Make Your Move 28: Chrome, Madeline Ashton, The Scarecrow, Acer Vinacade, Maka Albarn, King Koopa

[GolisoPower]

Rats, Rats, They're The Rats, Celebrating Yet Another MYM Bash
Rat Witch Natalia by Arctic Tern

Our first Witchverse set this contest, and it's already a banger for this JamCon. Much like your last Veronica Files set with Alcohol Witch Daniella, Rat Witch Natalia is a character that I feel you did a really great job at.

Off the bat, her set is...well, very strangely reminiscent of Taokaka from BlazBlue, and it's funny because Tao's a cat and Natalia's a rat. She's very mobile in a lot of her Specials, which certainly helps when she can summon her rat subjects with her Neutral Special to cover her mobility. I like how the rats work, by the way: a permanent swarm of summons that can catch a foe off guard if they don't pay attention. With three of them out on a single platform of the stage, I could imagine the devious locking if they're on a smaller platform or even against one of Steve's blocks. On smaller platforms, I imagine the stunlocking with rats before landing a stronger attack. It helps if you decide to jump into the sewers with Down Special, a teleport plant Special that places a Point A and a Point B and gives Natalia a new set of normals when she's equipped with a sewer grate and can smash people with it. It especially helps when Side Special can easily evade punishes just as she leaves the sewer and counter-punish someone with either a quick claw swipe or a fun command grab for great burst damage. I like the potential interplay between the two moves, it feels extremely...ahem, ratty when she uses them. Lastly we have the showy Up Special that lands a nasty dropkick on the foe and send them a great distance away. I could see her using a sewer to travel to the foe's position real quick, then if they decide to jump you use Up Special to catch them. Just in general the sewer has extreme mindgames potential.

Natalia also gets points for characterization: this smarmy little halfpint girl flaunting her self-proclaimed status with her army of subjects and acting like this dignified queen while she succeeds...but goes into this foul-mouthed brat as soon as she flubs up. There's this great comedic juxtaposition between the two that absolutely follows up how I envisioned her: a comic relief character. The added tough of making her a rat girl due to fleshcrafting is also a fun thing. Just in general, the picture I have of this tiny girl based on your description was fun. I wonder if she has a nutcracker in her domain...

But either way, I enjoyed this set even if it took a while to get through. Nice work for writing this, Tern!

Threatening To Steal The Spotlight
Maulbuster by Hyper_Ridley

Off the heels of our first Witchverse set of the contest, we have our first Antonblast set of the entirety of MYM, one of the more infamous boss fights of the game. She's pretty much a version of Brawl Dedede made for the modern day and tied to a unique mechanic that would not be out of place in Ultimate. The projectile/area denial play between Neutral Special, Side Special and Down Special is amazing: they have to deal with little German mole people or bats carrying anvils while at the same time having to deal with A) a massive tomato projectile that deals big bursts of damage at the risk of damaging herself, or B) a vocal salvo of Shakespearean agony that has a different pattern based on tilt direction. Swear to god, she could give the Phantom of the Bwah-pera a run for his ghostly money. You could Ganondorf the tomato while spitting some stage-play suffering for some disgusting projectile play, but then alternatively a foe could run into a Ballbuster that they never really accounted for. The set had to take some liberties to pad out the rest of the set, like her Up Special, but it seems genuinely faithful to the personality of this mole lady: a pompous primadonna who is scary when mad. It's a nice, short, quick read that serves as a pretty good debut of Antonblast to this franchise. I'm genuinely considering doing Jewel Ghoul after this, to be honest...but I'm getting off track, this was a good set!

We Eatin' Good Tonight, Bois
Gabby Gator by BrazilianGuy

Another set from the up-and-coming king of Woody Woodpecker, and our sole gluttony representative, Gabby Gator is an interesting pick for this JamCon:, he's generally got some weak knockback attacks, but they're all for a surprising alternate means of KO'ing: cooking the foe alive with a stove that he brings with him to the fight. One of them is his NSpec, a voodoo doll that can help set up a foe for Gabby's antics and nudge them dangerously closer to the stove. The fact that Gabby can do this from anywhere after some long prep feels terrifying, especially when you can control which direction they're knocked toward, so he could knock them towards Gabby for some risky maneuvers. Side Special's an alternate grab with its own pummel but a singular grab that delivers them to the stove for some cooking. While laggy I'm imagining some fun repositioning stuff occurring much in the same way as Ridley with his Side Special somewhat. Up Special's a hilarious little gag where Gabby tries (and fails) to emulate the Deviljho and eat his own tail, only for him to fly upwards from the pain. While it's a slow-ish recovery you have something like NSpec to help cover your return to solid land prior, and the bandaging of the tail's a cute detail too. Lastly, you have a pressure cooker that turns projectiles into steam and food, almost like a Game & Watch Down Special with some extra benefits. Fortunately, it affects your own carrot projectiles from Side Special as well so it's not entirely useless against the likes of Ganondorf or Incineroar.

The amount of cartoonish gags and gluttonous preparation for Gabby is hilarious and fun. I was not expecting the shot of Gabby pointing with a realistic hand, that feels like something out of a modern YTP of some sort. I do like how every move is crafted to revolve around the stove, where even the moves that would normally kill (even though they still do their job of scoring normal KO's) are also used to nudge them to that point. It certainly feels more involved and finely done than my Among Us set did with that Meeting Table of his. Overall, long live the new MYM King of Woody Woodpecker. Good work!

 

[Arctic Tern]

Through the darkness of future past
The magician longs to see
One chants out between two walls
Fire, walk with me

(Secret Santa set, for n88)​

 

[BrazilianGuy]

Jamcon Comments - The Abyss Lord

Spoiler: Gratty

Gratteer'Id is another interesting oc with a coolio design. Sort of a Forsburn meets Slenderman if you ask me, but he's cool. I liked going through this set and also imagining how he'd work in a Hero Shooter, since their game is inspired by Overwatch. It' also quite amazing how well he fit into the 7 deadly sins theme, very nice opportunity to get them out into the world.

Side Special is not only my favorite Move in this set but also the closest one to Gabby Gator since it's a dashing command grab. But it's also an invincible dash, actually giving Gratty some good survivability to go along with his heavy weight, It's nice stuff, I love the risk vs. reward present in this attack as well. Tho, I have my issues with Down Special, firstly, much like Rat Witch Nat, I feel like the time they spent on their own shadow is a bit too much, 5 seconds with no cooldowns between usages definitely is a bit much, and would lead into campy behavior. I'd also like to know how it works in the air and a bit more than just the beam. The beam is cool, but I feel like the actual shadow dive could be expanded upon. I did like the big balls on Neutral Special, and Up Special is fine .

I dig how his Down Tilt has him manipulate the foe into tripping, that's actually pretty clever and fits the character, same thing goes to Down Air with its flinch before the strike. Btw I saw Tern point this out, but other than being proud of how manipulative he is, didn't get too much Pride out of him, he didn't need a pride meter but idk, just seems extra important since the Jamcon is themed around it.

I also have to point out that there are no Victory Screens, I'm sorry, but those matter as much as any other move to me since they are important to express character. All in all, Gratty is a good short read with a very unique man-made horror beyond my comprehension design, hope to see more of him in the future or from his universe.

 

[n88]

Killer BOB by Arctic Tern
Dig the focus on "suffering" - makes a lot of sense for Bob. I do think 15 frames of activity starting on frame 5 is pretty generous frame data for his central hitgrab? High endlag adds some risk but this doesn't sound that tough to land. Also I suspect the way the time grows linearly and the way he can always just extend the duration even if he already has the buff up means that there isn't necessarily a huge incentive to build more time, past a few seconds. Like if you just go for it whenever the going is good, are you really losing out on anything by getting a few seconds of superstate now and a few more later versus a lump sum of superstate? It sounds like this move directly sets up a prone situation that his amped up FSmash and DSmash will be good for, and he doesn't need that long to pay off a tech chase. Plus he can combo into DSpec.

A few other various DSpec thoughts:

• I like the move conceptually a lot, but I'm not sure how hard he's really motivated to prolong suffering and I think he can pick up some pretty solid buffs to his Smashes without too much trouble on his own end.
• I do kinda wonder if he should be able to lose superstate - set doesn't specify so not sure if he loses it on KO but I imagine he should lose timer if he goes too long without landing hits (like the way he loses "hits" if he takes too long to hit the opponent before landing his hitgrab).
• Not sure if you've thought too much about how he should work in FFA but I think it'd be fun if hit counters were individual to each unique fighter, but counted hits from everyone. Gives him kind of a politicking element where he wants to dogpile on someone, compensates for how hard it is to focus someone down in that environment.

A few nitpicky technical thoughts on Smashes:

• Shield break on FSmash is a bit spicy? He does have to put some work in to get the buff (but not that much, see previous note). I imagine with the considerable speed buff it's probably fine with just a hefty chunk of shield damage and not a full-on break. A frame 12 shield break is probably a bit too oppressive to play against even if not technically unfair relative to Bob having to earn it.
• A little iffy on USmash as something you combo. I could see landing it off a launcher maybe but not sure about it being a proper combo - unless he's packing slow aerials that sounds like his aerials are gonna be pretty free. (Note from later: aerials not slow)
• DSmash I would say is just plain not reactable uncharged - not necessarily an issue with the move, just not quite how it describes itself. Fun type of big unga bunga move that suits his violent nature. Pitfall effect seems meaty here but G&W does exist already I guess (not that nobody has complaints about that) and doesn't need a superstate.
• After checking out the other Smashes, do feel like FSmash probably doesn't need the shield break thing? I think the speed buff is the most compelling of his FSmash buffs and feels most in line with what the others get (something that makes it easier to land).
• I'm not sure Bob's FSmash reaches far enough out to catch airdodges away and combo out of DThrow as described - DThrow is described as sending diagonally upward and comboing into aerials, whereas the range of FSmash is listed as 2.5 grids forward, .75 up (waist height) - the standard airdodge distance is 2 grids so it's... possible if they're very low to the ground they're catching the edge of that but I suspect with any height they're drifting out of range. Bob's more likely just rushing them down and connecting with a faster attack. DThrow's a solid little attack but that jumped out at me.

