The Official "Critique My Diddy" Thread!

[TreK]

I'd help if I didn't suck with Diddy. I've been on a ridiculous losing streak for two months. No wins (well maybe like four, all on RC cus I watched P1's video about how to play on RC and I'm broken there lol) with diddy, dozens with Luigi and Kirby. What the... T_T

This weekend I'll work on reparing my recorder, so I may give you a vid to spot what I'm doing wrong...

 

[Player-1]

I'd help if I didn't suck with Diddy. I've been on a ridiculous losing streak for two months. No wins (well maybe like four, all on RC cus I watched P1's video about how to play on RC and I'm broken there lol) with diddy, dozens with Luigi and Kirby. What the... T_T

This weekend I'll work on reparing my recorder, so I may give you a vid to spot what I'm doing wrong...

I've found so many other tricks and things on RC that really helps, I've actually been meaning to make a thread about tricks Diddy has on stages, I think I'll go and do that now =)

 

[GooseMainsDiddy]

I havn't touched Brawl in the last 5 weeks. The five brawl partners I had can't play anymore cuz of school. I probably suck really bad now too.

 

[CYVE]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5NPMNWfQVg&feature=channel

Offline-Freeplay against Zeus. It was .. kind of fun.

Rate please.

 

[GooseMainsDiddy]

Youtube is being gay and it gives me the "An error occurred, please try again later" BS. I'll watch it when I get the chance.

 

[TreK]

Your DI on the 2nd stock looked weird, what do you usually do to survive ?
Huh otherwise I couldn't help you, I don't know the MK matchup (our only MK is Kaos and it's our top player lol), plus you play twenty times gayer in friendlies than I've ever played in tournies

That MK could have grabbed you or upB'ed you OoS a lot through this match though, you were a bit predictable with your dash attack and didn't grab enough.

 

[tibs7]

please watch and critique! =)
diddy vs toonlink

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLw2X5sUNTM&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9hugrkZpxM

 

[CYVE]

Your DI on the 2nd stock looked weird, what do you usually do to survive ?
Huh otherwise I couldn't help you, I don't know the MK matchup (our only MK is Kaos and it's our top player lol), plus you play twenty times gayer in friendlies than I've ever played in tournies

That MK could have grabbed you or upB'ed you OoS a lot through this match though, you were a bit predictable with your dash attack and didn't grab enough.

Bair to cancel my momentum?

20 times? - How bout your tourney results? lol


@GooseMainsDiddy: No problem dude, watch it when you can ^^

 

[TreK]

My touney results don't change the fact you should get punished for dash attacking shields.

 

[Conti]

Tibs, not bad... when u had momentum you where on fire... but i saw a couple points in every match where u gave up on using bannans and just went for a killmove to get the KO and thats when Corps would make a comeback, just stay with your nanarz and keep pressuring.... otherwise keep up the good work, maybe try using the peanut gun a bit more, but otherwise idk, not bad... and try not to challenge in the air too much, cuz i saw you get punished for that too... but sometimes it paid off... but sometimes it screwed you...
GJ,
Hope this helps...

 

[tibs7]

thanks conti, ill take it in for sure.

there are matches of me vs mk if you guys are interested
http://www.youtube.com/user/HiyaShaya

 

[Praxis]

Hi Guys.

I've never had a real secondary; i.e. a character I actually researched data on, learned matchups with, and would consider picking up in tournament.

I decided to pick up Diddy. I've only been playing him for about a week, so I suck. I'm good at making reads but I'm not really familiar with the character yet so I make a lot of noob mistakes and tend to roll too much in lieu of knowing the best method of getting out of a situation.


My self assessed flaws in my Diddy's first week are, so far:
* predictable recovery
* trying to pick bananas up with dash attack too much
* not being quick to find "outs" in bad situations due to unfamiliarity, resulting in rolls and spotdodges
* too much airdodging; I'm coming from Peach, who has the worst airdodge in the game by an enormous margin to the point that we almost never use it; thus, Diddy's airdodge seems so good that I use it too much. xD
* I have a hard time setting up into dsmash. I almost never kill with it and instead end up killing opponents at very high percentages, a la Peach.


However, I'd really like advice from Diddy mains. As I progress, I will continue to post videos. If you guys can help me, then I will stick around and make my Diddy viable. Thanks for any help.


Videos below.



Praxis vs LuigiKing (Luigi):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLDsQ_V2tys&feature=channel


Praxis vs DSF (Metaknight):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9vsgmzZnJ4&feature=channel ( < Please ignore my first stock, it's horrific, I was warming up Diddy and did a bunch of stupid things)




So please help my noob, level 1 Diddy Kong get better. Week 1 is only the beginning. Thanks for any help!

