How to train properly

So I came about making this blog when I was struggling to make imporvements to my own game, and wanted to help people who are going through the same issue. So chances are if you are here, you aren't the best player, and want to get better. The first thing you should do is find where you are lacking, and see what better players do that you don't. once you can locate some things that you are fundamentally lacking, go practice these things. Many of these could be the neutral game, or spacing. But some of these things include reactions, which aren't possible to train. So the first thing I recommend doing is just taking time to learn your character. Learn the moves that work well together, learn the good combos, learn the max range for each move. Learn what percents moves kill at. After you know everything about your character you need to learn major things about the other characters. These are going to be like things that Ness has a good back throw and to avoid that, or how to avoid bayonetta combos. But just learn the things you need to about the other characters. Next is to practice character specific match ups, and learn just how you are supposed to deal with a character, in a few different situations. These tips will help you. Hopefully you also are going to go to training mode and try out some new combos with characters that you haven't used before.

Clone Characters in SmashBros

So there are an obnoxious amount of clone characters in this game and I felt like ranting about it. There are tons of characters that have so few changes that they could have just been separate skins instead of entirely different characters. So the first and most obnoxious one is Marth and Lucina. They are literally the same character with the same stats, frame data, moves, and practically everything else. There is only one difference and that is the sweet spot sizes and locations on their sword. This was unnecessary and made me rather mad. Lucina is actually objectively worse than Marth and just a copy of him. The next one, Sakuri's favorite, is Pit and Dark Pit. Pit was introduced in Brawl and then in this game he mare a return, and brought with him dark pit, a character with the same stats, skins, damage, and all but 2 of the moves are the same. The main difference is the side special and neutral special. Both are the same except dark pits is slower and stronger. Besides that, the characters are practically interchangable. Another one of the clones we see is between Mario and Dr Mario, where the only thing that is different is they made Dr Mario far worse than mario in smash 4. They have pretty much the same moves, just different speeds and percents. Another one of the clones that we see is only in melee, but with Pichu and Pikachu, where again the added character is just worse than the original character.

So, this rant was pretty much just to point out that every clone of a character is just worse than the original character, and was a waste of dev time.

The best way to play online

Many of you, like myself don't have the best ability to play offline do to the lack of people to play with, means to get there, or time you can play, but for whatever reason, there is a possible solution. Playing online is a fun way to get in some practice, but make sure you are aware it is not great practice. There is some input delay when dealing with wifi, and sometimes some flat out lag. But, it is fun none the less, and if you don't have another way to play smash, it's your best option. So hopefully this guide will be helpful to those of you who need it.

Many of you know For Glory,  but are tired of playing against scrubs, or dealing with people who steal wifi from a kmart and lag awfully. So there are a few solutions. First thing is to go out and buy a lan adapter, this will help remove some of the lag when playing online by connecting you straight to the internet through Ethernet, instead of Wifi. The next thing I suggest doing is making an account on Anthersladder.com This site is great for finding people who want to play any game of smash bros since you are able to play melee, pm, 64, 3ds, wii u, or even brawl. So, this site has it all. Once you are on here there is a chat for the respective game you are playing. There are ranked matches and just friendly matches. But, whichever you do, just have fun. It's online, it's not really that competitive, but it is a way to play. I love playing online and highly recommend it to anyone who does not have many people to play with in real life.

Marth Vs Lucina

There has been a lot of talk about Marth and Lucina recently, and I feel like I wanted to talk about the differences and if one is better than the other or not. So Marth and lucina share the exact same moveset.... not a single move is different. But what differs between the two is the sword that each character uses. Lucina's soword has no weak spots, every part of the sword does the same amount of damage and knock back. This is different from marth, who has a series of weak and sweet spots. Marth's tip of his sword is considered the sweet spot that does more damage and knock back than any of lucinas respective moves, but marth's weak spot does less damage and less knockback. This means that spacing to certain points is crucial for marths game play. Now i'm going to talk about the advantages of each character.

Lucina has the advantage over marth that her combos are easier to land. In her combos the moves just have to land on the opponent, where as in marth's they have to hit certain spaces on his sword to get optimal combos. This is useful when playing the neutral and trying to lead up into a combo. Lucina also has the advantage that any hit from her smash attacks kill, not just the tipper area, which can be difficult to land.

Marth has almost every other advantage. he can do more damage, better combos, kill earlier, and overall is just better than lucina. Unfortunately, I think that they actually just made a worse clone of a character, but to those who play lucina there may be some other special difference keeping them away from playing marth. Hopefully this little bit was helpful for those of you trying to decide between the two of these characters.

Corrin after the nerf

So, in patch 1.1.5 Corrin, of all characters, was slightly nerfed. This was rather unexpected, as she was pretty much unused for the most part and had just been released. So, now that she has had some time after the nerf, I feel like I want to talk about where the character ranks. Now Corrin is a pretty unique swordsman, and has probably the best special attacks of any of the swordsman except maybe worse than cloud. She doesn't see uch play in the competitive scene unfortunately, until recently when Esam revealed at Pound that He himself plays corrin, and pulled it out against Ally in loser semis. Now he didn't win, but he did show off the character quite well, because of this I feel like I really wanted to start the discussion on  where to place corrin in a comepititve  tier list. She seems to have a lot of things going for her; good range, good movement, good combos, and great kill power. Her up throw kills early, she has great reverse edge gaurding tools, and her aerials are godlike. I think overall that corrin actually has a ton of potential in this game, it just needs to be used by the right player. I think that she can abuse her bite to her advantage very well, and if someone is able to do that right they can get kills at like 70%.

How to pick a main character in Super Smash Bros.

For those of you who are just starting to play this game, or are maybe looking to start playing it at a different level, I am going to give you a small comprehensive guide to picking a main character in super smash bros. Now, I don't think this will work for everyone but it something that has worked for myself and thought I would share. So lets get started

Start by playing every character a few times. Just play a few short games with each character and see which ones you were able to be successful with, which ones you liked playing, ones that felt like you were in control, and ones that had a combination of these. If you liked any of these qualities about some of the characters, focus on those characters.

Now that you have found some characters that feel right, start finding out some combos you can do with these characters. If you like some of the combos on a character that feels right, you're on your way to being successful with your new main. I think that you can do this against a CPU or in training / practice mode.

Now that you have some combos down, try these characters out and see which one you are successful with. You want your main to be fun and give you the best chance of winning. It is important that you enjoy playing your character for some reason, and that should help you win.

Now that you are able to win with this character and you enjoy them, start playing this character more and more. You will soon find that they feel natural to you and you like most aspects about them. If this isn't right, pick up a different character you like and learn them for a little bit.

Once you find the character that feels right, you have got yourself a main. Hopefully you are successful with your character, and you find the best one for you. I personally love Ryu, and would never change mains again since his release. He is by far my favorite character in the game, and because of that I am very successful when I play him. Thanks for the read and hopefully I was able to help at least just a few of you who needed inspiration to find some character that they wanted to play whether with a few friends or for a few tournaments.

Fun vs Competitive

Now this argument pretty much has been going on for a long time in the communist, but I wanted to give my two cents on this hot topic. Now I will preface this by saying that I am a competitive person by nature, and that has made me a competitive player, or strive to be one at least. That does not mean that I do not have fun playing this game, but I enjoy winning the games I play and becoming one of the best as I play them. Now obviously there are a lot of limiting factors to the competitiveness of this game, some can't, some don't want to, some don't have the reaction time, and many others. But, I think that this game really isn't meant to be competitive, despite wanting it to be. To start off, Sakuri himself has stated that he did not intend to make Super Smash a competitive game when he set out to make it, it was meant to be something that friends would play casually. Now this game has been taken to some extremes by many players, wanting to always be better and striving to be the best. I think that this game just has too many flaws to try and be a competitive game, because getting to the point of being an eSport would contradict what this game can do. This game is extremely defensive, and most people don't play it as that. Most people like making things "hype" or entertaining, the thing that draw in a crowd for an eSport. But, to completely be the best at this game you have to be extremely defensive. This isn't fun to watch. Now if we were an eSport, we would drive our community away by having not very interesting games as we got more and more competitive. This seems extremely contradictory, and is not something that would be part of a competitive game. No matter how good of combos or flashy things you can pull off, someone can just be more defensive and not let you get in or even attempt to approach. This is probably my main claim that this game is not competitive. I want this game to be as competitive as possible, just as many of you do, but I am worried that that will mean it won't be as fun to play or watch anymore. So overall, what i'm trying to say is, have fun with this game. You only have so much time to play it. Not all of your are going to be the best. But don't let that make you not try and be better than your friends! I think this game is great a friendly competitive level, but wish that it could be so much more than that. This game is an escape for many of you, including myself, and I love it no matter the form it is in. I think that this game is overall extremely fun to play, and that is what makes us want to become better at it. Thanks for reading and I by no way meant to say that we shouldn't be having tournaments, just stated the paradox situation we could create if we don't prevent it.

