axel’s moves work together - sets like UserShadow’s Rumia or Han’s Kasen Ibaraki might be good to get a sense of what I mean.

You know what I think would really spice up this set? Placing a stronger emphasis and even effects on Axel’s Specials and his recoil mechanic in general. Bigger recoil, make them moves that are tempting to spam and use as neutral tools, but will see you punished with heavy damage if you go and use them without your GO meter to remove the recoil. For example, Side Special could have lower lag than Raptor Boost, and some very generous invincibility (maybe reflect projectiles? Kazuya can) so it’s a solid, much-needed approach tool for Axel. Neutral Special could be a great shield pressure move with its optional multi-punches, could bring a full shield close to ruin and just be very tempting to use in neutral against shields or for damage-racking in general. Down Special could have some quick, generous invincibility at the start and function as a pseudo-counter. Also, I wonder whether Up Special should just deal upwards knockback so it’s a powerful finisher near the top of the screen - very comparable to Ryu and Ken’s Shoryuken, you could look into that move to get an idea of some of its applications.

Some of this stuff might be a bit advanced - don’t worry, it takes a while to adapt to MYM sensibilities - but I’m curious whether you’ll stick around with us.

 

[PeridotGX]

Back when I posted regigigas last contest, I said i might consider coming back into the contest for real. I'm still doing that! It's been four contests since I gave this a serious shot (23 was AI gargle plus a half baked frisk, I was entirely absent for 24, and I only returned to 25 at the tail end), but people who were gone for far longer have made returns so i might as well give it a shot. Between homework and my job I probably won't be able to post anything this month, but I'm going to disclose my plans for the next few movesets I'm making. I'm hoping that I'll get people excited for the ideas and I'll feel pressured to actually work on them (this is one of the only ways i know how to get things done thank you adhd and executive disfunction). I made a graphic awhile back that mostly holds up.

The set in the middle is the one that will probably release first. It's an idea i've had for a while, and I've dropped a few hints for it in the discord and such. The character was really big a few years back, but people don't really care about them anymore-probably because the content stopped being produced. But I have fun ideas for the set, and I think people will appriciate the idea and remember the good times. You know what, I'm not going to be vague with it anymore: this is a set for Deep Leffen. Yes, the twitter account.

The ones in the back could release in any order, I'm not sure which I'll get around to first. The one on the left is a very belated Secret Santa gift, and probably a character that's had a fair few MYM variants already. The one on the right isn't quite an OC, but they're a very insignificant character in their game and I'm fleshing them out to the degree they might as well be (There's been a set or two from their series before, but it's very much out of MYM's common wheelhouse).

Aside from these three, there's one really solid idea that i forgot to include in the original picture (very appropriate), and they have the unique position of being a possibility for actual inclusion in another fighting game (a very slim one, seeing as Multiversus is dying and they weren't leaked, but you never know). There are also a few joke ideas I have, and I'd like to remake a few of my older sets to make them better. Frisk leaps out as priority number one for that, I like a few of the ideas but some other things need changed and it was also half done when i submitted it (i had a whole codec thing planned but i only had one ai written one actually included which made it look like i'm just bad at dialog too). Arcade Bunny, Chill Penguin, and Weavile are also things I'd like a second take on. We'll see how things go.

 

[majora_787]

Alright, Goobbue was fun, but it's time for me to get a little serious.

 

[Shad0takU]

All I got is this moveset for a simple engineer. That's all

ISAAC Moveset

[ BACKGROUND ] The year was 2508. Mankind had expanded to the stars, and was now facing an energy crisis like none before. But Isaac Clarke was just a simple engineer trying to make a simple living and keep his life together. That plan went up in flames when he went on a repair mission to the pl...

docs.google.com

 

[Slavic]

Dizzy by Arctic Tern

Dizzy's one of the more memorable characters from Guilty Gear for what I've actually played of it, love to see her of all GG characters get a set! Dizzy does a reasonably good job of translating and adapting Guilty Gear's mechanics into Smash, probably in the upper third or so of FGC for me. Dizzy does more for me than Kula Diamond, as an example, and even saying that I quite enjoyed Kula. There's a strong showcasing of knowledge of both systems, something I think is essential for a successful FGC set. I greatly enjoy how her strong super jump was translated to having her armored second jump as her primary recovery tool as the most prominent example. Air Dashing is present, and while I do think it's a bit on the backburner for Dizzy I don't think it's as missed an opportunity as FA seemed to possibly. It's good for multiple situations for approaching, retreating, recovering... with how Dizzy's aerials work, and her variety of projectiles to approach alongside (great example from the set I love is throwing out a projectile, catching a shielding foe after air dashing with Back Air, and Roman Canceling to respond).

Speaking of Roman Canceling, the Tension Meter (also an expected carryover from GG) is tied almost comically to most of Dizzy's actual selling points. As one of the main points of both her strengths and weaknesses, Tension options, in particular her various Roman Cancels, are what nearly all moves revolve around. As an aside, the way Dizzy can deal with campers with tools like her fish (especially shield fish), and punish shields so heavily encourages foes to play on the approach and aggression to try and get Dizzy in her disadvantage state. In her own way, Dizzy kind of forces the foe to play as if they had a Tension meter to fill as well, which is a neat parallel. Dizzy's got that FGC vibe where she's immensely more complicated than a standard Smash character to learn, but in exchange can pull off some of the most absurd maneuvers on this side of Steve.

Roman Canceling's power and role as a keystone mechanic for how Dizzy functions in virtually all gamestates does create a pitfall for Tension; as strong as her Gamma Ray is, and how useful the frame 1 invincibility on Dead Angle Attacks is for reversals, she's heavily encouraged to not go for them unless absolutely needed. So many of her attacks are made safe or chainable only through a Roman Cancel that the set itself even mentions RC'd attacks are more reliable, and can be stronger in the end, than her Gamma Ray. Dead Angle Attacks will probably see use either way because of how light she is and how poor her recovery is, but the Tension cost of a Dead Angle Attack also means that reversing her disadvantage keeps her behind where she would be if she just attempted to endure whatever attacks. All this is an awkward complaint because it's baked so heavily into how the mechanics have to work, but it is a shame that she can't focus on this almighty powerful attack more.

Speaking of poor recovery, I love how MYM has trended so heavily towards using 'armored double jump' as a method of recovery. With Dizzy, though, I think her recovery might be too gimped with how bad her disadvantage state typically is. Personally, I think it would be perfectly fine for Dizzy to have both an air dash and a double jump while recovering, especially as air dash has no hitbox or armor and can be interrupted with a decent read. If wanting to keep the choice of one or the other, this could be a Bayonetta situation where she has to perform her air dash and double jump in a specific order or be unable to access both, or even give her two air dashes like in her home game and make it so she can either double jump or double dash in the air. I'm also only one person, but I think it would help make air dash a bit more central for her set which could address some concerns.

While I'm not the world's biggest fan of using a lot of held vs. tapped inputs personally, I think it works really well with Dizzy's Specials specifically. Thematically it's great with the more 'subdued' Undine vs. the more aggressive Necro moves, but it's also a smart way to carry over having moves with shared inputs and a different attack move. Plus, none of the tapped vs. held inputs have radically different animations, just mechanically distinct applications of the same animation / attack idea. The same can be said for the Grab Game as well, with the neat idea of having a slow grab that plays up the heavy reading and punishing aspect of Dizzy's set.

I will say that for a 24K word set I did think it would pop off more, if that makes sense. Dizzy does have gameshaking moves, notably her Dead Angles and Gamma Ray, but as mentioned they have difficulty taking the spotlight due to their places in the set and how essential Roman Cancels are here. Up Smash with its set knockback is a standout move, even if set knockback isn't too uncommon in sets, and as mentioned earlier Dizzy showcases an excellent understanding of mechanics and playstyle. I come away from Dizzy happy for the read, impressed by the translation to Smash, if a bit wanting for a little more bang for the buck.

--

By the way, feel free to click here to access my personal set rankings for MYM 26!

 

[Katapultar]

Spoiler: Petra Macneary

I am appreciating all these quicker and more simple veteran sets, as great as bigger sets are, and Petra feels like a wee return to the MYM14-16 style of simpler Froy sets and sort of reminds me of Kunkka with a “marking” mechanic. League of Legends is out, Fire Emblem is in. Hunting is a solid enough mechanic, and this set continues the trend of “many options out of one attack” like True Form Kasen and Peppino, sure to be a growing trend as MYM delves more into FG characters. Like Rumia, Petra is a solid set packing plenty of DI mix-ups on modest concept.

I remember there being an old Sothe moveset where he turned invisible, but I have to ask - is it actually canon for FE assassins to be able to turn invisible? I guess you could chalk it up to them concealing their presence, but it does feel a bit “magical” for assassins to be able to become straight-up invisible as an effect. Not an issue though, and probably something that’s surprisingly a thing in the series. “Disappear and appear behind your target” reminds me of ideas I had for a White Dragon Ninja set where it was a fast and powerful anti-shield move to reference defense-position monster destroying flip effect, which is always good to be reminded of.

A few moves I found neat: Hunting F-tilt’s arrow being faster when hunting and dealing inwards knockback, as well as non-hunting F-throw for forcing stress and B-throw’s hunting arrow and all its implications and forcing air dodges + working in with Petra’s DI mix-up grab game. F-Smash works well with invisibility, and channels a bit of that Nino “dodge before you fire projectile to counter other projectile-users”. D-Smash is also funky in a nice and simple way. D-air is pretty nice too, plus F-air’s utility as a combo + kill + assassinate combo-starter that’s especially at risk of staling.

 

[Kholdstare]

Peppino Spaghetti // bubbyboytoo

23/30

Creativity and Originality // ★★☆☆☆
Peppino doesn’t do anything particularly creative or original as your goal was to adapt Peppino into Smash by pulling exclusively from his Pizza Tower animations and techniques. You do however get a star for being the first Pizza Tower moveset in MYM, including a few new sub-mechanics like collateral damage, and being one of the very few MYMers to do Abyss Runes (since you created them). Still, like one who only got two slices of pizza at the pizza party, I’m left wanting more.

Organization // ★★★★☆
Peppino’s moveset is structured in a good way with ideas logically following each other and flowing into the next section well. You have effective use of paragraphs and images, and none of it is confusing. I found myself understanding the moveset quite well and found I could remember most of it after reading.

Voice and Writing Style // ★★★★☆
This is one of the strongest parts of the set, although your style lends it to most sets I read from you. It would be a 5 star but there are multiple times in the set where this gets dinged. A couple of runon sentences (Jab and Down Aerial), some spelling mistakes here and there (go-too and scarry), but mostly when you get to the Throws. You lack confidence and the complaints about writing throws comes off as negative. Even if you don’t feel confident in any part of the set, don’t tell the reader — fake it if you can, because if they believe you know what you’re doing or you’re having a good time, they will mirror you.

Presentation // ★★★★☆
While most of Peppino’s moveset is standard white text with no real innovation on the style since it’s your standard style, the inclusion of images and visual aids really helps the moveset and is such a good inclusion.

Audience and Respect // ★★★★★
Peppino is as long as he needs to be and respects the reader’s time well. Your style and substance provide the ideal kind of moveset for the average reader, helping them with visual aids, no-nonsense writing and length, and plenty of humor sprinkled in to keep it interesting and entertaining. Additionally, your use of table of contents, linking to the stage doc rather than inserting it into the set and taking up more length, and highlighting of certain key details helps further.

Personal Taste // ★★★★☆
I like Peppino’s character from a meme perspective even though I’ve never played Pizza Tower. A lot of the ideas presented within are pretty good too. I’m a fan of the Wario similarities, the movement-based Specials, and how you represented him in Smash by drawing from the Pizza Tower animations primarily. I also really like some of the changes in the Abyss Runes, such as superarmoring his dash. Some things I would have done differently though are focusing on movement tech in a game as movement-focused as Smash. He’s also admittedly struggling in the air, which doesn’t make a lot of sense to me as both a Smash perspective (aerial movement is super dynamic and integral to Smash gameplay) and Pizza Tower perspective (everything I’ve seen of the game has him floating and blitzing through the air in addition to running on the ground). So it balances out but is more on the side of my favor for this score.

Natsume Iroha // Katapultar

23/30

Creativity and Originality // ★★★★☆
This is a take on the vehicle genre but a pretty innovative and good one. It doesn’t go absolutely buckwild with the creativity — such as including upgrades for the tank or even more absurd MYM nonsense — but what you have here is pretty creative and cool. I’m reminded also of Yui’s amplifier, one of my favorite constructs from you.

Organization // ★★★★☆
Iroha is mostly structured in a logical and memorable way, but the out-of-standard-order moves keep throwing me for a loop. I understand that you structured them that way so they could reference the previous moves in that input section but I am still used to the classic way of doing things. I also found myself having to go back and reread parts of moves.

Voice and Writing Style // ★★★★☆
Your voice is very strong and comes across as natural and easy to read, a testament to how far you’ve come as I remember some of your old sets being very dense and hard to parse. It’s not brimming with personality or humor, though, just a pretty good use of voice.

Presentation // ★★★★☆
Colors, fonts, and tables are used effectively here, although gray on red with white text isn’t the prettiest aesthetic to look at. You did make effort however, including a few pictures here and there. I would recommend messing around with custom page lengths however as many of the tables for the tank sections get cut in half by the end of the page.

Audience and Respect // ★★★☆☆
As per your usual standards, the moveset is long. This naturally led to me taking a while to read it. You do have a lot to say, of course, so that can’t be helped. This does lose a couple of stars though as I couldn’t stick with it all the way even when I was actively reading it — I tabbed out and checked other things due to my attention span not being captivated by the moveset.

Personal Taste // ★★★★☆
I’m not a Blue Archive fan, but I’m happy you’re enjoying the game so far, so the characterization isn’t going to win any favors for me. However, I’m pretty high on the ideas in the moveset as being able to summon and fight with a tank is super cool. I like your take on a vehicle set and it’s brimming with interaction and has a big playground vibe to it, even reminding me some of Vulture, a set from Kupa I liked. I also as mentioned before liked Yui’s amplifier so this scratches the same kind of itch. Still, the tank and all you can do for it gets big props from me.

Kasen Ibaraki // OldManHan

24/30

Creativity and Originality

// ★★★☆☆
There’s some interesting stuff going on with the True Form and the Down Special but it’s nothing too new or mindblowing. To be fair what is here is pretty neat, especially for someone who’s a relative outsider to MYM. The highlight for me is definitely the True Form Down Special.

Organization // ★★★★★
I’m really on-board with how you’ve presented your ideas here, especially the frame data, how the True Form is presented relative to the rest of the moveset’s ideas, and how you explain how the moveset evolved from its original state.

Voice and Writing Style // ★★★★★
You have a very strong voice and explain things to the reader in your own way, and it’s immediately clear what your intent is. It’s very pleasant to read and understand, and there’s some humor and plenty of personality sprinkled in.

Presentation // ★★★☆☆
The colors and images are a good start, but it’s a very standard presentation. 48 pages of black Arial text isn’t the most interesting thing to look at, and I’m not a fan of it all being centered despite you admitting that is just your style.

Audience and Respect // ★★★★☆
This moveset is basically as long as the last moveset I read, Iroha, but I didn’t find myself tuning out nearly as much. It kept me pretty interested and captivated and was very easy to read. It still is quite a long read, but the moveset is broken up I think in a way that you can take a break after her normal form and come back and read the True Form in one go as well.

Personal Taste // ★★★★☆
The character gets no points from me due to me not being a Touhou fan but I like a bunch of the ideas here. The swiftness of the normal form reminds me a lot of Sheik mixed with Chun-Li and feels like it would be fun to play, and True Form breathes power with its Smashes alone. The True Form Down Special and Skeletons are two things I really adore with this set and I’m a fan of.

