Rate My Samus - Constructive Criticism Encouraged

[Stinkoman K]

Hi there Smash Community. I taped myself playing with my teammate, Scar (Trucido on SmashBoards), in the hopes of getting some pointers. I typically practice with him, as well as Pakman and Cactuar from TSA. I have a lot of problems against Falcon players, even though I win the three matches below. Scar's working on uploading two that I lost.

Some issues I'd love help with:

1) Samus' grab is slow as hell, making shield-grabbing characters like Falcon/Marth/Sheik risky. What do I do with Samus' shield game?

2) What are good ways to implement bombs into the game (outside of her recovery)?

3) I've seen Mike Nasty play and he uses the beam cancel a lot. I don't really understand how to use it on flat surfaces (I can do it in the air), and in the end is it really that useful?

If anyone wants to pick apart my Samus game, I'd love any and all pointers. If you see something other than my 3 issues, by all means point them out.

Videos

Wins Against Scar (aka good music):
Poor editing in beginning 10 seconds, my appologies. Still my best fight.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cDWtOs4wMQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16YOVyHycfQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiepZu8xFc0

Losses To Scar (aka terrible song):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ebWYtWBmUA



Asking for a challenge,
Stinkoman K

Oh, on a side-note, generally when I win I get to put MY music to the fight, whereas when Scar wins he uses his own (though if I'm busy he just picks a song with the same length as the match from his iTunes). I do not support the song "We Didn't Start the Fire". It's stupid. As evidence I present the following:

oStinkoman20x6o (1:29:00 AM): We Didn't Start the Fire is such a ****ty song
oStinkoman20x6o (1:29:14 AM): I'm going to write the same song:
oStinkoman20x6o (1:30:04 AM): Dinosaurs, NBA, pottery is made of clay, spinach dip, pokemon, such a ****in' easy song
BScar87 (1:30:41 AM): hahahahhahahahahhahao
Stinkoman20x6o (1:31:51 AM): Futurama, soda pop, silly string, Kidz Bop, Falcon Punch, open sleigh, WHATELSEDOIHAVETOSAY?
oStinkoman20x6o (1:32:09 AM): We just wanted the money, we've been always yearning since the band's been earning
oStinkoman20x6o (1:32:26 AM): We just wanted the money, we've been always yearning since the band's been earning

 

[Stinkoman K]

Maybe Easter wasn't the best day to pick to make this thread...

 

[ph00tbag]

I can say that you could use missile canceling a whole lot more, from the first vid. Against a CF, you have nothing to lose, and it does a good job of keeping him out of your hair. You should also try to implement bombs. They are a big part of Samus' game as far as mind games and recovery. You didn't even drop one in the first vid.

Try to avoid sheild-grabbing. Samus' grab is really slow even out of a sheild. If your opponent is close enough for a Screw Attack, go for that, if not, just wavedash away or spot dodge.

You really need to be missile canceling. Every time you fire a ground missile, that CF gets right on your face in the lag. You need to cancel that lag so that CF won't have that safety blanket to hold onto.

Don't taunt. You're not winning. Your opponent is losing, but that doesn't mean you're winning. Furthermore, if you're winning, you could be doing several things other than making an *** of yourself, especially if you're playing Samus.

You've got a great movement game. You have a solid wavedash, and you move right where you need to be as your opponent is approaching and retreating. But that's not all of Samus' game. Work on bomb related techniques and missile techniques.

 

[Stinkoman K]

Don't taunt. You're not winning. Your opponent is losing, but that doesn't mean you're winning. Furthermore, if you're winning, you could be doing several things other than making an *** of yourself, especially if you're playing Samus.

Believe me, if he wasn't my best friend in a casual match, I wouldn't. I don't pull that against Cactuar.

 

[Andromon58]

more mcs, more bombs, i thought u could have defended better, taken a more defensive roll against a cf, abuse your dsmash, but a lot of the time you were throwing attacks around. If it were me, I would spend more time in my shield, shield>upb and wd>dsmash abuse, waveshielding, whatever. You had good sidestep use against him tho. You know each others quircks too and were able to abuse them, something another player would not have done.

EDIT: You drop a bomb, di away, then jump, airdodge towards the bomb (into its blast radius), and grapple, and it cancels it and bombjumps you.

 

[Stinkoman K]

more mcs, more bombs, i thought u could have defended better, taken a more defensive roll against a cf, abuse your dsmash, but a lot of the time you were throwing attacks around. If it were me, I would spend more time in my shield, shield>upb and wd>dsmash abuse, waveshielding, whatever. You had good sidestep use against him tho. You know each others quircks too and were able to abuse them, something another player would not have done.

