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Rewrite Kirby (SSBB)#Attributes
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Kirby is a small, lightweight character. His small size allows him to avoid many attacks (his initial dashing animation can go underneath Pit's Palutena's Arrow). He is also able to crouch underneath attacks, which can be used to his advantage against tall characters such as R.O.B. and Ganondorf. He has poor mobility, including the 25th fastest walking speed, the 28th fastest dashing speed, the second lowest jumping height, a slow air speed, and a slow falling speed. His light weight is both advantageous and disadvantageous; he is less vulnerable to chain throws (including King Dedede's down throw), but he also gets launches farther when hit, making him easier to KO. He also has poor momentum canceling abilities, with slow falling speeds, and his fastest aerial attack, his up aerial, is only slightly shorter than his air dodge. His momentum canceling abilities, combined with his light weight, give him one of the worst survivabilities in the game. However, he makes up for this with one of the longest-reaching and safest recoveries, with five midair jumps and Final Cutter to help him return to the stage. This makes him a good choice for beginners to learn with. His multiple jumps also give him good edgeguarding potential. Kirby has long reach in his attacks, with many disjointed hitboxes, and a strong combo ability, with his forward throw, forward tilt, up tilt, and up aerial all being great damage rackers and setups. He also has high KO power, with his smash attacks, back aerial, Hammer, and Stone all being finishers. Kirby lacks a solid projectile, and his only projectile, the wave produced from Final Cutter, is slow and predictable. This complicates matchups against characters with solid projectiles, such as Falco and Pit.
One of Kirby's strong aspects is his ground game. All of his ground attack have long range, start quickly, and end quickly as well. His forward tilt is a versatile ground attack that is good for spacing, and leads into itself at low percents. His up tilt is one of the fastest up tilts in the game, has disproportionately long range, and is a good juggler and setup move at low percents. His down tilt has a chance to trip opponents, creating additional setups. His forward smash delivers huge knockback and has low startup lag for such a powerful attack. It is considered his best KO move, along with his back aerial. His up smash is also a powerful finisher. However, it has a sweetspot behind Kirby that cannot reliably KO. His down smash covers both sides, and delivers powerful vertical knockback. It also delivers horizontal knockback at the tips of his feet, making it good for edgeguarding.
Kirby also has a strong grab and throw game as well. He has a fast grab with above average range. His pummel is very quick and good for refreshing stale moves. His forward throw can lead to combos that can deal over 40%, depending on the weight and falling speed of the character. His back throw is useful for getting opponents off of the stage, and his up throw can even KO at high percents. Kirby's down throw is a good damage-racker, and is able to chain throw fastfallers at low percents. However, its ending lag hinders its combo potential, though it is still decent.
Kirby's special moves have varying degrees of usefulness. His neutral special move, Inhale, gives him the unique ability to copy the neutral special moves of his opponents. He can use this to cover some of his weak areas, such as a lack of a solid projectile. Kirby can also perform Kirbycide by walking off the stage with the opponent in his mouth. He can also spit out characters with poor recoveries below the stage, where the opponent is unlikely to recover, and Kirby, with his good recovery, can easily get back onto the stage. His side special move, Hammer, is a powerful attack and good finisher, but it has high startup lag. When used in the air, the first hit has less startup lag, and the second hit is a powerful semi-spike, making it a good edgeguarding tool. His up special move, Final Cutter, is useful during recovery, and produces a shockwave upon landing, creating his only normal projectile. However, it can be edgehogged rather easily, it is too slow to be used effectively for camping, and experienced players will be able to dodge the wave without much difficulty. When Kirby descends from Final Cutter, a meteor smash hitbox is produced. Kirby can also perform Cuttercide by using Final Cutter in midair and bringing down an opponent, where both players will usually die. His down special move, Stone, is powerful and can KO at high percents and leaves him invulnerable to attacks, but it has high ending lag, is predictable, and an opponent can punish him with a grab. It is useful as a surprise KO move, and on stages with water, where he can easily land a hit on swimming opponents.
One of Kirby's main flaws is his poor aerial game. His best aerial attack by far is his back aerial, one of his most versatile attacks. It has low startup and ending lag, is a good edgeguarding tool, can be used for Wall of Pain techniques, and can KO at high percents. But outside of his back aerial, his aerial attacks suffer from a combination of high startup and ending lag, poor knockback, and poor range. His forward aerial is good for countering approaches. However, all three hits will sometimes not lead into each other, depending on the opponent's position, and can be SDI'ed out of. It also has poor knockback, and the back aerial is considered superior for most uses. His up aerial is a decent juggler and has good combo potential, but its power was nerfed from Melee; it can no longer KO reliably under 150% unless near the upper blast line. It also has noticeable, albeit small, startup lag. His down aerial is a meteor smash, and is useful for "dragging down" opponents recovering vertically, and Kirby can easily recover. However, it has high startup lag, and is weak for a meteor smash, so it's not very effective if Kirby does not land many hits. His neutral aerial is his worst aerial and is often considered one of the worst aerial attacks in Brawl. It has incredibly high ending lag, mediocre knockback, and poor range. The ending lag makes it impractical for offstage use. However, it is not completely useless; it has no landing lag, and can be used as a air-to-ground transition, and can potentially be used as a setup for tilt attacks. Kirby can also use his Side Special Move, Hammer, as an aerial attack, and it has powerful knocback, and the second hit is a semi-spike, making it useful for edgeguarding. However, it leaves Kirby vulnerable if he misses. Kirby's poor air game, combined with his slow falling speed, makes him prone to aerial juggling, and complicates matchups against characters with powerful aerial games, such as Meta Knight, and characters with good juggling abilities, such as Zero Suit Samus.
Overall, Kirby has relatively few weaknesses, and a competent player can overcome some of these, such as his poor aerial attacks, and cover them with Kirby's strengths. His great combo abilities, combined with his high KO power and back aerial, make him a powerful opponent.