DINGODILE
”Break out the butter, I’m gonna make toast!”
Dingodile hails from the Crash Bandicoot series, we’re he’s one of the many mutated animal henchman of Dr. Cortex (The main villain of the series). As if his name wasn’t enough of a give-away, Dingodile was a fusion of a crocodile and an Australian Dingo, and he speaks with a thick Australian accent (Sometimes so much that Cortex can’t even understand him). Despite his animal roots, Dingodile’s actually rather intelligent, his weapon of choice being a bazooka he developed himself. The dingo is far from loyal to Cortex despite having been created by him, only working with Cortex when it’s beneficial to him (Though getting another chance for vengeance on Crash is a nice side bonus).
Here’s a link to Dingodile’s boss fight in Crash Bandicoot Warped (His first and easily most famous appearance). It’s only 2 and a half minutes and it’s rather heavily referenced in the moveset. Watching this boss fight will make several of the most essential moves of the set infinitely easier to picture, and also gives a decent glimpse at Dingodile’s personality.
Size »»» 9
Recovery »»» 9
Range »»» 8
Priority »»» 7
Aerial Movement »»» 7
Weight »»» 7
Power »»» 7
Falling Speed »»» 5
Attack Speed »»» 4
Movement »»» 3
Traction »»» 2
Jumps »»» 2
That power stat can be very, very deceiving. While he does have one move that’s just so absurdly powerful that it boosts up the stat, without it his power is average at best. Aside from that, these stats are pretty much what’d you’d expect from your usual heavyweight, although the fact that his recovery’s so good yet his jumps so bad is somewhat of an oddity. Of course, being a heavyweight that's not sickeningly slow is a plus.
Neutral Special – Fireball
Dingodile turns away/towards the camera, then starts turning his bazooka to aim in the direction you specify until you release B. Upon releasing B, he fires a single fireball in the desired direction with below average lag. The fireball has above average priority and deals 7% with knockback that can push foes away slightly, but can never ever kill.
The fireball travels 2 Battlefield platforms at the rate of Ganon’s walk. If you angle the shot diagonally upwards, Dingodile won’t fire straight towards the indicated direction but will instead fire the shot in an arch like arc, going very high up before coming straight down. This allows you to hit over the walls of all those meddlesome trap characters that are supposed to absorb your projectiles. . .
[7%]
Side Special - Devour
At first glance, this seems to be a pretty cheap knockoff of Wario’s neutral B. All the properties are the same, although Dingodile’s head doesn’t enlarge nearly as much, giving actual reason for the pitiful range of the move (Even slightly worse then Wario’s version). In addition, you can specifically angle the move as Dingodile has his mouth open ready to chomp down, allowing the move’s grab priority to function as a good defense against aerial approaches.
But the move is once again more realistic then Wario’s neutral B in that size actually matters for this move. When Dingodile chomps a foe, they don’t magically shrink to fit in his mouth. Against gigantic foes like Bowser, the move does pitiful damage, only functioning exactly like Wario’s on the middleweights. Where things get interesting, though, is when Dingodile devours someone smaller then Mario. . .He literally chomps them down and they’re nowhere to be seen. Now, that tiny rodent will be constantly trying to get out of your stomach and damaging you for 1% per second, but you can do what you please until they force their way out (Grab difficulty). This means this move is much better then Wario’s for suicide KOs. . .
[Variable Damage]
Up Special - Jetpack
The bottom of Dingodile’s gas canister starts fueling out flames from his gas canister and begins to function like a jetpack. This is essentially Rob’s recovery, but the flames coming out from the gas canister are a small hitbox that does flinching and 3%.
Now, while you won’t encounter any problems abusing your recovery at first, when you get close to running out of air time your backpack will be overheating rather then running out of fuel, starting to pulse and turn red.
If you don’t stop the recovery at this point, your backpack explodes, dealing damage and knockback to you on the level of Snake’s C4. On the plus side, this gives you your second jump and up special back, giving you an infinite recovery. Obviously you don’t want to ruin a perfectly good gas canister if not necessary. . .If you intend on using this under the stage to stall, sure, go ahead if you just need to clock off the last 20 seconds or so, but if you use this 4 times without touching the ground, Dingodile's gas canister won't magically repair itself.
[3%]
Down Special – Swirling Crystals
Dingodile raises his hands skyward and claps them together twice for below average lag, then several crystals as large as he is fall down on either side of him from the sky very quickly, falling through any drop through platforms on the way. Once the crystals land, there’s roughly 1.25 battlefield platforms worth of crystals on either side of Dingodile. The crystals do 10% and knockback that kills at 250% as they fall and have infinite priority.
The crystals don’t just fall down to the sides of Dingodile, though, they also go into the background and foreground,
forming a complete circle around him like in the picture. This means you can’t just roll through the crystals to get to Dingodile. Once they’re on the ground the tips of the crystals do 1-2% and tiny set upward knockback, though the stun is a bit longer then one would expect.