Thoughts on Ryu's Neutral Game

Ryu is a very scary character. From playing him, to playing against him, trust me that he is probably one of the most terrifying characters for either. Now, Ryu has some insane priority moes such as is true input Shoryuken (TSRK) that make him scary to play against. A 2 frame move can combo into this TSRK and kill the cast starting around 70%, or even earlier depending on platforms/ weight/ and if Ryu is in rage. Also, getting to 70% isn't a problem if you're good at comboing. Two of Ryu's B&B combos will probably put them into kill percent. The problem is, how does Ryu get in to do these combos? Now these are just some of my thoughts and how I've been successful at becoming one of the better Ryu players on Anther's Ladder.  Ryu for sure has one of the best punish games in the entire game, if not the very best. Ryu is able to kill most of the cast completely true from landing a single focus attack, but he struggles in the neutral. Now, I have been able to help myself in the neutral, and it  is all about a very few things. The first thing that is important is spacing. Spacing is an absolute must for Ryu, and the problem with it is, it's not his spacing, it's the spacing that his opponent wants to be at. Ryu can have an amazing bait and punish game. Utilizing techniques such as U-turn tilting, he can move slowly into the range his opponent wants him, bait the opponents moves, and then quickly slide out of reach, and start a punish. This is one of his best ways to win the neutral. Obviously, his next best is being agressive. Ryu is scary up close, and keeping yourself up close can pretty much gaurentee you will win the neutral. People aren't able to spot dodge or roll safely due to his tilts and Tatsu respectively. So shielding is an option, but again Ryu can break shields extremely easily, and has one of the highest damaging throws in the game. So, it's fight back or die, and generally Ryu will beat most characters up close. These were just some ideas I wanted to get out in writing to hopefully help others and help myself analyze his neutral game. He has more options than any other character in the game do to the sheer fact that he has more moves than any other character, but how to utilize them is extremely character dependent and quite overwhelming. Hopefully this has helped you as it has helped myself.

Play to Win... to an extent

I'm going to start off by saying sure, a win is a win, and I won't be able to argue against the tournaments rules, but there are certain limits to which I find this being abused. Wins generally are from one person taking all of the opponent's stocks, but they can also be from timing out the opponent. I think that this method should actually result in some sort of punishment instead of reward for being able to evade your opponent so long. This is a game that we play, and no one wants to watch someone float around the stage avoiding conflict for 6 minutes. It just isn't fun. It's also very unfair. Certain characters are actually able to completely avoid the opponent for extremely long amounts of time. Imagine a Wario, Mewtwo, or Villager, who is able to just entirely avoid coming into contact with a Little Mac. By camping you take away the fun of the game and don't even prove any skill. It is not skillful to win by timing out opponents in most cases. Because of how safe some options are like rolling, people can just waste 6 minutes of other peoples time. This rant was partially brought about by Dabuz, who plays only to win. I saw him play Wario, and completely avoid contatct for about two to three minutes, until his Waft was charged, then go into the fight with an unfair advantage. Then after he got the stock, he just waited around until he won. Sure, he did win, but did he earn it? I argue no. This is just a severe level of trolling, and I don't think our tournaments should reward it. IN tournaments, there should be some limit to time, but not reward someone for taking their opponent to that time limit. They should just both receive a loss if they can't find a winner in the time, or be forced to do sudden death. If we completely remove the time limit, tournaments could run extremely long, and I think that itself calls for a reason to have some time limit with more fair end of game procedures. These are just my thoughts, because I come from another competitive  game, that has completely terrible end of time limit procedures for events other than nationals. What do you think would be fair?

Thoughts on the Bayonetta Drama

As many of you in the community already know, Bayonetta is causing a ton of drama. She is almost without a doubt the best character in the game, and is currently polarizing the community. Many if not most of the community knows she needs to be nerfed and want her to be. But in the mean time, what are we supposed to do with this overpowered character? Some are pushing strong for a ban. Most people hate playing against  Bayonetta  and she causes drama in small scenes where there isn't high level competition. Others are pushing for a more rational approach, learning the match up. Behind this is Zero and Dabuz, who have been pushing hard to learn everything the can about Bayonetta to try and deal with her. They say that people should do their best to try and defeat the beast with knowledge. Many are learning the best ways to escape her combos, best ways to punish her, and character specific punishes. I am completely in favor of this approach. There is actually no reason to  Bayonetta from competitive scenes. She is good, and she has odd mechanics, but she is able to be defeated. I would go as far to say that the majority of the community is overreacting to  Bayonetta  and that she isn't nearly as good as people think she is once they learn more things about her. Her combos are 50/50 options at many points, and that gives you quite a few times to escape. Bayonetta has an absurdly large character model, making her an easy target, which when combined with her weight is deadly for her. She is very light and dies quickly because of it. Her recovery is contestable. If she has to side special, you can easily punish her. After being up in the air, Bayonetta has a 43 frame window of landing lag, meaning she gives you time to almost completely charge a smash attack. Now, she is difficult to play against, but if you play safely, you can easily defeat Bayonetta. That's just my two cents, but I hope that more people start realizing that she is able to be defeated.

The Importance of Hand Health

Your hands let you do lots of things. Obviously your hands are the only reason you can play Smash Bros. However, not much is done to protect our hands. Many of us play multiple hours a day, working the same few muscles to exhaustion when we play using a game cube controller. These controllers weren't meant or designed to be used multiple hours a day for years on end. They will cause severe harm to your hands, it is just a matter of when. Now, as depressing as that may seem, you can help prevent any damage. Let me make it clear, this is preventative, as in it will make sure it won't happen, and once it does happen, you're out of luck. So you may be wondering, why aren't we all doing preventative hand exercises? I think we all should. I do lots of hand stretching every day, and there are many links on sites like Youtube that show you things you should be doing to ensure your hands stay healthy.

This topic is getting a lot of debate recently, especially in the Melee community. One of the best players, PPMD, had to resign because he has injured his hands over years of playing. This is bound to happen to many of the top players after years of abuse without people taking preventative measures. So, if you're here to start, I suggest you go look up videos from the gaming doctor on hand exercise. These are simple and help strengthen your core muscles in your hands you use frequently. Another tip, make sure your hands are warm when you play. Cold hands can cause injuries so make sure you are in a warm room. Second, for those in the sma4sh community, consider switching to the Wii U Pro Controller. The controller is more ergonomic, meaning better designed for your hands. Lastly, take a few minute break every hour. maybe just 5 minutes or so. After playing a lot of games in a row you could cause stress, just let your hands rest at least for 5 minutes, and maybe run your hands under warm water to promote blood flow.

Now, ideally we would all be doing these every day. I do, as do many others, but people forget. I suggest that we make this a ritual in our community. That we take this seriously, and be as healthy as we can to promote the longevity of our game. Thank you for reading and please take care of yourself. Your career might end if you don't, but this injury will follow you the rest of your life. Typing, writing, and other things become extremely difficult after you have a hand injury, so please have your priorities straight.

Character Analysis - Mewtwo - Patch 1.1.5

So, everyone is talking about Mewtwo, and I mean everyone. After Abadango's performance at Pound with his Mewtwo, the secret is out. People are beginning to learn just how amazing M2 is after his buffs. This character was in melee, and regarded as one of the worst in the game. He didn't return to brawl or Smash 4 until later he was released as a downloadable character. He immediately sucked, and has received numerous buffs over the past few patches. Now that 1.1.5 is out, he has become a force to reckon with. Most notably, M2 now has an infinite combo, one that isn't hard to perform either. This was given to him by a movement speed increase which now allows him to footstool someone and then perform a down special and disable them. While being an insane combo, it is also an amazing kill option, as you are able to charge a smash attack and get a kill guaranteed from a foostool, or from a neutral air. So these obviously are amazing for Mewtwo, and are something that you need to learn to do if you plan on playing the character.

