Make Your Move 27: Jamcon 4 Comments Ahoy! The End is Near

[Katapultar]

Spoiler: Gato

What a Kat Day choice! I know you’ve been big on making Gato for a while, which I really love as a parallel to my Hotaru set from MYM23. Gato’s mechanics naturally derive from Terry and Hotaru herself - the latter makes perfect sense as a parallel set, and because Garou’s mechanics are way too cool to pass up. I actually opened my Hotaru set as a refresher to see what you did differently here - you have a much better grasp on the T.O.P sound effects and visuals from Garou than I did, and the idea of making the highest-damage T.O.P last indefinitely past 150% instead of 200% was a smart choice (especially when Gato is heavier than Hotaru). I also forgot that Hotaru took chip damage from shielding in exchange for having a more durable shield, which is also present in this set. A good way to be reminded of it! It’s also funny that Gato’s Just Defend mechanic has double the wordcount of Hotaru’s despite being almost identical. Few sets have given me déjà vu quite like this one.

Of course, Hotaru and Gato have vastly different FG movesets, so of course their MYM sets are going to be different! For one, Gato eschews the Shoto fireball for a melee-based combo/pressure tool that would be outright bad without his FG cancel mechanics. I’m a fan of EX Piercing Fang’s crumple dealing progressively higher hitstun the higher stage of T.O.P Gato is in, where risking the 150%+ mark practically gets Gato a kill confirm if he lands it. Was always interested in seeing other sets do the T.O.P mechanic after Hotaru, and this is a good example of a set taking an identical concept and executing it in ways the original didn’t.

Meanwhile, Side Special is a relatively customizable rekka with some mindgame aspects built in, Gato’s sheer options between the two reminding me of Black Polnareff’s Neutral Special. Very happy to see the Swift Fang option reference the Back Air input and give Gato an easier way to input one in 1v1 matches. The Swift Fang options in general were more appealing, with a burst movement, command grab, counter and fake-out option that can all juke out various enemy reactions and better contributes to the move’s mindgame potential. Oh, and I’m fond of EX Counterattack Fang’s invisible wall-bouncing effect, not dissimilar to one of Hotaru’s throws (or MYM22 Hugo, from whom I took the effect from).

Definitely like the dynamic of Gato’s EX Up Special being a brutal OoS option (especially in the corner) in exchange for being punishable on whiff and needing a command input to be done, which would technically make it “slower” to perform than its frame 3-ness would suggest. I imagine that attempting a →↓ while you’re shielding would cause the player to roll, unless you hold B so you move your shield around and don’t roll or spot dodge. Anyway, I like that Gato’s Down Special is a defensive parallel to Hotaru’s Down Special, and that it’s a counter that only works if the upper-half of your body is attacked! It reminds me of Kasumi Todoh from the Art of Fighting and KOF games. Also happy to see an FG charge-style input for the first time in a while. A simple Special compared to Side Special, but it synergizes well with Gato’s conditioning and making opponents more predictable so you can parry their attacks and go for more Just Defends.

The contrast between Hotaru and Gato’s supers - the former works better when you’re cornered, the latter when you have your opponent cornered - absolutely rocks, and fits their respective personalities perfectly. I also like that Gato’s T.O.P attacks/Supers are all short-ranged attacks that can be hard to land even when he can cancel into them, so it’s like they’re these big super overwhelming neutral options - he has to actually earn them. Oh, and the non-Specials splitting up cancel options between bullet points like Hotaru is convenient and a nice throwback, helping to tie together the implications of canceling. The Smashes are relatively simple and have a degree of application overlap with the Specials, but this is to be expected from an FGC martial artist like this. U-tilt might be my favourite among Gato’s standards, as its short-range/low knockback combo synergizes well with special-cancels and even being able to mix in your Down Special counter to catch out opponents.

Gato’s Aerials are more on the simple side, but refreshingly so and have their uses. N-air is quick and designed to segue into Gato’s ground game, F-air is an anti-shield option to go with Swift Fang, and B-air is interestingly a multi-hitting move much like Hotaru’s B-air was (and used to great effect with special canceling here). Wasn’t expecting Gato’s Forward Throw to pull an A.B.A and get all MYM’y with a status effect.

All and all, Gato did not disappoint, and I was happy to read a set that revisited old concepts - it was a bit like taking a trip back to MYM22/23. I’d say Gato is similar to A.B.A where his potential is constrained by having to play close to his source material, making him somewhat lower than your top entries this contest that have stronger concepts. I feel a bit bad for saying such when you were fond of Hotaru and I can’t fully return the same reception for Gato, but execution-wise I couldn’t ask for a better take on the character.

 

[SaltySuicune]

Oh hey, it's my MyMversary. Anyway; Obscure self-indulgent character from my childhood, GO!
Edit: I'm stupid and got the wrong date for my MyMversary, whoops lmao.

(Click on the picture to see the moveset)

Some people can't see the picture so follow this link if that's your case.
You ever hear animal names like "goblin shark" or "wolf spider" and take them literally? I think that's what happened here.​

 

[Katapultar]

Spoiler: Tigershark

• I’ve never heard of this franchise, but it does sound interesting from the way you describe it.
• Funny that we’ve had two movesets that involve interacting with Smash water, the other being Chapayev. I imagine that you obviously can’t dive beneath water surfaces for balance reasons, but all and all I don’t have an issue with the mechanic. It’s fun to see this kind of thing get mentioned when it’s easy to forget about swimming mechanics in Smash.
• I like the Dorsal Spikes mechanic of giving Tiger Shark a passive hitbox while he’s crouching. It’s funny, because it’s balanced out by Tiger Shark having such a wide hurtbox and the spikes not running down his entire back and tail. There is a lot of room for clarification though: the passive hitbox’s damage and knockback aren’t stated, thus we’re not given a grasp of its playstyle applications. I know Piranha Plant’s comparable passive hitbox deals some set upwards knockback, so you could just mention that if so and make it serve as a way to consistently start air combos.
• Tigershark’s Specials are decent, but they feel a bit basic and lacking in a solid hook like the Dorsal Spikes or a few of your previous sets. I think it comes down to them not having a lot of noted synergy.

• It’s a bit odd for a Jab to have i-frames in the service of being an out-of-shield combo breaker. It’s also a bit confusing when it’s stated to have “mid priority” in clashing with hitboxes, and I’m not sure whether the i-frames apply to Tigershark’s entire body or its hitboxes. If you’re wanting Jab to be a quick panic button for escaping pressure, I’d say to just make it a fast and reliable attack. As far as out-of-shield combo breakers go, you’d have to assign that to an Up Smash, Up Special or Aerial input. Up Smashes, Up Specials and Grabs are the only options that can be done out of shield without any delay - attempting to do anything else requires the user to drop their shield first, which takes 11 frames. It does mean that Jabs aren’t really the most efficient moves to use out-of-shield. I”m kind of rambling here, but it's a nice piece of Smash knowledge to know for setmaking.
• I like the dynamic of Tiger Shark’s dorsal fins having a powerful sweetspot for his Dash Attack. It sounds like something that would only hit an airborne opponent at the right time, which would thus make the hitbox well-earned. Tigershark has a bit of an anti-jump thing going with this and his Dorsal Spikes, and I think the set would be stronger if it acknowledged and made use of this.
• F-tilt has some funny cat trivia.
• Coming into N-air, I think this moveset can get a bit liberal with its intangibility frames. Moves like Terry’s Forward Tilt having i-frames is all good so the fighter doesn’t lose out against disjoints easily, but I think that N-air should have super armour rather than invincibility if it’s going to cover his entire body. I get that N-air i-frames are meant to serve as a combo breaker for such a big and wide character, but putting them on a Piranha Plant style N-air might be too effective. Maybe the super armour should just apply to early parts of the move?

A decent little set overall, but not as conceptually high as other sets you’ve done this contest, and I’d say there’s room for improvement in incorporating the Dorsal Spikes aspect into the set.

 

[Arctic Tern]

TIGERSHARK (Salty)

Tigershark is a speedy big-body heavyweight, which already appeals to me as a Bowser main and feels in line with the character from what is described of him. The shark aspect gets played with in the form of a unique water mechanic (funny how there are three sets where the character can’t drown) and its dorsal fins acting as a passive anti-footstool hitbox if it crouches. Specials are fairly basic, but I do like how SSpec serves as a mixup between a standard attack and a command grab that leads into Tigershark’s throws. The other moves are fairly simple, but they still fit with the hit and run style it’s meant to have, none of them have any “bad” aspects, and there are some standouts, such as DSmash moving him forward as an approaching option and DThrow being a pitfall throw. While I sadly have little to say compared to your last sets due to Tigershark being significantly simpler than them at its core, there’s just enough detail to it that I feel that it does match said sets in terms of quality - a nice improvement!

BYLETH (Tortoise)

This is easily one of the strangest remixes of a canon Smash character I’ve seen, not just remixing the set but the entire background lore behind them. Byleth here takes heavy inspiration from West African culture, which shows in their weapons being based on traditional weapons from said culture and the “weapon triangle” being reorganized so that the bow is the “main” weapon. The playstyle is much different as well, being a full on rushdown character instead of the mid-ranged powerhouse playstyle of canon Byleth. The Specials are the most interesting part, with DSpec altering Byleth’s moves that revolve around their club and turning it into a wall and NSpec being poisoned arrows that extend the foe’s grab hitbox if they get hit by them. USpec is also an interesting move, being a command grab where the direction the opponent is sent afterwards can be controlled, though it does irk me that the distance it takes Byleth isn’t stated.

