memphischains
Smash hhkj'
OKAY, I think its time to discuss ways of dealing with different weight classes. These are just notes about general tactics regarding weight class, nothing specific. (This is talking about sonics ability to deal with characters weight, not specific characters. If this thread becomes popular and a lot of information can be added then I'll update or ask for a copy / paste into another stickied thread for space)
Heavys:
-----Sonic's stregnths are in fighting the fattys. He can combo easy, his speed beats out thier power, and his slow air speed makes air battle a hell of a lot easier. A good technique to use is the dub fair combo (where you fair your opponent until you push them off the stage), and the infamous spindash combo. Their huge size makes really easy to connect with everything and makes his small hitboxes almost look huge. Distance is key in these matches, just keeping away far enough so they can't hit you. If you can control your opponents position then you have the match. Usually heavys have a good range (Dedede, Ike, Dk) when
attacking, and sonic is fast enough to punish them during their lag time. A good way to look at a way of fighting these dudes are the combo and run. Spindash into a combo until you lose it then book to the other side of the stage and try it agian. Mindgames arn't such a big deal in these kidns of matches, but its always funny messing with people and keeps your game sharp so do them anyway.
(Bowser, Ganon, Dk, Charizard, King Dedede, {Ike?})
Mid-Heavy:
-----This is almost the same as above with a few slight differences. The mid heavys are a smige faster, but not as strong. One thing to keep your eye out for is how your landing your attacks. IMO these characters are some of the hardest you will face, because they have just enough of a combonation of speed and power to punish you for any mistake you make. KEY MOVES TO WATCH LAG - use your dair only when you can cancel your downward momentum or if your high enough in the air to land with no lag. Also, for a general note, sonis as no lag on every one of his air moves if you finish the hitbox animation. With that, try and keep them in the air as much as possible.
(Wario, Snake, Lucario, Samus, Wolf, *Captain Falcon, Ivysaur, R.O.B., {Ike?})
*Hes fast, so... watch out?
Mid
-----This is where combos start to get tricky and mindgames and "finishers" become more important. With the heavyer characters, you could use a hit and run attack method and have no issue with your enemy chasing you, but these characters are starting to catch up. When I face charaters like this, I like to hang out on the edge and let them come to me. If you go chase them down, your only destined to fail. Yeah, spin dashing has invincibiliy frames, w0o0o0o, but all they have to do is tap you once and then smash you. There is NO WAY you will be able to recover after a complete stop fast enough for a safe recovery after a complete stop. This is where your Nair becomes an acual technique. Once they come to you, SHNair is a great way to deal with their approach. You have minimal lag (none of you do it right) upon landing, and you can Dsmash, Up tilt, etc from there. The fair combo works great here, but is harder to keep your opponent with you along the way. have patience in the air and watch your opponents air dodging. Also take advantage of sonics throws. The lighter the character gets, the more important his throws and ground speed come into play.
(Mario, Luigi, Peach, Fox, Falco, Yoshi, Zelda, Marth, Ness, Link, Sonic, Sheik)
Mid Light
-----Mindgames, oh the mindgames. Using your groud speed, mind games, timing, and edge guarding are so key. As thing characters get lighter, the more on the groud you should stay. Generally, lighter characters are smaller so they are harder to hit. Its almost not even about how much damage you have on them, you just need to make sure you can connect when you attack. Once you have them of the edge, you need to have a good edgegaurd plan, because this is going to be the best time for a KO. Use your back throw to get them off the stage, and Bair or fair (which every is easyer, but try and bair, it makes getting back to the edge easier). Get back on the edge and finish them off like that. I have gotten really good with footstool jumping to spring jump, and dair back onto the stage, and it works great. Footstool jumps affects lighter characters more than heavy ones, which is something to keep in mind. As far as getting characters to a percentage thats KO able, keep your distance. If you MUST approach, USE YOUR DOWN B TO APPROACH. yes, not side b, but down b. A charged down b is faster than a charged side b. If you miss a combo chance (which you will, a lot) then you'll be going to fast for them to react. Getting the timing doesn't take much practice, and its a lot more effective in my opinon when approaching. you opponent is like WTF ALSDKFJKADSFJ speedddddddddd.
(Diddy, Pit, Ice Climbers, Olimar, Lucas, Game & Watch, Toon Link, Meta Kight, Kirby)
Light
-----This is our hardest match. i really havent figured out how to fight them well, but I can say a couple things. First off, eff jigglypuff. second, dont spam your spin dash, this is a common misconception that i see sonic plays do. Spin dash after spin dash after spin dash. Thats not going to do anything. Your not going to be able to combo them because they are too light, thell fall out on SD contact. This a good oppertunity to really get in your opponents faces, and be the powerhouse of the match. Just try and keep them on the ground as long as possible.
