It's been too long since I've posted a set, so... enjoy! There's even some MATCHUPS at the end!
Wily's log, No 71:
After the humiliating defeat of my latest robots at the hands of that blue disaster, Megaman, I have decided to change my tactics. As proven by Wily report No 65 (
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNmS9Wn9GCw), my previous methods of sheer numbers and horrible AI do nothing to slow that pest down. Therefore, I have decided to fight fire with fire, and instead focus on upgrading the intelligence and weaponry of my robot masters themselves. This log details a redesign of Galaxy Man, incorporating all the traps and ideas within his lair (as well as some additional ones that I've previously only hinted at) into a single robot. The effectiveness of this against my nemesis,
generic attacks Megaman, may determine whether I continue in this vein or search for new methods. Therefore, without further introduction...
Before detailing the various weapons available, I should note that although Galaxy Man is incapable of full flight, he is capable of 3 jumps as well as a float as powerful as that of Peach. As if that wasn't enough, being a UFO, Galaxy man has one of the slowest fall speeds in the game, making him extremely suitable for aerial combat.
Specials:
Neutral Special: Black Hole Bomb
The signature move of Galaxy Man, and an extremely powerful weapon. As in the game, when holding (not just pressing) this input, a small black and purple sphere the size of a pokeball will move out in front of you at the speed of Mario's walk. You can control its direction with the control stick, and after it moves a battlefield platform, it will explode into a miniature black hole the size of kirby. Everything (aside from you) within a battlefield platform will be pulled in at the speed of Ganon's run, and the black hole itself will do fifteen quick hits of 1% each over the course of two seconds. Also, this thing utterly destroys ANY type of projectile or minion, up to and including Samus's final smash (This includes another black hole bomb, if you try to be cheap and chain them. Shame on you.)! You can cause the black hole to explode early by simply releasing the special button, or you can set it for a delayed explosion by pressing shield, which will cause it to simply persist as a purple/black spark, which you can later detonate by tapping the input. Only one of these can be onscreen at one time, using a new one will cause your old bomb to disappear. Lag isn't bad, but given how long the move takes, that scarcely matters. Additionally, if you're hit before you set the black hole bomb to explode/delay, it will simply disappear. Finally, the black hole bomb is the only one of Gravity Man's projectiles that he himself is immune to. The remaining ones he can be hit by, even if the opponent doesn't reflect them.
Side Special: Gravity Shift
A simple, yet very impactful move, pressing this input causes Galaxy man to
change the direction of gravity. Which way it shifts depends on which way you press the control stick, that direction will become closer to "up". (So, if you're on Battlefield, and press B+right, the right edge of battlefield will begin to "rise", while the left edge will "fall".) Also, it takes a full second to shift gravity 45 degrees, so no "Knock your opponent off the edge, shift gravity 90 degrees, instakill" shenanigans. Ledges and blocks can still be grabbed/walked on up to a 60 degree angle, giving you plenty of stage to walk on in most cases. It's worth noting that depending on the stage, you may be limited in how far you can shift gravity. Usually this is unlimited, but on stages such as Yoshi's island, it would be completely unfair to let you shift gravity upside down. The rule is that the direction currently known as "up" must leave room for the respawn platform, and there must be some stage directly under the respawn platform that you can stand on. Aside from that, anything goes. One last note, the camera will rotate along with the direction of gravity when this move is used, making it easy to remember which direction is up, and where your jumps will take you.
Up Special: Unidentified Flying Object
Galaxy Man is built like a UFO after all, and entering this input will let you fly like one. While in UFO mode, you have 5 seconds of free movement by simply pushing the control stick in any direction, but your max speed is that of Ganon's run. Additionally, you can use most of your ground moves while in this mode (jab, tilts, and smashes, as well as your dash attack by moving at max speed and pressing the standard button), as well as your other specials (re-using this will simply turn you back to normal). You can transform into or out of this at will, and it will not put you into helpless, but you have only 5 seconds of using this mode in one jump, and once they're up, you'll forcibly transform back to normal.