While conceptually interesting, I do feel that the set gets a bit bland past the Specials. There are some highlights, like USmash creating a windbox and UTilt dealing downwards knockback to aerial foes, but several of them have barely any uses listed in the tips section. Byleth’s DSpec changing their down moves to hand-to-hand is neat as an idea, but all of them except DSpec itself and DThrow don’t specify how they’re changed; it’d be neat if they became faster combo starters to take advantage of the closed off space the club creates. I also have to note that several attacks have wind effects, but there’s no justification for wind powers in the background lore - it may be present in the original game or actual African folklore, but if there is it isn’t stated. Ultimately, this interpretation of Byleth leaves plenty to be desired as an actual set, but still isn’t outright bad, and in any case does provide an interesting idea of remixes of Smash characters that are more reinterpretations than true “remixes”.

Link to full comment repository here!

 

[GolisoPower]

Eat Your Heart Out, Carmilla
Seras Victoria by Arctic Tern

Starting the Treasure JamCon is Seras Victoria, a fun little set that not only gives a pretty good first entry for this mini-contest but also sort of compliments Alucard pretty well. In a way, she's like a simpler, more casual-friendly take on her master, taking what Alucard knows and adding her own twist to it. As opposed to the twin hand-cannons he has, Seras packs what pretty much amounts to a tank cannon only a vampire like her could handle. As opposed to the rapid fire, she has an aimable super-burst of damage per trigger pull. Her kit can be super-buffed using a Blood Rage status effect that's triggered on counter, buffing her damage output and movement to levels that she could kill easily. One move it gets benefit from DSpec is Side Special, a Ridley-esque ground-drag that easily builds up damage on use and setting them up for a snipe with the Harkonnen. You just know I'm going to use this a lot. And lastly is her flight with Up Special, sacrificing the multihit capability of Alucard's for an easier-to-use and harder-to-punish recovery move. Those come together in...I suppose you could say an Alucard who's been respec'd to a different role. Her normals are a unique blend of her arsenal and her vampire abilities, with shadow-arm stabs and Vladimir shots galore that play into her general character throughout the Hellsing story and allude to the treasured bond she has with her master by emulating some of his abilities to certain degrees. Overall, I enjoyed your Police Girl set, was a joy to read overall. Nice work, Tern!

This Made Me Buy 8Door
Arum by BrazilianGuy

Exactly as the title says. It's always a wonder when MYM introduces me to something I've never heard of in my life, but then here it is, not only giving me a brand new game to play but also pulling me into the rabbit hole of Korean folklore. Anyway, I only have one more weapon as of this writing, the Fan, so I have that to look forward to. She also possesses a pretty decent balance between attacks from herself and attacks from her companion Ducroak, showcasing a surprising dosage of Banjo & Kazooie in their presentation. It's a really cool set that captures the essence of 8Door while also making her sort of stand out in the Smash environment. Nothing special, nothing extravagant, just a nice bit of simplicity that can be a nice change of pace in an ocean of the most deranged sets this side of the Smash community. Don't really have much to say aside from all that, but all I want to say is good job, and thanks for convincing me to buy 8Door. Good work, Brazil!

 

[TortoiseNotTurtle]

Hey, Tort here from a long hiatus. This may be the last traditional moveset I ever do, but I've been working on something rather interesting for a while that takes a much less traditional approach.

This time I rework Byleth's smash moveset with a new context where I ask the question...

What if Fire Emblem Three Houses' setting was based on Sub-Saharan Africa?

 

[Katapultar]

Spoiler: Byleth

The top of the doc states the moveset is incomplete at the moment, but I’m treating it like a completed submission because it’s been posted to Smashboards.

This is a bizarre rendition, much like your Bowser set this contest but not quite the same - more of a serious Byleth remix that reimagines the character in a different culture. It’s an odd experience for sure, a character that’s both familiar and not familiar. The set kind of feels like an OC, and I do like the characterization the set establishes on the taunts right from the start. I wonder if it would be worth showing pictures of the African weapons that replace the axe and the spear?

• Down Special is… quite the move! The aerial version is very similar to Falcon Kick, with some hefty downwards knockback that may be overtuned, but the grounded version gets into some crazy MYM’ian territory. It feels weird for a Fire Emblem character to punch and kick people as a primary means of attacking (it reminds me of a… strange Chrom moveset we got in MYM16), but it feels more acceptable here since this is technically a different Byleth. The idea of a Byleth style set (different weapons for different directional inputs) where you can set one of your weapons down as a trap is great, but it feels like there should be some counterplay for opponents. The trap as-is is pretty strong, able to hit opponents multiple times throughout its life, and opponents have no way to get rid of it except to wait out its very long (30 second) timer or if Byleth chooses to take it back. It could be something as simple as letting the foe break the weapon, where its destruction leaves it on a cooldown.
• There isn’t as much meat to Side Special as there could be for a movement-based attack, but I am fond of its simple but effective interaction with Down Special - setting down your sword and moving into it with Side Special to enhance your attack and gain armour. With such a powerful option, I believe that the lag of grounded Down Special should be mentioned, so readers actually know how much time Byleth has to commit when they set down their sword.
• Neutral Special packs another interaction with Down Special, while also having an interesting grab interaction that helps to cement Byleth’s brutal efficiency as a fighter.
• I like some of the more melee-based applications of Up Special.
• That’s some very cool artwork (below Up Special)

• I can see how a number of the non-Specials are incomplete, as they’re missing their damage percents, though that surprisingly doesn’t hold it back for me much.
• A number of the non-Specials are pretty basic, like Dash Attack, but I like how U-tilt deals upwards knockback from the front and downwards knockback at the back. Also feels like F-tilt has a potentially interesting dynamic, since the initial palm thrust would technically have shorter range than the spear that follows. Palm thrust is mentioned to come out on frame 6, but the move doesn’t specify when the spear hits.
• D-tilt doesn't mention how the move changes when Byleth’s sword is in the ground, along with D-Smash. I assume this is a work in progress.
• I like U-Smash’s suction effect, even if it’s presumably minor.
• This might seem petty, but I’m not too big on throw animations that make your opponent attack for flavour-based purposes. It’s something that some really old MYM sets did. I’d prefer it if Byleth just did the animation as-is and opponents didn’t try to attack. Probably the kind of counter-based characterization you could implement through Byleth’s rolls.

A fun little set with a cool idea, overall, but one that has to yet reach its full potential.

 

[n88]

Yggdroid by U UserShadow7989
I really ought to play these games - been curious and I have the remasters of 1-3 just collecting virtual dust in my steam backlog. Shameful.

Anywho, Yggdroid here is a pretty fun little puppet fighter type thing, has some amped-up sillier Rosaluma vibes. Kinda heady angle for a jamcon, and I do think there are some slight hitches in how the ideas are presented - the way information is broken out between DSpec and the Smashes can feel a little awkward and I found myself jumping back and forth a few times. Arguably there's a certain thematic logic to spreading the information out! But there were certain things that I found tough to follow. And I'm still a little murky on say... where your legs go when you use DSpec in the air and if there are ways to increase the distance between you and your legs.

The gist of the mechanics isn't too bad at all though - like I said, sillier Rosaluma and DSpec is pretty understandable as a sillier Luma Shot. It's a very UScore affair - directly recalls Jodie in the way it spreads hitboxes around and makes pretty smart choices about how to keep things functional. The Specials are doing a lot of heavy lifting, complexity-wise, to squeeze in some big ideas while letting the normals be pretty simple. The set's verging on having doubled-up Specials, really, since the tapped versions and held versions of those moves often aren't really related beyond some superficial animation details. I kinda wonder if the set should just be billed that way and the inputs should be broken up. Then again, SSpec is both the most complex one and the one where it's making the best case that it's really all one input.

There are also very good universal limits on all the big crazy disjoint stuff - you always have a good eye on the system limiters so that's no surprise. I do think the set doesn't always take as much advantage of the limiters as it could? Like in practice every body part when detached has... two-three attacks depending on whether Yggdroid is grounded or in the air? The options for actually exploiting all this feel pretty limited and I'm not sure the set fully unpacks what a whopping inconvenience it is for your arms to fly away and deny you melee options every time you decide to go for an FSmash. (But, y'know, jamcon, yadda yadda)

Of course, the set is deliberately cultivating a silly janky vibe and trying to weave it into something functional. What I'm criticizing is intentional and thematic and the set is aware of a lot of the downside even if there are areas where I think it's a little glossed over. So I guess I'm mostly in a.... "hmmmmm" place on whether the set enables something cool enough and functional enough to be worth the slight weirdness of it all.

It's a cool, funny, and well-animated set (another strength of yours) so that always helps. That might sound superficial, but I really do think that just giving players something visually compelling to hook into is key... well always, but especially for this type of character. Like maybe it's a little hard to wrap your head around but there's definitely a Type of player who sees the hands stay detached after tossing out an FSmash and then they just never play another character again. They're gonna be out here developing the tech.

