Charizard (PM)

Charizard in Project M and Project+
Universe	Pokémon
Base game appearance	Brawl
Moveset inspiration	Charizard (SSBB)
Alternate costume	Armored Charizard

Charizard's Red Army Costume (from Lucario and the Mystery of Mew) in Project M 3.5

Charizard is a playable character in the Brawl mod Project M. It has been separated from the Pokémon Trainer and so fights alone. Charizard was heavily buffed from Brawl, gaining stronger, quicker, and generally more useful moves.

Changes from Brawl to PM

Charizard edge-guarding with its new side special, Heat Wave.

Charizard has been noticeably buffed from Brawl to PM, while also receiving many new moves and changes. Like Squirtle and Ivysaur, Charizard is now a separate character from the Pokémon Trainer, no longer using a Stamina system nor having different resistances against grass and water based moves. Pokémon Trainer is completely absent, no longer appearing during battles nor victory poses.

Aesthetics

• New on-screen appearance: Charizard quickly comes flying from above and lands stomping the ground.
• "Pokémon Trainer petting" victory pose is replaced with another one, where Charizard lazily yawns and takes a nap on the floor in a burly manner; reminiscent of Ash's Charizard in the Pokémon anime, who tended to cease fighting and take naps on serious battles, disobeying all orders (which can also happen in the actual Pokémon games).

Attributes

• Dash attack sends foes horizontally, making it better for knocking foes offstage and increasing overall utility.
• Glide attack is stronger, dealing consecutive hits that sum up to 17% damage (5% more), with strong knockback and a flame effect. It also propels Charizard forward, helping slightly with recovery.
• Stamina mechanic has been removed.
• Glide attack can no longer be used effectively from a very close range, as it is generally easier to escape it with DI, and also due to the forward momentum causing Charizard to cross-up the foe and miss the final hit.

Ground Attacks

• Neutral attack is now its old Jab 3 with a tighter animation, acting as an effective combo starter. It also ends sooner than Charizard's previous neutral attack.
• Forward tilt is now its old down tilt with an altered animation that can be angled and has more reach.
• Down tilt is now its old forward tilt. It has a sourspot which allows for follow-ups and a sweetspot that has more KO potential than Brawl's forward tilt.
• Forward smash consists of a single, stronger hit and also possesses a more horizontal knockback angle, making it much more effective as a KO move. It also has a flaming sweetspot at Charizard's mouth that deals increased knockback.
• Up smash is now faster and connects better.
• Down smash is now a meteor smash, allowing Charizard to follow up better into other attacks when used on grounded opponents.
• Up tilt has less KO potential.
• Down smash does less damage.

Aerial Attacks

• Neutral aerial has a tighter animation, and the hitboxes have slightly more reach and knockback.
• Forward aerial has been replaced with a flaming claw move, which deals higher damage with powerful diagonal knockback, making it good KO move.
• Back aerial now consists of a single strong hit, allowing Charizard to effectively attack from a distance while still inflicting a strong hit with decent KO capacities.
• Up aerial now has a sweetspot at Charizard's teeth, which possesses better KO potential and damage.
• Down aerial has faster start-up and is a stronger meteor.

Grabs and Throws

• Down throw is now a meteor smash that knocks foes down on the floor, akin to Fox and Falco's down throws. It can be teched instantly, though, but can still be used for tech-chases.
• Back throw has much less knockback allowing for better follow-ups.
• Charizard has a new up throw called Seismic Toss, where it flies with its opponent upwards and then dives back down, creating a huge explosion. Deals strong damage for a throw, with very powerful knockback.
• Pummel does slightly more damage.

