Why is Duck Hunt barely used?

[AnchorTea]

So I recently picked up Duck Hunt and I flat-out love him (or her).

Then I started to think on why DH is such an underrated character.

I assume it might be his playstyle. It's unique, un-earthly, and is completely different from all the other characters, so people decide not to choose him.

Sakurai might remove him in the next Smash game due to his unpopularity.

 

[outfoxd]

So I recently picked up Duck Hunt and I flat-out love him (or her).

Then I started to think on why DH is such an underrated character.

I assume it might be his playstyle. It's unique, un-earthly, and is completely different from all the other characters, so people decide not to choose him.

Sakurai might remove him in the next Smash game due to his unpopularity.

Lot of setup and work for what is perceived as not enough reward, probably. We're trying to play chess in the middle of a boxing match.

 

[Diamond DHD]

Lot of setup and work for what is perceived as not enough reward, probably. We're trying to play chess in the middle of a boxing match.

Exactly, the issue is that, let's compare DHD to Diddy Kong and Luigi. With both Diddy and Luigi with one grab in to numerous aerials you can rack up 40+ damage, and often take the stock. With DHD, let's say you use gunman to force an opponent to shield, grab them and back throw them in to a carefully placed can, then dair them while they're on the ground, propping them up above you so you can uair them, this would have the same effect as what Diddy and Luigi can do, with what DHD can do taking significantly more effort. This does mean that DHD can stand his ground against the top-tiers, but the real question is why would you? And that's the mindset of most top players, and why DHD isn't getting much attention.

 

[outfoxd]

Exactly, the issue is that, let's compare DHD to Diddy Kong and Luigi. With both Diddy and Luigi with one grab in to numerous aerials you can rack up 40+ damage, and often take the stock. With DHD, let's say you use gunman to force an opponent to shield, grab them and back throw them in to a carefully placed can, then dair them while they're on the ground, propping them up above you so you can uair them, this would have the same effect as what Diddy and Luigi can do, with what DHD can do taking significantly more effort. This does mean that DHD can stand his ground against the top-tiers, but the real question is why would you? And that's the mindset of most top players, and why DHD isn't getting much attention.

Plus everyone thinks the Dog is a erroneously only a camping spammer out of the gate, so there's a Smash social stigma attached to him.

 

[Wafty]

Surprised no one mentioned his bad recovery.. But yeah, the dog takes work & has a hard time killing. I find the character a bit draining sometimes.

 

[outfoxd]

Surprised no one mentioned his bad recovery.. But yeah, the dog takes work & has a hard time killing. I find the character a bit draining sometimes.

I try to repress that.

 

[crashbfan]

difficult to say. hes the best camping character for sure, but his playstyle isnt as mindless as it seems. we are still learning.

 

[outfoxd]

difficult to say. hes the best camping character for sure, but his playstyle isnt as mindless as it seems. we are still learning.

I don't think he's very good at camping. For a little bit, sure, but he can't spamming well enough to not put in some facetime

 

[proxibomb]

It's too much work, really. Duck Hunt is a good character, but people want good, fast results. I'm basically saying that people are being lazy.

 

[Diamond DHD]

difficult to say. hes the best camping character for sure, but his playstyle isnt as mindless as it seems. we are still learning.

Link and Toon Link are far better campers, faster projectiles, bombs allow item techs, etc etc. That's another thing, if you want a heavily projectile-based character, there are easier options, although it now sounds like I'm bashing the character I play. For the record, DHD is good because he has an option for almost any situation with enough foresight and quick thinking, it's just difficult to pull off and won't get much damage reward from punishes, I believe DHD has the most varied tools in the game.

 

[outfoxd]

We can't run with the Diddies and the Sheiks of the world. We might be able to slow them down to our pace though. That kinda play may well be counter intuitive. You naturally feel you want to meet force with force and speed with speed.