• Finally a moveset that answers the question "what if Buggy the Clown was a Murakomo unit?"
  • It even has the feet running around on the ground underneath them?
• FSmash mentions a reflector multiplier that I think Reflector didn't have.
• Big fan of the big silly fly-off-the-screen DSmash.
• I imagine Jab 2 could get pretty nasty in the right circumstances, since you could potentially use a detached Part to trap the opponent between a couple hitboxes. Can't go on infinitely and sounds hard so probably not a big deal.
• I don't usually sweat this kind of thing but since it comes up a few times - "greaves" is the right spelling for the leg armor.
• "semi-spike knockback that'll more often than not bounce foes off of the ground" - semi-spike means a horizontal (or near-horizontal) hit and not an almost-directly-downward angle. I think I used to use it the other way too.
• The quick radial KB NAir plus USpec probably allows for some easy bake gimping strategies. Not a big deal to gloss over though. I've deviated away from using radial knockback on this kind of attack too much mostly to avoid that kind of thing - it's a great word-saver technique but I'm not convinced it's actually a great design pattern.
• DAir a really neat attack - took me a second pass to grok the animation fully, but one of those things that'd definitely look fluid in game. Not sure it totally makes sense as a wall of pain with the lack of frontal coverage but has a lot going for it in terms of fun properties.

Alucard by Arctic Tern
Man, that World Without Logos track is great, love that. Al isn't a jamcon set of course, but I figured I'd check it out since Seras was meant to be something of a companion piece.

I'm doing this set a disservice by taking so long to comment it (I mean since I read it, not since the start of the contest but I suppose that too), apologies for that - I didn't take great notes because I read it on a train thinking I was gonna knock out a bunch of jamcon reads and also get to this one in short order (whoops), so I'm not quite as fresh on the set as I prefer to be when commenting, had to flip back through a few things as I write this.

SSpec did stick out to me a bit balance wise - having a high-damage fast command grab is a playstyle-defining thing for Bowser and making this one even scarier than Bowser's is a lot. Armoring something like that on top of giving it the Ganondorf-esque charge forward makes it a pretty big screw-you to almost any option an opponent has. The frame data/distance on it feel a little odd - it sounds slower than what you want animation-wise - Ganondorf's SSpec is more like... 4ish grids in 15 frames, as a point of reference for how slow 3 grids in 44 frames would look. Having the high commitment slow movement on top of all the endlag could maybe be something of a balancer but I'm not sure it's intentional since it doesn't really come up much? The move tries to play up the reduced kill power as the thing holding it back from Bowser's but that seems like kinda peanuts. The lack of ability to maneuver in the air (or bounce up to a high platform) feels like a bigger nerf if anything.

I do think "horrifying command grab" is a fun thing to have in the set, and I like the vampire bite being a big deal. I wouldn't recommend a flat debuff so much as just putting some of its better qualities behind a gate in some fashion (charge, cooldown, only works on Tuesdays, whatever). Could maybe even get sillier with some of it depending on what you did, so long as he couldn't get the nutty stuff on a whim.

Overall this was pretty solid - kinda on par with your jamcon stuff I think, I like it more than Seras but less than Drifblim. I didn't ever feel a strong hook into the set, but it's well put-together and it has some individual fun inputs like DSmash. The basic recipe of "oops everything scary" is a pretty fun direction and the set does well by this guy as a spooky character that can light you up fast - lots of Bowser DNA here even once you look past SSpec.

Looking back on it I do feel like I maybe like a lot of the individual attacks more than I like the full set - this is always one of those things that's tough to quantify but I do wonder if some of that is just in the presentation. Always kind of a sticky wicket because I'm trying to evaluate the actual content and not the way it's being sold to me but on the flipside I do think like... you've got your fundamentals down really solidly and always have from the jump. Where you could really elevate your stuff is by improving digestibility and how you pitch it. I do think you've made strides forward this contest on that front and I'm finding a lot more intrigue in the average Tern set than I did in MYM26, but you do still trend a little dry in presentation at times.

Just some food for thought though. I'm still a positive on Alucard at the end of the day even if it's not a favorite.

Seras Victoria by Arctic Tern
This one I had a slightly harder time getting into. Nothing too rough, just didn't strongly vibe with it. I can appreciate a lot of the little similarities and differences from Alucard, even some of the understated ones like the similar imagery between Seras USmash and Alucard DSmash. Revenge is also an interesting move to riff on. Kinda surprised I can't think of more examples of MYM playing with that concept off the top of my head, it's kinda ripe for shenanigans (but maybe we do that a lot and I'm just blanking).

Definitely a kit from the same school of design as Alucard and has a lot of his positive qualities (cool animations, Smashes are all very fun), but just generally feels a bit less successful at them. No shame in that for a jamcon though, natch - still fun as a quick lil entry. Apologies but like Alucard, I am gonna pick on one move here; NSpec I think is pretty busted in a way that doesn't feel very interesting. I'm surprised the move isn't a little more Alucard-esque in terms of pushing her to cancel into it or similar. As a frame 16 option she can just toss out, it's got a pretty gonzo combo of range and power. Idk, I'd consider having to charge it normally and being able to bypass that with Blood Rage or something. Just giving her a Failnaught that works at the speed of Link's bow feels wild.

Arum by BrazilianGuy
Arum is a pretty fun lil gal - like Alucard I did read this one a while ago and take bad notes, so apologies for that. The core of the set is very solid, I think most of the design on elements like the Sin meter and her arrows other Specials comes together really well for what you're going for - the one thing that did kinda stick out to me here is just how central the buffs she gets from the fan feel.

Particularly the 5F startlag discount across the board feels pretty huge. I think that kind of thing is always really tough to balance - a lot of her moves are by default I think a bit too slow to really let her work as rushdown. Her tilts are like... putting up Ike-esque (or worse) speed numbers without the fan buff and she's really relying on the fan to have quick grounded options. Then, on the other hand, you've got stuff like the scythe FAir that's pretty fast already for a big disjoint aerial and is borderline a war crime with the fan buff.

I do think having the fan buff as a central thing is a cool space to play in. Ordinarily I'd say it pushes her to sort of retreat a bit and beef up, maybe zone a little, then rush back in. There's an interesting flow to that. I do think attaching the buff to this big crazy gimping move though kind of pushes even harder the idea that she should be tossing it out after sending the opponent off-stage and beefing up while setting up ledgetrap scenarios. Interesting confluence of effects.

• USpec shield break is a very fun little detail - one of those niche things that you forget until it happens.
• Without having played the game I do really like the way the weapons are used throughout the kit - feels very Byleth-y, and there's a consistency to each weapon. Has a very clean feel.
• I'm not sure if the Smash buffs fit in suuuuper well with the rushdowny stuff she wants to do and I'm not sure they stack up against the fan buffs but I do always like the option to make a big dumb attack even bigger and dumber.
• All the Ducroak animations are fun.

The President by Slavic
Weird that I'm reading multiple "spread your resources around and cost yourself options" movesets this jamcon, but here we are. This moveset makes smart choices about when to be similar to Olimar and when to depart, I think - there's a very clear basis in Olimar's kit and the President maintains the connection but builds something very different and wacky. Haven't played Pikmin but the set is very funny and evocative not just on the writing level but in the mechanics. It's very MYMy and goofy and tells you exactly who the President is. The long-term accumulation of Poko is also interesting to me - I've flirted with that sort of long-term resource thing before but don't typically go for it, it always feels a little tougher to balance a mechanic around the idea that it's a "one way" match-long thing that can grow far beyond what you need in a stock.

Granted, that possibility doesn't seem super likely here. His Poko-gathering feels very limited for how many inputs are entirely gated behind it, and the fact that he's starting from a position of needing to give up his Pikmin (and therefore Even More of his kit) in order to collect Poko feels... dang rough. I think even a little passive Poko generation would help him out a lot. His Smashes being tied to his ship is also something that feels a little dicey. There is merit to having the source of his Smash attacks be tied to his Pikmin while they're out. It's nice that he can't be boxed out of being able to defend them. But on the other hand it's outsourcing even more of his kit on a character who, by himself, only has access to Standards and one Aerial. I think some of his restrictions are a little on the harsh side considering his payouts typically aren't crazy. The set won me over a bit as it went on but idk, I think he'd benefit from a little easing of tension.

I do kinda wonder if all the Smashes could be bundled up in a Special somehow (the various hard interactions do feel very Special) and he could just have something a little more pragmatic to himself... though then again he probably misses his Aerials when Pikmin are deployed to dig up treasure more than he misses his Smashes, that's probably the closest the moveset flies to the weather-controlling satellite from Geostorm sun.

Always happy to see a Slavic set, very fun read.

I think nomination this round to Yggdroid, good stuff everyone.

 

[Hyper_Ridley]

Sayu by Katapultar
At long last, my overdue comment on a Kat moveset!

Believe it or not, I had briefly played Genshin Impact a couple years ago. Not sure if Sayu was around back then, but as a Razor main I appreciate claymore reps.

Really like how the more meta stuff is indented to make it clearly delineated. Let's me focus on the attacks themselves and their core applications, and then I can ponder the minutia on my own.

Love how her ninja-evasion is tied to teleports rather than literal fast movement. It adds a fun dimension to have this little girl managing to pull-off surprise attacks and disengages while swinging around a giant claymore, and tying it to a resource prevents her from poofing around all day. By that same token, however, I'm not a fan of her invincible dash. Sure, it's gated by stamina, but so are her teleports, and "fast invincible dash" is always going to be more flexible and therefore a better investment of her stamina. I'm thinking it would be enough just to have the speed buff, so she can space with it while retaining her dodges as the fancy invincible burst option.

Tapped Side Special is a cool move on its own, I like how she can substitute her initial dash for the startup. As for the held version, despite all its strengths, it feels more balanced than Spindash just because of the cooldown, ha! Definitely going to be abusing that in FFAs, then sleeping while the other players forget my existence the moment it ends. We now need a scene in the story mode where Sayu combines her roll with Miraidon's Electro Drift while Japanese rock music plays in the background to finish off a boss.

