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

[Arctic Tern]

BLACK ALICE (OldManHan)

As the person who previewed the set while it was in development, Black Alice definitely lives up to the hype. The character has a plethora of absurd gimmicks, centering around a meter that buffs her attacks at the expense of being automatically used up when an attack hits. Most striking is the way it works with Black Alice’s plethora of instakills - a foe killed by them actually has their stock regenerate, with the length depending on how much of the meter she has filled. Since instakills also can’t end the match, this makes them seem fairly unreliable… until you consider the fact that Black Alice can use DSpec to reset to when the match was before the instakill happened, and it just so happens that they deal great damage and hitstun for her to follow up on. Alternatively, she can keep her meter stocked to enter her Goddess of Chaos form, which significantly buffs her moveset - most notably by allowing her to actually finish a fight with instakills.

If you couldn’t tell by that first paragraph, the name of the game with Black Alice is oppression, and oppress she does. She has several moves, mainly in her aerials, with absurdly long lasting and/or long ranged hitboxes that force the foe to respect them, lest they be hit by the often powerful moves. Additionally, her NSpec allows her to set a Shadow Flare-esque time bomb on the opponent where the timing between explosions are customizable, letting her combo out of them and pressure extremely well, and her SSpec makes a projectile that she can freeze in place to redirect and cancel the lag of her moves. Smashes are similarly oppressive, from FSmash, which has far greater scaling than any other and comes out faster with more meter, and DSmash, which can potentially become a moving, shield-wrecking hitbox. Black Alice’s Goddess of Chaos form is even more terrifying, with several moves based on the prior Ilias/Adramelech sets - this includes a full-screen DTilt and an infinite range USmash. Either that, or she can just use her 5-second long new DSpec that essentially wins the match should it go off.

Despite everything I said above, Black Alice is actually very balanced - paradoxical, but fitting for the character. Barely any of her moves come out under 10 frames, leaving her very hard pressed to escape pressure, especially since her grab is slow, her USmash is laggy, and her UTilt is exclusively vertical. Additionally, most of the crazier moves are reserved for the Goddess of Chaos form; Black Alice’s standards are generally fairly simple, such as a Sephiroth UAir that serves to juggle, the UTilt that serves as a combo tool/check to aerial approaches, and a DTilt that mainly serves as a ranged poke. The result is a set that, while putting the absolute fear of God on the opponent, seems genuinely fair due to how much she struggles to break out of disadvantage. My only real issue, aside from not putting as much weight to the more intriguing concepts as I’d like, is the USpec instakill once the foe reaches 110%, which seems much too low for an instakill that works like a proper instakill - though with how overtuned Black Alice’s set is already, it isn’t as big of a deal as it would be on any other set.

While I’d imagine that the set’s ideas won’t click with everyone the way they do with me, Black Alice is so over-the-top that I highly recommend reading it. It’s an interesting experiment in how oppressive you can make a character while still being balanced, and in my opinion it works out wonderfully.

ROLL CASKETT (EXpand)

Welcome to MYM, EXpand! It’s always nice to see another setmaker join the fray, and with a fairly intriguing choice - not only a Mega Man character (I do like the series - need to make a set for it someday), but a noncombatant in her home series, which interests me more than the more obvious characters. Roll is fittingly a resource based zoner, with the ability to gain materials by using DSpec and use them to buff her Specials. The most intriguing is easily the DSpec, which allows her to actually choose between two; a shield, a drone that passively attacks foes, and a big strong killing projectile. The other notable Special is the SSpec, which drops a bomb that gets a progressively longer stun with every level.

Roll’s normals are fairly under-elaborated, but do have a good bit of meat to them and fittingly goofy animations, like the FTilt radio wave hitbox. There are some interesting bits there as well, like the NAir projectile and a DTilt that sends a projectile that sticks to walls, allowing for both weird edgeguards and the option to follow up off of it. I also liked the option to heal with NSpec, since it grants Roll a method of increasing the duration of her stock on a character who wants to stick around. The set has a clear goal and does what it wants to do decently well with some neat ideas, but there’s less detail than I generally like on the set, ultimately hampering my rating. Still a very good first effort, though!

OKIKU (KAT)

You know you’re a fan of ninja girls and low potential characters when you make a 15,000+ word moveset for a ninja girl whose only appearance is a 4-page manga.

Okiku’s primary gimmick is her NSpec, which gets more powerful in stages after she hits a foe but charges faster the closer she is to the foe. She can harness it in either an omnidirectional blast with good kill power or how it’s used in the manga, to distract the opponent with an image of their desire - here interpreted as a debuff to their damage and level of knockback they take. The debuff only lasts for as long as Okiku holds her pose, though, so she can’t actually use it… but she can exploit it, by using scrolls stolen from SSpec as timebombs or just having a clone of herself spawned with DSpec do it in her place. Clones also get taken advantage of in various other ways, by using them for quick mindgames with the aerial version of DSpec and using them to buff her throws if she walks next to them when they grab the foe. It’s a neat way of interpreting a “charm” effect, with fittingly sneaky Specials suiting a thief.

Her other inputs get a surprising amount out of the character, with moves meant to keep opponents close like Jab and FAir or encourage an approach such as the tracking effect of a held SSpec scroll. Okiku’s Smashes are all interesting, but the FSmash is my favorite - starting off as a good shield bully move, it actually changes depending on her NSpec buff as she turns into various stock anime waifus, with the strongest potentially able to come out at frame 4 if timed properly. On that note, there’s a good bit of vaguely erotic moves that fit the nature of her ability, like a kiss USmash that serves as a trap which can set up for tech chases or combo into another trap set by a clone, or a UAir where she grabs the opponent with her thighs and throws them in a direction of her choice. While a good portion of the moves stand out for their gimmick there are several more simple attacks her as well, such as a drag down NAir, a slow BAir to catch out rolls, or a FThrow that quickly starts pressure due to quick speed and low knockback. I do feel that, with how fast Okiku is and all the potential payoffs she may be a bit too powerful, but considering her light weight and ease of comboing based on her fall speed it’s the “earned” sort of powerful, one I generally like. It doesn’t reach the heights of your previous ninja girl sets, but it’s certainly a worthy entry regardless.

Comment block link here!

 

[Arctic Tern]

JAMCON 26-3
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It’s that time again… it’s time for Jamcon!

While the casual readers of this thread may have stumbled onto this term a few times, it’s entirely possible that they skimmed the explanation posts and just skipped to the sets. As such, here’s a rundown:

• Each Jamcon is “run” by the winner of the previous Jamcon. This person decides a central theme that every set made for the Jamcon must follow in some manner. The specific theme can be anything (as long as it follows the ToS, of course), but those that allow for more creative interpretation are typically seen as the better ones.
• Setmakers who wish to participate in a Jamcon must make a full moveset within a 4-day time period, starting from when the introductory post goes online.
  • Sets that fit the theme, but have had a non-insubstantial amount of work put into them are not allowed. This is defined as a moveset having any work done on its stats or the actual moves: an intro, extras, and a set that has notes and/or a skeleton but no true “work” done can skate past this.
  • Jokesets are not considered “true” Jamcon entries, regardless of whether or not they fulfill the above qualification. Silly sets that are meant to be legitimate entries are fully allowed, however: this contest we had a Jamcon where Grimace from McDonalds’ was a legitimate entry!
  • A setmaker can make multiple sets for a Jamcon, though this is rare. Additionally, they can also do joint work on a set with another setmaker.
  • Setmakers must specify that their moveset is a Jamcon entry, either in the intro post, the set itself, or if push comes to shove DMing the person running the Jamcon.
  • Sets can be freely edited during the submission period, but after it ends major edits are not allowed. Minor edits such as extras, presentation, and number crunching are OK, but anything bigger than that needs to wait until voting period ends.
• After the 4-day period ends, a 2-week period begins known as “voting period”. As the name implies, this is when setmakers actually read the sets presented for the Jamcon. They vote on which set is the best, and the set with the highest point tally is declared the winner! The person who wrote this set then gets to host the next Jamcon, as outlined above.
  • A setmaker must read and comment on every set in the Jamcon in order to officially vote.
  • A vote counts for one point, but if the voter also made a set for the Jamcon their set automatically gets a half point.
  • It is possible for two sets to tie, though as of this writing that has never happened. What to do in this scenario is something for the individual Jamcon runner to decide.
  • While it may be obvious, a setmaker can’t vote for their own set.

So what’s the theme for this Jamcon?

FALSE
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Now what options does this entail, exactly? A lot, actually.

• Probably the most obvious option is a “fake” version of a character.
• A character who specializes in making illusions, which can be described as being false versions of reality.
• Similarly, a character who can clone themselves, essentially making fake versions of themselves.
• A character known for lying - i.e. spreading falsehoods.
• A character who specializes in disguising themselves - i.e. operating under a false identity.
• A character who is set up to have a certain role in the story, only for that to be subverted. Examples include a heroic character revealed to be working for the villains, or a seemingly menacing individual whose personality is not at all what their appearance suggests.
• A character from a nonexistent, or “fake” piece of media.
• On the flipside, you could make a character firmly dedicated to the truth - someone who fights against falsehood.

Some examples of characters that fit this theme:

• Lucina was originally presented as being Marth in advertisements for Awakening - as such, she can be described as a “false Marth”.
• Kazuya was originally presented as the hero of the Tekken storyline, fighting to get revenge on his abusive father. Tekken 2, however, showed that he was in fact just as evil, arguably moreso, than Heihachi. As such, Kazuya is a false hero.
• Shadow the Hedgehog, in his debut game, was frequently mistaken for Sonic, and even called “faker” by the Blue Blur.
• “Lucky” Louise comes from Fortune’s Favor!, a fictitious game.
• Mysterio is the “Master of Illusions”. The set linked is primarily based on his MCU incarnation, which was initially presented as a hero before it was revealed he was still a villain - two qualifications for the price of one!
• SkekSil, the Chamberlain, is a highly skilled manipulator. As he says, “I plant stories in ground, watch grow into truth!”
• Phoenix Wright comes from a series built upon exposing lies and discovering the truth.

None of these lists are meant to be comprehensive: there are many other characters who fit the “false” theme, and several ways other than the ones listed to fit it in the first place.

Your time is 12:00 AM EDT (when this will be posted) Friday to 12:00 AM EDT Monday. And with all that has to be said said, let’s get started!

 

[Katapultar]

Spoiler: Don’t Touch Me

Was not expecting a sudden moveset from you, let alone your most insane character choice to date. Or the fact that someone would celebrate Slavic Day with an unhinged character choice like Tumble or Jokersaurus.

Down Special starts off crazy with what is essentially a counter version of Jigglypuff’s Rest, which is a very cool and unique idea for a counter (and sort of reminds me of Juzo, in a way). Of course, the minion aspect where the minion mimics your counter hitbox is the more appealing of these concepts. laborating on how much knockback the bear takes, projectiles passing through them and the triple hitstun factor is something I definitely approve of, given my similar uses of it in Jalter and Ferrijit. These are all factors that I’d want to see more of in minion sets. I’m glad to be reminded of them from reading this set.

Side Special is a funny take on Sephiroth’s Shadow Flare that forces the opponent to attack: it’s rare that we get that are so blatantly designed to synergize with a counter, as opposed to moves that incentivize attacking, but it does work with DTM’s Rest-esque counter and is surprisingly fun for something that surprisingly hasn’t really been done in a modern moveset. Neutral Special makes it clear that this set revolves around landing a single counter, though I shouldn’t be surprised really. Minions that are hostile to the summoner are always ripe for exploitation with counters, a synergy this moveset makes good use of. Capping off these good Specials is an unorthodox delayed teleport (reminds me of Rudy) that not only encourages foes to intercept DTM off-stage, but also makes it scary offensively.

Grab really amps up the crazy in this set. Or rather, a mechanic that applies an avoidable penalty for opponents who grab you based on what throw they used against you. Between this set, Goldenglow and Vileplume, it seems that we have a few mechanics that punish opponents for hitting you this contest, but unlike those sets foes can avoid getting punished. I kind of like how this acts as an in-character deterrent for opponents grabbing you through your counter, which is kind of fair when the counter has long end lag that they can use to hit you with a strong non-grab attack anyway.

One thing, though: if DTM gets to set off these various effects for free when an opponent throws it, I think it should have a weaker shield than other fighters. It could just be a shield that only fully covers you near full health, after which you become easy to shield poke since you have a rectangular hurtbox (this would also work well with its D-tilt). Or just let foes bypass your mechanic if they grabbed you out of your shield. Just prevents DTM from having a bit of a stronger shield game than you probably intended, as it has a fair few attacks with counter hitboxes anyway. I also wonder if maybe DTM should only be able to have one of its status effects from its own throws on a foe at a time: it gets all these without having to do anything, which feels like it would be a bit unfair on opponents who rely on their grabs more.

• Minor note: Teddy shouldn’t be able to grab opponents out of F-throw because of the usual one second grab immunity fighters get after they’ve been thrown. I guess you could just say that Teddy’s grab ignores that immunity. Other than that, this is a nice, classic FA throw that applies an elaborate status effect, one where the speed decay meshes with foes needing to attack you to be defensive and we all know what can lead to.

Jab has the Belzeb vibes of being an unorthodox boy with an elaborate multiplier mechanic and like an attack version of your Neutral Special. I also like how U-tilt talks about the importance of that move, D-tilt and Dash Attack being a trinity of pseudo-counters to make landing your Down Special easier, rather than just being redundant with that move.

Onto the Neutral Air and going off on a tangent. To be honest, I had a hard time wrapping myself around the implications of the tiny, specific sweetspots of W’s multi-hitting Forward Air in regards to how both players are supposed to play around it. But looking at DTM’s Neutral Air, that actually got cleared up for me in its cool aspect where you and your opponent can DI during its multi-hits to manipulate where they end up during the radial knockback, so now I know how it works if I wanted to implement such a thing in my movesets. Maybe it’s because N-air was described in a way that made it easier to understand, or I overlooked something in W’s set.