Flandre Scarlet // GolisoPower & Arctic Tern

21/30

Creativity and Originality

// ★★★★☆
Flandre has a lot going on with all of these wild projectile and disjointed hitboxes, true to a bullet hell character. The moveset feels like a quilt of very different ideas stitched together — in a way, I’m reminded of KingK.Rool’s Gengar. It’s bursting with creative energy, but I feel like it also works to the movesets detriment when it’s very hard to parse what’s going on and how it thematically ties together to feel less than organic.

Organization // ★★★☆☆
You’re trying to put forth some effort with how the data is presented here which is a good thing, with the frame data in particular being represented by a more visual aid. I’m a big fan of the elevator pitches right at the start of each move. Due to the moveset’s frenetic nature it’s a bit of a struggle for me to remember what’s going on though and trying to juggle all of these ideas in my head. So some really good ideas get brought down by others negative points for me to balance out.

Voice and Writing Style // ★★★★☆
The voice utilized has some evident personality going on with anecdotes and a pretty pleasant-to-read style when I am understanding the ideas presented. Surprisingly however I can’t tell who wrote what with this joint set, save for a couple of times where it’s actually noted by the specific author. In the future, I’d give joint sets a higher score if both writers’ voices are distinct and able to be picked apart so it feels more collaborative.

Presentation // ★★★★☆
The use of colors, formatting, and images take this a big step up from the average moveset but it isn’t spectacular. As mentioned before, there’s some clear effort being shown here but it’s also very recognizable as deviating from Goliso’s standard template.

Audience and Respect // ★★★☆☆
The moveset is pretty meaty in length but not brain-busting — I only got distracted a couple of times but returned to finish it. There’s no second form or anything to have to take in halfway through. However, I found the moveset hard to follow at times with so much wild stuff going on. Additionally, the moveset heavily relies on the audience being familiar with her appearances in Touhou to really understand the moveset. Even with .GIFs, a lot of the time I had to watch them multiple times to figure out exactly what part the attack was pulling from.

Personal Taste // ★★★☆☆
While a lot of the moveset is very cool, the moveset being composed of so many different competiting ideas — and aesthetics, from differently-colored orbs to crystals and more — kind of turned me off from being completely on-board with it. The stuff I did really like I wish would have been the main “creative” focus of the set, such as the moveset’s centerpiece just being the cage or clones or destruction orb tagging. When you have to try to juggle all of these, it gets a little too much.

Rumia // U UserShadow7989

21/30

Creativity and Originality

// ★★★☆☆
There’s nothing new under the sun (pun intended) but Rumia utilizes MYM smokescreens in a way that fits her intended role and tries to make it function as a very humble slot in her arsenal. The moves are very functional and all feel organic, with nothing too crazy going on.

Organization // ★★★★☆
The ideas present in the moveset are arranged in a very clean and logical way, with them building on each other and mostly making sense throughout. There will be times where a move will reference a move we haven’t gotten to yet and you’ll have to put a pin in it but my comprehension of the moveset doesn’t hinge on knowing everything at all times. One thing I do really like here and there are how you’ll explain function, such as you mentioning Grab’s OOS purpose compared to the other moves in the set.

Voice and Writing Style // ★★★★☆
Your voice is present with a very professional and knowledgeable style. There is the stray spelling mistake (platry) but I found the moveset fairly easy to read. It isn’t brimming with personality but it suits the moveset.

Presentation // ★★☆☆☆
There isn’t a presentation style as it is just a step up above unformatted, all-white text. It’s fine to look at but it gets no favor in this category.

Audience and Respect // ★★★★★
I found Rumia fairly easy and pleasant to read, being just as long as it needs to be. Topics are handled and explained well and I didn’t need to on Touhou knowledge to appreciate what was going on here — she could have easily been Darkness Witch Rumia, for instance. That being said, the darkness is actually quite underplayed here with it really being on two moves, I would have liked for it to be leaned into more.

Personal Taste // ★★★☆☆
I’m pretty neutral on Rumia. She does some cool stuff I liked with playing around the concealing orb but nothing wowed me. She was to me just a pretty earnest moveset and your standard style of set. I didn’t feel like I wasted my time reading her but it also wasn’t exciting — I hope that doesn’t come off as negative! I’m hoping your next set will have some wow factor that will impress me.

Goobbue // majora_787

15/30

Creativity and Originality

// ★☆☆☆☆
We’ve seen form-changing movesets before, even forms dependent on how much damage the character has taken, but unfortunately Goobbue doesn’t do anything novel or interesting with the concept, even though he’s very cute. Sorry, Goobbue. The attacks themselves also aren’t very interesting, it pains me to say.

Organization // ★★★★☆
There is a consistent logic to the moves throughout, with you presenting the moves and then presenting how the alternate forms change them or make them stronger. This is very good. There are a few issues (pummel being at the end of the grab game (???) and down tilt just straight up ending abruptly) but otherwise the organization is good.

Voice and Writing Style // ★★☆☆☆
While the moveset does have a mostly neutral voice with your personality not really apparent — save for a couple of funny moments early on in the moveset — the set unfortunately comes off as dry at times due to the amount of short, matter-of-fact sentences. I was expecting you to have a lot more fun with the character! Still, it’s not too bad.

Presentation // ★★★★★
The presentation here is actually quite nice! The use of colors, formatting, and fonts all tie together for a very pleasant moveset to look at. Some more images might be better but this is definitely the best-looking moveset so far. One small note — the Neutral Special inexplicably has different formatting than the rest of the text.

Audience and Respect // ★★☆☆☆
While the moveset is quite short, this isn’t a case of the moveset being as long as it needs to be — in fact, it is much shorter than I’d like. In a moveset with two alternate forms, the attacks need at minimum a paragraph dedicated to how each form changes over each attack. As it is, it leaves me wanting much more.

Personal Taste // ★☆☆☆☆
I wish I could like the set, I really do, considering this is your first set in ages and I was very happy to see you return. I’ll consider this just you dipping your toes in the water. I hope you get struck by some inspiration and make something that really excites me because I’d love to see you get back in the groove of things!

Dizzy // Arctic Tern

24/30

Creativity and Originality

// ★★★★☆
Dizzy is a faithful translation of her source moves and abilities, with the Tension/Roman Cancels being introduced as a cool and interesting take on spendable meter in MYM. The bulk of the moveset is carried by Roman Cancels, but it’s a very fitting thing to focus on from a MYM perspective and keeps the moveset fresh with something to talk about on each move.

Organization // ★★★★☆
The organization is fairly standardized with you explaining the move, then playstyle applications and/or Roman Cancel applications. As such, it’s not too confusing and everything is laid out in a logical way as one would expect. I do wish you would utilize the outline table of contents however as a way of easily being able to jump to different inputs given the moveset is very long.

Voice and Writing Style // ★★★★☆
Your voice is mostly neutral and professional but with moments of excitement bursting through and reminding the reader of the author behind the moveset. As such, it’s a fairly good use of voice. Additionally, your style is very knowledgeable and explains everything in an understandable way.

Presentation // ★★★★☆
The presentation here is very standard, although blue text isn’t that much better than white text other than the aesthetic. I would recommend including some white and gray text, and even colored text matching the Roman Cancel types mentioned. This does however get a bump for having images of each thing the attacks are based on.

Audience and Respect // ★★★★☆
This is a very long moveset which makes for a daunting read, but the bulk of Dizzy are technical details, interactions, and playstyle applications — intricate stuff that can be read later if you just want to get the gist of what’s going on. The images certainly help, plus Dizzy focuses mostly on Tension as the main mechanic making things not too confusing for the reader. The playstyle sections also help (I like the mini one at the end of the specials, for instance).

Personal Taste // ★★★★☆
Dizzy is a solidly good set! I liked her a lot, despite not being too familiar with her or Guilty Gear. She has a pretty cool mechanical toy to focus on and everything tends to come together despite the myriad of things she can throw out. The fire/ice duality is obviously something I dig, and the playstyle seems really fun as a translation of an existing fighter but feeling very natural in Smash. I can see why you’re such a prominent new MYMer, good work.

Patchouli Knowledge // Arctic Tern

27/30

Creativity and Originality

// ★★★★★
Patchy is an incredibly creative set just from the Neutral Special alone but the way so much of her kit revolves around that Neutral Special and plays into her zoning playstyle, such as Up Tilt’s defensive role, makes the set truly tie together. It’s not too confusing or overwhelming either, as everything has its own well-defined purpose.

Organization // ★★★★☆
More than Dizzy, this moveset would benefit from a table of contents in the outline with the attack names. A lot of the moves in this set reference a previous move by name rather than input, like the Neutral Special combos. With so many combos and moves, it’s much harder to remember all of this info, so being able to quickly jump back to them would be great. Other than that, this moveset’s organization is basically the same as Dizzy, which was good.

Voice and Writing Style // ★★★★☆
Your voice and style is the same as before, with not much changed. I did appreciate the Araki-esque explanations in the moves such as what phlogiston is and what a fire devil is — that was pretty entertaining.

Presentation // ★★★★☆
The presentation doesn’t diverge much from Dizzy before it, save for the sections being colored. While this is a good improvement, it’s just “good”. There is a major issue though: a lot of moves are missing their gifs! I hope you’ll go back and add them in, as I assume you rushed it out for opening day.

Audience and Respect // ★★★★★
While Patchouli is very long, the moveset doesn’t feel that way with it keeping me hooked and everything neatly — and logically — sectioned off. You effectively describe what it does and what niche it fills then move on to the next exciting move. Naturally, this keeps the reader engaged as they want to see what else the moveset has in store. You also explain a lot of stuff the moveset references in layman's terms, which is a big plus.

Personal Taste // ★★★★★
Patchouli is my favorite set so far with it’s very cool NSpec play. I’m reminded a lot of a moveset from Junahu called Arche Klein that I enjoyed quite a lot, so this hits all the right buttons for me. Almost every attack in the set is flashy and looks like it would feel so good to play.

Jonathan Joestar // BrazilianGuy

15/30

Creativity and Originality

// ★★☆☆☆
The moveset’s ideas, while simple and fitting for Jonathan, don’t do anything wild. This doesn’t necessarily mean they’re bad though, just that nothing in it wowed me or was new territory. Using hamon charges to cancel hamon-related moves was a good start! With more ideas like that, it would have scored higher here.

Organization // ★★★★☆
The moveset is structured in a logical way, with your frame data and damage being shown at the end. That’s a step up from the average moveset, so nice job. I also am a big fan of you reminding the reader of what the hamon-related moves can cancel into periodically.

Voice and Writing Style // ★★☆☆☆
If I remember correctly, English isn’t your first language, so I’ll try not to be too harsh on you here, but it does need to be stated there are numerous grammar mistakes present throughout. Your voice is present though as your casual, laid-back style does have some charm. That being said, the grammar is the main thing bringing this down and running your work by a friend who could help edit the moveset prior to posting would do you favors.

Presentation // ★★☆☆☆
The presentation is standard but not terrible to look at, with some images (and humorous artistic recreations) sprinkled in there. Unfortunately, as I mentioned in my Kasen comment, I’m not a fan of completely centered text. The headers are also not uniform; half of the aerials are “Fair” and “Bair” while the other half are “Up Air” and “Down Air”. Like I said, proofreading from a third party could help with this.

Audience and Respect // ★★★☆☆
Jonathan isn’t long at all, giving the reader a nice casual experience to read. I do feel like Jonathan is missing something as I was expecting more as a Jonathan fan, although what that is I don’t know exactly. Also, for the non-JoJo fans, I would recommend actually putting some of his feats and history in his bio. Perhaps explain it how Speedwagon would to the uninitiated.

Personal Taste // ★★☆☆☆
What you have here is a plenty serviceable moveset for Jonathan, and I’m a fan of how you’ve handled how hamon works here. However, on the most part, the moveset didn’t blow me away. I think as you read movesets and develop your ideas and writing you can write even stronger works and put out something that will truly impress me. I’ll keep my eyes on you.

Nonon Jakuzure // Slavic

27/30

Creativity and Originality

// ★★★★☆
The moveset’s main playstyle core established in the Specials that all connect together and play off of each other and the normals is a pretty original one to me, although I assume someone’s done “freezing projectiles in midair” before — I’ve actually got a couple with this idea in the works, although not like Nonon does by any means. I’m still giving it a pretty good score here as it’s very interesting to imagine depending on the matchup, especially MYM26 matchups with all these Touhou gals running around.

Organization // ★★★★★
The moveset is organized in a very effective manner, with the section order changed up for very specific reasons you state. I was initially dubious of the Smashes being at the end, but the Down Smash sold me on it. Additionally, highlighting the start of each paragraph was a bold but good choice, it helps draw the reader’s attention to the ideas and keeps them memorable.

Voice and Writing Style // ★★★★★
The writing is easy-to-read, friendly, approachable, and informative, and definitely funny at times. Hallmarks of your style, of course. Full marks for the student moveset.

Presentation // ★★★★★
Definitely the best-looking moveset I’ve read so far, the colors, formatting, and images all combine for an aesthetically pleasing and fitting moveset to look at. Nice job!

Audience and Respect // ★★★★☆
The moveset’s long but not too long, although after getting to the unfinished end (you had to work, of course) I am left wanting more and for you to go back and fill it out, unless you’re trapped in the Taco Bell dimension in which case I would kindly ask for at least a Baja Blast green alt costume.

Personal Taste // ★★★★☆
I like most of the ideas here! It was very fun reading one of your sets after not doing so for so long. I do wish there were a little more projectiles for you to play around with (and a baton-twirling NAir rather than the (although serviceable) existing NAir) but as it is there’s some fun potential here. Well done, and I’m happy you got out another set for your favorite anime.

Axel Stone // Perkilator

11/30

Creativity and Originality

// ★☆☆☆☆
Axel’s moveset is as basic as it gets for a punch-kick man. There is a brief glimmer of something to play around with in the meter mechanic, but it ends up being a relative footnote.

Organization // ★★★☆☆
The moveset’s organization is pretty standard, with it being ordered logically and is easy to follow along and understand what the moveset’s trying to do. A small strange choice is the Aerials section being out of order but it’s a minor complaint.

Voice and Writing Style // ★★☆☆☆
The moveset’s writing style and voice are as neutral as it gets, making it easy to read, but the moveset is also severely underdetailed.

Presentation // ★★☆☆☆
Axel is mostly black text on white background which is as basic as it comes, but you do get a point for including some pictures to visualize the specials and Final Smash. You also use effective formatting for the headers. I’m not a fan of the all-centered text though.

Audience and Respect // ★★☆☆☆
It’s a very short read, and while the ideas are very simple so you don’t need to go too in-depth on them this is a case of the moveset needing much more meat on its bones to contend with the other movesets in the contest. Like Goobbue, I’m left feeling disappointed by how brief of a moveset it is. Compare to Terry; you could have done much more.

Personal Taste // ★☆☆☆☆
Unfortunately, I wasn’t on-board with Axel. I would recommend checking out some of the other fighting game-based movesets in our modern contests and even doing research on Terry in Smash to see what you could have done to take Axel to further levels. I understand if that’s not the kind of vibe you’re going for, though. I hope you improve from here and look forward to seeing further movesets from you!

Cu Chulainn // n88

25/30

Creativity and Originality

// ★★★★☆
Chulainn’s fairly standard moveset is spiced up by various strange gimmicks, making it a very unusual but nevertheless creative moveset. You could have easily made him just a standard spear-wielder but there’s a little something unique on most moves.

Organization // ★★★★★
I’m a big fan of how you lay out the ideas in the moveset, breaking them down into bite-sized paragraphs and then laying out the data at the end with some commentary on it to boot.

Voice and Writing Style // ★★★★☆
Your professional and knowledgeable style has various moments where defined personality breaks through, giving the moveset a clear voice. Sometimes the sentence structure appears strange and requires me to reread it to make sure I understood it correctly, but on the whole it’s a good style.

Presentation // ★★★★☆
The moveset is pretty nice to look at, with great use of purple and white plus formatting to tie into an aesthetically-pleasing moveset. I like the use of an almost white gray to make the actually white bolded text pop more. There are a few images as well.

