Super Smash Brothers Brawl FAQ
By: Chris "Amazing Ampharos" Immele

I. Table of Contents

I. Table of Contents
II. Introduction
III. Character Bios
IV. Classic Mode
V. All Star Mode
VI. Event Battles
VII. Target Smash
VIII. Home-Run Contest
IX. Multi-Man Brawl
X. Boss Battles
XI. Subspace Emissary
XII. Challenge Board
XIII. Trophy List
XIV. Sticker List
XV. Other Unlockables
XVI. Speed Unlocking
XVII. Credits and Conclusion

II. Introduction

Welcome to my FAQ on Super Smash Brothers Brawl. Super Smash Brothers Brawl is,
as of the writing of this FAQ, the latest entry into Nintendo's wonderful Smash
Bros fighting series, and the game is a complete joy to play. However, it's
also a completionist's nightmare; there is a very large amount of unlockable
content that is sure to drive anyone looking for that "perfect file" mad. The
game also features a very diverse cast that is sure to prove daunting for all
but the most dedicated of fans. That's where I come in. This FAQ is meant to
walk players through unlocking everything in the game. If you just want a
rundown of the characters and some basic tips on how to use them and unlock
them, look to section III. If you want a thorough walkthrough on how to do
everything, sections IV through XI and section XV are for you. If you are
looking for a list of what there is to get without so many of the details,
sections XII through XV are ideal. If you just want to get everything you'll
need to play serious matches with your friends as quickly as possible and don't
care about any of the smaller things, section XVI is where you'll want to head.
If you want to read an overly obligatory section with little real content,
well, sections II and XVII are pretty cool.

III. Character Bios

In this section, I'll be covering the entire cast and giving a summary of how I
see them. I'm going to be candid about which characters I believe to be good or
bad; I'd be doing readers a disservice if I tried to give a positive impression
of the entire cast to avoid offending anyone. I'll also discuss generally how I
believe each character should be used. I'm not doing character guides, but I
hope I can provide enough to help players get started with everyone.

Also, I must give an obligatory disclaimer. I don't play the whole cast nor am
I necessarily the best player out there. I have studied the game in great
depth, and I have really done my best to fairly show how each character works,
but if I made mistakes or glaring omissions, don't get upset. Also, the part
where I discuss character match ups is pretty iffy. I mostly just guessed
there, and I'm probably frequently wrong. Rather than looking at the characters
I name, it would be better to look at the reasons I suggest some things might
be problems as potential holes in that character's style.

Mario

In theory, Mario is supposed to be a balanced character without significant
strengths or weaknesses. Unfortunately for Mario, theory doesn't always hold.
Mario definitely has below average range and power, and coupled with his
average speed and lack of special properties, this puts him in a bad position.
As things stand, he seems to be one of the worst characters in the game.

This is not to say that Mario is without merit. Mario has a decent set of smash
attacks that he should be quick to rely on. Of special note is his powerful
forward smash; this will be his main source of kills. His forward and down
tilts are mostly just sources of quick damage with little notable about them,
but his up tilt is a handy move for popping enemies up into the air so keep it
in mind. His running attack is a decent sliding kick which you should use for
surprise damage once in a while, but despite the ease of use, it's not good to
overuse as it gets very predictable. His jab combo is just a typical safety
move.

In the air, Mario's biggest problem is his slow forward aerial. It has a weak
hit early in the swing and a nice spike late in the swing, but it's really too
slow to be practical for general use. If approaching the enemy head on in the
air, it's generally wise to instead rely on his weak but quick neutral aerial.
Mario is at least blessed with fast and decently powerful up and back aerials,
but neither are likely to be getting a whole lot of kills. His down aerial
might seem appealing at first, but it's generally too slow to be one of his
most relied upon moves.

Mario's grab game pretty much revolves entirely around his powerful back throw.
This throw is his second and last reliable source of kills; be sure to exploit
it heavily. Mario has pretty short arms so getting grabs is generally
difficult; using his up smash out of a shield will be generally more useful
until the enemy is near killing percentages.