Special Moves

• Fly is now Fire Spin, having a flame effect, and it now deals a single blow of strong damage with good KO/gimping potential.
• Pokémon Change has been replaced with a different version of Fly. It causes Charizard to crouch and then leap high into the air, and can be charged to increase the height of the jump. When used in the air, Charizard instantly glides, and can use a glide attack afterwards.
• Charizard's new side special is Heat Wave that uses a similar animation to its old forward aerial. It is very powerful, dealing more damage and knockback up close, and has decent range, making it generally more effective than Rock Smash. It also provides a bit of backwards momentum when used in the air, aiding in recovery slightly.
• Charizard now has his own Final Smash, where he fires three huge fireballs that deal lots of damage and knockback.
• Up special no longer has super armor.
• Heat Wave has less damage potential than Charizard's previous side special, Rock Smash.

Revisions

v2.1

• Down smash received some hitbox adjustments and is non-clankable.
• Charizard can no longer cancel its shield break animation with a down special.
• Flamethrower no longer falls off ledges.
• Jab was reanimated to be more polished.
• Forward tilt received some animation, sound effects, and hitbox adjustments.
• Up air received some animation and sound effects adjustments.
• Back air received some frame data adjustments to look better aesthetically when autocanceled.

v2.5b

• Charizard manually cancelling a glide with a jump or by falling down no longer puts it into helpless state.
• Dash attack has less startup and the strong hit sends foes at a more outward angle.
• Up tilt does a bit more damage on its initial hit, and has less knockback growth. It additionally matches Charizard's wings more accurately.
• Down tilt hit duration is slightly longer.
• Forward smash's hitbox is now active earlier, and the attack's sourspot now lasts for slightly longer. The flaming sweetspot was also repositioned to be easier to land.
• Neutral air hitboxes are now active for a bit longer.
• Forward air has been adjusted to give it better poking and offensive properties, while its weak hit now has a lower knockback angle and has improved aesthetics.
• Back air's sourspot does more damage, is interruptible sooner, possesses a slightly larger sweetspot, and its late hit no longer has set knockback.
• Up air's SDI multiplier and freeze frames reduced to more common levels.
• Down air has more knockback growth on grounded opponents.
• Forward throw releases slightly faster (giving the foe less time to DI), and its angle along with its base knockback were increased.
• Back throw angle, knockback, and ending lag adjusted to have more combo utility.
• Up throw is significantly stronger.
• Grounded up special hits earlier and before intangibility ends.
• Down special's bug that didn't allow interrupting to and from other moves was fixed. It additionally charges up faster.
• Charizard can only glide once per airtime.
• Glide attack damage reduced.
• Down throw frame advantage has been reduced.
• Hitboxes cleaned up on various moves.
• Hurtboxes better match its body.
• Glide is slightly better at retaining momentum, but drops a bit faster.
• Jab deals slightly less damage on the weak hit, and has a larger SDI multiplier.
• Up smash now has slightly more base knockback but less knockback growth.
• Forward smash sound effects were improved.
• Down smash's hitboxes are slightly smaller in size, but are centered around Charizard better.
• Neutral air's sweetspot trajectory gets lower throughout the animation.
• Up air's body hit has a lower angle, and the late hit lasts for shorter.
• Pummel's sound effects are more denoted.
• Forward throw has decreased knockback growth, hindering its KOing ability but following up better into other attacks.
• Down taunt is now properly taunt cancelable.
• Aerial up special is stronger and more damaging near the start, however it is weaker later on and has more startup.

v2.6b

• Forward tilt can be interrupted sooner and no longer gets weaker over time.
• Neutral special's max angle is slightly more vertical, and it can be additionally angled quicker. The move's hitboxes are also less SDIable and its knockback was increased slightly.
• Down smash's interruptibility frames occur slightly slower than before.
• Glide uses up all of Charizard's jumps.
• Down tilt's sweetspot angle is slightly more vertical.
• Down smash's hitboxes now vary in angles, and its inner hitboxes have priority over the outer hitboxes.

v3.0

• Up special has less hangtime at its apex.
• Forward aerial bone invincibility reduced to the duration of the active frames of the hitbox.
• Forward throw animation tweaked.

v3.5

• Down tilt deals more damage.
• The flame hitbox of neutral aerial deals more damage midway through the attack.
• The flame hitbox of netural aerial deals less damage at start of neutral aerial.
• The momentum halt of Fly and Glide was removed.
• Landing lag on neutral air increased.
• Now has a Final Smash where it fires three large fireballs.
• Charizard has a new up taunt.

