Why should I main your character?

[leekslap]

This is mainly to help new players like me choose a character or just have a general idea of how all the characters are like. Tell me the pros and cons, technical/mental requirements, character type, difficulty level on a scale of one to ten, and important character specific tips OR do something like this: http://smashboards.com/threads/how-to-pick-your-character-for-competitive-play.367951/#post-17839855 Or just say a somewhat stupid inside joke that will still get 20 likes

But yeah, the most helpful( or funny ) posts IMO will be quoted here:

Rat/Pikachu :

The one everyone picks/Kirby :

Doug/Captain Falcon :

"When's Melee?"/"Why was Hyrule banned?"/Fox :

Mario :

Yoshi :

DK :

Pros:
- best fair
- best grab
- best bthrow
- can change the direction you're facing in the air better than anyone else
- almost completely immune to shield pressure due to upb (spin2win)
- the dk punch is always cool even when it's easy
- getting or offstage (which is lol-bthrow easy) should result in a stock
- dirty uair chains on DL, has the best tent combos on hyrule, and can use the bumper the easiest on PC
- easiest character to be cool with
- the dk pika matchup isn't actually that bad

Cons:
- terrible utilt and dash
- fox kirby and falcon seem to be more of a problem to dk than to almost any other character
- some players will mash so fast that it will be impossible to use your fthrow

Jigglypuff :

Ness :

Link :

Luigi :

Samus :

 

[Cobrevolution]

don't main ness

samus is good if you want to lose

 

[Cedricwa]

Doing this because I don't want to write my essay.

Rat:
Pros: quick, amazing recovery, reliable smash attacks, great utilt and can combo/kill easily. Can Jabgrab.
Cons: Not many cons I can think of. Pretty good all around. Oh, basically only has three colors to choose from, because green hat pikachu is gross.
Rating: 9/10.
Important Tips: Learn/Know how to use "Pikachu go farther" as I call it. (Extended UpB)

Nirby/Kirbs:
Pros: Floaty, so can easily get out of combos. Many jumps for great aerial movement/great recovery. Fantastic fast utilt. Pikachu/Kirby have best uptilts in the game. Very easy to combo with. Great dair spike that can be used to follow up with other moves when opponent is on the ground, and strong to kill with off the side. Cool neutral B to kirbycide/whatever. Super quick/reliable forward smash
Cons: Light, so can die and fly easily. Doesn't have a "Normal" upair//his upair is inferior to his other moves//mostly never used. UpB can be predictable, but not usually a problem.
Rating: 8/10
Tips: Don't feel bad if you main kirby

Douglas Falcon aka Captain Cheapshot:
Pros: Super easy to combo with. Fast. Great follow up moves. All his aerials are really good. Heavy. Cool black outfit. Falcon Punch? Funnest taunt cancels.
Cons: Heavy, so can be combod easily. Bad recovery.
Rating: 8/10
Tips: Get used to doing a 1 2 3 upB combo (forward throws, upsmashes (upsmash leads to combo) and upairs, then figure out all the other cool combos he can do like with his fair into dair off edge.

Cox/Pewpew:
Pros: Fast. Can combo very well. Can use moves such as downair and uptilt to do a 0-death combo. Upsmash kills super well. AMAZING jab. Laser camp. Basically all his moves can go into combos, so that's cool. Shinespike
Cons: Predictable recovery, can be gimped like falcon.
Rating: 7.5/10
Tips: learn to Short Hop Double Laser (and full hop triple laser) for camping, and learn to shine cancel. He can be weird to get used to comboing with at first, but is fun once you get it down.