The crystals have 20 stamina each, though they’re immune to most of Dingodile’s attacks. While it normally wouldn’t take one that long to shred through all the crystals to get to Dingodile in the middle, the crystals are constantly swirling about once they hit the ground like in his boss battle, constantly going in and out of the foreground/background. . .This is an absolutely vital part of Dingodile’s playstyle, giving him plenty of walls to hide behind. Dingodile will want to camp inside his crystal formation and force foes to either approach from above or to shred through the crystals to get to him. Why would you ever want to approach that Bandicoot head on when you can roast his sorry carcass with ease from a distance?
If Dingodile uses the move with the crystals already set up, they go into the ground, though they come back out with another use, and it all happens pretty d*mn fast. You can use this to try to bait foes into coming to you if they’re just trying to shatter the crystals, then just spring them back out the moment they do.
[10%] [1-2%]
Standard Attack – Tail Whip
Dingodile does a very short jump off the ground (Half Kirby’s height) and does a spin in the air before landing back on the ground, his attack in Crash Bash. His body is a average priority hitbox that does 6% and horribly weak knockback, and the move has very low lag on either end. While the move would have rather terrible range, it’s saved by the fact that Dingodile stretches out his tail during it. In addition, if you input left/right Dingodile will hop up to half a Battlefield platform in that direction as he performs the attack, being a hitbox all the while, though the lag increases slightly. This can function somewhat like a half decent short hopped aerial as an approach, though anyone with good priority will make you wish you hadn’t used it.
[6%]
Forward Tilt – Point Blank Shot
Dingodile butts his bazooka forwards with average lag, trying to impale foes on the tip of his bazooka. If he misses, there’s nearly no ending lag. The range is pretty short, just at the tip of the bazooka, but it’s a grab hitbox. If he grabs them successfully, he fires them off the end of the bazooka for knockback that kills at 180% and 10%.
You can angle the move slightly up or down like some other ftilts, which also changes the angle you fire off the victim from your bazooka. A more notable purpose of this though is that if you aim the bazooka up, you can grab the tip of a crystal and load it into your bazooka. While the crystal will lose its’ 1%/2% flinching hitbox, any moves that involve firing your bazooka will have you fire the crystal shard off the bazooka in a fashion just like your neutral special, and the shard does 10% and flinching.
[10%] [10%]
Up Tilt – Blast Off
Dingodile aims towards the ground with his bazooka, then shoots downwards, propelling himself upward. The beam is very weak and small (Though disjointed), and only lasts long enough for 6 hits of 1% and flinching, but Dingodile’s body is an average priority hitbox as he goes up that deals 10% and vertical knockback that kills at 180%. The move has no lag on either end, but the duration of the move borders on Wario’s dsmash. This gets Dingodile up much higher (1.5 X Ganondorf’s height) then his rather lackluster first jump, but considering how much longer it takes, it’s not exactly an undisputed superior option to it.
[6%] [10%]
Down Tilt - Stomp
Dingodile simply stomps forward with average range, priority, and lag, and the move deals 10% with knockback that kills at 220%. Pretty straightforward. The move’s lag prevents it from being ideal in most situations, but
if you use it on a foe who’s knocked down/tripped or pitfalled, Dingodile’s foot becomes a grab hitbox as you pin the victim to the floor, holding them down with your foot. From here, you can do any non aerial attacks as the victim struggles to break free like a normal grab, or just jump off to end it early. His default stance when having “grabbed” somebody like this is staring down at them with a grimace, laughing maniacally. . .Just what’s he planning?
[10%]
Dashing Attack – Joust
Dingodile holds his bazooka out ahead of him like a knight would a lance in a jousting competition as he continues to dash forward. This turns the head of the bazooka (Giving the move poor range) into a average priority hitbox that does 6% and weak knockback that never kills. Dingodile continues to do this so long as you hold A or reach the edge of the stage. . .
But dashing attacks where you continue to dash are so awkward, no? If you want a more traditional dash for more practical Bandicoot hunting, you can just release A as soon as you press it for Dingodile to fire a shot out of his bazooka, creating a disjointed blast in front of him the size of Kirby that does 10% and knockback that kills at 175%. The force of the blast causes Dingodile to be shot back very slightly, instantly stopping all of his momentum and bringing him to a halt.
While the “jousting” dash attack has no lag, this part of the move has both below average starting and ending lag. Despite the lag, this is actually a faster way to get Dingodile to keep to a complete stop then normal due to his terrible traction.
