Duck Hunt (SSBU): Difference between revisions

Duck Hunt are a duo that fight collectively as if they were a single character, much like {{SSBU|Banjo & Kazooie}}. They are lightweights, and specifically weigh as much as {{SSBU|Sonic}}, which places them among the bottom 20 in that category. Duck Hunt also have below-average height, above-average [[walk]]ing/[[dash]]ing speeds (being the 25th and 36th fastest, respectively), a slow [[initial dash]] (tied for the 12th slowest with {{SSBU|Incineroar}}, {{SSBU|Snake}}, {{SSBU|Bowser Jr.}}, and {{SSBU|Ryu}}), low [[traction]] (the 15th lowest), above-average [[air speed]] (tied for the 20th fastest with {{SSBU|Bowser}},  {{SSBU|Sheik}}, {{SSBU|Lucas}}, and {{SSBU|Mega Man}}), average [[air acceleration]] and [[falling speed]], and low [[gravity]] (the 14th lowest). Duck Hunt can also crawl and wall jump. These traits make Duck Hunt a character who, while lacking strong burst movement on the ground due to their slow dash, does a good job at maintaining aerial presence with their air speed and fairly high jumps. Collectively speaking, their overall mobility is average.

Due to having three unique projectiles for special moves, Duck Hunt excel in zoning and stage control with an emphasis on setups. [[Trick Shot]] generates a tin can that explodes on contact, and the fact that it can be maneuvered by the player with a press of the special button makes it a key component of Duck Hunt's pressure, setups, and stage control. Additionally, the fact that the can is generated on frame 1 gives it utility as a combo breaker. [[Clay Shooting]] involves throwing a clay pigeon that can be detonated with a press of the special button. It not only has use as a zoning tool, but it also functions as Duck Hunt's most potent combo starter, as the fact that they can act out of the move before it detonates allows them to chain the move into itself, aerials, or a combination of the two. [[Wild Gunman]] summons a gunman that shoots from their respective gun after a delay. This further supplements their zoning and setup-centered playstyle, since they can act out of the move before the gunshot. In addition, the gunmen possess their own hurtboxes, giving it occasional use for blocking attacks.

Duck Hunt's air game also has decent utility courtesy of their good air speed. Back aerial is a fast and powerful finisher that comes out at frame 7 and KOs middleweights as early as 120% from the edge of Final Destination, making it even deadlier in the context of [[edgeguarding]]. Neutral aerial also compliments their edgeguarding abilities, as it comes out fast at frame 6 and has lingering hitboxes that make it useful for gimps while the strong hit also functions as a passable KO move, KOing middleweights at 135% from the edge of Final Destination. Finally, up air is a good vertical finisher that starts KOing middleweights at around 135% near the blast zone, plus it comes out fast at frame 6 and has a decent amount of active frames.

Unfortunately, Duck Hunt's main weakness is that, outside of some of their aerials, the aspects of their kit that don't revolve around their versatile projectiles are rather lackluster. For example, while their aerials are undeniably the best parts of their kit outside of their special moveset, some aren't without their flaws. Although forward aerial is fairly fast at frame 7 and has decent [[range]], it has atrocious KO power; even with the sweetspot, the move doesn't start KOing middleweights until around 180% from the edge of Final Destination, and the fact that the move has sourspots adds a layer of inconsistency to its already poor KO power. In addition, down aerial has some inconsistencies of its own, as while it is a decent spike on paper, the two hits don't always connect into each other. Duck Hunt's endurance also leaves more to be desired due to their low weight and exploitable [[recovery]]; while [[Duck Jump]] covers good horizontal and vertical distance, its unremarkable speed and lack of protection make it prone to edge guards. While their recovery fares better than in ''SSB4'' due to it being able to be canceled into attacks and air dodges, the fact that Duck Hunt can only cancel their recovery 50 frames later still makes it fairly exploitable.