Down Special: Aperture Science Portal Gun
As you might have guessed from the name, using this input will cause you to place a portal immediately in front of Galaxy Man. These portals are the size of Bowser, and can only be entered from the top/bottom. Normally this will be straight up/down (whatever that was at the time of creation), however by angling the control stick, you can change the orientation of the portal, as that direction will be the "bottom". (Check the vid at the top to see what they look like.) Of course, one portal is useless on its own, but once you've created two portals, entering one will cause you to shoot out the top of the other at the speed of Ganon's run. However, you aren't the only one capable of using portals, as opponents, minions, projectiles, even items can enter one portal to come out the other side. To prevent top blastzone stalling, this will kill you similar to wario's fart if it launches you off the top blastzone (whichever one that happens to be at the moment.) Using this input while two portals are already out will cause you to replace the older one, while holding down the input will cause any portals already out to disappear. Finally, portals can be destroyed if dealt 20% damage. Lag is low.
Standards:
Jab: Arm Cannon
As we all know and love, EVERYTHING in the megaman universe has some sort of arm cannon, and Galaxy man here is no exception. Pressing this input will cause Galaxy man to shoot a blast from his arm cannon. These shots are the size of Wolf's blaster, and do 4% with weak knockback, traveling at Pika's run speed. Additionally, you can aim these via the control stick, and shoot them as quickly as Falco's laser. Finally, if you hold down the input, Galaxy man will begin charging a shot. At full charge, which takes a second, he'll fire a kirby-sized blast doing 12% and good knockback, though slightly bad lag (It travels at the same speed as the smaller shots). Releasing the button before full charge will just fire a normal shot. Finally, Galaxy man can still move and jump while charging, and he can hold a fully charged shot as long as he wishes, but he can't attack until you use the shot (or cancel it via dodge/shield.) Lag is low, and shots fired will travel up to 3x the length of Final destination.
Forwards Tilt: Laser Shot
Another fun UFO staple, a small hatch on Galaxy Man opens revealing a miniature laser, firing a thin but quick beam similar to Rob's laser (that's the length of one of falco's laser bolts), doing 6%, decent knockback, and travelling at Sonic's run speed. As per usual, you can aim this laser up to 45 degrees by angling the control stick. Also, this laser does not vanish upon contact with the opponent, and will bounce off the stage, giving you the possibility of chaining shots with portals and some good maneuvering. Again, lag is low, and shots fired will travel up to 3x the length of Final destination. (No infinitely chaining shots, despite how much fun that would be.) However, this isn't as quick and easily spammable as it sounds. You must wait 3 seconds between blasts, else you'll merely get a failed laser that does nothing but put you into lag.
Down Tilt: Spike Strip
Galaxy Man tosses a small circular metal device at the ground in front of him, which expands into a small spike strip a battlefield platform wide directly in front of Galaxy man. Contact with these spikes deals
INSTANT UNFAIR DEATH 12% and decent upwards knockback. These spikes last for 10 seconds, and you can have up to two of them on the screen at one time. (Using another one while one is already out will destroy the oldest one, and using this move in midair will cause Galaxy Man to toss the device directly below him. It falls at Mario's run speed, and does not do damage.) Lag is a bit bad, this move is much better as a trap then as an actual melee tool.
Side note:
It takes some skill and a lot of luck, but it is completely possible to chain hits using both spike strips in tandem with a pair of portals. Really impractical to pull off, but very awesome.
Up Tilt: Energy reflector
Galaxy Man projects a circular shield-sized dome of energy around himself, doing 7% and okay knockback, persisting as long as you hold down the button. (However, it only damages opponents when it first comes out.) It comes out fairly fast, end lag isn't the best. Recall that aside from his Black hole Bomb, Galaxy Man can be hit by his own projectiles (via portals for example). Well, this move will reflect your projectiles, but ONLY your projectiles, enemy shots will be completely unaffected. Also, when you reflect one of your projectiles, it gains 5% damage, moves faster, and gets slightly better knockback, AND the distance it can travel is reset! (As a side note, to prevent infinite projectile looping, the third time you reflect a projectile, it will disintegrate under the strain.)
Dash Attack: Unidentified Ramming Object
Galaxy Man retreats into his UFO form, and continues dashing along at normal speed in the same direction, being a hitbox of 12% and decent knockback with super armor while you do so. Sound boring? Well, this lasts until you press the A button again (or run out of your 5 seconds of flying time), and basically makes Galaxy Man himself a projectile to nail the opponent with! Since you can fly around in any direction, go through portals, bounce off the stage and such, this can be the final shot to knock your opponent into your other tools.