• F-Smash is simple, but an appealing little move thanks to its inwards knockback. The “I never promised you anything grand” bit where the buff from B-throw is just a slight range increase is kind of funny in a comedic way: it’s basically a subversion and borderline parody of your usual tendency to go hard with these kinds of buff-based bonuses.
• U-Smash is one of those moves where its cool factor comes from how it plays off of the set’s established concepts very well - specifically, a stupidly dangerous close-ranged hitbox that comes out fast enough to make foes panic and make quick decisions that could lead into a counter read.

All and all, DTM was a great moveset, up there with the stronger sets that I have read so far (which is good, because that’s almost 80 so far). I liked it more than Valkyrie if not the same as Belzeb, as the set delved more into MYM’ian territory and made it work, which had more personal appeal for me. Seems like you’re working on something else for this contest too…

Spoiler: Huff ‘n’ Puff

This might be the most memorable boss from the original Paper Mario for me, due to his boss fight and Warlord’s funny cheese puff meme set that was designed to pander to me back in MYM7, so it’s great to see him get a modern set. I think we can all agree that this set ended up being the truly superior version, and all I’d ask for from a Huff ‘n’ Puff set.

Some cool aspects here involve the way Tuff Puffs are positioned - starting out up and behind Huff ‘n’ Puff and not ending up in front of him unless you get a lot of them out - which means that you need a lot of them to mess with frontal opponents, and the consistent tap vs hold control scheme among the Specials.

The balance ratio on NSpec’s healing is good, too, and the Kirby-esque NSpec getting a role in the set with the options you get after spitting an opponent out (just waiting on a moveset to exploit of the “turn your enemy into a star projectile” effect on a moveset). Other neat little move quirks involved F-Smash’s pull factor, and the surprisingly cool Jab’s in-and-out knockback that can mess with your opponent’s DI. Dash Attack was also an unexpected standout for its hitboxes and how it plays into Huff ‘n’ Puff’s wind-based Specials. I also thought the Tuff Puffs’ delayed fall via D-Smash and D-air were some of the more interesting uses of them, aside from the use in the grab game (U-throw being the favourite here), while B-air does its role well as a punish against opponents who try to get behind you to eliminate your initial set of Tuff Puffs.

His concepts aren’t grand, as you’d expect from a definitive Huff ‘n’ Puff set, and I do wonder if Down Special’s lightning attack could be slightly elaborated upon as a threat from above for how powerful it is - could be a great follow-up if D-air or N-air manage to knock a foe down and force them into a tech situation. But the idea behind the Tuff Puffs as resources and how they force opponents to play around them are good, along with a helping of nice moves in the set all around.

 

[Arctic Tern]

"Ugh! I see now... you don't care if you die on the operating table, do you? Very well... we can play it that way!"

(Jamcon 3 entry)

 

[Katapultar]

Spoiler: Shadow Naoto

Oh man, I wasn’t expecting you to straight up make this character, but it’s very fitting since both regular Naoto and S. Naoto had movesets before you attempted them. Funny how none of the other P4 protagonists other than Yu have movesets yet, though.

Shadow Naoto is an interesting combination of burst movement and damage-increasing debuffs that manage to not be redundant despite being on two different Special inputs. I like the dynamics behind Side Special being a straight-up “this buff -is- used on your next move” beyond Jab, and how it is explored and can be wasted on moves like F-tilt and B-air that get little to no knockback reward.

And, of course, the centrepiece that is Neutral Special’s burst movement as a resource. Both of these work together to give Shadow Naoto some potentially very intimidating Smashes, which worth together in the “trinity coverage” fare that I am associating you with more and more. Jab is another cool move for similar reasons to why I liked Potterie’s one, this time working together with Heat Riser, while N-air is a surprisingly fun move for the way its launch angles work. Between this set, Don’t Touch Me and Huff ‘n’ Puff, we seem to have gotten some good N-airs that play around with DI manipulation. U-air as a power move works nicely with both S. Naoto’s debuffs and Heat Riser’s burst movement, and is kind of the move that convinces me that both of these concepts compliment each other. D-throw also plays off of your emphasis on tech chasing, this time for a character with a tool for easy tech chases but limited options to leave opponents prone.

All this leaves Shadow Naoto as one the upper-echelons among your Jamcon entries, a set that I actually liked a bit more than the original Naoto. Shadow Naoto is Naoto’s true self, after all.

 

[n88]

Justice, like lightning, ever should appear
To few men’s ruin, but to all men’s fear.
(link)​

 

[GolisoPower]

Look at them. Drowning in all their strife. Caught up in the turmoil of their lives. Such weak minds.

But I will come for them…when the time is right. For I am their savior. I know everything about what makes them human.

I know what they love…

I know what they dread.​

 

[majora_787]

Finally, this jamcon has given me the power to unleash the greatest weapon the world has ever seen... a weapon to surpass Metal Gear...

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[Katapultar]

Spoiler: Citizen V

Oh, this is a nice little throwback to your quicker Marvel sets back in the old days. It’s also a neat little package of ideas, especially that Down Special: we’ve not had a set that focused on either taunts and Final Smashes for a while, but this set plays on both of those! So much for skipping the Final Smash of this set. I actually skipped to the Final Smash just before ending the F-Smash, which has the neat “more damage if it hits multiple times trait” so it’s not ludicrous if V gets it out the first time from his Down Special buff.

Anyway, Cape Feint has more-specific cancels, and Up Special channels the power of the Goblin Glider and good old Brawl gliding mechanics. I like the restrictions imposed on the latter to prevent stalling. F-Smash’s spike and the general mindgames of the Smashes are pretty neat. A part of me questions the feasibility of U-Smash’s pre-attack spot dodge when the hitbox practically comes out above Citizen V, but it’s actually a cool dynamic: it means U-Smash doesn’t work as a substitute spot dodge against opponents from the sides, which is where a spot dodge would normally work best if I understand it correctly.

I also like the U-tilt mix-up against shields on the small sweetspot, which makes for a bit of a funny move. I don’t think we’ve had too many sets where a character has the notable weakness of Aerials that are bad against shields. To end this read, I was pleasantly surprised at how interesting the throws were for how concisely they were written, each being around 1 paragraph long and not going into too much detail about follow-ups. While I preferred Cu’s concepts, V still came together as quite the solid entry for a Jamcon set. Both sets feel like references on how to get the most out of a really short wordcount, with V being more loose and text-based rather than bullet-point and frame-data-ish than Cu was, more ideal for Jamcons I’d say.

Interesting to read the design notes - almost missed them, because I’m not used to the idea of collapsible text in Google Docs (and don’t know how to implement it, even though it would be useful to know). Explains why the intro seemed so barebones.

 

[FrozenRoy]

Tink Tonk (Tinker Knight majora_787 )

I happened to give this a pass-over preview after you finished before posting, so that was nice to give me a read when it has been a hot minute. The set instantly reminded me of Make Your Move 8's Jack Spicer, which given they're both comedic mechanical based villains [citation needed] feels incredibly fitting. But as opposed to making minions, here Tinker Knight gets to build either a defensively oriented and heavyweight Blue Mech, an offensively oriented and quick Red Mech, and a movement and aerial oriented Gold Mech. Wisely for a Jamcon set these are not full-on transformations but more like moveset modifiers, almost bringing to mind Miracle Matter or the old Cosplay extras, in addition to the fact that Tinker Knight can abandon them and instead leave them as limited autopilot minions who can only use the moves modified for Tinker Knight. It's actually a bit unique really.

The set itself is largely dedicated to simple yet effective exploitations of this and a playstyle that feels dedicated to more of a campy and running playstyle until he gets to go ham when he gets one of his mechs going. With good timing he can even abandon one and go right into making another for a 1-2 punch, of course at the cost of being drained of resources should something go wrong. The mechs themselves have a variety of fun attacks, with some standouts being the Red Mech's Down Special with its conveyor belt (very Katapultar-esque!), the Blue Mech's Z-Attack (the Blue and Yellow mechs lack grabs given their body type), the Yellow Mech's is also quite interesting, Down Tilt feeling like a nice setup move in the context of the set context, Neutral Aerial too, Back Aerial and stuff like that is fun. Lots of solid moves. Down Smash's work with the conveyor belt and Down Aerial also felt like some attackerinos.

All of this isn't even adding in the Up Special and Side Special, varieties of Tinker Knight's Mobile Gear that let him spice up his default game before he gets the mechs, with the Mobile Gear basically letting him adjust his height for his grounded attacks, ram over opponents as he dashes by, basically get flight with grounded normals, a bunch of tools that work to help with Tinker Knight's evasive playstyle. Or maybe he'll be brave and just charge on in, bless him. Oh, and the writing in the set is nice.

When it comes to negatives...my chief one might be the fact that the autopilot minions feel largely ignored in the context of the moveset, certainly existant but very understated, along with perhaps elements of Tinker Knight's game that could have been heightened outside of the mech focus. He seems like he could have a robust edgeguard game and maybe exploring that or having a bit more designed into that idea would have been nice. I briefly considered if it felt too overpowered if he tries to just make a bunch of mechs at once and autopilot them to flood the stage, but they don't really feel easy enough to do. Even just getting three minimum HP mechs out requires a minimum of 90% damage dealt if not a single alloy was wasted elsewhere. And if they're all minimum HP then it isn't TOO hard to deal with and Tinker Knight perhaps deserves a higher power state anyway since it means he had to play most of the stock with a largely gimped moveset. On that note, I do wish maybe there was a move with a higher rate of Alloy gain to make it easier to get parts earlier but also give something for foes to play around. For example, maybe a hammer-esque move like FAir but more as a slow combo ender that requires Tinker Knight to be aggressive but itself has a pushed alloy gain so it pays if he does it?

Food for thought but, overall, I found Tinker Knight more impressive then Omega or Bowstring which are my two main points of comparison for your sets. Just a nice l'il feller to have around, playing around with some neat ideas and largely avoiding obvious pitfalls. Certainly don't ask for more out of a Jamcon, I'll tell ya that!

 

[Katapultar]

Spoiler: Alternate Gabriel

I was looking forward to this set when you said it was going to be experimental. That certainly turned out to be the case, as Gabriel is a creepy character who doesn’t use direct violence - seemingly eschewing conventional attacks for a meter that deals massive burst damage based on the opponent’s strongest used attack among their most recent 10 once it’s filled. At first I thought the foe’s accumulated damage was the average damage output of every move in their stale que, which I would have loved if that was the case, though I get that the way it works is supposed to be a direct translation of “use the foe’s power against them”.

It gets even wilder with the Down Special, which summons entities that, as it turns out, are responsible for using Gabriel’s non-Special attacks in what is essentially a modern take on the Hugo genre. I personally like the idea behind the TV/mirror construct that spawns alongside the Intruder and telegraphs which Smash attack he uses - partly because I associate TV/mirrors with portals in MYM, and that my Ghostface set used a TV construct. Bit of a typo where it says Intruder uses Dash Attacks, which confused me and I wondered why this set didn’t have multiple Dash Attacks. I could see the Alternate minions being useful for making foes use stronger attacks so they take more damage when they get MAD.

Neutral Special is a very unique take on the “transform into your opponent” genre, one where damage done contributes to your meter and lets you use the foe’s non-Special moves in tandem with your Alternates! I wonder if 2 seconds is a bit too long for the start-up when Gabriel is slow and he only gets one attack off of the shapeshifting: maybe it could be a charge-and-store, or he gets more attacks the longer he spent charging. F-Smash is also a cool move in the context of Gabriel’s concepts: functioning as a non-stunning teleport that can be used to pop foes into your Alternates or off-stage, and just gets very good use out of being tied to the tv/mirror construct - as well as triggering MAD after the foe has taken their knockback! U-Smash is good, and D-Smash is wild flavour-wise while being a mini-MAD.

I dig a lot of the concepts this set has going for it, enough that Alternate Gabriel could have been one of your absolute best sets if he had similar development time to Eldlich. Issue-wise, it’s difficult for me to envision how a lot of Gabriel’s set would work, between his mechanic and especially his Alternates. It’s cool that the Alternates have different movement to Gabriel, which lets him use them to attack separately, but even if the stats are listed I don’t think the set goes into much detail about the implications of movement differences between Gabriel and his Alternates (there might be situations where Gabriel is frequently without his Alternates or good melee defense). I also assume that Alternates can be respawned instantly if they’re killed, as that would deny Gabriel almost all of his melee.

A few extra points:

• Gabriel’s unconventional method of KO’ing and his low damage output means that he can easily keep his opponents at combo percents for longer, but he has a hard time scoring shield breaks. But I think the Undesirable Information mechanic works as a whole.
• As MAD deals more damage if the foe had recently used a stronger attack, it would have been cool if Gabriel had a way to directly goad foes into using a stronger attack, like having a degree of knockback-based armour on certain attacks. Maybe certain points of his Neutral Special counter?
• It feels like Gabriel would be a bit too good against projectile characters, since his Alternates casually give him meat shields.
• If Gabriel has both N and the Follower out at the same time and presses A, will they use their Jab and Neutral Air at the same time?
• The idea of a character who psychologically manipulates their opponent reminds me of Don’t Touch Me. Alternate Gabriel has the similar “unspeakable horrors” vibe going on, so I think DTM would be a good reference point on ways that you can incorporate mental manipulation through direct effects.

While there’s room for fine-tuning execution-wise, I quite enjoyed Gabriel as a Jamcon entry from you, one that I thought was your best Jamcon so far and was better than Sevagoth.

 

[UserShadow7989]

Jamcon submission complete, click the image for the set.

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(Still need to add some images, but the source material's website is down currently and time's ticking. Hope y'all enjoy!)