However, the flaws of other aspects of Duck Hunt's kit are most apparent in their ground game, as their grounded normals are mediocre at best and well below average at worst. While their rapid jab is a good damage racking option, neither it nor the standard jab start KOing middleweights until 190%. Forward tilt, while being disjointed and having passable startup at frame 8, lacks range in comparison to other disjoints and doesn't start KOing middleweights until 150%. Up tilt, while in theory being a frame 7 combo starter into neutral and up aerial at low and mid percentages, isn't that consistent in practice due to the fact that its narrow hitbox struggles to hit grounded opponents even at point blank range. Even down tilt, which is among their best grounded moves due to being their fastest grounded poke (at frame 6) and being capable of starting tech chases, suffers from being an even worse disjoint than forward tilt in terms of both range and KO power.

While the aforementioned moves are simply mediocre, the same cannot be said for their dash attack, a move that is genuinely below average; it has slow startup at frame 10 while also having abysmal KO power, as it is unable to KO middleweights past 200%. On top of having slow startup, Duck Hunt's poor initial dash further hinders its use as a burst option, a role that dash attacks are generally meant to fulfill. Duck Hunt's smash attacks don't do their ground game many favors either, as while they have good KO power and are disjointed for utilizing the NES Zapper, their startup is rather subpar and they have awkward hitboxes that prevent all the hits from connecting at times. Their grab game is also a contributor to their less than stellar strength on the ground; their standing and pivot grabs have deceptively good range, but the reward they get from a grab leaves more to be desired due to none of their throws leading to consistent combos or KOing at reasonable percentages.

Overall, Duck Hunt excel at controlling the neutral by simultaneously controlling both the duo and their assortment of projectiles in order to generate setups, frame traps, and pressure whether the opponent is onstage, at ledge, or offstage while their good air mobility and fair share of fast aerials also give them a slight emphasis on offstage edgeguards. In exchange for these strengths, they have a notable lack of flexibility in other aspects of their kit due to their overall average recovery and ground game, meaning they have to be more reliant on crafty use of their projectiles in order to get things going compared to other zoners.

Duck Hunt's notoriously inconsistent KO potential has been improved in many ways; their infamously unreliable smash attacks now connect much more reliably (though there are rare instances where their final hits may still fail to connect), while their forward tilt is now a situational KO option thanks to its much higher base knockback. [[Trick Shot]], whose cans were already a powerful, versatile projectile, also KOs much earlier, and all [[Wild Gunman|Wild Gunmen]] deal more damage with no knockback compensation and now possess some degree of KO potential, especially the leader and the sombrero gunman. Aside from their buffs to power, the duo's special moves have all seen miscellaneous improvements; Trick Shot's cans travel further, the move has less endlag, and cans can now be hit in midair, all of which improve its utility. [[Clay Shooting]] has less ending lag and the pigeons now explode into shrapnel that deals damage in many directions, increasing its effective range and forcing opponents to stay in place if they get hit, which make it an excellent combo tool. [[Duck Jump]] now allows the duo to act out of it after at least 50 frames with any action; when coupled with the reintroduction of directional air dodges, these changes somewhat improve the safety of their vulnerable recovery. Finally, Wild Gunman has less ending lag, all gunmen fire faster, and the defeated gunmen each maintain a hurtbox that allow Duck Hunt to use them to block incoming attacks.

While receiving predominantly more buffs, Duck Hunt is not without a few noticeable nerfs. Most prominently, the duo is lighter, which further worsens their already poor endurance. Some of their aerials have also been worsened; clean neutral aerial's deals less knockback, which while improving its combo potential, noticeably reduces its KO power. Forward aerial has a slightly shorter duration, and down aerial no longer auto-cancels with a short hop. The shrapnel left by Clay Shooting's pigeons can now damage Duck Hunt if it's destroyed by the opponent, and its tweaked properties make it harder to destroy, causing it to lose some of its setups into Trick Shot; as well, Trick Shot's higher power, while making it a more reliable projectile, make it a far riskier option to escape pressure. The dog's grabs also have less range, making it harder for them to grab opponents despite their standing and dash grabs' faster startup.