Smashes:
Forwards Smash: Gravity Well
Galaxy Man immediately shoots out a pokeball sized yellow-and-black projectile that will move in the direction you press the control stick at ganon's run speed for as long as you hold the A button down. As soon as you release the button, the projectile will expand to kirby's size and remain fixed in place. Now, this doesn't do any damage, however, anything within a battlefield platform (projectiles, items, or characters), will be attracted to it. The strength of the pull depends on the distance of the item, being as strong as mario's run at point blank range, but weakened to Ganon's walk speed at the very edge of it. These last for ten seconds, and the effects stack. So why do you care? Well, aside from being an interesting gimping tool, you can also use this to curve your shots in unexpected ways and nail an unsuspecting opponent. Additionally, with stacked gravity wells, you could very well get your projectiles to orbit around them, essentially giving the gravity well its own hitbox! This is particularly effective with the laser, as it can hit multiple times, and travels quickly enough to rack some serious damage. Finally, to prevent infinite stalling with these, after the ten seconds a gravity well lasts are up, it will explode, doing 10% damage and set knockback of a battlefield platform.
Up Smash: Catcher Summon
Galaxy Man points towards the sky in front of him, causing a Bunby Catcher (
http://megaman.wikia.com/wiki/Bunby_Heli#Bunby_Catcher) to come down from the top of the screen in front of him. It wlll continue descending as long as you hold down the A button, or until it's a stage builder block above solid ground. The minion has 20% health, and will remain there until destroyed or an enemy passes under it. Once that happens, it will plunge down (reflecting the current direction of gravity) at Captain Falcon's run speed and attempt to grab the enemy. If it misses, it will just continue going and either drop off the bottom blastzone or explode when it collides with the stage (5% and minor knockback, C4 explosion range). However, if it grabs on (and it has decent bowser-width range), it will immediately start speeding forwards with opponent in tow (in the direction Galaxy man was facing when he summoned it, rotated to reflect the new direction of gravity) at sonic's run speed, whilst the opponent has to escape at 2/3rds normal grab difficulty. This will at the very least drag them far offstage, while if they're damaged enough, it can even KO them. Only one of these can be onstage at a time, summoning a new one will destroy the old one. Lag is okay.
Down Smash: Mini-UFO swarm
A pair of hatches open on Galaxy Man's sides, and smaller green UFO's (the size of Mario's fireballs) begin speeding out. They move in a wave pattern (covering a stage builder block vertically, and it takes two stage builder blocks for them to move from high point to low point. They start in the middle, moving upwards) at mario's run speed, and do 5% with minor knockback on contact. However, they're also very fragile, and can be destroyed by ANY attack. Uncharged Galaxy man will release three of these on either side with okay lag, charging the smash (which takes a full second) causes him to release 7 on each side. This can be quite effective when combined with other ways to maneuver the opponent into place. For example, if the opponent is caught by your Catcher Summon, you could quite easily hit with EVERY UFO, causing an awesome 30% damage.
Grab Game:
Grab: Energy Field
Galaxy Man creates a circular (half-transparent, with a red tint) energy field with a radius of one stage builder block. This can be performed in the air, and will catch whatever it contacts. (Projectiles, minions, enemies... whatever. Grabbing helpless opponents will take them out of helpless, however.) To escape the grab, rather than just normal button mashing, the foe has to DI out of the energy field, which takes longer the higher their damage percentage is. (At 0% they move at the speed of Mario's walk, by 100% they move at a quarter of that speed.) While the field is up, Galaxy Man can still move around and jump, though he cannot shield, dodge, or attack. Additionally, anything in the shield will be carried with him, and will act as if frozen in time, as will anything that later moves into the shield of its own accord. (So if you catch one of your projectiles and move around with it, you won't affect its timer or distance traveled.) To prevent stalling, the energy field will dissipate after 5 seconds, and the grab has some pretty horrible end lag regardless of which "throw" you use. (However, you can still use off-stage throws, as Galaxy Man will do a midair stall when performing a throw.) Finally, the beginning lag isn't stellar either, due to the enormous range of this move.
"Pummel": Field rotation
By holding the A button and pressing a direction on the control stick (left/right), Galaxy man will rotate his energy field, as well as everything inside of it. Pressing left will cause him to rotate clockwise, while right will cause counter-clockwise rotation, and it takes him a full second to rotate 180 degrees. The directions of projectiles/minions/characters are rotated with the field, so if a projectile is headed to the left, and you rotate the field 90 degrees clockwise, it will now be headed upwards. If in midair, Galaxy man will do a midair stall while doing this, so you don't plummet to your doom.
