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 several new moves that are more useful than their predecessors, as well as getting speed and power buffs to its other moves.

Charizard is ranked 32nd out of 41 on the tier list, near the top of C tier. This puts Charizard in practically the same position as the Pokémon Trainer in Brawl, which was 29th out of 38.

Attributes

In Project M, Charizard leaves behind the slow, tanky attacks, stamina system, and negligible defensive type effectiveness it was known for in Brawl. Instead, it fights alone with a quicker moveset optimized for taking its battles to the air.

Much of Charizard's moveset was given tweaks to encourage a quick offense. Its neutral attack and all of its tilts can combo into themselves, while its down-tilt has a powerful sweetspot that can semi-spike; its smash attacks and aerials all have increased speed or KO capabilities, and its down-smash can now serve as an edgeguarding tool. In particular, Charizard's new forward-aerial trades its predecessor's range for speed, damage, and strong diagonal knockback, making it a potent KO option especially when SHFFL'd. Charizard's new glide attack also has substantial KO potential and its hits link together even at high percentages.

While Flamethrower remains untouched and largely situational, Rock Smash was replaced with a new side-special, Heat Wave. It trades some damage potential for speed, range, and knockback, giving Charizard a faster KO move when used up close while providing an acceptable spacing option otherwise. Charizard's reworked up-special now functions as a single, strong hit, and the purely horizontal knockback it deals at the start can help Charizard break out of combos.

The biggest change to Charizard's moveset, however, is its new down-special, Fly. When used on the ground, Charizard will lift off in a high jump, achieving heights otherwise out of reach while providing greater speed than its jumps and up-special. Fly can be angled, used immediately or charged for nearly a second, and Charizard can cancel it into any aerial or special move while preserving all of the move's momentum. This gives Charizard incredible chasing options after launching a foe; it can rack up further damage (using neutral or up aerials), it can quickly meteor smash opponents recovering high (down aerial off of an angled Fly), it can semi-spike (back-aerial or close side-special), or it can go for a KO off the top (forward-air, glide attack, or late up-special). Many of Charizard's ground moves are designed to pop foes into the air where they can be chased with Fly, especially its new up-throw, which deals strong damage and vertical knockback that can leave damaged foes close to the upper blast line.

Charizard's defensive weaknesses are still present. While it has impressive dashing speed and range on its ground attacks, opponents with disjointed hitboxes and projectiles can easily wall Charizard thanks to its large hurtbox. Charizard also has very limited options for dealing with attackers below it, making Fly a double-edged sword if an opponent can reach the stage before Charizard can. Charizard remains weak in recovering horizontally, as its glide will not reset if Charizard is hit, forcing the use of its glide attack to power through edgeguarding.

As a result, much like in its home series, Charizard can't give its opponents the time or position to strike back, as its weaknesses are difficult to cover. However, when played to its strengths of speed and aggressive attacks, Charizard can easily dominate its opponents without letting them take advantage of its shortcomings.

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.
• Charizard's up taunt has been replaced with a new one, where it flaps its wings twice to hover before striking a pose and roaring.
• "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

• Charizard's new side special is Heat Wave, replacing Rock Smash. It uses a similar animation to its old forward aerial and 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.
  • Heat Wave has less damage potential than Rock Smash.
• Fly is now Fire Spin, having a flame effect, and it now deals a single blow of strong damage with good KO/gimping potential.
  • Up special no longer has armor.
• 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 now has its own Final Smash, Fire Blast, where it fires three huge fireballs that deal lots of damage and knockback.

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 initial hit, and has less knockback growth. It additionally matches Charizard's wings more accurately.
• Down tilt hit duration is slightly longer.
• Forward smash 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 angle and has improved aesthetics.
• Back air's sourspot does more damage, is interruptible sooner, possesses a slightly larger sweetspot, and 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 has more startup, but is stronger and more damaging near the start, and weaker later on.

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 once used.
• 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 the 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 deals more damage midway through neutral aerial.
• The flame on Charizard's tail deals less damage at start of neutral aerial.
• Removed momentum halt from Fly and Glide.
• Landing lag on neutral air increased.
• Now has a Final smash where it fires three fire-breathing blasts.
• Charizard has a new up taunt.

Moveset

Up to date as of version 3.6.

	Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack		7%/9% (clean/tip), 6%/7% (late/tip)	Charizard swings its left wing upward. It is strong for a jab, having high base knockback with a diagonal angle, setting up nicely for aerial followups.
Forward tilt		12% (mouth), 11% (neck)	Charizard extends its neck and bites forward. This move has both good reach and power. Hitting at Charizard's neck produces less knockback than hitting at the mouth. This move can be angled, but doing so does not alter the damage.
Up tilt		10% (clean), 7% (late)	Charizard points its wings upwards and jabs the opponent. This move can easily lead into aerial attacks.
Down tilt		10% (tail), 12% (flame)	Charizard sweeps its 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 its left foot. Sends opponents at a diagonal trajectory. Has little endlag compared to most dash attacks.
Forward smash		17% (clean), 22% (clean 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 mouth.
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 the ground once with both feet, causing the ground to erupt from either side of it. Coming in contact with Charizard's body meteor smashes opponents, which can set up for aerial combos as well as punish opponents hanging on an edge. The shockwave portion of the move can only hit grounded opponents.
Neutral aerial		9% (tail), 11% (flame early), 13% (flame mid), 10% (flame late)	Charizard spins its entire body in a somersault, hitting with 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 sends opponents diagonally upwards and behind Charizard.
Forward aerial		11% (arm), 16% (claw)	Charizard swipes forward with a flaming claw. The sweetspot is strong vertical finisher, and is also Charizard's second most damaging aerial. Charizard's head, neck, and both of its wings are intangible while the hitboxes are active.
Back aerial		12% (clean tail), 15% (clean flame), 9% (late)	Charizard swings its tail backwards. It can be used for a wall-of-pain at low percentages.
Up aerial		11% (clean neck), 13% (clean mouth), 7% (late)	Charizard extends its neck and bites upwards. This move can be used to juggle opponents effectively at low percentages, and then serve as a KO move at higher percents.
Down aerial		17%	Charizard stomps downward with both feet. It is a very powerful meteor smash against aerial opponents, while popping up grounded opponents and setting up into aerial attack.
Glide attack		2% (hits 1-4), 9% (hit 5)	Part of the Fly move used in midair, Charizard spins and attacks with its wings engulfed in flames. The glide attack now propels Charizard faster and the attack hits up to 5 times; though it's difficult to connect with all hits. Using the glide will cause Charizard to lose all its jumps, however Charizard will not fall helpless unless it uses the glide attack.
Grab		—	Charizard grabs its opponent with its mouth.
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 them forward. This throw has decent diagonal knockback.
Back throw		10%	Charizard throws the opponents backwards with its mouth. It is similar to the forward throw, but with weaker knockback and launches opponents at a more vertical angle.
Up throw	Seismic Toss	2% (hits 1-3), 5% (explosion), 4% (release)	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. This throw lands on soft platforms, akin to Kirby and Meta Knight's up throws. Interestingly, when this throw is used on a moving platform, Charizard will still "land" on the ground, making it hard to perform a Sacrificial KO.
Down throw		1% (hits 1-5), 2% (release) (7% total)	Charizard sets its opponent on the floor, and then breathes fire on them. This move leaves the opponent on the ground, 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 semi-circle claw swipe.
Floor attack (trip)		5%	Charizard gets up and performs a semi-circle claw swipe.
Edge attack (fast)		8%	Charizard gets up and headbutts forward.
Edge attack (slow)		10%	Charizard slowly gets up and flicks its tail.
Neutral special	Flamethrower	2% (clean), 1% (late)	Charizard spits flames out of its mouth that gradually weaken if the attack is held. It is similar to Bowser's Fire Breath, except that it doesn't possess an ending bite and the flames' far hitboxes doesn't make the opponents flinch. The flames can be angled up or down.
Side special	Heat Wave	Hit 1: 15% (near), 4% (far) Hit 2: 13% (near), 3% (far) Hit 3: 11% (near), 2% (far) Hit 4: 9% (near), 1% (far)	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. This move propels Charizard a bit backwards during each use.
Up special	Fire Spin	Ground: 11% (leap), 10% (rise) Air: 12% (leap head), 9% (leap body & 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, Charizard doesn't possess armor.
Down special	Fly	—	Charizard crouches, then leaps from the ground. It can be charged 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.
Final Smash	Fire Blast	10% (hits 1-2 big flames), 2% (hits 1-2 small flames), 18% (hit 3)	Charizard shoots three large fireballs out of its wings. The first two fireballs deal small knockback, while the third fireball deals massive knockback.

In competitive play

Notable players

•  Bubbaking
•  Doraki
•  Hatz
•  John Numbers
•  KiraFlax-33rd at Paragon Los Angeles 2015.
•  Kycse-One of the two best Charizards in the world. Ranked 44th on the PMRank 2016.
•  Mask
•  Metroid
•  Oracle-Often uses him as a secondary.
•  Phoca
•  Smash G0D
•  Stingers
•  Yomi-Second best Charizard in Europe.
•  Yoshiking
•  Zen-One of the two best Charizards in the world. Ranked 49th on the PMRank 2016.

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 received a black recolor in Project M 3.6 Beta.

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 or Nidoqueen.
• 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 Charizard will appear in place of Squirtle and Ivysaur.
• Charizard's appearance in Super Smash Bros. 4 has some changes from Brawl that are similar to its Project M incarnation, including a claw slash for its forward aerial, a Fire-type power-based move for a side special, and Seismic Toss as its up throw and a KO option (in later versions).