So remember how you can get a crystal shard onto the tip of your bazooka? Sure, it’s a nice decoration, but you could’ve just fired two fireballs in the time it took to get one shard ready to fire. . .However; if you have a shard, it’ll be the hitbox rather then the bazooka’s end, the priority becomes disjointed, and the move does 4% more. This turns Dingodile’s dash into a *gasp* actually usable approach. In addition, when you blow up the shard with the second part of the attack, it bursts into pieces, creating a multi hit hitbox that does 7%, allowing the attack to potentially do 17% total. Now we’re getting’ somewhere, eh mate?
[6%] [10%] [10%] [17%]
Forward Smash – Overheat
Dingodile charges up his bazooka as you charge the smash, then fires for average starting and ending lag. The beam reaches out half of Battlefield’s length and becomes wider the more you charge, at first only being as wide as Mario as tall but potentially becoming as wide as Dingodile himself. While the beam does anywhere from 20-35 disjointed hits of 1%, but it only flinches, meaning it’s strictly a damage racker.
So. . .How are you supposed to use this inside your crystal formation if it just goes straight forwards? Simple. It completely shatters any crystals in it’s way. While the idea of destroying your own walls can be rather unappealing, you have to keep in mind how the crystals rotate about. All you’re creating is just one little opening while still being able to start up the attack perfectly safe behind your crystals.
Now then. . .Where’s the overheating part of the attack? Well, if you never use your up special, the odds are you won’t see it anytime soon, but that’s rather unlikely. You see, a fully charged fsmash is the equivalent to flying around with your up special for half the duration, and a c-sticked one only a quarter the duration. So unless you spam this semi laggy attack, probably not gonna happen, and considering the rather costly consequences of overheating you certainly won’t want to activate if by accident.
But if you –do- get your gas canister to the point of overheating with the help of your up special, when you release the fsmash Dingodile’s gas canister starts pulsing violentely and making loud noises (Increasing the start up to the level of Dedede’s fsmash, but giving him super armor) then explodes in a massive blast that covers 1.25 Battlefield platforms on either side of Dingodile, goes into the foreground and background, and is 1.5X as tall as Dingodile. This does an absolutely insane 37% that has knockback on the level of Dedede’s fsmash. . .
but instantly KOs Dingodile. This also shatters any crystals or other static disjointed hitboxes in range, meaning it’s a good way to start fresh (Seeing you can’t bring down new crystals until ALL of them are gone).
This is Dingodile’s primary way of KOing, but considering it’s a suicide KO where Dingodile always dies first, this doesn’t work out too well, now does it? You’d think that, but Dingodile’s automatic death animation is rather lengthy as he turns into a statue of ashes then slowly disintegrates down into a pile of them in a cartoonish fashion, meaning his foe will be the one to “officially” go down first. In addition, considering the fact that the blast goes into the background/foreground to destroy all your crystals, this also prevents it from being dodged, allowing this to be viable despite the disgusting lag. Oh, and remember that suicide KO side special? If you blow yourself up when you’ve devoured a small character, they’ll also instantly get KOd, so it serves more of a suicide KO purpose then just in the traditional manner. . .
[20-35%] [37%]
Up Smash – Rain of Fire
Dingodile aims skyward with his bazooka, then fires two shots upwards triple his height. While the duration of the attack is roughly that of Dedede’s fsmash, he finishes firing one of the shots up through halfway through the duration so he’s not completely helpless. The fireballs shot function identically to the one in his neutral special (Though charging this can double their damage), and you can fire two fireballs upwards faster then using this smash, so what’s the point, really?
Well, Dingodile fires the two shots up into the foreground/background rather then on the normal plane, meaning you have to dodge to be hit by them. In addition, these fireballs come back down after being shot up, making them last a good bit longer then regular fireballs (A good 5 seconds or so), their hitboxes lingering on for a good bit.
The attack only becomes particularly potent when paired up with your neutral special, though, as if you tilt the control stick up immediately after the input, you can make it look as if you’re using this attack, giving mindgame potential so long as you wait a bit before actually firing the shot to make it look like you’re performing the usmash. It’s near impossible to tell visually where the fireballs are on the Z axis, so it’s quite easy to pressure foes into questioning whether to dodge or not to dodge.
[7-14%]
Down Smash – Spread Drill
Dingodile gets down onto the ground on his back, then balances himself off the ground with his tail as he get into a sniping stance, aiming his bazooka upwards. He then shoots three fireballs upwards, one straight up and two to the sides of it. These fireballs are slightly smaller then the ones from the neutral B/usmash and only deal 5%, though they’re close enough that one could easily hit all three if they hit the one in the middle. The fireballs go up double Ganondorf’s height before vanishing, and the move has average start lag with low end lag.
Now, while Dingodile’s balancing on his tail his main body has super armor, but if you hit his tail that he’s balancing on he’ll fall over for absolutely terrible ending lag. This can make the move borderline unusable, unless you’re in the middle of your crystal formation you won’t have to worry about being attacked from the sides and the attack covers you from above. . .
