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Wednesday, May 1, 2024

Aromic Snack Bar’s Martial Arts

Top five list via the most wacky and fun youtube movie review guy, Atomic Snack Bar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiinrFh1h-A&list=LL&index=3
  • City Hunter,  The Jackie Chan movie w the Street Fighter references, he is Chun Li and E. honde (not Handa bcuz Mitsubishi deal). 
  • Five deadly venoms, of course. 
  • Last hurrah for chivalry. John woo (yep). Damien Lau.
  • Millionaires express. Comedy, Samo Hung and Yun be yau.  
  • Duel to the Death. Xhinese and  Japanese(?). Swords, ninjas.

--- My comments below on The Five Deadly Venoms ---


If I haven't raved about how much I love this movie, I'll do it a little now. One of the classics we used to watch growing up on Sunday mornings at like 9AM or 10 AM...  let's see, there was "Monster Matinee" which got us there and then eventually these Kung Fu movies... what was the time-slot called again? Kung Fu Theatre sounds right.  

Loved the animal themes. The Snake had the fangs for the right hang, tail for the left hand (look at the guy in white/silver up there). The Toad had impenetrable skin, handy. Scorpion had a kick representing the sting. Centipede could move faster than anybody, hitting flying plates as if he had 100 arms and legs. Lizard was my favorite actor/animal, but the wall climbing was pretty weird. 

There was mystery, there was really impeccably choreographed, stylized but believable fighting, and there was a lot of fun dubbing. The whole thing is great... has to be one of the best. 

SSBU Mr. Game & Watch's combos and kills

 Via this mostly:

Specifically spike kill confirms at 50%!!, via Strobic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgQpGR44NMs

If you bounce them off the side with THE NAIR ATTACK AS YOU COME DOWN TO LAND (3rd+4th hit or just 4th hit of Nair) via a short hop Nair, knocks them off to the side (past ledge) then jump hi towards them, dbl jump then immediately down spike (might need a direction, try back towards stage or just straight down/neutral):



He says: "btw my hand position when doing the combo:
Left thumb controls drift.
right thumb on rightstick to do the dair.
index finger on jump button.
[12:15 AM]
inputting dair with control stick is not ideal. definitely wish i had covered that in the video"

Reminds me (as he does it in the video at time 3:09), jump nair, jump nair, up+B to knock em way over... like off the stage is useful. 

Monday, April 29, 2024

Tornado width measurements, sizes of them

 https://www.govtech.com/em/emergency-blogs/disaster-zone/determining-a-tornado_s-path-width-etc-060513.html


https://www.nssl.noaa.gov/users/brooks/public_html/papers/lengthwidth.pdf


And will give some examples. 

SSBU, Archetypes, but fixed via the kid

 Archetypes ssbu, via this, but some disagreements/corrections from the kid below.

  https://supersmashbros.fandom.com/wiki/Character_Archetypes

  

 Dr mario- hi dmg but dies easily bad recovery.

 Trapper - agrees harder to use.

 

  Disagree below, fixes:

 

 Little mac is glass cannon. Can die at zero percent.

 

 Xxxxxxx Precision

 Marth is right w super important sweet spots (Sparg0) but Lucina doesn’t really have meaningful sour spots.

 

 Xxxxxxxx first strike

 Link, maybe not right category but technically at zero percent he has energy   laser on fwd smash.

  

Xxxxx.  Turtle

 Inkling, and Palutena. Are 50/50. Lotsa offense.

 

 Tag team, not Joker.

 

Glass cannon

 Not zelda. Maybe not young link that much. Not Pyra/Mythra.

 

Footsies

 Ike and Greninja are weird here. No real safe vs shield moves.

 

 The kid category— Safe/Scary Against Shield

 Ryu ken, ice climbers, little mac, roy bcuz jab tons n kills

  

Sonic should also be hit n run (the offensive side of the coin).

Friday, April 26, 2024

SSBU, Mr. Game & Watch tips - Updated 4-30-2024

Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, Mr. Game & Watch (G&W) Tips

I better check out: https://www.youtube.com/@StrobicsGaming

Specifically spike kill confirms: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgQpGR44NMs

Strongest (aka hits hard?) down tilt in game they say (Miya vs. Tweek, at WWT 2023 top 8). Kid thinks yeah. 

Nair is -1, -4 -4 -4 on shield block, so very safe. Four hits.

Down smash to kill spot dodge eh?

G&W's Dash attacks are punishable on block, eh? Aren't everybody's -> probably. 

In air, bucket speeds left right movement in air (EDIT/CORRECTION: does NOT speed descent).