Audience and Respect // ★★★★★
The moveset is not too short but not too long, sitting at a perfect length for the ideas present. Your use of bold to guide the reader along as well as explaining some interesting stuff not just in the playstyle but how the moveset conceptually fits the lore of the character is excellent.

Personal Taste // ★★★☆☆
There’s some cool and interesting ideas present in such a simple set, such as the interplay with various buffs. I’m not sure it’s entirely my tempo, but I appreciate a good spear-wielding playstyle. On a whole, a refreshing palate cleanser of a moveset and I’m always pleased to read an n88 set.

Petra Macneary // FrozenRoy

25/30

Creativity and Originality

// ★★★★☆
Hunted is the big mechanic this moveset hinges around, with it giving each move fairly substantial buffs and various interesting changes to aid her playstyle. The smartness of how these buffs benefit Petra on the individual move basis as well as the larger playstyle implications give it a good score. Additionally, your translation of her skills from Fire Emblem while feeling like natural Smash moves is something you did a good job on.

Organization // ★★★★☆
The moveset is organized fairly logically within each move, with you describing the move and then the Hunted boons, plus all the various confirms and playstyle applications. What I don’t quite understand is your logic to how the moves are ordered within the sections or why Grab Game comes much earlier, but it doesn’t really hurt the moveset besides me having to go back and make sure I’m on the right input.

Voice and Writing Style // ★★★★★
Your style is very much the same with an informative and knowledgeable voice that’s very easy to follow along with. It’s not bursting with humor or anything but it’s your established successful voice.

Presentation // ★★★☆☆
If anything remains constant, it’s your (solo) works’ presentation. It is what it is, although I will remark that Petra would benefit much more from .gifs of the attacks from Three Houses you reference; as someone who’s never played, just saying it looks like that does nothing for me since I can’t visualize it in my head and I’m not going to go look up a video on it. To balance that out, you get a point for the section headers being cute.

Audience and Respect // ★★★★★
I can’t check the word count but the moveset feels like what you’d expect from a Froy set that doesn’t do outrageous interactions on each input, although each move does basically have two parts unless it’s like, Forward Smash which has its own choice tree branching off of it. You do the audience a big service however by explaining the playstyle in an easy to understand manner that makes it an enjoyable read.

Personal Taste // ★★★★☆
I was initially very neutral on the set with it just being very serviceable to me, although I’ve never played Fire Emblem. I think Forward Smash was where it really swayed my opinion in favor of the set, and I was really impressed how it all tied together, especially on moves like Up Aerial. I was a little disappointed when it abruptly stopped at the end of the throws, but considering it was squeezed in there at the last minute opening day I understand. Nice job.

Bowstring // majora_787

21/30

Creativity and Originality

// ★★★☆☆
While the moveset doesn’t do anything particularly new or innovative, the mechanics paint a portrait of the character driving the moveset and it’s clear you’re trying to do interesting things with him. My concern mostly is that the mechanics are more separate but equal tools rather than playing off of each other more — such as Courage merely increasing the amount of arrows rather than directly altering how the elements function — but it’s still fine.

Organization // ★★★★☆
While Bowstring’s organization is fairly standard, the effective use of how the moves play with the mechanics at hand is a nice way to organize the moveset’s ideas. I wish you would go more in-depth on playstyle, adding more meat to the moveset, but what you’re comfortable with writing is up to you and not that much a negative.

Voice and Writing Style // ★★☆☆☆
Your style is very neutral and easy to read, but lacks flavor or prominent use of voice. Additionally, I found some moves repetitive in nature, such as the smashes all having “Bowstring stashes his one-handed crossbows away and draws his much heftier Element-Bow in both hands in a noticeably long startup” at the start of them.

Presentation // ★★★★★
Even more than Goobbue, Bowstring is a very nice moveset to look at with very effective use of color, formatting, and Google Docs. It could be better with images, of course, but considering this is an OC for a tabletop campaign we’re not getting that unless you commission art for a moveset.

Audience and Respect // ★★★★☆
There’s a lot more here than Goobbue while feeling like the same easy to read — a clear improvement. As I mentioned before though, I’m still looking for more from you, but I think this was a good start. The moveset doesn’t go too far into playstyle specifics which is something you can improve on, for instance. Also, the moveset describes Bowstring as having heels, does this mean he doesn’t have talons? Minor thing, but it did come to mind.

Personal Taste // ★★★☆☆
All-in-all, I’m pretty neutral on Bowstring, but enjoyed it much more than Goobbue. A more promising sign of movesets from you to come as long as you keep improving on your work. Nice job.

Isaac Clarke // Shad0takU

21/30

Creativity and Originality

// ★★☆☆☆
Isaac’s a pretty standard zoner, not doing anything too special considering it’s mostly just a good translation of him into Smash. So I wasn’t expecting a lot, but I do wish you would have done some more interesting things with either stasis, kinesis, or his weapons’ focus on shooting specific limbs; maybe a targeted sweetspot system? It would make a lot of sense for an arsenal fighter to be precision based. The rig extra is pretty nifty though.

Organization // ★★★★☆
Moving Specials up because they’re playstyle relevant is something MYMers learned a long time ago, I hope you move to doing it for all of your movesets (usually newcomers from other moveset communities put Specials last). The hover impacting the aerials with them coming earlier in the moveset makes sense as well. As far as detail, of course Isaac could be meatier if you tried going in-depth into playstyle and move interactions.

Voice and Writing Style // ★★★★★
Excellent use of voice as it comes through clearly and even made me laugh at times, and your writing style is pretty easy to understand. Great job.

Presentation // ★★★★★
Excellent job on the presentation from start to finish. It’s got some effort put into it and fits Isaac well. Two points I have against it that aren’t impactful are, of course, me hating it being all-centered, and the fact that Orbitron is kind of an annoying font to read in body text (still fine in headers).

Audience and Respect // ★★★☆☆
The moveset is fine how it is but definitely could be longer, especially if you crank up the creativity on the moveset as a whole (with three games under his belt and a whole arsenal of space tech plus gameplay that’s more tactical than your average FPS he doesn’t deserve to be a cookie cutter zoner). I would also add more of a description of the Jab’s animation; you don’t actually describe what the attack looks like other than it’s the Dead Space “one-two” so MYMers who’ve never played won’t be familiar.

Personal Taste // ★★☆☆☆
I ended up being a little disappointed Isaac didn’t do more, as he ends up feeling like a missed opportunity. Of course, that’s just me talking; I feel like someone who’s not a Dead Space fan would feel differently, as paradoxically while they wouldn't fully understand the references they wouldn't know what he could have done better. So it's more of me having higher expectations for it so I'm a little harsher. I did appreciate all the references though and think the moveset’s a pretty faithful and serviceable representation of him in Smash! Looking forward to your other ventures.

McDonald's Chicken Tenders // FrozenRoy

26/30

Creativity and Originality

// ★★★★☆
The creativity here is not just in the moves themselves, with the dual sauce mechanic and passive mechanics being pretty innovative, but also in just what you've been able to do alone with the character choice. You made an inanimate object pretty damn interesting, which is a feat of itself. It falls off around the aerials where you have sensible melee such as "bites" and spins but on the whole this is a very creative moveset.

Organization // ★★★★☆
The organization at play here is on the same level as Petra, and having the order of the sauces plus the humor helps guide the ideas and stops them from being too messy. Since you wrote it in a day, I assume the ordering of the move sections was more stream of consciousness than deliberation.

Voice and Writing Style // ★★★★★
Easily the best writing in the contest, hands down. Don't think anyone would disagree with that. It can get a little overbearing with all the tangents but that's part of the McDonald's Chicken Tenders experience. Also this moveset qualifies for "most never-before written sentences in human history".

Presentation // ★★★★☆
Same as Petra before it, but with a little more effort put into the images and colors so it gets an improved score.

Audience and Respect // ★★★★★
Despite me having to stop reading it a couple of times due to life, I think the moveset is perfect length and well-paced. Additionally, I think the audience's participation in the moveset is a huge part of the enjoyment of it, as the moveset's writing style helps encourage active engagement. There's a lot of humor and in-jokes and just random **** in here and it's meant to evoke a positive emotion in the reader.

Personal Taste // ★★★★☆
While the moveset doesn't blow me away like Hol Horse or Black Polnareff did in the past from you, I had a thoroughly great time with the moveset and enjoyed it a lot, as much - if not more? - than Petra. A fun and funny romp and honestly quite impressive for a day's work.

Geno // SaltySuicune

18/30

Creativity and Originality

// ★★☆☆☆
I assume you're just trying to do the most accurate or fitting Geno moveset you can, rather than trying to wow us with zany ideas. I respect that approach. Geno's probably been done by other people more than any wanted character for Smash, perhaps besides King K. Rool. So in terms of your own spin on Geno you really have to stand out but still "feel" like Geno. While it doesn't do anything that wows me, the star levels on charging the two specials and the interaction between Jab and Forward Tilt feel like you're trying to impress the Geno fans with small but fresh ideas for the character.

Organization // ★★★☆☆
While the Specials don't have a mechanic that guides the rest of the moveset's direction, I would advise putting them first in your future movesets, it's just what I'm used to. It would help more here as well because you refer to them by name in multiple moves before the Specials, so I really have no idea how to reference them besides skipping ahead which breaks up the reading flow.

Voice and Writing Style // ★★★☆☆
I believe English isn't your first language since you're from Spain so I'm not going to put you below 3 stars because you're trying your best, but the moveset's writing does show various grammar flaws. I'd definitely hand it over to an English friend to proofread it in the future.

Presentation // ★★★★☆
The moveset's fine to look at, with use of formatting and mostly white text; I feel it could be improved by including some light browns to reflect Geno's palette. The images bump this up a star though, with plenty of them to help the folks who never played SMRPG and don't know what a Geno Whirl is.

Audience and Respect // ★★★★☆
As mentioned just now, you do include plenty of images to help visualize the references that the audience might not be familiar with. You also explain a bit of his history, not just canon but also in regards to Smash. The extras also really help give some fanservice for the Geno fans. I have a feeling that this moveset could be best appreciated however by Genoheads who want him in Smash.

Personal Taste // ★★☆☆☆
I'm not that big on Geno, as it currently doesn't do a lot for me due to how simple the moveset is and how I'm not a Geno fan. There are a few sparks in the set that catch my eye, like Geno Whirl's one frame sweetspot and the Jab-FTilt interaction, but it's going to take more to catch my attention. Still, I am glad you're still working on movesets, so keep at it.

Ne-Gok-Sa // majora_787

22/30

Creativity and Originality

// ★★★★☆
Ne-Gok-Sa is a refreshing take on the army-summoning archetype, with a mechanic that cares about numbers and bolstering ranks and moves (and entire sections) that feel like they have purpose and a mechanically-oriented goal. Specials introduce and set up the minions, standards use commands, aerials and smashes are the main attacks of Ne-Gok-Sa himself, and throws play off your existing army while also bolstering their ranks.

Organization // ★★★★☆
The moveset's a little shorter than I'd like, reflecting the moveset's development time, but as I just mentioned I'm a big fan of how the ideas and sections function together as "roles". I also feel like by front-loading the minions' attacks you forget what they do as the set goes on (something that wouldn't happen with fewer minions). The moveset would benefit from more meat on it by reminding the reader of what the minions can do beyond just rushing over.

Voice and Writing Style // ★★★☆☆
I noticed a little improvement in the writing, the mistakes not being as prominent this time around! There's still some awkward sentence structure and grammar throughout, such as a little too many howevers. Back Aerial also refers to spinning in Neutral Special, when I assume you meant to say Neutral Aerial.

Presentation // ★★★★☆
I'm not the biggest fan of all the red, making the moveset fall a bit below Bowstring and Goobbue in terms of being pleasant to look at.

Audience and Respect // ★★★★☆
You do a pretty good job on the whole of explaining things such as backstory, character, and move functions, I didn't really feel lost at any point. Like I said, I felt the moveset could definitely be longer and meatier, especially with a lot of minions and potentially deep mechanics related to them; right now, they feel under-used, so if you decided to do more stuff with them I'd be interested in seeing how you balance them.

Personal Taste // ★★★☆☆
I'm definitely pretty neutral on Ne-Gok-Sa, not feeling too positive or negative on the whole about it. It feels underdeveloped but also at the same time there's some cool stuff going on with the minion genre here. Nice to see you putting out more sets and improving!

 

[BrazilianGuy]

Spoiler: Natsume Iroha

Tank girl moveset was a lotta fun to read! I have to get the most important things out of the way first:
A-For a lot of her moves she wields a gun, this makes it so 2 out of 2 sets I've read so far have guns, I think that's funny
B- Iroha is such a nice person to her subordinates, she takes them on rides through the stage and even plays hot potato with a grenade with them (d-smash) she is such a lovely Pandemonium leader

But yeah the tank caught me off guard, didn't expect this girl to be doing war crimes, but the war crimes she commits are really awesome. They are also very big-brained war crimes, I especially love how she can be both offensive and defensive with the tank. I love how you translated her being a slacker in moves like Up Tilt where she simply doesn’t put in enough effort to make it a better move, that’s awesome for characterization and you can feel that through a lot of her set. I also appreciate how you differentiate most of her gunfire attacks, small things that make a nice difference. I really liked this one, M4 Sherman/10

 

[n88]

Nonon Jakuzure by Slavic
Jakuzure is a pretty fun opener, glad you managed to dust her off and go somewhere with the rewrite. The set reminds me of Baseball Boys a bit (even before it explicitly calls back to them) in its projectile shenanigans, but the approach feels very different; weirder in its weird places and more normal in its normal places, I think. Jakuzure isn't too concerned with funneling everything back into the shenanigans and that jives with how funky the projectile-freezing and -tethering can get without too much compounding complexity.

Building around the attacks that fire multiple projectiles with variant angles is a really subtle-but-cool choice for how to build out her projectile play without having to put a ton of projectile moves in the normals. Makes her intentions out of those attacks just a bit harder to read and mixes up her gameplay without the sort of over-the-top-customizable direction I could see a lot of folks taking the idea in.

The grabgame definitely feels like it’s not quite bringing the same heat as the rest of the set, but I know you’ve got some edits cooking already. I was kinda surprised there wasn’t a projectile in the throws (look, you’ve trained me not to believe you about there not being any more projectiles). Feels like it would have been an organic place to sneak one in, and mesh nicely with her throws being more about maintaining pressure than combos.

Finale is a sick move; “dismantle your set-up for a big pay-off” type flashy attacks are really fun, and this one feels like a good marriage of theme and gameplay. Good aesthetic details here. And throughout the set really.

Stray thoughts:

• Shame she didn’t come out in the same contest as Nino and Ninon.
• Horizontal knockback still pretty alright for edgeguarding.
• Small touch but I really love the little nods to the background music.
• “if Snake was more in touch with his feminine side.” - he just has a funny way of expressing it.
• Frame 6 is quite good for a grab actually, that’s as fast as they get in Ultimate (though the range is for sure still an issue for her).
• FThrow is fun because after the first paragraph my thought was “shoulda used a tuba”. Llo and behold.
• “the part of the tuba where you shove people into” - I wasn’t in band but I reckon that’s gotta be the big end?.
• DThrow might be a little soft compared to her other options? It’s not bad, but it sounds like it’s giving you an extra 2-3% over FThrow/UThrow and not doing you any favors in terms of non-damage rewards? Though the knockback is a bit ambiguous as described.
• She might be a little too nuts with items on if she can just tether to those. It’s funny but like, kinda insane. Flee the area when you see a party ball.

 

[Katapultar]

Spoiler: Dizzy

Was not expecting a big Guilty Gear set so soon! Or maybe I should have, given its rising popularity in MYM. Getting two juggernaut sets from you from opening day was frankly insane, and starting out with those is Dizzy, heavy with the mechanics like Alex and Hakumen. Wasn’t expecting the big super move to be slotted into the mechanics section! Needless to say, Roman Canceling definitely appears to be the juiciest part of the mechanics, because cancels are just plain fun, alongside Yellow Roman Canceling to make some your slower attacks come out faster in the midst of clashing.