. . .Odd that this attack sounds more like a usmash then a dsmash, but that’s where the charging comes in. If you charge it, that’s where the “drill” part of the attack comes in as
Dingodile drills his tail into the ground as you charge the smash, doing mass little hits of 1% and flinching, up to 12%. While the final hit does no knockback, it traps foes with a pitfall effect as they’re trapped between the ground and Dingo’s body as it lowers to the ground. Unfortunately Dingodile can’t punish his foe here due to having to perform the triple shot upwards, but it is great for crowd control. This is still plenty practical either way though when only against one foe, though, as if you dig your tail into the ground you’re absolutely impervious to attack until the dsmash is over.
[5%] [5%] [5%] [12%]
Neutral Aerial – Ring of Fire
Dingodile actually shoots fire out of his bazooka rather then a beam, turning towards the screen as he does so. The move has a somewhat lengthy duration (Bowser’s dair) as he creates a ring of fire around himself as he continues to shoot towards the camera and create the ring. But because he’s shooting towards the camera,
the ring of fire is in the foreground, meaning the only normal hitbox is right in front of Dingodile, doing 12 hits of 1% and flinching. If the foes dodge, though, they’ll go into the foreground and thus into the ring of fire and take 8% and knockback that kills at 250%.
[12%] [8%]
Forward Aerial – Kickback Blast
Dingodile shoots a blast in front of him for average starting and above average ending lag. The hitbox is roughly the size of Wario and is disjointed, doing 15% and knockback that kills at 150%. While that’s all well and nice, the lag of the move makes it far from practical, and you won’t wanna be in the air with Dingodile all that much anyway besides to get ready for a suicide bombing fsmash. On the plus side, though,
this move propels Dingodile back a Battlefield platform’s length from the force of the blast, allowing him to put some distance between him and any enemy bandicoots while still defending himself.
[15%]
Back Aerial – Canister Smash
Dingodile slowly goes onto his back in midair somewhat like Wario’s bair to crush foes with his gas canister on his back, but the animation is actually fluent rather then instant. . .Which translates into the move being a good deal laggier. Now, the move deals 11% and knockback that kills at 170% away from the gas canister with disjointed priority and average range. Of course, the best point to use it is when the canister is pointing down for a weak meteor smash, but that’s easier said then done with the lag and precise timing needed.
If you whiff the move onto the ground during the end of the hitbox when Dingodile is horizontal on his back, though, he’ll smush the canister between the ground and his body for terrible landing lag. . .Joy.
If your canister’s charge is already 90% or above, though, it’ll start to pulse and explode, functioning just like an overheated fsmash. This can be a faster way to start the suicide bombing from the air, and seeing how you have to be in the air to charge it up anyway, it works out quite nicely. Of course, it’s annoying to get it just right without just activating a mini explosion in your up special if you overcharge, and if you undercharge you’ll be under 90% by the time you get to the ground. . .
[11%] [37%]
Up Aerial – Bazooka Jump
Dingodile sets his bazooka to do something or other, then. . .Drops it? As it goes under his feet, he jumps off of the bazooka, going up around Marth’s height, but the bazooka falls down. This doesn’t separate Dingodile from his weapon, though, as it proceeds to shoot a disjointed beam the size of Ganondorf downwards that does 12 hits of 1% and flinching and propel itself back into Dingodile’s arms. The move has average starting lag and below average ending lag, meaning it can be used to stall in the air, Dingodile just a tad bit lower then when he started the move at the end of the slightly lengthy animation.
[12%]
Down Aerial – Body Slam
Dingodile gets onto his belly in midair, then falls like a rock, going as fast as Toon Link’s dair. Standard stall then fall, really. His body is a high priority hitbox as he falls that does 10% and a weak meteor smash (Rob’s dair) downwards. Seeing Dingodile will continue on his way to the abyss regardless of whether you hit someone, this is rather unviable for gimping, but if you meteor smash someone down into the stage, you can land on them again for a second hit.
If foes are on the ground when hit by the move, they get pitfalled, which makes up for the absolutely tremendous landing lag (Though thankfully there’s no other lag to speak of – the stalling part of stall then fall is absent).
[10%]
Grab/Throw – Tail Lasso
Dingodile grabs his tail and starts spinning it around for as long as you hold Z, during which time you can angle it. Upon releasing Z, he throws it forward in the desired direction for above average range. . .Of course, due to it’s tether like properties, the grab is rather laggy, but thankfully all the lag you’d expect from at tether is put on the end while the start is perfectly fine, so it’s quite usable. Just don’t miss. . .
So that grab is perfectly fine, but why would Warlord of all people include one universal throw rather then four?!? Well, once you grab someone with your tail Dingodile starts rapidly spinning around. He’ll keep spinning like this until you press Z to release the foe or until the foe escapes themselves. You can only specifically release the foe forwards or backwards with knockback that kills at 170%, but no damage. . .