EDIT, more below from me:

Chef pan flipping, you get MORE items if you spam B button instead of just holding down. Wow. I did know you can use stick left and right to change where it goes. And notice, graphically at least, some items are slightly higher in the air. Catches ppl like crazy at lower levels on ledge. Pros jump up to start flipping the pan, you'll notice, to get a broader area on start I reckon. 

N-air and B-air hit for a long time. Bair esp. will hit basically the ground pixels if you pull it out at the right moment, even just short-hop+B-Air immediately. 

 $100,000 fine touching a sea turtle. AKA, don't mess with the turtle.


Landing B-air turtle is all the way to the floor, my friend. 

Lotsa info from Choctopus, thanks man: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_OC8bOxw14

Up-smash has a lot of invul or intangible frames. Plus it just looks awesome. Got the early 1900's deep sea suit. 

@justinbtdbattles6284 "The upsmash... WHY IS THE HEAD THE HITBOX", heh.

Yeah this freaky one must have inspired the one in... that Bioshock game. See https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/vintage-diving-suits/ 

Here's one that is closer to GnW. 


Down smash, if you connect with the end of the attack (the proper hammer), it'll plant them in the dirt. Hitting too close, they just get knocked back. ***be sure to spam vs. rolling foes. It can hit over and over. ***


Up air looks like Q-bert:


Chef pan (itself) hit can launch. 

More great info from:

@xpl0si0nman20  -5 years ago (edited)-

  • The bucket reflects physical projectiles (cannonball, rockets)
  • And absorbs energy projectiles(Fireballs, explosions, and lasers)
  • A good throw combo is a down throw, small jump, and a judge. If you land the 9 itll be a guaranteed kill at basically any lightly damaged percent.
  • Your up air is an infuriating move to fight against if your enemy has few sideways recovery options, like King K Rool, as he can do virtually nothing to stop you from doing it.
  • Your strongest smash attack is scuba helmet, and at lower percents combined with a good setup, read, or ground with the hammers, is one of your best options as it can kill with no charge.
  • Chef is a NIGHTMARE to vertically strong recoveries. Ike and Chrom will suffer if you sit near an edge and spam this move, as they can get no where close to the ledge. If they do, jump and drop a bomb.
  • Your a very high damage but easy to kill character, but parachute makes you a GOD when trying to keep someone off stage. If you save your double jump and air dodge, you can go after even guaranteed kills and just hit them a few more times with little risk.


OTHERS:

@randomrandomian1328 4 years ago (edited)

Down tilt has best knockback, even more than chair. Up throw > Up air > Jump on higher platform > Up air

@nagitokomaeda6129  5 years ago More tips: 

His UpB comes at frame 2 or 3 so its a good out of shield option or if you want to break the combo of your oponent (it saves you from luigi's 0 to death)

Upsmash was nerfed from smash 4, it has invencibility frames but only on his active hitboxes, not on startup so it's not that good of an antiair anymore

Dthrow kills at very high percents so its a good way to kill if you're struggling to get a kill

@dylannzambrano   5 years ago  The oil strenght is variable, stronger is the energy projectile, stronger will be the oil, and you can kill also at 0% if the projectile/s are strong, like the bob-omba's explosion

 @alonelywalker6602  The up tilt can be changed so the first flag comes out on either left or right first. If he’s facing the right, the flag can still come out on the left first if you angle the stick tilt properly

@magentanide5984

5 years ago

A couple of things I noticed you missed:

The F-Smash has a sweetspot hitbox where the "flame" of the animation is. This kills quite early and does significantly more damage and knockback than the near hitbox.

Oil Panic (The Bucket) does more damage depending on the projectile it absorbs, and deals almost 3x the damage and knockback of the original projectile(s). Absorbing Samus's charge shot or Ness' PK Flash will fully charge the bucket, and give him a OHKO/instant shield break move. Likewise, 3 Mario fireballs or Mega Man lemons aren't likely to kill all too early.

A common misconception is that the attack from Oil Panic is a projectile. It is NOT a projectile and it cannot be reflected. A filled bucket is to be feared.

Another distinction with the bucket is what projectiles it absorbs vs what it reflects. "Physical" projectiles will be reflected (K.Rool's guff, Link's guff, Samus' missiles, Snake's grenades and Nikita), where as "Energy" or explosion projectiles will be absorbed (Samus charge shot, the explosion from Snake's grenades, Pichu/Pikachu Thunder).

The down air spikes consistently at the very start of the move and it's a very small and fast sweetspot. Using it at the ledge however, if your opponent has exhausted their ledge intangibility, you can short hop d-air to immediately spike.

Notes on Judge:

You shouldn't spam Judge for funnies; 1s deal significant self damage.