 

[Hobs]

Congrats Praxis, you've chosen a great character. :D

I'm not one to listen to very much, as I ask for advice myself a lot. But I wanted to try to watch a Diddy's mistakes.

At the beginning of the Luigi vid, you rolled behind Luigi a lot. Too much?

Banana play:
You tend to just GT or shield and GT OoS predictably whenever you just have 1 banana.
Trying to get the Luigi's 2nd stock, you just forgot about your bananas. You went aerial. Landing with fairs is not usually a great idea. Don't forget, naners can lead to kills too.

Wow. I had a lot more, but I forgot. Sorry.

 

[Kaptain Kong]

for dsmash, you have to combo with naners

i notice you always dash attack out of naner trip. if he's near the edge, you should throw so you have time to grab your naners or shoot a peanut or two

last thing, di with bair, its diddy's fastest aerial

edit: how was TP3? I said i was gonna go, but i had soccer and family plans

 

[GooseMainsDiddy]

CYVE:



I owe you an apology. I didn't forget about you but I had things that got in the way of giving you a full critique. At most, I am on SB for 15 minutes or so. Sorry it's so late.

Okay, the core of the problem pertains to your surprising lack of banana usage. As you will see by watching back over your videos, you tended to over-abuse Diddy's regular attacks (DA, Fair, ect.). Though it might be hard to correctly use Diddy's bananas against an MK, it is imperative that you do so. You will usually lose if you don't learn to cope with an MK's approach options and use the bananas effectively. I'm not quite sure if that is the real problem though, it may just be that you prefer to not rely on naners which is a dangerous playstyle in itself.

I did see you make an attempt with the bananas but I also noticed that the majority of those attempts were shielded. You need to be less predictable with the bananas when you do get them. Having a banana with you at most times would be smart because your opponent won't know when they will be thrown. It seemed like he knew when you were going to throw them because you got in the pattern of Pick up>throw. There was little variation which led to you becoming very predictable. There is no way punish a Diddy just because he has a banana in hand so there is no reason not to have it.

One last thing I should add. Bananas are much more than a projectile, they are set-ups for damaging combos, gimping tools, and great for mindgames. Just try to incorporate them more and in more ways as well.

If you have any questions feel free to ask.

 

[Conti]

Ouch, lots of dash attacks, Praxis, your diddy looks like mine week1, but not bad
What you will come to learn is Diddy is about being unpredictable, that you have to be very versitile, otherwise you'll lose easily... Like getting the AT's down is one thing {I suggest you 1st practice Glidetossing which you pickd up fast, Z Catching, and the Stutter Step Fsmash [great for ending a banana lock] but also learn others, but focus on that 1st... check out the Diddy Kondpedium or whatever}, but being able to incorperate them with like mindgames and such is the hard part...

I'll start with your DSF (MK) Match [I'm not gonna critique the luigi match cuz luigi is one of diddys matchups where you have to change your playstyle a bit]
Off the start you stood still, pivoited {cant spell} and down-b for your nana... BAD... Cuz 90% of the time when you play any1 off the start they WILL rush towards you and beat you to your banana, leaving you helpless... The most common/safe way is to full jump off edge {or near edge}, and down b, and jump again to Z catch it... ( {also as a quick note sometimes its good to not even take out a banana off the start and instead wait for the rush and Side-B hump them or whatever}
Second is that you tried fighting with only one banana multiple times, which is bad because well why have one when you can have 2, 2 nanas give you much more options and with them you need to practice controlling them... now back to being predictable... your recovery needs some work, but i'd like to point out that you tend to just Dash attack into a banana then throw it like a second later.... sometimes its good to keep hold of your banana maybe keep it in hand to down b for another [very useful cuz u can throw the one in hand if oponent rushes], Side-B kicks/humps ... or just overall mindgames [dribbliing to fake a throw and doing attacks]... the #1 best thing to do with a banana in hand is PEANUTS... r amazing, cuz it limits your opnent to camp, go under them and get nana'd or jump over and get Glidetoss [throw up obviously ] Nana'd into a F-Air or Uair... I saw you do that a couple times which was good but practice it more [u normaly did when he was way above u, somtimes its good to do is as they r trying to land]

The number one problem i saw though is u like to Smash Down-B like in the middle of FD and fullhop to get it, Diddy is ground-based... and going up there to get ur nana'r against mk, i saw u get punished... and there were a couple instances where you had a possible nana'r lock and al u needed to do was shorthop and Z-catch or instantthrow [which u havent learned yet, id stick to Zcatch for now] and follow up...
as for your dash attack problem, heres ur solution...