This is immediately prevalent on the Neutral Special, which has a lot of options and offers ice fish and fire shield fish for Roman Cancel mix-ups. Dizzy’s prone game seems quite fun from the end of Side Special, too. The way both bubbles work is cool, even though they are likely lifted from how they work in Guilty Gear - stacking shield stun and using a delayed bubble explosion to combo extend sound very neat. Like-wise, Dizzy being very good in midair but losing a lot of her zoning Specials (which are weaker and slower than usual to compensate for RCs), which captures how she works in Guilty Gear quite well. You definitely nailed translating Dizzy into Smash! The balance is just good, and never gets too ridiculous with what you can do with Roman Canceling.

I wouldn’t say the mini-playstyle section at the end of the Specials was 100% necessary in some areas (Specials already mentioned that Dizzy’s Specials and projectiles are weak and slow), but it’s interesting to see, and I do like the mention of saying that Dizzy can’t play a regular combo game. I get why you’d feel the need to throw it out because there’s a lot to take in with Dizzy.

F-Smash is simple but pretty likeable: it is not dissimilar to Madame Verre’s F-Smash or F-air in being a simple move that’s not any flashier than it needs to be, but you manage to sell what it offers well in the context of Dizzy’s game. U-Smash’s cancel on hit to start a combo or retreat is nice too, and D-Smash fills a big hit niche you can use to exploit a prone situation, so all the Smashes have a good place in the set.

Jab’s tech mix-up with hits 2 and 3 is cool too, Dash Attack and F-tilt are good, and held D-tilt channels the Hol Horse Dash Attack of explaining your myriads of tech chase options. Even though it was pointed out before, I’d say the Side Special fire spear is probably one of the cooler get-up options among the ones listed, for being able to force another prone situation if it hits. Having one grab game for each wing is cool and makes the grab section end the set on a harder note than I was expecting.

While I’d say Remilia, Madame Verre and Crewmate had great and original concepts, Dizzy is still among their level with the best execution I could ask for: a very well-put together moveset where all of her moves have convincing meaning in the grand scheme of the set, never losing steam throughout the set. Nice work here! Will be interesting to see who is better between Dizzy and Patchouli.

 

[FazDude]

I hope to dive into the longer sets soon enough, but given how I'm busy with a few things this week, I wanted to quickly comment on two smaller sets that caught my eye.

BARE KNUCKLE (Axel Stone by Perkilator )
Good to see you in MYM! Especially interesting choice in Axel, and I think you handle him pretty well. Adapting moves from other Streets of Rage titles is a nice idea which helps give him a little more to work with without feeling like a hodge-podge of concepts, and the moveset as a whole flows pretty well (though I do encourage you to go into more detail about the applications and finer details of each of the moves). Kinda disappointed by the lack of a lead pipe or something along those lines, since those are a pretty big part of SoR, but it's no biggie - Like I said, the moves you chose to adapt from other characters are great choices and I wouldn't want to sacrifice those just to add weapons to Axel's kit.

One thing I do want to go into detail about is the recoil mechanic - On one hand, it's a novel concept that you execute well; Fitting for Axel's home games while also translating well into a platform fighter. It even resolves one of the issues I have with a few Smash Ultimate characters - Instead of having special spam rewarded or encouraged, the Power Meter punishes Axel for hiding behind his specials and encourages him to vary his playstyle, which is always appreciated. On the other hand, I feel that the recoil values themselves are a little too generous. They're about the same as Pichu, whose self-damage is unavoidable. Since you're making an active choice to take the recoil when prematurely using specials, I'd want the recoil to be greater in order to emphasize the risk.

Other than that, this is a pretty solid kit. Nothing wild or flashy, but you don't really need something like that to make a great moveset. I'd just recommend elaborating on your moves a bit more to give folks an idea of what their utilities are in battle. Overall, good first kit!

Funny Rock (Goobbue by majora_787 )
I'm not very well-versed in Final Fantasy, so please pardon me if I make any incorrect assumptions about the character in question.

Anyway, Goobbue has a nice concept behind it. Changing forms over the course of a match is nothing new to Smash, but a double-tiered system is a novel concept. Nothing really feels out of place when it comes to Goobbue's moves, focusing on it being a big, lumbering force. There's nothing really offensive here, the moveset flows fairly well, and I can see Goobbue being an interesting fighter to play as.

That said, this moveset's greatest weakness is how short it is. Very little time is spent on how both of the Goobbue's extra forms change its moves, which undermines how important I feel the transformations are supposed to be in the overall kit. There's also a few moves that I feel could benefit from more elaboration - For example, the Gourmand / Bombadeel versions of Neutral Special sound like more of a hinderance to Goobbue than anything, but I don't think that was the intention. I'm sure you had a specific design in mind here, but without the needed details, I'm left in the dark.

Like I said, this is a perfectly fine moveset. Fun ideas, true to the character, and fitting for how I'd expect a giant stone monster to play in Smash. However, you should really expand upon this set - Nothing wrong with short sets, obviously, but I feel like core details are missing here which leave me a little confused on how Goobbue is supposed to play in some areas.

 

[Slavic]

Petra Macneary by FrozenRoy

Yes, more Fire Emblem, please and thank you! Petra's a set I actually previewed a forever ago, so it's nice to see her finally get posted! I generally had thought of assassin-y type characters a particularly hard archetype to build a set around but Petra definitely has me rethinking. She's an excellent rendition of both the stylish animations of FE Assassins while also driving home their power in the fear of instant death. In this case, potential instant death in the form of situationally fantastic kill thresholds, something that really makes her stand out compared to other fast, combo-heavy characters like Sheik. The animations also do a decent job of giving Petra the vibe of some fancy foreign fighter, elusive and elegant as she slices through her foes. Character-wise, though, I do think she could have a few voice lines for attacks to be more in line with FE fighters but also mainly to get her personality and verbal quirk across. Not like this will change how I view the set or anything, just would be a nice addition!

Starting off with the Hunted status we're giving a really fun steamroll mechanic for Petra, which admittedly I don't think we get too many statuses that proc for a foe's percentage in this manner. Again, the set mechanically nails the feel of assassins, especially in FE. The temporary proc with Neutral Special is quite good, attached to a pretty easy move to get in the foe whenever she needs. Lasting a whole 10 seconds also makes Neutral Special an exceptional move in her kit, leaving there no real downside to having foes Hunted basically always, aside from breaking her combos. Petra doesn't really need any downsides for this, and honestly serves more as a way of leveraging her light weight and making a heavier foe effectively easier to kill.

Side Special is a really cool mobility tool, I'm almost always a fan of big mobility moves with a lot of different endings, brings back memories of MYM21 Toga. Feels cool to have multiple follow-ups that are all only good against, like, one thing, and that doing nothing can be the most valid option out of this attack at times. Got that FE mind chess going on here! And speaking of, we've also got Assassinate on Down Special, which I've definitely turned around on since previewing the set and feeling iffy about it. Really cool tool for mindgames and protecting vulnerable moves. Like with Side Special, choosing wrong out of Down Special can be worse than choosing nothing, which feels like how FE is full of hard decisions while playing.

Generally, I'm a pretty big fan of the set past the Specials, with even the briefer moves towards the end showcasing a strong knowledge of the engine. One recurring theme I felt missing for Petra, I do feel she should be notably bad against shields. Admittedly haven't used one in a while, but IIRC thieves and assassins really struggle against high defense targets like generals, basically relying on armorslayers or proccing 1% Lethality. While Petra's not the strongest against shielding foes, she does have her shield-shredding Side Special attack. I thought it was cool that her big, flashy Assassinate move was weak against shields and thought it might end up being a theme for the set but 'twas not meant to be.

One of the biggest areas that was hit-or-miss for me was on the animations. Petra's a fun, flashy fighter and her descriptions nail that, but there's a handful of them where there's ambiguities that make it hard to envision the move, maybe even in an important way for actually visualizing hitboxes. Some I think are more a personal thing, like I don't know that comparing Up Special to 'Shuttle Loop without the Loop' is the best way to visualize the move since most of Shuttle Loop is the loop, I think the description of an extremely fast scooping slash is sufficient. Other places it's definitely too ambiguous, though, mainly when talking about spins. It's silly to criticize but there's a lot of ways people spin in attacks, even within the realms of fighting games and Fire Emblem. Is she somersaulting, rotating like a top, flipping? Sometimes it's obvious and sometimes it's not, but it did pop up enough for me while reading that I'd figure I'd mention it, especially as it's not a problem I tend to have with your sets.

There's a lot of cool moves throughout Petra, FThrow, FTilt, FSmash (hmmm, something about these Forward inputs), the aforementioned Specials, Down Smash, Down Air. Petra's a solid Froy-ian swordie set that does some cool things with how her assassin abilities become more reliable / better as the foe enters kill range. I'm reasonably confident Petra would have a bit more to her if she wasn't a must-have for the St. Patrick's season, such as an allegedly unfinished introduction, and maybe if he's ever feeling froggy Froy'll think of something he could have added. Everything said, my complaints about Petra are pretty specific and I don't think she has any overwhelming or fundamental flaws. Just a few of the thoughts above on things that stood out to me while reading. I don't think there's a lot of room to expand on missing potential or anything, at least not within the confines of not rewriting the set (smh, she never learns to ride a pegasus in the moveset > ). Good work on the set, and good work getting her out for St. Paddy's!

 

[ForwardArrow]

Nonon
You know I was tossing around making this character in my head in the MYM17-18 period, but never really got any ideas I was satisfied with. Happy to see she finally has a set, and the ideas here feel simple but plenty enjoyable. The big concept the set has is the musical "staff", a lengthy tether created between potentially several characters and constructs with the intent of conducting projectiles up and down the tether. Between the cool missile projectile, her bandmates, and the pretty sick Down Smash the set ends on, Nonon has a fair amount of fun things she can do with this mechanic, and the set knows not to overcommit to something that could potentially get a bit lockdown-y if the set focused too hard on it. The aerials introduce some pretty solid melee backed up by Nonon's Up Special giving her great recovery too, weaving in something for her to do while playing around with projectiles, and I'd say the set still holds together pretty well during the standards too. Also, the animations are on point, and for as simple of a minion as they are the bandmates feel like they'd be pretty fun to mess around with and score plays off of.

I will say that while I think the set avoided overfocusing the staff tether, I came out of it feeling the set really only had one projectile to play with on it that felt particularly interesting, which was a little disappointing and leaves the concept with a bit less depth than I'd have hoped, given how flashy it is. There IS still room to expand on it more without making it feel like the foe is constantly stuck in projectile hell with the fairly small list of projectiles the set has and the fact it doesn't feel like it has TOO many ways to make an opponent's life miserable on the tether. While I'm at it, I need to talk about Forward Smash because its a move that, if any move in this set is getting edits, this move needs them among the most. Its a big heavy power Smash that doesn't have much in the way of actual power, requiring both charging AND a sweetspot to get to actual decent kill percentages on. Frankly, for the amount of effort you have to put in for the full power sweetspotted FSmash of needing to fully charge a Ganon FSmash-esque move and then land it in a particularly precise spot, if it killed at like 20% I wouldn't mind. It kills at 80%, and if you do anything less with it the results are honestly embarassing. I get that you're supposed to use the projectile setups to pull it off, but the requirements for that are pretty extreme. I honestly felt aside from DSmash the Smashes in general just could've been a lot better, which is a shame as USmash/FSmash are two of her more iconic attacks from the show. If you're going to put in edits, those two moves are where I'd start(Grab Game is a bit weak but I find that comparatively understandable).

I do think this stuff isn't a deal breaker anyway, FSmash is the only move that sticks out as particularly bad and it hardly makes the set unplayable. Its a fun set mechanically with on-point animations and personality, held back by a slightly rushed development cycle that prevents it from being great instead of good. It definitely feels like you're off to a stronger start in MYM26 dropping this already on opening day, I'll say.

Kasen
Kasen's a bit unusual as MYM 2-in-1 sets go, as in MYM, I've found usually this kind of set is about the interplay between the two forms. Not so with Kasen, where each form very much feels like its doing its own thing, mostly independent of the other. Base form Kasen is a bit of a strange long ranged combo character, with some unique anti-projectile tricks she gets from her NSpecial that feel cool enough I find myself wishing they were usable against non-projectile characters. The thing is, though, I feel the fact you have to time it to get a boon for stopping a projectile makes this a pretty fair level of projectile counterplay, which is always nice, I like when sets that interact uniquely with enemy projectiles aren't screwing over projectile users entirely in the process. The set's got a more developed grab game than your earlier works and, while not as extreme or flashy, has some solid long ranged combo-ing gameplay held back by the fact her frame data is actually pretty middling without a combo going, and her KO moves tend to be pretty flawed/lacking. Its not a very attention grabbing set on its own, but I think it ends up fairly important to the overall package as a solidly functional baseline for what Kasen can do before she commits to her immensely laggy transformation.

The transformation is, honestly, also pretty simple, turning Kasen into a vicious superheavy that amps up the strengths of the archetype to 11. Huge range, unbelievable damage output, nasty tech chases that can send an opponent from a seemingly safe percent to immediate death if Kasen gets a couple good reads, it takes an underpowered Smash archetype and makes it feel like a huge reward just for getting to use it in the first place. The requirement to get into this form is mostly just going through a lot of lag, but you are losing access to the safety valves regular Kasen has in disadvantage for it, creating a pretty interesting dynamic where you probably want to go for the form in any given matchup, but you are making a real tradeoff both in time and your disadvantage state. For how straightforward the set is of just being a heavy with the numbers cranked up to the max, it feels surprisingly smart in how it goes about it, feeling like a Dark Souls boss where no range is safe and brawling with her straight up is constantly leaving you one step away from getting blown out at 3/4ths of your health left. But like, there's always room to react properly, always just enough of a window to get back in, and if you get the advantage you can really put the True Form Kasen player on the back foot very hard. I particularly like DSpecial for putting the foe into the frantic catch-22 situations the set is best at from any range, and Side Special feels really gratifying to beat up on people with.

I'll be honest, I sorta feel like the set weirdly doesn't need the forms to have interplay even if that's my preferred way to make a transformation set like this. True Form Kasen basically exists as a reward for getting enough time to yourself as regular Kasen to transform into her, allowing her power level to be significantly pushed and lean into that intense boss-like playstyle more than if she was just the only set of the bunch.

As far as complaints go, I have a few that definitely hold the set back for me. Regular form Kasen is mostly fine, but I felt the set had a weirdly weak set of Smashes. FSmash was fine, USmash/DSmash introduced some assisting forest animals to do some really underwhelming attacks that don't feel relevant to the rest of the set at all. And True Form Kasen... remember how I said regular Kasen plays an interesting game against projectiles? True Form Kasen just kinda says no to them, which I think makes the dynamic that form provides of being incredibly tough but fair into one that's just straight up unfair against characters who build themselves around projectile play, and nullifies a lot of the interesting projectile setups she could run into in MYM matchups. The set at least gives SOME openings where she's vulnerable and the power is based off a pretty remarkable canon ability of her's, so I'm willing to at least say its not a deal breaker, but its hard to ignore. And while I'm pretty fond of True Form Kasen's Side Special and Down Special, the skeletons just feel weird and underwhelming in practice, like a bizarre gimmick that doesn't really add a whole lot to the set and ends up a bit underwhelming in practice.

