GENERAL GRIEVOUS
Movie of Origin: Star Wars Episode 3 - Revenge of the Sith (Though technically he first appeared in the “Clone Wars” cartoon.)
Grievous was once a powerful Kaleesh warrior, until his ship was shot down by separatist fighters. Count Dooku revived him as a cyborg and taught him in the ways of the lightsaber. Grievous went on to kill many jedi single-handedly, collecting their sabers, allowing him to effectively wield four sabers at once due to his robotic arms. He was later defeated by Obi-Wan Kenobi in a fierce battle, partially due to Grievous’ overly aggressive fighting style.
OVERVIEW
Grievous’ primary advantage comes from his four arms. He is able to stick his lightsabers in all sorts of ways and formations that help protect him from several sides at once, or simply provide good protection to a single side. He also has balanced strength and speed as well as good range with his saber. On the downside, his fellow sword user, Marth, has better speed, range, and in some cases power, so Grievous doesn’t exactly have awesome raw stats
STATS
Movement Speed: 5/10
Traction: 9/10 (his talons help hold his feet in the ground)
Attack Speed: 5/10
Attack Strength: 6/10
Range: 7/10 (His light sabers are slightly shorter than Marth’s sword)
Priority: 7/10 (lot’s of disjointed moves due to his sabers, but the ones that don’t tend to have worse than average priority)
Weight: Slightly lighter than Samus
Jump Strength: 5/10 (both jumps have the same strength)
Fall Speed: 6/10
Size: Around Samus’s size
SPECIAL ABILITES
Wall Jump
Wall Cling
Pros:
Lots of multi-directional attacks
Lots of disjointed moves
Decent speed and strength
Cons:
Not particularly strong or fast
Strongest KO move is slow, with his other main one having poor range
Throws aren’t that good
MOVE SET
Standard Attacks
A: “Upper left jab”: Grievous strikes his opponent with his upper left fist. 2%
AA: “Lower left jab”: Now his lower left arm punches you! 2%
AAA: “Upper Right Hook”: What the name says. 2%
AAAA: “Lower Right Uppercut”: Grievous finishes his combo by knocking you away with the last of his hands. 2% average knockback. Note that the light saber of the arm that is currently attacking will temporarily disappear for this combo. All parts of the combo have below average priority.
>A: “Double Double Slash”: Grievous first slashes sideways with his left sabers. He then slashes the same way but with his right sabers. The move hits a total of four times, with all hits doing 2% with the last one doing below average knockback. An average amount of startup and end lag.
VA: “Blind-side Strike”: Grievous thrusts his bottom sabers forwards across the ground. While he’s doing this, he twirls his top sabers around for a moment and then thrusts those behind him. Both sides do 6% with below average knockback. There is slightly higher than average lag on both ends of the move.
^A: “Wave swing”: Grievous swing all four of his sabers upwards in quick succession. Each hit does 2% with the final one doing average knockback upwards. Not much startup lag, but higher than average end lag.
Dash Attack: “Tri Slash”: Grievous sticks one saber in front of himself, one saber to the back, and one straight upwards. Any saber does 5% with below average knockback. Grievous stops moving when the attack is initiated. The move has virtually no startup lag, but for some reason has above average end lag.
Smash Attacks
FSmash: “Quadruple Impale”: Grievous pulls back all of his arms, and then thrusts all four sabers forwards simultaneously towards a central point. This move has great range, and does 18% damage (24% charged) with high knockback. Unfortunately, this move has a lot of startup lag, and a fair amount of end lag.
DSmash: “Saber Spin”: Grievous turns 90 degrees to his right and holds his sabers close to his body. He then rotates his hands rapidly in order to spin the sabers beside him. It looks like Grievous is doing two blue-green Angle Rings to both sides. The move hits up to 6 times (9 times charged), with each hit doing 2% and the last one having above average knockback. Unfortunately, the move has short horizontal range, but this move does have below average lag on both ends.