Mewtwo plays a sort of campy neutral game. He is able to sit charging shadow ball and wait for an approach and can punish. His combo game is insane. Down tilt is a fast move that combos into lots of things. His forward air is only 6 frames and is extremely powerful and deadly. Mewtwo has lots of range, and because of this he has multiple hit boxes on his moves. Manipulation of these hitboxes makes different things combo very will together. Up tilt can combo into an up smash at kill percents. However, his most important tool is his neutral air. Neutral air is an amazing move that can combo into ridiculous things. The best being a footstool to down special, but even into things like a grab or down tilt.

Overall, Mewtwo has gotten much better than where he started, but still has obvious flaws. He is still a glass cannon, a large hit box, and can struggle to approach safely. Where these things aren't that bad, they do make me think he is a high tier character and not a top tier.

How fair of a mechanic is rage

So many of you who play Smash 4 know of the rage mechanic, and for those of you that don't I will explain it here briefly. Pretty much, as you take more damage, you will begin to deal more damage and knock back. This begins at roughly 35% and increases until you are 150%. Eventually, with rage you deal significantly more knock back once you are maxed out at 150% with rage. Rage is a mechanic exclusive to Smash 4, not being a part of any game before it. Some people don't really get affected by rage, but certain characters are very easily able to abuse it. Characters that are heavy usually get to abuse their rage well, as they can live to high percents most stocks, and generally are already able to deal high knock back. To me, the character that best abuses rage is my favorite, Ryu. Ryu is a fairly beefy guy, he sits in the mid teens in the weight rankings, and besides Captain Falcon, he is one of the most mobile of the heavy weights. Ryu as many of you know, has a tendency to live very long due to his ability to recover from lots of places, and take damage without taking knock back from his Focus Attack. This means that on many stocks, Ryu will get to abuse rage, and abuse it he does. Ryu's aerials all become extremely easy kill moves, along with most of his smash attacks. His true input Shoryuken, when he has max rage, can kill at almost 50%. Ryu, and many other characters with rage, become absolute monstrous threats when they get rage. Now, both characters eventually get rage, so there doesn't seem to be much wrong with it at first glance. However, there are many things that are flawed about the design of the mechanic. Think about this situation. You are a Sheik, playing against me, a Ryu. Sheik generally has no problem racking up damage, but struggles greatly getting kills. Ryu, is going to be able to get a kill as soon as he gets Sheik to the right percent. Now, in this hypothetical, but very possible, situation, Ryu can kill sheik much earlier than Sheik can kill Ryu. This will mean the first stock can go to Ryu, and he is sitting at aroudnm 110%. Now Sheik, struggling to kill reliably, will need to rack up another 40% of damage probably before she tries to kill. However, she can't afford to be touched. Ryu just needs to land a single hit, and continue his combo with his uptilts, down tilts, and nairs, to bring sheik to roughly 45%. A solid combo, but now, Sheik at 45% is alraedy at kill percent. She has to now finish this stock without getting touched. If she loses the neutral twice after losing the first stock, she gets two stocked. Rage makes situations like this very common. Characters that can kill early and live long really abuse this mechanic. In my opinion, the design of this mechanic is backwards. If you lose the first stock, you now lost your rage, making it harder to kill, and gave your opponent rage, making it easier for them to kill. This mechanic promotes games to be run away with after the first stock and it is something that I am still unsure if I like or not. Obviously, I like the mechanic because my character can abuse it, but I don't think the mechanic is good for Smash 4, and if very unfair. There are multiple stocks to give people multiple opportunities to come back and win, but rage severely limits your chances at making comebacks.

Is Footstooling overpowered?

One thing that has generally been considered disrespectful, or in lots of cases just accidental, in Smash 4 has been footstooling. Footstools are where you jump on your opponents head, and it gives you another jump almost in the air, while your opponent experiences some stun from the animation. If you footstool your opponent when you're both in the air, your opponent will be pushed down, and this is a great way that you can make people unable to recover off the stage. However, if you footstool someone above the stage and they fall into the stage, they will go into a state where they are unable to tech against the ground when they hit the stage. This is what is most overpowered about footstools, as they are generally safe to perform, and can lead into some of the most powerful combos in the game. When you make your opponent hit the ground in an "untechable" state, they are very vulnerable. You can create a situation often known as a Jab lock or Jab reset. Both of these refer to the same thing, were your opponent hit the ground, did not perform a tech, and was hit by a move that would not send them moving. These moves include jabs, forward tilts, some special moves, but vary from character to character. Once you perform a Jab reset, the opponent's character will perform a slow, neutral get up, where they just stand up slowly and are very vulnerable to attacks. At high percents you could begin to charge a smash attack and wait for them to stand up into it, or you could prepare for a another combo. This is obviously very powerful when performed correctly and the worst thing is you can't do anything about it once you get footstooled. If you are footstooled you are completely helpless to your opponent, the only tool you can use is trying to directional influence far enough away from your opponent as you free fall to the ground. This limits player interaction which is the main thing that Smash is all about. Limited player interaction leads stupid combos, that are able to kill someone from zero. However, this isn't the only thing that is stupid about footstooling. Some characters, such as Mewtwo and Peach, have infinite combos off of landing a footstool on someone who is standing on the stage. If someone is standing on the stage while footstooled, their character takes some stun from the animation, but usually not enough to do anything since the character who jumped on them is launched high above them. However these two characters- and I'm sure more that I don't know of- are able to perform something known as jump canceling, where they can stop their upward momentum by performing certain actions. These lead to insanely autopilot combos. These combos are coimpletely inescapable. Not even DI will help you survive these, and your only hope for survival is your opponent messing up their infinite combo. These are very bad for the game as as time progresses they are only going to get more and more deadly, and easier for people to perform. Eventually the meta will be all about landing some combo that can lead into a footstool. I think that this could be circumnavigated by removing some or most of the hit stun that comes from being footstooled. This wouldn't make them any less powerful off the stage where they are a viable option, but would get rid of over powered combos that these footstools can lead into. Maybe footstooling could use a nerf before the final version of the game is decided on.

Pound 2016 Discussion

This past weekend we had a large national tournament that had all the forms of smash represented. Pound 2016 was an awesome tournament to watch, with tons of variety among Smash 4 and Melee. Most of you who follow smash 4 have heard about what happened at pound. We had our fourth unique character win a major here in the US. Previously, only Sheik, Zero Suit Samus, and Diddy Kong have won a major national event. Now, Mewtwo joins them. Abadango, an amazing Japanese player, won with Mewtwo, finishing 3-0 in Grand Finals. This was something that was very unexpected, but I will talk about that more in my next post. The more interesting thing that happened is with the rest of the placings. The best player, TSM Zero, wasn't able to come to pound, this gave a lot of other really good players a chance to compete. Ally ended up getting second for Wii U singles, beating Marss. Marss performed extremely well for himself, probably one of his best performances ever, and none the less it was just after his main character Zero Suit Samus was nerfed significantly. He played very well the entire day, making it all the way to losers finals, just a few games away from getting a chance to compete against Abadango a second time for grand finals. Something that wasn't so impressive for Zero Suit Samus was Nairo's placing in the tournament. Nairo performed very poorly for himself, largely being considered the second best in the game yet only getting 49th at pound. He used Zero Suit not very well, not nearly as well as he could before the nerf, and then sometimes he switched to Cloud, which he was fairly inexperienced with. One thing that I loved about the tournament was watching Abadango play. Never before have we been able to see such a high level player play Mewtwo so expertly. The character was largely believed to be one of the bottom 10 characters in the game upon his release, and through balancing of the game he has found himself to now be considered one of the top ten characters in the game. Abadango really brought this to our attention in a "in your face" sort of way. No one was prepared for the Mewtwo match up for their character, and no one really knew exactly what he wanted to do in any situation which made the games very hard for other people to quickly learn. Overall, this tournament wasn't run the best according to many of the players in the tournament, but it was a great one to watch with generally good commentator all around. Hopefully we will get the videos uploaded to Youtube soon because there are so many other games I want to watch still.

The Bidou Tech - Thoughts and Concerns

Many of you have heard of this tech, for those who haven't the best way for me to explain it is for you to watch this video made from My Smash Corner. It is essentially a really advanced and confusing way to perform perfectly timed attacks and do things you couldn't normally do with a traditional button layout. This tech looks scary, as it has a ton of unique options it opens up for tons of characters. If someone is able to bring this to a competitive scene, the movement options someone has increases exponentially. No person not using this could compete. If they are able to always be frame perfect, they are going to be insane. The approach options that this allows are even more insane. Just the possibilities that are given by this tech is just going to completely alter the game if someone performs them.