Her Daruma is a cute take on a summon. It manages to both be versatile to justify the stamina cost, and still feel like an assisst she can't use as a crutch. Definitely gonna be praying my teammates actually stay within the healing pulse. Her Down Special also plays off it in a neat way by being just mind-gamey enough to pull a trick shot without becoming an illusionist. Also cute how she can turn into crates and barrels. If she transforms into them on a slope, can she slide down into other players?

Gonna have to sue you for that NAir, Flipping NAirs that keep rolling along the ground are copyrighted by me

DSmash feels like the perfect final input, just the biggest haymaker wind tunnel swing of all. Love how she can pull in her Daruma for a 1-2 shockwave into the swing, or just use it a shield so she can actually get the attack out. With that said, FSmash kinda overshadows it in a pure gameplay sense, having a passive hitbox while charging, faster startup, its own suction effect, and can even hit behind itself. The aura and startup are enough distinct advantages without stepping on DSmash's toes.

USmash might be feeling left out of this comment, so I'll just say that the idea of this character performing multiple big arcing swings in a single input is so silly it's awesome. No. Head. Pats!

There's a lot of cute Easter eggs in her extras. Can't wait for the replays where she Side-Taunts out of a grab to win by time-out damage advantage. I DO remember the "rain dance" era of Pokesets, especially Ludicolo's biblical floods.

This comment's gone on long enough, but I'm glad I finally got around to reading one of your modern movesets! I remember back in the day you were the goofy underdog of sorts, and now you're a leader and a thread opener, dayum!

I looked up a Mujina hoping to find cute racoon-like critters, and instead I found an Azure Lane character with a dragon mech. Nice try, internet

Update 6/29
Regina George by WierdChillFever & Arctic Tern
Never seen Mean Girls, but after reading this moveset I may just have to. Even the intro post, which I assume is based on a scene from the film, was a lot of fun and a great setup for the character.

The animations and writing are great, several times I found myself comparing her to some big villainous character from other games, including Ridley. She even weaponizes trust falls. Forget Knull and Dredge, nothing provokes more primal fear than a popular high-school girl!

I love how the set plays off fads and trendiness by letting her ban/burn certain inputs but losing face if she starts to express them too freely herself. It's a cool dynamic, with some of her attacks being really useful for herself but not the other Plastics, so she has to be careful with how much she bullies her own clique.

In fact, the set in general does a fantastic job of tying its mechanics and characterization in a way that would be easily readable in-game. Of course her UTilt and DSmash make the Plastics do it too, it's a synchronized dance. Of course FSmash reflects projectiles, it's a lacrosse stick. Of course USmash gets more damage from Neutral Special stacks, it's literally a copy of that book. These "organic" mechanics are what I strive for in my own sets, where you actually can't simplify things any further without taking away from the fun of the character, and this is pretty much a perfect example!

As a final note, Grounded Up Special reminds me of Palutena's float special from Smash 4. That was my preferred Up-B choice, so it's cool to see it utilized for a more powerful Goddess.

Update 7/4
Akuma by GolisoPower
I figured with all the Akuma stuff you've been posting you were waiting for an excuse to go for this haha. Overall this does a fantastic job of showcasing why he's an iconic part of Street Fighter, with a good balance of archetypal Shoto attacks and Akuma's unique, more blood-thirsty tools.

Killing Surge is a clever way of getting EX specials involved without trying to stuff a super/overdrive meter onto him. It's got an interesting dynamic of trying to hold onto it for buffed damage on normals and link combos, but that carries the risk of himself getting tagged with nerfed defenses. It really turns up the lethality of the match and lives up to its name. Gotta love the implication where superheavies have the easiest time getting Akuma to take them seriously. He knows what's up.

Love how Ashura Senku was implemented. As I've said in Discord, I'm not a fan of the literal fighting game inputs in Smash's trad fighters, but this feels like the best use of one. This technique always felt to me like a bonus input, so the exotic motion in Smash help sell it as a useful easter egg. Cool how it uses the Shield button to coincide with it being a fancy dodge, and how he can use it midair, that's a perfect way to adapt it to Smash.

FSmash realllllllly needs a range nerf. "Byleth FSmash" is awfully far-reaching compared to Street Fighter melee strikes, and last I checked I wasn't commenting on Dahlsim I do like how he can use Killing Surge to cancel out of the first hit, it's evocative of the technique's situational comboability from SF6, but adapted to Smash since there aren't many walls to splat enemies against.

DSmash kara canceling seems impractical, or at least unclear. Canceling the first 3 frames of one motion into another isn't going to trick anyone, there's nothing for them to respond to and be tricked by in the first place. It's just adding 3 frames of startup to what he cancels into. Perhaps you meant the first 3 post-charging frames? That would allow Akuma to start charging for a moment to test for responses, then cancel from there.

Similarly to Ashura Senku, I love how you handled Raging Demon's input. And the image is great, is that from a game or an original version of the deadly beatdown?

 

[UserShadow7989]

Seras Victoria by Arctic Tern

First we get Alucard, then we get police girl. I'm always happy to see sets for main characters of a series hit in the same contest, especially when there's nice parallels like there are highlighted within the set. Seras makes good use of her canonical abilities here, her four specials making a solid base for the set and all weaving into her other moves to varying extents. The Blood Rage buff for successfully countering an attack gives her an appropriately more aggressive feel once in that state in a way that feels distinct from Incineroar's Revenge counter, and the ever present threat of Harkonnen in her set lets her exert some wonderful pressure.

The set's fundamentals play nicely with positioning and reach, capitalizing on opponents who are either too aggressive or left indecisive in the face of her core tools. A few running qualities like decent burst movement options and being most dangerous with her back to a ledge mean opponents have a hard time keeping her in disadvantage- combined with a solid recovery and good weight besides and the set even does a fantastic job of conveying her sheer determination to survive even in the face of mounting odds and horrors.

There's some other nice flavor touches like the name of the Neutral Aerial and Pip's animations in general, laid over a mechanically fine-tuned set that never gets super crazy, but is still super creative in how it uses even very in-smash elements to make for distinct feeling inputs. The more out there moves like Down Smash or the follow-ups available to Down Tilt's sweetspot, Jab, and Up Smash are hella cool in their own right, too, breaking that mold but still feeling like something that is easy to picture working nicely in the contexts they are presented in.

Seras was a breezy read to boot, and a pleasant break from the hectic week for me. I'm definitely a fan!



Arum by BrazilianGuy

A mobile rushdown character with what feels like a satisfying balance of fast footwork on the ground and a floaty air game. Arum aims for being simple in concept while having depth to those who try to master her moveset, and I feel she accomplishes this nicely through both the Sin mechanic (which to assuage your concerns feels simple enough to grasp that it doesn't raise the skill floor all that much but adds enough to raise the ceiling, though I can't gauge how the numbers come together), the Down Special buff, and some dependence on spacing for certain effects. Though speaking of numbers, I can nitpick NAir's reflection buff being a bit much at 1.5x- I'd knock it down to 1.2x or so.

The character choice herself is rather interesting, the set making good use of both her arsenal of tools and her croaking constant companion. The screenshots showcase her source material's lovely visuals and help picture her assorted attacks, and setting the more crunchy details like frame data in its own section at the end of each input makes for a smoother read by letting us get a mental image before making us go over the math. The animations are distinctive and a few like her Grab are fun to imagine, giving us enough detail to envision it and see some of her personality.

Arum as a set is on the simpler side, but each input offers something interesting to think about, particularly the specials- Side Special being an obvious favorite as much as I adore Ducroak's presence in the set and Up Special (especially his handling of the grab game).



Charon by n88

I'm a fan of this character's design, but that's neither here nor there. Right out the gate, Neutral Special has a fun little concept in spawning Charon's spirit projectiles from the blastzone behind himself, both touching on his afterlife-related job and making for interesting gameplay aspects (delay on the projectiles arriving based on location in the stage and facing, angling the input affecting where they spawn in on top of the direction they go after passing you, etc).

The whole of the core specials are a good time, really; a more conventional projectile with variable speed depending on charge, a teleport into crossing the river styx recovery combo, and a wall that doesn't obstruct movement and is vulnerable to friendly fire but reverses the direction of projectiles (without changing ownership); a fun little recipe for a chaotic bullet hell. The fun keeps going into his Smashes, each having their own payoff to using his delayed projectiles and stage control to get opponents right where he wants them, and a neat little extra interaction in Down Smash turning projectiles nearby into explosions for a grand finale.

The inputs after are simple enough, but still have plenty of fun details- Down Aerial is a standout for the surprise mobility option on-stage and the ledge threat it presents to recovering foes (and the hilarity that happens if you're not careful enough about the former while trying to ply the latter), and Forward Throw is a fun little cargo throw that was inevitable in this set. His combination of mobility and stage control might be a bit much, but the sourspots, blindspots, and frame data in his actual inputs act as good balancing points.



The President by Slavic

Capitalism, ho! Rounding out the Jamcon comments is a fun and unexpected character choice; the President takes the MYM tack of taking a character concept that's already got a bit of meat on it and piling it on further, opening up more creative shenanigans at the cost of the hypothetical player having more on their plate to juggle. The President relies on Pikmin much like his subordinate, but also has money to worry about as his actual end goal- his personal supply of Pikmin whittling down to 1 as the stock progresses and he uses their efforts to line his pockets with Pokos.