The 1 also deals no hitstun, so you can't rely on Judge to make an opponent flinch.

3 deals a lot of shield damage, and crosses up. If your opponent isn't prepared, you can land a second Judge or go for a shield break.
5 deals little knockback, and you might be able to get an airdodge read into a second Judge.
6 kills quite early, especially at the edge.
7 offers healing items, which your opponent can take. Eat those quickly!

Judge Side-B:

@clguy-qq3wy

1 you take 14 damage even if you dont hit the enemy and only does 2 damage if it,
2 does 4 damage,
3 does 7 damage and knock back opposite to the direction you hit the opponent,
4 does 9 damage,
5 is a multi hit attack that also does electric damage it does 14 damage,
6 is also 14 damage but a fire attack,
7 gives 3 apples which each heal 4 for a total of 12 health and does 16 damage,
8 freezes the enemy which is pretty good for combos and does 15 damage,
9 does 38 damage plus kills really early from its high knockback. And thats it if i missed anything then pls tell me. 

@endermage77

~Corrections to corrections above~

1 has no knockback whatsoever and has no uses except for denying enemies a second Up-B recovery from the hitstun that literally any other move in G&W's arsenal would cause

2 is essentially a free jab lock ((note, jab lock in SSBU reduced to twice only now or something,, but i guess you can hit on ground with jab once, then try another side-B judge maybe, unless they unbuffed this #2 hit in a patch))  on your opponent and can leave them open to a fast move like f-tilt or dash attack at low %

3 is fairly decent for low % 2-hit combos if you can react to the backward knockback quick enough for a followup smash/tilt
4 does the highest damage to shields (Still isn't a shieldbreaker though)
5 is mostly used for juggling and starting air combos
6 is G&W's second-strongest Judge attack; It launches opponents directly sideways and if used offstage can easily gimp nearly the entire cast to death at most any % and outright kill at higher %
7 does pretty good damage in addition to the apples as mentioned but G&W has to be careful to not let his opponent into a position to eat them as they get dropped out of the hammer onto the floor when it connects
8 freezes the opponent longer at higher %
9 actually does 40% damage, up from 36% in Sm4sh.

EXTRA JUDGE: if they're shielding, up smash vs it, then side-B judge quickly, breaks shield (maybe only if #4 or #9... forward-smash tested but weaker than up-smash). 

@WailmerWasher -1 year ago

Here's the list of things judge can do

1-Lowest of the low, does recoil and doesn't flinch
2-Launches, but not much 
3-Launches towards game and watch  [the one with tons of shield dmg?]
4-Slashing attack that launches diagonally  [the one with tons of shield dmg?]
5-A multi-hit electric attack
6-Flaming semi-spike, which is pretty dangerous off stage
7-Makes food edible by anyone. In ultimate, MrG&W will make 3 apples.
8-Freezes, like the freezie item
9-Holy Saviour, KOs at minimums of 5-10%, even OHKOing super lightweights at 0%

@shyend208 - 5 years ago
I miss the down throw to judge combo, but in utimate Mr GaW jump before using judge

@superkc2557 - 5 years ago (edited)
Game and Watch’s Down Throw combos into short hop nair at low percents and into uair at higher percents. 

Game and watch has a great bair for characters who have a mostly horizontal recovery. You can chain a couple of these together to get easy kills off stage at 60+%.


@Frenblow 4 years ago - An easy way to get max bucket damage is snakes forward smash, samus charge shot, robins fully charged lightning, [Ness's pk flash/pk freeze/pk thunder pk fire whatever] and basically any other high damage non physical projectiles. [Max bucket can often kill at zero, if close enuf to ledge. ]

@breadbug6101 -4 years ago - Mr Game and Watch has invincibility on his up smash from frames 4 to 26 everywhere except for the space underneath his helmet when the move ends

UP SMASH - game8.co says still as of today 4-30-2024, intangibility on some of it. 

UP SMASH - @endermage77 - 5 years ago -Up smash gives G&W complete invincibility from the instant the attack starts being able to hit until the end of the animation. -- Previously [was better] it made G&W invincible in the startup lag before the hit. This is a very bad nerf to his anti-air capabilities.

@Redeem_Honor -5 years ago

One thing I would like to note about Judge in this game is that they reverted his number cycle back to the way it worked in Melee and Brawl. Whenever you swing your hammer, you are guaranteed to not get the last number you got. For example, I believe G&W starts the match with the number 1 being his last number. The game thinks that was his last number when starting the match. Therefore, your first Judge number must be between 2 and 9. Let's just say he swings his hammer and gets a 9. The next number that appears must be between 1 and 8 and cannot be 9. 