 

[Kholdstare]

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[BrazilianGuy]

Sooooo my power went out and then came back on, I don't wanna run no risks, and since it has everything it needs to, here is my jamcon entry, I hope it makes you MISERABLE

 

[dilliam]

"Won't you shake a poor sinner's hand?"

This is my entry for the False jamcon.

 

[Slavic]

Prepare for trouble!

...And make it double! ​

 

[PeridotGX]

i don't have time for a funny bit heres a toed

Toedscruel

docs.google.com

 

[FrozenRoy]

"An "angel", a mercenary "team", a pair of "nihilists", the most radical of kings, his court "doctor" and his loyal tinkering knight, an American "superhero", a jealous jellyfish and, of course, Team Rocket.



Hmph. The conclusion is so...elementary."

A WeirdChillFever/FrozenRoy Joint​

 

[WeirdChillFever]

saw some of you using sunshine gifs in chat so here you go

[Non-Jamcon submission]

 

[Arctic Tern]

And the False Jamcon ends now! Let’s see what we have…

First up is Shadow Naoto by me, a false version of a character I’ve already made! Her true form may look a bit goofy, but underestimate her and you’ll be next on the operating table!

Next is Citizen V by n88, a hero who relies on falsifying the attacks he’s going to do! There’s something off about his demeanor, however, that I just can’t put my finger on…

Then, we have Alternate Gabriel by GolisoPower, a false god if there ever was one. He may not be much of a fighter, but his army of Alternates and mind breaking abilities make him more than capable of standing up to the rest of the crowd.

Tinker Knight by Majora’s up next, the center of a false boss fight. He may not look like much, because he isn’t, but the weapons he can make are second to none!

A truly radical choice by UserShadow, in the form of King Radical! Don’t mistake his charity work for goodwill; it’s a false act for his plans to make everything rad, at the expense of this world!

We’ve got a surprise entry by Kholdstare, in the form of… the entire playable cast of Team Fortress 2! A very bizarre pick, but as one of their members, the Spy, is an expert at falsifying his identity, they still fit. It seems that not everything is complete, however…

Now put on your frowny faces, because BrazilianGuy’s Grim and Gnarly are here to make you miserable! False versions of their series’ protagonists, they bring a bizarre, but still quite effective style of fighting to the battlefield.

Coming back to MYM with a vengeance is Dr. Facilier by dilliam, a maker of false promises! Don’t mistake his charm for actual friendliness - he’s got friends on the other side, and he’d be more than happy to get you acquainted with them!

Prepare for trouble, and make it double, because Team Rocket by Slavic’s coming to steal your Pokemon! With their array of wacky gadgets, including false disguises, they’re more than capable of sending their enemies blasting off again!

And speaking of Pokemon, we’ve got Toedscruel by Peridot, a false Tentacruel! While not the real deal, it’s no less effective in combat.

Last but not least, and fittingly for the last set, we have someone who specializes in unveiling the truth - Sherlock Holmes, by FrozenRoy and WeirdChillFever! Based on his Fate incarnation, this incarnation of Holmes comes packed with supernatural powers that will make defeating his enemies elementary.

With the end of the Jamcon, voting period starts from 12:00 AM Tuesday EDT (technically later but you get the point), and ends on 12:00 AM Tuesday on July 25th. Get to reading and get to voting!

 

[Katapultar]

​

Not to take the spotlight from all the recent submissions we got, but here is a new set I've been saving for after the Jamcon period.

 

[GolisoPower]

The gloomy, ash-covered wastes held nothing but embers and darkness, the only source of light being the towering mountain off in the distance, constantly shooting fire and brimstone as though the very earth itself was sick to its core. It was often said that one does not simply walk into this god-forsaken land, and yet someone managed to do so anyway.

Dozle Zabi, one of the generals of the Zeon Principality, had heard rumblings of a war force that threatened the glory of his nation and had led the charge with a squadron to help him. From the cockpit of his custom Zaku, he made note of the major lack of life as other Zaku units began to scout the area.

“Commander,” his comms buzzed. “Are you sure this is the right place? This place looks almost lifeless, how could someone establish a camp here let alone an entire army?”

“Hmmm…yes, that does seem rather contrary to the intel,” mused Dozle. “But we cannot just take it for granted. Whatever poses a threat to the Principality of Zeon must be crushed! Search for any signs of life at once!”

“Yes, sir!”

The Zaku units began walking off to search the premises before he received a signal.

“Commander Dozle, sir,” said a Zeon Lieutenant. “We found somebody here. Looks like the remnant of a Zeon scouting party. They look to be in critical condition and lying a few meters from your location.”

“What,” roared Dozle before opening the comms to his platoon. “Get to these coordinates! I want the man there to get some medical attention on the double!”

“Roger!”

As the few Zaku units headed off to the direction he had ordered before heading off towards the giant mountain constantly raging in the distance.

After ascending what felt like the hundredth ash mound, Dozle found exactly what they had picked up.

Sprawling fields of wood and steel craft, countless humanoid creatures weaving in and out of sight as they appeared to be preparing for war. Massive, gothic forges spewed smoke and fire from their stacks, countless weapons, armor and siege engines almost looking like something from long before the Universal Century pouring out like a slow river of steel. Who could they be going to war against, Dozle wondered. It couldn’t possibly be against us, they would clearly be outnumbered and outgunned.

“There you are, sir!”

Dozle turned his Zaku around, his display catching sight of several Zakus pursuing him.

“We got the man you sent to rescue,” said one of the pilots. “But when we returned you had all but vanished. Did you find something, Commander?”

“Indeed,” Dozle rumbled. “I believe we may have found more than just a camp.”

The Zeon soldiers peered over and saw the large sprawling industry near the foot of the mountain, and general confusion lingered between them all.

“Sir…you’re saying this is what may be threatening our empire?”

“I was just as confused as you were,” growled Dozle. “Well, fortunately they don’t seem to be a threat at the moment. Let’s return before someone spots-”

An orange light flooded Dozle’s displays and almost blinded him for a moment. The entire platoon bore witness to a massive ball of fire hovering above them, a single black slit-like shape donning its center. It almost looked as though they were standing before the Devil himself and his gaze was getting a read on them.

Eventually, from the center of this massive ball of fire, the black shape at the center seemed to start walking towards the Zeon Commander. Dozle started sweating bullets as dark voices began to whisper in his ear, a migraine more intense than the sun yet colder than ice.

The fire around it dispelled and revealed itself to be something more terrifying: a giant clad in sharp-looking armor, a black tattered cape flowing against the wind, his posture showing that even the mightiest of kings of men would grovel before him. Dozle also could’ve sworn he saw a golden glint on his right hand, which also grasped on a horrific mace that nearly touched the earth.

The figure’s head slowly looked up towards the Zakus standing before him…or rather, he was staring into the eyes of their pilots.

Dozle stared on as something welled up in him. Something overwhelming…something awful…something primal. As though the very being that had stood before him was an evil that had existed long before the dawn of creation.

“KILL HIM! ALL UNITS, KILL THAT MAN!”

In a rush of pure pressure from this very being he gave the order for all his units to gun him down. Barrages of magenta light erupted from the barrels of massive guns at the armored man’s location, smoke beginning to billow upwards as magenta fire seemed to burn at his location.

After a good few seconds of gunfire, the order of ceasefire was given and the platoon looked on in anticipation as to whether or not they managed to kill him.

To their horror, it appeared as though he was never stricken to begin with. The metal giant began to walk towards the custom-made Zaku in an almost casual stride, his focus entirely on Dozle.

“Sieg Zeon!”

A bellowing battlecry from one of the pilots pierced the air as one of the Zakus charged forward, raising its Heat Hawk high up and ready to strike.

“Fool, don’t attack him,” bellowed Dozle in an attempt to pacify the pilot.

Unfortunately, it was too late.

Though the swing of the Zaku’s weapon was mighty and could’ve cleaved a man in two, the glint on the metal giant’s hand flashed intensely for a brief moment before the massive axe stopped in place. The Zaku attempted to reclaim its weapon, then it tried to release it…but both were for naught. It was almost as though something were preventing both the mech and its weapon from leaving its position.

The giant raised his own hand and placed it on the weapon, gliding it along its sharp edge for a moment before intensifying his grip.

In a near instant, just from that single hand on the Zaku’s weapon, the entire mech began to glow orange with a great intensity. Soon after, the Zaku started to melt into a pile of molten slag, Dozle’s comms being flooded by the pained, hysterical screams of the unfortunate pilot as the heat began to slowly burn them away to nothingness.

“There is no life…in the void…”

The voice the armored figure uttered was guttural, laced with tones of demonic speech that seemed to only intensify Dozle’s migraine. Amidst his pain, he managed to get a better look at this utter titan before him, his figure accompanied by a singular fiery eye just like what had appeared before staring deeper into his soul.

“Only…death.”

 

[Katapultar]

Spoiler: King Radical

This set sounded like a real big one from what you said during your progress, and with a hype-sounding character to boot. I am not familiar with Dr. McNinja, but King Radical’s backstory sounds absolutely wild.

I’m a very big fan of the tennis racket, and that’s just one item Radical can pull out with his Neutral Special! That’s big personal appeal to me here. The fact that it’s a battering item with 4 unique inputs already scores you a few points, but it has the unique aspect of having a projectile and reflectors that all allow King Radical to - very character-fittingly - spread tennis and have games of tennis with just the racket’s 4 moves alone. Also fascinated by the tennis terms here, only because I have kind of been working on a tennis-based set, but it’s hampered by a lack of tennis-based knowledge (and the fact that it would be horribly outclassed by this set even if I finished it).

“Whew, that was a lot of typing. My mouth's pretty dry (don't ask how that works)- oh, why thank you King Radical! This item is a throwing item that can double as a consumable- a 1 liter bottle of True Dew.” Amazing. Another good and unique item. I’m sure we’ve all thought about using carbonated beverages as versatile throwing/trap-based items. The skateboard is also a genuinely gnarly item, no thanks to its movement tricks and self-flinching to cancel the user out of an attack. No item throwing hitboxes are really described among these moves outside of the beverage - I assume that they either don’t have hitboxes or you might have been time-strained to describe them, but they can easily be edited in later anyway.

The motorbike is another strong Special, this time with the “use your non-Specials/Grab attacks on the bike” trick and even synergizing with the tennis racket (which is funny to imagine). Up Special is relatively similar, while Down Special takes the item and MYM shenanigans further in the form of minions who can use those items!

(Much as I love this set so far, the minion policeman within me would like it if the minions didn’t block projectiles for King Radical and - maybe - took more hitstun, similar to what FA did with Don’t Touch Me’s minions and something that I praised it for. Giving these minions these “nerfs” would further emphasize how bad they are supposed to be, and prevents them from being casually used as projectile sponges that King Radical is supposed to use his tennis racket for. Not to mention the fact that you can have 3 minions out. Sorry if I’m getting really nitpicky here, especially when you were short on time, I just have high expectations for minions and like it when sets state that they can’t block projectiles unless it’s intentional, like to help a giant character approach)

On an aesthetic note, I love the lore introduced halfway into the Down Special, how it establishes King Radical’s character further and brings him into full villain territory. The atmosphere here - the new beast minions, followed by King Radical’s random wizard friend - is comparable to reading an ambitious FA set, which is to say it’s great. It is helped by the set’s very fun writing throughout.

The Smashes all work for the context of the set, and I like how Jab is an intentional step-up from all the craziness that King Radical brings with his Specials, giving him a much-needed sense of groundedness to not feel too overwhelming as a fighter.

• Unless I missed it being mentioned, I could see F-tilt’s Hit 2 getting use out of King Radical’s bike or skateboard when he can use their movement to approach.
• D-tilt is nice melee that just works very well with Radical’s tools.
• Dash Attack has similar vibes to Huff ‘n’ Puff iirc, due to the guessing game behind being able to kick back and repeat your Dash Attack + its sex kick qualities.
• N-air has Barbatos vibes with its optional and directional follow-up.
• B-air is neat for its many hitboxes, while D-air has a fun bike-carrying animation. I rather like the last set of Aerials that have multiple hitboxes to them.

So, overall? King Radial was a really good set. He is a massive step-up from any other Jamcon set you’ve made, which is saying something when you’ve participated in every Jamcon and all of those sets were at least solid. Honestly, King Radical is close to being one of my favourite Jamcon sets of all time, almost at Venom Strange’s level, and isn’t far from the level of your usual 25-30k frontrunners. The fact that you were able to pump out something like this in just 3 days is phenomenal, and something that you should be absolutely proud of.

To finish with a note not directly related to this set’s quality, I do hope that you add more pictures to this set down the line - this character and set deserve them, especially given the seemingly rich source material of Dr. McNinja based on my understanding from this set.

Spoiler: Dr. Facilier

I remember the MYM11 set this guy got quite fondly, but your take on him is equally fond. Specifically for one’s eyes, because the presentation here is real good! Whereas the old Smashbot set gave Facilier an item he had to look after like his life depended on it, just like in the movie, here he has a meter that punishes him if he uses too many voodoo-based moves. Tempting as it may have been, I think it was smart on your part to just leave Facilier with massive damage and in a crumpled state instead of being KO’ed instantly if his meter maxes out.

Side Special is a unique little grab + counter that curses opponents. It’s funny how, while the move does buff opponents, said buffs are pretty minor and don’t last long enough to be truly detrimental to Facilier. His Neutral Special is the big one, where the shadow can copy Facilier’s Standard attacks and mix them up with the latter’s Aerials, as well as record a Standard attack to use specifically or latch onto a cursed opponent to use the Standard attack against them regardless of their location. DSpec is also a neat and refreshingly shorter version of Randall Flagg’s Side Special, but the buffs are either simplified or work a bit more differently in the context of Facilier’s tools. Up Special is a fun recovery with its tap + hold variant and homing against cursed opponents, a good end to a stronger set of Specials than what Grimace offered.