While there's definitely some parallels to Olimar in a 'bigger and slower echo' manner, The President is more reliant on long term profit rather than careful moment to moment resource management due to the larger differences, and has even less to work with than Olimar if he finds himself in the hole. His attacks are nicely organized into categories, going over what he uses which resource for and how he accumulates or maintains them, and wrapping up with a handful of normals he always has access to- evergreen albeit underwhelming with nothing else to back them up as an appropriate safety net that still leaves poor play punished.

The individual moves themselves are a treat, bursting with flavor in the animations, while also having some nice juicy payoffs for racking up enough Pokos. The Pikmin, while second banana in importance once he has his main course and treated far less kindly than Olimar's, might still be the most fun in this set, as The President being more familiar with 'delegating' work leads to a larger dedication of set space to controlling his Pikmin. The fact he starts with 5 also gives his Olimar-like grab a ton of reach in exchange for being slow, making it a threatening move he'll want to leverage early in the stock as well.

Since Pokos carry over between stocks, it even opens the long game planning of turtling up and trying to milk what little time you have left in a late stock to bulk up over trying to sneak in some last hits of damage or spending Pokos trying to get that KO- a bit of reckless moneygrubbing that feels pretty character appropriate from what little I've seen of the guy.



I liked all the sets from this Jamcon, but it's easy to see that The President hooked me from the start and didn't let go until the end, being the fastest I read of the sets despite its length (possibly in part thanks to how it organized its inputs? hard to say). As such, I nominate The President by Slavic for my vote this Jamcon. Excellent work everyone, and sorry for the wait!

 

[Katapultar]

Yggdroid - 3 (Kat, Tern, n88)
Seras Victoria - 1.5 (Brazillian Guy, voter bonus)
The President - 1 (UserShadow)

Arum - 0.5 (voter bonus)
Charon - 0.5 (voter bonus)​

Yggdroid wins the Jamcon this time around! Congrats to US, you get to pick the theme for the next Jamcon. Looking forward to it.

 

[BrazilianGuy]

hya, I've been busy with a new internship (its funny how some months ago I feared the army would take me away and now I got a semi-job, the world operates in mysterious ways) but Im getting the rhythm of it so I'm back to reading movesets, got a lot in the backlog.
Will be updating this comment with at least a few more as I read them

Spoiler: The Angler

I know nothing about Terraria, so this was fun to truly get to see into its wacky world and rich nature. I highly respect the pick just being it so you can represent the Blood Moon, I **** hard with movesets that represent a concept through a character like Game & Watch and now Angler. Also a fighter in a boat??? That's just a funny visual, when characters grab him do they also grab the boat? I must know. I like how the Blood Moon mechanic makes it so you and your foes need to always stay quick on your feet and be ready to enter it whenever, and I know it's a temporary mode but GOOD LORD some of the moves are insane like that Hemogoblin Shark?????? That thing deals damage and there can be MULTIPLE of them with Chum??? That's one thing I kinda of wished was presented more, mentions on how multiple fish with chum benefit you, some are also just like does he fish 2 eels? If so that's really busted. I did like your writing style throughout the set, stuff like the bit about how Sharks aren't actually such big killers, or how nasty the eel sounded. I also really loved when the Anchor Special came into play with moves that would normally move him against his will or that the Toxikarp bubbles can bounce the Clubberfish, that's neat interactions between the moves. Otherwise, a lot of them feel a bit isolated, like they're big but they don't really connect that well, which kinda fits since he is just fishing whatever he can find. Also, I always complain about the lack of extras, I like extras, would be funny if Angler stayed the same through all alts but the boat changed. So, all in all, I'm a bit mixed, I love the core concept of representing the Blood Moon, it was nice to read, and I felt your passion for Terraria, but some stuff could be tuned for balance (mainly damage numbers) and some stuff could be more elaborated like the synergy his moves could have, Angler gets an UnderTheSea/10

Spoiler: Sigma

Ah this one here I know, Sigma is one of the tanks I enjoy the most next to Rein and Mauga as far as gameplay, and one of my overall favorites in terms of story and personality so I'm glad to see him here. This is a little bit of a spoiler but I REALLY liked this moveset so I want to start this comment with my 2 criticisms, 1 - There is no mention of the quote "I've harnessed the harness" which for a Sigma Overwatch moveset? Criminal. Secondly, I also think this man could've had an alts section considering he has many dope skins, I myself always rock the Emperor Sigma look, it's too good. But as for compliments, this moveset does a thing I love with Overwatch characters which is expanding upon their in-game kit as you translate it into Smash, mainly with how Accretion and the leftover rocks play with the rest of his kit, super fun stuff that feels in line and logical to the character. I also love how you translated Sigma's great survivability in Overwatch into Smash by giving him an insane recovery instead of just a ton of weight, good stuff. The Barrier being his actual shield and the limitations with the spheres are also fun ideas that makes it so Sig has to be a bit more cerebral when fighting, fitting of his character and I'd even say as for how you need to play Tank in these newer seasons. His low speed and wacky air movements are things that I'm not sure I'd enjoy using, but that doesn't subtract from the moveset, it just makes Sigma have this hella unique playstyle with a strong character identity. I loved your writing style too, had a fun time going through it. Also thanks so much for going to the hypersphere aerial shop, real nice of you.
There are chances that I am biased because Sigma is a top 5 awesome Overwatch character but I feel like you did him some great justice and I loved him. I mean it even has orchestras and feet mentioned, a FlyingDutchman/10

If I don't give up on my tier list it will be here soon enough I pinky promise

 

[UserShadow7989]

Capping off our contest's mini event for this, the 27th iteration of Make Your Move, it's Jamcon 27-4!

Jamcons are a monthly contest in which contestants write up a full moveset over a 4-day period, typically between Saturday-Tuesday. After that, you optionally have two weeks to comment on all the entries and nominate for your favorite. Then all the nominations are tallied, and the winner gets to theme of the next Jamcon.

This time we're going to try something more lenient- This Jamcon will run from June 21st through June 28th, giving people a full week to settle on an idea and put together a fast set between life and the rapidly approaching end of this contest with all the last minute submissions to write and read that may imply.


Specific rules are as follows:

Spoiler: Rules:

• MYM and Smashboards rules still apply. Common sense.
• The moveset must specifically be started during the Jamcon submission period - you can't post works that had any progress on their attack inputs, stat or mechanic write-ups. Intros, images, Final Smashes and Extras don't count, a little shortcut to note if you've got a draft with progress in any of those areas.
• You do have to read and comment on every entry in order to vote. Even the Dodongos. Part of the purpose of Jamcons is to encourage mid-contest reading, after all.
• Anyone who submits a nomination receives a 0.5 voter bonus on their set (nominations are worth 1 point). This is to encourage reading for anyone who is looking to win, and could mean the difference between a win in the case where two sets end up tied for points.
• If two sets win, then all their authors win and they both get to decide the next theme. We're in a civil age of MYM, so that shouldn't be difficult at all.
• Multiple Jamcon entries can be submitted. Extremely rare when working on just one set is strenuous, but it's not impossible for the stars to align if you're made up of raw time and inspiration. Or you use the raw power of joint-setting to piggyback with co-author with someone.
• Jamcon sets can be funny and non-serious works, but they should still contain effort and not be straight-up joke sets. I don't think anyone would want to read or write a "X punches you and deals 999% for all their attacks" set in this day and age.
• Sets can be edited during the submission period, but major edits are not allowed during the reading period. Minor edits like grammar, number changes, presentation and extras are allowed though. You'll have to wait until the Jamcon concludes if you want to make any big edits based on commentary you received.
• Be sure to give indication that your moveset is a Jamcon entry, whether it's in your Smashboards post or somewhere in the moveset. There is a non-zero chance that people post non-Jamcon entries during the Jamcon period, so this is really to avoid confusion and let the host know that your moveset is an entry.

The theme for this month's Jamcon is...

Milestone​

Where does the time go? Year by year there's oodles of new offerings and the world keeps turning, but even so, we always look back on days commemorating the passage of past events. But time's merciless march forwards and the horrifying realization that the Wii will be 18 years old this year aside, any occasion for a party, or reason for a set, right? Milestone can refer to...


* The anniversary of a game or show's release date; Shovel Knight- and with his game, Treasure Knight- hit home consoles June 26th, 2014- just a few days from now is their 10th anniversary! The trailer for Ultimate dropped on June 12th, 2018- 6 short years ago. Whether it be 6 years or 10 years or a whopping 55 like a certain show about meddling kids will turn this September, any milestone is worth looking into.

* Our very community; on the subject of anniversaries, Slavic and wizfoot are two members who joined during the month of June, and Katapultar just celebrated his 15th anniversary this contest with the release of Sayu just last month! Perhaps a look at the list of MYMer anniversaries- and their franchises of choice- will point you toward your next set? Some of us have also passed 25 sets, 50 sets, or even 100 sets- maybe you want to take a crack at remaking a set someone else had sitting at that milestone from contests ages past, even your own?

* Legendary recurrences! Stop me if you've heard this one- every 100 years a great evil will awaken, or 1000 years ago, some disaster struck and was sealed away to never ever hurt anyone ever again for realsies we promise. Bowser may not have been responsible for its opening, but the titular Thousand Year Door of Paper Mario fame has seen itself back in the spotlight with its rerelease this month, making anyone from that game fair game, same as characters from other such stories. It technically is also a month away from the 20th anniversary of the original's release date!