In terms of his special moves, Mario's only real gem comes in the form of the
Cape. This move is far worse than it was in Super Smash Brothers Melee, but
it's still a solid move that new Mario players should try their best to
integrate into their games. It turns around all attacks that hit it, completely
reversing the attack's trajectory or the enemy's momentum. It causes enemy
projectiles to become dangerous to them as well so it can be used to send
things such as Samus's missiles right back at her. If it hits a standing
opponent, it will turn them around, but it does not turn around shielded
opponents which means that it's not a safe option against opponents waiting for
you to attack. A major use is to ruin recoveries by turning them around and
causing the momentum to fling the foe away from the stage, but Mario players
will now have to jump out over the ledge to take full advantage of this as
clever opponents will be sure to still be within ledge grab range if you do it
from the ground. The last use of the Cape is for recovery. Using it in the air
causes Mario to stall and push forward very slightly. Using it consecutively is
a sure way to die, but using it just once right before the triple jump can be
useful.

Mario's other three specials are pretty lackluster. His Fireballs are weak with
poor range so they aren't of use for projectile spamming. The main use of
Fireballs is to do a short hop, throw one Fireball, and then chase after it.
This helps Mario approach the enemy as they have to deal with the Fireball
right as Mario is about to attack them. Mario's Super Jump Punch does poor
damage and leaves him very vulnerable; only use it to recover. Fludd is
generally useless, but the one scenario I have found it handy is to ruin Ness's
and Lucas's recovery. If you blast them with water as they steer Pk Thunder,
they will be pushed away but not interrupted which almost always leads to their
death.

Mario is capable of wall jumping but not crawling or wall clinging. Mario can
only jump once in the air. His roll is fairly slow but covers a lot of ground
so it can be of use sparingly, and his spot dodge is a very ordinary one.

All in all, Mario doesn't really stack up to the other fighters, but don't take
that as a sign that he's useless. Mario still has a wide array of tools and can
be used highly competently to pose a serious threat. His Cape especially is a
unique tool that in the hands of the right player can cause extreme frustration
to opponents; it's the main gameplay reason Mario should be considered over
other characters. It's especially pivotal when battling Marth, Ike, or other
characters with great range advantages on Mario; he can turn them around even
if he only hits the tip of their attacks with his cape. However, other than his
Cape, Mario has few options against such great range characters; they will
likely be his hardest opponents.

Luigi

How to unlock:

-Play 22 brawls.
-Have Luigi join your party in The Subspace Emissary.
-Clear Classic mode without continuing.

Luigi is Mario's oddball brother, and the way he plays makes that very clear.
His voice, animations, and general style all feel just a bit odd. Specifically,
Luigi is a really upward oriented character; he has an uncanny number of moves
that are designed to knock the opponent up into the air. The fact that he
compliments this with a really solid set of aerials makes him a coherent and
effective character. I wouldn't call Luigi one of the best characters in the
game at all, but he's definitely a solid contender.

Luigi's main goal with his grounded attacks is to get the enemy up into the
air. All three of his smashes do this well, but you should primarily rely on
his quick and wide-ranged down smash. If you need a really quick move to pop
them up, his up tilt is a great option as well. His forward tilt sends them at
a horizontal angle you won't find useful, and his down tilt is a very weak
close range move with a high likelihood to trip them though it can pop them up
very usefully if they are at a high percentage. I'm sure many of you find his
running attack enthralling, but hold off on it. It's not as ridiculously unsafe
as it was in Super Smash Brothers Melee, but it's still a weak move that
doesn't lead into anything better.

In the air, Luigi's pride and joy is his great forward aerial. He does a very
quick and fairly powerful chop that can be a source of kills and a great way to
rack damage. His up, back, and down aerials are also all fast and decently
strong so he can throw a good aerial out no matter what his orientation to his
opponent. His neutral aerial is interesting insofar as it sends the enemy
straight up with a lot of power; it can be an effective tool to get surprise
star KOs.

Luigi's grab game is pretty similar to Mario's insofar as he's really concerned
with his very powerful back throw. However, if Luigi is unable to kill after a
grab, he should instead use his up throw as that puts opponents up in the air
which is right where Luigi wants them. Luigi should also occasionally use his
Super Jump Punch out of his shield for the chance to land a Fire Jump Punch,
but only do that when the opponent puts himself in just the wrong position.

Luigi's specials are a mixed bag. His Fireball is a pretty horrible projectile;
it has very poor reach and generally doesn't flow with the rest of his game.
Throw them out if the opponent tries to stay just out of arm's reach of Luigi,
but generally Luigi should look to his other moves in combat. The Green Missile
is a pretty horrible move outside of recovery. It does poor damage unless
charged up, and while Luigi can charge it as long as he wants, it's super
predictable and easy to avoid. It will do good damage if he gets a misfire
which is a 1/8 chance on each use, but Luigi is too good to need to rely on
something like that. However, in the narrow context of recovery, it is useful
to Luigi as he gets good horizontal distance from it and can continue doing any
moves in the air he wants after using it.