Moveset

Up to date as of version 3.5.

	Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack		7%/9% (early/tip), 6%/7% (late/tip)	Charizard swings one wing in front of it. It is strong for a jab, having high base knockback with a diagonal angle, setting up nicely for aerial followups.
Forward tilt		12% (head), 11% (neck)	Charizard stretches its neck forwards and bites. It has good reach and power. Hitting with the neck produces less knockback than hitting with the mouth. It can be angled, but doing so does not alter the damage.
Up tilt		10% (clean), 7% (late)	Charizard forms a triangle with its wings and stabs upward. It can easily lead into aerial attacks.
Down tilt		10% (tail), 12% (flame)	Charizard sweeps his tail across the ground. The sourspot has weaker knockback scaling that leads into aerials, while the flame sweetspot has transcendent priority and is a strong horizontal finisher.
Dash attack		11% (clean), 9% (late)	Charizard kicks forwards with a foot. Sends opponents at a diagonal trajectory, has little lag compared to most dash attacks.
Forward smash		17% (clean), 22% (sweetspot), 14% (late)	Charizard lunges forwards while swinging its head in a large arc. It has slow start-up, but is a strong horizontal finisher, and has a very powerful sweetspot at the flaming part of Charizard's mouths.
Up smash		5% (hit 1), 11% (hit 2)	Charizard slashes upward twice with both of its wings. It is similar to Captain Falcon's up smash, but has faster startup and covers a wider area above Charizard.
Down smash		12% (center), 14% (edges)	Charizard violently stomps on the ground, sending debris flying around it. It always meteor smashes, popping up grounded opponents and setting up for aerial combos, as well as punishing opponents hanging on the ledge.
Neutral aerial		9% (tail), 11%/13%/10% (flame early/mid/late)	Charizard spins in a circle while swinging its tail. The sweetspot is located at the flame that is on the tip of Charizard's tail. Each part of the attack sends opponents at a different angle; the start of the move sends opponents upwards, the middle of the move sends opponents diagonally upwards and away from Charizard, while the end of the move sneds opponents diagonally upwards and behind Charizard.
Forward aerial		11% (arm), 16% (claw)	Charizard swipes in front of him with a flaming claw. It is a very strong vertical finisher, and is also Charizard's second most damaging aerial.
Back aerial		12%/15% (early/flame), 9% (late)	Charizard swings its tail backwards. It can be used for walls of pain at low percentages.
Up aerial		11%/13% (early/tip), 7% (late)	Charizard stretches its neck upwards. It can be used to juggle opponents effectively at low percentages, and then serve as a KO move at high percents.
Down aerial		17%	Charizard stomps with both feet. It is a very powerful meteor smash against aerial opponents, while popping up grounded opponents and setting up into aerial attack.
Grab		—	Charizard stretches its mouth forward.
Pummel		3%	Charizard bites the opponent, groaning every time it does so.
Forward throw		10%	Charizard spins the opponent once, holding them with its mouth, then throws forward. This throw has decent diagonal knockback.
Back throw		10%	Charizard throws the opponents backwards. It is similar to the forward throw, but with weaker knockback and a more vertical knockback angle.
Up throw	Seismic Toss	2% (hits 1-3), 5% (explosion), 4% (release) (15% total)	Charizard flies upwards while holding the enemy, flips twice, then plummets down, creating an explosion upon landing. This is one of the strongest throws in the game, dealing very high damage and knockback, making it an effective KO move. The throw deals 11% upon falling and the explosion deals 4%, for a total of 15% damage under normal conditions. This throw lands on soft platforms, akin to Kirby and Meta Knight's up throws, and if used on a moving platform, it's possible to perform a "Lizardcide" with it.