But no one will.

This is a completely hypothetical tech. No human is going to be able to be frame perfectly continue to perform this tech. It is simply unrealistic to assume someone is going to be able to do this. The controls would probably have destroyed your fingers by time you are able to perform these techs reliably. The controls are awkward and not going to just take a little time to get use to. It is a very radical change to go from the normal controls and way you hold your hand to how you would need to in order to perform the Bidou tech. Now, some of these things have potential of being implemented into the top tier players' game play, but most of what was shown isn't practical.

I may sound pessimistic, but the human mind can't do all of the things that are required in order to perform this tech. I really wish it was something simple such as wave dashing that could still alter the game, but our tech is just too hard to be conceivable to pull off in tournaments reliably, especially if you plan on playing for years.

Character Analysis - Zero Suit Samus - Patch 1.1.5

Zero Suit Samus (ZSS) has been on of the reigning champions of the top tier since the games release. Her grab combos, ability to paralyze, and early kill options made her very deadly. But recently, as of patch 1.1.5, she isn't looking like she is going to be as deadly, here you can check out all the changes she got.

ZZS main issue from this patch is the changing of her play style. She was a high risk high reward character so to speak, that put everything on the line to connect her grab, down throw into tons of aerials and possibly a boost kick (Up special) to finish a stock. These grab combos were honestly ridiculous when pulled off by a skilled player such as Nairo. Now this combo is much more underwhelming, performing much less damage, and not being able to set up into the up special boost kick kill as successfully. Her grab just simply isn't smart to do anymore. She has one of the longest durations of grab animation in the game, and her tether grab now has a shorter length that it can reach making it harder to land. She is going to have to adapt to remain in the top tiers.

I suggest that ZSS begin playing more in the air. She has great spacing and aerial moves, that tack on damage and can lead into early kills with her paralyze gun to down b combo. Her aerial moves still combo very well and utilizing just these make the character scary. She has great aerial mobility and combo game, amazing recovery, and early kill options. I believe fully that Zero Suit still is able to compete even after all the nerfs she received this patch. It is going to be allmost as if she is a new character though. She won't rely on grab as much, only using it in very safe situations, she won't be able to get as many early kills off of boost kick, and will ultimately have to play more of the neutral since she can not extend her combos as long. I feel that she is still a very fun character to play, but many people are going to discontinue playing her after these changes that happened to her.

Now, I want to address the change. Did I feel a nerf was needed for ZSS? No. Not really. But, that being said, I still do completely understand why she was nerfed. Nairo performed exceptionally well with her at a major event that Sakurai was attending, and he did not like what he saw. When played at a high level, a skilled ZSS player was very scary and probably the best character in the game. However, at low levels she was not nearly as scary, and it hurt many people that were playing her.  I do sympathize with the people who were affected, but I feel they need to move on from her or face the facts and adapt.

Patch 1.1.5 Analysis

Not too long ago we were surprised with a patch that we were unaware of. Smash 4 has apparently stopped development on the game, yet we are still receiving some balancing patches to make sure everything is okay for the final form of the game. Pretty much the top tier characters changed a ton, and a bunch of the low tiers received greatly needed buffs. To check out a full compilation of all the changes, take a look here.

My favorite change that happened included all the buffs that Charizard received. Many of his aerial attacks now have less end lag, his back air now kills earlier and does 1% more damage, he is now one unit heavier, and most importantly, he now has better air mobility. Overall, the changes didn't do a ton but anything helps when you're living as a low tier main.

Another awesome change that happened was everything that Ganondorf had changed. He now has better mobility, weight, damage output, combos, you name it. Tons of things were changed about Ganon, and he looks and feels a ton better now post patch.

Mewtwo had a weight buff and speed buff making him combo better and live longer. These changes really helped him out and are making him look very dangerous in the meta.

Sheik was nerfed greatly, she no longer has any kill confirm options, and she doesn't have as great of a combo games. Mainly, the removal of her down throw up air or vanish kill confirm caused her to lose her ability to kill. I have actually started playing sheik now post patch 1.1.5, however strange it may be now that she is the worst she has ever been in smash bros.

One of the more detrimental changes happened to Zero Suit Samus. She had many of her grab follow ups removed, damage decreased on her nair up air and throws, hit box reductions, and knock back growth increased on her combo moves. Altogether, these changes really hurt her and have knocked her from being second or third best to maybe even out of the top ten.

Character Analysis - Sonic

Sonic the Hedgehog, one of the coolest characters we got in this game is a very strong character as many will agree. He came over to Nintendo in Brawl, as he is originally from Sega, and made a return to the Smash Bros. series in the Wii u./ 3ds version. Over the past week or so I have been playing Sonic, and I just wanted to share my opinion on him.

Sonic has a lot of good things going for him, he is the 7th fastest walker, and by far the fastest runner in the game. His run speed makes him be able to punish his opponent from almost anywhere. He is so fast that it is noticeable just how much faster he is than even the second fastest character. His speed is probably his most deadly tool, as it is just amazing how fast he is compared to someone even like Shiek, who you expect to be very fast. Sonic has a great combo game, he can do side special into many attacks like up air, Nair, Dair, Fair, and Bair, or even a footstool that could lead to tech chase situations or a jab reset. Sonic has a ton of range on his forward smash, a deadly jump cancel up smash, and then a mediocre down smash. His aerials all combo fairly well, and can be used out of his up b. This can set up early kills. His up b is also is able to gimp people off the edge as it falls out from under Sonic after he uses it. Sonic has a strong grab game as he has a good grab speed, range, and is able to get in quickly on his opponents. He has quite a few follow ups to his up throw, depending on percent, and his back throw kills rather. His up throw can combo super easily because he is able to attack out of his up B. But, Sonic is very linear, and can easily be countered by top level players. He is very good for rewarding your reactions, or punishing people with slow reactions. Overall, I think that he has earned his spot as a top tier, but isn't a fun character because of how linear he is.

The Curse of Low Tier Mains

This is a discussion about how people treat certain players who decide to main characters lower on the tier list. I am a believer that most of the characters are able to be played at a very high level, high enough to win any of our current national events, if played properly. In the future this will change as there are characters who are definitively better than some others. Like a Shiek will be better that a Mii Swordsfighter, it just will happen as both characters have maximum levels they can be played at, and Shiek's frame data allows for her cap to be higher. But I feel we currently treat people developing the game play of low teir characters unfairly. I heard someone say once, I believe it was Esam, but I am not positive, say that if you decide to play a low tier character, you aren't actually competitive. He claimed you didn't want to be successful in the game, you just wanted to be the best as that character maybe, but not the best in the game. Now I feel that this is false. Some people can see certain things in characters that the general public does or didn't see until they brought it to light. And to this I will give the example of Hyuga, the best Mexican Smash 4 player there is, who plays none other than Toon Link. Hyuga really showed the world what a competitive Toon link can do, and I feel that if there weren't people such as Hyuga, the game wouldn't develop to it's true potential. There are many characters that are able to be played at high levels, even those that we consider currently to be low tiers. I think that currently, low tier mains are just as deadly as an equally skilled high tier main. For this I will site my own situation. I currently main Charizard, just about the bottom of the bottom on the tier list. My brother and best friend, main Cloud and Zero Suit Samus. We are all fairly equal in skill level, we all have our own unique strengths amongst each other, I have superior tech skill, my brother is better at getting reads and reactions, my friend is really great at turning from offensive to defensive, but we pretty much go back and forth, despite me using a character that is thought to be much worse. Like I said previously, characters aren't everything when we talk about how successful the character can be, its the players who pick them.