JUDGE CORRECTION @crystalbuck6721 - 1 year ago
Another important thing to remember about hammer values: the last two values are stored, meaning you can’t get the last two values you played. At the beginning of the match, they’re set to one and two- if I remember correctly, anyway :)

 

@niconicer6463 - 3 years ago- You do know mr game and watch has the strongest down tilt in kill percent right? 

@Bobby-dv7fj -5yrs ago -you use neutral b once to use a side b and prevent them from dodging it

Supermove (final smash) - spam A and B to extend tentacles. Mr. Game & Watch turns into a giant octopus, charging forward and grabbing opponents and carrying them toward the blast zone. Mashing A or B extends its tentacles, and it can be moved upward or downward. Each tentacle deals damage when coming into contact with an opponent.

@MothBoo -5 yrs ago (edit)--- grab + down throw + up B + down spike = a lotta damage combo.

@dylzz1742 --3 years ago (edited) --i know no one cares but i just found out you can combo up tilt + fair + nair i hope this helps :)

@endermage77- 5 years ago- Tip for Neutral-B [chef] offstage camping: You ideally want to be about a roll away from the edge for maximum edgegaurding as it will guarantee catching anybody trying to attack or roll or stand out of edge grab

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LEGEND: B-air or Bair = Back-air-attack, Nair is = Neutral-stick-air-attack. Etc. 

Mr. Game & Watch = GnW, G&W, etc. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Speaking of crazy vintage stuff, Eunice and her crazy diving horse around 1905. Ppl sure were not very safe back then, OMG:
  • The daring ride of Mrs. Eunice (Winkless) Padfield, July 4th 1905

Tuesday, April 23, 2024

Ssbu more tips, and archtypes

https://supersmashbros.fandom.com/wiki/Character_Archetypes


 While shielding, jump button then quick att button, it cancels out of shield. 

Shrunken small shield can be moved around. 

Side B can be sent in opposite direction if you quickly change direction.

Cancel a charge w shield. 

Tilt att to pick up item. 

Short hop att less dmg. 

Hold both shield buttons to move big shield around  

D I is shieldstun shuffling via Nintendo tip lingo. 

D I, also when hit  

EDIT: SDI vs DI... DI changes the direction of where you get launched. SDI changes where you launch fromtake the wiki example. SDI allows snake to move his initial launch spot behind falcon.

EDIT: https://www.reddit.com/r/smashbros/comments/bqzon1/can_someone_explain_the_difference_between_di_and/ 

Directional air dodge leaves u more vulnerable than a regular air dodge.


Continuous dodging penalty. Dodge spam and it gets bad. Slower etc.

Teching eh? Shield button when hit wall, floor, or ceiling to “break ur fall”. 

Crouching not launched as far. 

Many EDITs below...

EDIT: And so tilts... by default are gently pressing the right stick (right stick? could they mean left stick), vs. "slamming" the stick is default to a smash attack. So with our controller scheme, we just set the right stick to only be tilt attacks, and we rely on a left stick tap+button to get a smash. .... quote from @Choctopus to _ GeckoGaming _ Tilts are when you just tilt your control stick to attack as opposed to smashing the control stick.

EDIT: Wavedashing and Wavelanding – In Melee, the second game in the series, the physics engine allowed characters to slide across the ground by immediately airdodging in a diagonal-down direction. This is called wavedashing, with wavelanding referring to sliding on the ground at the end of a normal jump. This is back in Ultimate, but with reduced effectiveness.

??? Jab reset – When someone is knocked onto the ground, a jab (or other small, quick move) will force them onto their feet and leave them open to more attacks. (((??? how's this relate to the jab lock... testing, now jab lock stands you up after 2 hits so... how's jab reset work?)))