EDIT: You drop a bomb, di away, then jump, airdodge towards the bomb (into its blast radius), and grapple, and it cancels it and bombjumps you.

When it comes to waveshielding, do you mean absorbing the attack then wavedashing in and punishing with a dsmash, or do you mean waveshielding as a way of approaching?

And I'll be honest, sometimes I do just kinda attack the air with a random sex-kick... one of my bigger flaws. Though the vid was uploaded today, it's over a month old. I'll hopefully have newer footage soon.

I'm glad I started this thread, I'm loving all of these pointers! When is a good time to use a bomb in combat?

 

[Stinkoman K]

Alright, I'll check back here in the morning. Getting in 3 hours of smash against Cactuar tomorrow... always look forward to getting my *** beat.

 

[Fiz]

You missed a lot of techs there try imporving that, also use less dash attacks imo and lastly try to pull some uairs when the CF is on a platform.

 

[ph00tbag]

When it comes to waveshielding, do you mean absorbing the attack then wavedashing in and punishing with a dsmash, or do you mean waveshielding as a way of approaching?

You can use wavesheilding as a retreat, an approach or a way to punish. It's hard to say which one should be used when, because it's a little situational. It just depends on what your intended mode of attack is.

 

[Stinkoman K]

As for the dash attack comment, though I agree to an extent, Samus' dash attack is probably one of the best in the game.

 

[Somebody]

Beam canceling is completly useless btw. It may be used as some kind of random flashy mindgame sometimes if you want, but its not even that fast and it makes you lose your grapple if you get knocked off the stage. The negatives highly out weigh the positives and its really not needed at all.

-PS- I think HugS said you can poke CF's sheild with dtilt without getting kneed.

 

[Andromon58]

Ya, waveshielding can be used as an approach or retreat. easy to waveshield in, take a dtilt or something to ur shield, then shield>upb.

 

[Jasona]

you are my new favorite samus. because of you, i am definitely making a vid this week. so that i can show you how amazingly similar our styles are.

 

[Kick]

only thing i saw taht was a huge problem was the mass amounts of dash attacking. yeah its pretty good, but you were using it to the point were it almost seemed like you were trying to windmill.

try dash cancelling and dsmashing or something like that.

 

[Stinkoman K]

Really impressed with how much these tips helped me play today. Thanks! Hope they keep coming...

 

[Stinkoman K]

Anyone else care to help out..?

 

[ssbxBacklash]

I'd say that you gotta not abuse the dashing "A" because you can get shield grabbed so easily out of that move. Work on the missle spamming opportunities that you can take advantage of, like at Pokemon Stadium and Yoshi's Story for example, they are very effective. Like what the other people said too, work on Missle Canceling, this is a must because its so fast and 1337. Fast fall more because Samus is wayyy to slow w/o it. Besides this stuff your Samus is pretty decent IMO. My samus is more fancy, like a "wannabee" mix of Wes, Aftermath and Phannamint except Im not as good. Keep up the good work :D.

 

[Stinkoman K]

Haha, I get so much **** from Cactuar that all I do is spam that I'm almost hesitant to fire a single missile. MINDGAMES!

 

[Jasona]

here are some tips to develop your speed
-if you're heading up to a platform, quick-double-jump (QDJ) and WD to get all of the aerial speed you can
-when you WD off of a platform, FF and/or dodge down to get down as fast as you can. if you choose to FF, consider WDing. if you're near the edge, don't hesitate to WD off into a ledgegrab and ledgehop and aerial
-FF your up+b's and try to DI them into a ledgegrab
speed is a mindgame, here are a few tricks i like to use:
QDJ to a platform, WD off, FF, and use the jump... if they head onto the platform, i'm in position to uair or fair from beneath
QDJ up to a platform and when they come jumping, i wd off or fall through the platform and FF a fair so that a single flame hits them and pops them into the air. its a setup into all sorts of crazy things

 

[Stinkoman K]

QDJ up to a platform and when they come jumping, i wd off or fall through the platform and FF a fair so that a single flame hits them and pops them into the air. its a setup into all sorts of crazy things

Hmm, I use the fair as a set-up for the fsmash, but I've never tried it like that. It certainly seems feasable, though. I'm defiately going to test it on Scar and Pakman tomorrow night. Thanks for the tip.

Keep 'em coming, people!

 

[Stinkoman K]

Hmm... no tips lately. Cactuar wrecked me again today, per normal.

 

[mach5]

Your samus is good, alot of wave dashing to keep the mind games going, but a MC-->Wavedash-> grab could be used instead of just dash attacks into grab i say.

 

[Stinkoman K]

I noticed HugS does that a lot. I'm working on implementing that.