Frame 6 command grab raised an eyebrow - not unheard of but a juicy thing to be chucking around - but I think the specifics of it being mostly a status effect thing that doesn't have any big pay-off of its own mean it's fair for it to be on the fast end and not feel amped. It's an interesting choice but I do think it runs into some of the issues I had with DSpec's timer and ease of landing it? I think if that move got some mild tweaks (non-linear gain or tweaks to how he can extend it), it'd make this one shine a bit more. (EDIT: there was a bit more payoff on this later that helps it out but generally still true that it'd benefit from a mild tweak on DSpec I think)

The doppelganger programming scheme feels a little awkward and took me a second pass to grok but it's not too bad. It does sound like summoning a doppelganger is basically instant and can happen in the middle of Bob's other attacks? Pretty juicy. He does have to go through attacks himself in order to program them, which is a neat limiter that the set doesn't really draw attention to (and making it "echo" him and be a doppelganger of the opponent that acts like Bob is very fun). He's already pretty fast and I imagine this could make him pretty oppressive? Though on the other hand it feels compellingly tricksy to set up and halved damage on the attack is a more than meaningful debuff. I imagine combined with already solid frame data he can abuse doppelgangers to keep himself very safe though. (Especially if he can do stuff like cover the endlag of DSpec? Apologies if he can't do that but I didn't catch that he couldn't)

I get why the different control scheme for Smashes in programming a doppelganger (lets him keep his secrets) but with his Smashes being kinda his showiest all-in on violence attacks I could also see keeping the control mechanism consistent and just having that as a limitation on charging his Smashes - they broadcast intent. (Or at least possibility! Since he could override later)

A lot of the simpler melee moves I don't have a ton of comment on - Dash Attack and UThrow I don't have a ton to say about but they're pretty solid little melee moves that feed into the curtain shenanigans well. I kinda wonder if Dash Attack should send him off ledges like Melee Kirby Dash Attack. Part of me thinks it'd be funny and suit the move name and character to a T but also I admittedly really like Melee Kirby Dash Attack and think it's funny to write a Kirby move onto super evil characters. Sauron also wound up with it IIRC.

Forward Tilt I actually kind of adore because I think it made the doppelganger summoning click for me on a thematic level - a character randomly appearing in the middle of this hitstop to start attacking really does feel like an insane David Lynch cut. I wonder if knockback stacking could do silly stuff in this move (and with doppelgangers generally).

"In terms of its defensive properties, Jab’s speed means that it beats out most Jabs" - not necessarily, 4 is about average for Jab. It's the most common Jab start-up and there's 36 Ult characters that can do better. I don't think he necessarily needs a faster Jab than that but just a fun trivia tidbit!

Side Special coming back around for a BThrow hard interaction time bomb is crazy. In general this late-breaking stretch of corruption-focused moves give a little more teeth to SSpec that was missing (perhaps I might have known earlier had I read the TradBob input order but I chose ChaosBob instead). Interacting with only a couple moves (so far?) does feel a little odd, especially in the context of only being a couple stray inputs like USpec and BThrow? I wonder if BThrow could get some kind of visual that tied it a bit more to SSpec. Maybe an owl appearance even if you don't have them corrupted when you use it.

I do wonder if that threaten DAir -> bait air dodge setup couldn't lead to some nasty BAir stage spikes.

"this is largely reserved for casual matchups or in matches with Steve." extremely powerful to denote that reenacting the death of a major character on Twin Peaks is tech exclusive to Steve. FThrow is a powerful closing note for the set in general - having normals named "Affront to God" and "Trip to Montana" couldn't be more in the spirit of Lynch.

I think my notes on how his centerpiece DSpec could maybe stress its themes a little harder with slightly different restrictions on how he builds "meter" are my only particularly pertinent criticisms. The kit is often abstract and weird and has some insane animations but as a big Twin Peaks fan it all makes perfect sense to me. Delightful choice for the secret santa, I was very pleased with this one. Been memorializing David Lynch lately and only just picked up the reprint of the Twin Peaks full box set, so this is moveset is coming at a particularly timely moment and as silly as it is to ask "how does Bob work in Smash Bros" I do love seeing this little incarnation of the man's work (even if Lynch feels like more of a BlazBlue guy than a Smash Bros guy).

Not sure I hit the note too hard but the curtain that "doesn't do anything" until a doppelganger comes running out of it is probably my favorite conceptual moment in the kit, though I think the hitgrab that leads off the moveset is a bit more my jam mechanically overall. It's a fun realization of a surrealist horror character that a lot of people would say is very tough - oddly puts me in mind of Regina George a bit, in that sense. They are both incarnations of evil, I suppose.

 

[Katapultar]

Killer Bob

It’s really cool to see a new Secret Santa moveset. Never seen Twin Peaks, only know about it through the MYM chat, but this character definitely has Randall Flag vibes. I actually read the standard version of this moveset, but I do appreciate the deviation in presentation of the main doc. Reminds me of MYM7 Rider and some old Junahu movesets. Reading the design notes here makes me appreciate your choice more.

Neutral Special is one fun MYM’ian attack. Creating a duplicate of your opponent is nostalgic, as it brings back memories of Ameno Sagiri and Skull Kid. Being able to place your curtain literally anywhere on the screen from anywhere also reminds me of old set-up-based movesets. It’s smart that doppelgangers are limited to one attack when they’re chasing opponents, whereas BOB could get pretty wild if he gets to use his opponent’s moveset alongside his own via hold inputs. Makes it good that doppelgangers only deal half as much damage and knockback when attacking alongside BOB, but being able to summon them while you’re in the middle of an attack might be a bit much. It helps that they’re not casual to summon though, not to mention they’re put on a cooldown once they attack.

Agreed that the mechanics behind Down Special embody BOB’s character really well. Do hits from doppelgangers count towards this? Because that would make the two Specials work even better with each other. Side Special does overlap with Down Special in some ways, but it is not entirely redundant due to being a command grab that can let BOB snowball. The creepy aesthetics add to his character, and I believe it was n88 who said that it’s difficult to translate this type of character to Smash. Don’t blame you for not taking the “duplicate BOB” route when you might have exhausted some of those ideas on Ice Master, Reisen and Oogie Boogie last contest. Funny that Up Special states that BOB “possesses” his foe, but it actually makes him deal more damage on hit. Does help to make Side Special’s corruption state more interesting.

Forward Smash has an interesting buff payoff from your Down Special: it’s not just a raw damage boost, but a move that becomes stupid terrifying when it becomes a long-ranged, non-reactable move that can instantly break shields and has a long window to boot. Likewise, Up Smash effectively covers a much bigger area without technically being some giant obnoxious hitbox. And Down Smash has an interesting Link F-Smash dynamic for mix-ups at the ledge and against shields, while also applying a fun burying effect that can make the later hits easier to land if you have your Down Special buff.

• “Its presence means that the opponent has to be careful if they’re pressuring BOB’s shield, since even if they have him locked in he can land the move and turn the situation completely around.” Minor note and something Dae would point out if they comment on this set, but this wouldn’t work like the sentence claims it would. It takes 11 frames to drop your shield, which would make Jab a frame 15 out of shield option, compared to the 3 frames it would take to start up an aerial from a jumpsquat.
• Dash Attack actually has some cool mix-up synergy with Side Special. Helps that BOB is incentivized to land Side Special multiple times.
• Okay, N-air is actually cool with doppelgangers when you can use its dragging hitbox to steer opponents into one of their Aerials.
• U-throw is a cool move for position-based mix-ups, not to mention it works with his Neutral Special.

BOB is a rare breed of set that does a modern take on making a copy of your enemy, similar to Astor from MYM26. The set does a good job of making sure that your doppelgangers can never get too ridiculous: they are triggered by leading foes into a trap, vanish after attacking and then go on a cooldown that prevents them from being a constant presence. Doppelgangers can function as minions when they leave the curtain to attack their target, but they only last for 2 seconds and thus do not overstay their welcome. BOB’s moveset is also intentionally undertuned to balance around this, but not to the point where he’s overly-dependent on his doppelgangers. I do think that duplicating your opponent is kind of limited to how exciting it can be in modern MYM, as the implications are inherently match-up dependent and hard to imagine through BOB’s moveset in a vacuum, whereas sets like Astor leaned further into playground territory. BOB’s moveset is more down-to-earth though, and a sensible take on the genre that assumes his opponent has a conventional moveset to use against them. Which they should have in this era of movesetting.


MYM28 Comments

 

[Slavic]

Gratteer'Id by tunz

I'm always impressed by people who put OCs into JamCons, I've done it once and it was exhausting for me. It's neat to get a more FA-sque eldritch OC compared to the kind we get which are primarily witches and the like. I will preface that I've had Gratteer'Id read for like four days now and have just found myself struggling for a lot of commentary. That said, Gratty starts off with a set of interesting Specials! Neutral Special seems like an incredible tool, though I do wish it clarified how large the projectile was. Even as is it seems quite powerful, with three unique projectile angles that can cover a shocking number of situations effectively. In addition to what's mentioned in the set, it feels like a unique way to punish short-hopped aerials with a good read or threaten landings, and the high power of the projectile feels REALLY threatening at the ledge. Not only does it have the Villager / Steve style "drop a train on your foe" but you've got vertical coverage as well, preventing foes from going high. Not necessarily a flaw, but it seems like a huge boon to Gratty and should be considered when looking at their other options' balance.

