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Kirby (SSBM): Difference between revisions
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{{Infobox Character | {{Infobox Character | ||
|name = Kirby | |name = Kirby | ||
|image = | |image = [[File:Kirby SSBM.jpg]] | ||
|game = SSBM | |game = SSBM | ||
|ssbgame1 = SSB | |ssbgame1 = SSB | ||
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|rankingPAL = 25 | |rankingPAL = 25 | ||
}} | }} | ||
Announced at [[E3 2001]], | Announced at [[E3 2001]], '''Kirby''' ({{ja|カービィ|Kābī}}, ''Kirby'') is a [[starter character]] in ''[[Super Smash Bros. Melee]]''. Makiko Ōmoto once again voices Kirby in ''Melee'', with some voice clips recycled from ''SSB'', but more higher pitched, along with some new additional voice clips. | ||
Currently, | Currently, Kirby is ranked 25th in the F tier as the second-worst character in the game, an extreme drop from his 2nd position in ''Smash 64'' and his worst placement in the series. While he has several throw options into [[Kirbycide]], a good ground game, a solid defensive game thanks to his crouch and small size and a decent [[edgeguarding]] game, Kirby's [[approach]] and KO ability are among the worst in the game; slow attacks, a low [[air speed]], an ineffective [[projectile]] in [[Final Cutter]], one of the worst grab games and numerous other flaws both on the ground and in the air prevent Kirby from easily approaching enemies, and he struggles against almost all characters as a result of this. Kirby currently has terrible overall matchups, with seven matchups that are near unwinnable, and only two positive matchups (against {{SSBM|Bowser}} and {{SSBM|Roy}}), and even these can be disputed at length. | ||
==Attributes== | |||
Kirby acts as a light, weak character that is intended to outmaneuver opponents. While having an average dashing speed, he has a terrible air speed (being tied with {{SSBM|Ganondorf}} as the 3rd worst in ''Melee''), so his small size is intended to act as his primary way to approach. Owing to his low falling speed and high short hop, Kirby has a poor [[SHFFL]], while his high traction gives him a short [[wavedash]]. | |||
Despite his poor air speed, Kirby has a good edgeguarding game. With no one to edgeguard him, Kirby can easily recover due to his multiple midair jumps, while Kirby's back air can be used as a rather powerful edgeguarding technique, the [[Fence of Pain]]. Assuming Kirby can knock opponents off the edge, he should theoretically have little trouble keeping them from recovering. | |||
Owing to his small size, Kirby also has a solid defensive game. His small [[hurtbox]]es can potentially allow him to avoid attacks, while his small size also lends itself to a large [[shield]], making Kirby relatively safe from [[shield stabbing]]. A low crouch also makes his hurtboxes even smaller, and it can be compounded with his down tilt as a potential camping and spacing tactic, as crouching makes him able to avoid most [[jab]]s. | |||
Kirby also has good tilt attacks as well, as Kirby's three tilts, while short-ranged, have a variety of practical applications; his forward tilt and aforementioned down tilt can act as spacing tools, while his up tilt can potentially be used as a combo starter. Kirby also has an above average grab range, allowing him to potentially use his unusual throws to his advantage; a notable application of his up, back, and forward throws involves [[Kirbycide]], a specific type of [[Sacrificial KO]] that forces both Kirby and his opponent to lose a stock. This technique is able to KO opponents at any percentage. His down throw is also a great tech-chasing option that can notably lead to another down throw or a down smash. | |||
Despite these benefits, Kirby's most fatal flaw, which is often cited as the reason for his bottom tier placement, is his almost non-existent approach options. With a poor SHFFL, short wavedash, terrible air speed, short range, a laggy, predictable dash attack, and no viable projectiles, Kirby has extreme difficulty in approaching almost all of the cast; this is especially prevalent against characters with disjointed hitboxes (such as {{SSBM|Marth}}) or powerful pressure games (such as {{SSBM|Falco}}). The lack of a projectile can uniquely be rectified if Kirby uses {{b|Inhale|Kirby}} on an opponent; doing so, however, is risky, due to the attack's start-up and cool-down lag, and some characters will either fail to give him a useful projectile (such as {{SSBM|Ness}}) or a projectile in the first place (such as {{SSBM|Captain Falcon}}). Kirby's small size can also make some attacks inferior to the original character; [[Fireball]] from {{SSBM|Mario}}, for instance, has the Fireballs disappear more quickly than Mario's, as Kirby's lower height causes them to reach the ground faster and to have less kinetic energy when they finally hit the ground. | |||