 

[crashbfan]

Link and Toon Link are far better campers, faster projectiles, bombs allow item techs, etc etc. That's another thing, if you want a heavily projectile-based character, there are easier options, although it now sounds like I'm bashing the character I play. For the record, DHD is good because he has an option for almost any situation with enough foresight and quick thinking, it's just difficult to pull off and won't get much damage reward from punishes, I believe DHD has the most varied tools in the game.

i dunno. both of the links are pretty easy to predict and get in on. the thing that makes DHD so hard to approach is that he can control the can at any time while moving himself around. this means that we can spam and attack at the same time. toon link is good, maybe better than dhd, but for his physical moveset (kill bthrow, smash attacks)

 

[MightyJake]

Duck hunt just seems like a really technical fighter. So I think many people just haven't maseterd Him(Them) yet.

 

[DunnoBro]

Him having bad matchups against the majority of the top characters in the game is probably a factor.

I'm personally dropping him for default rulesets. He needs the options customs provide to function properly against rushdown and actually kill.

 

[crashbfan]

Him having bad matchups against the majority of the top characters in the game is probably a factor.

I'm personally dropping him for default rulesets. He needs the options customs provide to function properly against rushdown and actually kill.

;'[

cmon man, don't you see any potential with MVD making it to top 8 and all, only losing to our worst matchup?

 

[Octagon]

Duck Hunt is a character who takes patience and time to master. Some people aren't willing to put in the effort

 

[Sean²]

Duck Hunt is unpopular with tournament goers because there are better characters to play to gain results quickly and place in tournaments. DH takes a lot of dedication and time.

Duck Hunt seems unpopular with the competitive casuals because they see him as a projectile spamming character and find him un-fun to fight against.

 

[AnchorTea]

Duck Hunt is unpopular with tournament goers because there are better characters to play to gain results quickly and place in tournaments. DH takes a lot of dedication and time.

Duck Hunt seems unpopular with the competitive casuals because they see him as a projectile spamming character and find him un-fun to fight against.

In reality, he's much more of a mindgame, and pressure character.

 

[Sean²]

In reality, he's much more of a mindgame, and pressure character.

You are correct. Since all three of his B attacks are projectiles, casuals see him best played as a camper/spammer. Only when their strategy is effectively dismantled by a good DH player could they think differently, but the stigma of "campy" never seems to go away.

 

[Tino]

They either don't like him or they're just too lazy to see his full fighting potential.

 

[AnchorTea]

They either don't like him or they're just too lazy to see his full fighting potential.

Oh snap!

 

[pepi1197]

Just echoing the others in here, it's because DH requires critical thinking to use.

 

[Tino]

I've heard some people only wanted him in Smash Bros. just so they could beat the **** out of him.

 

[ZomBiehn]

His steep/different learning curve holds him back, takes alot more time to master the character. But the people who main him do well

 

[Arcadenik]

Just echoing the others in here, it's because DH requires critical thinking to use.

I think it makes sense given that hunting involves critical thinking... you have to plan ahead, survey the areas, know your prey, be patient and shoot from a distance (hence the campy playstyle).

I've heard some people only wanted him in Smash Bros. just so they could beat the **** out of him.

That, or to troll people with DHD.

 

[Knux27]

I forget, was DHD nerfed in the 1.0.4 update? I remember fighting a lot of DHD online, similar to Greninja before the update, but I haven't seen any in For Glory in a while.

 

[Sean²]

I forget, was DHD nerfed in the 1.0.4 update? I remember fighting a lot of DHD online, similar to Greninja before the update, but I haven't seen any in For Glory in a while.

I don't believe so. I think they just lost interest for the aformentioned reasons listed in this thread.

 

[pepi1197]

If someone takes him deep in a tournament I guarantee the numbers online explode again, but I think the novelty and utility of DH was lost on a lot of people.

 

[outfoxd]

If someone takes him deep in a tournament I guarantee the numbers online explode again, but I think the novelty and utility of DH was lost on a lot of people.

I thought him getting top 8 at Apex woulda done it, but I just see more Olimars now.

 

[Sean²]

I thought him getting top 8 at Apex woulda done it, but I just see more Olimars now.

And Pac-Men emulating Abadango.