USmash: “Juggling Act”: Grievous turns 90 degrees to his right and throws his lightsabers straight up into the air as they point directly upwards. The sabers cross each other in an X fashion so that the green sabers switch hands and the blue sabers switch hands. The move has no horizontal range to the sides of Grievous due to the way he’s throwing the sabers, but it does have great vertical range. The sabers go high enough to almost hit an enemy standing on the top platform of battlefield and do 12% (16% charged) with above average knockback. While there isn’t much lag on either end, it does take .5 seconds for the sabers to fall back into Grievous’ hands, and he is vulnerable for the entire duration of this move.
Aerial Attacks
Nair: “Saber Kick”: Grievous holds out his foot like a sex kick. It does 6% with below average knockback with below average priority. While doing this, he crosses his left arms over to his right side so all four sabers are being held out just behind him. Hitting the sabers does 1% with low knockback since he isn’t actually attacking with them. The move has virtually no startup lag, but has an average amount of end lag.
Fair: “Spinning Slashes”: Grievous straightens his body and leans forwards while spinning horizontally. While doing this he is holding out his sabers to the sides. He spins twice, but since both sets of sabers are going to each side, the move technically hits 4 times. Each hit has the potential to do 6% with average knockback, but the enemy is knocked away before any additional hits can occur. Very little startup lag, but has above average end lag. As you’d expect, the move has good range both above and below Grievous, though sadly he is vulnerable to attack from behind.
Bair: “Spider Legs”: Grievous sticks all four of his sabers out behind him. He holds them all at different angles, so this attack has good coverage behind Grievous. Hitting his sabers results in 6% with average knockback. Not much startup lag, but above average end lag.
Uair: “Crucifix”: Grievous faces the camera while his feet are sticking straight down and together. He sticks his two top sabers straight up and holds them very close together. He also sticks his bottom sabers straight out sideways from his body. In case you couldn’t tell yet from this and the title, Grievous basically looks like he’s being crucified. He holds this position for ¾ seconds, and if you touch any of his sabers during this time, you take 6% with average knockback. Somehow Grievous assumes this position almost instantaneously, but leaves it somewhat slowly. This move can be auto cancelled if Grievous hits the ground just as he’s starting to exit his pose
Dair: “Quad blaster”: Grievous’ sabers are replaced with blaster pistols as Grievous rapidly fires 4 shots to the northeast, northwest, southeast, and southwest simultaneously (isn’t having four arms handy?) Each blaster shot does 2% with no knockback. The shots that are fired in the same direction follow each other so closely that you’ll most likely be hit by either all in that direction or none. The shots travel the distance of Luigi’s fireballs, and travel slightly slower than Falco’s blaster shots. There is slightly lower than average end lag as Grievous prepares to fire, but there is above average end lag as Grievous holds out his blasters for a moment after the shots are fired.
Zair: Grievous fires a short range grapple cable out of his lower right wrist. It does 4% with low knockback and can be used as a tether recovery. Below average startup and end lag.
Special Moves
B: “Charge Pistol”: Grievous puts away one of his lightsabers and pulls out a blaster pistol and rapidly fires three small shots from it. Each shot does 2% but no knockback and have average priority.
Alternatively, you can hold the special button instead of tapping it. Grievous will charge for about .7 seconds, and then fire one large shot (almost the size of Wolf’s blaster shot) that will do 8% with above average knockback, has average priority, and cannot be reflected. Both types of shots travel as far as Battlefield’s main platform at a relatively fast speed. There is a small amount of lag for Grievous to take out or put away his blaster.
>B: “Buzzsaw Phalanx”: Remember that scene in “Revenge of the Sith” when Grievous and Kenobi were about to duel, how Grievous walked towards him while spinning his lightsabers across the ground? Well, that’s exactly what Grievous does here!
General Grievous begins to slowly walk forwards while spinning two of his sabers in front of him (just like in the movie). You need to tap the special button in order to keep him moving. If any unfortunate victims happen to get in the way of his sabers, they take 2% with below average knockback forwards, so if they’re at low percents and/or suck at DL, you could potentially hit them multiple times as you stride. The other useful feature of this move is that it reflects projectiles, though obviously only from the front.
If Grievous is in the air while this attack is going on, he falls straight down. This is important to know because this move has as much end lag as Pit’s Angel Ring, so if you walk off the edge you better hope that there’s a low KO floor. On the bright side, Grievous starts this move rather quickly, though not instantly. A useful move, but don’t overly depend on it.