Luigi's Super Jump Punch is fairly mediocre for recovery and completely
pathetic with the weak hit, but if you are right inside of them when you use
it, Luigi will do a Fire Jump Punch which will deal massive damage. This is one
of Luigi's most treasured sources of kills; he should always be looking to
sneak one in once the opponent is hurt enough to succumb. A good trick is to do
one or two hits of his jab combo and to interrupt it by throwing out the Super
Jump Punch. This is very hard to impossible for them to avoid once you get the
hits from the jab, and it's a really easy chance at a Fire Jump Punch. Luigi
similarly gets a lot of utility out of his Luigi Cyclone. On the ground, he can
use it to cover distance very quickly; it is a very good way to both get
surprise attacks and approach enemies. If Luigi has not used Luigi Cyclone
since the last time he has touched the ground, he is able to rise if the player
presses B rapidly which makes it a very handy tool in ensuring Luigi always
makes it back to the ledge.

Luigi cannot wall jump or wall cling, but he can crawl. This is useful as he
can crawl under Pit's arrows, but he is too tall to crawl under any of the
projectiles from the Star Fox characters. Luigi only has one midair jump.
Luigi's roll and spot dodge are pretty much identical to Mario's; his roll is
slightly slow but covers good ground, and his spot dodge is very ordinary.
Luigi can get a fixed knock back straight up hit with his down taunt, but it's
too slow and low range to be useful. It can even spike if it hits a recovering
opponent, but unless a truly golden opportunity comes along, it's just an
obscure detail. Additionally, Luigi has unusually low traction which isn't very
important but should be kept in mind.

Since Luigi's game revolves so much around the air, Luigi's matches revolve
around how his opponents fare there. Since characters like Kirby, Meta Knight,
and Jigglypuff frequently enter the air voluntarily, Luigi should be a great
choice against them. Otherwise his matches don't tend to be particularly
notable though I would watch out for Marth and Ike whose range will give him
significant trouble. Luigi is a solid, balanced choice with an interesting and
unique play style; he's definitely worth considering.

Peach

Peach is a very interesting character mostly because of her ability to float.
If she holds the jump button in the air she will float once she reaches the
peak of that jump, and if she holds down she will automatically float without
needing to reach the peak of her jump or perform her double jump if it is still
unused. Her floating opens a lot of options for her in the air; she can be
either stationary or sliding directly horizontally while doing her aerial
attacks. This mechanic is her main appeal as a character, but all in all, she's
still probably a bit below average.

Peach's ground game isn't terribly noteworthy, but she does have some good
stuff. Her up smash is a great killing move if she hits with the sweet spot,
and her down smash of Super Smash Brothers Melee fame is still useful to
quickly score a few hits to rack up damage though it has pretty much no hope of
ever killing anyone. Her forward smash is an odd move that randomly uses either
a good knock back tennis racket, a weaker knock back but better range golf
club, or a straight up hitting frying pan. The move as a whole is a decent kill
move, but the randomness makes it hard to use it for anything else. Her down
tilt and forward tilt both are handy for knocking the opponent up into the air,
but her down tilt is generally better. Her up tilt hits with a super explosion
of hearts and love that knocks the opponent pretty far but doesn't kill until
higher percentages; it's still good to use frequently. Her running attack is
above average as well; mix it in.

Peach will usually want to be floating when she does her aerials, and all five
are useful. Her neutral aerial is her most valued one as it throws out a quick
and powerful attack that hits on both sides of Peach. Her forward aerial packs
quite a punch; she should use it mostly as a finisher. Her up aerial sends them
up further so she can continue juggles and score KOs off the top. Her down
aerial, on the other hand, is a damage racking move. If the opponent is at low
percentage and grounded, it's a very handy tool to do a lot of damage to them.
Her back aerial is a quick smack from her rear end to anyone behind her; use it
if someone dares go there. With all five of them, remember that you can do them
while floating very close to the ground, chase them with your float while the
aerial finishes, and then immediately land and do a move on the ground. This is
the core of Peach; use it and abuse it.

Peach's grab game is pretty much unremarkable as none of them can kill and she
has typical grab range, but if she does score a grab, she should use her down
throw with aspiration to lead into something more potent as it pops them up
right behind her. Since she gets fairly little out of grabs, she might want to
consider using her up smash out of a shield, but the extremely vertical
orientation of the hit on it makes that frequently unsafe.