. . .No damage?!? Well, yes, if Dingodile is fighting out in the middle of nowhere, which he has no reason to, it does no damage, but if he’s next to his crystals then he can rack the damage up.
When Dingodile swings the victim through a crystal with his tail, though, he shatters it and it causes 1% to the victim. While that might not sound like much, keep in mind that his down special gives him a good 25 crystals to play with and you’ll be shattering through them like no tomorrow if you position yourself right in the middle.
While one would think you could just call down new crystals with ease, the foe will automatically be sent flying off with average set knockback after destroying 20 crystals, meaning that you’ll have an extra 5 left to destroy before you can just start fresh. Naturally, just 5 crystals isn’t nearly enough to provide you with any real cover, so you’ll wanna destroy ‘em all ASAP to make more. Of course, if you're starting to run out of crystals, you can use this to destroy the remaining ones to start fresh while racking damage in the process. Two birds with one stone.
[0-20%]
Final Smash – Ice Ages
For Dingodile’s “super attack”, a time portal appears in the middle of the stage and instantly sucks everybody into it, regardless of their location. This can be used to get Dingo out of a tight spot if necessary, but the show doesn’t really start until the portal spits you out in the “ice ages” in an arena that largely resembles Dingodile’s boss arena. Dingodile is behind a wall of crystals (Not behind the usual formation, just a wall), but as if they didn’t provide him enough protection he’s in the background now, totally invulnerable. He yells out “Break out the butter, gonna make toast!”, then everybody is free to move.
As Dingodile, you can move left and right, even while performing your three moves. A functions as your fsmash normally does, but you can move left and right as you charge/fire the beam. Pressing B puts you into a stance that resembles Snake’s final smash, where you can press A to rapid fire fireballs. While they’re no more powerful then normal, they’re INSANELY spammable. Press B again to go out of the stance. While this final smash has zero possibility of actually KOing anyone normally, your "fsmash" can still overheat if you charge it to the max, and the blast is completely undodgeable to all foes. Of course, it still KOs you, but if you’re ahead, why not? You spend 18 seconds in the ice age, after which the time portal comes back and spits you all back out on the regular stage.
If one just glanced at a match with Dingodile in it, one could easily assume he required lots of set up, seeing he has all those crystals on stage, but that’s the beauty of him. He can call them all down from the start of the match. No set-up required, just add water! You’ll want to play Dingodile very defensively from inside his crystals. What’s so great about the crystals is that you can angle your shots to hit your foes while still inside, but their projectiles will either go way over your head or be blocked by the crystals. Even if they have projectiles, they have no choice but to approach.
So, seeing the foe will have to go through ten billion crystals to try to get at you, they’ll probably try to just jump over them and approach from the air. Which is exactly what you want. Dingodile has lots of anti air options. When you get the feeling they’ll come, fire off a usmash to prevent them from dodging when they do, then use one of your many anti air moves as they come in (Don’t worry about lag, foes aren’t allowed to dodge it anyway). At this point, your victim has three options. They can dodge and get hit, not dodge and get hit, or back away and get hit by the tips of the crystals. While the crystals only deal 1-2%, they give surprisingly high hitstun, which allows you to easily punish the foe for some real damage.
Since you can block aerial approaches so well, the foe might try to damage your crystals. Go ahead. Let em. It’ll be a long while before they put any significant dent in your crystal quantity to make an opening, during which time you can rack plenty of damage from your fireballs, or even fire off an fsmash at them, assuming you still have plenty of crystals left. This only gets really bad if your foe is big and powerful and is able to shred through the crystals with ease, in which case you don’t have all that much to worry about fighting them normally, as they’re probably just as laggy as you are so you won’t even need to hide behind crystals. While you certainly don’t have much KO potential, you’ll get plenty ahead in the damage racking phase while they break your crystals to make up for it.
. . .So, speaking of KO potential, how does he KO? Indeed, that rather is a problem. At times Dingodile can feel like a power character without power seeing how laggy he is. Of course, the obvious choice to take out your foes is a suicide bombing. While one might question as to how you actually hit anything with it thanks to all the lag, it’s not as hard as you’d think. When it comes time to aim for the KO, just hover over the center of your crystals with your jetpack, using your uair to stall in midair to prevent you from overheating too early. The moment the foe arrives, body slam them to pitfall them to the ground, then stomp on them to hold them down. From here, you can set off your bomb with ease as you laugh maniacally and the poor bandicoot struggles to get free. Even if they get out before the bomb goes off, the explosion’s so huge they probably won’t have enough time left to get out of the blast radius anyway. Quite to the contrary to what you’d expect, things are even easier against small quick foes. Just go into your usual camping mode, then angle devour upwards as the cute little rodent comes in. This can even potentially earn you some early KOs if you can detonate your gas canister with the victim still in your belly, as if they’re inside you they’ll also instantly be KOd alongside you.