The rest of the set has some good design and delivers on concepts well enough. D-Smash is particularly fun for the auto-sweetspot effect against cursed opponents, plus the bury trap if the move is enhanced. U-Smash is more simple but gets horizontal coverage while enhanced, while F-Smash is a projectile that gets homing benefits against cursed opponents. The Standard attacks are simple while still having their uses for Facilier and his disjointed shadow, his D-tilt-to-D-air combo being the most enticing of them all. I like the design choice of not making any of Facilier’s Standard or Aerial attacks (plus his regular recovery) add to his debt, giving him a way to fight without being punished by his friends on the other side, while still having the option to enhance a few of these moves by holding the input.

• Much as I like the short-and-straight-to-the-point aspect of the Aerials, I wonder if B-air could throw out a quick mention of shadow Standard attacks that could combo into its hitbox?
• U-air summoning the voodoo doll to attack without debt does kind of go against the aesthetic of Facilier having to pay debt on moves that use the friends, but it doesn’t do anything for my enjoyment of the set. I do enjoy the held version of the move, though.
• Throws are simple, but get the job done. I actually like D-throw a fair bit, because moves that reference back to Specials and concepts in interesting ways are always cool. Elaborating on the uses of each of these options would help to spice up the move, if you felt like it.

Facilier was a set that I got surprising enjoyment out of, his concepts and execution a sharp improvement over Grimace, making him easily your best moveset so far. It’s also just good to see a Facilier set that doesn’t have the tacky frog transformation where the foe has to kiss a random prince or princess to change back, though I suspect frog transformations might be involved with the Final Smash if you edited one in later. Good work with this set - makes me curious what you’d be capable of on a moveset that wasn’t time-constrained.

 

[Arctic Tern]

"I came from the Land of Shadow. My name is Scáthach. I guess I should call you, Master?"​

 

[Slavic]

Sherlock Holmes by WeirdChillFever FrozenRoy

Hey! I really like this set! Joint sets on a JamCon are a really powerful option, speaking from experience, since you can make a fully realized set with a good division of labor and that looks to be exactly what Sherlock has here. This set does a phenomenal job of placing the player in the role of the master detective, giving him precise attacks, unique setups, and dripping with references to the character. I don't know much about FATE, and to be fair I don't much about Sherlock Holmes, but there's a really great marriage of gameplay and character. The Neutral Special sets the mechanic up, and I'm a big fan of how surprisingly nuanced the mechanic is for how 'tame' the wordcount is. It makes a pragmatic use out of Byleth's "mechanic" by assigning different buffs to different groups of inputs, allowing for a really customizable game.

Then there's the choice of priming Holmes' lenses for lasers, which while individually not powerful are essentially a passive attack constantly going off. It makes the cost of losing access to some attacks feel worth it, and rather than spending his resources, Sherlock is reallocating them as he sees fit. It's a cool way to immediately integrate the effects from Neutral Special and add a cerebral aspect to Holmes' gameplan. The fact that the moves that these lasers affect or deprive the detective of accomplish similar things from the big picture (exploiting Pips and Suspects from the grab game) make this not feel quite so dire when opting for the projectiles. I also love a fun Up Special and Sherlock's is a really fun take on mindgames, how frequently does a character have an input that simply puts them in helpless?

Basically all the rest of the set is solid at worst. There feels like a really organic combination of WCF's conceptual strengths and Froy's gameplay knowledge here, honestly a fantastic duo between the two of you I didn't honestly expect. Smashes are fun and dramatic, and play well with the foundation set by the Specials. I'm maybe a bit hesitant about losing Down Smash entirely when lasers are in play, as strong as it is, and thematically being cast from shadow puppets seems like an easy way it can just be weaker as more glasses are set to be lasers. Again, though, losing a full Smash isn't that bad if Holmes is autofiring lasers as exchange. Another move that's a weak point for me is FTilt, which is a bit undercooked for me. A big part of it is the animation, which is dubiously described as 'a flick' with no more information. Is it a flick forward, a flick in the sense of swinging upwards from this pose (how I pictured the move based on the applications following), something else? It stands out as one spot where I didn't quite know what was happening.

One of the biggest highlights for me was the Grab Game on this one. I was very scared it was going to end up being like Down Smash where he just can't use his grab while firing lasers but thankfully this was not the case. A better compromise here than DSmash, IMO. All the throws are really fun, aside from the perfectly functional BThrow. I really like the idea of hitting a foe's weak spot with Forward Throw by dealing shield damage, a cool idea a set could build a lot around fully, and the Dancing Blade-style attack seems like it may have been written by Froy who has a penchant for those kinds of moves. Making a foe a suspect is thematically a fantastic way to end the set, too. Only "big" gripe on the grab game is that it's not clear with Down Throw how much time, if any, the foe has to react to the six beams coming in to hit them when triggered. Can the beams be dodged or shielded? Or is this just an instantaneous hitbox as a reward for this setup?

All said, big fan of this set beyond the scope of a JamCon. Excellent work you two, it would be cool to see you collab again!

Toedscruel by PeridotGX

Fun to see a Gen 9 Pokemon moveset from after the game's release, instead of the one we've had from before it with Quaxly! Unfortunately it's hard to put a full comment together based on the existing set, since there's such a harsh drop off post-Specials (for the sake of getting out in like the last hour of the JamCon), and it does mysteriously devolve into haiku, not that I'll complain, but I will put some thoughts out about the Specials for what it's worth. I do want to say, real quick, I do like the writing style of the set being more on the casual side and from a "these are my thoughts" perspective. It's a different way of presenting a set and I do think it has its merits.

It's very funny that both Team Rocket and Toedscruel have Wrap as Neutral Special. It's incredibly funny that Wrap here does a potential 48% damage on a command grab, which is absolutely insane. Even a hard to land grab would be gamebreaking with this kind of power, and Toedscruel can both hold this out and walk around with it, already a powerful combination for any grab. The logic here is that, without healing, it can be stronger than both Noseferatu and Chomp, but this does illustrate why it's important to not just look at individual moves in a vacuum. Side Special Mud Shot also has some number problems, though not as dire, as 11-14% damage is a good deal for a projectile. As a comparison, Yoshi's Egg Throw deals 6% when it lands, since that's an easy move to pull up that the set even brings up.

Rounding off the numbers-problem of the set, Down Special's Spore Cloud lasting a whole 15 seconds is insane for a passive Area of Sleep, especially since it can lead straight into Wrap which is very scary as written. For as powerful an effect this is, I'd honestly cut it down to 4-5 seconds at most, it's god-tier as is even with the second of startup. Additionally, a seven second cooldown is a really long time, which I guess works for how busted Down Special is but if the duration of Down Special is decreased this should drop as well. Just imagine throwing a spore cloud down, jabbing the foe into it, then grabbing the sleeping foe with Wrap. Scary stuff.

Conceptually, I think there's good promise in Toedscruel, at least in the Specials, and I don't think it was intended to be as strong as it is. It's good to both pull up Ultimate Frame Data or the Smash Wiki to find damages on existing attacks for comparison, and to pull up a stopwatch online occasionally to see just how long an effect is expected to last (or be like me and clap it out while imagining a round of Smash when deciding numbers). Like I said, very hard to comment fully as is, and I'm going to withhold on ranking the set as it's not exactly a complete product. Still, hopefully you come back around to Mr. Scruel and take care of the later moves and polish up the earlier ones. Hope I could help!

 

[Katapultar]

Spoiler: Scáthach

Nice, our first solo Fate moveset from you. Kind of makes me want to make a new Fate moveset myself. Didn’t know some of the lore around Scath despite being a fellow F/GO guy, and props to you for giving Scath stats befitting of her being a Quick Card Servant in-game.

• Down Special is return of the vaunted crit stars mechanic.
• Pinning opponents against an actual wall is a neat way to implement Gáe Bulg Alternative’s in-game animation. Never would have thought of that. Fun to have a move that flips the damage scaling script by being easier to follow up on at higher percents rather than harder.
• The extra NSpec attacks are a cool take on chargeable attacks as Scath can move and attack while she charges, at the cost of needing star resources to pull off, which in turn weakens the KO potential of her other attacks. The 3rd charge is neat for selling the canonical power of Gae Blug.
• Up Special is neat for giving Scath an incentive to preserve her stars for both defense and offense.

• I like the type of dynamic crit star U-Smash has: a potentially deadly KO move, but designed in a way that it will only KO at fairly specific percents and stops working at higher percents (if landed from regular U-Smash). The leaping follow-up from U-Smash is just cool in general too, how that works for earlier KOs and leaves Scath punishable by being left in a juggle-able position.
• D-Smash is of course good, as both a strong hitbox and a potential trap with crit stars.A little unique take here where the rune trap will activate multiple times instead of getting more powerful if Scath invests more stars into it.

• N-air and F-air have some particularly fun crit attacks, the latter more from a melee perspective where it can serve as a follow-up to the main hit. Other tricks include adding an extra hit to Dash Attack to mess with shielding opponents, F-tilt’s extra tipper shield damage, ground coverage for U-tilt and indefinite D-tilt sliding, all which make Scath more tricky to deal with in neutral. D-air is also what I’d want out of a teleport interaction where you cancel the stall-then-fall descent. It’s especially cool with the hitgrab aspect of the crit star version.

Even if her base concepts aren’t peak Tern, a consistently good and cool melee puts Scáthach as your best set this contest in my opinion, just above Dizzy and Patchouli. And that’s a great place to be at right now.

 

[ShimaHD]

What is better than one moveset? Two of them.

Scorpion, vessel of vengeance

​

 

[ShimaHD]

Jin Sakai, The Ghost of Tsushima

 

[Katapultar]

Welcome to MYM, ShimaHD! You just came in after a super busy period, so reading backlog is a little loaded, but we'll give you some feedback in due time.

Spoiler: Grim and Gnarly

Grim and Gnarly continue the trend of Brazillian Jamcon sets for adult western animated characters, from a source material that I am vaguely aware of from a few of its meme clips. As fun as it is to see high potential characters, there’s a charm to popping out characters with so little potential or screentime, a type of character pick I can certainly relate to.

The way the moves are described is a little different from what I’m used to with other sets, due to using commas a lot - it can be a little awkward at times and make it hard to take in information, like this sentence: “it caps out at 6 squares horizontally and still 2 vertically, this buff is not limited per use, rather per stock, each time they get koed they need to use it and amplify the range of their frowning propaganda.” But the writing works well for summing up everything you need to in a concise way, and this set was far more time-constrained than Frank West.

• NSpec is a neat little projectile, as it gets bigger and more potent as it travels farther. The writing of the last paragraph is surprisingly funny, and presumably evocative of the humour from this show.
• Interesting to have a Down Special that turns into a counter when you’re past 100%. The actual sad effect, while minor, works well enough for the duo’s various disjointed attacks for a Jamcon set.
• Damage percentages are missing from many moves, but they’re easy to edit in.
• F-tilt has a funny opening/build-up paragraph. It’s also a funny read, specifically the idea of ruining a recovering opponent’s life by throwing sand in their face.

• U-Smash has a hilariously large hitbox, but it seems like it would be justified if it’s particularly slow to come out. I’m curious if the hitbox has any ground coverage: only working against opponents above you would help to balance out the attack.
• It’s rare that a set describes a character’s animation when they’re grabbed. Even if the animation is similar to their Down Special counter, I like how it drives him how absolutely fearful Grim gets when he’s at death’s door.
• Definitely like the idea behind the grab, where it has long range and throws are done where the foe was grabbed from.
• U-throw offers quite the lore. I like how the explosion damages Grim and Gnarly if they’re too close when it gets set off, balancing out its power, and offering the duo some incentive to land their grab from farther away. F-throw is also good, as well as B-throw for its obvious combo synergy from a distance with how the grab works.
• I quite like the concept behind N-air in the context of Grim and Gnarly being two characters, but the vague technical details surrounding it make the move difficult to properly enjoy.
• U-air’s temporary floating + releasing the balloon as an upwards projectile is something I like. D-air also has good synergy with the U-air and U-Smash.

Grim and Gnarly are admittedly held back by some notable (but very understandable) vagueness and uncertainty in their move descriptions. I can’t place them too high for that reason, but they still had some good ideas and were a fun time for all the characterization the writing and move names offered.

Spoiler: Team Rocket

Oh, now this is a good character pick! Here we have a set that get straight to the point, one that is very fittingly composed of textbook underhanded tricks like cheap grabs, smokescreens and Wobuffet counter inside that smokescreen (but only as Jessie).

While most of these tricks are not wholly unique to Team Rocket, Wobuffet -is- unique for a counter: one that can hit opponents if it fails to counter, but will backfire against the team (but can help them recover) if that fails to connect! I also like the idea of a counter that hits late, as I have toyed around with the concept myself. The flammable smog is also neat, and reminds me of Smady’s Koffing and Weezing sets.

I was curious how you handled disguises as an attack when I saw the move, which turned out to be free super armour and the more handy mindgame of who’s-in-charge-of-the-attacks that works with the Smashes. These are classic MYM’ian attacks: something I notably liked here was the Bomb F-Smash’s ability to switch the order of who throws their bombs by angling the input, while the net U-Smash was a unique little move.

• Dash Attack has a neat little interaction with shields.
• D-air works well with the trap stuff.
• Long-ranged grab is good synergy with traps. F-throw is an especially cool throw among these, given its versatile set-up based nature like knocking foes towards you or leaving them prone. D-throw’s healing is neat, which has some niche with the smokescreen mindgame.