Assuming he can approach opponents, however, Kirby's various attributes also give him an unremarkable combo ability; a low air speed prevents him from easily pursuing enemies in the air, and almost all of his aerials (except for back air) either have long startup and cooldown periods (down and neutral air), high knockback (up air), or poor hitbox placement (forward air). Kirby's only noteworthy combos are his up tilt juggles, his down throw tech-chases and his Fence of Pain as mentioned earlier, and even the latter combo is inferior to Jigglypuff's [[Wall of Pain]] due to Kirby's significantly slower air speed, making it risky to use. Kirby's wild card is his aforementioned Kirbycide technique, and even this is unreliable; his up throw requires proper placement at the edge of a stage, and Kirby always loses when performed in a last stock situation. While his forward and back throws are much easier to perform and Kirby always wins when performed in a last stock situation, they are the only throws in the entire ''Smash'' series that can be potentially broken out of. As a result, if the opponent can button mash out of the grab and throw quick enough, they will remain unharmed while Kirby loses a stock, giving him one of the worst grab games in ''Melee'', with all of his throws (except for down throw) having little to no utility due to their inability to set up combos and the forward and back throws' ability to be escaped from. To make things worse, after Kirby uses his forward or up throw, he will lose all his midair jumps. | |||
Outside of his abysmal approach, Kirby also has trouble KOing other characters. A majority of Kirby's finishers suffer from poor range, slow start-up (such as his Hammer), weak knockback (such as his forward smash) or have small sweetspots that make them unreliable (such as his [[Hammer_(move)|Hammer]] and up smash). Arguably Kirby's only effective finishers are his down smash and his up and back aerials, which themselves require a proper read and correct timing from the player in order for them to be low-risk attacks. | |||
As a final disadvantage working against Kirby, he has major survivability issues, with his endurance being on par with {{SSBM|Mr. Game & Watch}} and {{SSBM|Pichu}} for the worst in ''Melee''. Having among the lowest weights in the game alongside a low falling speed causes Kirby to be easily KOed from both the upper and horizontal blast lines ({{SSBM|Fox}} is especially notorious in the former category). Outside of this, Kirby's recovery is also slow, linear, and predictable, despite granting decent distance as a result of his multiple midair jumps; once again, Kirby is negatively impacted by his poor air speed, and [[Final Cutter]] grants almost no horizontal distance, coupled with being very easy to edgeguard against. | |||
==Changes from ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]''== | |||
Kirby was known as one of the most dominant characters in ''Smash 64'', even after receiving nerfs in the North American release. This was in part to his amazing power, attack speed, range and priority on his attacks, which subsequently gave him excellent KO and shield pressuring potential. In addition to this, he was also a very simple character to pick up and play (especially compared to the other high tiers); making him a highly solid character to pick up regardless of the player's skill level. As a result of this, Kirby was drastically nerfed in his transition to ''Melee''. | |||
Kirby's mobility both on the ground and in the air has been noticeably reduced; which has subsequently hindered his [[approach]]. The weakening of [[pivot]]s have also made Kirby's approach worse and he doesn't benefit too much from the introduction of [[air dodging]]; due to his high traction and low falling speed. As a result of this, he has an unimpressive [[wavedash]]. When combined with many returning veterans having greater approach potential, this has made his approach among the worst in the game; especially in the air. | |||
In general, Kirby has suffered from ''Melee{{'}}s'' universal changes. Apart from the changes to pivoting, Kirby has greatly suffered from the changes to [[shield]]s. While Kirby is less vulnerable to shield pressure, his own shield pressure is much worse due to the universal reduction to [[shieldstun]] and shield damage. Because of this, Kirby's attacks are much less safe on shield (with Kirby lacking any moves which even leave him at a frame advantage on shield) with the reduced damage/increased ending lag on multiple moves along with the weakening of [[L-cancel]]ling only further exacerbating this. Because of this, Kirby can no longer perform any [[shield break combo]]s and his attacks are generally much more punishable. In addition, Kirby's out of shield options are also worse largely due to his new neutral aerial; which is much weaker, slower and has less range than his previous neutral aerial. When combined with his shield drop being longer, this means that Kirby either has to use his grab or back aerial to punish a majority of moves out of shield. | |||
Kirby's damage output and KO potential has also been noticeably reduced (even relative to the cast). A majority of Kirby's moves have reduced KO power including his smash attacks, neutral aerial, back aerial, his up throw (his previous forward throw) and [[Stone]]. When combined with his lower damage output on most of his moves, this significantly hinders his ability to rack up damage and close out stocks. His smash attacks are slower and weaker, making them less reliable and more difficult KO moves to land and while his new up aerial is rather powerful, it is slow and difficult to land. | |||