Monday, April 22, 2024

SSBU, more stats summaries- Fall, Run, Dash, Hop/Jump speeds

  • Gravity means how fast you accelerate to your max fall speed. 
  • Fast Fall - Fox falls super fast and Gravity is super high, meaning he gets to his max fall speed ASAP. Fast Fall is probably one of the most important things in the game (that I barely ever use still, need to train myself... it should be your default option). 
    • Fox
    • Little Mac
    • King Dedede
    • Joker
    • Mii Brawler
    • Link
    • Mythra
    • Captain Falcon
  • Slow Fall/Gravity - Game&Watch is slow and floaty on falls, but not the slowest. Jigglypuff, Kirby, Sora, etc. are all slow Gravity. Daisy and Peach and Jiggly and Kirby are all slow fall anyway. They are all slow. 
  • Short hop duration
    • Fox is super fast again, like almost 5 times faster than slowest one
    • Surprise: Kazuya has the fastest land from full hop, faster than Fox. Kazuya is pretty darn quick to land from short hop also. Steve, Ken, Ryu are also quick to land from short hops. 
    • Samus, Luigi, Sora, Rosalina are slowest to land. 
    • Surprise: you can fast fall from a short hop. Yep. 
    • Some big heavies with shorter hops have pretty quick fall durations. 
  • Weights
    • Surprise on who is heavier than Ridley:
      • Terry, heavier by 1
      • Bowser Jr., Samus, Piranha plant
      • And Kazuya by 6... Kazuya is the 8th heaviest in the game! Weird? 
    • Sonic 86 -  is pretty light at 86 weight. For comparison: 
      • Pichu 62 (lightest)
      • Fox 77
      • Greninja 88
      • Mii Brawler 94
      • R.O.B. and Snake 106
      • Ridley 107
      • Bowser 135 (heaviest)
  • Walk Speed
    • Fastest left to right is Lucina, Marth, Fox, Greninja, Zero suit, Sheik, Sonic, Mythra, Little Mac, Donk Kong, etc. 
    • Slowest at far right of this list is - xxxxx
  • Run Speed, fastest at top
    • Sonic by a LOT, 3.85
    • Captn Falcon, 2.552 is 2nd fastest
    • Little Mac
    • Sheik
    • ... 1.7 is probably avg
    • Skipping many... Slowest at bottom
    • Ganon
    • Giggly
    • ROB
    • 1.18 Incineroar is slowest
  • Dash is different though, interesting. Dash frames + Pivot Dash Frames. 
    • Surprise:  Mr. Game & Watch is quick like #3 on shortest numbers, at 8 and 10. 
    • Sonic is very avg, at 10 and 12. 
      • B/c 10 & 12 are the most common Dash/PivotDash frames for like over half the cast. 
    • (Note, most of the normal gals are slow, not any Samus tho)
    • All equally slow: Captn Falc, LittleMac, Donk Kong, Wii Fit, Rosalina, Peach, Daisy, Zelda, Ganon, Robin. 
  • Neutral Air Dodges - wrong numbers on site for TOTAL????
    • Make no sense on that site... Sort Sort Sort, GigglyPuff's numbers don't add up. Are Heavies are best(?) slower start but last forever. 
  • Forward and Backwards Roll - also weird on the site.
    • Is longest intangible best or does it depend?
    • Samus is longest.
    • Ridley close to Samus.
    • Fox, Sonic and other fast ones are much shorter by about 25% . 
      • Backwards 14 or 15 for quick guys, vs 19 or 20 for long intangibility folks like Samus and Ridley. 
      • Fowards 12 or 14 for quick guys, 16 or 18 for longer intang' folks like Samus and Ridley. 
  • Spot Dodges
    • Mythra weirdly longer lasting than anybody by alot, 21
    • Ridley 18 (2nd longest tied w/ eight or so others)
    • avg is 17
    • quick guy Fox is 14, Sonic is 16
  • Grab Range !!!! Interesting
    • Samus super long beam at 42.2
    • Olimar 35.x (for some, 20something for others pikmen)
    • Steve 31.9, what?!
    • Donk Kong 19.5, nice. Remember his fast walk speed (does it matter... always dashing?). 
    • Greninja, Bowser Jr. are 18.x, nice.
    • ROB avg at 14.4
    • Game&Watch 12.5, poor range. 
    • Sonice, 12 ... b/c he's so fast eh? 
    • Fox 11, nearly shortest. B/c he's so fast on ground, eh? 
    • Hero then Ice Climbers worst. 

https://ultimateframedata.com/stats


Saturday, April 20, 2024

SSBU short hop w both jump buttons?!?!

 You can press jump+jump to short hop, omg! 

https://blog.hyperx.com/article/7580/how-to-short-hop-in-super-smash-bros-ultimate

Sonic a-hoppin'. BTW, Sonic has a pose in the movie taken from SSBU (trailer or something). 

EDIT: Tried this out over the weekend, yeah this is huge for me. Makes short hops possible, like probably 100% accuracy if I remember to use it. Just need to get used to moving my thumb around to hit two buttons then then the correct attack button, etc. 

Already knew about pressing jump+attack at the same time to get a short hop with the attack at the top of the hop, but using 2 jump buttons to short hop then timing your attack on the way down is very very important in this game. Huge for Game&Watch, probably huge for most of the cast. 

Super Smash Brothers Ultimate just became playable for me I think. 