Dark Dash is another powerful tool, an omni-directional command dash that ends in a powerful grab. While I think Abyss Ball is scary but fun, I do worry about Dark Dash dominating a match. Dashing off the stage towards a recovering foe at any angle, grabbing them, and hurling them into the blast zone without being left helpless. The fact that Gratty has to actually trigger the throw attack, rather than simply connecting with foes and activating it, is a wise choice here, but I might even have them go helpless after the actual grab portion as a balancing tool, limiting their ability to freely lunge at recovering opponents with little threat. Since opponents already have to contend with the three angles of Abyss Ball while recovering, I don't think this would hurt Gratty too much, especially as they can't perform follow-ups in the air effectively with the high knockback and endlag.

The synergy Down Special has with Dark Dash is interesting, making timing a proper grab out of Side Special a little easier on the ground, but I do also have some concerns with the five second timer. It's a long duration in Smash, and the move doesn't explain how / if affected by attacks Gratty is as a shadow. As the moveset is, they can even crawl under the stage entirely, pop out with a projectile, Side Special back towards the ledge, possibly securing a grab and likely a kill, and Up Special back to the ledge for a very scary setup. This might not stand out quite so bad but with how strong Neutral Special is for covering recoveries I think a bit of nerfing to Side Special and Down Special would raise my opinions even higher, as I think conceptually they're very cool moves.

I don't have a ton to say about the standards, given it's a JamCon set of an OC from a FPS I don't expect this to be insanely nuanced melee tech. I think that works well for what Gratty's trying to do, pressuring foes into mistakes to punish them with high power moves like Neutral and Side Special. I do think Down Tilt is another Quite Strong tool in Gratty's belt, and one I might consider slowing down. I think a near-guaranteed trip is a cool idea for a set like this, but I think having it be a reward for a good read rather than such a quick move would help the overall feel of the set. Pride in reading the foe, or something like that I suppose. I do really like Up Air focusing on getting foes in front of Gratty, rather than trying to introduce juggling into the set. It's a nice bit of focused vision I appreciate!

While Gratty certainly doesn't have the depth that Kril, I do quite like the character and think you've made some interesting choices and setups for the moveset. I think as is Gratty straddles the line of balance on the side of 'unfun', with a powerful recovery, a quick trip, and some really powerful Specials to contend with. Nothing gamebreaking, but a situation where several parts that would likely be fine on their own are combined in a way that makes Gratty feel threatening, possibly unintentionally so. Still, great work with this set!

Panda King by U UserShadow7989

I really enjoy the characterization throughout the set! For a wrathful heavyweight, it's cool to see so much focus on commanding range to leverage his weaknesses against different fighting styles, highlighting the versatility of 'flame fu'. Neutral Special is a particularly fun projectile move, and one which is reminiscent of Steve's Mining but instead for generating pressure instead of resources. It's suitably slow, and not very useful close-up (do the fireworks damage Panda King if they explode near him?), but basically the rest of his set is great close-up. Similar to Gratty's Abyss Ball in my earlier comment, I do think the vertical nature of this attack would be immensely useful against recovering opponents, but unlike that explosive these are weak enough and have a good angle where it doesn't gimp recovering foes as much as it lets Panda King get extra damage out while they're recovering. I think this works with the King not being exceptional offstage, though with a spike (albeit weak) on his DAir and one on Up Special I do worry about how easy it might be to setup with a few rockets.

Side Special is another neat projectile, also giving Panda King a mobility to immediately chase after his fireball or even duck behind it. It's a fun idea for a combo starter AND pressure tool all in one, almost like a Mario Fireball + Shorthop all in one as a Special. It's fun to imagine Panda King recovering high with Side Special, thanks to his ability to cancel Up Special early without going helpless, and simply tossing a fireball onto the stage to clear his landing and going straight into an attack as he lands. I do wonder if the move goes high enough that Panda King can actually cross-up a shielded foe, or if he lands in front of them as they shield the fireball. I think either would benefit him, but the move I don't think explores that. Down Special is a fun Wario Waft-esque move based on a boss reset, which is a both a fitting and funny way to bring in wrath into the set.

Moving through the rest of the set pretty quickly as I'm not even halfway through the JamCon entries yet, I really enjoy the way Panda King's set focuses on different attack ranges and flashy animations. He's a fun fighter to envision, especially when he's simply blasting an explosion of sparkles as one of his strongest moves. A timebomb throw is very expected in a set like this, and almost gets faked out by FThrow which immediately explodes. The set excels at making Panda King feel like a heavyweight without being quite so 'bruiser'-y as his contemporaries, and with a focus on 'precision' attacks that help him stand out. I quite enjoyed this set from top to bottom, so great work!

 

[Katapultar]

Felt the drive this contest and got a new set. This recent activity is weirdly making me feel bad about my claims of retiring last contest, but I don't think anyone will mind the activity. Genuinely thought that I had lost all my zeal and I would have to dissociate myself from MYM'ing at the end of last contest, but it turns out that I'm still enjoying it and the process of writing and reading stuff. Getting a new, better laptop helps a lot. Will see if I can at least reach the 150 moveset threshold this contest.

 

[Arctic Tern]

KUNIMITSU (Kat)

Kunimitsu, as the first modern Tekken set, naturally takes plenty of influence from Kauzya, though lacking his armor, intangibility and Rage mechanic in favor of her own gimmicks. For one, her initial dash is a stance in its own right that enables her to use various attacks depending on what input she makes, and she has several attacks that can only be used facing away from the foe. Kunimitsu’s movement is overall more mixup and shield pressure focused than Kazuya, starting with her NSpec - a slow fire breath attack that is unblockable and outlasts dodges, that can be canceled out of at a certain point for conditioning purposes. She also has a particularly neat DSpec where she spins around, which is weak by itself but turns the foe around on hit and leaves them frame neutral for lots of pressure and combo setups. Finally, Kunimitsu has the Tekken staple of counterhits, which increase the hitstun of her attacks if she lands them during the startup of the opponent’s attacks. It’s very in-line with her playstyle in Tekken, and the various alterations to her kit are ultimately all in service to adapting it to a platform fighter.

The overall set isn’t as long as you’d probably expect from a Tekken character, but there’s still plenty of meat to Kunimitsu! Her dashing SSpec is a hitgrab that leads to a prone situation, while her USpec is a mixup tool where she can either just teleport, teleport towards the foe for an attack, or perform a risky but highly powerful diving kick. Kunimitsu’s grounded attacks are naturally where a good portion of the set’s meat comes in, including a Dash Attack with strong crossup potential, a DTilt with a hop that lets her evade attacks, and a FSmash that is slow, but unblockable and feasible to land thanks to her conditioning abilities. Probably my favorite move in the set is the DSmash, a move which crumples grounded opponents on hit and deals high knockback if the opponent already happens to be in prone, something that’s situational but possible in her kit. I also appreciate how, despite the various differences from Kazuya, Kunimitsu still feels like a Tekken character, with a strong juggle game and an emphasis on positioning of both hitboxes and yourself in relation to the foe, plus tricky but highly effective combos.

Despite her grounded game being more prominent overall, Kunimitsu’s aerials are where I feel the set picks up steam. Standout moves include NAir, a highly versatile combo move with varying angles depending on where she hits, FAir, which changes in knockback based on her momentum, and UAir, a deceptively strong juggling and killing tool held back by her 7-frame jumpsquat and lack of reliable ways of leading into it. Kunimitsu’s regular throws aren’t anything to write home about, but she does have a special throw when she grabs the foe’s back that kills at very low percents for a throw, adding even more pressure to her DSpec. She also has a dashing throw that is normally a spacer, but becomes an insane combo starter if she’s with her back to the ledge, something that is particularly fitting for Tekken where various combos are only possible if the opponent is cornered. The only real flaw I note is that you don’t really talk about Kunimitsu’s disadvantage; while her slow speed is an obvious weakness, you don’t talk about potential methods of getting around them with her burst movement.

Nevertheless, Kunimitsu is still a strong showing and a demonstration that Tekken sets don’t need to be that long to be good. The only disappointment I had with it is that I didn’t make the first modern Tekken set myself!

Link to comment archive here!

 

[Hyper_Ridley]

JAMCON1 COMMENTS​

Rat Witch Natalia by Arctic Tern
So this is one of these "Witchverse" thingies I've heard about. She's certainly a colorful character, and you paint a vivid picture of what it's like to get into her headspace. The cursing whenever she enters helpless got a good laugh out of me, and DSmash is such a fun way of weaponizing her rats without spending half her inputs on minion micromanaging. Giving her some surprisingly powerful/risky attacks is a great way to encourage her opportunistic angle, and her sewer grate item is a cute way to let her sometimes play "normally". I wanna say she's a great take on a pixie fighter, but that feels too bright and clean for her.

This may be an unexpected critique, but I think the rats may actually deal too much damage? They're going to be constantly nicking people, especially on smaller stages or in chaotic multiplayer matches, and by design she's going to be constantly looking to combo off those stray hits. They could genuinely be some token 1% hit and still fulfill their role in her moveset.

Gabby Gator by BrazilianGuy
I now go 2-for-2 for participating in a Jamcon at the same time as a Woody Woodpecker character.

Like Buzz Buzzard before him, Gabby is a clear love letter to these old-school cartoons, brimming with personality and silly mechanics. He's got a command grab with a "pummel" that's just slicing carrots for pete's sake! His oven is a great trap to "lure" his prey into, I look forwards to the chaos of an 8-way all Gabby feed-for-all! The pressure cooker is quite literally a move that lets him cook up fancy plays and place some pressure on zoners, and that rowboat FAir has gotta be the downright goofiest dash I've ever seen.

My only complaint is that I'm not a fan of letting him summon his oven during a regular grab. It makes his up/down throws feel a bit pointless, and takes away from the unique perks of his Side Special grab.

Gators are awesome, cartoons are awesome, cartoon gators in platform fighters are awesome.