(Jigs, Pikachu)
PROJECTILES
(Toon Link, Link, Pit, Shiek, Fox, Falco, Mario, Samus, Snake, G&W, Peach, Ice Climbers, Dedede, Olimar, Pikachu, Lucario)
(not so much characters: Wolf, Charizard, Bowser, Ivysaur, Squirtle, Diddy, Luigi, Ness, Lucas, R.O.B.)
The key to dealing with projectiles is placement. Not "distance" persay, but your placement compared to your opponent. As a overall note, haveing your opponent above you is the best situation for sonic.
Versus Link / Toon Link - This will be the hardest projectile character that you face. Your placement is key during all points of the match. The links have a very versitile projectile arsenal, so being able to perdict their actions is always a good thing. You also need a lot of patience. Wait for movment lag and strike. I personally like to hang on the edge a lot during these matches, so i don't have to worry about crap getting chucked at me. You should also, under all circumstances, never let a link above you. Sonic gets wrecked by bomb/dair combo. Chilln under platforms is a good idea.
Fox / Falco / Wolf - Stay out of line with their lasers. The real big worry is Falco, because he has the most rapid stun laser. usuing your homing attack is good, but when you use it make sure it will hit. Falco has terrible recovery, so your backthrow during near edge situations is win. With fox you can take some damage from his lasers but plow right through the laser spam to attack. You really need to be careful while fighting fox in the air because he will destory you if you try to out do him. just odn't go looking for a arial battle. Wolf's laser will barely be used, but when it is its purpose if for stoping you. You shouldn't have an issue if you spindash approach, and you dont have to worry to much about his illusion because it places him exactly where you want him (above you). His laser also have the worst range of the three. Dont try and do face to face combat with any of these characters. Just keep your distance and catch them in their mistakes. if the stage you play on has platforms, stay on another level and spindash to them to attack. you can always drop down or SD jump up to them.
Pit - Pit is an tough one. His arrows are really hard to deal with. I often like to stay "behind" him as much as possible. his nanananana attack is really annoying too, so if you just try and stay directly behind him then you should avoid all his annoying moves. anothing thing to not is that sonics Uair works really well agians him, so when SDComing go for the Uiar. The fair combos works fairly well too. (lol fair fairly well)
------ more updates later
comments? additions? if i mixed anything up let me know, i wanna keep this updated because this has huge factors for sonics gameplay.
Heavys:
-----Sonic's stregnths are in fighting the fattys. He can combo easy, his speed beats out thier power, and his slow air speed makes air battle a hell of a lot easier. A good technique to use is the dub fair combo (where you fair your opponent until you push them off the stage), and the infamous spindash combo. Their huge size makes really easy to connect with everything and makes his small hitboxes almost look huge. Distance is key in these matches, just keeping away far enough so they can't hit you. If you can control your opponents position then you have the match. Usually heavys have a good range (Dedede, Ike, Dk) when
attacking, and sonic is fast enough to punish them during their lag time. A good way to look at a way of fighting these dudes are the combo and run. Spindash into a combo until you lose it then book to the other side of the stage and try it agian. Mindgames arn't such a big deal in these kidns of matches, but its always funny messing with people and keeps your game sharp so do them anyway.
(Bowser, Ganon, Dk, Charizard, King Dedede, {Ike?})
Mid-Heavy:
-----This is almost the same as above with a few slight differences. The mid heavys are a smige faster, but not as strong. One thing to keep your eye out for is how your landing your attacks. IMO these characters are some of the hardest you will face, because they have just enough of a combonation of speed and power to punish you for any mistake you make. KEY MOVES TO WATCH LAG - use your dair only when you can cancel your downward momentum or if your high enough in the air to land with no lag. Also, for a general note, sonis as no lag on every one of his air moves if you finish the hitbox animation. With that, try and keep them in the air as much as possible.
(Wario, Snake, Lucario, Samus, Wolf, *Captain Falcon, Ivysaur, R.O.B., {Ike?})
*Hes fast, so... watch out?
Mid
-----This is where combos start to get tricky and mindgames and "finishers" become more important. With the heavyer characters, you could use a hit and run attack method and have no issue with your enemy chasing you, but these characters are starting to catch up. When I face charaters like this, I like to hang out on the edge and let them come to me. If you go chase them down, your only destined to fail. Yeah, spin dashing has invincibiliy frames, w0o0o0o, but all they have to do is tap you once and then smash you. There is NO WAY you will be able to recover after a complete stop fast enough for a safe recovery after a complete stop. This is where your Nair becomes an acual technique. Once they come to you, SHNair is a great way to deal with their approach. You have minimal lag (none of you do it right) upon landing, and you can Dsmash, Up tilt, etc from there. The fair combo works great here, but is harder to keep your opponent with you along the way. have patience in the air and watch your opponents air dodging. Also take advantage of sonics throws. The lighter the character gets, the more important his throws and ground speed come into play.