1. Dash, let go of foward... slide, and hit A as u almost stop on it...
2. Walk more... and just hit A...
3. Dash, let go of foward... slide, hold down and Grab

Problem solved

oh and learn the JCT, very useful in some matchups...

and with the downsmash issue, nana lock>Edge and Dsmash... works ALOT

Hope this helps...

 

[Gnes]

I should learn the diddy techs

 

[TreK]

Two vids to critique... **** I need to stop trying to do sucky tricks offstage XD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3POmJ7xhwvk&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5hut1Y1g_0

 

[Praxis]

Ouch, lots of dash attacks, Praxis, your diddy looks like mine week1, but not bad
What you will come to learn is Diddy is about being unpredictable, that you have to be very versitile, otherwise you'll lose easily... Like getting the AT's down is one thing {I suggest you 1st practice Glidetossing which you pickd up fast, Z Catching, and the Stutter Step Fsmash [great for ending a banana lock] but also learn others, but focus on that 1st... check out the Diddy Kondpedium or whatever}, but being able to incorperate them with like mindgames and such is the hard part...

I'll start with your DSF (MK) Match [I'm not gonna critique the luigi match cuz luigi is one of diddys matchups where you have to change your playstyle a bit]
Off the start you stood still, pivoited {cant spell} and down-b for your nana... BAD... Cuz 90% of the time when you play any1 off the start they WILL rush towards you and beat you to your banana, leaving you helpless... The most common/safe way is to full jump off edge {or near edge}, and down b, and jump again to Z catch it... ( {also as a quick note sometimes its good to not even take out a banana off the start and instead wait for the rush and Side-B hump them or whatever}
Second is that you tried fighting with only one banana multiple times, which is bad because well why have one when you can have 2, 2 nanas give you much more options and with them you need to practice controlling them... now back to being predictable... your recovery needs some work, but i'd like to point out that you tend to just Dash attack into a banana then throw it like a second later.... sometimes its good to keep hold of your banana maybe keep it in hand to down b for another [very useful cuz u can throw the one in hand if oponent rushes], Side-B kicks/humps ... or just overall mindgames [dribbliing to fake a throw and doing attacks]... the #1 best thing to do with a banana in hand is PEANUTS... r amazing, cuz it limits your opnent to camp, go under them and get nana'd or jump over and get Glidetoss [throw up obviously ] Nana'd into a F-Air or Uair... I saw you do that a couple times which was good but practice it more [u normaly did when he was way above u, somtimes its good to do is as they r trying to land]

The number one problem i saw though is u like to Smash Down-B like in the middle of FD and fullhop to get it, Diddy is ground-based... and going up there to get ur nana'r against mk, i saw u get punished... and there were a couple instances where you had a possible nana'r lock and al u needed to do was shorthop and Z-catch or instantthrow [which u havent learned yet, id stick to Zcatch for now] and follow up...
as for your dash attack problem, heres ur solution...

1. Dash, let go of foward... slide, and hit A as u almost stop on it...
2. Walk more... and just hit A...
3. Dash, let go of foward... slide, hold down and Grab

Problem solved

oh and learn the JCT, very useful in some matchups...

and with the downsmash issue, nana lock>Edge and Dsmash... works ALOT

Hope this helps...

Insightful post, you caught most of the issues I saw in my own game and gave me good tips to work on them, thank you

What are instantthrow and JCT?

 

[Kaptain Kong]

instant throw is aka airdodge canceled throw where you airdodge then immediately cstick a throw or hit a

jct or jump cancel throw is jump to immediately throw with a/cstick

 

[GooseMainsDiddy]

Two vids to critique... **** I need to stop trying to do sucky tricks offstage XD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3POmJ7xhwvk&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5hut1Y1g_0

I'm going to be pretty straight forward on the Luigi matchup because I honestly don't think most people play the MU like I do. I don't see the point in giving you tons of advise that may not be as practical. You'd be better off hearing it from someone else.

I think Instant Throwing works wonders in this matchup because Luigi can't be combo'd very often from regular naner play. Instant Throwing makes them have more of a standard projectile feel. It is a quick way to camp (until you have to retrieve them again) and they become a great substitute to peanuts. The reason I stress this so much is because camping becomes necessary when a luigi figures out that that you can't do much besides fair. You just need to play gayer and not focus so much on an up close and personal play style.