However, Duck Hunt's biggest hindrances come from the gameplay mechanic changes, which have hurt them more than most other characters. On one hand, the nerfs to rage don't affect the duo as much as other characters due to their move's higher consistency at connecting; the universally faster mobility has improved the duo's own, and the universally reduced landing lag on aerials combines well with this change, further improving their combo game. On the other hand, this same increase in mobility means many other veterans now sport much faster mobilities, which combined with the lower landing lag allows them to overcome Duck Hunt and take advantage of the duo's poor disadvantage state, despite Trick Shot's frame 1 generation making it a usable, yet risky escape option. The universal reduction to projectiles' damage further exacerbates the ease for opponents to endure the duo's options. The changes to air dodge mechanics are also mostly detrimental to Duck Hunt, as while the duo can use one to extend their recovery after Duck Jump, the limit to one air dodge per air time (unless hit) makes the duo much easier to read offstage and edgeguard accordingly, forcing them to mix their recovery up more often, which can be risky; they also don't noticeably benefit their own edgeguarding game due to their worsened neutral and forward aerials.   Lastly, the universal weakening of grabs further worsens Duck Hunt's grab game, with the increased ending lag on grabs making them even riskier to throw out and the slower startup on shield grabs out of [[shieldstun]] directly worsening their [[out of shield]] game, forcing Duck Hunt to rely on their aerials more.

All in all, Duck Hunt's playstyle has been improved to possess many more varied options, and their moveset's power makes closing out stocks less of a hassle as before. However, their tools can be more easily taken advantage of and their weaknesses are further defined, with their already unremarkable endurance and disadvantage state being harder to endure, and their out of shield game becoming less reliable due to their worsened nautral aerial and grabs. Of note is that the duo also still retain some of their other weaknesses from ''SSB4'', such as a reliance on setups to KO despite their improved KO potential, and a deficient close-quarters game. ''Ultimate''{{'}}s faster engine further weakens the efficacy of their zoning- and setup-centric playstyle, whose core is mostly intact from ''SSB4'', as the game favors quicker, more aggressive playstyles, making them easier to pressure; the benefits Duck Hunt have received from these gameplay changes also fail to compensate. This forces the duo to shift to a more aggressive playstyle, which while less polarized, is also less effective. Duck Hunt's unimpactful changes from game updates also fail to make up for the universal nerfs to projectiles brought by these updates. Because of these changes, Duck Hunt fares worse in ''Ultimate'' than in ''SSB4''.

Aside from glitch fixes, Duck Hunt have received a mix of buffs and nerfs from game updates. Version 2.0.0 made Trick Shot more safe to use, but also made Clay Shooting less safe, forcing players to prioritize Trick Shot in zoning. Version 3.0.0 impacted Duck Hunt more than a majority of the roster with its universal shield damage nerf to projectiles, though it also made it safer for Duck Hunt to shield its own Trick Shot can. Wild Gunman was also buffed to hit targets more effectively. Version 3.1.0 made up aerial more consistent, allowing easier kills off the top blast zone. Version 7.0.0 gave Duck Hunt the near-universal shield size increase and made neutral attack more consistent. Version 8.0.0 made teching slightly worse as a homogenization effort. Version 10.1.0 made forward smash connect more consistently, significantly increasing its KO potential.

|dashdesc=The dog slides forwards and propel the duck, who performs a peck. It covers a fair amount of distance and its very high base knockback makes it decent at warding off an opponent. However, it has noticeable ending lag. The late hit knocks the opponent over and behind Duck Hunt.

|fsmashdesc=The dog and duck look forward before the {{s|wikipedia|NES Zapper}} fires three shots in front of them while they comically flail around frightened. It is a semi-spike and the longer it is charged, the larger its range becomes. However, its first two hits are unreliable, as their angles and very high knockback growth can occasionally launch opponents too early, and thus allow them to evade its last hit. It is the slowest of Duck Hunt's smashes at frame 17. This move can be angled.