 

[Diamond DHD]

Let's remember that DHD is hardly the least used character, I mean, think about Meta Knight now-a-days, there are like none of him left. And I especially feel sorry for Mii mains who basically have to main another character just to play the game, Charizard is also hardly used and when he is, it's side-b fest which give real Char mains a bad name. Just enjoy the fact that we have a good community as it is, we get the bliss of being without the super waifu-fanboys that Palutena and Rosalina get, and we don't have to deal with the "HUR HUR CHECK OUT ME SWEET MEMES" of Shulk and Falcon, I'm surprised how little jokes there are about referencing the dog's laugh over and over again. I like that there's still plenty to be discovered with DHD, and a relatively small userbase helps with that.

 

[Octagon]

Let's remember that DHD is hardly the least used character, I mean, think about Meta Knight now-a-days, there are like none of him left. And I especially feel sorry for Mii mains who basically have to main another character just to play the game, Charizard is also hardly used and when he is, it's side-b fest which give real Char mains a bad name. Just enjoy the fact that we have a good community as it is, we get the bliss of being without the super waifu-fanboys that Palutena and Rosalina get, and we don't have to deal with the "HUR HUR CHECK OUT ME SWEET MEMES" of Shulk and Falcon. I like that there's still plenty to be discovered with DHD, and a relatively small userbase helps with that.

Yeah i honestly love Duck Hunt and the community that we've set up with him.We're working hard to discovering what we can do with Duck Hunt and how we can make him one of the best and most popular characters...unless he becomes top tier in the near or far future and we can all be hipsters and be like "i mained Duck Hunt back in 2015"

 

[outfoxd]

Yeah i honestly love Duck Hunt and the community that we've set up with him.We're working hard to discovering what we can do with Duck Hunt and how we can make him one of the best and most popular characters...unless he becomes top tier in the near or far future and we can all be hipsters and be like "i mained Duck Hunt back in 2015"

2014, dawg.

 

[Xygonn]

As someone that settled on maining Samus with DHD making the short list I'll give my perspective.

I think a lot of it has to do with the knockout power, and like you guys said, effort. Because you have to chain to a trick shot high in the air, hit uair (again high in the air) or land a fsmash (unreliable) right on the edge of the stage to get a KO it's pretty discouraging compared to the kill options of other characters, even zoning characters like Link, Tink, Samus (CS, Fsmash, Bair, Screw Attack) , Megaman (Dsmash, Utilt, bair, fsmash, uair) , and Villager (bthrow, fsmash, dsmash->fsmash, timber, axe, three turnip uair). Additionally his dair is really laggy and not a very strong spike. You really have to patiently buildup damage. This makes comeback victories particularly hard.

That said, DHD is one of my favorite secondaries. He's fun as hell to play with all his bizarre setups that if you do land them are very satisfying.

 

[Octagon]

That said, DHD is one of my favorite secondaries. He's fun as hell to play with all his bizarre setups that if you do land them are very satisfying.

Amen, this is what keeps Duck Hunt players going

 

[oogamania]

Duck hunt has a bit of learning curve. As for me, I see no reason to drop mah dawg. My goal is to make DH top tier.

 

[Arcadenik]

They either don't like him or they're just too lazy to see his full fighting potential.

Well, obviously. I had a hard time getting people to support DHD for Smash for 12 years for these reasons.

 

[Tino]

Well, obviously. I had a hard time getting people to support DHD for Smash for 12 years for these reasons.

I didn't know who he was until I saw him for the first time on those ESRB leaks prior to the release of Smash 3DS.

 

[Deleted member]

Duck Hunt is one of my secondaries and I like playing as him a lot. He's pretty fun to use in my opinion. I'm not amazing with him and he does take time getting used to however. So that could be a reason since he is techy.

 

[AcePikachu]

Surprised no one mentioned his bad recovery.. But yeah, the dog takes work & has a hard time killing. I find the character a bit draining sometimes.

I don't think he has a hard time killing at all. Up smash in my opinion is his most reliable kill option as for me it never whiffs. I use it the same as I would Pikachu.