So the Online tournament is over and we’re in a bit of a quiet period.
Night One
Labbed with Young Link in Training. Watched some videos on playing as Young Link but need to play more and really get down his kill confirms and his bread and butter combos. You can short-hop side-B his Fire Arrows! I still haven’t won a match with him online, but I do enjoy playing with him. Killing with an aerial to Up-B combo to the top of the Blast Zone or with a projectile to offstage aerial sequence is so much fun. He is a little bit of combo food however.
Also, I continued to practice teching and started working on footstooling. Finally getting teching down a bit better. Not sure how you can practice teching offstage, however.
After that, I played Young Link against the Sword characters using my Super Smash Con ruleset. So, I’m considering the “Swordies” that require a Young Link counter-pick as Marth, Lucina, Chrom, Ike, Shulk, and Cloud. I beat all opponents except an Ike I put on Level 9 by accident. Starting to get some sequences down but need to practice killing.
Night Two
So on Night Two, I didn’t have time to play Smash. I did, however, order the Melee 20XXTE Mod. Am I going to start getting into Melee? I’ve said no to that in the past, but the problem is it’s STILL the most thriving Smash Bros. scene. I still feel like I have a much better chance with Ultimate, but maybe if no Ultimate tournaments work out schedule-wise I’ll check out some Melee ones.
Night Three
So on Night Three, I practiced mainly footstooling in Training Mode. I tried to practice a little on kill confirms and bread and butter combos but I really need to get a good concise list for Joker, Young Link, and Ness.
Then I decided I needed to practice some against Terry since he just came out. I actually did beat a Terry in the Online Tournament, but it was clear that my opponent did not have Terry’s moveset down. So, I played as Joker against a Level 9, 6, 7, and Level 8 Terry. Lost handily to Level 9, lost to Level 6 because I was being overreliant on Joker’s counter, and beat Level 7. Lost at the last second to the Level 8 Terry; I just couldn’t get that final kill move in.
Then I continued my paper, rock, scissors of who to play as when someone is playing one of my characters. Played Level 7 Young Link and beat him with Joker. It was closer than I would have liked, but I won. If Young Link is going to be a common opponent I need to work on that matchup. Looking at local results and results from the Online tournament it doesn’t look like that should be a priority for me though. Then I played a Level 7 Ness with Young Link. Was able to get the win, but just in general I really need to get my Young Link skills down better. If he’s going to be my secondary against the swords, I need to have his flowchart and especially his kill moves down pat. Then I played Level 7 Joker with Ness. And I lost. The biggest problem I’m having now when switching to Ness from Joker and Young Link is recovery. I’m trying to recover with Up B like a normal character with Ness, instead of doing his more complicated PKThuder recovery. Which is why I dropped him as a main in the first place. Though I love playing as Ness, I’m hoping to use him as little as possible in future competitive scenarios.
Then I went back into World of Light for the first time in a while. I left off in some sort of ghost house/Castlevania level. I had just unlocked Ridley and was only a few spaces away from unlocking the next fighter. I was able to knock off about five spaces and unlock Dark Pit last night without changing the difficulty from Normal. Since the last time I played World of Light, it felt like my skills have taken a jump, but I had also unlocked the majority of World of Light skill gems. Those effects can make World of Light a lot easier; or at least counterbalance the ridiculous battle conditions.
Ok back with some more World of Light nitpicks. I unlocked Ridley and then was able to unlock Dark Pit two spaces later. So I hardly played Ridley at all. Which is fine, you don’t actually have to play who you unlock, but I do wish the Fighter spaces were spread out more evenly. Also, I wish the puzzle and exploration parts of the board were completely removed. I’m not concentrating on exploring or puzzles when I’m playing Smash. They’re not even interesting or good puzzles or explorations. They’re just annoyances getting in the way of unlocking the next path or fighter. If this whole mode was linear or at least linear down each path it would be much better. They may have to put in some ability to skip spaces if someone gets stuck then, but I think that’s an okay trade-off. I just end up looking up where to go next on internet guides. I’m not engaging in the puzzles or explorations at all. They are actually hindering me from playing the game. I wish they could patch out all locked paths and puzzles. Or at least give an option to do that. The more I play other 1P modes for Smash games the better Brawl’s Subspace Emissary looks.