* Literal miles; milestones were markers of both distance and directions to nearby places. Those who have traveled wide and far, like one Professor Hershel Layton, or his fellow professor Indiana Jones, would be a keen fit. The journey is more important the destination, or something like that.

* Or heck, pick something that represents an important turning point in your life- a series or character that was your first video game (ever, or of a genre), your first tv show, your first fictional crush, your first oc, your first anime, or some other big milestone moment in your life like the first bit of hobby materials you purchased with your own money or were given by family? One of the first games I remember being bought just for me was Warioland for the Gameboy, for example, and one boss fight that hails from it has already received a set this contest.


As you can see, I've picked this one so we have a nice open-ended finale for this contest ("Anniversary" was gonna be my pick but it's much narrower in definition so I went with Milestone instead). With so many characters closing in on something hopefully big, shiny, and not sporting a judicious amount of teeth or bloodlust, we've come a long way since the start of this contest- and of the beginning of MYM in general- so it's worth looking back at those good times to reminisce (or those not-so-good times to be grateful for how far we've come).

 

[Arctic Tern]

I am the shadow on the moon at night
Filling your dreams to the brim with fright

(Jamcon 4 entry)​

 

[Katapultar]

Spoiler: Oogie Boogie

I was really excited to see a new Oogie moveset - I’m still fond of the dice concepts in my old set, but that set has naturally aged, and the character more than has the potential for a shiny new set. This set makes Oogie a lot faster than I imagined, but it makes sense gameplay-wise, and that he lacks the tools to be an aggressive rushdown character. Very glad to see Oogie’s bug-leaking aspect being reduced to a visual effect rather than a mechanic like in my old set.

The way this set handles RNG is very neat - you can use Neutral Special uncharged, but it forces you to rely on luck, or you can charge the move to remove worse results and potentially guarantee Oogie’s best trap. I”m especially a fan of being able to interact with Oogie’s dice to alter his result, which was in my old set and may or may not have inspired it here. And the dynamic of either fighter being able to throw the dice off-screen to “fix” its results so Oogie is stuck with it for a while.

• Big win for implementing Oogie’s “SNAKE EYES?!” from the film, which I remember well.

The traps at Oogie’s disposal are all quite reasonable - indestructible traps that can hit/stun repeatedly would normally put me on alert, but they only last for 5 seconds in general, and Oogie has to go through some legwork to get them with his dice roll. It might be a good idea to give opponents brief immunity to the Card Sharps trap if they’re hit by it, just so Oogie can’t casually knock them back and forth into the trap (assuming he has the means to). The saw might be my favourite among the traps - it’s hard to say no to traps that can naturally chain into other traps, not to mention it can be used to approach as well as be set up in the air. Snake and Spider stew is fun as just being a really powerful kill trap, something you don’t see a lot of in modern MYM sets, and the sheer evilness of being able to drag opponents into it with the saw. It’s also funny that Oogie can heal himself with the stew if you press A, getting more healing if there’s a foe inside it.

• Very glad to see Oogie’s shadow powers from the PS2 game being in this set. This is our third Tern duplicate set this contest, but with the twist that Oogie’s duplicate stays in place.
• Side Special brings back memories of my Oogie set similarly having an inhale… I think? Forgot he inhaled to any notable capacity in the film. A pretty MYM’ian input when its trap and dice interactions are considered, as well as being able to spit out your dice and inhale your stew.
• Up Special is interesting in the context of Oogie’s shadow - you can’t attack on your hook, but your shadow can and the fact that you’re not in lag lets you kind of act while your shadow is in the middle of their slow attack.
• F-Smash is a fun little MYM’ian projectile that could be considered a 5th Special, generating an explosion that Oogie has a good amount of control over. I especially like this line “if there’s a single move that tells the player that Oogie shouldn’t be played like a heavyweight despite his size, this is probably it.” in the context of Oogie’s dice throw not being a conventional Forward Smash.
• U-Smash is another MYM’ian style input with its platform creation, with the unique twist of damaging opponents who attempt to use your platform. The dynamic of a trap-centric character who relies on platforms for their combo game is pretty great, as it naturally meshes well with the fact that they can litter a main platform with traps.
• Oogie being able to stop D-Smash’s knockback early makes a surprising amount of sense given a roulette is being used. It caps off a fun set of Smashes.

Oogie’s melee has an interesting dynamic of long end lag that serves to make his melee more punishable and less practical, fitting for his trap character archetype. This prevents Oogie from making as much use of the Jab worms as he could, while Dash Attack strikes me as not being all that potent on hit - a good example of a move that’s easy to hit with, but Oogie only really gets the best use out of it if he has traps to play with. The shadow being able to trap and drag opponents into a dice explosion without harming the real Oogie is great. D-tilt is arguably the highlight among Oogie’s Tilts, with its varying knockback and unique late burying hitbox that’s balanced out by opponents being invulnerable while they’re buried (due to being under the stage) - but is still great for 50/50s.

• It’s funny how Oogie’s N-air effectively turns him into Castlevania Dracula flavour-wise - or perhaps Alucard from Hellsing would be a better comparison for the Ternverse.
• It’s humorously refreshing to get a B-air that’s “only” 2 paragraphs long.
• I don’t know if it was intentional, but it’s amazing that B-air, U-air and D-air’s attack names all rhyme with each other.
• U-air is a particularly fun Aerial with some Alucard vibes, thanks to its different hitgrab results and potential mix-ups. It makes a lot of sense for a trap character to have an U-air that deals downwards knockback, but this set is not so bland as to just say “Here’s an U-air that deals downwards knockback, great for knocking foes into your traps!” when N-air and B-air can do similar things.
• D-air is fun for its one-time stage-bouncing effect.
• I love Forward Throw’s whole flavour of Oogie having the magical power to shape his opponent’s shadow into a shadowy copy of himself. It’s a unique take on time bomb throws - being able to use nerfed non-Special/Grab attacks from your opponent’s position might be a bit extreme, but foes do have a good bit of time to prepare for the effect and pressure Oogie out of exploiting the shadow. Expanding on Oogie’s weird shadow-manipulating powers from Oogie’s Revenge by using them to strengthen his physical attacks is just cool flavour-wise.
• I like how U-throw reuses the Up Special hook on a directionally-fitting input. The poker trivia is nice, and Oogie gets more utility out of “specifically position foe into trap” by being able to dump them off-stage or release them immediately for a surprise follow-up.

Oogie Boogie is another very good set in your arsenal this contest, loaded with some fun inputs and a sensible take on some old MYM archetypes. Specifically, he is my favourite Jamcon set you’ve written so far - I’m glad to see you made good use of this Jamcon’s extended setmaking period to throw out an entry that stands above your usual Jamcon fare, as solid and inoffensive as Asgore and Seras are.

 

[BrazilianGuy]

Hey, Milestones am I right? Work has made it so I cant foccus as much on set making, but I wanted to be a part of the Jamcon so here's a woman who can bend reality to her will : )

Milestone Jamcon

Hey, Jamcon am I right? Milestone at first sounded like a rough theme, lots of potential for sure, but also hard. Until I realized that a certain game I usually play every now and then has just reached a pretty big milestone. Recently Overwatch 2 has reached 100 Million players, a pretty big Mi...

docs.google.com

 

[GolisoPower]

一
瞬
千
撃
Write a thousand sets.​

抜
山
蓋
世
Usurp the leaders!

鬼
哭
啾
啾
Embrace the madness!​

故
豪
鬼
成
Become the demon!
​

 

[BridgesWithTurtles]

Jamcon set:

​

 

[UserShadow7989]

"I need more blood... yours will do nicely."

Jamcon 27-4 entry up!

Important notice: We're giving it an extra day for those who are riding the submission deadline. Get your sets in!

 

[TortoiseNotTurtle]

"I've been doing some extra-special training. I feel much deadlier now, darling"

Jamcon 4 Entry

​

 

[Katapultar]

Spoiler: Symmetra

I’m starting to notice that your sets begin with a message on how much the character and/or their franchise mean to you, and I am all for that. I’m a bit surprised that this contest has gotten Overwatch sets from like 3 people now.

• Being able to move around while charging your Neutral Special is a nice touch. It should come as no surprise that the move reminds me of Ed’s Neutral Special, perhaps because both moves use a table. Canceling a charge with a specific move is also a unique little touch.
• It’s hard not to see the Sigma inspiration on Side Special. Being able to walk alongside your barrier and resist attacks that hit both the barrier and you might be annoying to play against, but it helps that the barrier only covers one side of Symm. Symm also has to walk forward to stay in contact with it, limiting what she can do while she’s covered (unless you manually stop the barrier in place), and the barrier has a long cooldown if it’s destroyed. I appreciate the balance factors on this move, like how the barrier is limited to Steve Block space and will eventually push past opponents it is pushing along. Being able to use the barrier as a platform or a wall makes it a particularly appealing move.
• The teleporters add another layer of fun. I assume that teleporting while charging Neutral Special or a Smash would involve pressing A or B respectively during those inputs, and that charging is paused while you’re going through teleport lag.

I’m guessing that the Down Special turrets don’t deal hitstun to opponents, and the speed-reduction effect only lasts while opponents are exposed to the beam. The latter doesn’t list a timer for its status effect, and it would feel overpowered if they could flinch opponents in spite of their cooldown - their beam reaches opponents from as far as 5 grids, which is pretty good, and there is no listed delay for when the beams fire when an opponent gets within range of a turret. The idea of “teleport turrets with your teleporter to ambush opponents” is good, though, and you did have to work with the time restraints inherent to a Jamcon.