Bowstring
Well its pretty gratifying to see you return to MYM after all this time, and after a quick testing of the waters with Goobbue, Bowstring is a much more serious effort that's already better than the sets you made back in the MYMX-13 era. Considering how long you were out of the game and the relatively short development cycle of the set, that's pretty impressive! Cowardice/Courage is a fun little mechanic that lets Bowstring play a very mobility-heavy game, constantly dodging and rolling away after his attacks to keep consistent distance from the foe. Its not so much that his projectile pressure is that strong, its that he's very good at getting away and continuing to whittle down opponents, especially if he came up short in recent exchanges with the foe. The set also has a couple fun sub-mechanics with Courage, the moves that could normally cancel into his Jab for a quick poke are suddenly cancelling into his terrifying Courage-boosted Smashes, which can also have an Elemental boon on them to really make the situations where Bowstring plinked away at the foe until he got a big damage advantage all the more gratifying in the end. There's even a few pretty cool melee moves in there, FTilt being a highlight as a move that covers a lot of bases Bowstring wants in both a weak projectile defense and a tool to get out of the foe's face and cancel into Jab/Smashes when courage is up. Its never SO good at any of those things it just becomes something you spam, either.

Where the set falls a bit short for me is the Aerials/Grab Game, which I know you made a conscious effort to do better on this time and I appreciate. But I'll admit, there's still work to be done there. Most of the aerials all just kind of do the same thing of "cancel landing this move on the ground into a dodge, and the mobility is increased in Cowardice". I'm not opposed to that mechanic being a thing, but the lack of variety means the depth here is not as much there as it was with the ground game. Dair is the exception, setting up elemental terrains to give Bowstring some additional somewhat flawed stage control for his flight or very occasionally fight gameplay, and I did like that even if I felt it was a better underdeveloped. I felt the throws that just reused Dair and DTilt's concepts again were inoffensive, but I sorta wish they weren't almost exactly identical to their aerial and tilt variants in application.

I guess I'll also say, the elemental bow mechanic was cool, but it was one of those things where the set didn't really lean into it enough for me to enjoy it as much as I wanted to. The set kinda just lists off the effects and leaves them be without getting into any sorts of implications or variations on how they might end up playing out, which feels particularly notable on the fact that the dair changes the environment Bowstring and the opponent fight on and yet how the set plays around that fact isn't really talked about at all? I dunno, I feel like just asking for more without giving specific examples isn't entirely fair and I'm not having much luck figuring out exactly what else I want these to do, hopefully someone else can fill in where I'm low on ideas. But regardless of my criticisms, I still think this is a neat little set and an immediate improvement in what you're capable of. And it seems like you actually had fun writing it too unlike your earlier "big" projects, and that's really what's important at the end of the day.

Petra
I don't find myself with a ton to say about Petra, and not like, because its boring or anything. Nah its just really solid, there's very little for me to complain about here in her glass cannon combo fiend playstyle. The combination of speed, Down Special mindgames, and surprisingly intense kill potential is terrifying at a glance, until you realize that while she's fast, she's not at all safe. There's tons of windows to punish her if she throws out her attacks at the wrong time or messes up her predictions, and while she has some very potent kill moves, they're all a bit tricky to get the most out of and punishable if she slips up. It leads to a set that feels very fair and actually warrants all the mix-up potential Down Special and Side Special create, letting Petra at least be wildly unpredictable in a neutral/advantage state and improvise out some swift kills or die trying. Pretty much every piece of the melee fits into this well, rarely committing to doing anything flashier than necessary but still having a decent amount of flaws and nuance to keep it interesting enough to read. There are some standout moves at least, I think FSmash is the big one that stuck in my head for a pretty varied take on the "dodge and attack" style of move that frequently shows up to vary up melee in a set like this.

If I had to nitpick the set, I think I'll actually complain about the presentation here and say the set talks a LOT about moves that haven't already been shown and how to combo into them. This isn't something I inherently dislike, but on a straightforward melee-based set like this, I found myself coming into the aerials knowing pretty much exactly what all of them would do, which made the process of actually reading them feel kind of boring and unnecessary. Probably a weird thing to complain about and I don't think it seriously effects the set's quality, but I figured I'd at least bring it up for the sake of the reading experience.

 

[FrozenRoy]

McDonalds Chicken Tenders​

McDonalds Chicken Tenders, also known as McDonalds Chicken Selects and Buttermilk Crispy Tenders, are a menu item at the multinational food chain McDonalds. The item has been discontinued since 2013, but every few years has made intermittent returns due to their popularity. Their last return to the menu was cut short thanks to the COVID-19 Pandemic, making just one more thing the pandemic forcefully took from us. McDonalds Chicken Tenders were also served inside of the Snack Wrap item which included the Chicken Tenders themselves, pepper jack cheese, lettuce and the customer's choice of ranch, honey mustard or chipotle barbeque sauce all wrapped up inside of a white flour tortilla. This item is still available in Kanade and the United Kingdom. It is unknown if or when the snack wrap will return to McDonalds locations in the United States.

Statistics​

It would be irresponsible for one to eat their chicken tenders all spilled out on the floor (lord knows if that thing's even been cleaned in a McDonalds!), so McDonalds Chicken Tenders fights from insides a McDonalds meal box. Can we get an image of that for the viewers, Wendy's Employee?

Thank you, Wendy's Employee. Now slink back to your inferior fast food establishment. Imagine that, except with the box open which allows you to see the McDonalds Chicken Tenders inside of the box, and the sauce inside as well. We will be using a six Chicken Tender box for this moveset, with two sauces in the front. The McDonalds Chicken Tenders are not especially large, being roughly the size of Pichu. They also don't weigh much (unlike McDonalds customers such as myself), with their weight of 65 being above only Pichu in Smash Ultimate. Their run speed is deceptively fast, being roughly the same speed as Pirahna Plant on the ground with a very similar animation as well. Aerially, McDonalds Chicken Tenders are fast in air speed (seriously, have you ever thrown a chicken tender? It doesn't take much to send them flying!) with a slightly higher than normal fall speed as well. Perchance.

Mechanic: Food Item​

Nobody can resist McDonalds fast food! While McDonalds Chicken Tenders IS a fighter out to crush the competition, it is also designed for consumption. Put simply, McDonalds Chicken Tenders are not only a fighter but also a food item. Whenever any enemy fighter uses any form of standard attack while close enough to McDonalds Chicken Tenders, they will also be unable to resist the alluring flavor of the forbidden meat and eat one (1) Chicken Tender while attacking. This does not stop the foes attack or cause any form of frame data change, but it does heal the opponent for 3% damage. Foes can eat McDonalds Chicken Tenders as many attacks in a row as they want, but it takes three seconds for one Chicken Tender of the six inside of McDonalds Chicken Tenders to regenerate. McDonalds Chicken Tenders cannot go below one Chicken Tender, so foes will be stopped at five consumptions until they regenerate.

Every time a Chicken Tender regenerates, McDonalds Chicken Tenders itself regenerates for 3% healing, so this does end up being net-neutral between the two. The foe will almost certainly be able to take more advantage of the healing than the extremely lightweight McDonalds Chicken Tenders AND they get their healing first, so this would seem like a pretty negative mechanic, wouldn't it?

McDonalds Chicken Tenders CAN be pocketed, but this is treated as having the same mechanics as Kirby's Inhale with grab difficulty etc rather than picking up any old item. It cannot be reflected etc

Specials​

Side Special: Choose Your Sauce​

As mentioned, McDonalds Chicken Tenders come with sauce, contained within the two Sauce trays in the container's front. Did you think those were just for show? You fool. You absolute imbecile. You should have gone with Wendy's Employee if you think that. Sauce is absolutely CRITICAL for the flavor of McDonalds Chicken Tenders (ignore that this moveset's author does not use sauce when ordering McDonalds Chicken McNuggets, COMPLETELY different moveset), so of course we would have to have it here! Before we get to the move itself, though, we need to discuss the Sauce Cycle.

It isn't that complex. McDonalds Chicken Tenders' sauce works on the same cycle as Sora's Neutral Special, cycling out one after another when McDonalds Chicken Tenders utilizes their Side Special. Unlike Sora, however, McDonalds Chicken Tenders has TWO sauce containers (just like real life), which means that McDonalds Chicken Tenders has TWO cycles going on at once! Tilting uses one cycle and smashing uses the other, which means that McDonalds Chicken Tenders can have two different options ready at once. These are both shown in the same area Sora's next spells are shown on the HUD, smaller and with the stylings of a McDonalds Sauce Container, and the front of the McDonalds Chicken Tenders' model also shows the open sauce. McDonalds Chicken Tenders can choose which sauces to start with on the character select screen by clicking the sauce part of the model in a similar way to picking Pokemon Trainer's pokemon.

The order of the Sauces goes: Chipotle Barbeque -> Creamy Ranch -> Honey Mustard -> Sweet 'n' Sour -> Big Mac Sauce -> Repeat back at Chipotle. With five attacks to cycle through, it is harder for McDonalds Chicken Tenders to necessarily have one option at the ready, although thanks to the wonders of dual sauce packets McDonalds Chicken Tenders could keep one in reserve for JUST the right moment while still having a cycle ready with the other one. Having your sauce is not only a big deal for the attacks it can pull off, but for another critical reason: Nobody eats McDonalds Chicken Tenders without sauce!

Whenever the opponent eats a McDonalds Chicken Tender from the food mechanic, they don't just eat the McDonalds Chicken Tender, but they eat a McDonalds Chicken Tender dipped in sauce! This causes special effects depending on the sauce in question, and is the main reason you will WANT the opponent to eat you or at least why it isn't strictly a downside mechanic, especially since McDonalds Chicken Tenders do get healing from it when they otherwise would just take the damage. Foes will dip into BOTH sauces when eating a Chicken Tender, which can either double up on the effects OR give the foe two effects at once! I dunno about you, but I'm lovin' this.

There is another usage for the sauce. When used out of Side Special (and perhaps even other future items on our Dollar Move Menu!), the sauce will coat part of the stage in sauce for 8 seconds. These sauce puddles have two effects, one universal and the others specific to the sauce. The universal effect involves the fact that, well, McDonalds Chickens were MADE for dipping! They were born into it, molded by it, and never saw the outside of a box until they were already cooked and by then there was nothing to them but HUNGER. Point is, McDonalds Chicken Tenders love to land in the sauce to start saucin' the opponent. When landing in any sauce, McDonalds Chicken Tenders can hit the shoulder button (by default L, but you can move it to any button) to L-Cancel their aerials! This L-Cancel is Melee style, halving the landing lag of their aerials, and letting them turn up the aggression and heat on the opponent. As a final note, McDonalds Chicken Tenders can only have two sauce pools out at the same time. Having more than two causes the oldest puddle to mysteriously vanish into the ether, a process I am told is performed by a mythical being known as "The Janitor". Sounds like a World of Warcraft villain!

Oh, what's that? I can hear a customer saying something. It sounds like "Stop holding up the line describing all of this, I've been waiting for my goddamn sauce for ten minutes FROM THE DRIVE-THRU!". Haha, I hear you buddy. Here's the actual sauces and what they do!

- Chipotle Barbeque (which may be referred to as "Chipotle", NOT like the restaurant, or "BBQ" in the future!) fires off a projectile forward that is blazing hot! Think of it like Mario's fireball except it doesn't drop, making it most similar to...Sora's Neutral Special. There are truly no more appropriate moves to compare to than thus! It really is of similar, if smaller, size to a Sora fireball though, and travels about the length of a Luigi fireball. Contact with Chipotle Barbeque causes it to deal a mere 4% damage with fiery effects. Yowza! You can use this as an approach tool like a Luigi fireball (it has similar lag, with slightly faster ending lag), but the on-hit reward is less and the fact McDonalds Chicken Tenders has to swap out after every use makes it a less potent approach tool. Curiously, this will not make a deliciously saucy pool like the rest of them.

That's because this Chipotle is cookin' with gas and it has got a sweetspot! The sauce swells up as it reaches the last 1/4th of its range, perhaps because it was pre-heated in its packaging, and at that point will explode on contact or if it reaches the end of its range. At 12% damage that kills at 200%, the Chipotle Barbeque Big Explosive Bash (AVAILABLE FOR A LIMITED RANGE) is a stronger tool that can finish offstages foes or do some longer range zoning. When it explodes, it coats any stage under it (within 1 Ganondorf height under it) in Chipotle Barbeque sauce. This coating is one Battlefield Platform long, assuming the stage under it has enough length to account for that.

Out of all of the sauces on the McDonalds menu, the Chipotle Barbeque Sauce is the second easiest to comprehend. Foes who stand on the sheer spiciness of the Chipotle Barbeque Sauce damages the foes unprepared for the heat. The area just above the sauce even has the wavy, heat-y effect you'll see when it is really hot outside! This deals 1% damage per half second, with the timer NOT resetting when the foe jumps off of these spicy-hot patches but it DOES reset whenever the puddle disapoofs. Stacking two puddles causes them to deal 1% per quarter second (or 2% per half second total, doubling the damage) and combine the timers of the two sauces. They still count as two sauces on the field, though: Using a new sauce will remove the effects of the oldest sauce on the combined puddle. Consuming the Chipotle Barbeque Sauce has a similar effect, dealing 3% damage over 3 seconds to the foe with one pack. This nullifies the foe's healing from eating a Chicken Tender, turning the attack into a strict upside mechanic for McDonalds Chicken Tenders as they get the healing but deny the foe. Double up on this sauce and you even chip 3% damage in as a bonus, since it'll do 6% over 6 seconds!

If the foe is able to drink in their movesets, then drinking any beverage, blood or other liquid (but not eating a solid, gas OR plasma) will pause the damage timer during its animation and make the foe immune to damage from this for one second, allowing them to save 1% of damage even on the sauce patches! This includes Young Link's milk drinking taunt. In fact, it is a well known fact that drinking milk cools the tongue better than water, so drinking milk specifically allows for an extra half second of damage saving. This is vital in the Young Link and Noel Shirogane matchups.

- Creamy Ranch, by comparison, is VERY different. A short ranged burst of cool flavored ranch is shot out from the sauce pack in front of McDonalds Chicken Tenders, dealing multiple hits that total 9% over 6 hits. Ecin. This freezes opponents in a very similar way and strength to Ice Climber's Down Special, although the lack of any second McDonalds Chicken Tenders character limits McDonalds Chicken Tenders' combo game by comparison. It does still mean that they can combo SOMETHING off of this though, especially since living in the sauce makes the McDonalds Chicken Tenders' air combo game pretty nutty. Or...chicken-y, I guess? McDonalds Chicken Tenders are NOT processed in a facility that processes peanuts! The lag on both ends of this move is closer to Sora's Blizzaga than the ICies, though, making this a pretty safe move and one that can be worked into McDonalds Chicken Tenders' combo meal game pretty casually. This makes it a reasonably valuable sauce to keep in reserve, with a Creamy Ranch plus Big Mac Sauce being good to order up if you don't mind losing access to your sauce game and all the advantages that come with it.

As cool as Creamy Ranch is, it's definitely a more sticky sauce than most people want to use on their tendies and fries. While this sauce only coats half a Battlefield Platform in front of the McDonalds Chicken Tender when used, opponents who walk across it will have their ground movement reduces to 0.75x normal while on top of it and for 2 seconds after leaving it. This encourages the foe to take to the skies, where crisp attacks like Up Smash and Up Aerial can anti-air them and where the sauce-laden L-Cancels can take full shape. Eating Creamy Ranch produces a similar result. While it isn't damaging, it sits hard in the stomach, reducing the foe's movement speed both in the air and on the ground to 0.9x for 6 seconds. Eating more Creamy Ranch brings this to 0.8x and refreshes the timer. Once at 0.8x, further consumption of Creamy Ranch does not add any more potency but does instead ADD time rather than REFRESH it, allowing this debuff to reach truly ridiculous timers! Opponents will have to be careful of McDonalds Chicken Tenders dual wielding Creamy Ranch sauce, lest they get hit with 12+ seconds of debuffed movement!

Opponents who are immune to traction changes on ice such as Ice Climbers are immune to this effect. Even if they eat it. Don't ask how, McDonalds is just magical y'know? Opponents who are able to drink can reduce their timer by 1 second the same way as Chipotle Barbeque's drinking mechanc, further buffing Young Link to the highest of tiers. Note, however, that Creamy Ranch and all non-spicy flavors do not get their timer reduced extra by the nectar of cows.

