Blunderbuss
| Blunderbuss | |
|---|---|
 King K. Rool shooting a Kannonball from the Blunderbuss in Ultimate. | |
| User | King K. Rool |
| Universe | Donkey Kong |
| Article on Super Mario Wiki | Blunderbuss |
| “ | Fires an iron ball from his gun. The button can be held to suck the iron ball (or opponents) back in. | ” |
| —Ultimate's move list | ||
The Blunderbuss (パイレーツキャノン, Pirate's Cannon) is King K. Rool's neutral special move.
Overview
K. Rool pulls out a blunderbuss and shoots a Kannonball forward, donning the pirate hat he used in Donkey Kong Country 2. There are two portions to the attack: Blunderbuss Kannonball, and Blunderbuss Vacuum.
When the move is inputted, King K. Rool will shoot out a Kannonball. The projectile is slow, and hits decently hard. Thus, it creates an effective wall that can be used for niche setups and such. The most notable trait for the move is that you can press down to slip through platforms, allowing for a large amount of mixups. Slipping through a platform as the gun begins to come out will shoot the Kannonball at a level that many forms of aerial approach are simply invalidated by. After around 2 seconds, the Kannonball will disappear, allowing for another to be shot out.
When B is held, the Blunderbuss will transition to Blunderbuss Vacuum (as the in-game tips claim it is called). This is a command grab that can suck up either a Kannonball or a Player, and reshoot them at 3 different angles. These are Forward (which is done simply by holding B), Up or Backwards. Forward is a Kill Throw, which is also effective for ledgetrapping. Up is a combo throw at 0% that can confirm an up aerial, and Back is usually a gimping tool if the opponent approaches you while recovering (it's actually very weak). When the opponent is being shot out, they are invincible and have a very powerful hitbox (the same as a reshot Kannonball), making combo potential from this mostly frametraps. After 2.5 seconds, Blunderbuss Vacuum cancels.
An important thing to note is that the Blunderbuss halts all aerial momentum, making its utility and potential a slight bit stunted when edgeguarding. It also sends K. Rool back a few pixels, which makes camping occasionally lead to a ledge situation. Overall however, the Blunderbuss is a very important move in King K. Rool's kit, intended to prevent horizontal approach.
Origin
This attack is based on the boss fight against K. Rool in Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest. In the fight, Diddy and Dixie Kong had to avoid Kannonballs shot by the king, then grab them and throw them into his blunderbuss when he tried to vacuum up the Kongs; if a Kong got close to the blunderbuss as it vacuumed, they would not get sucked inside, but instead K. Rool would strike them with the butt of the gun. Throwing a Kannonball into the blunderbuss as it vacuumed would result in it clogging up and exploding, dealing damage to K. Rool in a comical manner; this also shoots the Kannonball back out at increasing speeds as the fight goes on. The explosion is absent from Ultimate, likely due to not wanting the move to inflict damage on the player.
Gallery
King K. Rool using the Blunderbuss to suck in the Kannonball.