• Jab dealing more damage the more damage you deal with it is kind of neat. Big props for referencing all of the Specials and how they synergize with beam spam.
• I see the Squidward Stamp from the screenshot you showed us. Dash Attack does have a lot of start-up (which the set admits) and seemingly no huge benefits or rewards to compensate for such, but you could argue that it’s intentionally undertuned as a burst option to compensate for Symmetra’s ranged and set-up options. I could see the start-up benefitting from the protection of Side Special’s barrier.
• D-tilt’s projectile being able to carry turrets is kind of fun.
• Down Air has a funny pun.

Symmetra is another good Jamcon set from you alongside Buzz and Arum. For now I believe the turrets could do with some more clarification, as I don’t know how balanced they are right now. The set seems to lose steam and feel less inspired later on into the Grab game and Smashes, being arguably less consistent than Arum in my opinion. But you do mention being very busy irl, and again this is a Jamcon set and you’ll have opportunities to edit Symmetra later on.

Spoiler: Akuma

I honestly never thought we would get an Akuma set for a Jamcon, but he does kind of feel like a Goliso character in terms of being a guy who pulls off ridiculous feats. He’s an iconic character who really deserves a full-fledged moveset. I imagined that Akuma would be lighter when he’s a glass cannon in this set and some SF installments, but he probably has a weak recovery.

Akuma’s first set of Specials are what you’d expect from his Ryu/Ken similarities and general faithfulness to his source material. His Neutral Special is a versatile projectile, and I suspect that his Up Special trades recovery potential for just being a deadly attack and out-of-shield option - the only specific mention of its travel distance comes from the light version saying it sends Akuma up a shorthop’s distance. The moves are relatively short, but they still manage to convey what they need to, and it’s kind of refreshing to not have to take in a lot of frame data details.

Where Akuma truly breaks away from Ryu and Ken is in his Down Special, a Rekka-style move with the unique ability to determine how far Akuma moves and then whip out one of numerous follow-ups. Even if you don’t input a follow-up! Demon Low Slash seems to serve as a secondary recovery alongside Side Special. It doesn’t seem like shielding would help much against Akuma’s Down Special options - Demon Low Slash has very low end lag, Demon Guillotine is good against shields, Great Demon Crush is a grab - making Akuma’s Demon Raid Flip a “don’t shield at all” button, but one could argue that it’s there to punish opponents who block your fireballs - and rewards Akuma players for exploiting such moments and having good positioning. An interesting design choice.

Okay, we’ve had a decent chunk of quality fighting game sets, but this might be the first one to utilize the shield input alongside a command input. And you know what? The control scheme makes a surprising amount of sense when Ashura Senkū is effectively a pseudo dodge/roll, plus it has an optional grab follow-up. I assume that Oboro Throw has a notable degree of end lag if Akuma whiffs it, as would make sense for an option he can whip out from his iconic afterimage movement.

Okay, so Akuma does really, truly break from Ryu and Ken with his unique mechanic. The conditions for activating this mechanic - Akuma or his opponent deal 15% or more in a single blow - is not only unique, but ties into Akuma’s character very well. We all know that Akuma can dish out explosive power, but it also represents his desire to fight a worthy opponent and him deciding not to hold back (or just not hold back as much?). It’s particularly cool that Killing Surge isn’t all benefits - it also increases the damage Akuma receives! This means that opponents can nail Akuma with a Smash and really use his mechanic against him if he plays poorly enough. It also ties into his glass cannon status very well. While Akuma doesn’t have a Killing Surge mechanic in his home series (at least to my understanding), it doesn’t feel unnatural, and is the kind of thing that Sakurai might implement if he was actually in Smash. We did get Sephiroth’s one-winged mechanic, after all.

Killing Surge also seems to be pretty balanced - Akuma can lose it through a number of conditions, and the nature behind this means that he can only do an attack cancel once, preventing it from being too ridiculous. Akuma also needs to commit to an action in order to expend Killing Surge, so he can’t just casually turn off the mode to avoid taking more damage.

Oh, and Akuma also has his Shin Akuma state that makes his Killing Surge permanent when he’s in Rage. I assume this refers to his Rage being maxed-out from 150%, and not as soon as you get Rage from 35%? The latter makes it much more rewarding for Akuma to survive to late percents that he is unlikely to reach. The mechanic also accounts for the fact that Akuma can potentially cancel his attacks multiple times when his Killing Surve becomes permanent. I honestly like and respect that you went surprisingly hard on Akuma like this - your direction makes a lot of sense for his character, and the set is so much more interesting for it. It fits your style (and the type of sets you like) in being a ForwardArrow style of “this character can reach ridiculous extremes of power with set-up”. It might all be overtuned, as Akuma has pretty good base numbers and his Messatsu Specials are quite strong, but I’d prefer that to the set playing it safe.

Side Smash has interest in being a Link-style attack where you can choose to knock your opponent back for cancel follow-ups or just KO them. The move feels a bit too powerful, as it’s frame 7 (the fastest Forward Smashes tend to come out as early as frame 10) and isn’t far off a heavyweight Smash in terms of power. End lag isn’t mentioned, but it would have to be a considerable amount to balance out its power and start-up. That would make good use of Killing Surge’s cancel mechanics, though. Up Smash states that the knockback scaling is a bit wonky, but I don’t believe it mentions how that is the case. I like Kara Canceling being mentioned on Down Smash, since it was a thing with Ryu and Ken in Smash - I’m guessing you’d want to charge your Down Smash, giving opponents time to register that you’re going to use it, then Kara Cancel to counter whichever option they attempted to to counter your Down Smash with. It would be interesting if say, Down Smash has counterplay established against it - jumping over the hitbox is probably obvious, but that could be met with an Up Special, and attempting to get behind Akuma to exploit Down Smash’s one-sided hitbox would probably result in Akuma’s auto-turning mechanic activating.

Neutral Air is a nice classic sex kick of “early hit launches, late hit deals low knockback but can start up a combo if you land with it.”

I can’t say for certain that Akuma is well-balanced, and many of his moves lack some details like lag and weaknesses (whether they’re bad against shields, general counterplay against them), but overall I enjoyed Akuma more than I expected! Enough for him to potentially get a vote if he isn’t pushed down by too many sets. The moveset gets a surprising amount of mileage from a 10k with extras and various extra inputs, though having Ryu and Ken to compare to does help.

Spoiler: Rambi & Squawks

Donkey Kong and Disney villains in a single Jamcon? Jamcon 4 really is catering to Kupa.

These two are another tag-team like Medli and Makar in MYM25. I like how some of their situational animations are described, where Rambi’s body shape gives him a bad ledge state - something that is almost never brought up in movesets. Rambi’s tip mechanic also adds some unique utility beyond the obvious choice of “you deal more damage and knockback.” His Side Special is simple but sounds satisfying in practice, where you can do a quick powerful charge across the stage in exchange for needing to invest some charging time. The Specials as a whole are really more simple and modest than your other recent entries, but these are simple characters, and it’s only fair when they don’t have a lot to play off of in their source material. Down Special admittedly feels low on substance, but there’s only so much you can do with a lantern without getting tacky. Maybe Squawks could play off his role in the more recent DK games and let Rambi dig up treasures to use as weapons? Might be a bit of work to implement, though. Being able to go into a Neutral Special from Squawk attacks to fire from different angles does give NSpec a bit of extra spice.

Dash Attack is interesting, as it uses the power of logic to deal more damage to opponents who run into your horn. It’s a bit of a hard-sell that opponents would actually walk or run into Rambi, but it’s useful and inoffensive niche nonetheless. I humorously thought that Down Smash would involve summoning lava, as your previous MYM27 sets had their own surprising gimmicks on their Smashes, and I like Down Air’s ability to be intuitively auto-cancelled from your max jump height. Wasn’t expecting Squawks’ ranged grab to just pin opponents in place and let you take control of Rambi, but it does give Squawks a good chunk of extra utility and a reason to keep him alive. It’s also interesting that U-throw gets a buff when you have Down Special active - and what the grab game would be like if that was a thing on all the throws (could help to further make up for Down Special’s drawbacks, and losing your ranged grab with Squawks).

I’d say that Rambi and Squawks are your weakest set this contest, as you did warn on posting them, but their melee is still solid enough, and they’re a welcome addition to the Jamcon and DK moveset line-up.

Spoiler: Bloodless

This is an unexpected character pick, but it does fall in-line with the small amount of vampire-based sets we’ve gotten this contest. Bloodless being a vampire who wields a parasol and has a set by a YGO fan brings Vampire Fraulein to mind.

The blood mechanic reminds me of old MYM mechanics - spreading “goop” when you attack or are attacked - and is fascinating for the fact that you can permanently lose blood if it goes offstage, but it is primarily tied to Bloodless having passive armour rather than her being overly-dependent on using it for attacks and elaborate set-ups. The Neutral Special meshes with the blood mechanic in an interesting way, where its downwards knockback can be strong against recovering opponents - at the cost of potentially losing all the blood you used to make that umbrella. Side Special is a simple projectile, and Down Special gives you a big old reward for spreading blood across the stage, forcing opponents to hide where blood is not.