Special throw: Energy Spike
When you press the special button, Galaxy man will send a wave of energy through the field. This doesn't actually do damage, but sends everything within the field straight away from Galaxy Man (with projectile's directions changed accordingly.) Projectiles are launched at their normal speed, while minions/characters are launched as if hit by an attack with decent knockback.
Grab release: Field dissipation
A very simple "throw", Galaxy Man will simply quit powering the field, and everything that was in it will resume acting normally, (except for perhaps having its direction changed by your "pummel".) I should mention now that aside from the obvious gimping tool Galaxy Man's grab game presents, it is also very good at catching and redirecting your (and enemy!) projectiles. Enemy projectiles caught in your field will be reverted to "neutral", that is, they will be able to hit the one that fired them, even if they normally couldn't.
Aerials:
Forwards Aerial: Repulsion Blast
Galaxy Man immediately shoots out a pokeball sized red-and-gray projectile that will move in the direction you press the control stick at ganon's run speed for as long as you hold the A button down. As soon as you release the button, the projectile will expand to kirby's size and remain fixed in place. Now, this doesn't do any damage, however, anything within a battlefield platform (projectiles, items, or characters), will be pushed away from it. The strength of the push depends on the distance of the item, being as strong as mario's run at point blank range, but weakened to Ganon's walk speed at the very edge of it. These last for ten seconds, and the effects stack. Sound familiar? This is indeed a repulsing version of Galaxy Man's Forwards smash, which tends to be better for gimping, yet worse for redirecting projectiles. Lag's not too bad, but the move takes a while, so take care.
Down Aerial: Tractor Beam
THE signature UFO move, Galaxy Man retracts his legs into his UFO body, and emits a cylindrical yellow beam, about bowser's width (straight down, of course) for as long as you hold down the button. Things can move through the beam at half their normal speed, however Galaxy Man can alter their upwards or downwards trajectory by pressing the appropriate direction on their control stick, and it will push/pull them at Ganon's run. By the way, if you try to pull something INSIDE Galaxy Man with this move, it will abruptly end if the object is bigger than the hatch. If it's actually smaller than the hatch (which is only half a kirby width), it will disappear into Galaxy Man's machinery and be destroyed... (There's an achievement for doing this to a tiny opponent, by the way.) Lag isn't too good, so pick your timing carefully.
Back Aerial: Magnetizing Blast
Galaxy Man reaches behind him, and a red/blue (the colors are alternating) kirby-sized blast erupts from his palm. If it hits something solid (not just an energy projectile), that object take 5% and becomes magnetized, and will attract metal objects (like Galaxy Man's mini-UFOs, or his catcher summon, though not Galaxy Man himself) within a battlefield platform at the speed of Ganon's run. This lasts for ten seconds, and can be quite a hindrance for the opponent. By the way, the effects of these do stack, and could easily leave the opponent desperately running from a horde of your little robot friends... Lag isn't too good though, so you won't be able to hit them twice.
Up Aerial: Wormhole seed
Galaxy Man reaches up above him, planting a tiny white spark there. So what's this do? Well, as soon as a black hole bomb activates (or immediately, if one was active when you use this move), instead of destroying enemies, minions, projectiles, and such, it will instead instantly transport them to the location of this white hole (which will expand to kirby's size), and spit them out in a random direction at Ganon's run. You can only have one of these at a time (using the move again will delete the old one), lag is low.
Neutral Aerial: Disruption Field
Galaxy Man activates a blue/yellow circular energy field, half a stage builder block in radius, and if it hits the opponent, it will immediately scramble their controls. That is to say, the special/standard buttons and grab/shield buttons will be switched, and their control stick will be reversed (up means down, left means right, etc.) This lasts until they touch ground (or you hit them again with it...), and can be the final nail in the coffin of an opponent trying to recover. Minions and projectiles hit by it will instead just be randomly redirected.
Playstyle:
Alright, if you haven't figured it out by now, Galaxy Man's main game is gimping. He's very good at manipulating his projectiles to confuse the oponent, but they're best used to prevent the opponent from recovering, or at the least damage them while they're recovering. Now, the first priority is to get the opponent offstage. The best way to do this would be by nailing them with a catcher summon (which will easily do that and could even outright KO the opponent if they're at high damage), although you could also use a grab, a Neutral special, up-air combo, or a portal to accomplish this, or even just chase them offstage with a flurry of projectiles.