^B: “Helicopter Flight”: Grievous holds a lightsaber above his head and starts to spin it above his head like a propeller. While doing this, two of his other lightsabers disappear, and the last one is dropped to be grabbed by his foot! While Grievous is rising (he goes about as high as Snake’s cipher), you can press the special button to make Grievous swing his foot saber. It does 5% with average knockback but has a fair amount of end lag. If you connect with Grievous’ propeller saber, you take 3% with low knockback upwards, so Grievous will probably hit you multiple times as he rises with you.
VB: “Hyperion Charge”: Grievous kneels down on all fours (sixes?) and starts to radiate blue energy. You hold down the special button to charge up. After .25 seconds, the energy turns green, and after an additional one second, the energy turns red. Release the button in order to do the attack. Grievous must be at least green in order for the attack to do anything, otherwise he just stands back up.
At green level, Grievous will quickly dash forwards. As he nears his opponent, he will do a spinning slash with one of his sabers that does 8% with above average knockback. However, the slash has above average end lag. Grievous will stop running if he reaches the edge of the platform before attacking.
At red level, Grievous will still dash forwards, except now he will stick out one of his feet in order to catch the enemy in his talons. This counts as a grab, and afterwards Grievous will do a back flip, releasing the enemy backwards for 10% with above average knockback. However, the best part of red level is that at any time during the dashing part, you can press the attack button in order for Grievous to immediately cancel into the green level attack, providing a good mind game of attack or grab.
Final Smash
“Orbital Strike”: Grievous yells “Prepare for attack!” A brief cut scene is then displayed in outer space showing his battleship, the Invisible Hand, firing several rockets into the atmosphere. The game then cuts back to the game play. After a second, targeting marks will appear on the ground at numerous locations. After an additional second, the rockets will hit those locations, doing 10% with above average knockback if one runs into you. When a rocket hits the ground, it causes a medium sized explosion doing 20% with high knockback. Grievous is invincible and immobile during the final smash.
As a small Easter egg, if this move is performed on Lylat Cruise, the cut scene will actually show the stage’s ship passing by the Invisible Hand as it fires the rockets
Grabs
Grab Animation: The lightsaber in Grievous’ lower right hand disappears as he fires a grappling cable from its wrist. It has the same range as Yoshi’s tongue and activates a little faster than Lucas’ grab. If he connects, all of Grievous’ sabers disappear.
Grab Attack: “Simple strike”: Grievous simply head butts his opponent. 4%, but cannot be performed that quickly.
FThrow: “Nevermind”: Grievous once again shoots his grapple cable forwards sending his enemy forwards with it a set distance, the same as the grabbing motion. It’s supposed to look like Grievous changed his mind about grabbing his enemy. 6%, and Grievous’ grab animation is too slow for him to just grab the enemy back again.
BThrow: “Spin Me Around”: Grievous starts tossing his opponent around himself several times, using his four arms to keep his enemy moving. He then tosses his enemy backwards. This throw looks neat and does a nice 8% with average knockback.
Uthrow: “Let the Bodies Hit the Floor”: Grievous tosses his enemy upwards and slashes him or her with one of his sabers. The enemy then drops straight down and bounces away a short distance forwards. 7%
DThrow: “Back Breaker”: Grievous lifts his enemy over his head and performs the move’s namesake on his opponent. He then tosses his foe a short distance forwards. 8%
Other Attacks
Get-up attack (front): “Crawl away”: Grievous’ sabers disappear as he beings to rapidly crawl forwards using his four arms. He goes half of battlefield but will stop if he reaches the edge of a platform. This attack does no damage, but Grievous keeps the standard super armor that comes with get-up attacks, making this a good escape move, especially considering its low end lag. Grievous actually used this move in Episode 3, by the way.
Get-up attack (back): “Pistol Flail”: Grievous swings his pistol over his head a short distance. 5% low knockback.
Ledge attack <100%: “Flip-over”: Grievous flips forwards, propelling himself over the edge and kicking his opponent in the face. Good range, but low priority. 6% below average knockback.