Framedata and Stats: https://ultimateframedata.com/stats

And look at these cool charts for jump height, short hop, normal hop, etc. Gotta find jump speed next (Game&Watch floats, while Fox jumps up and comes down super quick... do to Gravity and Fall speed... so gravity is just how fast you accelerate to your final fall speed, Fox is nuts there on both) https://www.ssbwiki.com/Jump

So Falco and Greninja jump super high, followed by some like ZerosuitSamus and Luigi.

At the bottom, Steve and others have a tiny jump. 

RankCharacterFull HopInitial HeightShort HopAir JumpCombined Jump Height
78TerryHeadSSBU.png Terry2714.8515.22956
79BylethHeadSSBU.png Byleth26.514.5751428.555
80PyraHeadSSBU.png Pyra26.314.72815.22955.3
81-83RyuHeadSSBU.png Ryu2614.31529.555.5
KenHeadSSBU.png Ken
LittleMacHeadSSBU.png Little Mac12.532652
84GanondorfHeadSSBU.png Ganondorf25.4914.019512.242651.49
85KirbyHeadSSBU.png Kirby25.3713.953512.2421.06378125105.0616094
86SnakeHeadSSBU.png Snake21.6211.89113.6934.0755.69
87JigglypuffHeadSSBU.png Jigglypuff19.7910.884511.2624.865587118.232559
88KazuyaHeadSSBU.png Kazuya189.9124967
89Steve's stock icon. Steve16.59.0751022.539

Monday, April 15, 2024

Smash Brothers Ultimate - Tier Lists and Tournament Results and Public Opinions - EDIT 4-16-24, etc.

 So I'm still a newb at SSBU, but I'm not a stranger to competitive gaming or pro-gaming or balance between characters (Fighting games)/races (Starcraft)/etc. And with my kid being so good at SSBU, I am very much curious about how things play out and what the louder opinions seem to be about the balance of SSBU at high level play, like in tournaments. 

https://game8.co/games/SSBU/archives/280897  tierlist but with tweaks based on a few observations of the kid. And the Luigi thing is my guess based on some tournies recently. 


Besides a tourney power tier list, we eventually need a tierlist for fun characters to fight against... as in, which characters sort of ruin the game (Steve is agreed upon by many I hear). 

The kid tells me how extremely diverse the tournament results are, and that is very promising to me. For example look here:

https://liquipedia.net/smash/Major_Tournaments/Ultimate


Tourney Power Tier List, mostly

I'm about to go through the ones [tournies] in 2024 in detail, sticking to 1v1 (not doubles) for almost everything, but so far I see a ton of diversity like:

Snake - weird and annoying explosions

Yoshi

Mr. Game & Watch - has a ton of cheese power at low to medium-high levels, wins tournies at high levels. I love this character so far as a lowbie player. 

  • UPDATE 4-16-24: The kid says the worst matchup for Donkey Kong is this character (although, more fun to play against than Samus or some of the turtley, campy, runaway projectile types). 
  • Other observations from casual play by me, 2v2 including the kid, and watching tournament play: 
    • Fastest(?) out of shield up+B move. 
    • Great mind games/tricky traps with guarding ledge using spammy B (the pan tossing meat and fish). 
    • Floats/has air movement similar to Wario I think, where you can jump attack and then back out. 
    • Has great unpredictability using small jumps and bombs (towards-Air or fowards-Air, whatever ppl call it) and back-air and neutral-air attacks. 
    • B-air and N-air have great hitbox to hurtbox ratio, they stay active forever. 
    • Noticing his down-air key attack is better than Sonics, aimable, non-commital, can kill (Sonic's can kill), safe off side of map b/c you can up-B and get back on ledge, which is HUGE. 
    • Cheese includes the random #9 Sign instant death (towards+B) and the down smash stuck into ground side smash semi-guaranteed(?) kill. 
    • Up-B is basically safe because you can float down and do whatever attacks you want after. 
    • His up air is great at juggling b/c it hits forever and hits so far up, very safe feeling. 
    • His neutral-air is also great at juggling. 
    • N-air is also great at hitting two players in 2v2. 
  • Weakness is being light and dying easily.
  • Weaknesses at my lowbie level of play are:
    • Short opponents... I can barely hit them while quick jump+air attacks, b/c I'm hitting jump+attack at the same time.  
    • Extremely hard to small-jump into n-air attack on the way down. This is the only way to hit short opponents, pressing jump+attack at the same time will whiff. 
    • Hard for me to jump forward while activating back-air. B-air, the sea turtle, is such an excellent move... but you need to be able to use it while moving forward in the air. Probably true for half the cast though. 
    • UPDATE 4-19-24: He is not great at chasing down little runaway characters like Megaman. Fairly frustrating due to no real range on any attacks. 