The Misconception Surrounding the Phrase "Match Up"

Many people in the community like to refer to character match up statistics, or how likely one character is to beat another character, as something like a proven statistic. Which it's not. People refer to these "MU" statistics like they are set in stone and that if you play a certain two characters against each other, the favored will win x amount of times out of 10.  This is blatantly wrong in the current game of Smash for Wii U. The idea behind this misconception does have some truth. Some characters struggle against other characters. Like a character that has a hard time recovering, such as Little Mac, would struggle against some other character that is able to get people off the stage easily and gimp them. This doesn't mean that the match up is fixed though. The most important thing in any match of any Super Smash Bros. game is the player. The player's skill level is incredibly important, as they are better with their character, take less hits, make better moves, and overall play very well. Their knowledge is important, such as if they know Luigi has a frame 2 Nair, they will shield in between a combo to block the nair, then re grab. Character knowledge is important for every character too. If you don't know that Ness has an insane back throw, chances are you're going to lose a stock pretty early to it when you play against a Ness player. A players fundamentals are important too. Any player could have insane combo knowledge, but if they lack fundamentals such as teching, mixing up, shielding projectiles on the move, and other basic things that don't have anything to do with the character that you are playing, they are going to lose to someone who just maybe does one hit at a time, and doesn't combo at all, but has really good fundamental skills. Now, returning to this idea of a Match up, people refer to things such as , oh Ryu has a 40/60 match up against Pikachu. So, they are saying he has a slight disadvantage against Pikachu, fair enough, but the fact that they refer to the match up as a statistic baffles me. How do you know that the Ryu doesn't just practice all day against his brother who plays Pikachu, or that the Pikachu hasn't played against many Ryu players. The idea that there is a rate that the character should win and lose is very poorly designed and should be something we as a community strive to get rid of. Any character could beat any other character, even at high level play, and it doesn't matter what these statistics say. Who actually sat down and calculated these stats anyways?

Character Analysis - Charizard (Part 2)

In my last post we explored some of his kill options, now we're going to talk about him as a character and where I see him in the game. Charizard is big, can live long, can kill early, can have grab comboes, is fast, and has a lot of heavy/super armor moves that allow him to attack through being hurt. He has a lot of things going for him. But, he is big. I mean BIG. Look at him compared to someone like Pikachu, or Olimar, and you will see just how massive he is. He is super easy to combo since he is so large, and he is very easy rack up damage on. He lacks good frame data, meaning his moves don't come out as fast as some other character's moves. So obviously he has some really good positives, and some blatant negatives.

Now that those have been addressed, I want to say where I see him. I think of him as a mid tier, or maybe even low tier. The character himself is not great. Although, he is good if you are a good player. He can showcase your fundamentals very well, with many tools for edge guarding, able to live long, he is able to kill a lot easier than most characters, and can get in to punish your opponent quickly because he is so fast. His punish game is fairly strong, if your opponent hits the ground you can hit him from across the stage almost with your side special, dealing 19% and potentially killing. He can punish your opponent landing on the side of the stage with his forward and down smashes covering teching left , neutral, or right.

Charizard struggles making it to the ground, and is very easily juggled in the air because of his size, poor air dodge, and slow fall speed. Charizard however is very fun, kills very early, and is an awesome character.

Little Mac after the 1.1.4 Patch

Little mac is a character that almost everyone in this game have tried to play at some point. He is just too fun not to have tried. His ground mobility, his fast aerials, and his insanely strong smash attacks all just add up to one really fun character. But, in this most recent patch, he became a lot more competitively viable. He received buffs to his up smash, forward smash, down smash, as well as his up tilt. They all got more increased damage, but decreased knock back a little bit. Up tilt has a better hit angle so it can hit people from other ways and can combo into other moves easier. His moves are safer on shield now after the patch, meaning they have more hit stun on the shield, or they have less hit lag for you. The mobility of Little mac is insane, and his smash attacks are almost impossible to punishable. This is going to force people to block less against him than they used to, meaning people are going to need to start fighting him straight up, which is something that he accels at as he is a boxer. Down smash is a great way to trap people now as it can't be punished if they shield it, and if they roll they are going to be hit by it anyways. He still does have some large issues of the character, such as being very poor at aerial fights, and he has a very hard time getting down to the ground. The character himself is very easy to beat, just don't fight him on the ground. But if the right player knows how to abuse his mechanics on the ground, can consistently land his K.O. Punch, doesn't get hit off much, applies good pressure, it can all add up to one scary character. Little mac is just going to be that way, he is someone who can destroy you because he landed his ko punch, or he is going to fall victim to his flaws of being bad off of the stage.

In my opinion, Little Mac did become a ton better after this patch, he is able to confirm into his smash attacks for massive amounts of damage, and he can combo into many other things with how amazing his frame data is. His super armor on his smash attacks makes him pretty nutty to straight up fight, and he is overall a really strong character. He does however have major flaws, and these flaws are just fundamental by the nature of his character, a boxer. He isn't an air fighter, he isn't going to go off the stage or " out of his ring" to finish an opponent off the ledge. It's just not his play style, and the player needs to respect his limitations, and use his advantages on the ground to the best of their ability.

This weekend in Smash 4 (Feb 18th)

This weekend we had PAX, a tournament held in the North East, that saw many competitive players attending it. Notably, Mew2King, Zero, ANTI, Vinnie, Void, Foe, and many more. The event was streamed by VG Bootcamp, and many of the matches were posted on their youtube page. This event was one of the larger ones that we see, at least in this time of the year, and had a pool of over $10,000 to be given away. In the end Zero ended up taking the tournament, without ever even losing a set. He won over Void in the grand finals, Zero used Diddy Kong and Void used Sheik. Zero won the set, 3-1 over Void.

After watching the grand finals set, I want to discuss just how high level of playing this was. I will link you to the video of the grand finals if you haven't seen it already. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNgitRHw7SI
Now Zero is probably considered a Shiek main, but he doesn't play Shiek dittos usually, and instead opts to go Diddy Kong. His playing in this set was phenomenal, so great that it has convinced me to try to solo main Diddy Kong for a little while and improve my playing of the character. Zero was able to in one game come back after being down 64% on his last stock, and then immediately was able to get void to the exact same percent that he was at, and then close out the game. Zero was able to win surprisingly easily for how amazing of a player Void is. I think it just truly shows how advanced Zero really is in our current meta game.

Character Viability

Today I want to talk about what makes a character viable, and what it means to be viable. In the current meta, being viable means having the ability to compete, and to what extent is depending on who you ask. To me being viable means being able to be played and able to beat a majority of the cast, and succeed in tournaments. So, to be viable isn't asking much of the character, but it does ask a lot of the player. Some characters need the player to be better to do well than other characters, such as Ganondorf, you have to be better at Ganon to win a tournament then you have to be at Rosalina and Luma, simply because of the character. That doesn't mean that a good Ganon couldn't beat a good Rosalina and Luma. So, in my opinion, much of the cast is considered viable. According to others or my definition of Competitively Viable, a character would have to be able to win or top at a national event. This raises the bar a lot more, as many of the upper level players play characters considered "high tier" such as shiek, mario, cloud, and zero suit samus. These characters are currently fairly well understood and developed. My argument here is that there are many more competitively viable characters than we currently think there are. The game play for many of the mid and low tier characters is very underdeveloped, there are a few good players learning what they can do, but not nearly the same amount as the higher tier characters get. I am not saying that all characters are equal here. I don't think that Zelda is as good as Shiek, or that Bowser is better than Mario, but what I am trying to say is that simply because the character isn't as good doesn't mean you can't be good with the character. Probably my second or arguably best characters is Charizard, who as many of you know is notorious for being awful. He is just the character that clicks with me, and because of that I am able to play him at a high level, and able to compete against characters like Ryu, and Bayonetta, characters that should have a good " Match up" against him. Match ups aren't everything, and neither is a characters data. Having the feel for a character and enjoying playing the character means a lot more for when you are choosing a character to pick for your main. If you like a character more,  chances are you are going to have more success and more fun when you are learning how to play them, or their combos, etc.. Don't let what the tier lists say prevent you from picking up a character you want to play competitively, it sure hasn't stopped me picking the character I love to play.

Character Analysis - Charizard (Part 1 - Kill Options)

Hey everyone, I am here with a character that is kind of overlooked by most of the community. I recently started playing Charizard and wanted to analyze him and give my opinion on him. So, here goes nothing.

Charizard is seen as one of the worst characters in the game, I however don't see how that is possible. Charizard is very fast. He is the 15th fastest walker in the game, and the 8th fastest when dashing. This is quite increible considiering his size. Charizard is however quite large unfortunately meaning it is very easy to hit him. He is one of the biggest character models in the game, in height and just hit boxes. This does come with some benefits though. Charizard is the 4th heaviest character in the game. He comes in weighing an impressive amount while still being agile makes a deadly combo. He is able to live very long, and thus be able to rack up rage quickly while still being able to live. If he is able to maintain dealing almost as much damage as he takes, or trading percent, he will win almost any fight, as he kills earlier than most characters, and lives longer than most too. So, let's talk about some of his kill options.