Ledge attack 100%: “Wheeze”: After climbing back up, Grievous hacks a little, worn out from the battle. The attack has a small invisible disjointed hit box in front of Grievous’ face. It does 4% with small knockback (I guess from the germs he lets out).
STRATEGY GUIDE
General Grievous, in some ways, is like a nerfed Marth. His lightsabers are shorter than Marth’s sword (though not by much), and his attacks are both slower and weaker. Seriously, Marth does like 10% with his tilts!
However, Grievous has one distinct advantage that Marth doesn’t, and that is controlling space. Grievous can cover two or more directions at once with disjointed attacks, making it difficult for an enemy to get an opening. This is the core of Grievous.
When fighting from close to mid-range, use either VA or ^A for good damage building. Both attacks hit to the front, as well as the top (^A), or the back (VA). However, remember that neither of these attacks have a low amount of end lag, so don’t think you can just spam VA and never be hit. The dash attack is another good move to try, but it’s better to use this as a fake out than a direct attack.
When fighting an aerial opponent, bring on the pain with Grievous USmash. It’s a great move for countering short-range aerial attacks, especially if the move requires that your foe be right above Grievous for it to work. If that doesn’t work, then you could always try Grievous’ own aerial arsenal. He’s got a sex kick, an aerial projectile, and Bair and Uair make excellent moves for covering the back or above Grievous, respectively.
From long range, use Grievous’ blaster to attack from afar, and be sure to toy around with the non-reflection property of a charged shot. If your opponent insists on camping, then feel free to use Buzzsaw Phalanx in order to approach while keeping those projectiles away. A third option is to try a Hyperion Charge, especially a fully charged version. Now your opponent has to guess whether you will perform an attack or a grab, giving you a good mix-up game.
Recovery with Grievous is fairly straightforward. Use UP-B to recover, and use Grievous’ amazing ability to wield lightsabers with his feet to defend against edge guarders. On the flipside, Grievous strongest move, FSmash, is really slow, but it has good range and is disjointed, so don’t be afraid to try it out. Your best bet for a KO is through DSmash (which has the added benefit of hitting to the sides), or the saber attack of a Hyperion Charge.
OTHER
Idle: Grievous stand there with his sabers at his sides.
Crouch: Grievous kneels down and holds his sabers up a little
Walk: Grievous walks forwards in an almost casual way. Arrogant little…
Dash: Grievous charges forwards, with his lightsabers held behind him.
Jump: Grievous hops upwards
Midair Jump: Grievous does a side flip
Roll: Grievous does a very quick side-step in the direction he’s rolling.
Sidestep: Grievous puts holds his lightsabers around himself as he leans to the side.
Shield: Grievous assumes a blocking stance as the standard bubble shield forms around him
Air dodge: Grievous leans to the side
Dizzy: Grievous wobbles back and forth while coughing
Sleep: Grievous crosses his arms and sleeps standing up
Wiimote Noise: “Just as Count Dooku predicted!”
Star-KO: “Come On! COME ON!
Kirby hat: Kirby gets Grievous’ face mask
Logo: The rebel alliance symbol (because that would probably be what the Star Wars franchise logo would be in Smash Bros)
Win Music: A short tune from the Star Wars theme.
Credits theme -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY29b8WD06M
Special Animations
Entrance: Grievous jumps onto the stage and ignites his sabers
Taunt1: Grievous puts a hand to his “mouth” and coughs a little
Taunt2: Grievous spins a lightsaber around and says “Your screams are like music to my audio receptors!”
Taunt3: Grievous does a fake punch while screaming “Grrrrrrwoopa!” (Yes this is something he did in Episode 3)
Win1: Grievous withdraws his sabers and says “I could beat you with two, no, three arms tied behind my back!”
Win2: Grievous is seen sparring with Dooku. Dooku says, “You are holding your lightsaber too tightly. Now…” he grabs one of Grievous’ sabers with the force and continues “you are holding your saber too loosely”
Win3: Grievous falls to his hands and starts coughing violently. He then gets up and says “I really hate this job sometimes.”
Loose: First, the hands that are aligned vertically clap with each other, then the hands that are aligned horizontally clap with each other. This repeats continuously. It looks like Grievous is playing patty-cake with himself.
