Category: Characters

Kong Kollege: A Donkey Kong Guide

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For this post, I am going to give a quick character guide/analysis to one of my favorite characters: Donkey Kong. I do not claim to be the best DK player, he is just one of my secondaries and I always love playing him. With that, let’s dive in.

Strengths

Donkey Kong is a super heavy weight character, ranking the 3rd heaviest among the roster, therefore, he deal a ton of damage and can survive to some of the highest percents.

Killing is never an issue with DK, all of his smash attacks will easily kill, along with his aerials and up tilt. A very strong kill option is going to be his cargo grab to back throw, it kills off the top of the stage at quite early percents, especially on platforms. It will kill Captain Falcon at 130% on Smashville’s platform with no rage.

DK would be considered a grappler, meaning he’s a character that focuses on finding opportunities to grab your opponent. At low percents, DK can perform his famous “Ding Dong” (cargo grab to up throw to up air) to deal an easy 30% combo. Besides his combo ability, DK has great kill potential off his throws: the aforementioned cargo throw, cargo grab to down throw off the stage, cargo grab to back throw in attempts for a stage spike, and back throw. DK benefits heavily from grabbing his opponents.

Donkey Kong’s arms are like tree trunks, they don’t only hit hard, but they reach far as well. What DK lacks in neutral from no projectile, he makes up with his massive reach. F tilt makes a great spacing tool and great quick punish to rack up the damage.

Weaknesses

Being one of the heaviest and largest characters in the game, DK struggles from being able to get stuck in opponent’s combos. When your percent is low, DK is very susceptible to being bullied by combo heavy characters.

I’d say DK’s biggest weakness is his recovery, it covers great horizontal distance, but his vertical recovery is very minimal. Although it provides some great super armor, where it’s missing is above him; this leaves DK highly endangered to spikes. Because of this, you will often have to mix up your recovery by performing up B at different points offstage. It’s important to know you can throw your opponent off with a quick up air or bair before you recover as well, they hit hard and have great hit boxes.

As mentioned above, Donkey Kong has no projectile, so closing neutral can sometimes be tough, especially against other zoners. Also mentioned above, thankfully his range and his surprising speed can help DK in that regard.

Playstyle

When playing as DK, I like to play more aggressive but not to the extent where it’s obvious, because he can be easy to punish with a few wiffed attacks. DK is surprisingly fast and will deal a ton of damage, so aggressive play styles can take stocks very quick.

I’ll go over a few notable moves that I like to perform. Dash attack covers a lot of ground and is a great punish move because of its lingering hit box, if dash attack connects at the end it can lead into a follow up attack as well. F tilt and up tilt are your best friend. F tilt comes out quick and has great reach, you can punish your opponents mistakes often with this attack. Up tilt has a large wide hit box and is a great kill option. Dashing and throwing out an up tilt or reverse up tilt will take many stocks. It’s a great idea to charge up your neutral special and keep it on deck, sometimes having the punch charged up is more intimidating to your opponent than actually using it – save it for when the time is right.

DK has so many spikes, four total if I’m counting correct, which makes him so fun to get aggressive with offstage (careful though, it can be tough to get back against a smart opponent), spacing your down special is a safe and satisfying spike.

Also your go to: bair. DK can throw out bairs that will combo into another if timed right, and also kill at the sweet spot, not to mention it has great range. Hit em with the foot.

To mention for the final time, grab your opponent as much as you can, you’ll rack up damage quickly and take games faster than your opponent can finish the DK Rap.

Final Thoughts

Overall, Donkey Kong is a hard-hitting and deceptively fast fighter who focuses on reads and grabs. I find DK to be the best super heavy in the game, and a viable solo main if you give him the dedication he deserves. These are my quick thoughts on Donkey Kong, the leader of the DK Crew.

Noah Borski
University of Wisconsin – Green Bay
Information Science – Game Studies
Communication

Fighter Adjustments 3.0

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Alongside of Joker in version 3.0, Ultimate has received another balance patch. In this post, I will not be going over every change that came with the patch, just those that I think are notable within the meta game. I will also like to discuss some of the changes I was hoping to see, but didn’t.

Notable Fighter Adjustments

Chrom/Lucina/Marth/Roy
All of the above Fire Emblem heroes have received a buff to their dash grab. This is a good buff for the fighters because they each have a solid throw combo game, and their up throw also kills at high percents. Giving them this slight buff to their grab helps their neutral game and combo game both.
Corrin
Continuing the Fire Emblem buffs, Corrin received several changes to his moves.

It’s not like Corrin had much of a presence in tournaments before 3.0, but these are all beneficial changes to the dragon lord so we might see a bit more of him in the future.
Diddy Kong
Diddy received a few buffs as well to his five of his attacks.

