Mr. Game & Watch (SSB4): Difference between revisions

Mr. Game & Watch was overall nerfed in his transition to ''SSB4'', with the buffs he received failing to compensate for the more drastic nerfs to his important abilities. Many of his moves have increased lag, such as his neutral aerial having a shorter duration, more ending lag, more landing lag and no longer [[auto-cancel]]ing with short hops, which weakens his options to [[approach]] or [[Punishment|punish]] opponents. His other aerials (except forward aerial) having increased landing lag especially his down aerial. Mr. Game & Watch's overall range, damage output and KO potential have been reduced making it harder for him to rack up damage and land KOs. The changes to [[hitstun canceling]] can be considered a double-edged sword for Mr. Game & Watch: they indirectly removed [[Bucket Braking]] and [[momentum canceling]], which greatly hinders his endurance especially horizontally and it makes him more susceptible to combos, yet it improves his combo game due to his altered down throw which is now a very strong combo starter. He also suffers from the removal of [[edge momentum shifting]] as he could previously making solid use of it using [[Judge]]. The inclusion of [[rage]] also does not benefit Mr. Game & Watch as much as some other characters as while it improves his KO potential, his very poor endurance prevents him from making great use of it.  

Mr. Game & Watch has seen some buffs though. As previously mentioned, his down throw is now a potent combo throw which can potentially lead into an up aerial for a KO. While [[Oil Panic]] has had its valuable Bucket Braking ability removed, it also fills faster, letting Mr. Game & Watch use one of his most situational moves more frequently. His recovery has also been improved due to his faster air speed, [[Fire]]'s increased vertical distance which also no longer suffers from the [[grab release glitch]], and Oil Panic's newly acquired jump boost mechanic.  

 

As a result, Mr. Game & Watch is a significantly less effective character overall as while most of his strengths are still there, they were nevertheless toned down and his weaknesses were not properly addressed. He also did not benefit from the changes to the game's mechanics as much as some other returning veterans. Despite this, he still had some dedicated players, such as {{Sm|GimR}}, {{Sm|Regi}} and {{Sm|Maister}}, who have occasionally received some solid results with the character.  

*{{change|Mr. Game & Watch's [[gravity]] is higher (0.07505 → 0.08).}}

*{{buff|[[Air dodge]] has less startup (frame 4 → 2) and ending lag (frame 50 → 32).}}

*{{nerf|The removal of [[edge momentum shifting]] has hindered Mr. Game & Watch's [[advanced technique|advanced technical]] options with his specials reducing their utility.}}

**{{change|Dash attack angle now sends in front of Mr. Game & Watch instead of behind (120° → 50°).}}

**{{buff|Dash attack's knockback scaling has been increased (50 → 70), making it stronger than before despite dealing less damage.}}

**{{nerf|Dash attack's overall duration has been reduced (frames 6-29 → 6-9 (early)/10-19 (late)).}}

**{{nerf|Forward tilt's angle has been altered (45°/37° → 361°). This worsens it on-hit at low percentages, and makes it send at more survivable angles in the later percentages, no longer semi-spiking.}}

**{{buff|Down tilt's grounded hit has significantly increased knockback (50 (base), 50 (scaling) → 40/125).}}

**{{nerf|Down tilt has significantly increased ending lag (frame 26 → 40).}}

**{{nerf|Down tilt's hit on grounded opponents has a higher angle (20° → 30°).}}

**{{nerf|Down tilt's grounded hit is active for a slightly shorter duration (frames 6-15 → 6-13).}}

**{{nerf|Down tilt has received a [[wind]]box above its hitbox and has lost its aerial hitbox. While this increases it's utility in other areas, its use as a disjointed edge-guarding tool has been completely removed, dealing far less damage (9% → 1%), no knockback and sending upward.}}

**{{buff|Up tilt can now hit twice. Its damage has been reduced (8% → 7%), but its total still does more than it's previous iteration (14%).}}

**{{nerf|Up tilt has a shorter duration (frames 13-21 → 10-12 (hit 1), 20-22 (hit 2)), worsening its use as an anti-air.}}

**{{nerf|Up tilt's first hits deals less base knockback (30 → 20).}}

**{{nerf|Forward smash's sweetspot has decreased knockback scaling (98 → 91), hindering its KO potential.}}

**{{nerf|Forward smash's sourspot now takes priority over its sweetspot. The sourspot also launches opponents at a higher angle (361° → 53°) hindering its KO potential despite having higher knockback scaling (98 → 100). The body hitbox has also been removed.}}

**{{nerf|Forward smash's late hit (frames 21-34) has been removed entirely, and its early hit's duration has also been reduced (frames 17-20 → 17-18).}}

**{{buff|Up smash has significantly increased partial [[invincibility]] (frames 24-28 → 4-25), making it among the best anti-air tools in the game.}}

**{{nerf|Up smash deals 2% less damage (18% → 16%) and has decreased knockback scaling (97 → 93), hindering its KO potential.}}

**{{nerf|Down smash has significantly decreased knockback on both its sourspot (60 (base), 68 (scaling) → 30/65) and sweestpot (98 (scaling) → 85).}}

**{{nerf|Neutral aerial has a much shorter duration (frames 7-10, 12-15, 17-20, 22-25 → 7/12/17/22).}}

**{{nerf|Neutral aerial has increased ending lag (frame 35 → 43) preventing it from [[auto-canceling]] in a short hop as it still lacks a late auto-cancel window.}}

**{{buff|Forward aerial has decreased landing lag (22 frames → 15 frames) and auto-cancels earlier (frame 46 → 42).}}

**{{nerf|Forward aerial's clean hit deals less damage (16% → 11.5%) and its knockback scaling wasn't fully compensated (80 → 86), significantly hindering its KO potential.}}

**{{nerf|Forward aerial has a shorter duration (frames 10-12 → 10-11 (clean), frames 13-32 → 12-25 (late)).}}

**{{buff|Back aerial's hits connect together better due to the weakening of SDI combined with its angle changes (68°/68° → 366°/25°).}}

**{{buff|Back aerial auto-cancels earlier (frame 41 → 38).}}

**{{nerf|Back aerial only consists of four hits instead of five, and the first three hits deal less damage (3% → 2%) greatly reducing its maximum damage output (15% → 9%).}}

**{{buff|Up aerial has larger hitboxes (5.2u/3.6u → 6.5u/4.3u).}}

**{{buff|Clean down aerial has a longer duration (frame 12 → 12-13) and now only consists of a [[meteor smash]]. The removal of meteor-canceling also significantly improves the sweetspot's reliability}}

**{{nerf|Down aerial deals less damage (14% (clean)/13% (late)/6% (landing) → 11% (attack)/3.5% (landing)) and its knockback was not fully compensated (100 (scaling) → 107 (clean/late), 50 (base) → 60 (landing).}}

**{{nerf|Down aerial has significantly increased landing lag (15 frames → 28).}}

*{{nerf|Down throw deals 2% less damage (6% → 4%).}}

*{{change|Due to its angle being altered (270° → 80°), down throw is no longer a [[meteor smash]]. It also has altered knockback (80 (base), 30 (scaling) → 35/120). When coupled with the changes to [[hitstun canceling]], the weakening of [[DI]] and the removal of [[chain grab]]bing, these changes significantly improve its combo potential, but remove its [[tech-chasing]] potential.}}

**{{buff|Mr. Game & Watch is no longer affected by the [[grab release glitch]] allowing him to re-use Fire if he has been grabbed in midair.}}

**{{nerf|The removal of [[momentum canceling]] removes [[Bucket Braking]], drastically hindering Mr. Game & Watch's endurance.}}