Kirby | Kirby's oppressive up tilt has also seen rather drastic nerfs both directly and indirectly. The move has a shorter duration, much less range and more ending lag which makes it much less effective at stuffing out approaches and generally makes it easier to punish. The move is also noticeably weaker; dealing much less damage. The introduction of [[DI]] has made the move much less reliable as a combo move while the changes to shieldstun combined with the move's decreased damage/increased ending lag has immensely hindered its safety on shield; completely removing its shield pressuring potential. Overall while it is still one of his most useful moves, it is not nearly as effective as it was previously. | ||
Kirby in general has worse frame data (especially relative to the cast), as well as his afforementioned up tilt and neutral aerial, his forward smash is noticeably laggier; no longer being the fastest in the game (in addition to being much weaker). His down aerial has also seen a drastic increase to its startup lag and its hits less times which significantly reduces its duration and maximum damage potential. It also greatly suffers from the introduction of [[meteor]] cancelling; significantly hindering its edgeguarding potential. Kirby also naturally suffers from the changes to L-cancelling; especially since most of his aerials have worse auto-cancel windows which remove's his neutral, forward and down aerial's ability to auto-cancel in a short hop. When combined with the changes to shieldstun, this significantly hinder the utility and safety of his aerials. | |||
Kirby | Kirby is also the character who benefits the least from having an expanded move list. Kirby's grab game is now one of the absolute worst in the game. His new forward and back throws can be used as a [[sacrificial KO]] however, they can be escaped from at any time, which can lead to Kirby either [[self-destruct]]ing or at least leaving himself in a vulnerable position after simply using the throws. As a result, his forward and back throws are completely useless; being easy contenders for the worst throws in the game. Kirby's up throw is much weaker than his previous forward throw and it has gained two new issues; the move can no longer land on platforms above Kirby unless they are very close to the ground and Kirby now loses all of his jumps after using it (his new forward throw also has this issue); which has hindered the utility of the throw and has made it an unreliable KO option. Kirby's only useful throw is his new down throw; which can set up [[tech-chase]]s although it is still not as useful as numerous other down throws. His new side special [[Hammer]] is a very slow (yet powerful) move on the ground while in the air, it is a very inconsistent and easy to escape multi-hit; giving it very low utility compared to other side specials. | ||
Lastly, Kirby's few flaws from the previous game have not been properly addressed. While his endurance has slightly improved due to his increased [[weight]] and [[falling speed]], it is still among the worst in the game. Kirby also still struggles to deal with opponents above him, especially with the nerfs to his up tilt combined with the universally increased falling speeds. His already limited combo options have been reduced even further due to the changes to his up tilt and his forward aerial; combined with the introduction of [[DI]]. His recovery has also become worse. His air speed and jump height have been reduced and [[Final Cutter]] covers much less distance, resulting in his recovery becoming very poor. | |||
Kirby has received some buffs. Kirby has greater access to his [[Kirbycide]] as he can move around when swallowing his opponents (in addition to Inhale having reduced startup lag) and his new forward and back throws are more reliable tools to Kirbycide with (although this is completely nullified by the fact that those throws can now be escaped from). A few of his moves are also either slightly faster or stronger, such as his new up aerial, which is much stronger and has much less ending lag. All of Kirby's aerials also have less landing lag; with his average landing lag now being among the lowest. This makes the weakening of L-cancelling hinder him less than most other veterans/it otherwise would have. | |||
Overall, Kirby's few weaknesses from the previous game; including his limited combo options and significant survivability issues have been further exacerbated and he has received numerous new weaknesses as well (including poor KO potential, poor range, an extremely ineffective grab game and poor approach). His only remaining strengths are that he can abuse his small size to avoid attacks, his tilts are solid and he still has decent edgeguarding potential although the latter two points are still not as effective as they were previously. Lastly, the universal changes have hindered Kirby more than almost any other returning veteran, with his approach, combo and shield pressuring potential particularly being hindered by these changes. | |||
Due to these changes, Kirby was not only the most severely nerfed character from ''Smash 64'' to ''Melee'' but arguably the most nerfed character in all of the series. As a result, he is arguably the worst character in the entire game and he is non-viable in competitive play; with Kirby players rarely making it into top 64 in major [[tournament]]s, let alone top 32. | |||
===Aesthetics=== | ===Aesthetics=== | ||