Mayo/Blario:
Pros: Mario is underrated. He has great moves that can combo and kill and has amazing recovery. Can jabgrab. Great downair/great upair. Can gimp kill using downair off the edge twice and still make it back. Upair combos well as long as you Z cancel. Fair is great for killing, along with Usmash. Fireballs are super great. Shoot fire ball then go in for grab or something. Good dash attack. UpB has very high priority.
Cons: Kind of slow. Most of his aerials don't have super high priority.
Rating: 7/10
Tips: Get good at button mashing that B button for extended recovery using mario tornado (Down B)

Yoda:
Pros: Can DJC. Uptilt has same knockback every time/great for combos. Forwards tilt is really good, can be used to break shields but more importantly puts them at a perfect spot in hitstun to jump and fair, which is yoshi's great spike. Dair can do more damage than any other attack in the same and can break shields. Can chain Upairs and kill with them. Strong smash attacks. Eggs have really high knockback if you can snipe them off the edge. Down B can be used to grab onto ledge with high priority.
Cons: NO UPB THIRD JUMP. So he can be gimped easily if you're not careful. He does gain superarmor during his second jump though. His smash attacks are very slow to come out so you're more likely to kill with combos to spikes.
Rating: 7/10
Tips: Yoshi is kind of weird to get good with, but can get really good. Learn to parry, it's amazing. (perry? parry. idk)

Monkey:
Pros: Heaviest character in game. Can take a lot of percent before getting knocked off. Really great throw. Farthest grab length, strong back throw, can cargo with forward throw. Can also do infinite throw trap. Forward air is similar to yoshi's//great spike. Down air spikes as well, it's similar to Falcon's. Back air is good. Up air can chain with use of a platform. Down B can be used for setups for combos or super punch.
Cons: Recovery sucks. Can recover horizontally, but not vertically. Very slow. You're limited to what attacks you can use unless you want to get punished.
Rating: 6/10
Tips: If you're playing as DK, a good strategy is to just keep throwing your opponent into a spike. Dont use his dash attack.

Jiggs/"best character in the game":
Pros: Really great aerial attacks. Can combo very well. Rest is great for KOs. Can get out of combos easily. Great air mobility. Can combo using Dair and forward throw with any air attacks. Uptilt is similar to kirby's, and is really good because you can use it to go into rest easily. Heavy characters can just be uptilted then rested for an easy KO.
Cons: Lightest character in the game, so can die at low percents. Very bad vertical recovery, but great horizontal recovery, just like monkey.
Rating: 6.5/10
Tips: Idk you just have to get good with her. Don't miss your rests or you're screwed.

Ness/little boy/guess:
Pros: Can DJC. Upair and Dair z cancel automatically. Down air is ****ing amazing, best spike in the game. I love it. Hit box all around ness's body with it. He has great aerials. All his attacks have really high priority. Can jabgrab. He is easy to combo with. Can heal percent, that's cool, but can be risky.
Cons: Weird/slow second jump. Up B can be easy to punish, so he can be gimped really easily.
Rating: 6.75/10
Tips: Don't let anyone **** with your ness.

Zelda:
Pros: His boomerang is really good. He can spawn bombs. His down air is really great unless you miss the z cancel, but it's easy to z cancel it. All around good aerials. Uptilt can combo. Mostly high priority attacks. Really strong forward smash/forward air, both great for killing. Downtilt can setup for kills. can combo with him pretty easily.
Cons: He is somewhat slow, and most of all, he has terrible recovery. Can be gimped really easily. Some of his attacks are slow but he can still throw out attacks fast.
Rating: 6.25/10
Tips: When you kill your opponent and before he/she comes back try to do the invisible bomb glitch and you'll be the coolest Link.

Lu-enis/Bluigi if you choose blue:
Pros: His upB is a KO move if you're touching someone when you do it. Very satisfying to get. Upairs can combo into it. Down B can actually be used to kill. Can Jabgrab. Pretty good recovery. Best taunt in the game, it could technically kill. Can usually get out of combos
Cons: Very floaty/slow. His fireballs are kind of a letdown. basically useless dash attack.
Rating: 6.25/10
Tips: Dont miss the UpBs and don't do anything stupid.

Sam ass:
Pros: Charge shot can kill easily. Pretty great spike. Strong back air. I'm really trying here. Can escape combos and downB can be useful often.
Cons: Can't really combo. sorry. Slow and long roll that can be punished. Hard to use many of her moves wisely.
Rating: 5.75/10
Tips: Ask @ Cobrevolution , ha

I know I realize that my rating scale is weird but I don't want to go back and fix it.

