The Wonderful 101 is a great action game, and as long as I played it I imagined how a character from this game could work as a playable character in Smash. As the leader of the Wonderful 100 and the most prominent character from the game, Wonder Red is the obvious choice, and there's no real reason to choose someone else for uniqueness or moveset potential reasons. In fact, giving Wonder Red some moves used by other characters in the source game would work just as fine as Ness using moves taken from other Mother characters.
Too make Wonder Red unique while catching the essence of the source game, I thought about giving him a hero team gimmick: the more he has heroes with him, the more powerful his attacks are and, to balance this, the more they become laggy and punishable as well. However, it would probably be impossible for the 3DS version to handle this if the heroes acted like Olimar's Pikmins, so those heroes would not appear unless when Wonder Red uses his neutral special move (I'll explain this later). Instead the heroes are generally displayed as a number above Wonder Red's damage meter, similar to Little Mac's power meter (and Shulk's Monado mode in the Wii U version). Wonder Red can gain new heroes using his neutral B (again I'll explain later), and he loses them when taking damage and knockback; there can be a maximum of nine heroes in Wonder Red's hero count. BTW, Wonder Red's hero count when he starts the battle is zero.
Disclaimers: I'm not going to post exact hitbox, knockback, damage, lag, etc. data in this moveset, mostly because it would be arbitrary and probably unbalanced. I don't have the time or means to create a fighter and make sure it's balanced after all.
Special moves
Default neutral B: Formation charge. This is a non-storable charging move, you can freely walk and run, but not attack or jump, while charging it. This moves has several effects, it can be used as an attack but it's also the mean to gain more heroes and thus become more powerful. There are three stages for this move: the first one requires no charging at all, the second one requires one second of charging, and the third and final one requires two seconds or more. The strike is landed when the player releases the B button. The more the move is charged, the more it has range: stage 1 has poor range, stage 2 has okay range, and stage 3 has high range. During this move, a number of generic heroes equal to Wonder Red's current hero count will appear to do the move, and the more there are, the more this move inflicts damage. Knockback is never important though.
Also, there's another effect in using this move. Each charging stage corresponds to a number of heroes: three heroes for the first stage, six for the second one and nine for the third and final one. When the move is landed succesfully, if Wonder Red's hero count is lower than the number associated with each stage, then the hero count becomes equal to that number (this takes effect immediately, so for example if Wonder Red' hero count was 4 and uses Formation Charge at the second charging stage, then not only his hero count becomes six, but he lands the move with six heroes; by extension, the move at third stage of charge always has nine heroes displayed). I remind you that Wonder Red's gimmick is to have his attacking power related to his current hero count, so use this move to increase it!
Custom neutral B 2: Instant formation charge. This is a non-charging move which puts Wonder Red's hero count immediately to 9, but it always has the range of uncharged default formation charge.
Custom neutral B 3: Wonder line. It's a non-storable, non-offensive charging move which increases the hero count faster than the formation charge (1.3 time faster). Also the hero count can be increased one by one. Animation-wise, it is depicted as a circle appearing around Wonder Red, and generic heroes are depicted on it.
Default side B: Unite sword. Wonder Red needs at least three heroes in his hero count to use this move. When using this move, he summons a sword whose size, range, power and lag (starting and ending) is dependent to his current hero count; the higher it is, the higher are those characteristics. He uses this sword to do an horizontal slash attack forward, and he does another one if the B button is pressed again. The sword itself isn't very powerful damage and knockback-wise, but it has higher range than the hand and has interesting properties. When the sword is hit by an electric based attack, the attack is nullified and the power of the sword (damage and knockback) is multiplied by 1.5 for five seconds. The sword can also reflect non-electric "immaterial" projectiles such as Aura Sphere, Charge Shot, Paralyzer and Robo Beam, as well as some beam attacks used by enemies such as Lethinium, Eggrobo or Cryogonal.
Custom side B 2: Unite sword uppercut. Like the dafault one, Wonder Red needs at least three heroes in his hero count and size, range, power and lag are dependent to his current hero count. This move works like the default one, except that he does an upwards vertical slash, then he does a little jump to do another one.