However, although getting your opponent offstage is nice (and makes your projectiles all that more deadly and harder to avoid), Galaxy Man can still function perfectly well onstage. At any rate, your main methods should be the same, to abuse Galaxy Man's incredible projectile game. With his arm cannon (jab), laser (forwards tilt), and UFO's (down smash), you can harass the opponent fairly well right off the bat. However, there's more. Just shooting projectiles won't get you too far as Galaxy Man, the real key is to continue redirecting those projectiles back at the opponent over and over again until they succumb to the swarm. Here you have a few nice tricks to baffle them. First off, your grab will snatch a whole bunch of projectiles at once and refire them as you see fit, which is very useful and easy to do. Secondly, your portals can send a projectile back at the opponent multiple times, set up fast, and don't require any direct intervention from you once setup. Thirdly, you can more reflect your projectiles via your up-tilt, refreshing AND powering them up to boot! And if all that wasn't enough, you can use your wormhole (black hole bomb + up air), gravity well (forwards smash), AND repulsion blast (forwards aerial) to further manipulate your shots! The only limit to what you can do here is your own imagination. Don't forget to cut off landing areas to the opponent with the spike strip (down tilt), as well as mess more directly with the opponent via your aerials! Offstage, Galaxy Man's game is much the same, but with the exception that now the opponent has an even worse threat to avoid, the bottom blastzone! Have fun!
Final Smash:
Galaxy Man extends his arms in a sorta-cool pose, and from all 4 blastzones a dozen (per blastzone) small UFO's come out, all moving towards the nearest opponent. These are mostly identical to his Down smash UFO's with one key difference, once per second they'll all shoot a miniature arm cannon blast similar to his jab, but smaller and doing 2%. Doesn't last that long, but it can really overwhelm the already-frantic opponents.
Matchup: Galaxy Man vs Spider-Man. 70-30 advantage Spidey
Let's face it, Spider-Man is everything Galaxy Man hates in an opponent. Fast, agile, great recovery, and he can even stick to the stage to neutralize your gravity shifting. As if that wasn't enough, once spidey gets a piece of webbing stuck to you, he can abuse your projectiles and traps better than you can! In addition to slamming you into his fists and the stage, he could do it into your spikes, UFO's, and more. With his fast-paced attack and quick followups, your only setup time will be when he retreats to reload, and even then, you have only a few seconds until he's back with a vengeance. There's one thing that salvages this matchup for you slightly, and that's your black hole bomb. Being that you're invulnerable to it, Spidey can't use it against you, and it'll cut through his webbing like a hot knife through butter, and often pull him in with it. But make no mistake, it will be a real battle racking damage on your opponent, and even harder to pull off the kill.
Matchup: Galaxy Man vs Weston. 80-20 advantage Galaxy Man
Alright, now THIS is more like it. Weston's ice block doesn't last long against Galaxy Man's flurry of projectiles, and Galaxy Man is perfectly happy staying in the air and away from the frozen stage while destroying it. In fact, even if Weston DOES manage to freeze the whole stage, Galaxy Man can just rise high into the air and rotate gravity 90 degrees, making all that setup useless. Meanwhile, while Weston can't do much to Galaxy Man, the reverse is far from true. Weston's air game isn't the greatest, nor is his tether recovery, and with Galaxy Man's array of projectiles and other tricks, Weston is in for some real trouble. This isn't just a beating, it's a downright curb stomp.
Matchup: Galaxy Man vs Victini. 55-45 advantage Victini
Now things are getting interesting. Victini's in-your-face aggressive game is fairly good at countering Galaxy Man's projectile traps, and keeping him pinned down. At the beginning of the match is Victini's best shot, if he can keep in Galaxy Man's face, breaking his shield, giving him no chance to abuse his projectiles, he has the match half won. However, once Galaxy Man gets some time and space, things begin to change. By rotating the stage to minimize the available ground, Galaxy Man makes Telekinisis less effective, and forces Victini to combine it with his another recovery move to get back to stage. Although Victini still has enough abilities to get the job done, the first time Galaxy Man manages to knock him back out there after a recovery attempt, he's as good as dead. Since his recovery moves don't refresh upon being hit, a simple trick like a projectile wall (via portals and laser/arm cannon shots) will interrupt his recovery, and let Galaxy Man land the grab and send him back out for a kill. So, the question for each stock rests on one very simple thing. Can Victini keep Galaxy Man down without letting him off the hook at all, or will Galaxy Man escape and fling Victini out into the void? Since Galaxy Man's close range game is completely awful (mainly coming down to arm cannon shots, the laser, and his black hole bomb), at the highest levels of play Victini maintains an advantage, but it's close.