 

[BananaBolts]

Please, pick Falcon

He's a lonely bachelor with a craving for kinky, u-air chains that lead to him hugging you for several frames. He then proceeds to explode all over you, causing a loss of your precious, first stock.

Spoiler

Well, that's my post for why I think you should pick Falcon. Is it too suggestive?

 

[Cedricwa]

He's a lonely bachelor with a craving for kinky, u-air chains that lead to him face humping you for several frames.

Fixed

 

[Annex]

Pros:
- best fair
- best grab
- best bthrow
- can change the direction you're facing in the air better than anyone else
- almost completely immune to shield pressure due to upb (spin2win)
- the dk punch is always cool even when it's easy
- getting or offstage (which is lol-bthrow easy) should result in a stock
- dirty uair chains on DL, has the best tent combos on hyrule, and can use the bumper the easiest on PC
- easiest character to be cool with
- the dk pika matchup isn't actually that bad

Cons:
- terrible utilt and dash
- fox kirby and falcon seem to be more of a problem to dk than to almost any other character
- some players will mash so fast that it will be impossible to use your fthrow

 

[leekslap]

Doing this because I don't want to write my essay.

Rat:
Pros: quick, amazing recovery, reliable smash attacks, great utilt and can combo/kill easily. Can Jabgrab.
Cons: Not many cons I can think of. Pretty good all around. Oh, basically only has three colors to choose from, because green hat pikachu is gross.
Rating: 9/10.
Important Tips: Learn/Know how to use "Pikachu go farther" as I call it. (Extended UpB)

Nirby/Kirbs:
Pros: Floaty, so can easily get out of combos. Many jumps for great aerial movement/great recovery. Fantastic fast utilt. Pikachu/Kirby have best uptilts in the game. Very easy to combo with. Great dair spike that can be used to follow up with other moves when opponent is on the ground, and strong to kill with off the side. Cool neutral B to kirbycide/whatever. Super quick/reliable forward smash
Cons: Light, so can die and fly easily. Doesn't have a "Normal" upair//his upair is inferior to his other moves//mostly never used. UpB can be predictable, but not usually a problem.
Rating: 8/10
Tips: Don't feel bad if you main kirby

Douglas Falcon aka Captain Cheapshot:
Pros: Super easy to combo with. Fast. Great follow up moves. All his aerials are really good. Heavy. Cool black outfit. Falcon Punch? Funnest taunt cancels.
Cons: Heavy, so can be combod easily. Bad recovery.
Rating: 8/10
Tips: Get used to doing a 1 2 3 upB combo (forward throws, upsmashes (upsmash leads to combo) and upairs, then figure out all the other cool combos he can do like with his fair into dair off edge.

Cox/Pewpew:
Pros: Fast. Can combo very well. Can use moves such as downair and uptilt to do a 0-death combo. Upsmash kills super well. AMAZING jab. Laser camp. Basically all his moves can go into combos, so that's cool. Shinespike
Cons: Predictable recovery, can be gimped like falcon.
Rating: 7.5/10
Tips: learn to Short Hop Double Laser (and full hop triple laser) for camping, and learn to shine cancel. He can be weird to get used to comboing with at first, but is fun once you get it down.

Mayo/Blario:
Pros: Mario is underrated. He has great moves that can combo and kill and has amazing recovery. Can jabgrab. Great downair/great upair. Can gimp kill using downair off the edge twice and still make it back. Upair combos well as long as you Z cancel. Fair is great for killing, along with Usmash. Fireballs are super great. Shoot fire ball then go in for grab or something. Good dash attack. UpB has very high priority.
Cons: Kind of slow. Most of his aerials don't have super high priority.
Rating: 7/10
Tips: Get good at button mashing that B button for extended recovery using mario tornado (Down B)