Custom side B 3: Unite sword stinger. Like the other variations, Wonder Red needs at least three heroes in his hero count and size, range, power and lag are dependent to his current hero count. Wonder Red dashes with the unite sword held horizontally, allowing him to travel a large distance, and making the first sword slashing a multi-strike move, but he can stop the dash and do another sword slashing identical to the second one from the default variation if the player presses B before the move ends. The stinger attack can be potentially move powerful than a sword slashing from the default variation if all hits connect. Otherwise the characteristics of the swords (absorbs electricity, reflects projectiles) are the same as the ones from other variations.
Default up B: Unite Rocket. Wonder Red needs a hero count of three or more to use this move. He transforms into a rocket and gains an amount of vertical distance dependant to his hero count, but it lets Wonder Red helpless in the air once the move ends. This move can inflict a decent amoung of damage and knockback.
Custom up B 2: Dirigible unite rocket. Like in the default variation, Wonder Red needs a hero count of three or more and transforms into a rocket to gain vertical distance. However, the vertical height gained is lower, the rocket moves slower, and it can be diriged in order to gain horizontal distance as well. Like the default variation it lets Wonder Red helpless after it ends. Its offensive power is also lower than the default one.
Custom up B 3: Unite plane. Wonder Red needs a hero count of three or more (again) to use this move. He equips himself a plane, gains constant vertical distance, and can glide for a amont of time dependent to his hero count (for example, 0.6 second by hero). Again, it lets Wonder Red helpless in the air once it ends.
Default down B: Unite gun. Only usable when Wonder Red has a hero count of three or more (again). He equips himself with the unite gun. While equiped with the unite gun, Wonder Red becomes slower and cannot jump mid-air. By pressing the B button while equiped with the unite gun, Wonder Red will shot a gun attack and decrease his hero count by one. The unite gun is unequipped if the A button is pressed, Wonder Red takes knockback, or his hero count goes below 3.
Custom down B 2: Huge unite gun. Again only usable if the hero count is three or higher. Wonder Red equips himself with a bigger unite gun that makes him even slower and prevents him to run. The gun shots have more starting and ending lag plus they decrease his hero count by three instead of one, but they're much more powerful and the gun shots themselves have a larger hitbox. The unequipment requirements are the same as the ones for the default variation.
Custom down B 3: Unite gun stinger. Again only usable if the hero count is three or higher. Wonder Red equips hismelf with the unite gun (same size as the default variation) and immediately shots gun attacks, until the A or B button is pressed, Wonder Red takes knockback, or the hero count goes below three, with each gun shot again decreasing Wonder Red' hero count by one.
Normal moves
Note: all those moves are based on the hero count gimmick. If Wonder Red's hero count is lower than three, then those moves have low power and range (hitbox), and as long as the hero count is three or higher, the moves gain power and range, but they have higher starting and ending lag; the higher the hero count is, the higher power, range and lag are as well. In fact, imagine the unite morphs appearing only with a hero count of three or more, and them becoming bigger with a high hero count. This allows Wonder Red to be either a fast combo-oriented character or a hard-hitting and easily punishable one.
Jab combo: uses the hand. A forward punch, then another one, then another one, and finally an uppercut. It's basically what happens when you mash the A button in the original game with the unite hand.
Forward tilt: uses the hand. A generic punch similar to the second one from the jab combo.
Up tilt: uses the hand. Similar to Mario's up tilt.
Down tilt: uses the hand. A forward slap with the hand directed towards the ground. Faster but weaker than forward tilt, knockback angle is also more vertical.
Dash attack: uses the hand. Basically the wonderful stinger from the original game when used with the hand. Distance traveled is also dependent to Wonder Red's current hero count. Knockback becomes more important if an enemy is hit near the end of the move.
Neutral air: uses the hand. A generic punch with high power but low range.
Forward air: uses the hand. It's the wonderful cyclone, depicted as a multi-strike move. Wonder Red turns on himself thrice, and the moves lasts even if he lands before it ends. Knockback is rather poor, but this move can inflict very high damage if all hits connect.
Up air: uses the hand. It's the wonderful uppercut. Wonder Red rises and punches upwards while ganing a little horizontal distance like he does in the original game, and the vertical distance traveled is dependent to his current hero count. There's no limit of uses of this move while Wonder Red is in the air, however its ending lag makes sure that it cannot be used as a potentially infinite recovery. Like wonderful stinger, knockback is higher when the move hits when it almost ends.
Back air: uses the whip. Wonder Red equips himself with this weapon for the time ot the move and uses it to attack backwards. It's his fastest aerial.
