I. Love. Norfair. My "magic juju" stage. When it's legal, I CP it against everyone except for G&W and MK unless I'm feeling in the mood for Corneria.
Pros:
- A ridiculous number of ledges means lots of QA & Skull Bash shenanigans. Abusing the invincibility frames and being able to recover in really unpredictable ways is always good.
- When the opponent is on a platform above you, it's easy to jump, uair, and start an aerial combo from underneath them.
- Tjolt hugs the platforms, so against taller characters, you can shoot tjolts onto the platform above them and it'll hit them in the head as it travels under the bottom. Most people don't expect that and fail to shield it the first few times, at which point you can mix it up and start shooting more tjolts directly at them.
- When the lava wall advances, you can throw/hit the opponent into the wall, then juggle them against it with multiple thunders. It requires timing, but depending on their damage, hitstun will make this inescapable..... I've had Stealth do this to me online.
![Frown :( :(](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
- Killing-wise, usmash is **** on the upper platforms. Utilt > thunder works well too.
- Evasion tactics are too good here, and most characters aren't as speedy getting from platform to platform as Pikachu is.
Cons:
- The high ceiling means that unless you're on the top platforms, vertical kills won't be happening.
- Characters with spikes can spike you
through the lava but will get saved by it if they can't recover.
![Mad :mad: :mad:](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
- Stage hazards. NEVER go into the pod when the huge lava wall comes (from behind). You'll be stuck in there after the lava passes, and if your opponent is moderately close, they can attack you through the walls.
Characters to take here: slow, bulky characters that lack a good spike do badly here. DDD (can't CG effectively), Bowser, Ike, possibly DK although he doesn't do as badly as the others here.
Edit: I forgot to say Diddy.... others have mentioned it already, but Diddy gets ***** here. Bring him here if you can.
Characters to never take here: MK (his ledge game > ours imo), G&W (better aerials + better killing potential), Ganondorf (you will probably get spiked, and the lava will save him afterwards.... plus it's hard to gimp him here)
I would probably hesitate to take ZSS here as well. Tether recovery, good mobility.... plus her paralyzing attacks around all those hazards is not good. I've been stunned, then left for death by lava before......
Rating: 7.5/10 I really love this stage. I'd give it an 8, but it's not so great against certain characters, it's banned a lot of the time, and I think it's somewhat of a personal thing that I do well here, lol.