Charizard has a ton of kill options. Most of his moves can kill quite early. Off of a grab, his forward, back, and up throws all can kill, each being the best at certain percents. On stages with platforms, charizard can get quite early kills with his up throw, as it will bring the opponent crashing down into the platform at very high speeds, and have lots of knock back. On Duck Hunt, Charizard can kill off the top of the tree in the early 40% range on most characters with his up throw. This is also the case on dreamland and town and city but not to quite the same extent. Charizard has a huge hurt box and knock back on his down smash and forward smash. Both are great kill options. Another awesome kill option for him are many of his aerial attacks. His up air is an insane kill option, and can kill some characters in the 70% range. His back aerial also has a ton of knock back and growth, meaning you can get kills very early off stage with it. Charizard can also use his forward air for kills but not quite as early as the other options. Charizards' up special is another great kill move. He can kill light characters off the top extremely easily. I have gotten kills as early as 30%... which is ridiculous if you are unfamiliar with the kill percents of this game. Charizard also has another kill option with his side b. This move propels you across the stage in a hurling ball of flame, rock, and debris, and obliterates any opponents in it's path dealing 19% and tons of knock back. Can be easily comboed into off of a forward throw or a back throw.

Marth and Lucina after the 1.1.4 Update

These two always seem to get the same buffs at the same time, almost like they are clones...

This aside, Marth and Lucina got some amazing buffs in this latest patch. Marth got a kill confirm off of his down throw, both recieved damage buffs, range buffs, and much more. Let's get into it and I will talk more about how viable I think they are after this updates.

Lucinan Changes

• Jab 1:
  • Duration: 28F -> 25F
  • Hitbox X Position: 6.5 -> 7
• Jab 2 Hitbox X Position: 6.5 -> 7
• Ftilt:
  • Duration: 36F -> 33F
  • Hitbox X Position: 6.7 -> 7.7
  • Second Hitbox X Position: 2 -> 2.5
  Dtilt:
  • Hitbox X Position: 6.7 -> 8.2
  • Second Hitbox X/Y Position: 15.2/3.2 -> 16.7/2.7
  Nair:
  • Nair First Hit:
    • Damage: 3.345 -> 4.2
    • Hitbox X Position: 6.7 -> 7.7
  • Nair Second Hit:
    • Damage: 7.6 -> 8.5
    • Hitbox X Position: 6.5 -> 7.5
• Fair:
  • Damage: 8.5 -> 10.5
  • Hitbox X Position: 6.7 -> 7.7
• Bair:
  • Damage: 9.975 -> 11.8
  • Hitbox X Position: 6.7 -> 7.7
  • Second Hitbox X Position: 2 -> 2.5
• Uair Damage: 9.975 -> 11.4
• Dair Normal/Meteor Damage: 11.4/13.3 -> 12.3/14.2
• Utilt Duration: 36F -> 33F
• Dsmash Duration: 64F -> 54F
• Dancing Blade:
• Startup: 7F -> 6F
• Total Ground/Air Duration: 42/32F -> 41/31F

So overall, these changes might not mean much to you, so i will try to break it down. On her neutral air, she recieved damage buffs, and a change to the hitbox, extending it about 15% further than it used to go. Her forward air had the same thing, increasing damage by 2 points. Back air  got more changes and deals more damage now and is a ton better at killing. Up air had damage in creased, down air had a damage increase. The lag on the end of some moves was decreased, such as down smash, up tilt, side b, and Jab.

Here are the changes to Marth

• Jab 1:
  • Duration: 28F -> 25F
  • Tipper Hitbox X Position: 6.5 -> 7
• Jab 2 Tipper Hitbox X Position: 6.5 -> 7
• Ftilt:
  • Duration: 36F -> 33F
  • Tipper Hitbox X Position: 6.7 -> 7.7
  • Sour Hitbox X Position: 2 -> 2.5
  Dtilt:
  • Tipper Hitbox X Position: 6.7 -> 8.2
  • Sour Hitbox X/Y Position: 15.2/3.2 -> 16.7/2.7
  Nair:
  • Nair First Hit:
    • Sour/Tipper Damage: 3/4 -> 3.5/5
    • Tipper Hitbox X Position: 6.7 -> 7.7
  • Nair Second Hit:
    • Sour/Tipper Damage: 7/9 -> 7/9.5
    • Tipper Hitbox X Position: 6.5 -> 7.5
• Fair:
  • Sour/Tipper Damage: 7/10 -> 8/11.5
  • Tipper Hitbox X Position: 6.7 -> 7.7
• Bair:
  • Tipper Damage: 12 -> 12.5
  • Tipper Hitbox X Position: 6.7 -> 7.7
  • Sour Hitbox X Position: 2 -> 2.5
• Uair Sour/Tipper Damage: 9/12 -> 9.5/13
• Dair Sour/Tipper/Meteor Damage: 11/13/14 -> 12/14/15
• Utilt Duration: 36F -> 33F
• Dsmash Duration: 64F -> 54F
• Dancing Blade:
• Startup: 7F -> 6F
• Total Ground/Air Duration: 42/32F -> 41/31F

Now, Marth shared most oof the changes that lucina had got in this patch but also got a few changes that were unique to himself, since Lucina does not have a tipper sweet spot on her sword. The damage buffs were across both Marth's sweet and sour spots. The sweet spot for marths sword also was enlarged making some things combo better and some things kill easier. This was one thing that made down throw up air a kill move now as it can reach the tipper spot of his sword in time to get a Ko around 80 to 100 percent depedning on the characters weight.

Now overall, I think these buffs were really needed as before the patch the characters were quite lack luster all around. Now that this patch is live I think these pcharacters are going to be com a lot more viable in competitive play and I think they might actually see some tournament use. The changes allowed for them to rack up damage easier, combo better, and to kill far earlier. Now their forward air can kill around 100% almost 25% earlier than it used to. Their jab also can combo into a forward or up smash for easy and free kills. Overall I think these characters have quite a bit of potential now. Marth is going to be better than Lucina because his tipper is easier to place now, and is far better than lucina's normal sword. Thanks for reading this and let me know if you feel they are going to see more play!

Information was retrieved from Smashboards

Character Analysis - Diddy Kong

Diddy Kong is a character that if you have played Smash 4 at all you know something about. He has been a top tier character since the game came out practically, with his deadly "Hoo Haa" combo that used to exist as a deadly kill option, but was later patched out. So, with out further ado, lets get into my analysis of Diddy Kong in the 1.1.4 patch.

Diddy Kong is a quick character that is medium weight and has a great combo game. his grab combos can get him lots of percent early on for almost no risk, and are easy to set up. His down special gives him access to grab a banana peel which he can use as an item to trip opponents ( or himself if the opponent throws it back) this banana peel is vital in his game play and will lead into your kill set ups and you grab combos. So Diddy kong wants to use his up throw, then is able to follow up into almost any of his aerials, the optimal one depends on the percentage the opponent is at, but it is a great tool for tacking on percents almost all the way to where it will kill. Diddy  Kong's speed makes him very scary as he can mix up and get in on you and get a free 20-25% because he got a grab. These can string together and make you deal up to 60% at very low risk , very quickly. Down air spikes at early percents, does 13% , and also can cause jab resets.

Diddy Kong's aerials are very important, his up air coming out on frame 4 is great for getting out of combos, and it is able to kill at high percents. His forward air does 10% and can string together very easily and make your opponent take lots of perecent because you landed one. His back air is a very quick move as well coming out on frame 5 and doing 9%, and it is a goo kill option and spacing option. His back air can also combo into itself up to three times if you time it correctly. Short hop into two back airs is a great tool for getting a early hit.

Didd'y kongs neutral b fires a peanut that also acts as an item and can be reversed in the air to help you have different movement options. Up b is good at recovering long distances but is easy to get gimped during. Side B can help you recover, but is a command grab that can kill of stage, or if you press b or a again after you side b, it will turn into a kicking attack, but be careful you can't stop this move in the air unless you hit the ground.

Now Diddy's most important tool is his down b, which grabs a banana. If you hit your opponent with this you can get some free smash attacks and early kills.

Overall, Diddy kong is for sure a top ten character that I really enjoy playing, but has a gimp-able recovery.