But anyway, Dingodile is completely screwed over by moving stages because his crystals go off screen, right? Hardly. He’s a set up character that requires no set up. The moment his crystals go off screen he can just summon new ones with little to no effort. If anything, this makes him all the better, as he can abuse the hitboxes on the crystals as they fall down a good deal here. Considering the crystals shred through everything but 100% solid platforms, they’ll even function perfectly normal on unviable stages like underground Mario Bros., shredding through all the blocks. Of course, the same can’t be said for Hanenbrow, as there’s no room to set up your crystals. D*mn Mendez and his Electroplankton. . .
ZOMG PRASHOR HEEM SO HE CANT SAT UP HEES KRYSTALS!!!!!!
Hardly. Dingodile is impossible to pressure. His crystals will be down within the first few seconds of the match, more often then not. From here, you can either attack Dingodile’s crystals or go to approach him from above. Seeing Dingodile’s many, many, anti-air options and how you’ll have little to no choice but to directly approach him from above, it’s rather unappealing, so you’ll want to focus on shredding away his crystals. This can be a rather lengthy process and you’ll be taking plenty of damage during it. This is much more recommended if you have some more powerful moves capable of shredding through them. Things can become much easier if Dingodile helps you destroy some crystals with his fsmash. . .Just don’t get hit.
Of course, you don’t want to destroy every last crystal, just enough so that you can approach Dingodile from the sides, which is far easier. If you destroy them all, Dingodile can just make more of the d*mn things. Anyway, at this point, the two of you will switch roles. You’ll be beating up on Dingodile while he’s trying to destroy his remaining crystals so he can make new ones. Sweet vengeance. Of course, with so few crystals and how there’s such a small window available during which he can attack them before they swirl into the foreground/background, he may just decide to fight you normally instead, during which time you can begin fighting him as a garbage tier power character without power. Just keep in mind that if he grabs you he can send you shattering through all those crystals to destroy the remaining ones to make more regardless of their location (Assuming he grabbed you near them) and start fresh. . .But this is really his only viable option left. Predict it, then punish that terrible ending lag.
Just watch out for his d*mn suicide kills. Even without his crystals, Dingodile can still either devour you or do a body slam/stomp combo to hold you down and prevent you from escaping the blast. Considering how insanely powerful it is, he won’t be needing all that much damage on you anyway to pull it off, and he’ll of already gotten enough on you by the time you’ve destroyed enough crystals. If you –can- escape from a suicide kill, though, you’ve pretty much entirely screwed him over. Once you’re ahead in stock count, you’ve got the match.
Without crystals, a strategy some Dingodile players use is to simply knock you off the edge with a decent powered move despite it being unable to KO you, then charge up the gas canister to explode and kill you when you come back. At this point, you can either go back to the ledge and die from the blast, or simply fall to your doom. While this will end up killing you both either way most of the time, on the last stock you can just stall in the air as long as you can until he kills himself so you die second.
VS. King Dedede 85/15, Dedede’s favor
Well, while Dingodile surprisingly can’t be chain grabbed in the normal fashion due to his terrible traction making him slide away before he can be regrabbbed (Like Luigi, but he slides away even faster, though not as far, preventing him from being infinited), Dingodile creates free walls in his crystals that allow Dedede to infinite him. While Dingodile can still just try to avoid getting grabbed here by playing his usual style, if Dedede jumps and uses his side special he can throw his Waddle Dees in an arc to go over the crystals but go down to hit you. He can camp just as much as you can. In addition, he just needs ONE FREAKING GRAB. That’s it. One grab, and it’s all over. You might be better off just playing without your crystals, but then Dingodile’s slow weak moveset will be notably inferior to the penguin king’s actual power and 16% damage bthrow.
VS. Meta Knight 50/50
Firstly, Dingodile should rarely get into a situation where he’s gimpable thanks to his defensive stance, and even when he is, his up special allows him to come back from anywhere on the freaking stage. Meta Knight has to go through Dingodile’s defenses just like anybody else. While Meta Knight can limit what Dingodile can do by out prioritizing his fireballs with Mach Tornado, it’ll take a good while for him to actually damage the crystals. In addition, Meta Knight is small enough to be devoured, and seeing how light he is Dingodile won’t need to get all that much damage on him either way. Of course, MK can just stand next to the crystals and spam dsmash all day on the crystals with the ocassional Mach Tornado thrown in to deal with your fireballs, so this isn’t exactly an ideal match up for either candidate. It can go either way.
