Covenant wrote:It's good to hear Snake is good--I was annoyed that there were so few characters that were top tier. There will always be someone who seems the best, but so long as everyone can bring some A-Game and compete, I'm happy. Specifically, so long as the characters I enjoy are at least playable, which was not the case in Melee.
Well, like I said, Snake is very different. I'm sure many players won't be able to use him at all, just like many people can't play Yoshi or Peach, but Snake is even more different than them.
Playing Snake is entirely about setting up constant traps and tricking your opponent into falling for it. Setting bombs on detonators or promiximity and then using other explosives to get people into position so that they get blown away by them.
His forward-B has him pull out a missle launcher- he fires the missle, and much like Ness's up-B, he can control the missle but is immobilized. But there's a twist. He can drop control of the missle at any time, and if he does, the missle just falls straight down.
It's hard to explain the tactical usage, but you can use the fact that the missle falls to great advantage. Usually you want to aim high- if the opponent tries to jump over the missle, veer up into them, and if they try to go low, just drop control of the missle and let it fall on their heads. Also it's a great way to prevent recovery as you can fire a missle at someone who is trying to recover and then just as it passes the ledge let it fall.
Odd to hear about the falling. I don't like long-distance recovery. I'm still partial to the first game's powerful throws. I like the idea of beating the shit out of someone, but needing to actually launch them with a throw to end the game. It makes it so, no matter who you are, you need to do more than just one or the other. I liked how throws did no damage, but finished you off. Ahh... balance. Ah well. Sounds fun anyway. I'm looking forwards to the game. No need to build in false 'elite strategies' to make competitive play hard to manage. Let the good strategies emerge, not simple be discovered.
I kind of liked the throws in Melee- I used them to set up combos. I actually would generally throw opponents straight down as they would bounce off the floor and go up, but not very high- short enough that I could jump after them and deliver an aerial combo.
Brawl's massive technique/engine/physics changes make it feel like an entirely new entry in the series, not just Melee 2.0. It's almost closer to the original Smash Bros in some way (that game had slower falling speeds and floatier feel as well).
Any word on Pit? I was pulling for him to be included since well before Melee was even announced, on the blind hope that there would be a second SSB for the Gamecube. I haven't seen many good videos of him online, but I'm really curious about his Down+B.
Pit is a jerk. His recovery is ABSURD. Four jumps, plus gliding (almost unlimited horizontal distance) PLUS an up-B that takes him vertically higher than almost anyone. Unquestionably the best recovery in the game, with Metaknight coming in second. You can literally just fall off the bottom of the screen on any stage and just come right back up with no problem.
IGN points it out well:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=3YJQeLronZs
Also, his arrows are incredibly annoying in the hands of a skilled player (they ALWAYS HIT), and his down-B is a reflect move like Fox's down-B (but only in one direction).
Despite his ridiculous recovery he can still be knocked off the screen with a powerful hit easily, so he's not unbalanced or anything...meaning, he's not like bloody Pikachu.
Pikachu is by far the cheapest character in the game so far. They've removed almost all his lag. He can do a Down-B and then do a Down-Smash before the electric field has disappeared. All of the old windows of opportunity are gone, and that down-Smash has a much wider hitbox and tends to suck you in almost every time- in fact, almost all of his attacks have large hitboxes. Blarg.
If you can't tell, I'm bitter because it was a Pikachu player that took me out of the Brawl tournament I was in last Saturday. I kept attacking at openings that no longer existed and found myself sucked into a down-Smash, and spammed down-B's used as an edgeguard (the new dodging mechanism actually makes it a lot harder to get past the lightning since it doesn't change your momentum).
Only one of mine went up.
Your head is humming and it won't go, in case you don't know, the piper's calling you to join him