Peach's specials are mostly pretty average. Well, Toad is excluded there; he's
just plain useless. If you were curious what he does as it's not immediately
obvious, he counters attacks, but even for a counter move he's unbelievably
slow and easy to punish. Her Peach Bomber is a pretty cool move that extremely
bad Peach players are known to use dozens of times in a row without using any
other attacks. She winds back for a bit and then hurls herself nearly
straightly horizontal a little more than a third of the length of Final
Destination. When it hits, it releases an explosion of hearts and love and does
solid if not particularly noteworthy damage and knock back. It's fairly
powerful and mobile if predictable and easy to punish; be sure to mix it in
once in a while but not too often.

Her Parasol is her nominal recovery move though in practice she usually doesn't
need it. She shoots up a small distance and begins floating down, and the
Parasol can be put away by pressing down. The really novel thing is that she
can bring it out again by tapping up so she can make her return to the stage
very unpredictable by varying her falling speed; it is the main reason she's
such a pain to kill. Her Turnips are handy to use to interrupt opponents by
tossing one at an opponent right before attacking, but their poor range makes
them bad spam. They can be caught easily as well which can make throwing them
counterproductive from time to time. Peach also cannot throw them while
floating unless the player inputs down + B, but this will only do the shorter
ranged throw. Occasionally, she gets a very powerful turnip that has a face
like that of an old man; use floating aerials and other special moves to knock
them off guard so you can kill with it. She also can pull bombs (which aren't
actually Bob-ombs as she can hold them indefinitely) which are even more
powerful, Beam Swords which turn her into a huge range machine of death, and
Mr. Saturn which when thrown with a smash throw devastates shields.

Peach cannot wall jump, wall cling, or crawl and has only one midair jump. She
has a somewhat fast roll and spot dodge, but her real special property is
floating which has already been covered in depth. One last trick with it though
is that she can cancel her dash with a jump into a float very low to the ground
which she can automatically end to land and be in a neutral position on the
ground. It's tricky to do; you need to basically hit forward to do a dash and
do a quarter circle motion toward down as you hit jump and then release them
all just as the float starts. This lets her vary the length of her dash however
she wants and do just about anything she wants out of it; take advantage of it
if you can get the timing down.

Peach's ability to float lets her glide right over projectile spammers so she
will match up fairly well against someone like Pit, Falco, or Snake. Characters
such as Wario, Jigglypuff, and Squirtle who can outmaneuver her in the air will
prove problematic, and characters with especially high speed or power such as
Bowser or Fox could be pretty successful at rushing or plowing past her
shenanigans. In general she will probably find herself having to work a bit
harder than most other characters to win matches, but she has enough tricks
that she should still remain on the lower end of viable.

Bowser

Bowser is advertised as the game's biggest and heaviest character, and he fits
the bill nicely on both counts. Unfortunately, he has the single worst flaw a
character can have; he is quite slow. Still, Bowser has a combination of solid
reach, great power, and surprisingly decent mobility that make him a decent if
flawed character. He doesn't really rise above the problems heavy characters
tend to have, but he puts up a decent showing.

Bowser's ground game has great power all around so he will mostly be looking
for speed and safety in his attack selection. His forward tilt is a good attack
to look to for a starter; it has huge range and is fairly quick so he can feel
confident in general throwing it out. His up tilt pops them up nicely and has
the added bonus of hitting behind Bowser as well as above him; it's a great
move to throw out with your back turned. His down tilt still has a good deal of
power for how quick it is, but it will be difficult to land hits with it. All
three of his smashes are beastly. His up smash is only useful as an answer to
opponents coming straight down on him or on a platform above him, but the
damage makes it worth it. His down smash is a wonderful way to punish opponents
for rolling about you rapidly or otherwise staying in your face and playing
evasively; it racks up really huge damage. His forward smash is the only one
you should be reserved about; it isn't particularly more powerful than his
other smashes, and while the way he recoils his head is very useful, it's
slower and more punishable than his other smashes. If Bowser needs to get an
opponent away from himself quickly, his jab combo is really his only option.

Bowser's aerial game will mostly revolve around his quick forward aerial, but
his others still have use. His up aerial does massive damage if he can connect
with it, but that's easier said than done. His back aerial is generally very
easy to hit with and pretty powerful, but it's a very unsafe move due to the
absurdly long landing lag. The best way to use it is to either use it really
high in the air where it will recover before landing or to hit the edge after
using it. His neutral and down aerials are just not very good and should only
be used in obscure circumstances where they seem like they can hit where other
things cannot.