Down throw		1% (hits 1-5), 2% (release) (7% total)	Charizard pins the opponent on the ground and breathes fire on them, hitting up to 6 times, then leaves them there similar to Fox and Falco's down throws. It can be instantly teched, but still acts as a powerful tech-chasing move, and can occasionally meteor smash and KO foes if used near an edge.
Floor attack (front)		6%	Charizard swings its tail backwards, then headbutts forward.
Floor attack (back)		6%	Charizard gets up while performing a semicircle claw swipe.
Floor attack (trip)		5%	Charizard gets up while swiping one of its claws in a semicircle shape.
Edge attack (fast)		8%	Charizard gets up and headbutts.
Edge attack (slow)		10%	Charizard gets up and flicks its tail.
Neutral special	Flamethrower	1-2% (flames)	Charizard spits flames out of its mouth that gradually weaken if the attack is held. It is similar to Bowser's Fire Breath, except it cannot be flame canceled and doesn't possess an ending bite. It lasts for longer than in Brawl, and can be angled when used on the ground.
Side special	Heat Wave	15%/4% (hit 1/tip), 13%/3% (hit 2/tip), 11%/2% (hit 3/tip), 9%/1% (hit 4/tip)	Charizard shoots a flurry of flames with its wings. This move has slow startup, but deals 25% if all hits connect, as well as having strong horizontal knockback. It propels Charizard a bit backwards when used in midair, aiding with recovery slightly.
Up special	Fire Spin	Ground: 11% (leap), 10% (rise) Air: 12%/9% (leap head/body), 9% (rise)	Charizard spins upwards with its wings engulfed in flames. The hitbox before Charizard rises contains a strong horizontal hit that can punish opponents attempting to edge-guard Charizard, while the rest of the attack is a single hit that deals strong, vertical knockback. Unlike in Brawl, it has a flame effect but doesn't possess launch resistance.
Down special	Fly	2% (hits 1-4), 9% (hit 5) (17% total)	Charizard crouches, then leaps from the ground. It can be charge for about 30 frames, increasing the height Charizard jumps, and can be angled sideways slightly. The jump doesn't possess any hitboxes, but can be canceled at any time and allows for any aerial to be used while keeping the momentum of the jump. Using the move in midair causes Charizard to glide, which works like in Brawl. The glide attack now propels it faster and hits up to 5 times; the strong hit is very powerful, though it's hard to connect with all of them. Using the glide will cause Charizard to lose all its jumps, however Charizard will not fall helpless unless it uses the glide attack.
Final Smash	Fire Blast	11% (hits 1-2), 18% (hit 3) (40% total)	Charizard shoots three large fire balls from his mouth. The first two fireballs deal small knockback, while the third fireball deals massive knockback.

In competitive play

Notable players

•  John Numbers
•  KiraFlax
•  Mask
•  Metroid
•  Oracle
•  Smash G0D
•  UTDZac
•  Yomi
•  Zen

Alternate costumes

Charizard now has more significant, independent palette swaps. It also gains a costume based off the armored Charizard seen in the beginning of Lucario and the Mystery of Mew. The same costume will receive a black recolor in Project M 3.6.

Charizard's alternate costumes in PM

Some of Charizard's alternate costumes are based on different Pokémon:

• The grey is based on Aerodactyl.
• The blue is based on Golbat.
• The green is based on Tyranitar.
• The black is based on Charizard's shiny colour.
• The cyan is based on Salamence.

Coincidentally, most of these Pokémon in the main games have dragon-like properties (Golbat being the exception), like Charizard, by either being capable of learning a variety of Dragon-type moves, or being commonly owned by notable Dragon-type specialized trainers.

Trivia

• During the Pokémon battle in All-Star mode, two more Charizards will appear in place of Squirtle and Ivysaur.

External links

• Project M character page