Down air: uses the hammer. Wonder Red equips himself with this weapon and uses it to strike. It's a
stall-then-fall move. It's a very powerful move, but it has a lot of landing lag; actually, using it with a hero count of 9 makes the ending lag longer than Captain Falcon's forward aerial!
Smash attacks
Like normal moves, those use the hero count gimmick. However, they need at least a hero count of three in order to be used.
Forward smash: uses the claw. It's a multi-strike move and the power of each strike is independent to the move's charge, being only dependent to the hero count. However, charging will increase the number of strikes. This move has poor knockback for a smash attack, it's actually much better as a heavy damage dealing attack.
Up smash: uses the whip. It's a vertical hit with potentially very high range, comparable to Palutena's up smash when the hero count reaches 9. It also has low ending lag.
Down smash: uses the hammer. It's a very powerful but slow forward hit towards the ground with inflicts high damage and huge knockback but has a lot of starting and ending lag. To give you an idea about how crazy this move is, at a hero count of 9, it becomes almost twice as laggy as King Dedede's forward smash, but its KO power almost matches Little Mac's KO punch.
Grab and throws
Everything uses the hand. At a hero count lower than 3, Wonder Red's grab, pummel and throws are very weak, besides his grab having less lag if failed and pummel being faster. However, at a hero count of 3 or more, Wonder Red's grab range as well as the damage and knockback he can inflict become stronger, and he can use his unite hand as tether recovery, but he becomes more punishable if he fails at grabbing someone and his pummel becomes slower.
Forward throw: looks rather generic, inflicts high horizontal knockback.
Up throw: Wonder Red jumps and throws his victim. Similar to the wonderful uppercut in animation. Good vertical knockback.
Back throw: similar in animation to Mario and Pac-Man back throw, reminiscent of the wonderful cyclone. Inflicts vertical knockback.
Down throw: with a hero count of two or less it's a rather generic looking down throw with poor knockback, but at three or more Wonder Red uses the unite tombstone and can potentially burry the victim if damage is high enough. Here the minimal damage required to burry a victim with the down throw, which varries according to the current hero count: 134% for 3; 126% for 4; 118% for 5; 110% for 6; 102% for 7; 94% for 8; 86% for 9. If the unite tombstone can't burry the victim, then it will inflict a rather low knockback instead.
Floor and edge attacks
Those moves are mostly unaffected by Wonder Red's hero count gimmick.
Mostly.
Front floor attack: a quick forward claw attack. Unaffected by the hero count gimmick.
Back floor attack: a quick forward claw attack. Unaffected by the hero count gimmick.
Trip floor attack: a quick claw attack on both sides of Wonder Red. Unaffected by the hero count gimmick.
Edge attack: there are two variations. The most common one is when Wonder Red grabs an edge without using the unite hand; he will climb onto the platform and use a forward horizontal sword slash with average range unaffected by the hero count gimmick. But if he grabbed the edge using the unite hand thanks to either his up air or tether recovery grab, instead the attack will be slower and its power and range will depend on Wonder Red's current hero count, as he will attack using the unite hand.
Team, unite up! Wonder Red's Final Smash!!!
Final Smash: Unite bomb
Wonder Red summons Wonder Black's signature bomb that explodes and make enemies slow down in the area affected by the explosion. They also continually take damage and, when the area affected by the bomb disappears, enemies inside it take high damage and knockback. This move is reminiscent of Luigi's old Final Smash to a degree, and is unaffected by the hero count gimmick.
I put the unite bomb as a Final Smash because I had no idea about how to include it in Wonder Red's moveset and still having it balanced. Yes I know the continuous damage plus the knockback when the effects of the bomb disappear is not from the original game but it's to give it more value as a Final Smash, because even with only the slowing down effect I can't see how in hell it could be not broken <_< another possibility is to put Wonder Black as an Assist Trophy and find something else as a Final Smash but... Wonder Black would probably end up to be to similar to Shadow the Hedgehog >_>
And yes, I'm aware that a hero count of two is basically the same as one or zero u_u
I feel that this movesets captures the gameplay of The Wonderful 101... well, wonderfully and represents the main unite morphs very well: the hand is Wonder Red's main weapon so it appears as the move used the most, the sword reflects energy and absorbs electricity, the gun is used for projectiles, the whip is fast, the hammer is slow and powerful, the claw is
very fast, and the bomb slows down time. Don't hesitate to post feedback! Again, I just recruited Wonder Black, so maybe there are more things to discover.