Night Four
So, a brief recap of my improvement plan. I’m going through the IzawSmash Art of Smash video techniques. Once I master the techniques from one video I’m planning on going to the next one. Embarrassingly I’m still working on the very first video. I’m also listening to N64 Josh’s Smash Bros Cast A Smash Bros Podcast in order each week (well each week I’m working on improving at least) and trying to practice what he practieced each week. N64 Josh went from a Smash novice to Elite Smash level during his podcast so I think his tips will help out.
So anyway, in the podcast I was listening to this week, the suggestion was to play EVERY character so you know their strengths and weaknesses and what your opponents are going for. That’s going to be quite a task for Ultimate. I’m not going to revisit characters I tried to main. I’m going to skip over characters I still have on my “try as main” list as well. And I’m not worrying about echo fighters. I might just play some as the original fighter and one or two matches as the clone.
So my plan, which may not be feasible is this – take a character to practice mode and try out all their movesets. Look up their kill moves and their bread and butter combos and mess with that a bit. Look up their fastest moves. Play 3 matches against Level 5 CPU. Then play 3 matches in Online Quickplay.
So on Night Four I did this with Mario and Donkey Kong. So, if I kept that pace after Night Four, I’d have 51 more Fighters to do so it would only take my 26 more Nights. So I might not complete this particular training of learning the ins and out of every character.
Also, at first I was jumping straight to Online after Training Mode. That was wrong because I getting dominated, and wasn’t learning anything. Then I tried playing against Level 6 CPUs, that was also wrong because I couldn’t beat them while learning a new character. I think finding the Win conditions for each character is important so I settled on Level 5 CPUs being a good test. I can still win while testing new characters but I do have to pay attention, I can’t just throw Smash attacks out the whole time.
So I think I lost all my online matches with both Mario and Donkey Kong. I won all my CPU matches with Donkey Kong. I only won one with Mario since I had to keep decreasing the level. But what did I learn?
Mario has amazing combo potential. If he gets below you’re in trouble. All of his smashes kill at a pretty low percent. His Up B kills! He has great edgeguarding with his Cape, Fireball, and F.L.U.D.D . His recovery actually isn’t that great though. Whenever I went offstage I had a lot of trouble getting back on with the Up B. I missed a lot in the short time I played him.
Donkey Kong does not have amazing combo potential. He is combo food. His moves are slow. He’s got decent horizontal recovery but not great vertical recovery. His Ding-Dong UpThrow UpB combo is one of the best kill confirms in the game. If he grabs you you’re in trouble. If he can actually hit you with one of his moves, you’re in trouble.
Did I need to play these characters to figure these things out? I don’t think so, I think I knew a lot of this already just from general Smash chatter and from previous encounters with the characters. Though I do have a more in-depth understanding of both characters which should theoretically help in future matchups.
Night Five
So Night Five I continued checking out additional characters. Worked on Link, Samus, and Yoshi. I did not spend as much time with each character, to be honest. I did lab, look at kill moves, search for bread and butter combos, and look up fastest moves. And again played three matches against local CPU and three matches online.
So Link – better kill power than Young Link, which seems pretty obvious. While his Down-B being a remote bomb can make it harder to get consistent hits, it actually makes for a much better edge-guarding technique since you can time the explosion to when the opponent loses invincibility.
Onto Samus – Dark Samus is better overall, but OG Samus can hold the charge shot better? Also, the Up B is surprisingly the fastest attack.
Yoshi – To be honest I was getting pretty tired by the time I got to Yoshi. The only thing I really learned is he can’t attack Link from above. Which I learned by trying to beat a Link online. So I guess if I’m ever playing Young Link against Yoshi, stay underneath?
Ok, so I think the first night I tried this it was helpful, but it seems like for it to be meaningful you have to put in a lot of time. Time that may be better sent getting more experience with your character.
Night Six
So on Night Six, I only tested controllers. I’m doing a followup to my previous controller throwdown.
Night Seven
Night Seven, I took off, I just wasn’t feeling it.
Ok, so this upcoming week I’m super busy and the week after is Thanksgiving, I’ll probably be taking two weeks off this blog.