Team Rocket is certainly a solid Jamcon entry, but they didn’t come together in the same way as Baseball Boys or Ikkyu for me. Specifically, they felt a bit unfocused execution-wise: Down Special’s mindgame factor and Weezing’s flammable gas didn’t have many moves to work with, the former didn’t feel too pronounced with the Jessie/James move variants. I think the Specials and Smashes had a quantity-over-quality feel to them, where they had a lot of different moves rather than something cool to focus on, as the Standards and Aerials didn’t have much to play off of other than the occasional mention of Down Special’s super armour. On the other hand, you could say that that unfocused nature might be fitting for Team Rocket, and a bit of the writing makes me think that they may be somewhat incomplete. Nonetheless, I did get some solid enjoyment out of this set.

Spoiler: Tinker Knight

It seems that you’re really associating yourself with the Shovel Knight franchise now! Different mechas that you can construct or drive is an appealing concept, one that is taken further by the way Tinker Knight can use his gear to adjust his short height. My favourite move is definitely the Up Special, not just for its implication with raining down NSpec projectiles from above but how it works with the mechas you pilot - functioning as not only your way to get out of them but also automate them, at the cost of not being able to pilot that mecha while it’s out. Platforms that let you use your grounded attacks in midair are always good, too. Also liked the mecha’s conveyor belt.

I have to give you props giving each of the 3 mechs a unique attack with the construction Down Special when you have them out, as you could have easily eschewed this entirely. Finally, I enjoyed the non-grab grab inputs that the blue and yellow mecha offered, especially the blue mecha’s homing missiles.

Complaint-wise, the yellow mecha’s D-air bombs feel too good at edgeguarding. They home in on foes slowly for 7 seconds, you can have two of them and they are on an attack input that is conducive to edgeguarding opponents. It was hard to get a feel for how the mechas’ different attacks scattered across the inputs would impact Tinker Knight gameplay-wise, and I don’t think the set touched upon the implications of what automated minion-like mechas would offer all that much. Not going to hold you there too much though: Tinker Knight’s concepts were ambitious for a Jamcon, and still an impressive step-up from Bandit for the timeframe you had to work with.

Spoiler: Team Fortress 2

Now this is a wild “character” pick. I know MYM loves Team Fortress 2, but I didn’t know they loved it enough to make a single set for the entire team! And yet we still don’t have a Saxton Hale set. Fittingly crazy choice given your association with the TF2 franchise, one that kind of reminds me of Lon Lon Ranch but less unhinged. Also fitting with Bubby’s plans to finish Scout this contest. Anyway, commenting on this set with its incomplete state in mind.

(Glad we don’t have to read 9 movesets in a row, or this set could have been a contender for the longest moveset in MYM history - perhaps longer than Han’s planned Luka set)

• Big fan of the teleporter idea to summon another mercenary. It sounds extra balanced by the fact that each merc only has 3 moves.
• You know, the teleporter + voice command concept actually makes this set capture the “team” aspect of Team Fortress 2 in a single-player experience better than any of the previous TF2 sets we got. Also the best set to help MYM meet the entire team (I assume that nearly everyone in MYM is familiar with TF2, but there’s always the chance that a newcomer might not be).
• This set’s presentation is very good, particularly on the stats and the listed Shield Special commands.

• Scout’s Neutral Special makes me think that TF2 invented the trope where shotguns deal more damage the closer the target is to you, but I could be wrong. On the other hand, it had something of a memetic presence back in MYM5-6.
• The damage and KO percents being replaced with Xs is a new experience here, even though I know they’re going to be filled in later on. Not knowing the exact damage the moves deal does surprisingly little to detract from the set’s enjoyment.
• Single-digit start-up for Scout and Soldier’s Neutral Special projectiles feels a bit too fast, even if they’re balanced out by reloading mechanics.
• “Instead of a baseball bat, you get a Shovel like the soldiers of old used to dig trenches with back during their legendary 10v10 battles in the fabled Super Smash Bros. 8 Capture the Flag game mode. No wait, that was the Pyro’s axe. ” Love the reference to the old Capture the Flag TF2 sets from MYM13.
• I like how each playstyle section points out the A.I behaviour of each of the mercs.
• Okay, this set is really pushing the shotgun meme by giving it to most of the mercs for one of their basic attacks. It’s funny.
• The support characters like Engineer would add a heck of a lot to this set compared to their solo outings. The idea of summoning one to set up without committing it to yourself is fun, and I like the way the dispenser’s healing works, reminiscent of health bars in some fighting games.

Ahh, so this is actually a moveset for the Spy! This moveset’s entire set-up really compliments the Spy’s powerset while staying faithful to his antics in TF2. I much prefer it to the MYM7 set flavour-wise, where Spy can’t disguise himself as literally any Smash character (he’s using illusory technology, not literal shapeshifting magic). Or magically match the mobility of other mercs who are faster than him. I personally like the idea behind the mindgames of Spy using the attacks of other mercs to disguise his own hitboxes, and have no problem with it from a flavour perspective. Up Special helps to explain how you use Side Special and Down Special to mindgame opponents by disguising yourself as another merc or just switching between them. Also, Up Throw has a funny move name.

While this moveset is still incomplete, I had a good time reading it for all the ideas and references contained within it, being a big old love letter to the TF2 franchise. The move descriptions are more thinly-spread than your previous Jamcon entries at the moment, but this set also has more potential than any of them while -also- being longer in its current state! Hopefully this comment was able to help you a little.

Spoiler: Toedscruel

• It’s funny how we got a moveset for this Pokemon, but we haven’t gotten a set for OG Tentacruel yet.
• I like the trivia about convergent evolution and Tentacruel/slow mushroom Pokemon, even if it takes up most of the set’s wordcount.
• “Grass is probably my favorite Pokemon type. While neither of my top two are grass types, there are plenty in the top 10, and I struggle to think of one I don’t at least kinda like.” I’d be interested in seeing this list. Probably missed it because I don’t really check MYM Discord threads other than anime and those directly related to movesetting.
• You know, the idea of a Ground-type projectile move dealing less damage against airborne foes is a genuinely cool idea, both for flavour and the whole edgeguarding factor. It reminds me of how Tern’s Golem set has a Side Special that can only be used on the ground because Golem is a Ground-type Pokemon. This is truly the contest for Ground-type Pokemon, or at least as close as we’re getting for the modern output of Pokesets.
• We don’t actually get many MYM attacks that use Samus’s Down Special as a comparison, but it’s good to be reminded of.
• I like the balancing factors behind Spore, like where foes put to sleep can’t be put to sleep again too soon. Putting airborne foes to sleep over a ledge might be a tad powerful if you can knock them into the spore cloud, but that requires set-up.

After all that, the set is super duper short. The lack of substance beyond the Specials does mean that I can’t quite give this set a like like 94% of all the sets I’ve read this contest, but I think that issue largely comes from the set being made in a fraction of the timespan of the other Jamcon entries (or at least I assume). Was still a decent read though, and manages to put another gen 9 Pokemon in the MYM spotlight.

Spoiler: Sherlock Holmes

• Ah, an unexpected submission from Sherlock Froy and WeirdChill Watson. I always wondered how F/GO Sherlock could be adapted into a moveset, but the good man was happy to give us an answer.
• This set’s intro and stats are surprisingly brisk. Would explain some of this set’s shorter wordcount.
• Not an actual issue with the set, but I wonder if one or both of you could colour code the Buster, Arts and Quick words of the moveset?
• Getting into some interesting magnifying glass management with Side Special.
• Up Special’s fake death aspect is some great flavour and characterization. The dummy mindgame part of the set is quite cool. Also have to give serious props to this set’s writing, which feels like one of WCF’s bigger strengths shining here. I love it.
• This is just me guessing, but I assume that WCF was responsible for the Sherlock Holmes lore and references (like in Down Special) throughout this set? WCF was interested in making Sherlock for a while, after all.
• Speaking of Down Special, its abstract nature (flavour-wise) makes it feel a move that you’d give to a more realistic detective character, or maybe someone from the Ace Attorney series. The input variant channels the Whole Horse and is fittingly a big-brained maneuver for our detective, even if making the foe perform a specific input while overlapping the pip sounds tricky in practice without clever placement.

• The Smashes have an interesting dynamic of using most or all of Sherlock’s magnifying glasses, so he can’t get big cheesy hits from the periodic hitstun of a fully-powered Side Special.
• Happy to be reminded of Ryu and Ken’s proximity-based moves in Jab, because I forgot they were a thing.
• F-throw is a neat Froy’ian fare where the card types play into the results you get from the throw for mix-and-match scenarios. In fact, grab game is one of the higher points as a whole, which helps to bring this set up for me a bit more.

Sherlock is not without flaws. While the Specials form a great base, a good middle third of the set feels weaker and not around the level of Froy’s usual good melee fare. I also think said position of the set doesn’t play off of the set’s concepts -as- well as it could have: the way Sherlock’s moves are divided into magnifying glass and baritsu moves, the former being the stronger, means that he doesn’t get too much pay-off from the periodic stun than his max-powered Side Special can inflict when he can only use baritsu moves, for instance.

There’s also the Up Special body double and pips not being played off of on the non-Specials aside from the Smashes for the latter as well as U-throw. To be fair, there were time constraints and the both of you working on different inputs from what I assume, but it all means that I am not as big on Sherlock as Slavic was. Nevertheless, he was quite the treat of a moveset - one with Froy’s movesetting skills topped with the raw flavour that WCF provides, making him the runner-up for my Jamcon nomination this time around.

There were plenty of strong entires this time around, but I have to give my Jamcon nomination to King Radical, who more than deserved it this time around. A great entry to cap off the final Jamcon of this contest!

 

[Arctic Tern]

Every fully finished Jamcon set has been commented!

My nomination for this Jamcon goes to King Radical by UserShadow.

 

[Katapultar]

Spoiler: Scorpion

We actually had a Scorpion moveset last contest, so it’s funny to see him get another one so soon.

”Now, in order to make it so this moveset isn’t just me copying and pasting Scorpion’s moves so they work in Smash, I’m going to try to base his moves off the martial arts fighting styles that Scorpion knows with the hopes of making this moveset more on the martial arts styles he knows and less about what he has done in the games. This means there will be moves from Mortal Kombat in this, but I’ll try my hardest to make the moves as original as possible for Smash.”

I definitely get how you’d think that copy-pasting a fighting game character’s attacks to fit into Smash might feel cheap or lazy and would be frowned upon in Make Your Move, especially when you’re not familiar with our expectations. On the contrary, we are all completely fine with porting a fighting game character’s moveset into Smash! In fact, we’ve had a lot of successful movesets that have done this, like Alex, Hugo, Hakumen, Kula Diamond and Dizzy from this contest (her moveset is linked on page 1 of this thread). Far from being lazy, there is a lot of effort, but interesting nuances that come with designing and reading a faithful moveset for a fighting game character, as Smash is different from a lot of traditional fighting games. So don’t be afraid to tackle future fighting game characters in this manner in the future.

Something I like about your approach to Scorpion is how you describe the real life basis for his skills, which makes for a nice little educational read.

• It’s a little strange that Scorpion can’t double-jump.
• I like the little justification to why Scorpion is given the specific stats he has.
• “Obviously, this move can get just as predictable as The Incredibles 2’s twist villain.” Heh. You might be interested to know that we got a moveset for the vastly superior villain that is Syndrome in MYM24.
• Does Down Special’s teleport have a range limit? There is normally a limit on how far fighters can teleport, though I like that it can’t be used offstage so you don’t get an infinite recovery. I assume it takes 6 frames for the teleport to happen, then an unspecified number of frames for the kick to come out. Worth mentioning that any action that takes 15 or more frames to perform can be reacted to by human players: a move that you can threaten an opponent with from anywhere is going to need some good start-up to balance it out so it’s not too oppressive in neutral. Start-up aside, the whole idea behind the move is a good one.
• Side Specials can’t normally be used out of shield (that’s for Up Special, Up Smash and Grab + Jump), but no reason why you can’t make it so.

• I love Down Smash’s trivia on how deadly elbow strikes can be.
• The idea of a Smash attack receiving a bonus if you land all of your Smashes is quite cool. The requirements for unlocking Forward Smash’s Krushing Blow and then inputting it does seem a bit low reward for how much you have to go through to get it, but it’s not a game-breaker. The F-throw Krushing Blow requirements are fun too.
• “In the old days of Mortal Kombat in the arcades, this was the one move people would spam against you if you had no idea how to roll away. This is what would happen if diddy’s bananas were somebody’s legs. Yes, this is exactly like that” That sounds scary.
• Tech-chasing is good and all, but I personally think that Forward Tilt’s downwards knockback - specifically its stated use as a high-percent tech chase tool - is redundant with Down Tilt’s tripping, as you can get tech chase scenarios off of tripping moves.
• Neutral Air sex kick that bounces you upwards on hit is kind of hilarious.
• I like Forward Air and Up Air’s awareness on tech chasing for the situations they can get tech chases from.

I am not super familiar with MK and Scorpion’s moveset, in spite of having read a moveset for him last contest, so I can’t judge how well the moveset here stays faithful to the character’s identity (though you do mention an intention to keep his playstyle faithful to the games, which is 100% good). The various real images do make Scorpion feel a bit like an Original Character at times, but that would be fine too - we got an Original Character named Sleaze last contest who had a lot of attacks that were inspired by fighting game characters.

If I have any issues here, it’s that many parts of Scorpion’s moveset and combo game feel vague, as a number of moves like Up Tilt don’t go into much detail about their knockback. The latter lists damage and is stated to be an anti-air and a combo starter. Might be a good idea to give a quick mention of what moves could go into what: I could see Forward Air being a combo from Up Tilt, for instance. The moveset states that Scorpion has extremely powerful combos - I don’t think the set quite sells how powerful these combos are, but this is understandably a tricky thing to do when designing a hypothetical moveset.

And while it’s a bit more of an advanced movesetting thing, going into neutral and mix-up applications on moves would add some extra spice. For instance, Scorpion’s Strengths write-up at the end of the set mentions that he can incite fear and panic using his anti-zoning Down Special. How can he use this to his advantage? It’s established that shield counters Down Special, and I assume movement too (it should take a bit of time for Scorpion to throw out his kick after he teleports), so moves that are good against shields or movement like approaches or jumps could be stated for this. That kind of understanding will come with time though.