First Thoughts - Bayonetta

You've probably already heard a bunch about her, but Bayonetta seems amazing. Before the patch was released I wasn't that interested in her, but now that I have had time to play her and see her moves for myself, she is probably one of my favorite characters. Her base stats aren't great, she is a large target to hit, light, and rather slow. Her damage out put per move is low. But she combos beautifully. There are already combos for well over 50% . Like more combos that Ryu, the master of combos himself. Her bullet arts allow her to continue holding down the attack button after a move to fire guns that tack on extra percent, and are really dumb. They add up so quickly, allowing her to take an early lead. Her smash attacks are fairly disjointed and that is actually rather beneficial to her. she can usually smash and out reach some characters counters. She has an ability that activates when she is about to air dodge, or roll, or immediately after, that if she would be hit, she takes half the damage, no knock back, and instead appears behind the attacker and gets ready to punish them. This ability called, The Bat Within, is something that makes her really unique. This makes her air dodge and roll options a lot safer than any other character, and will help her live. She could potentially be clipped by a smash attack at 999% and then if timed right, Bat within would activate and percent her from taking knock back. Which if you ask me seems over powered, but we will see how useful it turns out. The other thing I want to talk about is her "counter". Her down special activates Witch time, if she is hit during the time frame she activates it, the attacker becomes slowed. During this time they move slower even from knock back, meaning you can link together many attacks for almost free. Down smash can lead into a forward smash. Combo all her specials onto the opponent. Whatever you feel like doing, it can probably work because it slows the opponent for quite a while. After using it multiple times, the time it slows people decreases, but still it is powerful. It can be used against characters with up specials that do damage when they are trying to recover to gimp them. This is going to be very useful in competitive play. Speaking of which, I see Bayonetta being very high ranked in competitive play. Her combos are actually ridiculous. She can true combo some characters into death from zero percent. And she was released yesterday... I can't wait to see where the meta game will take her. I know I am going to be playing her and testing her out.  Another interesting thing, her up special can be used multiple times in the air, allowing you to do things like this "Jump, Up special, Double jump, Up Special, Side Special" and have a very good recovery. Her side special resets when you hit an opponent, allowing you to combo it multiple times in the air, and if you fast fall before doing it, you shoot diagonally down instead of diagonally up, which can be used to mix up recovery, or link combos together. Overall, love the character, looks really good, and will be a competitor in the meta game.

First Thoughts - Corrin

Corrin was the character I was most excited for when I heard about the three characters being released during the final Smash Direct. Corrin seemed like an interesting twist on a swordsman, and seemed almost like the dragoon class from the Final Fantasy games. The trailer that was shown hyped the character quite a bit, showing off some of the more iconic things she can do. Right away when I downloaded her, I didn't feel the interest I thought I would when it came to playing her. The character is good, don't get me wrong, just not what I was hoping. Her moves are all very obvious, just like every other swordsman. Her specials are what makes her unique, and really what elevates her over the other swordsman in the game. My friend took a liking to Corrin and I must admit, she can be really good when played properly. He does an amazing job with the character and I think he really showed me that she is going to be someone that I have to look out for.

Let's talk about some of her moves. Her side special turns her arm into a lance, pinning herself and opponents caught in the way to the stage. Out of this she can swing forward or behind her to attack incoming opponents. This move is really powerful, kills, and is a solid mix up. Her up special is really good too. It kills at high mid percents, and recovers quite a long way. I have seen it be fairly easy to get stuck under stages, but that could be because the character is still new. I think that her recovery is sub par, but the up B is still good none the less. Down special is a counter that attacks on both sides and is crazy powerful. Easily the best counter in the game. I think that this will elevate her play level a lot. Her neutral special stuns opponents by shooting out a ball of energy, kind of similar to Zero Suit Samus' Neutral B, but does more damage. It also hurts enemies who try to attack you from the front after, as the mouth of a dragon shuts on them. Her grab and throws aren't great. I don't know everything about them but back throw can combo into side b which is quite a bit of percent. Forward smash is insane. Probably one of the best in the game. Does insane damage, knock back, and has a sweet spot at the end of it that kills so early. Not to mention it has absolutely absurd range. like it covers at least a fifth of most stages... Ridiculous. Other smashes aren't great, up smash has a hard to hit sweet spot but works well when it hits similar to Wii Fit Trainer. Down Smash hits in both directions simultaneously, fairly good for covering the ledge get up options. Up air kills early. Back air, Neutral air and Forward air all auto cancel off of a short hop. Forward air has great range and speed. Down air dives down and spikes yourself and your opponent. Overall, I love the character, just not one that I see myself playing currently.

Patch 1.1.4 Discussion

February 3rd, 2015 at about 5 pm PST, we received what might just be the last Super Smash Bros. for Wii U patch. Now it isn't confirmed that it is the last, but it is the last major one we are receiving. It contained a few character changes, including one for almost all the Fire Emblem characters, but more importantly it introduced two new characters into the game. Yesterday we got Corrin, a shape shifting Dragon Swordsman/ woman ( yes Corrin has both male and female skins similar to Robin. Corrin specializes in close combat, but has a single projectile move,  one that shoots a charged ball of energy directly ahead that stuns the opponent. This move deals massive damage and can lead into combos. Corrin overall looks like a very interesting character, has a crazy powerful counter, and feels very fluid to play. But, we didn't just get Corrin, we also got another new character named Bayonetta. Bayonetta is a witch who hunts angels (Watch out Pit!) and specializes in the use of guns. She can summon the limbs of demons to perform her smash attacks which do crazy amounts of damage, and she can use her bullet arts to tack on percent while using other moves, or continue to fire guns after her moves have finished. These bullets deal 1 percent, but do no knock back or stun, similar to fox's lasers. Bayonetta's moves don't deal much damage on her own besides her smash attacks, but combo really well.

Many of the Fire Emblem characters received buffs this patch to their damage output. Lucina had her aerial damage and smash damage increased, Marth had his damage increased almost across the board. Ike received another buff even after his one previously that allowed him to have lots of combos off of his throws. His forward aerial has an increased damage output and so does the base damage of eruption. Roy received a reduction in landing lag on all his aerial moves, which will help him be slightly safer on shields.

In other news, the three top characters, Zero Suit Samus, Shiek, Rosalina and Luma, all received a weight reduction of one point, which may not seem like a lot, but will cause them to die a few percent earlier, which means a lot when they were already so light. 

Overall, pretty solid patch.

Character Analysis - Mewtwo (Part 2)

In this part we are going to go over kill options.

So as I talked about earlier, Mewtwo has gotten so much better lately. His aerials were boosted in percent damage and knock back, allowing his up aerial to be able to kill around 80-90%.  This was a much needed buff as he pretty much had nothing going for him before the patch.

Mewtwo's up special also has some cool interaction with ledges. He can perform something called a Ledge Cancel which allows him to pull off crazy combos. Ledge cancelling occurs when you teleport with the up special and land right on the edge of the map or a platform, then Mewtwo's mommentum carriers himself off the stage, no longer in the free fall position that would normally occur after an up special, and allows him to attack or continue his combo string if timed correctly. One thing you can do with this ability is get an early spike off the ledge when your opponent is recovering by charging shadow ball while they are off stage, making them believe they are safe and need to recover low, then canceling shadow ball with an up special and getting a down air right as the opponent is about to get to the ledge. This takes a lot of practice but is something that is really needed in Mewtwo's game play.

Mewtwo has an insane Up smash. It kills early, it catches people in weird angles, and has the ability to slide if you jump cancel it. It reaches through almost any platform and is one of his easiest kill options.

Overall I find Mewtwo to combo really well as I mentioned before, he is able to kill kind of early, recover long distances, but really lacks the ability to survive very long because of his light weight. His speed makes him great on the ground, his throws are amazing, but lack consistent follow ups, his grab is sub par. I think he is a good character but probably finds himself sitting around the middle 50% of the tier list. I think Mewtwo is an insanely fun character to play and I enjoy playing him myself a lot, but isn't a perfect character for competitive play.

Character Analysis - Mewtwo (Part 1)

So today I want to talk about Mewtwo. Mewtwo is another character that was brought into smash by DLC but was originally brought into the Smash Bros series back in Melee where he did practically nothing. Here in Smash 4, he was brought out with a very impressive up throw that killed extremely  early but he hasn't done much. He has received some changes lately in the latest patch 1.1.3 that have made him a lot better. I will not go over each individual move but I will talk about his play style as a whole.

Mewtwo as a character is very fast. He is 10th in the game for speed, tied with Metaknight, and is very light. He is massive too, one of the largest characters, yet he is the fourth lightest in the game. This causes him to die early if he doesn't play correctly. He is able to play from a far though, as he does have a very consistent and strong projectile. His neutral B charges his shadow ball which when fully charged can do 26% and apply tons of shield pressure. This allows him to get the ability to almost build up damage in a way while your opponent is knocked off the stage. Uncharged shadow ball can lead into a Jab lock situation and lets Mewtwo get a great punish. He can follow up into a down special which disables your opponent and lets you get a powerful attack off while they are stunned.