VS. Peach 60/40, Dingodile’s favor
Peach can ever so casually float back and forth over the crystals as she waits for an opening, then punish you with a dair. The priority on the move is surprisingly good, so Dingodile has some problems dealing with it, and with her ability to just float and wait for the chance to strike Dingodile will have to leave as few openings as possible. On the other hand, Peach is pretty crappy at destroying the crystals, so she’s not exactly left with an alternative. Both combatants can rack up each other’s damage just fine. While Peach can’t KO you, it’s pretty annoying to hold the stupid b*tch down while you get ready for a suicide KO. Peach’s main strategy for “getting KOs” is to let you blow yourself up. That said, a good Dingodile player won’t actually do that until they finally get Peach pinned to the floor, so Dingodile is the one in control here, though barely.
VS. Pokemon Trainer 75/25, Dingodile’s favor
Remember good old Ryuk and his dtilt that could hit Pokemon Trainer himself? Dingodile has plenty of moves which go into the background, which means he has many, many options of damaging Pokemon Trainer. For every point of damage you inflict to him, that’s one second he can’t swap Pokemon, and you can stack the effect as much as you like. This can work paritcularly well to prevent PT from switching to Charizard, the Pokemon that fares against Dingodile the best to shred through his crystals, and of course to wear down the stamina of an individual Pokemon. The blast radius from your gas canister will nearly always hit PT, so that’s 37 free seconds with no switching right there. Anyway, there are better heavyweights to combat Dingodile then Charizard, and considering his stamina will drain down pretty fast Dingodile easily gets the match up.
VS. Bowser 65/35, Bowser’s favor
Have fun watching Bowser fsmash right through all your crystals. Considering he destroys two or three per fsmash out of 25, it won’t be too long before your supply runs low. Thankfully, once they’re gone Bowser can’t own you up like some of the superior heavyweights, but he’s still certainly a threat next to your weak moveset. While you’ll have a damage lead by the time the crystals are down, it won’t be much. The only real plus Dingodile has going for him here is that Bowser’s a nice easy target to hold down onto the floor and blow up, and even if he can’t do that, he can just throw him off the edge of the stage then blow up as he comes back. Still, considering Bowser can also do much simpler suicide KOs and is capable of KOing without killing himself in the process, he’s got the match up in the bag.
VS. Wario 80/20, Wario’s favor
This is pretty much like the above match up, but to an even larger extreme. While Wario’s fsmash is weaker then Bowser’s, it’s still strong enough to destroy the crystals in one hit and comes out much faster, meaning he’ll shred through the crystals like a speed demon. In addition, he’s a small target, though not small enough to be devoured, and can stall in the air just fine so you can’t just throw him off the edge and blow him up as he comes back. He’ll just laugh as you kill yourself then make it back to the stage with ease, though he might have to sacrifice a fart to stay in the air that long and still make it back. Anyway, considering how much faster Wario is, he can keep up the pressure much better then Bowser to boot. He’s pretty much a complete counter to you. Also, never try to use devour in this match up. Ever. Wario’s chomp easily out prioritizes it due to his mouth becoming so much bigger somehow.
VS. Metal Man 90/10, Dingodile’s favor
While Metal Man has to set up all his traps before he’s a threat, Dingodile can call down his crystals without a second thought. This means Dingodile will be damaging Metal Man heavily while he’s trying to set up, if he can get set up at all, that is. Even if he does get set up, Dingodile has no reason to leave his comfy little spot, so he’ll never fall into the traps. As if that wasn’t enough, Dingodile’s crystals already take up a lot of space on the tourney legal stages, meaning there really won’t be all that much room to even set up traps. Dingodile is an excellent counter to trap characters in general.
VS. Arthas 70/30, Dingodile’s favor
. . .But isn’t Arthas just another trap character? Well, not really. Firstly, the buildings are made in the background, so that means Arthas has all the space he needs to build them, and he’s perfectly able to attack your crystals while his Acolytes are setting up the traps. No need for a Death Knight to bother himself with such primitive tasks personally. While this is all well and nice for Arthas, he –is- a disgustingly large target, and his inability to grab the ledge means Dingodile could potentially even go on the offensive to score a easy gimp KO. While Arthas’ buildings will more or less no matter for most of the match, if you let it drag on too long you may have problems. However; unlike most characters, Dingodile can actually attack the buildings in the background with moves like his usmash and nair, and of course whenever he goes for a suicide KO all buildings in range instantly take 37 damage. While Arthas does indeed shred through Dingodile's crystals rather easily, the fact he can damage both Arthas and his buildings at the same time prevents him from being a joke without his crystals. While Arthas certainly has a chance, he’ll have to work for the win a lot harder then Dingodile.