All things said, Scorpion is a good newcomer moveset. The big appeal here was all the little trivia write-ups that added some quality of life, a trait that I hope to see more of in your movesets where reasonably possible.

Spoiler: Sauron

Sauron was a big hype character pick from Goliso, so it’s pleasantly surprising to see the big man dropped in full form out of nowhere. The One Ring mechanic is appealing to me, and this is partly because of my nostalgia for a certain part of older MYM. In MYM11, we had a trio of movesets in Fright Knight, King Ramses and Dr. Facilier who came with passive items that were core components of their mechanics, but these items could be dropped and used against them. I don’t remember this concept being used too much past that, but I always had a fondness for it.

I like the flexibility behind the One Ring mechanic, where foes can choose to stash it away or wear it for themselves to gain power and potentially overwhelm Sauron - but risk getting corrupted and giving Sauron a massive power boost if he takes it back. I think that making the foe get 10 hits before the Ring’s recoil works fine: gives them control of when the Ring starts to backfire.

• The Ring’s invisibility and buffs looked very powerful, so it’s good to see that Sauron’s Neutral Special gives him a way to track down ring-bearers.
• Just starting on Side Special’s werewolf form, the numbers are justified for a massive heavyweight who can have their power nerfed. This is Sauron we’re talking about, after all.
• Shadow Up Special is an interesting take on tethers. It is harmless on hit and doesn’t have the same oppressive force as other tethers, but it is potent for the movement-on-hit if you land a hit, and is very easy to disengage.

The way flinching works on Sauron’s Down Special is actually quite cool the more I think about it. Most passive hitboxes that cause flinching do so at a set interval, but this set eschews that and says it’s all up to chance. On one hand, this could inevitably get annoying in practice if the flinch plays out as soon as you approach Sauron, but then we have stuff like Green Missile and Judge in Smash. On the other hand, I like the intentional use of RNG here because it means that opponents always have to fear being flinched if they are exposed to it. Really, it’s that fear factor and the possibility that a dangerous outcome -might- happen that gives RNG a lot of untapped potential in MYM in my opinion.

Giving Sauron a 0.8x knockback multiplier while his malice is up is also a smart choice, as it prevents the Dark Lord from getting cheesy kills from an opponent who suddenly got disrupted by flinching while -also- playing into enhancing Sauron’s combo game and just keeping foes closer for more flinching in general. The fact that Sauron loses the malice early if he loses the One Ring is a great design choice too: it gives foes an incentive to wail on Sauron, even if the aura -might- give Sauron a much-needed combo breaker.

Shadow’s Down Special is just as cool of a move, giving Sauron minions that he has fine control over and more tools to deal with opponents holding his Ring. It’s good to have all this so Sauron doesn’t get messed up by a ring-bearer’s invisibility. The fact that these minions die in one hit also helps to balance out how aggressive Sauron can make them, which I like. It also limits their ability to soak projectiles, which is something that the big Sauron would need in his shadow form not to get walled out.

Finally, the durability buff that the minions get if Sauron gets his ring back is very good. Specifically, it’s awesome because it adds an extra layer of depth to how Sauron’s One Ring game works. Foes -could- ignore the One Ring when it gets dropped so they don’t get targeted by Neutral Special or Down Special, but doing so can allow Sauron to casually make a minion or two and then put the ring back on to buff them, assuming he gets the time and space to do all that. On the other hand, taking the ring means being targeted! I’m also a fan of the incentive for foes to go after the minions so they don’t become more durable if Sauron is in a position to get his ring back, taking the heat off of him if he’s in his weaker Shadow form. Oh aaaand the fact that a foe who hits the minions while holding the Ring will just suffer more recoil! Or get close to doing so.

• The writing on Sauron’s Forward throw is funny, and I always like throws that leave behind constructs or projectiles.
• Ah, I remember Tom Bombadil from Discord discussion. Anyway, Down Throw’s “make them hit themselves with their Jab” is kind of wild, but is helped by going into some specific elaboration. This wouldn’t be a Goliso set if Kazuya wasn’t referenced at least once. On the other hand, I think the throw would be fine if it just dealt a consistent amount of knockback so it’s not too heavily match-up dependent. Happy to see an Up Special confirm out of Reclamation if you take the One Ring back, which is very natural when Sauron takes his Ring back by grabbing and just makes the drawbacks of equipping the ring for opponents scarier.
• Back Throw is not only cool visually, but also a great twist on the usual “this B-throw kills earlier near the ledge” by rewarding Sauron from dominating the stage. The wind push and ability to end the throw earlier also give it a lot more utility than just being a kill throw, like early release mix-ups (as well as FFA satisfaction), making it even more appealing. Might be one of the better throws I’ve read this contest. I could also see Sauron blowing his opponent into Forward throw lava behind him to bounce them back to him, but lava lasts for such a short time that I understand why this wasn’t mentioned in the move.
• The throws only get better with Up Throw’s ability to create a construct for you to stand on! It’s something I used on Waki and Enya used it too to a degree, and has a ton of fun potential. I especially like how it serves as your scary kill throw out of Reclamation. A good way to cap off what is one of the strongest grab games in this contest in my opinion.

• Here we have a Fire Breath take on a Jab. That big initial range of the attack makes for a well-justified defensive hitbox on such a powerful superheavyweight.
• Dash Attack synergy with U-throw. Nice.
• Shadow F-tilt has some good defensive synergy against One Ring opponents, and some fun where you can pop them away or use the suction to pull them in.
• Dark Lord Up Smash is a lot to take in, but the volcanic eruption is another cool U-throw interaction that serves to make Sauron very scary when he’s standing over his little mountain.
• I like the way Dark Lord Down Smash works as a hitbox in general, being projectiles that you can turn into eruptions with a follow-up input. Moving along terrain like your U-throw mountain is of course good too. The elaborate projectiles on Smashes remind me of Flandre Scarlet from the start of this contest.
• And now Shadow Down Smash channels the almighty power of Sleaze, specifically by being a sluggish grab on a Down Smash input. It’s a good power move for the Shadow to have when its other Smashes aren’t supremely strong compared to the Dark Lord’s. There’s also the Sephiroth Down Special-esque whiff hit, anti-synergy with minions’ hitgrabs (not that that’s a bad thing) and giving Sauron another grab to reclaim his ring.

• Sauron’s Neutral Air is a fun versatile move both melee and interactions-wise. The ability to attract your minions makes it extra rewarding for them to stay out when Sauron reclaims his One Ring, since the move is tied to a Dark Lord attack.
• Shadow Forward Air is a very cool take on powerful tipper hitboxes, as your tether makes it easier to land by staying within reach of your opponent.
• Dark Lord Down Air is wild when its hitbox spawns and falls from the top blast zone. Can’t cay Sauron is defenseless from below when his Dark Lord Neutral Air has a chunky hitbox.
• Shadow Down Air makes more use of the tether. The “drag-down” aspect against a tethered opponent doesn’t feel stupid either, because you have high end lag and will probably be killed if the two of you were still around. Might be worth mentioning that opponents can do a footstool jump off of you to improve their recovery below the stage (very helpful for Little Mac!) and kill you if you were low enough to the blast zone.
• Dark Lord Back Air reminds me of Potterie’s Back Air which I liked, so I like this move too. You’ll see when the two of you read that moveset. Could easily see the magma projectile having synergy with the U-throw mountain, be it a hard interaction or just something that Sauron is in a very good position to chuck over one.
• Could see Shadow Back Air synergizing with Shadow Down Smash grab since it encourages shielding. I actually like the anti-synergy that the tornado has with your tether and the hitgrab properties that your minions have, which prevent it from being too oppressive from either of those moves since the tornado has a lingering factor.
• Dark Lord Up Air would definitely work well with the extra height his Up Throw mountain gives, to increase his chances of killing higher up and triggering his low end lag in midair.
• Shadow Up Air is one of those moves that is simple, but works very well.

Ultimately, Sauron turned out to be quite the powerful set! In addition to the very cool Ring mechanic, there was just a lot of individual parts of the set that I liked, which should come as no surprise given how many bullet points I churned out for this comment. The Specials are neat, the Standards are good, the Aerials are great, the Throws are fantastic, and the Smashes have a few highlights - not peak n88 Smashes concept or melee-wise, like with Hakumen, Black Mask or Mikazuki (and even Hilda to an extent) and which I would expect on a flashy heavyweight like Sauron, but I think it’s a case of this set’s concepts just not leading to that kind of set-up.

I don’t need to tell the two of you that this is the One Goliso Set to Rule Them All (for now), while also being in the upper-echelons of n88’s set gallery, a combination that makes Sauron one of my favourite sets I've read in this contest so far. Excellent work, you two.

 

[GolisoPower]

A Japanified Terminator
Shadow Naoto by Arctic Tern

Shadow Naoto is a very mobile character, but not just stat-wise. The way her mobility works is reminding me quite a bit of Rashid from Street Fighter where she has a unique mechanic that makes her move around a lot more thanks to Heat Riser, which can help with various hit-and-run tactics and some continuing combos. She seems extremely aggressive, with SSpec being a debuff that bolsters knockback to an insane degree and DSpec being another debuff that inflicts even further bolstered knockback and damage from your Smash attacks. Though USpec is simple it does get the job done in terms of killing. I like how the Smash attacks get upgraded directly through the use of NSpec, with SSmash having bolstered stun, USmash being a stronger shield pressure move and DSmash granting her the usual ability to grant her some good burst movement.

The surgical precision of Shadow Naoto's normals are eerie and if tetanus was a status effect she'd be shelling them out in waves with all the rust she has. Not to mention, I do love the combined tokusatsu and killer robot aesthetics with her attacks, being sometimes jerky and sometimes flashy but all deadly. Honestly, I feel like it's good enough to be the basis for a Persona 4 Arena mod that puts her in the game with everything she does in this set, and I mean this in the best way possible. Overall, it's a good way to start off the JamCon by being a good example of what fits the "False" theme. Nice way to get us started, Tern!

 

[Arctic Tern]

CATAQUACK (WCF)

A Cataquack is a creature I don’t think anyone other than WCF would make a set for, and it certainly shows in the quirkiness of this set. The set itself is more of a set for Gelato Beach (and to a lesser extent Sunshine as a whole) at times, but considering that Cataquack by itself has only one notable thing to work with and it is heavily associated with the area/game, I’d probably do something similar. His NSpec has him rip a group of fruits from the ground that can either serve as versatile projectiles, especially in the case of the watermelon, or be eaten to gain access to a F.L.U.D.D. clone - not only a neat way of referencing two Sunshine mechanics in one move but also giving it a nice way to redirect the fruit. The SSpec is the signature launch upwards, here a superfast command grab that deals set knockback and allows Cataquack to follow up. As you’d expect from Cataquack, launching the foe and trapping their landing is a major part of his gameplan, with DSpec allowing him to create a trap that activates via juice that also serves to send them upwards.

Beyond Specials, Cataquack gets surprisingly strong mileage out of his core mechanics. Since his SSpec and standard grab can be so strong, the opponent is strongly encouraged to dodge around him, which moves like the all-around hitting DTilt and a repeating Jab counter. Having a Mario DSpec gives Cataquack a strong edgeguarding game, which is exploited in a DSmash that can turn into a stall-then-fall if spaced correctly and a BAir spike. The grab itself is also a highlight, with the option to launch the foe upwards and get a free trampoline to follow up, a FThrow that varies in purpose depending on the specific fruit he eats, and a DThrow that turns from an awkward spacer to a combo tool if juice is expended (though the actual animation of summoning a Chuckster irks me a bit - it’s something Cataquack has never been shown to do and he’s only tangentially related to Piantas). There’s even some inventive characterization, with moves like FSmash that get stronger if the opponent approaches to reflect a distaste for “invaders” like the red Cataquacks that replace the blue ones in Sunshine. I also like how his UAir isn’t a strong combo ender but rather a damage racker that can drag the foe back down to his mainly grounded setup, something you wouldn’t expect on this character.

While Cataquack certainly isn’t that groundbreaking of a set, it’s still a solid entry and a nice take on one of the odder enemies in the Mario canon. It’s also inspiring me to make some sets for other obscure Mario enemies…

VANIA & FATLA (Kat)

Vania & Fatla are a 2-in-1 set, which I imagine to be a somewhat well known idea, but with the primary gimmick of not having a switching move. Instead, they switch automatically in 15-second intervals to reflect the fact that they work in shifts, with each sister having separate damage percentages. Vania, always out first, is an excellent damage racker at the expense of being bad at killing, while Fatla can kill at absurdly early percentages but struggles to combo foes at early percents without outside help. The base concept may sound overpowered, but not only are both leviathans very easy to combo with poor disadvantage states, but Vania has a terrible recovery and only one needs to be KOed for both to lose a stock.

With the base concept in mind, Vania and Fatla milk it for all its worth. Their NSpecs have them summon the other leviathan to perform one of two attacks each, both of which serve to cover their respective weakness. SSpec is a command grab that if done by Vania creates a whirlpool that can send the opponent in any direction and if done by Fatla pushes them back to set up for her kill moves. They can also create magic circles that cause special effects if their sister hits them with a strong enough attack, either creating the whirlpool for follow up/kill extensions or making a scalding water blast for spacing/kill extensions. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the act of switching cancels their endlag, allowing them to set up for crazy combos that wouldn’t otherwise be possible.