Diddy has not made any splashes in Ultimate so far, since he has received quite a few nerfs since Smash 4. The biggest nerf I think that still needs addressing is his recovery, when charged, Diddy falls too quickly and the launch doesn’t bring him as far as it seems it should.
Mewtwo
3.0 was very friendly to Mewtwo, receiving the most buffs in the update.

I thought Mewtwo was a solid character before 3.0, but I can already sense the wave of Mewtwo players coming after this patch. The buff that stands out the most to me is his weight increase, being able to live longer while increasing his offense as much as they did makes him a much stronger character.
Pichu
Pichu has received a highly necessary nerf, in my opinion, in which it is now easier to deal damage to Pichu. What made Pichu extremely frustrating to play against is his tiny size. Many moves would often wiff against Pichu due entirely to the mouse’s size. Going forward, the struggle to land a hit on Pichu shouldn’t be as large. Pichu isn’t the only small top tier, I would have hoped to see this same change for Olimar, Squirtle, and perhaps Inkling while dashing.
Sheik
Sheik received a couple of buffs, but the most important one is her fair now has greater range. Sheik was a dominant force throughout Smash 4, and Ultimate hasn’t been her time to shine. But her fair is much better now making room for more combos. Many fans enjoy seeing Sheik’s technical top level play.

My Future Balance Wishes

Before anyone calls out “git gud”, these are just my opinions and observations from playing Ultimate. Perhaps the better balancing route to a fighting game to make it the most fun is give buffs not nerfs, but sometimes things are just straight wack.
Diddy
As mentioned above, I think Diddy could be back among the top tier crowd, or at least high tier, if his recovery actually made sense.
Olimar
Olimar does a ton of damage, he’s another one of the frustrating tiny top tiers. The biggest change I would like to see to Olimar is a nerf to his side B. When being attacked by Pikmin it should either be easier to kill them or you should receive less damage.
Pichu
Despite Pichu’s nerf, I believe he still needs an adjustment to his kill power. My biggest head scratcher is, how can Sakurai do what he did to Sheik and still have Pichu in this game. I’ll leave it at that.
Wolf
Wolf received a nerf to his down smash, but his kill power isn’t what I had a problem with. My biggest gripe with Wolf is his minimal lag after most of his moves. Wolf is incredibly powerful, which I think he should be among the Star Fox lineup, but there seems to be little risk in his moves for how high his reward is.

Conclusion

Overall, I’m very pleased with what 3.0 had to offer. For the most part, characters got buffed rather than nerfed, making players happier rather than upset. There’s nothing worse than your character getting nerfed out of relevance when they were balanced already. I look forward to watching the meta grow and the rise of character diversity among tournaments.

Noah Borski
University of Wisconsin – Green Bay
Information Science – Game Studies
Communication

Joker

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At long last we have our first character from the Fighter’s Pass. Joker arrives as the first official DLC character in Ultimate. Joker is the main protagonist from Persona 5, a series that has been exclusive to PlayStation. When announced at The Game Awards 2018, fans around the globe lost their minds at this inclusion out of left field.

So what does this mean for Ultimate on a competitive standpoint? Let’s do a quick breakdown of his play style and see how he fairs in Smash. Overall, in my opinion, Joker feels to rank somewhere in high tier, leaning towards the lower half. Joker’s attacks feel inspired from Sheik and Bayonetta – quick and up close attacks with a bit of flare from Bayo (and his gun of course).

Of course, Joker has a very unique mechanic in that he can summon his Persona – Arsene, when its gauge is filled. To active Joker’s Persona, it sort of acts like Cloud’s limit break. But with Joker’s you can counter attacks to build it up faster. When Joker’s gauge is full, Arsene is summoned and his moves are extremely powerful. All of his specials are changed with his Persona active, and his normals are much stronger in terms of both damage and knockback. Currently, I feel Arsene is too easy to activate, but it isn’t too hard to camp Joker out during that time and wait for Arsene to disappear either. Joker does have a bit of trouble killing by himself, which is why I place him in high tier rather than top tier.

Joker and Arsene in Ultimate

Joker’s combo game is also solid, but it’s far too soon to make any concrete decisions on him thus far. We’ll have to continue to play test Joker and see what he can do as the meta evolves. As with all Smash DLC, players are jumping on the Joker bandwagon. Many top players are loving Joker and adding him to their list of mains. Just to name a few: MkLeo, Leffen, and Tweek are committing quite some time to Joker; I’m sure there many more too.