(Mario, Luigi, Peach, Fox, Falco, Yoshi, Zelda, Marth, Ness, Link, Sonic, Sheik)
Mid Light
-----Mindgames, oh the mindgames. Using your groud speed, mind games, timing, and edge guarding are so key. As thing characters get lighter, the more on the groud you should stay. Generally, lighter characters are smaller so they are harder to hit. Its almost not even about how much damage you have on them, you just need to make sure you can connect when you attack. Once you have them of the edge, you need to have a good edgegaurd plan, because this is going to be the best time for a KO. Use your back throw to get them off the stage, and Bair or fair (which every is easyer, but try and bair, it makes getting back to the edge easier). Get back on the edge and finish them off like that. I have gotten really good with footstool jumping to spring jump, and dair back onto the stage, and it works great. Footstool jumps affects lighter characters more than heavy ones, which is something to keep in mind. As far as getting characters to a percentage thats KO able, keep your distance. If you MUST approach, USE YOUR DOWN B TO APPROACH. yes, not side b, but down b. A charged down b is faster than a charged side b. If you miss a combo chance (which you will, a lot) then you'll be going to fast for them to react. Getting the timing doesn't take much practice, and its a lot more effective in my opinon when approaching. you opponent is like WTF ALSDKFJKADSFJ speedddddddddd.
(Diddy, Pit, Ice Climbers, Olimar, Lucas, Game & Watch, Toon Link, Meta Kight, Kirby)
Light
-----This is our hardest match. i really havent figured out how to fight them well, but I can say a couple things. First off, eff jigglypuff. second, dont spam your spin dash, this is a common misconception that i see sonic plays do. Spin dash after spin dash after spin dash. Thats not going to do anything. Your not going to be able to combo them because they are too light, thell fall out on SD contact. This a good oppertunity to really get in your opponents faces, and be the powerhouse of the match. Just try and keep them on the ground as long as possible.
(Jigs, Pikachu)
PROJECTILES
(Toon Link, Link, Pit, Shiek, Fox, Falco, Mario, Samus, Snake, G&W, Peach, Ice Climbers, Dedede, Olimar, Pikachu, Lucario)
(not so much characters: Wolf, Charizard, Bowser, Ivysaur, Squirtle, Diddy, Luigi, Ness, Lucas, R.O.B.)
The key to dealing with projectiles is placement. Not "distance" persay, but your placement compared to your opponent. As a overall note, haveing your opponent above you is the best situation for sonic.
Versus Link / Toon Link - This will be the hardest projectile character that you face. Your placement is key during all points of the match. The links have a very versitile projectile arsenal, so being able to perdict their actions is always a good thing. You also need a lot of patience. Wait for movment lag and strike. I personally like to hang on the edge a lot during these matches, so i don't have to worry about crap getting chucked at me. You should also, under all circumstances, never let a link above you. Sonic gets wrecked by bomb/dair combo. Chilln under platforms is a good idea.
Fox / Falco / Wolf - Stay out of line with their lasers. The real big worry is Falco, because he has the most rapid stun laser. usuing your homing attack is good, but when you use it make sure it will hit. Falco has terrible recovery, so your backthrow during near edge situations is win. With fox you can take some damage from his lasers but plow right through the laser spam to attack. You really need to be careful while fighting fox in the air because he will destory you if you try to out do him. just odn't go looking for a arial battle. Wolf's laser will barely be used, but when it is its purpose if for stoping you. You shouldn't have an issue if you spindash approach, and you dont have to worry to much about his illusion because it places him exactly where you want him (above you). His laser also have the worst range of the three. Dont try and do face to face combat with any of these characters. Just keep your distance and catch them in their mistakes. if the stage you play on has platforms, stay on another level and spindash to them to attack. you can always drop down or SD jump up to them.
Pit - Pit is an tough one. His arrows are really hard to deal with. I often like to stay "behind" him as much as possible. his nanananana attack is really annoying too, so if you just try and stay directly behind him then you should avoid all his annoying moves. anothing thing to not is that sonics Uair works really well agians him, so when SDComing go for the Uiar. The fair combos works fairly well too. (lol fair fairly well)
------ more updates later
comments? additions? if i mixed anything up let me know, i wanna keep this updated because this has huge factors for sonics gameplay.