Yoda:
Pros: Can DJC. Uptilt has same knockback every time/great for combos. Forwards tilt is really good, can be used to break shields but more importantly puts them at a perfect spot in hitstun to jump and fair, which is yoshi's great spike. Dair can do more damage than any other attack in the same and can break shields. Can chain Upairs and kill with them. Strong smash attacks. Eggs have really high knockback if you can snipe them off the edge. Down B can be used to grab onto ledge with high priority.
Cons: NO UPB THIRD JUMP. So he can be gimped easily if you're not careful. He does gain superarmor during his second jump though. His smash attacks are very slow to come out so you're more likely to kill with combos to spikes.
Rating: 7/10
Tips: Yoshi is kind of weird to get good with, but can get really good. Learn to parry, it's amazing. (perry? parry. idk)

Monkey:
Pros: Heaviest character in game. Can take a lot of percent before getting knocked off. Really great throw. Farthest grab length, strong back throw, can cargo with forward throw. Can also do infinite throw trap. Forward air is similar to yoshi's//great spike. Down air spikes as well, it's similar to Falcon's. Back air is good. Up air can chain with use of a platform. Down B can be used for setups for combos or super punch.
Cons: Recovery sucks. Can recover horizontally, but not vertically. Very slow. You're limited to what attacks you can use unless you want to get punished.
Rating: 6/10
Tips: If you're playing as DK, a good strategy is to just keep throwing your opponent into a spike. Dont use his dash attack.

Jiggs/"best character in the game":
Pros: Really great aerial attacks. Can combo very well. Rest is great for KOs. Can get out of combos easily. Great air mobility. Can combo using Dair and forward throw with any air attacks. Uptilt is similar to kirby's, and is really good because you can use it to go into rest easily. Heavy characters can just be uptilted then rested for an easy KO.
Cons: Lightest character in the game, so can die at low percents. Very bad vertical recovery, but great horizontal recovery, just like monkey.
Rating: 6.5/10
Tips: Idk you just have to get good with her. Don't miss your rests or you're screwed.

Ness/little boy/guess:
Pros: Can DJC. Upair and Dair z cancel automatically. Down air is ****ing amazing, best spike in the game. I love it. Hit box all around ness's body with it. He has great aerials. All his attacks have really high priority. Can jabgrab. He is easy to combo with. Can heal percent, that's cool, but can be risky.
Cons: Weird/slow second jump. Up B can be easy to punish, so he can be gimped really easily.
Rating: 6.75/10
Tips: Don't let anyone **** with your ness.

Zelda:
Pros: His boomerang is really good. He can spawn bombs. His down air is really great unless you miss the z cancel, but it's easy to z cancel it. All around good aerials. Uptilt can combo. Mostly high priority attacks. Really strong forward smash/forward air, both great for killing. Downtilt can setup for kills. can combo with him pretty easily.
Cons: He is somewhat slow, and most of all, he has terrible recovery. Can be gimped really easily. Some of his attacks are slow but he can still throw out attacks fast.
Rating: 6.25/10
Tips: When you kill your opponent and before he/she comes back try to do the invisible bomb glitch and you'll be the coolest Link.

Lu-enis/Bluigi if you choose blue:
Pros: His upB is a KO move if you're touching someone when you do it. Very satisfying to get. Upairs can combo into it. Down B can actually be used to kill. Can Jabgrab. Pretty good recovery. Best taunt in the game, it could technically kill. Can usually get out of combos
Cons: Very floaty/slow. His fireballs are kind of a letdown. basically useless dash attack.
Rating: 6.25/10
Tips: Dont miss the UpBs and don't do anything stupid.

Sam ***:
Pros: Charge shot can kill easily. Pretty great spike. Strong back air. I'm really trying here. Can escape combos and downB can be useful often.
Cons: Can't really combo. sorry. Slow and long roll that can be punished. Hard to use many of her moves wisely.
Rating: 5.75/10
Tips: Ask @ Cobrevolution , ha

I know I realize that my rating scale is weird but I don't want to go back and fix it.

Well I appreciate the effort but like you said, the rating scale is weird and I don't know how to separate your quote into different sections. How about from 1 through 5. 1 would be just things that apply for most characters, easy combos and character specific stuff is really straightforward. 2 would be things that apply for most characters but he has some kind of a( relatively )deep gimmick/technique that isn't hard to execute but requires a lot of knowledge. 3 would be a character with a technique that requires a lot of practice and knowledge but still managable or a disadvantage that forces him to play good. 4 would be a character that will take a lot of practice/button presses and it's better to just stick with only him. 5 has techniques that have within 3 frames to execute and you will never not press buttons.