|bairname=Rear Duck Shoot ({{ja|後方ダックシュート|Kōhō Dakku Shūto}})

|bthrowname=Back Bow-Wow Throw ({{ja|後ろワンワン投げ|Ushiro Wanwan Nage}}, ''Behind Bow-Wow Throw'')

|bthrowdesc=The dog spins around to throw the opponent. It is Duck Hunt's most damaging throw, but has lower knockback than forward throw, failing to KO Mario below 200% from the edge of Final Destination, and is mostly useful for setting up edgeguards or throwing opponents into Trick Shot.

|nsdesc=The dog kicks away a tin can from the ''Hogan's Alley'' game mode of the same name. The can is explosive and subsequent neutral special button presses cause the NES Zapper to shoot the can forward. After 9 button presses, the can starts to emit smoke and will then explode. The can is also capable of being manipulated by the dog and duck's attacks, with its tilt attacks being especially useful in this regard. However, this also applies to the opponent's attacks. Overall, it is Duck Hunt's most versatile projectile, and their most useful edge-guarding option. It is active starting on frame 1, making it useful for interrupting combos, though the explosion can also damage Duck Hunt. Although its explosion has very high knockback growth, it lacks KO potential out of edge-guarding because of its average damage output and low base knockback.

Duck Hunt NA Announcer SSB4-SSBU.wav|North American/Japanese/Chinese

Duck Hunt EU Announcer SSB4-SSBU.wav|European

*'''Right:''' Summons a Wild Gunman to shoot to the left, then another one to shoot to the right. He then continuously holds the pose used to summon them. The Wild Gunmen don't appear in Team Battles.

*{{Sm|embo_z|USA}} - First coming to prominence in 2022, he placed 2nd at {{Trn|GrandSlam 7}} while taking a set over {{Sm|Big D}}. Since then embo_z has quickly become the best Duck Hunt player in the United States, notably placing 13th at {{Trn|Major Upset}} and 33rd at {{Trn|Port Priority 8}} while taking a set over {{Sm|BassMage}}.

*{{Sm|Jagabata|Japan}} - Jagabata began competing offline in 2021. Since then Jagabata has built a reputation for upsetting top players, including defeating {{Sm|Yoshidora}} at {{Trn|Sumabato SP 24}}, {{Sm|Kaninabe}} at {{Trn|Sumabato SP 40}} and {{Sm|MuteAce}} at {{Trn|Maesuma TOP 12}}. As a result of their strong performances and wins, Jagabata became first Duck Hunt player since Raito to be on a full year global ranking, being ranked 146th on [[LumiRank 2023]].

*{{Sm|Raito|Japan}} - The best Duck Hunt player of all time, Raito has achieved far greater success at the national level then any other Duck Hunt player. His greatest success came in 2019 and 2020 when he regularly placed in the top 8 of some of the most notable events at the time, including 3rd at {{Trn|Umebura Japan Major 2019}} and 5th at {{Trn|EVO 2019}}. While they have been less successful in the post-pandemic metagame, he continues to achieve the occasional strong result, such as placing 9th at {{Trn|Kagaribi 5}} or 13th at {{Trn|KOWLOON 5}}. To date Raito is the highest ranking Duck Hunt player on a global ranking, being 17th on the [[Fall 2019 PGRU]].  

*{{Sm|SkWiirrel|Austria}} - The best Duck Hunt player in Europe for the entirety of Ultimate, SkWiirrel has had consistently put up reasonably strong regional and national performances. He placed 9th at superregional {{Trn|Tech Republic VII}} with a set over {{Sm|Neeroz}}, and 25th at major {{Trn|Temple: Hermès Edition}} with a set over {{Sm|RyuKai}}.

*{{Sm|Wisdom|USA}} - One of the best Duck Hunt players in the United States in the early metagame. Placed 5th at {{Trn|Paradigm Shift 2019}} with a win over {{Sm|Dark Wizzy}} and 7th at {{Trn|Standoff 2019}} while defeating {{Sm|Fatality}}. While Wisdom has not seen the same level of success since the early metagame, he continue to place well regionally.