Luigi shouldn't be able to do much with bananas although he does have a very long glide toss which can be followed with an Up-Smash. It should be easily avoided which gives you the option to retaliate. You shouldn't have a very difficult time getting them back after throwing both of them. Also, just in case you didn't already know this, Fair beats all of his aerials and trades hits with his bair. It can be abused.

Snake EDIT

The Snake matchup is hard and it requires constant attention or you will be eating the bad end of a forward tilt or a nade. I tend to to play this MU with a strong, offensive, banana game and an offensive (but safe) close-quarters game. If you don't over whelm the Snake, he will out-camp you easily. You don't want to be in this situation,ever...seriously. It is a real pain to get out of it and you will eat a lot of % in the mean time. IMO, playing a defensive game, is less safe because you are in the perfect position for him to get camp happy. I liked your nonana game a lot and it seemed to work well for you so no critiques there (besides being too flashy which you established yourself). You played much too defensively for my tastes when it came to your banana game. Work on your pressure game because if you don't pressure him enough, you will get out played. Especially against a Snake who knows the matchup. Use bananas wisely!


Added Notes:

That Snake match was mad fun to watch and the flashiness really made it worth watching. And that pivot grab>back throw kill was gorgeous.

Though I do love your nonaner game, you really need to tone it down. In the beginning, you hardly used bananas at all (correctly ). Snakes whole game can be punished with a well played naner game. Towards the end it seemed like you figured that out and you added some more but it still wasn't enough. Yes, I am needy.

While I am an advocate of using bananas as a standard projectile (like Waddles, turnips, ect.) and that they can be used without expecting a trip, I think you should tone it down. You need to play it safe or not at all. If you don't think that you can get them back easily, then don't risk it. Also don't do it if your opponent can use naners against you well (which they shouldn't be able to do against a Diddy main). If you throw them off stage expecting to stop or slow their recovery, make sure it won't stop you from getting another one back in time before they can take advantage of the moment of helplessness.

 

[Praxis]

Oh, I know about instant throwing, Felix showed me that. What is the usage of JCT?

 

[Player-1]

JCT is faster, but harder to OoS and you can't do it while going backwards without changing your basic hand position or buttons, it's not worth that IMO, but I'm working on using it more for forward throws since you don't have to change anything.

 

[Gnes]

Oh, I know about instant throwing, Felix showed me that. What is the usage of JCT?

Shows no usage of shield...and is faster as P1 said. I like to use it if im being rundown by...hmm...lets say...mk.

JCT is faster, but harder to OoS and you can't do it while going backwards without changing your basic hand position or buttons, it's not worth that IMO, but I'm working on using it more for forward throws since you don't have to change anything.

Yes u can. I don't alter my controls and i can do it.

 

[Player-1]

Shows no usage of shield...and is faster as P1 said. I like to use it if im being rundown by...hmm...lets say...mk.



Yes u can. I don't alter my controls and i can do it.

my bad, just went into training mode and tested it.

 

[GooseMainsDiddy]

Praxis, I've been wanting to learn Peach as a secondary. Who should I be watching and talking to to improve my game. I'm basically taking it from step one.

Basically, which Peach would be able to help a noob the most?

 

[Praxis]

I can help you out, share your AIM.

Most of the better Peach's can help you out; I like Edrees' videos, but there's few and they're dated these days. Come to think of it, there's not many good recent videos. I'll find some for ya.

Basically, listen to almost any of the Peaches except for one. You can probably guess who, but he's one of the loudest Peach players and immediately jumps into almost every newbie thread with colored text.

 

[Count]

Hmm who could that be?!?!?!

Praxis just wanted to say glad to have another really intelligent poster around the diddy boards.

My aim is cougarpg2008 if you ever want to talk. I'm one of those people with slightly above average results that happens to know a lot about the character, so if you have any questions and don't want to bother wyatt or somebody with questions they probably get all the time I'm probably a good candidate.

Anyway I've always enjoyed reading your posts and you're certainly already one of our boards greatest assets.

 

[Praxis]

Aww thanks <3

Now I just need to get gud.

I haven't played Diddy at all since those videos, until last night. I'm in the process of buying my first house, which is quite...time consuming and stressful :/ But I got to sit down and play with Itakio's MK/Marth, and I've eliminated my dash attacking and worked on focusing on holding on to the bananas for punishment and avoiding conflict until I can get two on the stage, and there was a definite improvement. I probably won't get any new vids up until I can get my video capture hardware set up again though.

I'm also working on the recovery. I no longer side-B to the edge- I try to let him hit me and DI up while saving my second jump, and aim my up-B to go over the stage. Is this good?

If I'm saving my second jump, this hurts my momentum cancel, correct?