It’s bold of anyone to make a powerful attack with a ridiculously long duration, but F-Smash’s increasingly higher launch angle and ability to be ended early keep Bloodless from being locked into the duration or screwing over recovering opponents too easily. Her Standard attacks pack tricks to spread blood across the stage to a minor effect, while her foreshadowed Aerials are the most effective part of her moveset that punish opponents who avoid her blood patches. I wonder if they are too few methods for Bloodless to manipulate blood patches and really threaten opponents enough to justify them taking to the air, but Down Special is potent enough and feels completely fair - it’s refreshing that this set doesn’t go too hard on weaponizing blood patches, and that the one means of turning them into a hitbox is very reactable. I also have to wonder whether Bloodless’s disgusted B-air animation was inspired by MYM3 Dracula’s Down Air? Forward Throw is interesting with Bloodless’s mechanics much like Neutral Special, where the throw is either good at spreading blood across the stage - or KO’ing foes very early at the ledge at the cost of blood.

While not especially ambitious for the set’s archetype, Bloodless is nonetheless a solid set that manages a more modern, organic twist on an old movesetting genre.

 

[UserShadow7989]

Submissions for Jamcon 27 - 4 are now closed! I'd like to give a hearty 'thank you' to all those who participated, even if you didn't create a finished entry. The goal of a Jamcon is to get you moving and put together some fast sets, so if it got your creative juices flowing even temporarily, that's a win right there.

A more literal winner will be determined once the voting period is over; everyone is free to read through this Jamcon's submissions and vote for one set they liked the most, and once this period is done, we'll tally the votes to determine which set won and which lucky author will be choosing the next Jamcon's theme (which will probably be the first Jamcon of the next contest). The submissions for this Jamcon are as follows:


"He's gonna do the best he can; the sound of rolling dice to him is music in the air, 'cause he's a gambling Boogie Man!"; Oogie Boogie is a long time MYM favorite, and Arctic Tern has taken a crack at representing the big bag of bugs with a modern set.

Stepping into a more modern medium darling, Overwatch has had many fans join the contest as time goes on and deliver a wide variety of character picks for sets. One of the more popular characters, Symmetra, gets her due thanks to the efforts of BrazilianGuy

GolisoPower had a devil of a time bringing this set to us, but we're glad to see we've managed the perfect run to unlock the right to fight him. The various villains of this MYM's hypothetical story mode better watch out for Akuma's Raging Demon!

Meanwhile, a blast from the past has been unboxed by BridgesWithTurtles ; Donkey Kong's miscellaneous misadventures have made a mark on Make Your Move history, but its animal buddies have been criminally underrepped. Rambi & Squawks join the frey to make up for that!

And because we haven't had enough tonal whiplash going back and forth between these entries, we take a hard turn into the morbid with my submission: Bloodless from Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon.

If you think her design is a bit much, then you haven't seen the next submission. Coming from a divisive entry in a loved series with a story about division, she has a deceptively well-rounded... character. Low brow humor aside, T TortoiseNotTurtle 's set makes no bones about how Camilla is presented, and proudly tries to capture the feel of playing as a loving if crazy lady with a big axe and an even bigger wyvern.


Get your votes in by July 14th! Good luck to all our participants!

 

[Katapultar]

Spoiler: Camilla

(minor note: The Design Philosophy section states that you didn’t want to lean into the ostentatiously sexualized aspect of Camilla’s character that overshadows her other qualities, which is a good thing. I do think that outright referring to her as “Big-Boobie Wyvern Rider” and posting a JJK meme image referring to Camilla as “mommy” do draw attention to her sexualization in a way that goes against said philosophy: the Camilla images and saying she’s the main fanservice character of FE Fates is enough to get the point across to readers. This has nothing to do with the quality of the set, just thought I should bring it up.)

We’ve had no shortage of Fire Emblem sets throughout MYM, but I don’t think we’ve explicitly had one for a Wyvern Rider. Here Camilla needs to earn a temporary wyvern ride through a bond mechanic, which is fitting for the more modern anime-ish FE games and Camilla’s character trait of wanting to be a loving sister. I suspect that it’s in-character that Marzia’s trust has to be earned, and that they aren’t always co-operative with Camilla? The wyvern mechanics track, where Camilla can’t shield or grab, but can’t be grabbed and is resistant to damage and knockback unless she is struck herself, making her more offensive-orientated while she’s mounting. I like that the taunts - placed at the start of the set - bear relevancy to improving Camilla’s bond with her wyvern. Oh, and the image depicting Marzia’s hypothetically toned-down size in Smash is very helpful for mental imagery.

• 5 seconds of float time miiight be a bit much for stalling purposes, but it is balanced out by the fact that Camilla has limited riding time. Older setmakers like myself and others tend to be iffy on stalling, and consider 3-4 seconds to be the highest acceptable number.
• Oh, so Camilla’s wyvern doesn’t have an official name, lol. It does feel like Camilla would name her wyvern, anyway.
• It would be funny if you couldn’t select Mario to fight against Peach in Smash, or use Link against Zelda. Actually, that would be annoying in practice, but still funny, like how Sanji’s moveset gets altered/nerfed against female characters in Jump Force. Banning Camilla from fighting Corrin doesn’t negatively affect my opinion of this set, but it is funny enough to warrant me bringing attention to it.

• Neutral Special is a potentially interesting move, where it spawns the wyvern above Camilla to fire out a powerful fire projectile diagonally downwards. It’s just held back by a considerable lack of detail like most of the other moves: how much damage and knockback does the projectile deal? How far does it travel? How laggy is it? The fireball’s position and movement would also have gameplay applications, like the fact that it couldn’t be used as a conventional projectile - you’d need to rain it down on opponents from the right position.
• It is slightly odd that the wyvern functions as a straight-up wall when placed with Side Special, but I like the idea of being able to position them to fire out Neutral Special fireballs from different angles. It has similar vibes to the Specials from your OC Byleth set. Could be fun if the wyvern acted as a platform for Camilla, but that might be a bit much.
• I imagine that Up Special being a poor recovery is meant to punish Camilla players who have emptied out their bond meter and can’t access their wyvern. Could be worth mentioning.

• U-tilt is a surprisingly nice move, where it can pull opponents down into a prone game and have your wyvern block off their escape routes with Side Special. Tech chasing seems like it’d be up Camilla’s alley with her slow and powerful attacks.
• It’s a bit strange that Camilla’s Forward Smash is a fast-ish slap rather than a full-on heavy axe swing like you’d expect from her archetype. I assume that the Easter Egg of dealing more damage to taunting opponents is meant to reference something Camilla did in Fates.
• I like that U-Smash has pseudo-counter properties thanks to its amour on start-up. It would be worth mentioning that it’s a good out-of-shield option, since you can throw out U-Smashes out of shielding.
• I’m iffy on Camilla’s Down Throw animation when it involves using a kiss to distract her opponent - would prefer it if she just physically restrained her opponent to hold them in place for the wyvern stomp. It would also make sense if the throw used up bond points if it uses the wyvern like some of the Specials, perhaps being a more powerful bury to compensate.
• The set has no U-air, but that’s easy to overlook - you may have forgotten to include it by accident.
• It’s nice to see Brawl gliding incorporated in this set, but it admittedly doesn’t go into detail on its usages.
• Wyvern B-air is good for drawing attention to the set’s float mechanic and Charizard’s B-air.

While Camilla is hampered by a shortage of detail and Jamcon constraints, I believe she has the most promising concepts of your MYM27 entries, and proved to be my favourite among them. Will also state that there’s no shame in picking a character like Camilla and feeling that you have to be overly-conservative or not do her out of fear of the fanservice aspects being potentially controversial. I’ve made my share of characters who are just as bad, if not worse, and moveset-making ultimately gives people the freedom to express what they like. I prefer a set that’s faithful to the character even if it means portraying questionable aspects (within reason), and Camilla seems to have succeeded in striking a balance between her cool traits and more fanservice-based animations like her taunts, B-air/D-air and B-throw.

Jamcon nomination goes to Oogie Boogie! He was my favourite entry by a notable margin, but that's not to discount the effort that everyone else put in.

 

[n88]

Nice work getting the jamcon sets in, everyone!

This is a friendly announcement to let everyone know that we've set a date, and MYM27's submission period will end on Monday, August 5th. We're in the endgame now.

 

[Arctic Tern]

All sets this Jamcon have been commented!

My vote goes to Rambi & Squawks, my favorite set of the sets that I didn't write by a good margin.

 

[BrazilianGuy]

Jamcon Comments shall come as I can

Spoiler: Oogie Boogie

I never watched "A Nightmare Before Christmas" I was always really scared of it and other horror stop-motion movies like Coraline and Paranorman, but I've heard great things about it, including about Spooky Boogie. Before reading it I did watch his Song on Youtube since it is where most of his screen time goes to, rightfully so since it's a banger. It was very fun getting to learn about how he got expanded upon with games like Kingdom Hearts, love to see it. As far as I know of the character he is translated very well, has fun animations, and shows off a lot of his personality and powers. Love the detail of his body ripping and showing the bugs more and more as he keeps fighting, the screaming skeleton for the Up Smash, and how a lot of his moves seem simple but have more to them, almost like Booby has a card up his sleeves. Dice Rolling is a fun special and I love all his traps, especially his Brawl Kirby Final Smash, is fun to see a rewarding move that isn't just pure damage as this also heals. I do think Oogie could be really annoying to deal with, with all the traps, projectiles, platforms and potential healing he can get, but he does need to have luck or put a ton of work into it so if he gets it, he deserves it. His other Specials are also awesome, love how the Shadow Clone Jutsu is implemented and how it has synergy with his Up Special very fun. So yeah, I'll try to be briefer in my comments, but I did like Oogey, enough to the point where I wanna go watch the movie he's from! Oogey gets a Buggy/10 from me