OK, so here's an idea for a Rhythm Heaven character's Neutral Special inspired by Karate Man. First, watch
this video to get an idea of what I'm working with.
The idea is similar to Header. Pressing the Special Attack button causes a pot to fly at you, and you can hit it forward with any of your normals, but you have to time it correctly to do so. This attack is spammable in a simple 1-2 rhythm at a tempo that makes it a good projectile, but not so good that it takes over the moveset. There are a variety of ways to expand upon this idea as well:
- Sometimes, a blue or yellow lightbulb could be tossed at you instead of a pot. This can happen either randomly, or every so uses. Hitting the blue lightbulb will automatically throw a barrel with a bomb inside it at you that you can hit twice to hit a bomb at the opponent, and hitting the yellow one throws a bunch of barrels at you that you can hit with a combo attack to hit a barrage of barrels at your opponent.
- Sometimes an item other than a pot could be thrown at you, which varies on power and distance once hit toward the opponent.
- This attack could be used at all times, allowing you to factor it into your combos, but not allowing you to use it to break combos since it doesn't have a hitbox until you hit the item.
- After using this Special Move, you can delay using it again for a specific timing that gives you an item that travels faster.
Not all of these ideas would have to be used mind you. It would definitely be something you'd have to play around with on the design board, but I think it's a good indicator of what a Rhythm Heaven character would be like (though I wouldn't have any of their normals do nothing if you didn't do the extra input). It's rhythmic, but not dependent on BGM or anything like that.