So by random selection Dark Samus/Samus was the first fighter to come up to try out. Like I have in the past, I decided to play both Echo and base fighters on separate nights. And since Dark Samus came up, I started with her.
Night One
I have in the past briefly tried out Samus/Dark Samus. But I did a little more research into her bread and butter combos and her kill confirms. I tried out her moves and worked on those combos and confirms. And I also worked some more on mixing up recovery and edge-guarding off-stage opponents. Then I changed it up a bit, I warmed up with three Level 6 CPU matches and then went into Classic Mode next. I put it on the highest difficulty to start 5.0. I did die a few times, but I got through it rather quickly. Though I didn’t get my highest score. The highest score I have still belongs to Ganondorf. It’s almost like he should be my main.
Anyway then I went online and played 10 Online Quickplay matches. I only won two of them but four of the others could have have gone either way. And I beat a Jigglypuff and a Ness! I might have been able to win more but I started a beer when I booted online up and finished it by the last match. So I wasn’ t in top mental game for the last few matches.
Night Two
None
Night Three
Night Three was time for og Samus. In practice mode I did some more recovery mix-up practice, and edgeguarding practice. And more combo practice. And tried to get the different Side-B missiles but that wasn’t really working. When I tried B-Reversing it seemed to work better.
In Online Quickplay again only won two out of the 10 matches. Though two more were close. And two others were just completely impossible.
Then I finished up with Classic Mode and I’m done with Samus.
So the the good things about Samus and Dark Samus are multiple projectiles makes her a decent zoner, she has a good if not great recovery (the fact that the Up-B is an attack makes it even better), she has some good aerials, and her Up Smash is great anti-air tool. What’s bad about them? They don’t have great speed and their disadvantage state is a little below okay (I wish her down air beat more attacks), and her projectiles are good but more predictable and/or not as fast as other characters. Her grab seems both good and bad. It has an insane range, but also seems very finicky with when and where it has to reach your opponent to actually work.
I’m probably not returning to Samus. I did very poorly with her and wasn’t having a ton of fun. Unless she gets even more buffs in the future she’s crossed off.
Night Four
Night Four I worked on R.O.B. Same steps as always. This week I’ve also been working on paying attention to where I land. Making sure I land where the opponent can’t hit me and/or where my character can follow up.
I did not do great with R.O.B. I only won two out of ten matches. I don’t think he’s a bad character though. He has good weight so he can really soak up damage, he’s can recover from almost anywhere, he’s got projectiles to space, he’s got hard hitting aerials and special attacks. What’s bad is his smash attacks have limited range, his gyro can be used against him, and his harder hitting moves have long cool downs. He’s incredibly easy to combo. Overall I think he’s probably low high tier or high mid tier.
I don’t think I’m going to play any more R.O.B. I was contemplating trying him out as a Main for a week, but based on how this night went, I’m not going to. He’s a little too slow for my playstyle. I think good R.O.B. players are very good with using the gyro in neutral and in edgeguarding but I kept giving mine up the opponent. And I think my playstyle with him was too linear to be successful.
Night Five
Night 5 I gave a Terry a whirl. Fun fact, before this night Terry was the only player I had never played Online. For whatever reason when he came out I just wasn’t interested in him. I must have tried out him out a bit and tested to see if his stage was viable. But he didn’t grab me. And the King of Fighters stage isn’t viable.
I was optimistic at first. I’m very bad at traditional fighting games, but Terry seemed like an easy way to get some of that fighting game feeling. During my research, training, and practice against Level 6 CPUs I liked his weight and speed, his combo potential, and his hype moves. And I thought maybe people were exaggerating how bad his recovery is. You can chain together special moves to get more distance so how bad could it really be? I was really hoping Terry was going to be an easier character to play than Ken and Ryu. It seemed like it be more fun.
And then I went online. I must have a worse Online Quickplay record with Terry than any other character. I went 0-12! I could not win. And I can’t blame it on lag, there was only one match with any lag and it wasn’t that bad honestly. Just my awful play.
So we talked about his pros – his combos, his powerful and fast specials, and his good weight. He also has a great dash attack that can kill. But his cons really outweigh his positives. His recovery really is terrible. If you get hit once offstage with Terry you’re dead. Multiple times I did the wrong special move offstage and SDed instead of recovering. He’s heavy so he’s easy to combo. But also seems to have crazy knockback for a heavy. Getting hit even at low percents and he’s flying to the other end of the stage. His aerials and smash attacks don’t have range or priority. His specials are good, but they have long end-lag and I was constantly getting punished for that.
Terry is not for me.
Night Six
Night Six I streamed Smash here – https://www.twitch.tv/mark_the_stampede . Random selection put me back on Joker, so I planned to sharpen up my main for a week. I played Online Quickplay for a bit. I only lost but then played some Arena matches with a viewer. I won and lost about the same. But I got my counter timing back down for the most part and got good practice in the Bayonetta matchup. I also played as Rosa a bit at the end.
Arenas are much better to play than Quickplay.
Night Seven
Night Seven I watched Get on My Line 2020. BestNess got second using only Ness! So, I guess I don’t have an excuse for me abandoning Ness anymore. I guess every match-up is winnable and his recovery isn’t actually bad.
So next week all Joker, until Night Six and Seven I think.