- Honey Mustard is a bit of an odd one within the group of sauces, as the McDonalds Chicken Tenders flip up their box a little when throwing out the Shot Put-sized globule of Honey Mustard sauce out. The Shot Put is also a pretty great example of the arc that the Honey Mustard takes and the lag involved here, so keep that in mind. Getting hit by the Honey Mustard causes the foe to take 10% damage, although the knockback does vary depending on where it hits. Anywhere aside from the frames right at the moment the globule begins to fall is modest upwards knockback with no meaningful kill power. However, that brief moment the globule begins to fall is actually a weak spike! This is rarely enough to straight kill, think like a Ness Down Aerial at low percents or something?, but does add to McDonalds Chicken Tenders' surprisingly potent anti-recovery game. The globule coats 3/4ths of a Battlefield Platform equidistantly from where the globule landed. Outside of edgeguarding and ledgetrapping, Honey Mustard allows you to very up your angles with the otherwise mostly-moves-straight options out of Side Special. Screw BK, here you can have it your way too!

Honey Mustard on the ground is a worrying mixture of sweet stickiness and mild heat that is difficult to get out of the mouth, one reason I am not really a fan of having it for sauces when I do get them. Opponents who step into Honey Mustard will have it stick to them as they try to leave by moving more than one Battlefield Platform away from the furthest part of the Honey Mustard sauce. If the foe slows to their walk speed, it will begin carrying them slowly back towards the patch of Honey Mustard. And if they stop, it will snap them back to it forcefully! They do not leave the ground if they are on the ground and at the same ground level at that time. The only way to move forward is to dash or jump, with there being three ways to escape the gripping hands of the Honey Mustard. Dashing or being in the air against the pull of the Honey Mustard for half of a second will cause it to snap OR take knockback powerful enough to knock them more than one Battlefield Platform away from the maximum distance they can travel, at which point the foe must re-enter the Honey Mustard to be "tethered" (or teathered) to it as it were. Secondly, the Honey Mustard attached to the foe in this process has 15 HP and can be destroyed to free themselves from it, although do note that destroying it while on top of Honey Mustard Sauce will simply cause it to be re-applied. This is the most wild stage control option of the lot, befitting the sauce choice that only the most wild of patrons can truly appreciate.

Honey Mustard similarly provides the most wild of options when consumed, basically the same "tether" effect but with the foe attached to the McDonalds Chicken Tenders rather than a Honey Mustard sauce pile! This largely works the same as the basic string of Honey Mustard, and still vanishes after 8 seconds, but it will snap if McDonalds Chicken Tenders moves more than one Battlefield Platform in any direction offstage as well. McDonalds Chicken Tenders will always lead the foe if, say, the two are dashing in different directions, once and for all proving the Might of Ronald McDonald by having His grace even able to pull Shin Godzilla around!

- Sweet 'n' Sour is similar in travel to the Chipotle Barbeque sauce, but the differences are all in the name: It contains both the powers of SWEETNESS and the might of SOURNESS! This results in the projectile pulsating between small and large sizes along the path it rides and causing it to BOUNCE against the ground, like the fireball of Luigi's Brother with the same travel distance and similar lag. Contact with this projectile causes pathetic damage, 2% damage, but it actually slathers the opponent on hit! This continues to pulsate on the foe for 4 seconds (the same time as a base Shadow Flare), although hitting a foe with this attack again will add four seconds to it. Additional hits past that point (IDK how you'd even do that with cycling, but 2v2s I guess???) do not add timer or power to it.

After the timer goes DING like a deliciously reheated McDouble at home, the sour part of that sweet hitbox McDonalds Chicken Tenders ordered up explodes around the foe, dealing 7% damage! The upwards knockback isn't that high, but the delay of the hitbox allows McDonalds Chicken Tenders to combo off of the attack fairly well or utilize it as a kill extender (particularly off of attacks like Forward Smash). And with two applications of Sweet 'n' Sour Sauce to the foe, that's 14% and enough to actually kill at 170%! That essentially is only possible with two Sweet 'n' Sour sauces at the ready, but the hitbox has a lot of time for McDonalds Chicken Tenders to maximize their advantage for it! The Sweet 'n' Sour sauce will noticeably pulsate harder when it is one second from exploding, giving foes a good timer to shield or dodge the attack, both of which will avoid the damage entirely.

Sweet 'n' Sour sauces won't leave behind their delicious puddles if they hit their opponents, but WILL leave behind one Battlefield Platform of sauce at the area it exploded on the foe if it is close to the ground. It will also do so at the end of its natural range. This sauce is nice and sweet for most of its duration, having NO bonus effects outside of the normal L-Cancel shenanigans. You'll start to see it bubble and brew, toiling for twice the trouble if you don't mind me saying good sir, and exploding into non-existance at the end of its duration! Real worry for the boys in the finance division, let me tell you, having to deal with all the restocking from them blowing up. Fifth dead employee this month too, gotta find a way to not pay benefits. This deals 10% damage and upwards knockback that kills at 220%, excellent for area denial, and can be especially potent if you manage to get it on a high platform!

Finally, we come to the effects when ingested. First, the "sweet" part: It actually heals 6% for the foe when ingested! What the heck, that's bad for McDonalds Chicken Tenders tho??? Well, yes, it is at first, until we get to the "Sour" part of it! After 4 seconds, the sour flavor explodes within the foe, leaving them messier than your average McDonalds customers lavatory after a third Big Mac. This deals 18% damage and knockback that kills at 140%! Note that given the 6% total healing, this is a net "gain" of 12% damage compared to normal. Eating two sauces will boost the timer to 8 second and send the damage shooting through the roof, dealing a grotesque 36% that kills at 80%! This is not only McDonalds Chicken Tenders' second most powerful KO move, but it deals mammoth damage too...although remember the foe healed 12% so it is really like dealing 24%. Such a high number does mean it absolutely KILLS shields though, leaving dodging the proper way to deal with this. Eating more than two levels of sauce does nothing to add to the potency of the move, so do note that the foe can get in free double healing while the Sweet 'n' Sour sauce is churning within them! Foes will flash Sweet 'n' Sour colored when the sauce is one second and less from intestinal devastation.

- Finally, we get to the grandest of sauces. The cream of the crop that always rises to the top, the secret passed on through generations of clowns, Rick and Morty watchers and corporate CEOs alike. The Big Mac Sauce. Spoken only in the most hushed of tones, lest its power consume a McDonalds without enough customers to support its soulful wrath, the Big Mac Sauce is the "power" option in McDonalds Chicken Tenders' arsenal. McDonalds Chicken Tenders opens its box wide, shooting out a huge spray of Big Mac Sauce in front of it that covers about the space of a single (not all three) Ike's Eruption pillar in front of McDonalds Chicken Tenders. This hitbox might not have a lot of horizontal range, but it does have high vertical range, and the damage is intense: 26% on hit that kills at 70%, THE strongest KO move in McDonalds Chicken Tender's moveset! The starting lag is even less than you might expect from a move with this kind of power (21 frames), but please note that the ending lag is absolutely AWFUL. You're going to be hit by anything short of Warlock Punch or Volcano Kick as a punish if you whiff this. So, uh, don't do that.

Additionally while this does end up reaching 3/4ths of a Battlefield Platform in sauce coverage, it has absolutely NO bonus effects outside of the universal L-Cancel, making it the least useful of the bunch. The same is true of ingesting the sauce: It is a well known fact that the Big Mac is a truly American nutritional meal without any health downsides, so of course Big Mac Sauce confers no negatives to the opponent when consumed. This means that Big Mac Sauce has only one purpose, which is to kill the competition at the right time so that their land can be purchased and a brand new Mickey D's put up to replace them. What's that? You wanted more from this move? Screw you, this is already long enough, go back to Taco Bell and enjoy your Giganotosaurus Meat Taco with Nacho Cheese Sauce and a Doritos (TM) Shell.

Down Special: Soda Fountain​

It would hardly be wise to purchase ANY McDonalds meal without getting a supersized beverage with it, especially since you get free refills if you eat inside! Speaking of refills, Down Special has a supersized cup of soda appear next to McDonalds Chicken Tenders as the box moves in a way that might be described as a McDonalds food box tipping its hat. This storable charge move takes slightly longer than Mario's FLUDD to charge (100 frames vs. 80), with roughly the same starting and ending lag, with the sound of a soda fountain spritzing in the fresh taste and scent of soda the entire time it charges. Exactly which type of soda inside of the cup varies based on the choice of color / alternate color for McDonalds Chicken Tenders, but the default is the most eye-popping of Sprites. The edgy dark colored McDonalds Chicken Tenders box fills it up with soda from the mythical (nonexistant?) Dr. Pepper, for example. Upon release, delicious sugary water (or diet! We don't judge here) shoots out from the straw, going a slightly lesser distance than FLUDD but having slightly more pushing power because soda is fizzy and thus can lift the foe more capably than plain old boring water. And if you're wondering how it can angle itself like FLUDD? That's the power of bendy straws, man!

Unsurprisingly, the Soda Fountain is a good way to eject foes out of the store (stage) and into oncoming traffic (the blast zone) and is a big reason why it is scary to get offstage against McDonalds Chicken Tenders. There's other great uses for this, though. The stage control afforded by the saucy zones means that keeping foes inside them can be more important than Mario stomping a turty, such as making sure a foe caught in Honey Mustard doesn't break free or keeping an opponent inside your Sweet 'n' Sour mixer before it explodes with glorious violence. Keep it up, baby! McDonalds Chicken Tenders also are generally very light and have some strong ranged options, so just throwing it out to get space for things like Side Special or Forward Smash is more than valid. A tool more about versatility than sheer power, much like how the Dollar Menu is more about value than the potency of the Quarter Pounder Meal.

Anybody who has ever been blessed with the potency of McDonalds Sprite knows one of the Twelve Commandments of His Ronaldness: Thou shalt not combine Sprite with bananas. Building upon this fundamentalist principle within the confines of McReligion, McDonalds Sprite (TM) just hits different when the foe is sauced up. While using the Soda Fountain's spray on an opponent afflicted with-I mean enjoying the effects of sauce will clear the sauce's current effects on them, it will also enhance the soda stream in some manner in the process! McDonalds Chicken Tenders loves that corporate synergy and so should you, leave a 10 star review on YOUR rankings today!

The succulent spiciness of the Chipotle Barbeque Sauce will combine most powerfully with the extreme kick of the McDonalds Sprite (or perhaps the persnickity pepper of the still-to-be-determined-if-it-exists Dr. Pepper), sending opponents flyin' away with flamin' hot power after they are pushed out of the soda stream! This deals 13% damage and kills at 190%, with the knockback direction being whatever direction the soda stream is being angled in. This usually means some form of a diagonal angle, since you can't go straight up or down. Since it only occurs at the end of the soda stream's length, they'll likely be closer to the blast zone before being launched for a spicier, earlier KO! Creamy Ranch on the other hand brings together the smooth coolness of a delicious ranch with the "punched in the ****" level power of McDonalds Dr. Sprite, dealing only 4% damage but briefly freezing the opponent! This freeze keeps foes from DIing the sugary water stream and thus helps when it comes to edgeguards or repositions, although it does mean un-debuffing a valuable debuff from the foe.

Honey Mustard is a weird one when it interacts with the bubblyboytoo drink, as the effect it has requires the foe to run SMACK...dabintosomethingsolid, otherwise the sauce won't be consumed by the soda (and instead continue to be consumed by the foe). Should they be pushed into anything solid by the stream, the Honey Mustard will splatter outwards from them and cause them to stick to it. This can even let McDonalds Chicken Tenders stick a foe to a wall or the side of the stage in the same way a piece of gum can stay stuck on a McDonalds Parking Lot for a week. Gotta be careful with gumming the foe up like that, having them dangle off the edge can save them from a kill after all, but it can also limit an opponent's getup options by limiting the distance they can travel which can help Ye Olde Tenders finish off a ledgetrapped foe! Sweet 'n' Sour is an odd one, as it actually harms the Soda Fountain's fizzy lifting initially and because of that dramatically reduces the pushing power of it to 1/4th of normal. Don't try to go for too much of a Sweet edgeguard when they've got this sauce on them, Bro! That, however, leaves a Hella useful effect on your average Jeff that lasts until the McDonalds Chicken Tenders hit the foe next! When they do, they'll get a sour awakening as the attack has a special zoom impact and the sour sauce is sent flying from their mouth (with an appropriate >_< visual for appropriately comedic characters), effectively increasing the damage of the attack by 1.5x (with the knockback going up as if it was 1.25x instead). The value of this vs. the sauce's normal time bomb is one we'd need a whole menu and a few dollars to explain, but suffice to say this can lead to some deliciously early killfluffles in exchange for usually less damage. Considering the Big Mac Sauce will be cycled in after throwing out the Sweet 'n' Sour, that's a good time to go off oomfie!

Big Mac Sauce, as both the King and Queen of all sauces, is the only substance known to a minimum wage McDonalds employee that is immune to the brain-melting fizz of McDonalds Sprite. It won't wash it away, nor will it get any bonus effect from it. Ideal if you just want to use it as a pure FLUDD and wash away the McSins of the opponent.

Up Special: The Great Chain of Industry​

When McDonalds Chicken Tenders leave the stage, they know that they may Die. Stocks are stores of value, specifically the value needed to win a game of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for the Nintendo Switch developed by Masahiro Sakurai in conjunction with Bandai Namco and published by Nintendo, so avoiding losing them is paramount. Thus you must recover, McDonalds Chicken Tenders! Opening the box containing them wide, the six McDonalds Chicken Tenders show the kind of employee synergy that helps keep you employed at the same McDonalds for 10 years without a pay raise, forming a chain that functions as a tether grab. If you've played Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Nintendo Wii developed by Masahiro Sakurai and published by Nintendo, you might remember Pikmin Chain was once Olimar's Up Special. This move has that same idea: The length of the chain depends on the number of chicken tenders left unconsumed, which is very important!

At a maximum length, where all six Chicken Tenders can come together in a way that is DEFINITELY not socialist, this forms the longest tether in the game and can outrange Byleth in recovery. This makes McDonalds Chicken Tenders rather difficult to edgeguard, which given their low weight is appreciated. With but a single lonely Chicken Tender left to reconsider its life of loneliness and sorrow, the tether barely goes anywhere and it becomes extremely difficult for McDonalds Chicken Tenders to recover. This is very bad when one considers that eating Chicken Tenders can be a natural consequence of the foe attacking McDonalds Chicken Tenders, although the desire to leave them without recovery can leave them at risk of overeating sauces such as the Sweet 'n' Sour, Chipotle Barbeque or Creamy Ranch and suffering some serious after-effects.

While it is not a hurtbox, the chain of chicken tenders IS a hitbox as it pushes upwards and outwards at its by-default diagonal angle. Hitting must of the chain deals a mere 3% damage and pushes foes out of the way, nothing to write home about. But the tip of the Chicken Tender Tower is a sweetspot that deals 16% (fiery) damage and kills at 110% which makes it a pretty sick combo ender. If there's one benefit to a smaller Chicken Tender chain, it is the fact that the sweetspot is usually easier to hit with around 3 chicken tenders or so rather than the full six, and that with 1-2 Chicken Tenders it can actually be a viable close range tool due to the starting lag being fairly fast. Keep that in mind!