The rest of the set continues to build off of the core concepts laid out in the above paragraphs in very unique fashions. Multiple attacks stay out for longer if the leviathan switches out while doing them, Vania’s Dash Attack creates a construct that Falta can hit to amp up her normally lacking ranged game, and all of Falta’s Smashes gain 0% buffs like Link’s FSmash that seem far more viable due to the set’s mechanic. Beyond mechanical exploits, there’s cool things about both sisters’ sets: Vania’s Smashes work as a trinity to counter offensive assaults (which I suspect was directly inspired by my habit of making Smashes trinities), Fatla’s BAir is a fun take on the drag down aerial that if timed correctly can also drag forward into more advantageous positions, and both of them are capable of killing/damage racking with individual moves. There’s a lot of room for creativity and absurd payoffs - the set explicitly states a zero-to-death is possible under extremely hard to create circumstances - but with how bad the sisters’ disadvantage state is and how tricky the timing on a lot of their combos are, it feels very earned on the player’s part. Despite that, the characters actually feel fairly easy to learn, since their core moves in many cases are rather simple; additionally, they can be played solo, allowing players to better lab out one character without having to worry about the automatic switch interfering. I do have some balance concerns with Vania’s FSmash, which seems a bit too powerful even with the lag in terms of sheer damage, but it’s relatively minor seeing how much disadvantage wrecks her.

Overall, Vania and Fatla are a very strong set, conceptually and execution wise, striking a near-perfect balance of being both viable on their own and extremely powerful together. That last paragraph touched on just a few of their tricks; I have no doubt that you’d find something that tickles your fancy in there.

SAURON (Goliso/n88)

While I am not that familiar with Lord of the Rings, I do know who Sauron is, and getting a modern set for such an iconic villain is still hype regardless. Naturally, the set centers around the One Ring, which is treated as an item that is knocked off of him once he takes enough damage. This is bad for Sauron; not only is he forced into a shadow form with drastically less weight, but the foe can put on the Ring and get invisibility and a series of buffs that make it easier to stuff him. But there are strong upsides - not only is Shadow Sauron much more mobile and better at damage racking, but the Ring will also with time decrease in power and deal recoil damage for every hit. Once he grabs the foe, he puts the Ring back on, and if the foe had debuffs not only do they stay but they result in a buff for Sauron that gets more powerful the more debuffed they were. It’s a very interesting dichotomy, where Sauron is encouraged to keep the opponent buffed for longer with his array of disjoints and a healing option so that his return is that much more powerful.

At first I had issues of why the foe would put on the Ring when Sauron’s payoff gets so strong, but the intricacies of how it works ultimately sold me on it. It can only be deprived from the opponent on grab, sticking around through stocks; they can’t destroy the Ring since it’ll just come back and return him to his Dark Lord form; and they can’t just ignore it since he can just get it back. As such, this means that the opponent has to do something to the Ring, either putting it on or just keeping it, and either one of them puts them at risk of the Reclamation debuff. And Sauron’s kit gets a few buffs as well; his NSpec, which summons his signature Eye to cast its glare on the stage, starts to follow the foe and do passive damage, and his DSpec is replaced with summoning one of his Nazgul minions to control the stage which also gets a buff once he gets the Ring back. All of this ensures that there’s legitimate incentive both for Sauron to stay in his Shadow form and for the opponent to play his game and pick up the Ring.

Beyond the core concept, there’s a lot of legitimately cool moves for both forms. Shadow USpec has him create a tether, but it only attaches to the foe for a short time and in that case is mainly just meant to start pressure scenarios with moves like his long-ranged FAir. Dark Lord is where most of the power moves are, including the ridiculously slow yet ridiculously powerful FSmash and several moves that cause his setup to track the opponent as if they have the Ring on hit. Not to say that the Shadow move doesn’t have a trump card in the form of DSmash, a command grab that deals insane damage and gives Sauron the Ring back. The whole set perfectly captures the oppressive and devastating feel he has in canon, where despite all of the downsides of losing the Ring it feels like getting it back is an instant win button. And on the more superficial side, there’s also a whole chunk of esoteric references to the franchise, which I always appreciate (for example, Shadow DSmash is based on his pose in Tolkien’s depiction of him, while Dark Lord FAir is based on a weapon used in the war that would inspire much of Lord of the Rings).

While Sauron doesn’t reach the conceptual highs of other sets in this contest, the base concept is still a highly engaging one that works with his kit in truly incredible ways. He is brutal, implacable, and unstoppable; a perfect fit for a character his own creator claimed was as close to pure evil as was possible.

Comment block link here!

 

[Katapultar]

Spoiler: Cataquack

Now this is quite the character choice, and one that feeds into your duck love in a funny way. We start with Neutral Special, which is a whole lot of things in one as it quadruples as a Pac-Man Bonus Fruits, Mr. Game and Watch’s Chef and F.L.U.D.D if you ingest the fruits you throw up, as well as Bowser’s Fire Breath. The utility Cataquack gets from the throwing items, soccer-ball-esque durian and rolling watermelon are all good fun. All the options might sound like a ton, but it takes time to shovel up fruits and eat them, so you’re not getting all of those options on demand like the moves that Cataquack takes inspiration from.

Side Special makes perfect sense for how it interprets Cataquck’s signature flinging, being an anti-shield option and method of chucking items and your watermelon upwards. Down Special is something of a ranged/trap version of Side Special that you can feed fruit juices to have pop up opponents or yourself - not too unique by comparison, but not much else you can do to remain faithful to the dune’s effects from Super Mario Sunshine. Up Special’s ramp nature is appreciated for its ability to catch falling objects - could be cool if Cataquick could do some kind of cancel where he can fall through the sand stairs to keep them out for a moment and better exploit its platform-based nature for outside objects? Or even use the ramp to redirect falling items to fly sideways and catch out your opponent.

• The grab mix-up between Side Special and your slower regular grab is nice.
• F-throw’s purple juicy has nice synergy with your FLUDD juices, which is funny because its juice requirement balances out how lethal of a gimp Cataquack can get from the latter’s semi-spiking angle.
• I could see Forward Smash being good for securing kills against an opponent who rolls behind you at the ledge.
• Up Smash is funny and neat as a projectile-like move that reflects projectiles very strongly, but it’s hampered by lag and being overhead.
• Jab is channeling Vileplume energy by popping foes up. It’s another good mix-up tool for Side Special’s melee.
• D-air’s juice synergy with dunes below you is kind of neat.

Part of me wonders if there’s untapped potential in some areas of Cataquack’s moveset, and whether elements in the set could have been brought together in a stronger way. Like whether item play could have been pushed further: aside from Up Special as mentioned, maybe you could use dunes to pop items up towards you? Perhaps use Forward Smash’s backwards launch angle to fling foes into a falling item behind you? While it’s in-character for Cataquack to have good reversal tools like B-throw and F-Smash, I could see the latter’s backwards knockback meshing with Cataquack’s constructs better - maybe you can angle the input to fling your opponent on a high, mid or low angle so you can fling them into a specific set-up behind you. That might be getting into overly-intelligent territory for Cataquack’s character.

In spite of all that, Cataquack is a solid little moveset that pays homage to Super Mario Sunshine and manages to get some good mileage out of this random little critter. With another, longer set from you that’s near completion, I suspect that this will be a stronger contest from you, as you’ve been quite active recently and even have Sherlock Holmes under your bet.

 

[BKupa666]

In celebration of 100 Kupa movesets over almost 15 years, please take a look at this.

. . .

The camera opens on a small paper boat as it winds its way down a dank sewer channel. Faint flashes of green light illuminate the missing child's plaything as it passes through a gated grate, never to return.

We cut to the source: Lord Voldemort appears in a cloud of smoke and nonverbally fires off a series of Avada Kedavra curses at an unknown adversary before disapparating again.

He's fighting in a vast torchlit cavern, filled with massive ancient pipes built into rocky outcroppings. The setting bears more than a little resemblance to the Chamber of Secrets, though the skeletons riddled across the floor are far more conspicuous, and childlike.

The camera tracks Voldemort's spells as they collide with their mark: a small army of 1950s refrigerators waddling in his direction on stubby legs. The jets of light incinerate the sentient appliances in fiery blasts, scattering their contents — a collection of severed, and now flaming, human heads — to the winds.

"Silly boy, you still think you can see me? You'll never see me. You'll see only what your little mind can allow."

Viewers are treated to an over-the-shoulder perspective from none other than Pennywise the Dancing Clown, who surveys the Dark Lord from the shadows with not a care in the world.

Voldemort reappears and the camera cuts to his vantage point, as he addresses what looks to be an empty arena. It would appear Pennywise is concealing himself, no doubt cooking up some patented mindgames in his invisible state.

"You cannot hide from Lord Voldemort like a Muggle child at play," Voldemort calls out, firing out more Unforgivable Curses as he taunts in the third person. "Come out, clown. It will be quick...it might even be painless. I would not know...I have never died."

A footstep sounds behind Voldemort. The noise prompts him to whirl around, manifesting a massive Fiendfyre snake with a sweep of his wand. The serpent bathes the entirety of the chamber in red hot flames as Voldemort points his wand skyward, causing static electricity to rain down in exponentially growing fashion. There's no kill like overkill, after all.

Voldemort's magic eventually dies down, as he looks out over the newly silent cavern in contemplative fashion. It's dead quiet.

And yet, a moment later, another footstep sounds, leaving Voldemort to turn and see...a single red balloon, bobbing listlessly behind him.

As Voldemort watches, the balloon turns around to reveal a Sharpie inscription: TIME TO FLOAT :-)

"What childish trick is this?"

Voldemort turns back, only to find...himself. Dead. A rotting doppelgänger of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named greets the real thing, bringing him face-to-face with his one true fear, and also an inhumanly large mouthful of fangs.

The camera mercifully cuts to silhouettes on the wall as Pennywise crunches Voldemort's head like a great pale pumpkin.

The Dark Lord's yew wand clatters to the floor as a clown shoe steps into frame. Back in his favored form, Pennywise licks the blood from his lips and lets out a deafening Tim Curry cackle.

"GUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA..."

The laughter echoes around the chamber.

As the noise dies down, a slow-clap continues in its place, an unmistakable sarcasm in its tempo.

"Geez, Louise! Was it that hunk of brimstone wedged in my ear, or did I hear Mr. Tall, Dark and Serpentine over there call himself a Death Eater before you made him today's special entrée? A little on the nose, don't ya think?"

Pennywise is caught off-guard, as a translucent Voldemort-shaped soul — mangled from Horcrux abuse — is seemingly pulled from his adversary's corpse and into a dark corner. There, it disappears in a smoky green poof as the offscreen voice keeps chattering a mile a minute.

"Y'know, your Deadlights are really gonna dazzle when you hear about this new opening for you on my team — an investment opportunity, if you will! As the Fates have it, I've got this hostile takeover bid, a little passion project I've had in the oven for 14 years, and when all is said and done, it's gonna make the land of the living look like an Olympic-sized Loser's Club, if you catch my drift. So whaddya say, Chuckles? Wanna get in on the underground floor?"

Pennywise isn't having any of this. With the speaker's element of surprise gone, the shapeshifter's eyes shine deadly orange as his face contorts hellishly and monstrous claws rupture through his white gloves.

"I AM THE EATER OF WORLDS. AND YOU...ARE...NEXT."

It would seem IT would rather keep the souls it claims for itself than serve as an attack dog for some mystery motormouth, thank you very much.

But the new arrival doesn't back down. The speaker glides from the shadows, letting the camera frame none other than — surprise, surprise! — the Lord of the Dead in all his fiery glory. He rolls his yellow eyes as he conjures swirling balls of flame in both hands, ready to face Pennywise, and Zeus knows what other new challengers, at long last.

"Different circus, same clowns...oy, vey."

 

[Arctic Tern]

SCORPION (Shima)

It’s funny that not only do we get a Scorpion set the next contest after one that also had a Scorpion set, but that it has the same rushdown playstyle. Instead of using EX inputs, this focuses more on the Krushing Blow mechanic from MK11, which buffs certain moves to make them either more powerful or better combo tools. Scorpion has some neat tricks up his sleeve to supplement his gameplan, like a DSpec that automatically teleports to the foe with a combo starter at the expense of it being very unsafe on shield. Despite the utter hell he can unleash on offense, his bad recovery and ease of comboability mean that once the opponent gets an opening he tends to lose advantage hard.

There’s a surprising amount of neat moves here for a character who mainly just uses standard martial arts strikes. Scorpion’s USmash, the trademark uppercut, can become a combo starter that instantly breaks shields if the Krushing Blow version is used, and his FSmash becomes stronger if he lands all of his other Smashes beforehand. My favorite section was actually the aerials; they had a lot more emphasis than I’d expect on a character from a mainly ground-based series, with UAir in particular being notable for having the primary purpose of launching foes on platforms where his tech chase game becomes stronger. The main issue is that I don’t really see any real mentions of Scorpion’s neutral tools, which would be very important on a character with bad disadvantage, nor any mixups. I also didn’t really get a feel for how strong Scorpion’s combos are - some elaboration on follow ups would be helpful.

Regardless of these criticisms, Scorpion is easily one of the most promising newcomer sets I’ve read; not just for the concepts, but in game knowledge and situations that even plenty of veterans don’t consider.

JIN SAKAI (Shima)

Jin’s playstyle focuses on Ghost of Tsushima’s stance mechanics, allowing him to focus on either simple strong hits, breaking shields, whiff punishing, or interrupting slow attacks. Wisely, the set simply relegates the stance switch to Shield Special and only has them change his NSpec instead of his entire set. Additionally, his specific stance changes Jin’s DSpec to a weapon that works with it, such as sticky bombs, smoke bombs or simple kunai. The last notable Special is a limited use SSpec that can either be used for multiple uses of a fast attack that can cancel out of any move or a super strong attack that can only be used once. I do think that that last one has too short of startlag to really be that balanced given the immense activation range, but since Jin is very light and struggles in the air at least his disadvantage state suffers.