 

[Cedricwa]

Well I appreciate the effort but like you said, the rating scale is weird and I don't know how to separate your quote into different sections. How about from 1 through 5. 1 would be just things that apply for most characters, easy combos and character specific stuff is really straightforward. 2 would be things that apply for most characters but he has some kind of a( relatively )deep gimmick/technique that isn't hard to execute but requires a lot of knowledge. 3 would be a character with a technique that requires a lot of practice and knowledge but still managable or a disadvantage that forces him to play good. 4 would be a character that will take a lot of practice/button presses and it's better to just stick with only him. 5 has techniques that have within 3 frames to execute and you will never not press buttons.

For something like that, I would take a look at Jouske's chart.

 

[clubbadubba]

I think falcon is a pretty solid starting character.

-Not too much tech skill required
-You'll probably get better faster with him than any character except possible kirby
-You'll learn how to 0-death combo quickly, which will be pretty satisfying and keep you encouraged
-Forces you to play the game at a fast pace, and its always easier to switch from fast to slow than from slow to fast

Otherwise I'd go pika/kirby to start.

Long term you could switch it up if you don't like those characters, but I think right off the bat those 3 are the best for learning the game the fastest.

 

[Cedricwa]

That's a good point. Falcon is a really good starting character.

 

[leekslap]

For something like that, I would take a look at Jouske's chart.

I didn't know Mario was THAT complicated. Can you explain please? I'm a n00b lol

 

[Cedricwa]

I didn't know Mario was THAT complicated. Can you explain please? I'm a n00b lol

Using his down B to recover efficiently, his up air combos take a while to get down + Z cancel and can be hard to finish. You have to space really well with him because many of his attacks are close range. I'd just say it takes a while to get good and learn how to play with him well. Rather than characters like falcon who are easy to pick up.

 

[leekslap]

Using his down B to recover efficiently, his up air combos take a while to get down + Z cancel and can be hard to finish. You have to space really well with him because many of his attacks are close range. I'd just say it takes a while to get good and learn how to play with him well. Rather than characters like falcon who are easy to pick up.

That doesn't sound hard. At least for me, but I have good tech skill lol

Ness is the only character who really seems impossibly hard

 

[Cedricwa]

That doesn't sound hard. At least for me, but I have good tech skill lol

Ness is the only character who really seems impossibly hard

Aha yeah it's not hard but it's harder than say falcon or Kirby.

 

[clubbadubba]

my interpretation of jousuke's diagram is that the "easy to operation" and "difficult to operation" axis refers to tech skill required.

The simple character/complex character axis refers to spacing, mind games, character knowledge, and overall game knowledge required to play the character successfully.

A character like falcon can boil most match-ups down to dash dancing, grabbing, usmash, or bairing in the neutral game, and he'll be pretty well off. Characters like mario don't have it so simple, and really has to vary his neutral game to be successful. I almost want to write a whole paragraph about it, but, nah...

 

[Cedricwa]

my interpretation of jousuke's diagram is that the "easy to operation" and "difficult to operation" axis refers to tech skill required.

The simple character/complex character axis refers to spacing, mind games, character knowledge, and overall game knowledge required to play the character successfully.

A character like falcon can boil most match-ups down to dash dancing, grabbing, usmash, or bairing in the neutral game, and he'll be pretty well off. Characters like mario don't have it so simple, and really has to vary his neutral game to be successful. I almost want to write a whole paragraph about it, but, nah...

Well said

 

[Kimimaru]

Don't forget Mario's SH D-air -> U-air which takes a while to get down (especially running SH). It can also be used as a guaranteed shield break.

 

[Cedricwa]

Yup that. It's always hard to get the up air in time before you hit the ground. The dair has to start like high up. But yeah that's great when you get it with the z cancel

 

[Amiiboshiibo]

Metal Mario is the best character.