I found my primary flaw though, and this is a really weird one. As odd as this sounds; with Peach, there is never a situation where I need to walk slowly and perform a grounded move, barring fsmash which I always stutter step (so, a strong tap during the input). If I need to hit someone behind me, I groundfloat an aerial OOS (which is actually a fairly complex input). Moves like utilt and ftilt I always buffer out of an autocancelled aerial, since I time all of my aerials to cancel laglessly, one of the unique things about Peach, and Dsmash I use out of shield drop or spotdodge.

So...despite the fact that I'm used to complex inputs like jump cancelling floated aerials out of shield which autocancel into grounded attacks...I don't have banana > step forward > dsmash in my muscle memory. 0_o I keep dash attacking on accident because I input it as I would input a stutter step fsmash.

This is probably an unfortunate side effect of me ONLY playing Peach, so I'm going to work on it. xD

 

[GooseMainsDiddy]

Is it bad that I never got AIM?

I'll make one now.

EDIT: It's GooseMainsDiddy. Just search it i guess. Don't know how that works.

 

[Kaptain Kong]

I'm also working on the recovery. I no longer side-B to the edge- I try to let him hit me and DI up while saving my second jump, and aim my up-B to go over the stage. Is this good?

If I'm saving my second jump, this hurts my momentum cancel, correct?

only do that if your opponent is waiting on the edge to edgehog you
sweetspotting is best because of the vulnerability and lag of the barrels
i always try to angle it so that i will sweetspot, but go over the edge just in case they edgehog
its good for mixing up your recovery if you're getting gimped or edgeguarded badly

jumping cancels a lot of momentum if you do an aerial first yeah

 

[Praxis]

Hm.

Another question. I have a hard time knowing what to do to get back on the ledge.

With Peach, she can release the ledge (tap away) and jump back on to the stage autocancelling any of her aerials (because of her terribly short second jump and autocancelling nature) and jab before they can shieldgrab her. She's got a ton of great ledge options, plus can plank until she feels comfortable by releasing the ledge with a uair to up-B.

Diddy, I feel kind of unsure of what to do when I am on the ledge and my opponent is standing above it. Any tips?

 

[TreK]

Yeah diddy's game is weak when ledge guarded, just try basic stuff and mix it up until it works because we haven't got anything that would be somehow safe...
This is why I usually try to get a nana when I'm about to get on the ledge, but see my vids to get why this isn't a good idea... at all. Get gimped, teneban xD

 

[Dekar173]

Praxis-

http://www.smashboards.com/showthread.php?t=254596

 

[Dekar173]

Double post because that post was a week ago. Goose, update and maintain your thread!!!

Critique pl0x-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0uepLpjgcc

Yes, I won, but it's not about whether I won or not. I want to improve, tell me where I might be a bit predictable and let me work from there, thanks

 

[TreK]

holy banana, your diddy is sexy dekar ._.

two points :
you DI'd Kirby's dash attack upward, it's harder to punish then... DI to your back if hit at the end of the move, or SDI through kirby if you get hit by the first hitboxes
and kirby shouldn't be able to live to 200 xD (I'm working on KOs too, I must be too kind cus I never kill people 8D)

That's it, keep it up cus your diddy is really, really sexy lol

 

[GooseMainsDiddy]

Sorry guys. I have been pretty busy and I still am. and what was a week ago? The last vid i saw was from Teneban.

And I really have nothing to say about the vid sorry. Can't really think of anything.

 

[Silver Swordsman]

Hey guys, I'm trying to learn Diddy so that I have a good secondary for Wario's bad stages. Here's a vid of me vs my friend's DDD.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObgdzvcOFv4

Keep in mind that it's on wifi

I know my Diddy has a lot of problems, but I'd like to see what you guys think I should work on. Thanks

 

[Jokes]

Man, you kept throwing a banana after he FHDAired once, then you'd run smack into another one. Try to play a bit more campy on D3. You surprisingly didn't get grabbed that much, but that's because he was in the air most of the time.

Shoot more peanuts.

 

[GooseMainsDiddy]

You have a very basic Banana game and don't fully understand how Diddy works yet. The Kongpendiun is great for beginners and will tell you most of the info you will need to be a successful Diddy. You didn't have that "random" aspect that Diddy is supposed to have.

There wasn't much variation in your moves and many of your banana combos were left unfinished or badly started. There is just a lot more that you could have done.

The DDD didn't really do much to prevent you from laying more and more pressure on him and sometimes asked for it. It seemed you weren't sure what yo needed to do at certain situations.

You tried things multiple times that failed once or twice and used the same banana approaches multiple times.