The rest of his moves are largely basic sword swipes, but they all fulfill a distinct purpose for the most part, from whiff punishes to anti-airs to forcing a pressure situation. I like the emphasis on fear and unpredictability, which seem like defining aspects of Jin from what you’ve described, with moves like DSmash that hit behind him first to catch rolls behind him and lasts for long enough to catch out spot dodges. Even his aerials, an intended weakness of the character, have a neat trick in his DAir, which serves as a hit grab that drags the foe with him (and actually reminiscent of a DAir in one of my sets). While compared to Scorpion it has a lot more ideas that I like, it also doesn’t explore them that much, most notably for me a lack of elaboration on how invisibility from coming out of smoke bombs affects Jin’s other moves. Regardless, those ideas and what’s there are still solid, and they meld together to form a just as promising set.

HADES (Kupa)

Hades, as any veteran MYMer knows, has a thing for stealing his opponent’s souls. In this modern take on him, he can damage his foe’s body and soul simultaneously with his attacks, with orange flames specifically dealing more damage to their soul, so he can eventually knock them out of their body with a good hit! In this state, the opponent now has control of their soul, having to return to their body at a quick pace lest Hades use their lighter weight to kill them earlier or damage rack their body so that when they come back they have extra damage. He can’t just send their body offstage to KO the foe that way, since it will just respawn with no stock loss, but it does deal a hefty chunk of damage so it is still worth doing. Needless to say, this is a very cool basis for a set, and it only gets better once Hades’ other mechanics are factored in.

His NSpec has Hades create a fire wall in front of him that can automatically link into attacks, which can be expended into a variety of other moves - the most notable is the biggest, a Magic Burst-sized hitbox that for all intents and purposes is an instakill. DSpec creates a tornado that, if landed on a soul, applies a ball of Greek fire on them that, if Hades applies enough damage to them, instakills them; otherwise, it acts as a combo/kill extender. SSpec creates a ball of fire that can be turned into smaller balls for stage control, combos, and body/soul pressure, while USpec is a teleport with a powerful reappearing hitbox, that also creates traps and can be canceled out of with any move. Lastly, Grab is the iconic extendo-grab from both earlier Hades sets, that has very long startup and endlag on whiff but makes up for it with sheer range. All of these plus his Smashes get buffs based on how damaged he is, similar to the MYM 6 set, making him more and more deadly as he gets closer to death’s door.

Those are a lot of mechanics, but they actually work very well with Hades’ stage control and punish game, with plenty of mixups fitting for a schemer like him. His actual throws are neat, with a Special Pummel allowing him to increase the hitstun an opponent takes, with DThrow being the most interesting for its ability to automatically displace them from their soul if their percentages are disparate enough. Standards strike a good mix between basic applications and weirder moves, with Hades having a standard whiff punish Dash Attack and a DTilt that creates an area that makes the move stronger if he uses it again in the same area. Aerials are more basic for the most part, but still fill neat roles on a character who’s stats favor the air, such as a BAir flick that serves as the aerial read option (very fun visual, just flicking the foe offstage) and a DAir projectile barrage. Lastly, Hades’ Smashes are his heavy hitters, with FSmash able to file on a ton of damage if everything falls into place and DSmash having him literally tear open a gate to the Underworld to serve as both a strong shield pressure tool and another, more passive trap.

While Hades has a lot going on, it all works out to a surprisingly smooth reading experience, and a very quality set worthy of being Kupa’s 100th. And if a certain something at the end of the doc means anything, he’s certainly not done anytime soon…

Comment block link here!

 

[Katapultar]

Spoiler: Hades

What a perfect character to celebrate your 15th MYM anniversary with. As someone who is acutely aware of the fact that Hades, Voldermort and Pennywise have all gotten two movesets from you, I am a huge fan of the Smashboards story write-up.

• The Saul Goodman motormouth comparison genuinely makes me wonder how he would interact with Hades. Maybe in the big epic Kupa storymode?
• Interesting that Hades’s first Special move is a long chargeable attack, just like fellow ambitious death dealer Randall Flagg. Here it gives Hades a long passive hitbox on his body that lets him threaten opponents at close-ranges.

Yep, no way a modern Hades set from Kupa -wouldn’t- incorporate an elaborate soul-stealing mechanic! I don’t need to tell you that this particular soul mechanic is refreshingly unique - rather than use a single move to pluck out a soul, Hades has to deal a big enough difference in damage to it compared to the foe’s body that it flies out substantially far enough to separate from the body. There’s plenty to like here, chief how Hades’s passive burning synergizes with damaging bodies, and even being conscious enough to negate soul-separation in stamina matches in exchange for Hades’s orange flames dealing more damage universally. What makes the execution here particularly incredible is the sheer strategy/pros and cons involved when an opponent is separated from their body. Soul opponents get passive healing and have an easier time recovering due to their floatiness… but they also can’t stay separated from their body forever, as Hades can just casually damage-rack it, not to mention he takes less damage from soul opponents and hits them harder.

• Ahh, the Hellish Hot Head mechanic from Hades’s MYM6 incarnation makes its triumphant return as a frame-shaving mechanic for the man’s Neutral Special.
• The 3 big strong attacks Hades can access from his Neutral Special certainly help to sell his power and fury as a character (the fully-angry attacks make a lot of sense for Hades to perform given Neutral Special’s charging animation, which is easy to forget about because the soul-stealing mechanic splits up the move). Eternal Fury is completely justified as a Magic Burst style attack, which could have been absurd like on Hero if it wasn’t handled properly. I actually like the 1.5 second victory animation Hades goes through after performing the attack too.

• Pfft, Side Special’s Helm of Darkness reference on MYM6 Hades’s old Side Special. I’m sure no one will miss the helmet.
• A time bomb that instantly kills your opponent? How monstrous! And very well-earned, given all the legwork Hades has to put into getting opponents to such a state. The time bomb period extending with full charge reminds me of my Wakamo set from last contest. It’s made all the more delicious by the body-damaging mechanic, where excess damage done to a body can contribute to Down Special’s time bomb on souls and even make foes die instantly if they get in their body. And, of course, actually using Down Special’s hitbox and knockback angles to make reuniting a body and soul easier for the aforementioned set-up.
• It goes without saying that I like the references to Kingdom Hearts, like the GIFs
• Suffice to say, Side Special and Up Special round out all the Specials in a neat stage control-style deal. Part of me is a little unsure how practical it is for Hades to absorb a sun and land a number of his attacks against opponents (the sun has a large hitbox, so some of Hades’s attacks might not pass through it), but I suspect he could get around this by performing his chosen attack behind or while overlapping with the sun.

Just as one cannot have a modern Hades set without soul manipulation, one cannot have a modern Hades set without his patented aimable grab. Making the grab end early if Hades’s hands run into any extended part of his arm is a notably good balancing factor that I like, along with its close-ranged implications. The ability to use a sun to potentially knock a foe’s soul out of their body while you still go through with your grab on their body is awesome. The Special Pummel is a welcome status effect in the context of body/soul interactions, and effectively being a 5th throw in itself.

• F-throw is good for its “pick-your-launch-angle” style utility. Pleasantly surprised to see soul victims’ floatier nature come into play here, too.
• B-throw channels the power using other fighters as (aimable) bludgeoning tools for 1v1 purposes via body and soul, while D-throw gets extra damage if the soul had more damage and allows precise positioning of a split body and soul. The soul concept certainly plays off of your typical “aim or delay the control stick/button for added effects” attacks quite well.
• No hellish punishment for your opponent by turning them into a bug with a throw? Boo.
• Seeing Hades perform actual physical attacks like his Jabs wipes is soooooo welcome compared to old MYM’s (understandably) unorthodox and proppy approach to regular attacks. This is actually one of the main reasons why I’ve always wanted to see a modern Hades set. Though I guess you could use this same reasoning to justify a modern set for any character from old MYM who hasn’t gotten a modern touch.
• “Believe it or not, this incarnation of Hades does -not- have a 0/10 crouch statistic due to pride or whatever. ” Aww maaan. Not getting into the Top 10 in MYM6 when mortals like the Count and Romero got in must have done a serious number on Hades’s pride, if he’s willing to start crouching now.
• D-tilt reminds me of Walter White’s Standard attacks, as well as MYM5 Ryuk’s D-tilt if I’m remembering correctly. “Use the same attack again at the same spot for bonuses” type attacks are fun, and I’m glad to be reminded of them with this move.

• Much as I like the crowd-control aspect of Held Neutral Air, I wonder if it’s a bit too effective at attacking recovering opponents. Even with long charge time, the blast covers a sizable area, and Hades can choose to release it earlier if his opponent is close-by to mix them up.
• “If all else fails, Hades can try dropping from the ledge so B-Air can finish off recovering opponents, dispel the notion that imbecile Sora can’t be edge-guarded once and for all in the process!” Heck yeah, a diss against Sora!
• D-air’s aimable trio of projectiles are cool. Might be a bit strong of an edge-guarding tool when each fireball be aimed downwards or diagonally-downwards for mix-ups, but still.
• F-Smash is an interesting slow move that trades knockback for raw damage, one that can make notable use of a soul poking out of your enemy - and hellfire - to evil effect.
• D-Smash’s animation with the skeletons feels like a reference to the skeleton-summoning “attack” MYM6 Hades had. Best to leave those skeletons in that set’s closest.
• Interesting to see a brand new set of extras, as memorable as I found MYM6 Hades’s taunts to be.

Hades is undoubtedly an excellent set that lived up to the hype, owing to his excellent take on the soul mechanic. The only thing keeping him from a perfect score is his melee: it all worked, but it (mostly the Standards and the Aerials) wasn't quite as impressive as some other strong entries this contest, in my opinion. I think it came down to soul-stealing being what Hades primarily revolves around, which doesn’t always lend itself to cool melee attacks like Flagg’s mechanics, as well as having 3 big attacks locked behind his Neutral Special. Nonetheless, I could see Hades being a strong contender this contest. And beyond that, the sheer nostalgia I had for your MYM6 Hades set and your big recurring villain trio made this moveset an absolute blast to read and try to spot all the references for. Great work on getting out your second big set this contest!

 

[UserShadow7989]

Shadow Naoto by Arctic Tern

This set immediately grabbed me with Neutral Special, Heat Riser, which true to form is a combination buff to strength, defense, and speed, albeit not a literal simple multiplier. Rather, you can spend the charge to perform burst movements that can cancel out of knockback or end lag (if sufficiently charged up), or just use it to pursue a foe and extend a combo beyond what you'd normally be able to do, the issues being you lose the charge when grabbed and it's limited by how much breathing room you can realistically get to charge up. And then there's how they interact with the Smashes, too. It's simple but very, very fun to play with.

Expanding on this is her two debuff Specials, which can be stacked upon a Smash to deadly effect, but otherwise are strategically meant to have little overlap in how they work to allow distinction by flexibility and application- one you can save for your big hits, the other is easier and can be applied everywhere but can't be saved up due to limited options that won't trigger it. And then the Smashes themselves which include an all-around great Up Smash that is improved further with Neutral Special, a Forward Smash whose value ties heavily into your use of Specials in general, and Down Smash which serves both as a more simple, well-rounded option that can be turned into a moving hitbox- with the extra simple trick that all three punish certain ways of playing around her other tools.

Aside from all of that, there's the staple consistency of quality from an Arctic Tern set with the staple speed of Arctic Tern writing, putting out high quality sets and comments within the blink of an eye. Each input has a practical purpose, threads itself together with the other inputs of the set as well as the Specials' gimmicks (my favorite example is Down Aerial being a high power Stall and Fall that can be aborted via Neutral Special charge), packs a good bit of depth into reasonably sized chunks, and is conceptually interesting- ticking pretty much all the boxes for what I look for in any given input, and the only reason this isn't so mind-blowing is that lately that's become to norm- seriously, people are going crazy anymore in MYM.

Nitpicks: Stats has a missing reference under air speed- "same as Mario, Donkey Kong, and ". Back Throw has missing words in its first line and mentions a downside being its KO percents are lower than other kill throws, which feels like it should be saying 'higher'. Down Throw damage might be a bit crazy, as is Back Throw's, but take that with a grain of salt.

 

[WeirdChillFever]

I have traveled far so that I might one day get a taste of MYM and its delectable treats, but I see the place has been overrun with bandits…and evil forces seeking to overthrow the land’s order to plunge it into chaos…please..lend me your food and I will fight…I won’t need much…


Just the Chicken Tenders, Grimace Shake…mesopotamian water..melons..Pizza…Towers of it…left size…none beef..I…I’m so….soooo hungry…getting…a little……dizzy..too. Please..give me…..your treats

 

[GolisoPower]

Dial "V" For Vigorous
Citizen V by n88

Maybe it's because of my UMvC3 brainrot setting in, but Citizen V immediately gives me the impression of a Taskmaster/Magneto hybrid, combining strong sword-based combat with a free flight mode that allows him one grounded attack in the air. But on the other hand, it brings something new to the table: a weaponized taunting system where he can cancel endlag into a taunt where Citizen V can charge his Down Special, a super mode that bolsters his sweetspots such as his Side Special, a delayable thrust attack with counter frames that rewards good reading on his part. Down Special's effects also include granting a free Final Smash on a successful KO and upgrading the endlag of his Neutral Special, a feint-attack with his cape where he can fake out his foes by using during the start-up of another move. It also helps with what seems to be Joker-level burst mobility, using certain Specials to weave around his foes and bait them into making a mistake before capitalizing on it.

The character himself is also really fun: he gives off this air of heroism and charisma to him with his various attacks and even calling upon his Thunderbolts for his Final Smash...but then we're hit with the bombshell that the Thunderbolts are actually a villain group masquerading as a hero team, a twist I myself would've never predicted. And just like then, there was little to no hint at all of who exactly Citizen V actually is, his normals just don't seem to give any sort of impression whatsoever and that just makes the twist all the more surprising to me. Citizen V is a hella strong contender for my vote thus far. Whether or not King Radicaul tops it, this still will be a memorable set for the dark truth behind this dude as a character. Nice work!