Neutral Special: Food Eats You!​

Taking inspiration from the Soviet branch of McDonalds, McDonalds Chicken Tenders opens its box up wide like a mouth. This functions a lot like Wario's Chomp, being a grab hitbox when the box clasps on the opponent, making chewing motions if caught! This leaves opponents half-outside the box Wario style, struggling and flailing, rather than the more full grab hitboxes like Kirby and Dedede. McDonalds Chicken Tenders chewing on the foe does 2% per bite, which can be performed rapidly (same rate as Wario) by mashing the B button. Every third bite causes McDonalds Chicken Tenders to heal by 3% from force feeding the foe one of the McDonalds Chicken Tenders within it, because it would be CRIMINAL if they DIDN'T have one, but the foe does not heal 3% from it because who could actually enjoy a McDonalds Chicken Tender in that situation? In addition to healing McDonalds Chicken Tenders, this allows McDonalds Chicken Tenders to apply the sauce-consumption effects without the foe having to actually eat from the Chicken Tenders, meaning the mechanic isn't totally useless again someone like Marth who just spaces for ages. Also IDK where else to mention this but this attack can eat items with the same mechanics as Wario lmao

If McDonalds Chicken Tenders does not want to do that, then it can instead hold down B. This causes the bites to go slightly slower, but heals at 0.6% per bite (the same as Wario bite) and does not cause the foe to consume any chicken tenders. This may be ideal in situations McDonalds Chicken Tenders doesn't want to reduce its tether length due to being at high percents, if for some reason it does not want to apply sauce effects to the foe (such as if a Sweet 'n' Spicy would explode after release but a second application would add 4 seconds), or whatever. No matter what version is used, foes may break free of this attack with the exact same numbers as Wario Chomp.

Leaving aside the use in applying sauce, Neutral Special primarily serves a few purposes (and customers) in this set. McDonalds Chicken Tenders' grab is a tether, so this attack's fairly quick start-up is actually faster as a grab option, while the ending lag is slightly faster as well. This makes the move a nice alternative when you need a quick grab hitbox rather than range. As a command grab, it can be used in the air: Foes who decide to try to resist the allure of deliciously breaded chicken on platforms can be plucked off of them with Neutral Special and brought down to ground level. You could also use this offstage and try to suicide kill with it the same way as Wario can, which is another reason to use the held version rather than the tapped version since the tapped version makes recovery MUCH harder. The knockback on this attack is moderate, but since it can drag foes down you could also simply use it to put them in a recovering-low scenario without the suicide kill if desired.

Smashes​

Up Smash: Big Box Bash​

McDonalds Chicken Tenders closes its box top, denying the opponent even the mere SIGHT of the delicious food barely outside of their reach, with the box shaking violently as it charges. Before getting to the effect of the attack, we should discuss the box closing as it'll come up on some other moves. While the box is FULLY shut on the box, McDonalds Chicken Tenders gains damage-based armor much like Piranha Plant's Down Special. This begins at 15% but increases to 25% at maximum charge for Up Smash, but for attacks that cannot charge will stay at 15%. This can make some moves very difficult to challenge for McDonalds Chicken Tenders' foes (in particularly, Carl. Jr's Chicken Stars has difficulty in the MU) and means that catching landing foes is a strength of McDonalds Chicken Tenders. Keeping foes in the air with Soda Fountain can help set up situations that make cash cash money money for McDonalds Chicken Tenders. It is also important to note that opponents cannot eat Chicken Tenders from the box while it is shut (I mean, what the hell are you, Casper the Friendly Ghost?) and thus also serves as a way to protect your precious meal from shoplifters.

The attack itself is pretty strong as McDonalds Chicken Tenders flips the lid open violently enough to nearly topple over. The animation ends up looking like, of all things, Rosalina Up Smash. The lag is similar as well, although at Frame 11 it is laggier to come out (same ending lag). The damage isn't off the charts but it does deal a still fairly hefty 16%-22.4% damage that will kill at 110%-77%. This isn't the strongest kill move in McDonalds Chicken Tenders' arsenal, but compared to many of those attacks it is pretty fast, pretty safe, has damage-based armor and is usable out of shield and therefor is the most reliable of them. Bic Mac Sauce isn't something you just give out willy-nilly, after all.

Forward Smash: BIG SHOT!​

A full McDonalds soda appears next to McDonalds Chicken Tenders, with the straw pinched shut with the magic of science, as it gets shaken in place with mysterious force (McDonalds Chicken Tenders rapidly opening and shutting its box next to it at hilariously high speeds). Upon release, the straw opens wide and a BIG SHOT of soda out in front of McDonalds Chicken Tenders! Must have spent a lot of Kromer money for the supersize! And looks like their money was well worth it, because the BIG SHOT deals tremendous damage: 20%-28% damage that kills at 90%-71% as the second strongest kill move in McDonalds Chicken Tenders' potent moveset! That's, admittedly, a close range, point blank even sweetspot. Past that close range sweetspot, this R.O.B. Forward Smash sized hitbox deals 14%-19.6% damage and kills at 140%-121%. To be honest that's still a pretty reasonable hitbox, and this attack sports surprising safety as its frame data is closer to Mario than R.O.B. having 15 frames of start-up and 32 frames of ending lag. This makes it safe on shield at the sweetspot thanks to shield pushback, although the late hit may not be safe on shield depending on the opponent.

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Outside of the obvious kill move it is, the solid range and potentially potent close range hitbox with all of the hitboxes having high base knockback makes this a good'n for getting that space you need to start raiding the sauce bin or refilling your soda's long term prospects. It can be angled up or down, which is good for 2-framing opponents and adds onto Soda Fountain and stuff like Honey Mustard for anti-recovery tools. You'll never really hit that sweetspot though, although the sourspot is good enough.

Down Smash: Change (In the House of Fries)​

Soda, chicken tendies, sauce...there's merely one more thing missing from the equation to create the perfect discontinued meal: French Fries! McDonalds French Fries are famed for possibly being the tastiest of the McDonalds menu items, amazing when crunchy and surprisingly delicious when soggy. Have you ever tried dipping them in a vanilla milkshake? Leaving aside the jokes here, unironically based. Try it the next time you happen to have both McDonalds fries and a McDonalds milkshake at the ready. Just never reheat them, it NEVER turns out good. For this Down Smash, McDonalds Chicken Tenders leaps into the air with the open portion of the box pointing downwards as a huge bundle of French Fries (inside of their own box inside of the McDonalds Chicken Tenders box) shoots out under them! This animation is kind of like an utterly insane Sora Down Smash in animation, which also makes it good for dodging low hitting attacks that might be thrown out to hit McDonalds Chicken Tenders' small hurtbox.

The fries themselves are thick (and delicious!), filling up a large space under McDonalds Chicken Tenders with classic Idahoan goodness and also 15%-21% damage. The kill power is more modest, killing at 130%-90%, but it still fits right in with McDonalds Chicken Tenders smash attacks being surprisingly powerful. This Smash is actually their slowest overall, coming out on Frame 19 and having some higher ending lag as well. French Fries are MADE to be dipped, so when used over an appropriate sauce puddle, any opponents hit at the tip of the French Fries will take half the damage of the sauce's on-hit damage and additionally have any on-hit effects, such as Sweet 'n' Sours time-lapsed flavor burst, applied to them as well! While this is most powerful with Big Mac Sauce, which turns this into a disgusting 28%-34% damage move, don't underestimate the ability to apply debuffs or bits of explosive flavor onto the customer!

One nice thing is that the fries are a disjointed hitbox and this attack has some high disjointed frames on the lower box halves turned towards the ground, making this a pretty adept move at avoiding hitboxes and thus great against people's ledge options. Makes it go well with Up Smash, two great tastes that go great together if you will, for dodging attacks from multiple angles. As a purely aesthetic note, coins and change will fly out of the foe when hit, no matter how little sense it makes to mug Xemnas for his lunch money.

Standards​

Forward Tilt: One Chicken Tender, Please​

McDonalds Chicken Tenders' box leans forward and a bit wider open, with one Chicken Tender inside poking outwards at maximum reach to strike at any foe who would dare mention the words "Burger King" in this fine establishment! Burger Queen is fine, though. A poke with fine length to it, and the Chicken Tender being a disjointed hitbox rather than a part of the overall McDonalds Chicken Tenders conglomerate hurtbox, this is one of their main neutral tools. It deals 9% damage and has high base knockback but low knockback growth that prevents it from killing until 230%. With swift starting lag and low ending lag, this move is very difficult to punish, although the opponent can shield it and at least take some initiative from McDonalds Chicken Tenders. It's also worth noting that the single Chicken Tender doesn't have THAT much range, so proper sword fighters like Lucina or Ganondorf will be able to outrange them. This attack can be angled.

The spacing from this move is pretty ideal to launch one of the more projectile-y sauces from Side Special, such as a Chipotle Barbeque or Sweet 'n' Sour, making it a good choice to get the more setup oriented options going for McDonalds Chicken Tenders. Or if the foe is pushed into the (chicken) tender embrace of the sauce, McDonalds Chicken Tenders can start saucing themselves by going in and using their aggressive aerials on the advantage.

Jab: Hungry Hungry

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Suddenly jutting forward with the hungry force of a man who has spent 13 days in the Sahara heat on a horse with no name and nothing to eat except the clothes on his back, McDonalds Chicken Tenders bites forward in an animation not dissimilar to Pac-Man's Down Tilt. Coming out on Frame 5 with a mere 18 frames of ending lag, McDonalds Chicken Tender's Jab deals 4% damage and light knockback that won't even kill in Sudden Death (meaning this set MUST be underpowered! Drats). This is quite similar to a faster, but riskier Forward Tilt since it is entirely jointed and moves McDonalds Chicken Tenders' hurtbox forward. Pretty easy to carelessly careen into enemy hitboxes if you don't control your appetite at least a little.

One nice thing about this attack is the knockback angle, which is quite low to the ground. Thanks to how light the knockback is it will create tech situations until pretty late, although in turn it won't be able to start them until 30% which given the opponent can heal so easily by hitting you is worth remembering. In general, Jab is more aggressive and risky, while Forward Tilt is safer and more about spacing. One final bonus is that this heals McDonalds Chicken Tenders by 0.6%, the same as a single held Neutral Special chomp.

Down Tilt: Sauce Gardner​

Leaping into the air and doing a sick upsides down motion, McDonalds Chicken Tenders opens its box wide and forcefully shakes the sauce contained within, shooting it out to both sides of McDonalds Chicken Tenders. This animation is very similar to the Down Smash and can serve as a mental mixup if people are unable to properly discern McDonalds French Fries from McDonalds Sauce Packs. This attack can even be charged, the same wasy as a Smash Attack, and has the same Charge Hold key frame as Down Smash. This does mean the attack is shockingly slow for a tilt, coming out on Frame 14 and having what is usually pretty punishable ending lag. On the plus side this attack has quite the large range, covering both sides although not directly under (WHO WOULD ACTUALLY GET UNDER THIS CROUCHING CRAWLING SOLID SNAKE>??) McDonalds Chicken Tenders itself. This attack cannot 2 frame nor will it ever reasonably shield poke.

The exact hitbox of this attack depends on the sauces at the ready for Side Special. When facing rightwards, the next-in-cycle sauce from smashing it is on the right and tilt is on the left. Reverse if facing leftwards. Now then, onto the hitboxes for each sauce, shall we? Chipotle Barbeque deals 8%-11.2% damage and modest spacing knockback away from McDonalds Chicken Tenders. This knockback won't realistically force opponents to tech, but it IS still much more horizontal than vertical, and a good hitstun modifier allows McDonalds Chicken Tenders to start a Side Special camp (perhaps with MORE Chipotle Barbeque. Suck it, Chipotle Restaurant!) or what-have-it-your-way. Creamy Ranch does even LESS damage, 6%-8.4%, but it has some excessive "freeze frames" that make it a great combo starter. Literally: While the ice cream machine might be out of order, the cool flavor of Creamy Ranch heeds no repair nor cost nor rain, sleet or hail! What I mean to say is, the opponent is briefly frozen for dramatic effect not unlike Lucas' Down Throw with pitfalls, and the hitstun is enough to combo most grounded moves of McDonalds Chicken Tenders from it.

Honey Mustard does the highest damage we've seen yet, 10%-14%, with straight upwards knockback of modest strength. This is primarily for starting juggles and has no combo starting ability, killing at 230%, which given attacks like Up Smash and Up Aerial is appreciated by McDonalds Chicken Tenders. Plus, who doesn't like free (excluding tax and delivery fees) high damage on their attacks? Sweet 'n' Sour is the weakest hitbox of the bunch, dealing 4%-5.6% damage that rests to neutral, but there Is a reason for that PLEASE understand don't turn the channel- Big Mac Sauce is the most powerful of the lot, as is tradition, dealing 13%-18.2% that kills at 145%-111%. It's like a real Smash Attack! This is obviously the strongest sheer power option of the lot, but it does come with the downside of taking 5 more frames to prepare. You COULD use this to desync when each attack will come out for some trickiness with the foe trying to dodge you, but it ultimately means 5 more frames before you can remove regardless of the other sauce. But still, ULTIMATE POWER!

There is a final meaning to this attack, though, and it isn't to save da world. As long as this attack goes through, the sauce will be left behind on the ground as puddles! These are half a Battlefield Platform to each side of McDonalds Chicken Tenders, but only last for half as long as the normal saucy delights left behind by the Side Special. These do count towards Side Special's 2 puddle total, so any sauce already on the screen will be deleted by the hands of the Almighty (Janitor). This, by the by, is why the Sweet 'n' Sour is so weak, since you can set its explosively flavorful pools of sauce rather easy with this move AND with al esser timer. This does NOT cycle your sauce, making it the only way to really put out puddles without cycling through more sauce. Pretty laggy way to do it though, so the trade-off is a lot of personal unsafety in doing so.

Up Tilt: Chicken Spinken​

McDonalds Chicken Tenders spins on the little..."hinge"? What the hell would you call it, the middle part connecting the two halves of the cardboard box together? It has gotta be a hinge, right? The Stonehinge of English McDonalds. Point is it really do a spin, very Piranha Plant Up Tilt-esque, which does three hits of 1.5% followed by a launching hit of 2% for a total of 6.5%. While the damage isn't too high, this attack is lightning quick to come out and the low ending lag and knockback make it McDonalds Chicken Tenders' evergreen combo starter into basically any aerials McDonalds Chicken Tenders desires deep within its heart. The range is rather pathetic, but aerial combos are McDonalds Chicken Tenders' most valuable due to the way sauce L-Cancelling can be used to cancel Ls and so it is well worth the risk. Does leave McDonalds Chicken Tenders in a more awkward place compared to most though.

Dash Attack: Snack-Man​

McDonalds Chicken Tenders charges forward like a ghost hunter on a mission, biting three times in the process. This goes forward about one Battlefield Platform at a fast pace and does 3%, 4% and 5% damage for a total of 12% damage (plus shipping and handling), with the final hit being a mediocre launcher that kills at 195%. This move's starting and ending lag are both pretty good, but the duration is where the punishable part comes in for what it is worth. This attack will usually be unsafe on shield for example due to either having too little hitstun or still having too much duration left after hitting the foe's shield and getting punished like the bad boy (or girl! We don't judge here at Macca's) you are. All things considered this is predominately a punish tool, such as for mis-spaced landings, whiffed attacks or from dash dancing into, due to the high damage and the movement compared to other options. Each bite heals McDonalds Chicken Tenders for 0.6% damage as well (for a total of 1.8% if all three hits should connect four), giving the superfeatherweight some more durability before becoming the lunch of your Kirby's or your Fairy Knight Gawain's or what have you.

Aerials​

Up Aerial: Unboxing Day​

Shutting the lid on McDonalds Chicken Tenders' box tighter than a billionnaire's safety deposit box during an IRS audit, McDonalds Chicken Tenders' Up Aerial has rather long starting lag in exchange for the usual damage-based armor (starting on Frame 4 of the starting lag) before the box flips upwards hard enough that it spins during the move's high ending lag. This grants the attack immense power, dealing 15% damage and killing at around 95% on the top platform of Battlefield. The armor is particularly great on this move to make it an anti-aerial option that wrecks people landing with aerials, especially multihits, and combines especially well with her Up Smash (another armored move, but faster and less rewarding) and Up Tilt (too low of range to be an anti-air, but great reward and setup).