Samus - keepaway God-tier (?), destroys low tier big bodies at all levels probably. Sort of breaks the game in being unfun to play against if you are a big body it sounds like. 

Luigi - UPDATE 4-16-24, wow, this guy has a ton of instant kill combos (zero to death in SSBU terminology). That alone makes him tourney viable... what the heck. Apparently Kazuya is similar in this vein, says the kid who plays big characters. 

Daisy - powerful, hard to master

Sonic - crazy fast, somewhat powerful, hard to master. The kid doubts he's S tier like the newer rankings are claiming. Also a personal fav of mine, although the reputation of runaway games by player Sonix is perplexing/worrying for public opinion. I typically hate keepaway (runaway or camping or super defensive) play, but when I see actual games, nothing stands out as a problem to me. Sonic cannot kill easily without a ton of work, in head-on fights he is fairly bad, so it makes sense to be cautious in some games. I would prefer offensive play to win 90% of fights though so I am torn. EDIT: After playing Mr. Game&Watch a while, I went back to Sonic to chase down annoying runaway characters. But Mr. Game&Watch is much better in 2v2 games so far. 

Cloud - "Best Western Player" Sparg0 uses him to great effect. With new eyes, this character looks just very solid and easy to use at low levels... and apparently ramps up in greatness if you master the game. With so very many characters, this is probably the right character for newcomers to learn if they want to eventually get serious with the game. On the negative side, you hope this character doesn't somehow dominate the scene... insane reach, great anti-airs, hard hits, scary (convenient) power up. But I will say as a newb, I can't recover with this guy to save my life... time to learn. 

Corrin - ? Sparg0 used this character in one tourney at least some, I know nothing about it. 

Steve - the epitome of weird keepaway play. The vast majority of SSBU players seem to hate this guy, and he is sometimes banned in the west apparently. Japan's "best player in the world" uses him. Ouch. Destroys big bodied characters apparently, and gives tons of players problems as you are stuck playing his game which isn't really a fight in the sense of the word. 

Min Min - super keepaway, destroys the big body characters apparently. 

Mario - interesting, keeping an eye on him. 

Pyra and Mythra - another sword character and apparently top tier. A ton of pro-ish players use this character as a backup if not a main. 

Roy - sword eh? 

Bayonetta - ?

Megaman - keepaway

Joker

Byleth

Fox

R.O.B. - what's the story here, get a cheese vibe, but is it true? 

Ryu - out of Japan, this is news, huh? 

Kazuya - some people say he needs to be banned. Apparently the one saving grace is the trickery with getting out of his combos by flicking the stick left and right (etc.) to confuse the Kazuya who is looking for the blue trajectory lines mid-combo. See Riddle's explanation on how. UPDATE: Riddles posted more "how to counter my character" videos. Chunky Kong (using Donkey Kong) took a few games off Riddles, but probably lost more than won during casual play. Kazuya's combos are sick damage... hits as hard as any super heavy, but can get super damage off starting with a crouch jab which might be broken (I definitely don't know enough to know). 

Diddy Kong

Greninja - fast fast

Wario - weird combo guy

Sora - I hear top tier. 

Mii Brawler

Mii Sword 

Incineroar - Skyjay has some great results for a difficult class, the heavy. Incineroar is apparently the smallest of the heavies, and has a lot of weird unique things that make him scary. A couple of good reads and you can win. It seems like SSBU is very very heavy on reading your opponent. 

Lucina

And the list goes on.


So with such a huge, monstrous roster, I guess you'd hope there'd be more diversity in tournament wins, and we see this at least this late into the game's history... five years since release. It is interesting to come in so late with my old school perspective. 

A Unique Fighting Game

Tell you what, the game is so opposite other traditional fighters it is weird. What do I mean? 

- I always want to hold a direction before I come out of an attack or before I get hit or whatever to block. Well, good ole MK style button is blocking so that's still weird to me. And holding a direction before you come out of a hit or jump or whatever just causes you to enter "Walk Slow Mode" and "Tilt attack mode" which is funky as hell for me. Got to unlearn ancient habits. 

- Beating the crap out of the enemy doesn't always mean you will win. This is what made me think this game was less skill-based in my old biased view years ago. But seeing how far this game has come, I realize it is very skill-based, just different. The "getting the kill" with a hard-hit or keeping them off the ledge is a huge huge part of the game, but it's a highlight. The damage you do leading up to it still matters in most cases. 

