I want to promote a discussion on a big aspect of Smash that I feel Ryu really struggles with: jumps.
I think a big advantage the rest of the cast has over Ryu is their ability to influence their momentum during a jump. This can really be useful against Ryu by mixing up their trajectory during an attack, falling back to a position that Ryu can't punish upon landing, or create an aerial "forward-then-backward" wall of sorts with aerials or projectiles (think Pikachu's multi-hit Fair or neutral B, or Rosaluma's multi-hit aerials). This definitely makes getting into Ryu's advantage range and footsies battles difficult. Of course, we cannot boast that same advantage since our trajectory cannot be influenced to weave in and out in the air. This really makes committing our jumps an issue. I suppose our best bet would be to remain grounded. Sadly, I feel we have little option against projectile abusers such as Samus or Mewtwo; Samus can even bait jumps and keep up out with Zair. Mixing our jumps up with Focus Attack is an option, but I feel that opponents anticipate this strategy and have their ways around it (Samus' multi-hit Fair and Mewtwo's USmash, for instance).
Has anybody figured out a way to deal with these dilemmas?