This move CAN be thrown out and fastfallen from the ground, which is of particular note within McDonalds Chicken Tenders' saucy confines as it allows the hefty landing lag on this move to be cut in half through the magical means of MELEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Given the armor on this attack, it makes it a surprisingly difficult move to challenge for opponents given it is so freaking laggy, although the limited confines McDonalds Chicken Tenders must navigate does make their movement more predictable than one would like. This is also just another kill move for the Pichu-esque glass cannon on display, and the main one in the air rather than the more grounded ones McDonalds Chicken Tenders is best at. It is also worth noting jumping is a common response to many of McDonalds Chicken Tenders' Side Special options, so this kind of potent anti-air is a value menu staple!

Forward Aerial: hew:​

Opening McDonalds Chicken Tenders' box nice and wide, the box gets clamped tight for a ferocious bite as an attack. This attack is short in range, although still with more range than a Burger King's delivery service, but comes out reasonably face (Frame 9) with slightly bad ending lag. While the kill power is shockingly poor (180%), but the damage is actually quite high (15.5%) at the same time, which overall makes it McDonalds Chicken Tenders' primary combo meal ender when it can get into properly close range. With how great Neutral Aerial is at setting up combos, Neutral Aerial (repeat as many times as possible) -> Forward Aerial is frequently a great chain and probably the most common damage tool you'll see out of a McDonalds Chicken Tender. With how close the attack is, the opponent will also probably end up chowing down on a delicious Chicken Tender treat if they interrupt it with an attack, so with the proper sauce all loaded up you can put opponents into a bit of a catch-22 where they either interrupt the close range chomp and accept the consequences or take the damage involved but not whatever debuff or future downside they otherwise would. Of course a foe properly boxing out the, um, box doesn't have to deal with this in the first place, so it is of vital importance McDonalds Chicken Tenders worms the way into the foe's personal space, their body, their heart, takes them on a nice candlelight dinner, gets to REALLY know them rather than be left on the outside of a cold rainy night, you know?

While you would think this attack's stats would make it really good for sauce L-Cancel shorthops, the fact of the matter is that the stubby hitbox means it tends to be passed over in favored of the armored Up Aerial, the more rewarding Neutral Aerial and the longer ranged Back Aerial in those regards, making it one of the lesser ordered menu items on display. There's actually been rumors that McDonalds wants to discontinue it from the Smash Bros moveset, but Masahiro Sakurai is reportedly a repeat customer for it so that hasn't moved forwards.

Like the other bite-based attacks, this heals McDonalds Chicken Tenders 0.6%.

Neutral Aerial: Unidentified Flying Tender​

Mouth agape like somebody who has seen the ending of Morbius for the first time, McDonald's Chicken Tenders performs a quick multitude of spins in the same manner as things such as Sonic's Neutral Aerial or Pac-Man's. Unlike those, this is a dreaded NAirplane much like those that inspire fear into heavyweights the world over on wi-fi for the last 1,123 weeks. This deals 5 hits of 1% damage each, with a final hit of 2% that knocks opponents away a pitiful distance. This is terrible for getting space from foes and has a close range hitbox that makes it easy to box out, but the starting lag is very fast (Frame 3, like Pac-Man) and the ending lag is swift as well. Landing lag is already short, but when L-Canceled it becomes simply obscene, and when landing before the last hit especially McPac-Man's Chicken Fruit can go into just about anything. Landed close to the foe? Go for Up Tilt and start doing obnoxious combos until fairly mid percents. Want to send the opponent offstage? Forward Aerial's high damage + knockback or Dash Attack's movement for a corner carry got you covered! Tech situation? Jab. Completely waste your combo? Throw out Big Mac Sauce accidentally because you forgot your cycle, have it get shielded and eat a big punish.

The landing lag without L-Canceling is still good for combos, but it should be noted it doesn't freestyle nearly as hard due to the low hitstun on the multihits. This also makes it a rather predictable combo starter, since the areas where McDonald's Chicken Tenders are as well defined as a handicapped space where some asshole who parked there without being disabled is getting towed away. Yeah, that's what you get, for parking there and for interrupting the sauce discussion we had earlier too! Outside of combos this IS a rather low value aerial too, so don't try to use it as some all-rounder tool. In fact while most characters Neutral Aerials serve as great ways to knock away the wayward Wendy's Employee begging for their severance check, McDonald's Chicken Tenders is rather lacking in get-off-me options in the air, and may need to rely on risky armor on an attack like Up Aerial to combo break from the foe.

Back Aerial: Chicken Tender Wild Wings​

Flipping around with aplomb, McDonalds Chicken Tenders juts out the prime Chicken Tender from the prime McDonalds Chicken Tender universe as foreseen by Venom Strange last contest, serving as a strong backwards thrust that kinda has the appearance of Jigglypuff's Forward Aerial but backwards and with one big foot instead of two. And the foot is a Chicken Tender. A prime cut of spacing move that serves up the wall of pain for opponents, this modestly sized hitbox comes out at mid speeds both starting and ending while dealing 11% damage and killing at 155%. The move also has a nice linger to it like Jigglypuff's Forward Aerial, but goes down to 8% damage and killing at 215% in the latter half of the attack. This is a pretty solid neutral tool in McDonalds Chicken Tenders' kit and will likely be mixed in alongside Forward Tilt, although the landing lag on this attack is a bit modest for that kind of neutral tool. PSSSSST, DUDE, BRO, PSSSSST, THAT'S YOUR SIGNAL TO USE THIS IN THE SAUCE. DO YOU UNDERSTAND? SAUCE. LANDING LAG. LOWER. PSSSSSSST BRO

Outside of the neutral uses, McDonalds Chicken Tenders is not turned around in the air and this move has some nice disjointed range. Combined with the good air speed that McDonalds Chicken Tenders posssess and the possibly very high range of their Up Special tether and McDonalds Chicken Tenders can go DEEP FRIED to wall of pain opponents offstage! This is also one of the moves that most takes advantage of Creamy Ranch or Honey Mustard effects, since it allows McDonalds Chicken Tenders to weave in and out of the foe's more limited range while putting out a long lasting and powerful hitbox. This is also the most safe-on-shield aerial McDonalds Chicken Tenders has, while most of the others are not really safe and I think you get the idea.

Down Aerial: The KEY to Victory​

Clasping the box tight shut as Houshou Marine's Treasure Box (you might be asking who that is and I refuse to tell you. If Goliso won't tell me what a Mr. Krupp is, you don't get to know what a Houshou Marine is!), McDonalds Chicken Tenders turns itself upside down and plummets to the Earth as if ready to wipe out ALL Giganotosaurus on the planet. It looks shockingly similar to Bowser's Down Aerial. This attack has a few hitboxes to it in classic stall-then-fail fashion, the first being the hitbox when first activated that deals 16% damage and a shockingly powerful spike. This hitbox is only active for two frames, but it can be a stylish way to kill people off and this attack cancels with enough time left you COULD potentially recover with a tall enough tether. Most of the hitbox though deals 10% damage and modest upwards knockback that is kinda just good for getting in some damage and getting down to safety. The grounded hitbox from impact has a sweetspot directly on where McDonalds Chicken Tenders lands that deals 13% damage and sends opponents in the air with enough force to kill at 135% off the top, but most of the hitbox deals 7% damage and just kinda spaces opponents away from punishing McDonalds Chicken Tenders.

While the ending lag if it manages to cancel in the air is very low, the landing log on this move is ATROCIOUS (longer than Bowser's DAir!) as the box practically falls apart from the force and leaves this move horribly punishable on shield or if whiffed and even the sourspot landing hitbox isn't always enough at low percents. As true as this is, Down Aerial has a lot of upsides: It has its damage-based armor turn on very early (Frame 3) and the ENTIRE plummet is armored, making it EXTRAORDINARILY difficult to challenge, and the starting lag is pretty fast (1 frame faster than Mr. Game & Watch's DAir). This helps give McDonalds Chicken Tenders a landing mixup it desperately needs! This is ESPECIALLY true above that oh-so-amazing sauce, as this is THE move that benefits the most from it, as cutting it in half makes it about as saf eas a Game & Watch Down Aerial when landed (AKA OBNOXIOUSLY SO). While it might sound great to just keep Down Aerialing over and over on sauce, the sauce runs out as we all do over the course of life, and it is insanely predictable to just keep using it over and over on such a limited piece of stage space. The foe can just wait outside the sauce and punish once it has gone away, so you gotta mix it up.

Grab Game​

Grab: Super Smash Snack Wrap​

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9,760 words ago you might mention that the McDonalds Chicken Tender was sold not only as a standalone item and combo meal, but as the filling of the "Snack Wrap" that remains on Kanade's menu to this day. To begin with this wrapping of the foe, McDonalds Chicken Tender shoots out a tortilla with the range of a short tether. Let's say Lucas' tether length, so disjointed but not all too long. Opponents caught by the tortilla-tether will be reeled into McDonalds Chicken Tenders' loving embrace (???) as they are wrapped up in a tortilla. A miss has the tortilla returned to McDonalds Chicken Tenders' box for later use, giving this move your classic long tether grab ending lag, with the starting lag being slow as well. For such a fast character with some range / shield weaknesses, McDonalds Chicken Tender's grab being a slow McDonalds Tortilla Tether is not ideal. Again, this is one other reason Neutral Special is so important to the set as it is their snap-quick anti-shield option!

In FFAs and team matches, the true value of a supersize McDonalds meal is shown in full as the Chicken Tenders can grab multiple opponents at once! This results in every foe grabbed being rolled in the same tortilla with it bulging a little bit if 3 or more foes are grabbed since the tortilla stays the same ("If a tortilla rolls a Ganondorf into a tortilla, the number of burritos in the world stays the same..." "Tortilla...two?"). Foes in the same tortilla are thrown at the same time, all take pummel damage at the same time, and so on. You might ask how that effects some of the throws, to which I say "good question".

When wrapped up in the tortilla, the contents of the Snack Wrap DO appear around the foe, such as lettuce and pepper jack cheese. Characters also have their own unique expressions for being placed inside the snack wrap, such as Ganondorf appearing stoically proud, Pit looking hungry or Zelda having a :< face on. Try grabbing multiple foes with different expressions for added power in the screenshot meta!

Pummel: Snack Bite​

Unable to resist the delectableness that is the New Menu Item the Super Smash Snack Wrap, McDonalds Chicken Tenders takes a bite out of the foe. This is a modest speed pummel that only deals 0.6% to the foe, but it DOES heal 0.6% in the process which puts it in line with most pummels in Ultimte.

Forward Throw: Hot Plate​

Haven't you ever wanted to wrap a character in a tortilla, put them in a microwave and watch them spin around for a minute? Well if you don't mind the fact it is missing a microwave (As if McDonalds would ever make such a mistake. Never. Never!), then this is the throw with you! A hot plate appears under the foe and begins to spin at a steady pace. This is the first part of the throw and deals 1.3% damage every 20 frames until the foe escapes at normal grab difficulty, at which point the foe takes 4%-12% damage before being launched for knockback that kills at 260%-120%! If this throw reaches its maximum damage, which takes about 100 frames, the foe is automatically ejected from the tortilla with violent force. This maximizes the throw's damage at 19.5% and makes it McDonalds Chicken Tender's premiere kill throw, although the fact that the foe can mash out early makes it a bit weird and unreliable. If the foe mashes out very early at low percents, this actually combos into Dash Attack. It also generally serves as a decent spacing throw if the foe mashes out at mid percents, good for filling up the ol' Soda Fountain or throwing out a Sauce Special.

Up Throw: Super Smash Snack Wrap (With Sauce)​

McDonalds Chicken Tenders closes the box around the tortilla'd foe, which DOES grant damage-based armor against outside hits to both McDonalds Chicken Tenders AND the foe, chewing on the foe for 5% damage before spitting them upwards for 3% more damage and a total of 8%. McDonalds Chicken Tenders' chew here is similar to Neutral Special's in a lot of ways, such as healing McDonalds Chicken Tenders for 3%, but most importantly in that it applies a slathering of sauce to the opponent to complete the Snack Wrap. It doesn't produce the FULL saucy package like Neutral Special, given this is more of a rush job, and thus only applies one sauce to the opponent. It'll use whichever of Tilt or Smash sauce was last used by McDonalds Chicken Tenders (albeit with the new cycled in sauce), and choose randomly if McDonalds Chicken Tenders has yet to use Side Special.

To be honest, this throw isn't too good otherwise. McDonalds Chicken Tenders doesn't get much in the way of frame advantage and it mostly serves as a vertical repositioner to start up the juggle game, but in the context of Smash is mediocre at it. The plus side is that it gives McDonalds Chicken Tenders one last way to apply sauce, and ensures that his Neutral Special is not his ONLY grab to do so, and to an extent even allows it to choose only one sauce to apply if for some reason it would not want to apply multiple. This does not cause sauce to cycle.

Down Throw: Survival of the Fittest​

McDonalds Chicken Tenders tosses the foe to the ground, a technique it taught its ancestors ages ago for what to do when any chicken loving Arby's hating American would do when the food explodes in their hands and they need to trash it to make way for REAL food. Speaking of real food: The foe, wrapped in a tortilla, helpless under McDonalds Chicken Tenders. McDonalds Chicken Tenders proceeds to chomp down on the foe three times quite like Pac-Man's Down Tilt, dealing 2%, 3% and 4% damage for a total of 9%, and deals low knockback away. Unlike Pac-Man's Down Tilt and its high ending lag, this attack has more moderate ending lag and so is McDonalds Chicken Tenders' primary combo throw! Dash Attack is an evergreen option that essentially works no matter what the foe does until high percents, RAR Back Aerial and Forward Tilt are more spacing options, and Neutral Aerial is the BEEG reward that can potentiall whiff if the opponent DIs away past low percents. Jab can also be used as a combo tool to start tech chases, which I will note McDonalds Chicken Tenders will primary attempt to use Down Tilt/Down Smash, Forward Smash, Back Aerial, Forward Tilt or Dash Attack to read depending on if it wants power + coverage, speed + coverage or speed + movement. Note that like most combo throws, higher damage + more DI = less reliability for the ol' Tendies.

The three bites each heal 0.6% damage as well, so that means this gives the highest damage ratio before combos outside of high end Forward Throws, and in general is the most used McDonalds Chicken Tenders throw. But also note that could lead to staling, and that more staleness will mean less crisp combos (and less crisp lettuce), so you'll want to mix in applying Up Throw sauce or forcing a monster mash with Forward Throw.

Back Throw: BIG MAC BIG MAC BIG MAC BIG MAC​

This throw has nothing to do with Big Mac (the alt user OR the food) but instead is just mocking a commercial I had to watch a lot last year. Also a very simple foe, as McDonalds Chicken Tenders clasps its box around the foe inside of their tortilla and suplexes them backwards, causing them to squirt out of the tortilla comically while taking 11.5% damage and knockback that kills at 165%. The knockback is bizarrely vertical in addition to backwards, so using this on a top platform can kill a earlier. This is basically McDonalds Chicken Tenders' auxiliary kill throw for if the foe has godlike mashing skills and a reversal tool with the back to the ledge, plus a bit of a vertical spacer if you DON'T want to apply sauce on the foe (why?). I shall waste no more breath on this move.

Final Smash: McDonalds Legends​

McDonalds Chicken Tenders has, somehow, obtained the Smash Ball, and it is ready to imprint its copyright on it! McDonalds Chicken Tender shoots out a GIANT Big Mac, which proceeds to explode on hit or after a set distance into an all consuming gravitational void of burger bun, lettuce, meat, Big Mac Sauce and more. Opponents hit by this move are mystically transported to the McDonalds Play Pen, where a large group of Ronald McDonalds from all kinds of commercials and appearances come forth! This goes from the classic American Ronald McDonald to the powerful Donarudo from Japan and everything in between, which proceed to beat up on the foe in their own unique way the entire time. This is very dramatic, ending with an explosion in the shape of the McDonalds logo at the end which sends every foe flying! In addition to Ronald McDonald, there is a small chance that one of the Ronalds will be replaced by a region-appropriate Hamburglar, who has his own versions of the attack.

This attack's total damage is 49% and it KOs at roughly 56% with the Smash Ball. Perchance.