Alt Colors
1. Default
2. Blue tinted armor (Blue team)
3. Red tinted armor (Red team)
4. Green tinted armor (Green team)
5. All Black armor, the blue sabers become red, the green sabers become purple
6. Gold armor, the blue sabers become black, the green sabers become white (yes there are such things as black lightsabers, see the Force Unleashed)
Snake Codec
Snake: Geeze, this guy could use an inhaler.
Otacon: You mean Grievous? Nah, even with his non-stop coughing, he is still an incredibly skilled swordsman.
Snake: You don’t say. What is his specialty?
Otacon: Oh, nothing much, just quad wielding lightsabers while sometimes holding one with a foot.
Snake: Nope, that’s definitely not a problem at all. By the way, rations will heal wounds caused by beam swords, correct?
Unlock Info
How to unlock: Beat 10 co-op events or beat 20 solo events or play 380 vs matches. If you would normally unlock a character from a specific event upon completing Grievous’ criteria, he will challenge you after your next event match.
Unlock Message: “General Grievous, the four-armed Jedi killer, has joined the brawl!”
SSE ROLE
A large portal appears in the sky, just above the Halberd hangar. Millions of shadow bugs fall from the sky, and begin to form in to primids. Suddenly, the alarms in the Halberd go off, as the primids start to make their way into the Halberd…
Amidst the chaos, King Dedede appears, striking down primids as his name banner is shown. He looks at the Halberd, and then takes off towards it.
Level: Halberd Hangar
This location is essentially where the vs mode arena of the same name begins, only the roof is open. Kind Dedede must defeat 20 enemies of various types to move on.
As the fighting continues, General Grievous walks into the hangar, as his name banner is shown. He sneaks past Dedede and gets into the battleship…
Suddenly, Meta Knight appears in the hangar with his name banner and assists Dedede in defeating the primids. But all is not well. A large group of black creatures fall from the sky. Mr. Game and Watches. Dedede and Meta Knight must defeat 5 G&Ws (lowered stats of course) to continue.
After defeating the G&Ws, Dedede lets out a chuckle. But then, the G&Ws start to dissolve… and come together… and grow bigger…
Oh crap. It’s Duon! Dedede and Meta Knight must defeat Duon to win the level. He has less HP and power than the one in the real SSE.
Afterwards, the shadow bugs that made up Duon disappear into the Halberd. Meta Knight and Dedede shake hands, but suddenly, the Halberd’s engines ignite! The Halberd takes off as Meta Knight flies after it.
Remember that portal in the sky? Well, Dedede looks up and into it. He can see what looks like a pair of butterfly wings. Dedede looks away for a moment, but as he looks back he has a frightened look on his face as three huge red waves of energy fly towards him, turning him into a trophy.
After the portal closes, Dedede turns back to normal. He looks at a badge on his chest…
The game then goes to the map screen, with a new level unlocked. Midair Coliseum.
Yes. That entire sequence all took place before the original first level of the SSE.
Nothing really changes until you reach where Duon is normally fought. As Solid Snake charges at the G&Ws controlling the Halberd, a lightsaber cuts his path. General Grievous then appears on screen, and makes a threatening gesture towards him. The scene cuts away.
Later, Grievous can be seen being knocked out of the window with the G&Ws. Grievous gets back up and dusts himself off. The G&Ws turn into shadow bugs, and Grievous absorbs them into his body, turning all black like a G&W, and his lightsabers turn black as well. Snake, Lucario, and Meta Knight jump down to the bridge to help Peach, Zelda, and Fox take on this new General Grievous.
General Grievous has pretty much the same move set as normal. However, he’s faster and stronger. He also creates small explosions just by walking that do 4% with low knockback.
After defeating Mr. Grievous and Watch, Fox kicks his trophy off of the Halberd, into the red sky. The rest of the cutscene happens as normal with G&W being recruited into the team.
Surprisingly, Grievous does not show up in the subspace levels, as he was never carried into subspace. In order to get him on your team for the Great Maze, you need to find his trophy in the Jungle. A cutscene will play at the end of the level, in which he glances at the main subspace portal and gives a sickened cough.