    -- Kazuya, Mr. Game & Watch, and a few others probably are notable exceptions to this rule. They hit like heavies, but don't have all the same disadvantages as the traditional heavies. UPDATE: Exceptions probably include the touch of death, zero to kill, type combos. I've seen Luigi and some others with these powers... got to keep an eye on them. UPDATE: the DLC money making strategy sadly seems to make DLC characters much more potent. Nintendo thinking with the dollar signs instead of pure fairness for a competitive game, that bothers me. 


Tuesday, April 9, 2024

1990 First Album Mystery Band??? My God, a ton of interesting bands that year.

 Somebody on the radio channel I listen to, this month, said that before the Cranberries, but similar to the Cranberries, a band put out a debut album in 1990, and it was pretty darn good. Also hinted they were less well known. 

Who the heck is it? 

Cranberries out of Ireland

The Breeders: part Pixies, Part Throwing Muses (Belly)

Can't be the obvious Breeders debut Pod in 1990. Too easy, too well known. So who then? 

Don't tell me I have to comb through this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:1990_debut_albums

Surely it can't be:

Ani DiFranco, Tone Dogs (related to Soundgarden drummer), The Lightning Seeds (forgot about them), Boss Hog (see wikip, sound insane but I like the name and album name "Brood X" a cicada reference around 2016),  

JELLYFISH ?, 

Teenage Fanclub? - Scottish pop rock. 

The Heart Throbs? - British indie rock

Pale Saints - British alt rock shoegaze

Cop Shoot Cop - cult following, MTV etc., Industrial and Noise. Hmmm.

The Servants - Disinterest album, Brit, Mojo chart puts top of best indie albums ever. Why the heck not on Spotify? 

The Grid - electronic Brit, still making music

Energy Orchard - N. Ireland - folk and punk

Breakfast With Amy - Influenced by early U2 and Echo and the Bunnymen

The Divine Comedy - still making music, N. Irish, rock + strings + horns

Cherry Poppin Daddies - remember them? Still touring.

Eden (Australian Band) - some goth and synth from Australia? Lots of albums. 

Ween - the goofy nutters. Didn't know they had a DemonGod mascot called Boognish. And why is their 2nd album called "The Pod" a year after Breeders' had "Pod". On purpose you know it. 

The Jesus Lizard - Noise rock, apparently first two albums are something.

Tribe - Alt rock. from Boston. Also interesting a few of these have a "debut in 1990", but then in another place it has a debut album in the late 1980s.

Hindu Love Gods - R.E.M. side project ppl.

Power of Dreams - Irish pop rock, still active.

Eyehategod - New orleans Sludge Metal. They know Pantera right? 

No Use for a Name - punk band.

Winter - doom metal. And this label, Southern Lords, has this funny picture of Greg Anderson and Sunn o, two guys dressed up like mages with their hoods up playing music. Like the look. 



The La's - English rock. So... the funky apostrophe that confuses the world over all normal apostrophes appears here. 

Warrior Soul - still active. Somebody compared them to Nirvana, but not nihilistic. Hmm. 

Vic Chestnut - R.E.M. Stipe found him, promoted. Fugazi guy apparently admired. Paralyzed.

His Name is Alive - some experimental guitar(?) guy, gets new singers all the time. 

Red Rockers - old punk ->new wave band from nola, members then joined other bands. 
Raindogs - Celtic + rock. Made up of partially Red Rockers. (Holy cow, Spotify has every RainDogs combo but these dudes). 
Silly Wizard - folk band from Scotland. 

Ass Ponys - alternative country. Country rock. OK. 

Lightwave - ambient and electronic.

Christina Agular - Thai singer, not the other one. First Thai singer to have a plat album or something. 

Anything Box - Synth band. 



Learned this from wikipedia:

0.1 Cenobite is a religious title or something similar. 

0.2 Cenobita is a Mexican industrial band, influenced by Skinny Puppy and Front Line Assembly. 

1. Noise Rock, uses guitar distortions, etc. for percussion and such. 

2. Soundgarden was influenced by Butthole Surfers?!

3. Butthole Surfers, the 2 main dudes, were an accountant and an MBA student. What?

4. Technical Death Metal, is a genre of music. They have one great album art for Nocturnus, The Key:


"While noise rock has never had any mainstream popularity, the raw, distorted and feedback-intensive sound of some noise rock bands had an influence on shoegaze, which enjoyed some popularity in the 90s, especially in the UK, and grunge, the most commercially successful. Among them are Wisconsin's Killdozer, Chicago's Big Black, and most notably San Francisco's Flipper, a band known for its slowed-down and murky "noise punk". The Butthole Surfers' mix of punk, heavy metal and noise rock was a major influence, particularly on the early work of Soundgarden.[18]"