Asura by GolisoPower
First, thanks to Goliso for showing me the WIP version. I thought it was cool then, and now that the finished version is out and I have time to collect my thoughts...he's still cool. He's got a, shall we say, interesting design, in that he has some crazy bonkers elements that seem like power creep at first, until you take a closer look and start to see the cracks in his arms. Sure, he's got superheavy weight, deceptively strong movement, crazy damage output, Infinity Mode, the ability to USE HIS FINAL SMASH IN ANY MATCH...

But he doesn't get the consistent armor or limb intangibility other heavyweights enjoy, his most powerful tools are extremely unsafe if he messes up, and even something like his grab has relatively glacial startup. He really needs to leverage the fear factor of his shield-breaking Side Special mixups to make enemies panic, THEN throw himself with reckless abandon, his weight and power ensuring he comes out on top even after trading hits and taking recoil damage. He feels like a more realized version of the current Ganondorf, including some tricky hurtbox repositioning to grant enough nuance that he can't just mash the attack with that patch's highest damage number.

Combine that with the primal might of his animations, and you've got a brutal sledgehammer of a man who doesn't give a single F about how much damage he takes, as long as the other players go down first. Have a mantra-empowered thumbs up!

Panda King by UserShadow7989
Been a hot minute since I've played the Sly Cooper games, but this guy was memorable enough that I could immediately recall the attacks you named. His ground attacks even play like his boss fight, with every attack having a specific way to beat it, but they're thankfully built on PvP reads and not big boss telegraphs. The fiery effects add just enough wrinkles to his attacks to give them some spice without turning him into a pyromancer, and his overarching gameplay as an all-rounder superheavy is a great fit for his ongoing balance between his explosive and disciplined sides. Pretty cool stuff!

If I could change one thing, it would be to add one of those fireworks that create the little fizzling "after-shocks", to use the technical terms. It could be a multi-hit variant for some extra lockdown. Admittedly I'm not sure where to place it, maybe it's what happens on BThrow?

Gratteer’Id by tunz
Did not expect to see TWO MYMer IPs in here. Eldritch horror hero shooter is intriguing, and I approve of the first MYM rep of that game being a tank, though I don't really get tank vibes from this moveset beyond the weight. If the specials are accurate translations, this reads more like a sneaky flanker than someone who wants to actively take fire for the team. Maybe the abyssal energy attacks could regenerate their shield on hit?

As for their "pride" symbolism, it took me a moment to get it, but it is there. The majority of their attacks have knockback skewed horizontally, leading to a lot of tech chases and edgeguards, and they seem to have a higher amount of ways to 2-frame recoveries. They're built around toying with their prey and presenting themselves as the dominant entity. There's also the part where they actually think someone is going to be charmed by their DTaunt, something tells me a twisted abyssal hyena isn't going to be wooing any favors from most mortals.

I won't lie, Up-Special needs to go. It feels really redundant when Dark Dash is another omnidirectional invincible mobility technique that has less commitment and can even transition to a grab. For a replacement, I think a version of their current Final Smash could be interesting: A big leaping slam, and upon landing they have a momentary barrier of energy that blocks 1 hit. It would require a quick 1-2 like a jab string to safely penetrate, playing into their tank association. This might require a new Final Smash, but a pride-themed character deserves an over-the-top cinematic anyway.

Good luck with Project Ymir!

King Bradley by Slavic
Would have felt wrong if we didn't get at least one of these embodiments of sin in the jamcon. In this case, Wrath gets such a dramatic knockback boost through rage that his multi-hit attacks can't even link themselves properly, a fitting way to represent the swordsman losing his refinement as his opponents shows themselves to be a valid threat. I love all the animation flourishes, Bradley's so efficient he makes it look stylish. Likewise with the tilts using a single sword and the smashes using both, it makes for a simple effective way to make the categories feel distinct among a ground game full of sword power hits.

The Ultimate Eye is naturally his signature move, and both the counter and buff versions are a cool way to represent a "superpowered reaction time" ability. I do wonder if the 40 frame requirement for the crumple is a bit high; Very few attacks reach that point, and the ones that do are already so unsafe, it feels redundant to make this input so punishing against them.

His grenade is a cool move that's integrated well. The "must bounce" rule gives it some trickshot potential while keeping it situational enough that Bradley still wants to focus on swordplay. Not having rage affect it also prevents him from just fishing for KOs with it, while providing the possibility of comboing off it into one of his sword strikes for the finishing blow if he can make a big play.

Completing the wrathful package are several ways of impaling his enemies. DAir is sure to lead to dramatic turnarounds, and that grab...damn. That's it, that's the comment.

MYM6's Sloth is one of my favorite legacy MYMsets, and I'm happy to have Wrath inherit the Philosopher's Stone.

Narcis Prince by Daehypeels
Fullmetal Alchemist AND Punch-Out in the same Jamcon? We can stop the thread, MYM28's already peaked.

I must admit, I've never actually unlocked the Special Circuit myself, my experience with this guy is watching my brother destroy him. With that said, I could immediately appreciate giving him the angry stance swap, goes to show how memorable that series' cast is. Basing it on being knocked down is an interesting way to implement it, forcing both himself and his opponents to keep up with the shifting nuances between his two states. The specials are naturally much less subtle in their changes, with his calm specials going for stylish movement and endurance, with his enraged specials just going F YOUR DEFENSES and plowing through enemy shields and even projectiles.

For his normals, the aesthetics are a lot of fun. Kudos for creating 2 sets of distinct punching animations for the same character, and that's without letting him fight dirty. Giving him little "airblasts" with his flickers is a neat way to reference his outfighter status in the exaggerated world of Smash, and his aerials manage to feel relevant while still holding some meme potential.

I do have one issue, which is that angry stance seems to have better OOS options than the defensive calm stance. The grab in particular feels counterthetical to the recklessness his angry state is meant to exhibit; perhaps he only gets the buffs during a dash or pivot, so he still needs to be actively going after someone to take advantage of it.

Overall, my feeling after reading this can be summed up by Gabby Gator Jay: Yay!

My Vote

Spoiler

I had some trouble deciding on a specific winner, but ultimately I'm giving my vote to Rat Witch Natalia. Hopefully this won't go straight to her head.

 

[UserShadow7989]

Narcis Prince by Daehypeels

-There's an overall presence of smug superiority in his calm state and 'how dare you!' in his raging state, as appropriate to the character; despite having to stick primarily to punching around, everything here captures the right feel of toying with the opponent and then going ape when you misstep.
-I love how the 2-in-1 aspect of the set functions around the theme, forcing swaps when it might not be desirable and forcing the player to adapt rather than just pick their favorite and sit in it.
-While some of the moves apparently had to be shuffled, they all honestly feel natural for where they ended up.
-Don't know about the balance of it, but the fact you can cancel several of his specials into each other for shenanigans in movement and mix-ups is highly appealing to me. The differences are enough that the movement options don't feel redundant despite similarities, and the two 'modes' he can be in feel properly distinct.
-Throws are a little bland, but it's natural given the already large length of the set and it means he's got to lean into his other tools for shields instead of his pretty good grab. I appreciate that his aerials are generally actually usable even if they by and large still suck, feels more like what should've been done for Little Mac, and the Up Aerials and aerial Up Specials being useful if risky is a nice touch- go for that extra combo step or back off as appropriate.
-Since you were wondering, overheads are usually against the rules in boxing, but mostly for the fact they're coming down at the top of the other guy's head- so it's only illegal if he's not fighting one of the big boys, afaik.


Wrath by Slavic

-Love how the held Down Special makes use of the Rage mechanic to determine its duration once activated; an interesting take on a 'better payoff the more you hold off on using it' benefit.
-The various ways he has to just trump certain attacks made against him- tapped Down Special, his reaction to projectiles with Ultimate Eye active, and Smashes having a counter window- really capture a unique feel of someone with incredible speed and precision and would be a ton of fun to play with. Side Special's dash and his Neutral Special grenade (with a fun but hard to master interaction with Up Special) also paint the picture of a highly kinetic fighting style that requires care to make the most of. At the same time, each option has a highlighted weakness that allows enemies to interact with him despite his defensive kit, never feeling like the game descends to wait and see.
-The tech chase and roll punish options all fit for similar reasons; hitting them while they're down and blocking their escape.
-Ultimately makes good use of the Rage mechanic as it exists in Smash, just with the numbers tweaked to be more extreme- gaining more damage but losing combo options as he anger grows and his control slips, as appropriate for his namesake.
-No 'weak' inputs here, every move feeling like it has proper uses and roles in the set.
-I don't normally call attention to this, but I like how the set is organized and the use of gifs at appropriate points, as well as brief section summaries leading into things like the shared Smash mechanics.


Due to delays from irl stuff, I likely won't be able to finish all the sets in time to vote in the jamcon, so here's two sort-of comments put together from my notes on the sets I finished reading. I'll try and wrap up comments for the jamcon sets regardless, given they've been a joy so far.

 

[Arctic Tern]

And voting period has ended!

With a total of 2.5 votes, Rat Witch Natalia takes the crown! I did not expect the winner here to be so decisive (though that may be since we got relatively few votes), but I am not complaining.

 

[Katapultar]

“Still, there are a lot of bad guys out there. As a game veteran, it’s my job to look out for my friends. But to be honest, I just want everyone to enjoy playing the game, that’s all.”

 

[Arctic Tern]

CHROME (Kat)

Chrome, like Maple before him, is a tank, though one significantly more normal stats wise. He still has plenty of unique mechanics, though, including a shield that he can use to clank with attacks to enable him to punish, since he doesn’t actually go through the clanking animation when this occurs. Chrome also has life stealing options on several attacks, heals a bit of the damage his great and bubble shield takes, and can survive early KOs once per stock. Finally, certain attacks have a special superarmor state that only works on attacks that would kill Chrome, letting him survive them and punish. All this may seem to make him ungodly survivable when combined with his high weight, but he also has a very bad recovery that would otherwise make him much easier to kill than his weight suggests, so it’s more needed than one may think.

