His new animation for Up Smash looks dope:
https://youtu.be/dY1ydnJQtcY?t=403. I was wondering what they were going to do with that since they basically gave Smash 4 Falco one that functions like Brawl Up Smash, but with higher active frames and later on, added leg invincibility. Wolf keeping his Brawl Up Smash would have been awful as it would had a chance of being a worse version of Falco's provided it wasn't stronger, faster on recovery, and so on, but that's it for my spiel about Falco and Wolf.
So, Up Smash is still the same breakdance twist thing from Sonic, but they reanimated it so it's uniquely Wolf's and not something that looked like it was Sonic's Uair, but repurposed. Wolf starts off going very low to the ground before kicking his legs out and spinning. That low profile alone I could see making this a great anti-air as Wolf lowering his hurtbox means he has more time to put out his hitbox to intercept an aerial. This would be even greater if his legs have invincibility. The first hit would also give it horizontal range so that it's not purely a vertical attack, however, it doesn't look high enough that it could clip someone going for an aerial approach. Maybe someone using a Dair or trying to time their aerial as low as possible, but otherwise, it's mainly there for using Up Smash against grounded opponents or after a setup by Wolf or an ally.
The second hit has Wolf shooting upwards after he finishes his breakdance kick on the ground. So, low profile startup and a high, vertical attack at the end looks like a good combination for a safe anti-air. Its only problem is that it doesn't have as much horizontal range as something like the Up Smashes of Fox, Mario, or Samus, but none of those start off as low as his which is a definite strength of Wolf's new Up Smash. If he has leg invincibility for both hits, then Wolf could low profile an aerial and shoot upwards with a protected hitbox to intercept his opponent. The lack of horizontal range would be mitigated by that as all he needs is to connect his hitbox which is high off the ground and hopefully protected. It's still an issue, but it might not be that bad and Wolf's faster on the ground now so he could get in range more easily than in the past.
This is weird, but the overall animation reminds me of Cammy's Spiral Arrow, but if it was vertical. Both of them are twisting kicks where the difference is that Wolf kicks horizontally at the beginning and doesn't spin for the second hit as he just pops up with legs while Cammy's is a twisting kick that moves her forward, so kicking out horizontally wouldn't really work on the ground. I think I'm just trying to connect something ever since Smash 4 gave Falco Charlie Nash's Somersault Shell for his Up Smash to parallel Fox's and Falco's old Flash Kick.
His new Side Smash being this stationary palm strike:
https://youtu.be/dY1ydnJQtcY?t=415, only makes me think of Bruce Lee even more with Ultimate Wolf. I don't know, Wolf having that nose rub and his fighting style makes me think of kung fu, specifically animal styles of which I don't think there's a wolf style, but there is a tiger style. The unarmed fighters are using martial arts, but there's just something about Ultimate Wolf's in particular that makes me think of Bruce Lee with him.
The Hell, Wolf???