Mewtwo has a ton of range. His back air and up air cover so much of the screen it is ridiculous, and allows him to kill people early and rack up damage easily and safely. Mewtwo also has the best recovery in the game, having the largest double jump, side b, and up b to allow him to go far off the stage to kill the opponent quickly and and be able to recover easily.

Mewtwo also has a great combo game, he can combo his down tilt into nair or fair, and get a early percent lead. If you manage to maintain this lead by tacking on damage with his shadow ball or other aerial attacks, you can get an easy kill from his back throw or up throw. Both of these throws allows you to get super easy kills and are very safe to try and pull off. Short hop into air dodge can lead into a grab as soon as you reappear from the air dodge which allows you to mix up your opponent and try to get these early kills. Up throw kills around 120% and back throw kills around 100 percent at the side of the screen.

Character Analysis - Ryu (Part 3)

Now that I have gone over some of the basics about Ryu such as his moves and his unique attacks, I am going to go over a bit about his play style, how to learn to play him, and some tips about him in competitive play.

So, Ryu is a pretty heavy hitter. His moves are quite fast and combo extremely well. One punish can lead from anywhere from 25% off of a down tilt, to 50% + off of a focus attack (Down B). His moves that start combos or are able to combo well include light down tilt, light up tilt, nair, light hit of fair, and focus attack. All of these can combo into much more powerful attacks like his Shoryuken, or be used to rack up some quick damage. He is great at surviving. He is one of the heaviest characters in the game, can use Focus attack to dash cancel in the air, or use his side b to make up a great distance even in the air. His vertical recovery is pretty wonderful as well, as his shoryuken goes pretty high. Although he can be gimped by accidentally inputting one of his special moves instead of the move you were trying to input, his recovery over all is one of the best in the game. He is amazing at getting kills, needing to connect a frame two move ( light down tilt) to then connect into Shoryuken. Focus attack is amazing at getting early kills because you can lead into a nair, followed by an off stage dair.

Ryu has an incredible amount of shield damage he can apply. His light hit of his forward air down half the damage on a shield, and his heavy forward tilt down 95% of a shields capacity. If you combo a light down tilt or up tilt into a heavy down tilt it will completely break your opponents shield. This amount of shield damage is unmatched by any character in the game and is why he is such a high tier. I think that the ability to break an opponent's shield increases his kill potential too, as you can get in a fully charged forward smash to break their shield, or if you time it correctly, you could lead into a focus attack as soon as they come out of being stunned.

So over all, I think Ryu falls in the top 5 best characters in the game, and earns himself a slot in the S tier of characters.

Character Analysis - Ryu (Part two)

In part one I covered Ryu's aerial moves, go check that out if you haven't it's what makes Ryu amazing.

Smash Attacks -

Forward Smash - Ryu's Forward smash is a move that kills really early, it does 16 percent and does quite a bit of shield damage

Up Smash - This move is easy to combo into and it allows you to block some aerial attacks

Down Smash- This move is really great for trying to build space between you and your opponent as it comes out quickly, and it does 16% , so again it does lots, and has great range. Also his foot is invincible during it so he can do this over the ledge to try and catch people recovering.

Tilts -

Not going into specific about each tilt attack, but Ryu has twice as many tilts as most characters, with a light and heavy version of each tilt. Ryu's uptilt and down tilt are amazing for combos, and his heavy Uptilt allows him to be impenetrable to aerial attacks and can combo into Shoryuken.

Ryu's Heavy version of forward tilt is a great move as it has trample, which means it will pretty much just beat any attack it clashes with. This is also a great move for breaking shields, as any hit plus a heavy forward tilt on a shield pretty much means it breaks their shield.

Special Moves -

Ryu is unique in the fact that he has more special moves than any other character. He has the regular side B, up B, neutral B, and down B, but he also has ways to input his special move that resemble the inputs that you would use for Street Fighter, the game that Ryu comes from. You can do down, quarter circle forward B, Half circle forward B, or regular B to input a Hadoken, a firey blue ball of energy that does 8%. You can do a half circle backward or side B to input Ryu's Tatsumaki Senpuki, or tornado kick in which Ryu propels himself forward by hurling his foot around his body quickly. This move is great for recovering and racking up damage. Ryu also has his famous shoryuken that can be done by imputing up and B at the same time, or forward, down, down forward, forward, A to input his "True" version of shoryuken. This version kills extremely early and will be pretty much how Ryu gets 99% of his kills. This move is easy to combo into and has invincibility during it's start up.

Character Analysis - Ryu (Part One)

This will be the first of many character analysis you see and I will probably edit the format of it as I go, but this is going to be a type of post where I share my thoughts on a specific character, going through the moves of each character and how good I think the character is, how fun they are to play, and many other things I feel that are important to say about them. So, here is my opinion on Ryu.

Ryu currently is one of the top 3 characters in the game. This isn't really an opinion even, just based purely off how good the character is. I will go through his moves and analyze them in depth and how viable I think he is.

Aerial moves

Neutral air- His neutral air (nair) does 8% when it hits the strong hitbox and 4% on weak hitbox. This move combos extremely well, and if timed correctly can carry opponents accross the stage in an amazing combo string. Short hopping and immediately doing your nair allows you to be able to nair twice off the short hop, the first coming out right as you jump, the second starting up just a few frames before you hit the ground.

Forward air - Ryu's fair is amazing. It can do 15 damage at the base of his foot, 13 damage in his calve range, and 8 to 9% in his thigh area hit box. Depending on the hit box you get, you are able to combo it into other moves almost for free. Sour spot fair is a move that will allow you to combo into pretty much any of Ryu's other moves

Up air- Ryu's up air is a double hit that does 11% if both connect, it is decent, as it can kill off the top, and can be comboed into as it doesn't have much start up frames.

Back air - Ryu's bair is going to be a move that kills pretty early, it deals 16%, or 13% if you hit the sour spot, and has lots of knockback. It is a really good move for building space between you and your opponent.

Down air- Ryu's dair is amazing. It can spike at the tip of his arm, and does 14%. This move will pretty much combo into Ryu's Shoryuken, or many other moves making it great on and off stage.

Super Smash Bros for Wii U Opinon

Super Smash Bros for Wii U, also known as SSB4, is the game I play the most. It is very interesting how the game has played out, as after it was released, there were balances and changes made to the game and characters to try and make it more fair. This is unlike any other smash game before hand, and is one reason why the game is so great in my opinion. Now I am not going to say that SSB4 is the best version of Smash Bros, but I am going to say that it has been the version I have had the most fun on when playing. The game is so unique compared to the older versions of the game, having characters from so many different games and new mechanics of how the game works. They have characters such as Mario and Luigi, Donkey Kong, Link, Samus, Pit, Mr Game and Watch, Sonic, Pacman, Megaman, and even Ryu. Just such as wide variety of characters just makes the game a lot more interesting and fun to play. The play styles of each character is unique and interesting. SSB4 for sure had the craziest character list of any of the games, and is even having more characters released after it was developed available as downloadable content. Characters like Mewtwo and Cloud have been released as DLC and some more are coming soon. SSB4 is the best version of smash to get together with some friends and just hang out and play for a while on weekend in my opinion. This doesn't mean that I don't think the game is competitive. I think this game is for sure able to be played at a competitive level and I know that there are very advanced technical aspects or techs that are possible to pull of in the game. Perfect pivoting, Ledge canceling, stage teching, and many other character specific techs that make the game really cool. I do however think currently that there are other versions of smash that are better for competition. I plan on going over mainly the character list in SSB4 as it is the game that I enjoy the most and play the most. I have played every version of smash that has been released by Nintendo. 64, Melee, Brawl, 3ds, and now Wii U, and I have loved them all, but I have to say that I love SSB4 by far the most of any of the games. I just find that I am able to sit down and play for however long I want and have a great time, get better, and pull of some really cool combos. It might have to do with my age but I feel that this game is the one that I really feel connected with as I didn't play the other versions nearly as competitively as I was too young during their release. The one problem that I see with this game is that it is for the Wii U. I specifically bought a Wii U for this game to be honest. I haven't played a single other game on my Wii U except Smash bros. It is really the only purpose for the Wii U currently, but if you are able to get your hands on one for SSB4, I highly recommend that you do.