VS. Raiden 80/20, Raiden’s favor
Raiden has his share of more powerful moves to get through the crystals just fine. While they’re somewhat laggy and thus not entirely ideal for getting through, Raiden still has his share of faster moves that he can use to hand Dingodile’s *** to him once he breaks through, unlike the other heavyweights. While Dingodile will refuse to die thanks to his infinite recovery and most of Raiden's KO moves being awkwardly laggy, that’s what Raiden’s locker is for. Raiden has no problem getting Dingodile up to high percentages where he won’t be able to escape in time as he pushes it off-stage. Dingodile is doomed to drown in Davy Jones’ locker for this match up.
VS. Spadefox 75/25, Dingodile’s favor
While Spade is somewhat powerful, he doesn’t have any moves that can destroy the crystals in one hit or are particularly fast for destroying them, so this presents somewhat of a problem to him. He’s also rather bad at approaching from the air, and seeing how defensive Dingodile is Spade will be hard pressed to get in that first hit to build any momentum. Dingodile can easily bring down his crystals before Spade plagues him with the inability to do so, so he can’t be so easily shut down like traditional trap characters.
Spade’s best hope is to try to lock Dingodile’s up special with his usmash, though this is rather predictable, seeing Spade’s other options are all so bad against Dingodile. If you do manage to do it, though, not only will Dingodile be unable to recover, he’ll be unable to charge up his gas canister and perform a suicide KO, shutting him down entirely. While this is much easier said then done, it’s notable enough to prevent Dingodile from dominating the match up. While locking out his fsmash is also possible, it’s not as potent and harder to lock seeing he doesn’t use it nearly as often, and even then he can still detonate the gas canister with his bair, so you’d have to lock both moves.
VS. Hades 80/20, Hades’ favor
Since it’s impossible to prevent Dingodile from bringing down his crystals, Hades will want to quickly run through him with his side special before he does so to nab some free projectiles before Dingodile blocks him out. Once the crystals come down, you can shoot fireballs in arcs over the crystals right back at Dingodile out of your stolen bazooka, although you only get 4 shots. While Hades can shred through Dingodile’s crystals decently, he actually has an alternative option, unlike most heavyweights. If he can manage to get into the center of the crystal formation alongside Dingodile and sets up a usmash portal properly, he can send Dingodile outside his own crystal formation. From here, you can just jump out to get at him without destroying his crystals, or better yet save your stolen bazooka for this point so you and Dingodile can switch roles, if only briefly.
Once the crystals are shattered, Hades can catch up in damage by summoning Pain or Panic to take care of Dingodile. While you won’t have much time to use them unless you want Hades to lose power, Dingodile’s slow weak moveset is easy to combo up the ***, so they don’t need all that much time. After your minion is done, Hades can come back in and finish the job. Considering the fact that even when Dingodile is left alone to camp you his fireballs will only deal half the normal damage to you thanks to your flame resistance, this match up is heavily biased for Hades. While Dingodile can just get a crystal shard to fire at you with his ftilt instead of a fireball, it takes a decent bit longer and it'll certainly annoy the Dingo player to do so.
Up Taunt – Maniacal Laughter
Just what you’d expect. Obligatory maniacal evil laugh.
Side Taunt - Baiting
Dingodile does a “come on” motion and chuckles slightly. “Chicken?”. Retracting your crystals and using this is a great way to offer a foe an invitation to approach. Of course, you’ll bring the crystals back up the moment the foe arrives. Suckers.
Down Taunt - Impatience
Dingodile folds his arms and taps his foot. “What’s keepin’ ya?”. This taunt serves a similar purpose to the above.
Entrance - Backfire
Dingodile comes down from the top of the screen, using his gas canister as a jetpack to hover down onto the stage quickly. It explodes in his face like when you use it too long in his up special upon landing, causing him to fall back on his ***. He then hastily gets up and shakes all the soot off.
Win Pose 1 – Victory Dance
Dingodile jumps up and lands on one leg, then does the same, landing on the other leg. He does this a few times, then pauses it briefly to shoot a beam from his bazooka upwards in celebration. This is his victory animation in Crash Team Racing.
Win Pose 2 – Victory Dance 2
Dingodile does a backflip, then raises his arms up into the air and looks to either side. His Crash Bash victory animation.
Win Pose 3 – Out of Juice
Dingodile turns to the losers and charges up his bazooka to fire a big blast, but then nothing but a puff of smoke comes out. Dingodile facepalms and mutters “Oh bother. . .” as he shakes his head in shame for the remainder of the victory screen.
Loss Pose – Absent Minded Clap
Dingodile claps in a perfectly normal fashion, his gas canister and bazooka laying to his side. While one would think nothing would think nothing’s special about this, if you stay at the results screen for a whole minute the gas canister will suddenly start pulsing. Dingodile yells out “It’s gonna blow!” and goes to flee, but it explodes and cracks the screen, leaving the results screen in blackness.
*
and yeah that move was hard to actually think of and I was pretty sleepy -_-. But yeah looking back it does seem broken so I should fix it up right after this post. Also yeah I should use *it* :O