Even with this success, Raito's performances remained noticeably more inconsistent when compared to his performances in ''[[Smash 4]]'', and following the early metagame his results gradually became worse. As such, as time went on Duck Hunt's relevance in the metagame also declined despite efforts from dedicated mains at a regional level such as {{Sm|embo_z}}, {{Sm|Sekai Doggo}}, and {{Sm|SkWiirrel}}. A few Duck Hunt players were able to put up impressive performances from time to time, including Sekai Doggo winning {{Trn|Ultra Hard}}, {{Sm|Jagabata}} defeating {{Sm|MuteAce}} at {{Trn|Maesuma TOP 12}}, and {{Sm|mzk}} placing 7th {{Trn|Maesuma'GRAND WARS}}, the latter performance making mzk the only other Duck Hunt player to place top 8 at a major. However, their overall performances still pale in comparison to Raito's peak, and as Duck Hunt's worst flaws --  their mediocre KO potential and below-average ground game -- remained mostly unaddressed, most players agree that the duo were outclassed by other characters of a similar archetype who have more flexibility in parts of their kits that don't revolve around their projectiles. This is reflected in their tier list placements, where the duo were ranked 67th in the C- tier as a low-mid tier character on the first list, then rose slightly to 65th on the second list, albeit remaining in the C- tier.

Duck Hunt's opponents are animals, or in the case of the {{SSBU|Mii Fighter}}s, humans wearing animal costumes. All the stages are grass and nature-themed stages, except for round 6, which instead references Duck Hunt being a dog like the Nintendogs. Due to being an animal, [[Rathalos]] also fits this theme and is fought as the final boss of their route.

**They are also the only characters to face all of the {{uv|Donkey Kong}} fighters in their route, albeit in different Rounds.

*There's a graphical error with Duck Hunt's [[on-screen appearance]] when done facing the left. The smoke effects appear behind the 8-bit grass instead of in front of it.

*In European Spanish, European French, German, and Italian, the name tag and voice clip from the [[Announcer]] on the victory screen is slightly different from the one used on the character select screen. Instead, a noticeable translation of "the" is featured ('''el''' Dúo Duck Hunt, '''le''' Duo Duck Hunt, '''das''' Duck Hunt Duo, '''il''' Duo Duck Hunt). This trait is shared with {{SSBU|Wii Fit Trainer}}, {{SSBU|Pokémon Trainer}}, {{SSBU|Villager}}, {{SSBU|Ice Climbers}}, {{SSBU|Inkling}}, {{SSBU|Hero}}, and the {{SSBU|Mii Fighter}}s. Additionally, Duck Hunt and {{SSBU|King Dedede}} are the only fighters to have this trait in the European versions, but not in the American version.

*Duck Hunt, the Ice Climbers, {{SSBU|Daisy}}, {{SSBU|Ken}}, {{SSBU|R.O.B.}} and {{SSBU|Cloud}} are the only non-DLC characters who do not appear in more than one spirit battle from their respective home universes. {{SSBU|Dr. Mario}} does not appear in any {{uv|Mario}} universe spirit battles at all. This is not counting Olimar, who appears only in Mockiwi spirit battle as himself, but is fought in other spirit battles with Alph taking his place.

*Unlike in ''SSB4'', the duck does not blink in any animations that the dog does. This is similar to a situation in ''SSB4'' where R.O.B. does not emote in the Wii U version's Versus Mode.

**While it does seems odd that the duck doesn't blink while the dog does, it's actually not an error because ducks in real life do not blink. Instead, their eyes stayed lubricated with their third eyelid, which is called the nictitating membrane.

**However, if Duck Hunt are trapped in a bind pose, the duck can be seen blinking.

*Unlike other Sound Tests with multiple characters in them (such as Popo & Nana, Pikmin & Winged Pikmin, and Banjo & Kazooie), Duck Hunt's voice clips are not split between the dog and duck, nor are their clips given specific designations. The Sound Test first lists the dog's four barking clips, followed by the duck's two quacking clips, followed by the dog's star KO voice clip.