Thoughts from your average Ganon

[Stalfoe]

I've been lurking here for a long time and I just thought I'd share some of my thoughts, opinions and questions about Brawl and how Ganon fits in.

Ganon's appearance is great. I know some of you have a problem with it, but I really enjoy everything about him. I preferred his old voice at first, but this one seems to just fit a little better. His eyebrow-beard, the way his armour chinks and just that tank feeling when he's running at full tilt but barely moving anywhere brings everything about him in well.

I notice the clone vs. uncloned is also an issue with many Ganons. I do find it strange that while they took the time to give him new animations, weaknesses, strengths and a new way to play Ganon, why couldn't they just have given him a completely new moveset? They even have a heavy swordsmen with a great moveset, but Ganon's has only been modified or "Luigified..." If you're going to go through all that, why not just give him his sword right? Even Sakurai acknowledges this on his Ganon update where Ganon merely inspects his blade when he taunts. It does feel like a bit of a slap in the face. He still feels like a tank, as do all of his attacks though.

A personal concern of mine is his moveset and how it has been modified. Like I mentioned earlier, he has been essentially decloned, but his attacks still look similar and as a result, I often find myself trying to be the "Melee Ganon." The problem is, he really can't play anything like Melee Ganon. While his A attacks are all kill moves, he can not string them together so beautifully as he once did. Advancing with aerials is also very difficult now due to their strength enhanced in return for speed decreased. That being said, I feel I must play more defensively and not approach from the air, but I find strange things happening like landing Volcano Kicks and Warlock Punches. His down Air is especially surprising, I haven't seen anybody recover from it, not at any percent. B attacks all feel improved functionality-wise, but very nerfed damage-wise. After being chased and caught with my side B, my friend laughed at the 8 damage it did.

So do the pros outweigh the cons? On paper, Ganon looks amazing. He's super heavy, super powerful, very rangy and has a great recovery to boot, only at the cost of a bit if speed. On the other hand, it is taking me longer to "relearn" him than it is to learn characters like Ike and King Dedede from scratch. Bowser feels like an overall improvement and just like King Dedede and Ike, I've slipped into him quite well. Is my problem that Melee Ganon is influencing me to much? Should I just restart, experiment and treat him like a COMPLETELY new character, or is that even possible with Melee imprinted into my gamestyle?

I've seen many posters say things like "oh well, Ganon just sucks" and many others reply with "you're simply not playing him right." I've seen amazing players with just a few weeks of SSBX's release, but those weren't Ganon players. On the other hand, maybe those characters are just quicker to learn, maybe those players just fit the characters well.

What I'd like to know is how have you been dealing with, or improving your Ganon.

 

[El Drago]

i love ganon, i will probably never stop maining him but he is gimped.

if u play him wrong u will get destroyed, if u play him right you will lose, if u play him perfect you will almost win.

The damage is there, but his range is too short, and the attacks come out too slow and he only has super armor on the move that cannot kill anyone.

What is really sad is that all it would take to make ganon decent is if they removed the stupid lag after his F air (you can do it and like 4 seconds later if u hit the floor u still lag) and throw him some super armor on his warlock punch and his smash attacks. I pray they patch the game somehow.

 

[Kyzon Xin]

I say treat him as somebody new... i seconded ganon in melee and now i main him in brawl because he's so much different than falcon now... if you try to play melee ganon you will fail but if you treat him as something new you'll find many possibilities... i hated the new one at first but now i cant stop using him

 

[Crow02]

I never touched Ganon in melee but picked him up in Brawl, and I've had a great deal of success playing him. From what I read his playstyle is completely different from melee and so I'd suggest treating him like a completely new character. I see a lot of people here complaining that Gannon is gimped in Brawl, and then I go play amongst friends and people decry Gannon as broken. I've been doing pretty well online too but those 4-man lagfests are hardly a show of real skill.

The attitude I find works best is to consider Ganon like this: He's slow and has three moves that increase his speed suddenly for the duration of the move (Dash Attack, Side B, Down B). Use those three moves to create options and follow up with whatever looks like it will work.

 

[Cancel]

Yeah ganon is SICK! thats why he is one of my mains.

 

[WastingPenguins]

I love tbe new Ganon. He isn't great but he's not QUITE as terrible as people say... unless you're playing at super high levels, in which case he's definitely trash. But anyway, he's lots of fun. Something I've been picking up on lately in my play sessions (which most people around here have been figuring out for a while)-- characters like Ganon, Bowser and DK should be played a whole lot more grounded that they used to be. Canceling your runs with a quick shield is your friend, and shields drop so fast in Brawl you can get tilts and specials out of it super quick. F-tilt is my Ganon's main move. Don't forget about >B of course, but use it judiciously and try to bait your opponent into it. DON'T spam it, you will get punished.

Related to my sheild tip earlier... don't bother shield grabbing most of the time. If you block your opponents attack, just drop your shield and follow up with an attack. The timing takes a bit of practice but you can do almost anything REAL quick after shielding. Down air is a great punish, f-tilt's got awesome range, and the best thing in Ganon's arsenal is definitely >B out of shield... it's great. Following up your >B's takes a bit of luck and prediction but ALWAYS try something, landing that lucky tech chase makes all the difference.

Oh, and learn to auto-cancel your dairs. For real.

 

[Stalfoe]

I've been watching some more videos and it seems the ones that do best like to keep their distance and then close in for some quick damage. My playstyle, in comparison to this is all aggressive all the time. I thought I was being defensive, compared to my Ganon in Melee it is. I'll try throwing out that more aggressive playstyle and learn to space better and approach at key times. From these vids I've seen, he still looks completely playable.