The amount of passion Sakurai and his development team has put into Joker for the first character in the Fighter’s Pass has given me very high hopes for the future additions to the roster. Joker’s rendition in Ultimate is very faithful to Persona 5. From his move set to his victory screen, it’s very easy to appreciate Joker’s entrance to Smash (coming from someone who has never played Persona). From what Reggie (we miss you already) said at The Game Awards, that Joker’s inclusion is the direction Nintendo is taking with the DLC, makes it very interesting to see who will be added next. It is also important to note that Nintendo has decided the lineup for the Fighter’s Pass and not Sakurai. Regardless of who is next, Sakurai will do an outstanding job at bringing them to fighting form.

Noah Borski
University of Wisconsin – Green Bay
Information Science – Game Studies
Communication

Which Link is Best?

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The greatest part of Ultimate is that every character in the series history has entered the fight. If you’ve played each Smash title like me, you know that means we have three Links to choose from now. We have Link, Young Link, and Toon Link. So which one is the best?

In this post, I’m going to detail each of the three Links to decide who I think, in my opinion, is the best Link.

All of my findings are from version 2.0 and are subject to change with upcoming patches.

I find each Link to have a strong combo game with their projectiles and respective setups. So I won’t be going over every single combo that each Link can do, I will just state that their combo game won’t be a deciding factor here.

Link

Link is the heaviest of the three, allowing him to survive to higher percents, but at the same time this results in Link having the worst recovery. Yes I know you can bomb drop and detonate to recharge your recovery but for reliability sake, I’m just going to compare the hero’s spin. Link is also the only one to not have his hookshot anymore, so he cannot tether to the stage making his recovery a bit more predictable than the other two.

Link’s run speed is quite slow, ranking in at 63rd in the entire game. Luckily, with his vast array of projectiles you won’t have to do much approaching. Though it can be difficult to return to neutral at times with his slower speed.

All three Link’s share the same projectiles: bow and arrow, boomerang, and bombs. Link’s arrows have a unique trait: you are able to pick one up and either shoot two arrows for more damage, or throw it at your opponent. Link’s bombs are his remote bombs from Breath of the Wild, where you throw it then detonate it instead of the typical timed fuse. This creates a lot of opportunities to gimp your opponent. More or less, each of the Link’s boomerangs act the same – creating great stage pressure and acting as a combo starter.

Link’s biggest advantage over Young and Toon are his kill options. Link hits like a truck, you will never have an issue killing with him. Smash attacks, up tilt, f tilt, fair, you name it and it’ll probably kill. As mentioned above, Link does not have a hookshot, so his grab is faster and there’s less of a chance to be punished after missing. His up throw does kill at high percents too.

Young Link

Young Link is the lightest of the three, just a few units lighter than Toon Link. His run speed ranks 37th, faster than Link but slower than Toon Link. Young’s recovery is very good, it reaches higher than Link’s and you can mixup with a hookshot recovery to keep your opponent on their toes. For the sake of not repeating myself later, Toon’s recovery is almost exactly the same to that of Young’s.

What stands out the most of Young Link to me is that he has the strongest pressure. His arrows can be fired extremely fast and his ending lag is very minimal. Young Link is able to dominate the stage with a flurry of arrows and his quick attacks.

I find Young Link’s biggest flaw to be his kill options. It’s very easy to rack up the percent on your opponent, but his lack of kill moves can get frustrating at times when playing him.

It is interesting to note that Young Link has seen some use in the tournament scene with TSM’s own Tweek and Leffen. However, neither of them main the character. Perhaps top players see the greatest potential in Young Link compared to the other two.

Toon Link

Last but certainly not least, Toon Link. As the meta stands now, I find Toon Link to be criminally underrated. Toon is a bit heavier than Young, and the fastest of the three Link’s with a run speed ranking at 24th.

Toon Link is the floatiest of the three Links, giving him a strong aerial presence. Toon Link is famously known for his bomb to forward air combo, resulting in a very reliable kill setup. Young can pull this combo off as well, but it always feels easier to do it with Toon.

Toon Link has a solid kill game, he doesn’t hit quite as hard as Link, but I also never feel I struggle to get kills like with Young Link at times. Toon Link’s back throw is also a very strong kill option.

The Verdict

Each Link plays quite similar: effective zone gameplay with their projectiles and good combo game. I think each Link is high tier and love playing as each of them. So which of the three is best? In my opinion: Link. As mentioned they all play similar, but what Link does the best is killing. Link has extremely powerful attacks and his remote bombs create so many options. You cannot go wrong with whichever Link you choose, it ultimately comes down to personal preference. To me, I find Link to be the best of our three courageous heroes.

Thanks for reading, happy smashing!

Noah Borski
University of Wisconsin – Green Bay
Information Sciences – Game Studies
Communications