 

[dahuterschuter]

Pros:
- Egg Toss
- Tossing Eggs
- Launching shells containing yolky protein at people using perfectly controlling controls giving you the absolute precision to place the strongest projectile in the game with splash damage virtually anywhere in front of you and a bit behind you
- Slinging ossified zygote containing vessel which explodes at opponents
-Yoshi noises
-armored jump
-stylish shoes

Cons:
-So fun he ruins playing other characters
-No purple alt

 

[ChainArmour712]

Pros:
-Bombs, on the short list for best projectile in the game. Come out fast and do lots of damage, can be thrown multi directionally and great for setting up combos
-Angled Boomerang gives you the ability to projectile pressure at upward angles, shared only by Yoshi
-Some very useful high knockback moves (fair, dair, upB, upair, Dsmash) for killing
-High mass allows him to survive vertical kos pretty well
-Beastly on combos because of projectile hitstun. While most other characters need to move into striking range to start a combo, you can just unload at the enemy from a distance until something connects then punish.
-Just enough quick moves to react to faster opponents (nair, upB, Dsmash)
-Disjointed hitbox allows you to outrange opponents with moves like upB and Dsmash
-Hookshot is excellent for techchasing
-Extremely versatile due to projectile variety and moves with different properties. You never lack the tool you need to win, unless you're offstage.
-Lowtier Swag
-He's Link Dammit
-If you learn the way of Link, he pretty much plays the same way in all the titles he's in so you can go between titles easier. Having the options of knowing how to play Link well makes him quite fun to play as.

Cons:
-If you get thrown off the stage you are dead. Kind of like 64's version of Melee Falco in that regard. Isai's advice: Don't get hit
-Due to this, he's better on stages that may not be legal (Hyrule, Sector Z, Yoshis, Kongo) than the one that is always (Dreamland). You'll have to play really cautious to succeed on DL.
-Projectiles, while awesome, come out a bit slow unless a bomb is readied. For this reason, you can't just sit back and shoot lasers all the time like Fox. Also, Fox can shoot bombs out of the air so he can be a pain in the ass.
-Slow in some of his moves (tilts and Hookshot), and his fast ones are punishable if missed.
-Therefore, you have to mix the projectiles and swordplay seamlessly to win. This may take more mental work than simply rushing down for combos like Falcon.
-Doesn't have a very abusable move like Kirby's uptilt, so you need to practice all of your options as opposed to relying on a few.
-Low on the tier list, so in popular opinion he is looked down upon by most players. Unless you are going to Apex and playing someone at the highest level like Boomfan though, you should be able to do quite well playing as Link.

 

[asianaussie]

^ignore all of this

literally all you need to know

link is a ****ing baller and that's why you want to main him

 

[Deleted member]

(please delete this message)

 

[Denzill7]

Jiggs: forward throw, uair, uair, rest. down air, up tilt, up tilt, rest. Plus taunt cancelling is amazing... Need I say more?

 

[Sangoku]

There is no upthrow in this game.

 

[syPHILys]

pros: Trolliest character, with the best sound board funny to play
cons: the down b always seems like a good option, almost never is
"Become egg" - Yoshi 2015

 

[Cedricwa]

There is no upthrow in this game.

Jiggs forward throw goes straight up. We all knew what he meant

 

[Sangoku]

I did not say I did not know what he meant.

 

[Deleted member]

pros: Trolliest character, with the best sound board funny to play
cons: the down b always seems like a good option, almost never is
"Become egg" - Yoshi 2015

I disagree with down b being a bad option. It's a great move in my opinion. Just be very careful in the situations you use it in.

 

[Cedricwa]

I did not say I did not know what he meant.

I know, I'm saying it was pointless to point out there is no up throw because you knew he knows that, and you knew what he meant.

 

[dahuterschuter]

I disagree with down b being a bad option. It's a great move in my opinion. Just be very careful in the situations you use it in.

Yoshi Butt Bombing to ledge is useful.

 

[Cedricwa]

Butt bombing. Why haven't I heard that before

 

[Technical_Knockout]

cuz usually people call it 'taking a ****'.