cutter
Smash Champion
One day I got bored of playing G&W and MK and decided to give Ike a try. No one around my area had touched him since like April when he was a noob-magnet and then died out once people were like "ZOMG 2MUCH LAG".
After messing around with Ike, he actually has a decent amount of stuff going for him!
- His jab. Oh my ****ing god. This is EASILY Ike's best move and it's the best jab in the game. This one of Ike's few saving graces. It's his quintissential move. His jab racks up damage (16% in one go), kills when it's fresh, replenishes Ike's stale moves, and it spaces so well. The second hit has quite deceptive range. All that for an attack that hits on frame 3??? Yes please.
- Tilts... mainly his Ftilt. This is Ike's best kill move; it has a tad bit of startup time but the huge range and power really make up for that IMO. Plus it can be angled which is another big plus. It hits so hard; MUCH harder than most character's smashes! Utilt is also good for a good vertical kill move on the inital frames and has a bit of a lingering hitbox at the end.
- Aerials; while they're not ridiculous as MK's and G&W's, they're still good because of the massive disjointed hitboxes. Nair autocancels and Bair comes out surprisingly fast. And despite the startup time, Fair outranges G&W's turtle which is really saying something considering G&W's turtle is arguably the best move in the entire game.
- Power. Pretty obvious here. Also really worth noting; Ike's attacks in general have high raw damage output which will let him kill lightweights after just a handful of moves.
And now the bad:
- Specials. I don't see any use for neutral B at all. Too much startup time, mediocre knockback for an uncharged hit, and absolutely ABYSMAL cooldown at the end. Super armor frames are nice but there are very few of them on the sword thrusting animation. It's not entirely useless though because of it's usefulness on someone who broke their shield. lol. As for his other specials, Up B is amazing for recovery (more on this later) but can be punished pretty easily if done on the field as an attack. Down B comes out frame 10 which is pretty slow for a Counter move. It seems like another situational move to me. Side B is Ike's best special for recovery, mindgames, usability in some ATs, and for the occasional time to rack up a quick 10 damage here and there.
- Throws. No throws really seem to pop out as really useful. He doesn't have a throw that really sticks out as great like DDD's Dthrow/Bthrow, Falco's Dthrow fun, G&W's Dthrow, and Ness's Bthrow.
- No projectile and struggling against them. Ike is forced to approach with his limited options and he faces uphill battles against projectiles like space animals' lasers, Pit's arrows, etc. A lack of projectiles also hurts edgeguarding pretty badly.
As for Ike's recovery, it can be really good, or really really bad. If Ike is at a 30-60 degree angle from the ledge he's as good as dead. On the other hand, if Ike is able to get directly UNDER the ledge, he gets to come back pretty much every time. Aether gives Ike an uncontestable recovery thanks to the SA and the sword clearing out edgeguarders. Having to recover with Side B isn't great. It seems like in my few experiences it's best to charge it up and quickly shoot for the ledge or just go right on the stage if that isn't possible. Side B recovering is doable, but obviously go for Up B if that's the viable choice. In a nutshell, Ike's recovery is a huge double-edged sword.
Why did I type this up? I wanted to clear the stereotype of Ike considered as a crappy character. If the SBR places Ike in Mid Tier, they obviously see what I'm probably seeing with Ike too. I don't main or second Ike, but after playing with him for some time, he seems to fit the mold of a Mid Tier character; has a realitive equal amount of pros and cons, and his matchups are pretty mundane.
So I'd like to hear what you Ike mainers think about this. Don't get too harsh if I missed something badly; I played with Ike for about 4 days.
After messing around with Ike, he actually has a decent amount of stuff going for him!
- His jab. Oh my ****ing god. This is EASILY Ike's best move and it's the best jab in the game. This one of Ike's few saving graces. It's his quintissential move. His jab racks up damage (16% in one go), kills when it's fresh, replenishes Ike's stale moves, and it spaces so well. The second hit has quite deceptive range. All that for an attack that hits on frame 3??? Yes please.
- Tilts... mainly his Ftilt. This is Ike's best kill move; it has a tad bit of startup time but the huge range and power really make up for that IMO. Plus it can be angled which is another big plus. It hits so hard; MUCH harder than most character's smashes! Utilt is also good for a good vertical kill move on the inital frames and has a bit of a lingering hitbox at the end.
- Aerials; while they're not ridiculous as MK's and G&W's, they're still good because of the massive disjointed hitboxes. Nair autocancels and Bair comes out surprisingly fast. And despite the startup time, Fair outranges G&W's turtle which is really saying something considering G&W's turtle is arguably the best move in the entire game.
- Power. Pretty obvious here. Also really worth noting; Ike's attacks in general have high raw damage output which will let him kill lightweights after just a handful of moves.
And now the bad:
- Specials. I don't see any use for neutral B at all. Too much startup time, mediocre knockback for an uncharged hit, and absolutely ABYSMAL cooldown at the end. Super armor frames are nice but there are very few of them on the sword thrusting animation. It's not entirely useless though because of it's usefulness on someone who broke their shield. lol. As for his other specials, Up B is amazing for recovery (more on this later) but can be punished pretty easily if done on the field as an attack. Down B comes out frame 10 which is pretty slow for a Counter move. It seems like another situational move to me. Side B is Ike's best special for recovery, mindgames, usability in some ATs, and for the occasional time to rack up a quick 10 damage here and there.
- Throws. No throws really seem to pop out as really useful. He doesn't have a throw that really sticks out as great like DDD's Dthrow/Bthrow, Falco's Dthrow fun, G&W's Dthrow, and Ness's Bthrow.
- No projectile and struggling against them. Ike is forced to approach with his limited options and he faces uphill battles against projectiles like space animals' lasers, Pit's arrows, etc. A lack of projectiles also hurts edgeguarding pretty badly.
As for Ike's recovery, it can be really good, or really really bad. If Ike is at a 30-60 degree angle from the ledge he's as good as dead. On the other hand, if Ike is able to get directly UNDER the ledge, he gets to come back pretty much every time. Aether gives Ike an uncontestable recovery thanks to the SA and the sword clearing out edgeguarders. Having to recover with Side B isn't great. It seems like in my few experiences it's best to charge it up and quickly shoot for the ledge or just go right on the stage if that isn't possible. Side B recovering is doable, but obviously go for Up B if that's the viable choice. In a nutshell, Ike's recovery is a huge double-edged sword.
Why did I type this up? I wanted to clear the stereotype of Ike considered as a crappy character. If the SBR places Ike in Mid Tier, they obviously see what I'm probably seeing with Ike too. I don't main or second Ike, but after playing with him for some time, he seems to fit the mold of a Mid Tier character; has a realitive equal amount of pros and cons, and his matchups are pretty mundane.
So I'd like to hear what you Ike mainers think about this. Don't get too harsh if I missed something badly; I played with Ike for about 4 days.