Chrome’s actual moveset has a fitting base of claiming the center stage for his own, which he can do via SSpec, a charging shield ram that gets faster and stronger the longer he charges and has various options for mixup potential. He also has a neat USpec, a chargeable rise where the charge increases the speed in which he charges, making him a major threat in midrange when he can cancel it casually. Chrome’s “hook” Special, as it were, is DSpec, which summons his little buddy to buff his moveset in a variety of ways and replace his DSpec. I like all of the replacement DSpecs: one is his only projectile that starts slow but is hard to punish once it comes out, one turns his shield into a moving platform for tricky prone and movement options, and another creates a long lasting trap and makes his smashes create gravity wells that mess with the foe’s air stats and knockback. All of this comes at the downside of removing these buffs being fairly committal and the opponent being able to cancel them and deny him access to them by hitting his shield enough times, with the most powerful being the riskiest due to putting said buddy directly in the line of fire.

The other attacks are fairly standard, but all enhanced by both good game sense as to how some moves can be used (like BThrow being good at catching foes by surprise thanks to the fast speed) and interactions with Chrome’s other moves, like Jab becoming a combo tool when in gravity wells. His DSmash is a notably cool move as well, which has a fast upwards hit that can reliably KO and a “main” hit that is impractically slow to come out but nearly impossible to punish, providing incentive for the foe to attack him and baiting out clanking opportunities. Chrome’s aerials are when things start to pick up, as they bring up riskier tactics that exploit his ability to survive falling off the blast zone, such as going in deep with NAir and FAir, and I do love me some crazy offstage moments. Finally, while the throws are fairly standard, DThrow is a cool gimmick throw that doubles Chrome’s current damage while also granting him his special super armor state, with the high damage both making it more likely to trigger and making his punishes hit harder due to rage. The “tank” archetype isn’t something I’d imaging could be a compelling set, but twice now Kat has proven me wrong, even if fittingly this isn’t as strong as Maple.

MADELINE ASHTON (WCF)

Madeline reminds me a bit of some older MYM sets, in that her gimmick revolves around detaching her body parts. Unlike those sets, there’s no desync shenanigans here; if her head takes enough damage, it gets lobbed off her body for use as an item and all of the strengths that gives her. On the other hand, Mad has several attacks that involve her head and they all serve as combo/kill moves, and not having a head makes those moves much worse, so she has to pick and choose between an item-based combo game or a moveset-based combo game in what’s a fairly interesting dynamic. I also like how her NSpec enables her to alter her head’s position if the foe hits her during her counter window to change the effects of her hitboxes, either giving them more knockback or increasing their range. There is an option to decrease the range, though, which seems pretty useless since for most moves it’s just a strict debuff; maybe it could deal more damage and/or knockback, to provide incentive for riskier (or dare I say, madder) plays?

The rest of the set has interesting ideas as well. SSpec is a boomerang projectile using Mad’s own arm that lets her cover for her attacks and gives her an escape option when her own kit is generally lacking in that regard. DSpec is a cool take on the Methverse Car Special™ where it’s actually a chargeable hitbox with strict timing on the grabbox, but makes up for it with combo potential and sheer distance covered. NAir is quite unusual for the input in that it doesn’t protect Mad, but makes up for it with power and range and intersects nicely with the rest of her combo aerials (all of which flow quite nicely and have their own niches). Lastly, FThrow has a funny animation that does actually work well for its purpose of spacing and creating edgeguard setups. The other moves, mainly the standards, aren’t as notable (likely due to word crunch), but I can’t name a single “bad” move in the set. It overall makes Madeline Ashton quite the experience, both the character and the moveset itself.

THE SCARECROW (BrazilianGuy)

The Scarecrow is a character who seeks to embody the “killer scarecrow” archetype, which he does through a zoner playstyle that disincentivizes much movement. He does have some tricks in that department, though, such as a walk that actually serves as a teleport for tricky ways around projectiles and potential mixups. I actually like this quite a bit: a walk animation would be pretty awkward on a character who’s known for not moving, and it gives Bubba what’s essentially slasherporting, which I feel is needed in some form on an 80s slasher. The main complaint I have with it is that its implications to the rest of his gameplay aren’t really brought up, like potential mixups he can create with his ability to buffer attacks out of his teleport and how it affects his ability to space himself. Scarecrow also has a neat NSpec that lets him choose a spot to teleport to then strike with a potential kill move, which sees frequent mention as a combo ender and recovery option to make up for his light weight. To close off his notable Specials, his SSpec summons a tractor as a mobile construct he can control the movement of and DSpec summons a pile of grain to cover vertical area and potentially bury the foe.

While Bubba’s other attacks are fairly basic at their core, they do get a good bit of mileage out of his horror archetype and his scant scenes in his films, such as a pumpkin projectile FTilt and several aerials involving crows. They’re perfectly fine despite that, though, and there are some that particularly standout, such as a DTilt leg grab that both fits the character and can force the opponent to get hit by his setup in true horror fashion. The smashes are where things start to pick up, mainly in the DSmash, where the Scarecrow creates a fire patch that serves as a trap and interacts with a lot of his setup, most notably blowing up his tractor for a massively damaging hitbox. I do think that the set isn’t as aware of what it could do as it could be; beyond the teleport mechanic, there’s not much said about what can be gained from the DSpec bury, kill moves or potential combos. But overall, the Scarecrow is an interesting little set that makes the most of a character that you wouldn’t immediately think to put in a fighting game, with neat ideas ripe for exploration in other sets.

Link to comment archive here!

 

[WeirdChillFever]

Siempre Viva

 

[Katapultar]

Madeline Ashton

Hot off the heels of Regina George is another live-action blonde rival, but this time with a surprising amount of gross body imagery. This manifests in Mad’s head mechanic, which can be knocked off as a usable item. It reminds me of the old Headless Horseman movesets and Narcis Prince this contest, the latter especially interesting when Dae intentionally eschewed the “get hit in the head” route whereas this set did. It’s nice to see how concise the mechanics are as a partial consequence of trying to get this set’s wordcount under 15k for the Longcon. It’s good that the set is aware of how powerful throwing items are, but Mad puts a twist on the archetype by not being able to spawn her own item on-demand - and how the way her head is lost puts opponents in a better position to use it against her than she her own head.

This is where Shield Special helps to do upkeep on your head - I think the head healing is very undertuned and that you could get away with making it four or even five times more potent, especially when Mad isn’t being healed herself. I get that you probably don’t want to make her head too hard for opponents to remove, but Mad’s movement isn’t impressive and I think she deserves to get some good healing in if she can find the time and space for it.

Okay, Neutral Special is funny in a good way, because I don’t think we’ve seen a moveset pull off weird and creepy hurtbox shifting since some older MYM sets. The move also gets some surprisingly great usage out of B-reversing thanks to its quick speed and counter properties. I’m guessing the counter still works even if your head is bent over from a previous counter? The move also comes with WCF trademark “move customization” in that Mad’s head remains orientated where it was after her counter. As she can’t do this without countering an attack, her head attacks strike me as something she’ll have to work around for whatever state her head is currently in.

“First, Madeline immediately stops dead (but still ostensibly alive) in her tracks when the attack is input, which means there’s no rising aerials for this rising star.” I love this line. Also how the recovery encapsulates her character as a stage performer. Her recovery is very exploitable, but her Neutral Special helps for reversal scenarios. Likewise, her boomerang arm adheres to the theme of protection and covering the more exploitable aspects of her game. It would be funny and kind of cool if Madeline could use her boomerang arm to retrieve her head. Down Special also gives us the return of the live-action car, but this time it’s weaponized as a projectile rather than something Mad can drive (at least without charging). Oh, and Forward Smash has the gun, written for a moveset posted 36 years after the release of unrelated Belgian techno anthem, Pump Up The Jam. D-Smash makes use of your head behind you, and U-Smash can ascend higher with charge to KO much earlier at the cost of higher end lag.

Forward Air is the first move that makes direct use of head alterations via your counter. My favourite alteration is how having your head bent forward results in horizontal knockback. This is decently powerful coming from such a casual move, but having your head bent forward makes it more prone to being knocked off by attacks, and you do need to land your Neutral Special counter to access it in the first place. Back Air and Up Air get slightly different use out of an adjusted head, while Down Air draws on Peach’s as a pressure option and can be used to similar effect while holding your head. Cool to hear about how Neutral Air works for recatching heads in a similar comparison to Peach’s Forward Air.

I like how moves like Forward Throw and Forward Smash don’t kill all that well to represent failed murder attempts in the movie. Forward Throw is an especially good move in Mad’s kit, as it can space for her ranged Specials or dump opponents offstage for her air game depending on where it’s used. And Back Throw synergizes with Side Special. Also, there might be room below the 15k threshold to talk about knockback storage on Down Throw’s bury. Finally, it seems like the Final Smash references a different movie that I assume Mad’s actress plays in, but it is not thematically unfitting.

While Madeline’s concepts and execution aren’t as striking as some of your bigger previous entries, she is still a rock-solid set with unique ideas. Moreover, her set felt clean and easy to follow while still retaining your entertaining writing and references.

 

[Daehypeels]

Maulbuster - by Hypah

Spoiler: Gimmick & Specials

-Heard good but semi-mixed things about Antonblast. Unfortunately buried within a deep backlog so won’t be trying it anytime soon, either.
Maulbuster looks quite charming! The boss lineup look like a fun group to beat up as you progress - would be interested to see how you’d translate the Sloth character.

-Her gimmick’s simple yet effective, Smash 4 Rage’s infamy makes it easy to forget how seemingly softly Ultimate nerfed it. Excited to see what the specific move buffs translate to.

-tbf I’m not used to your method of measuring distance, but “20 units upward and 50 units forward” makes it sound so much larger than it is, larger numbers and all; I half-understand it when it comes to measuring the individual squares, though using decimals for the medium squares works perfectly fine too. But hey, your moveset, your preferences, and it DOES work.
I like Neutral B in concept, even without my Dedede bias, Dead Man’s Volley interactions are always fun in this game. 15 frames of endlag for a projectile that strong and malleable is rather low,
The time crunch shows, would’ve liked to hear more about how Maul would play around it (especially with its endlag, how floaty she is, and how fast she can run with high Wrath, she can probably jump forward while hucking it and immediately catch up to it), or how useful the bump is (you mention it sucks for trading and whatnot, but it’s Frame 4 with not too bad endlag and can be used both grounded and aerial, maybe it’s good for combos/juggles, tech chases, or even just putting opponents in a weird spot), although I assume the former will be covered as we go through the moveset.

-Up B’s a neat idea, the lower risk of whiffing an OOS feeling secondary to how helpful it’d be for platform schmoovement. Wondering roughly how long she takes to reach the peak of her uppercut and how long she hangs in midair before she can land, curious if a max-Wrath OOS that lands on a platform as soon as possible would be truly safe, or if a quick-enough aerial could still punish it.
Not a fan of the bury idea, is there a cooldown between when she’s buried and when she can start the reversal, or can she Frame 1 buffer it? If the latter, 16 frames is way too quick, idk it it beats ROB’s D-Throw but it can punish Inkling’s Roller if they jump cancel it (might not reach them if they keep rolling forward), let alone the other buries in the game. Neither of K. Rool’s options would be useable whatsoever, for example.
Even if it were slower, I’d still feel a bit iffy about it; it’s fun thematically, but buries are already a niche mechanic only a few characters use without the Pitfall item, and outside of high-enough%s where Maul’s effectively dead anyways, a good chunk of them are already reliant on mixups and 50/50s. Adding an extra layer in Maul’s favour feels really unnecessary, the attack is one thing but being able to intangibly ignore what’s otherwise a true followup… I’d feel similarly mixed if Maul had a good explanation for dethawing herself when frozen, or breaking out of a crumple.

-I’ve read 3 movesets from MYM28, all three of them have Specials that summon small minions that waddle around the stage, all three have an on-screen limit that’s 3 or higher, and all three have surprisingly low durations. This takes about as long as a Joker D-Tilt, fun fact. Makes sense given how disposable and typically weak they are, but it’s an amusing 3 nickels.
How fast are the Bats, roughly? Their speed matters a lot for imagining them, as faster movement can make for a nimble tool that’s more viable at longer ranges and more of a nuisance to smack, and slower movement would make them more vulnerable and lacking at range (making them more of a setup tool requiring space and preparation to use most effectively), but also increase their reliability since they’ll stay in a place you’d want them to for longer (such as in a ledgeguarding scenario, there’ll be a larger window to drop the anvil exactly where you want it, perhaps catching them offstage Villager F-Smash style, or covering a specific getup option).
Would obviously love to hear you discuss the whole move further, but a simple detail like that would add a lot. Speaking of which, if the speed is just “about the same as it is in the GIF”, 1) would be nice to see a bit of quantification for it, and 2) that’d be helpful regardless to hear you confirm it, since we have to assume that otherwise.

-4 seconds is a long time for a projectile to be active, that’s twice as long as a Gordo or even Piranha Plant’s Poison Cloud. You did specify they’re slow, so it’s easier to assume they’re closer to the speed in the gifs.
Both the monologue and the skull ideas are neat on their own, you mostly do a good job explaining the details. But past the essentials, they feel woefully underdiscussed, with only a couple of sentences mentioning how a player would actually use them, hardly scratching the surface.
Interesting comment about her dropping all pretenses of setup and zoning at max Wrath, when the Bat forced upon you at max Wrath sounds like it’s far more proactive and trap-like than the default minions, and she not only has a yeetable heavy item to play around at that threshold (reminds me a lot of the most fun part of Wario Bike, but she can spawn the item part much quicker/safer, and doesn’t have to worry about the cooldown), but her already-brief tomato’s still useable as always. Especially since she’s at such high damage, wouldn’t she be MORE incentivized to play keepaway?

Spoiler: Grounded Moves

-Jab gets the job done, the only change during Wrath being the repeatable Jab1’s frequency is simultaneously underwhelming yet creative and rather charming. Would also be good for stuffing over-eager runs into her when they expect her to throw one hitbox out and be done, or covering ledge getup options with minimal risk.
NGL this inspired an idea I might explore in the future: was going to say higher Wrath would be good against spotdodges, but it’d be really difficult to repeat Jab1 if it hits their shield (a lot of people buffer an ASAP spotdodge and practically skip shielding altogether, but delaying a dodge after initially shielding is far from uncommon either)... a Jab1 you can willingly repeat on shields would be cool, but not in the Villager/MK/Narcis way, like holding the button doesn’t progress the sequence whatsoever even though it works like a classic 1-2-3.

-Not much to say about F-Tilt (decent stuff), although given the source game’s heavy exaggeration/bodybreaking, and especially the pictures you gave with the size comparison and Specials, my mental image of her fist is huge. So huge I’m wondering how she can angle her fist 50 degrees downward (past diagonal and more vertical than sideways) without it clipping far into the ground.

-U-Tilt and D-Tilt are both alright, former’s bland but understandable, enjoying the latter’s helmet hitbox adding something unique.

-Dash Attack sounds like a lot of fun, although I wonder how fast/far she travels forwards. You say dodges are unreliable, but I’m imagining she passes through a spotdodging player too quickly to tag them… guessing she travels a large distance and instead covers specifically backdodges really well. Unfortunate that you’ve measured a specific distance for D-Tilt right above, but couldn’t mention it when Dash Attack was more reliant on that info.

-Loooove stuff like Smash 4 Ganon U-Smash or current Meta Knight / Wolf F-Smash, this being in the same “late startup but similar & therefore surprisingly quick endlag” camp isn’t particularly creative but I’m biased, the default version of her F-Smash is a fun thought; although ESPECIALLY for a move as powerful/safe as this, some clarification of her arm’s reach would help so much. Part of what balances this kind of move is that they’re usually not great for horizontal reach, but this sounds like it has all the same upsides yet could have drastically more range than normal. Again, we could use her Antonblast sprites from before, but hey, maybe you intend her to exaggerate their size even further.
A bit more neutral on the max-Wrath version, but that’s just personal taste. A simple upgrade in the form of a flashier animation, much higher damage, and bypassing armor without fully ignoring shields makes an easy crowd pleaser.

-Nice, anti-air snag that slams them into the ground behind her, another personal favorite… specifically mentioning it’s Frame 12 (not immediate but far from slow, same as Cloud’s and he doesn’t struggle to land his) and bringing up tall opponents, express-delivers the question to mind, CAN she snag grounded opponents if they’re tall enough? Bonus points for roughly how tall.
The max-Wrath version is art in motion.

-ehhhhhhhhh we have enough leap -> slam D-Smashes already, and this doesn’t do much to innovate, Incineroar doesn’t have a shockwave either despite it noticeably limiting him (nor Ridley, but he doesn’t exactly need one).
4 units is concerningly small for this kind of move, most shockwaves tend to be much bigger than that, since that size would rarely come into play.

Spoiler: Aerials/Throws

-Malaria’s the most interesting use of Wrath so far, I like this! Lariat N-Airs are nothing new, but starting with a single-hit that becomes an ever-longer multihit as you take damage is cool, and the low endlag enabling drawdowns means the extended duration is helpful in plenty of ways. Specifying the re-hit detail caught me off-guard, curious detail. If you hit the penultimate frame, does it still instantly trigger the final hit a mere frame later? That might look goofy.

-The overall balance of Maulbuster seems to lean towards staggered startup in exchange for consistently great endlag. Unsure how much her startup dampens it, but she seems more than viable.
Would recommend being careful about which details you mention and neglect, reading ahead a little, you specify F-Air has autocancel frames near the end but don’t say anything about the others, without clarification there’s a strong implication only F-Air has them; and to my knowledge, autocancel frames are a universal trait that all aerials have in one place or another.
This move’s neat as well though, always happy to see more airborne claps, and the varying hitboxes & high shield damage are nice touches.
Something about the wrath increase making the VFX around her claws more prominent, that lightly bothers me (idk why but that just makes me picture it de-emphasizing the clap)... calling that a nitpick would be generous.

-Not a fan of default B-Air’s animation, her sprites don’t give me the sense her nose is that long (plus it curves upward), it sounds pathetically stubby. And from an aesthetic perspective it’s a bit half-baked, can appreciate the vision but could really use some description of what her lower body’s doing (maybe snobbily crossing her arms?), would give better reason for why she’s not leaning backwards to give her nose more desperately-needed range.
I would like MW B-Air, but you kinda just spoofed Wario Chomp.
Both feel unfinished, wouldn’t both be good for combos? That’d be a decent detail to add and discuss… funnily enough Project M’s version of Chomp was also a combo tool, but ngl if you’re going to copy it, PM Chomp is much cooler than Ult’s.

-Guessing landing both hits of U-Air in one go is very difficult if not impossible? That’s a good detail to clarify, but otherwise, this is a good idea! Liking how you treat it like two moves in one,
The flavour text at the end is adorable, “Dedede doesn’t copy abilities because he’s already perfect” energy in the best way possible.

-A bit confused about D-Air’s launch angle, is it more horizontal or vertical?
Otherwise a fine move, part of me finds it a bit derivative of the usual funni aerial F-Air, but the other part likes the animation and discussion enough to look past that.

-dang, was hoping the two-handed pummel would be her strangling them or perhaps vigorously throttling them Wario Land: Shake It style, the bite isn’t bad though
A Frame 4 dash grab is BOLD, the fastest grabs in the game are Frame 6 and that’s when standing still, since moving grabs are universally slower by a few frames. That’s probably a bit too strong especially when her run speed gets so high, buuuuuuuuuuuut it’s max Wrath… maybe a prominent increase to its endlag would help even it out (could give it flavor as an all-out grab that’s more like a lunging tackle with her crashing out if it whiffs, but the benefits being clearly worth it).
Good detail about grabbing the tomato, wouldn’t think of that.

-These are great throws! Very fond of F-Throw and B-Throw, U-Throw maybe treads a bit into K. Rool’s territory but the helmet skewer saves it.
D-Throw is also cool, has a bit of B-Air’s issue where the MW version becomes more derivative than it’s worth, but feels more fitting and fun here. Although, as a bury fan and temporary B&K player for a few months, that bury’s weak enough where your only good option was a Frame 11 U-Tilt that didn’t worry about spacing or the 3-frame jumpsquat, at least until late%s if your opponent wasn’t bad at mashing. You didn’t mention it and instead focused on going for reads with aerials or giving up with F-Tilt, but Maulbuster’s Frame 12 anti-air U-Smash would be PERFECT for this, given the strength and particularly its reach (since opponents can’t immediately act out of the pop-out animation, this puts them in the exact position for one, and due to the short bury, it’d be pretty consistent timing against most opponents… and once they stop mashing, that’s its own mixup in your favor).

Spoiler: Wrap-Up

The Final Smash and extras are good, by the way.

I think the Wrath system reaches its maximum far too high, as the most fun you can have with Maulbuster & her most varied kit is only available at 150% or above in the vast majority of scenarios, which is WAAAAAYYYYY too high to properly enjoy; Aura ramps up gradually over time and you can get satisfyingly beefy boosts with him rather consistently, K.O. Uppercut can be lightly earned with damage dealt but 100% taken will give him one for sure, a threshold that Terry and Kazuya also have. Even for a heavy, 150% is a threshold where only a hit or two more will finish you off, and it’s not uncommon for you to die before then, especially around a ledge or offstage; let alone critical mistakes costing you a much earlier death. Would deeply consider lowering Wrath’s thresholds to something similar to the others, but perhaps nerfing some of her moves in compensation (F-Smash doesn’t need to do 30% damage when it’s so safe and probably quite large). Would let people enjoy the highlights more frequently without sacrificing much of the “glass cannon’s last resorts” feel.

Can distinctly feel the JamCon rush throughout this blog, I stopped mentioning it quickly after we started, but every single move here could use some elaboration and/or cleanup, missing details here and limited discussions there. There’s a few good ideas on display, I’m fond of Wrath’s potential and you get good mileage out of it in some moves, but most of it is underwhelming, mere damage increases or underwhelming adjustments - D-Smash barely changes in an uninspired way, Jab is creative but overly niche, F-Air gets miniscule damage increases, B-Air basically copies a pre-existing Special… but hey, F-Throw/U-Smash/N-Air/Dash Attack were pleasant.

I also feel you misunderstood her playstyle, mostly covered this back in her Specials but you gave this character some very strong zoning tools, didn’t really subtract from them as her Wrath increases, yet acted like she’d toss her low% playstyle away in favor of rushing the opponent with pure bloodlust, despite how those low-risk ranged options would only grow more appealing as your damage raises. The rest of her kit doesn’t bring this side of her up either, you cover the tomato consistently but I can’t remember you bringing up her minions or Down B whatsoever throughout her normals. Her playstyle ends up feeling muddied and disjointed because of this, her normals all giving you the sense of a standard heavyweight who beats you up harder if she’s at high %s, and you kinda have to recall on your own terms and/or re-read her Specials to remember she’s actually a zoner more than anything.

Despite the criticism, can’t say I had a bad time with Maulbuster, there’s lots to improve here but I lack an issue with her foundation, she’d shine nicely with some proper time in the oven. The fun you had describing her over-the-top max-Wrath interactions is contagious, and there’s plenty of amusing animations to enjoy alongside quite a few clever mechanics/functions.

Looking forward to reading one of your larger projects!

 

[BrazilianGuy]

Why it's just standing there...


MENACINGLY

click the image for a spook​

 

[Katapultar]

"BWAHAHA! KNEEL TO ME PEASANTS! I, THE RAT WITCH NATALIA, HAVE TRIUMPHED OVER THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS!"

"Hey, are you lost?"

"Huh? Who the hell are you supposed to be?"

"I'm Acer Vinacade, the Maple Wizard. Would you like some maple syrup?"

"Wizard? You look more like some sissy she-boy to me."

 

[Katapultar]

The Scarecrow

I’m fond of getting more horror movie villains for MYM. This character is an odd choice in the grand scheme of horror villains, but they’re certainly a unique choice and I enjoy the level of detail you give to their animations to sell that they don’t function like a human character. The teleport walk is something we haven’t really seen in MYM, invoking the “offscreen teleport” trope seen in various horror movies. While it does have a bit of overlap with forward rolling, it allows Scarecrow to mask their early attack animations and remain facing forward unlike with forward rolls. Only thing I’d like is clarification on whether Scarecrow teleports past opponents or not. I assume Scarecrow doesn’t, since teleporting replaces its walk and you can’t walk through opponents, and would prefer if it didn’t. Lets Scarecrow appear directly before opponents, and prevents them from overshooting and accidentally teleporting behind an opponent via mis-spacing.

Scarecrow has a surprisingly cool set of Specials, perhaps the best of all your movesets. Neutral Special creates a little “danger zone” that you can teleport to while throwing out a strong attack, implemented in a way that prevents it from being an infinite recovery. The pitchfork attack sounds like it would involve a brutal attacking animation, going by its pronounced power. Side Special has a big MYM’ian thing going by being a moving construct you can stand on, but it has a long cooldown after use. Being able to use it as a mobile zone for your Neutral Special teleports is fun. Up Special really cements Scarecrow as a teleport spammer. Down Special is a crazy delayed hitbox that sets a danger zone, and I think the balance here is very good. It’s a lingering hitbox that insta-kills off-stage opponents, yes… but you have to wait for 5 seconds, and opponents deserve to be hit by it if you manage to set it offstage and get them positioned for it. The grain hitbox also isn’t stupid wide, and 45 frames feels like a perfect duration that doesn’t overstay its welcome.

• Dash Attack has a humourously comical name for a horror movie villain. But some horror and B-movie villains can come across as corny or intentionally funny, so it tracks.
• F-tilt does put into perspective how Scarecrow’s stiff body doesn’t allow for much animation variety compared to human characters. It’s good to see attention-to-detail in this area, where the orange glow helps to give Scarecrow a degree of “life” as a visual indicator. A welcome move in Scarecrow’s arsenal in any case, due to helping with its approaches and interactions with your tractor. Also the splash hitbox that incentivizes teleport spacing.
• You know, I think it would be challenging for Scarecrow to properly space for U-tilt’s hitboxes when the fellow lacks a conventional walk for microspacing (would have to use the tractor’s forward movement, but that’s predictable). I think you could justify making the move’s sweetspot very powerful to capture the “sudden horror movie villain kill” factor, but there’s nothing wrong with it as-is.
• D-tilt’s animation makes sense from Scarecrow’s crouching animation. Neat little hitgrab that works in with Side Special and Down Special. I could see it being -very- effective for follow-ups - it does combo into moves as you say, but being a grab means you can mix up your release timing and possibly get a bigger hit if foes don’t respond immediately.

• Glad to see that F-throw takes the spacing of your teleport walk and F-tilt into account.
• Poor Bubba losing his rope after B-throw.
• Nice, rising bury-style U-throw.
• Is D-throw’s name a JoJo (Part 7) reference? Never mind, it’s not.

• “Once in the air, The Scarecrow will attack by spinning around its own body 3 times as if he were doing a silly kid’s game and trying to get dizzy. You can even see that his eyes become swirls under the creepy mask to show he did get dizzy, what a silly billy.” This is a surprisingly funny line.
• “While doing research, ie googling stuff to find images of Crows diving into people, I found this image from an Instagram post, and idk man, it kinda spoke to me, there's something about this crow and the “Here’s what you need to know”. It also fits perfectly into a moveset scenario since I am teaching you what you need to know about the Crow’s dive bomb.” Okay, this is legitimately hilarious in the context of the image in the moveset.
• D-Smash is an interesting way to finish off the set, as the fire interacts with different parts of Scarecrow’s game.

I overall enjoyed Scarecrow more than Tern or your Ed set, as it had fun Specials and some moves with good designs. Didn’t know you were fond of horror movies until this set released, but really hope to see more from you.

 

[Arctic Tern]

ACER VINACADE (Kat)

Acer is a setup based character based around constructs and resource management, so we’re already starting off with a pretty MYM base. His main tools include maple leaves that buff his attacks and can serve as shields, maple syrup that slows the opponent down, and maple trees that supply him with syrup and create clones of his leaf attacks. Acer can additionally use his SSpec and various other attacks to interact with them, with SSpec turning leaves into a slow projectile, syrup into a command grab, and trees into a long ranged hitbox that sets up into his powerful prone game. I feel that MYM has always been a sucker for a good constructs set and this definitely serves as a bit of a “modernization” of the idea: the trees don’t interrupt movement at all, and his more powerful plays come at the cost of sacrificing his recovery.

The overall melee contains much of the interactions that were common in “classic” setup sets, but with more overall function beyond said interactions that let Acer keep up against more “normal” characters. That’s not to say the interactions aren’t the highlight, though, with FTilt enabling him to cover a massive area if he hits his trees with it and DSmash using up any syrup onstage (including syrup on a foe) to speed itself up. UThrow is a particular highlight, creating a stump construct that is fully solid; while an odd place to put a construct, it enables Acer to combo against walls and plant his trees sideways for custom constructs and the power to have his tree hitboxes aimed more towards the ground. The melee moves themselves are also plenty interesting, even without interactions; my favorite is FAir, which deals no knockback but does deal plenty of hitstun to leave the opponent open for setup, and has a second hit in case he does need it to deal knockback. It’s unusually short for a modern day set, but there’s just as much meat to Acer as several of his longer compatriots and certainly worth a read.

KING KOOPA (Tortoise)

Seeing a remake of this set wasn’t really on my radar, but greatly appreciated as someone who also has strong nostalgia for the DiC Mario cartoons. King Koopa has much of the same attacks as the OG set (including the Dash Attack where he trips on a banana peel he throws), but with a few notable differences. For one, his minion summoning Special is now on the more appropriate DSpec, with his new SSpec being a command grab that gets stronger if his minions end up in its radius. The minions themselves are different too, with my favorite being Mouser, who sacrifices himself for a slow but powerful explosion. There’s also a bit more nuance to his kit overall, with a UAir that slows Koopa’s descent as an escape option and DTilt, which comes out slow but leads into most of his bigger tools.

While I do think this is better than the original, the set is still held back by several flaws. Most notably, there’s a notable lack of information, from minor details like the size of Tryclyde’s projectiles not being stated to major details like the damage and kill percents of Dash Attack and Koopa’s actual grab. Additionally, it also doesn’t seem aware of its options; DTilt’s high hitstun means it could potentially infinite (though the startup probably prevents that), and UThrow can send opponents towards minions but doesn’t mention the potential to confirm into Mouser’s explosion. I also have issues with Koopa’s DAir being mainly a landing mixup when his UAir fills the same function, as well as it being oddly weak for a character of his size falling down. Despite these issues, I again think this is a notable improvement, probably hampered more by the choice to present the set in Slides rather than Docs - it’s a shorter read, but it also limits the amount of content you could actually put in.

Link to comment archive here!

 

[Arctic Tern]

"Let's go, Soul!"

(Long Con submission - final word count 11,717 at time of posting)

 

[Katapultar]

Maka Albarn

You and others have brought up Soul Eater a lot recently, so it’s only natural that we would get a modern set for it. We don’t get too many sets with openly “honest” playstyles, as it’s easy to fall into the habit of incorporating cool gimmick moves/concepts and going into depth on mix-ups to make one’s moveset compelling. It’s a good way to handle a Shonen protagonist, and I appreciate the willingness to take on a more simple approach that might result in average reception compared to bigger sets. Fairly reminiscent of Alucard from last contest.

• The set’s honest approach is clear from the first move, being a more fundamental-based projectile attack with both a melee and ranged hitbox. There are some neat things in the Specials regardless: Neutral Special having shorter range but less end lag in midair, and especially how Side Special can potentially juggle midair opponents at the risk of going helpless if you miss (and fun little throw options/mix-ups in general).
• I like grab hitboxes that have a “hidden” (and potentially stronger) hitbox when they hit an opponent under the regrab timer, a concept that deserves to be explored more.
• Giving Maka a good recovery to represent her typical anime protagonist stubbornness also makes a lot of sense. Reading Up Special’s design notes makes me wonder how you would tackle a set for a more “typical” aggressive Shonen protagonist, like your own take on Denji from Chainsaw Man.
• Down Special also feels like a Shonen-style move, where you invest time into a power boost to help you turn the tides.
• “You have to have the courage to go for such risky tactics if you want to kill early, and luckily Maka has courage in spades.” This definitely reminds me of Asura’s defeat in the Soul Eater anime. Nice that you’re not afraid to give Maka big attacks in spite of how potent Down Special’s buff can be.
• D-air is fun, and D-tilt is distinguishable in being a two-hit attack where the second has vertical coverage.
• Fascinating to see a move (Forward Throw) where it’s better for foes not to tech in the context of landing Side Special’s regrab hitbox. I didn’t know that teching knockback caused a fighter’s one second grab cooldown to wear off early.

 

[n88]

Acer Vinacade by Katapultar
Acer is a pretty fun little bite-sized guy overall. Definitely feels a little more ambitious than you might expect from the wordcount; good showcase for still being able to do interesting stuff at small sizes. Feels very Kat-core and carries your usual strengths. Also does a good job weaving hard interactions into the kit in a way that feels organic - it might reach a little farther than I would a time or two but I can't really fault it for that and it's getting most of what it goes for.

I did feel like you could maybe futz with some of the numbers to re-weight some things in the kit a little bit? Like I have the odd balance note but that's not too big a deal. I've gone back and forth on whether NSpec might just be more interesting if it were less free. Coming and going as easy as Leaves do makes some of the intermediate levels of Leaf attacks feel a little less present, and harvesting Leaves from trees feels kind of trivial when he can get them so easily on his own. On the other hand, the fact that they get destroyed on hit does mean he's gonna be losing the odd Leaf onesy-twosy. It's definitely a part of the pitch that is a little hard for me to wrap my head around but that's not a bad thing, got me thinking.

Always cool to see Witchverse stuff - nice work, thanks for sharing this guy!

Notes from my read-through:

Spoiler

NSpec FAF 9? Wild. Definitely a low-key move though - not sure it's great for clearing your queue just since it doesn't flinch and it isn't super long range. EDIT: Coming back to this input after reading the rest of the set - I do think firing them off for 1% to clear your queue isn't super meaningful when you can cash leaves in in better ways with other inputs.

I see Dae's influence in some of the wavebounce stuff.

DSpec sounds pretty good with the defensive benefits but it is a limited resource.

they slightly obstruct enemy movement in the same way as trying to pass through a fighter.

In Ultimate you just straight up can't move through other fighters but I get what you mean.

Tree mechanics are fun - always interesting playing with recovery as a resource or giving USpecs tension with other moves. Helps justify the MYMy no-helpless double recovery too. (Not that that doesn't exist in the real game, but definitely a MYMy trope to not go helpless)

A little fuzzy on some of the mechanics of SSpec - it sounds like it commands all his different types of things at once, but I'm not sure what the range on that "command" is like. Also not sure what the input is like exactly - is it a double tap, or does he alternate between the two SSpecs each time he uses SSpec? Fun input generally I think, having a single button that you use to manipulate all your stuff is cool. Pretty simple to pitch but contextually has a lot going on, which is a good place to be. Encourages experimentation.

In FSmash, not quite sure about the bullet point starting from "Leaf count determines..." - it feels like it contradicts the move's first bullet that talks about the range? Not totally sure how to get a leaf to land in FSmash syrup either - do they just drop in at the end of their hitbox if he FSmashes with both present? Kind of sounds like it once the description gets further, just didn't totally grok that from the way the attack started.

Tree manip USmash is fun.

DSmash is fun but IMO a pretty solid input already and the speed buffs it can pick up are a bit much - like it's got very comparable speed power to Ike FSmash already but also the overhead command grab defense during charge (which is a really cool wrinkle) and the projectile option for flex. I think it's fine to have that kind of edge over Ike FSmash because Ike FSmash is not very good but being able to beef it up into unreactable territory (frame 16 isn't reactable) feels like a bit much. Those other moves that set up syrup are usually already good on their own merits too anyway so the set-up doesn't really feel like a chore.

My pitch on this (in the spirit of if-I'm-complaining-then0what-would-I-do-differently) would be for the move to be slow no matter what, and for extra syrup in the neighborhood to extend the hitbox rather than speed up the attack. Keeping it slow keeps it more distinct and more fair IMO, and amping the attack's range feels more in line with the way his other bits and bobs work (at least thus far his constructs usually benefit him by extending his area of influence and control rather than buffing what he's doing).

DSmash does reverse course on the syrup coating being allegedly aesthetic-only but can't complain too much, did feel like it was a thread to be pulled on at the time.

Grabgame feels mostly pretty straightforward until surprise, Stump Construct. Kinda wacky placed on a throw (not a criticism). DThrow damage feels lowkey kinda high - 15% per two seconds isn't something the opponent can ignore for too long. Pretty mean on something he can get USmash combos or even just pressure off of. Having them stop when the opponent is shielding/dodging is good though - don't want to get too hung up on the numbers when the right checks are there and the numbers could be tuned pretty easily.

Ah, Dash Attack sending Acer backwards is very neat, this genre of attack is always really fun. Definitely feels like he's got kind of an aggressive bent with stuff like this and his pressure game. Probably good for evening out the inherent kinda zoner angle that relying on tree set-up could get him.

FTilt is maybe getting a little cute for my taste in how it interacts with trees? It's conceptually neat but feels a little odd as a one-off - not something I'd recommend changing at all, it definitely feels like a Kat-ism. It's the kind of mechanic I always compare in my head to guitar solos. We're all prone to them here and there - those moments that feel like a bit of a mechanical tangent. They make these great little creative showcases, the writer gets to have some fun... but maybe they're not actually doing a lot for the cohesion of the moveset as a whole. Who am I to argue with the writer having a good time, though. The branch hitbox extension does feel cool and compelling in its own right so I shouldn't complain over much.

I do respect how wacky this kit is prepared to get despite having a pretty tight word budget. Very funny when FTilt is followed up with something as punchy as UTilt. I like DTilt's magic propelled variant of the baseball slide, fun riff on a go-to animation, the back hitbox is neat.

FAir is neat - the awkwardness of it for typical FAir usage is a little under-stated but fair, the set is short. Mentioned that it cancels from short hop height - I bet with his gravity he'd have to delay the input slightly (vs just shortcutting and inputting it as a shorthop aerial) to use it at the peak of his shorthop and autocancel (which is good, he'd be a bit silly if it was too easy-bake). Really like this input - the second hit as a concession to FAirs being meant to deal knockback is funny.

BAir is also a tricky fun input, the positional aspect is really cool.

I feel like MYM has a pretty strong tendency to pick Up inputs when we need kind of a breather, less-involved input. Up is just our most challenging direction.

DAir is a decently big note to go out on, fairly marquee aerial. The syrup effect definitely feels a bit more core than the tree one but the tree one still has some neat stuff about it.

 

[TortoiseNotTurtle]

He's the biggest

He's the baddest

He's the most Based

HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE'SSSS,

KING KOOPA!

"It's time you blithering bilge brains faced a TRUE King!"​