Bowser's grab game is easily forgotten because he has a special move that is
basically a better grab, but he still has a few things he can do with them. His
general best bet is his back throw to try to get the opponent over the ledge,
but if the opponent is very hurt, his up throw will be more beneficial. His
down throw seems appealing, but he is so slow after it that he really can't
follow it up with anything. He may very well want to mostly use Whirling
Fortress out of his shield; it's a solid option for him.

Bowser's specials are split half and half between great and terrible. Let's
start with terrible. His Fire Breath really isn't very good. The fire dies down
relatively quickly, it is difficult to connect, and the damage is all around
poor. The main use for this will be to use it near the ledge angled downward to
force the opponent to take many hits from it before they can make it back. His
Bowser Bomb is also pretty poor; it's incredibly unsafe upon landing so he can
only plausibly use it if he's going to hit the ledge. Of course, in that
context, it is handy.

His Whirling Fortress is a wonderful move. It's not only useful for recovery;
it really shines when used on the ground. Bowser can slide along the ground at
a good and dangerous pace while using this move; it helps him out for
approaches and generally scoring quick damage, two things that would be quite
difficult for him otherwise. The fact that as an up special he can use it
directly out of a shield only makes it sweeter. Of course, most players are
simply enamored with his Flying Slam and with good reason. Bowser does a quick
grab motion and then slams the opponent down. Bowser and his opponent both can
direct where they land, and being at higher percentage causes either side to
have a lesser influence. This is a very safe and quick move, it is an aerial
grab, and it is a wonderful suicide attack should you choose to use it that
way. Just be smart about suicide; only do it when you are gaining an advantage
by dying at a higher percentage or are up in stock. Also, if this move doesn't
hit the opponent and finishes its animation in midair right above the ground,
Bowser gets his second jump back. He can exploit this to effectively levitate
over the stage which may throw some opponents off, but it's not a terribly big
part of Bowser's game.

Bowser cannot wall jump or wall cling which is no surprise at all, but he can
crawl for some mild humor but no actual gain. He has one midair jump and a
typical spot dodge, but his roll is fairly quick and should be used a bit more
than most characters would. His ledge attack at under 100% is also a
surprisingly good move; be sure to take full advantage of it.

Bowser's great strength will let him get early kills in all matches, but it is
usually counter balanced by the fact that faster characters will be getting
more hits. Bowser can definitely handle a character like Jigglypuff who is
extremely affected by his strength and doesn't have particularly great speed,
but characters like Sheik and Fox will probably prove too much for Bowser.
Bowser's massive size also makes him a prime target for projectile spamming
from characters such as Pit or chain throws from King Dedede or Wario; those
will be hard matches. At the very least, his great weight can be a boon against
the lighter power characters so he can approach foes such as Zelda, Lucas, and
Pikachu with a bit of confidence.

Donkey Kong

Donkey Kong has never been a popular character, but he's the original Smash
Bros. heavy character. He's generally a bit faster than Bowser, but he isn't
quite as powerful. Donkey Kong is a bit better in the air than Bowser whereas
Bowser is more of a grounded character. DK's range is also a bit better
overall. Still, fans of one character will probably find a kindred character in
the other even if they don't really play alike. Also, much like Bowser, Donkey
Kong is quite playable but still clocks in at below par.

On the ground, Donkey Kong will want to rely on his greater reach moves which
also happen to be his generally quicker ones. He has an excellent forward tilt
that covers a lot of distance in front of him and is quick; it should be
heavily relied on. His up tilt covers a wide arc over his head and behind him;
it too should be used frequently. His down tilt is also quick, but it is really
only useful for occasionally tripping opponents as the knock back on it is
incredibly unuseful at all percentages. His forward smash is his best smash in
terms of speed, range, and power; you should rely on it heavily. His up smash
is good for hitting opponents above him, and his down smash is good for
sweeping out rolling characters, but neither are particularly good.

In the air, Donkey Kong's main weapons will be his excellent back and up
aerials. His back aerial is extremely quick and powerful; he can string
together series of these in rapid short hop approaches for great profit. His up
aerial hits a large area as he slams with his huge head and is effective at
scoring kills off the top of the screen and should be used whenever DK managed
to get beneath an opponent. His biggest problem up here is his horrible forward
aerial; it's so slow you will never hit anyone with it. When approaching from
the front, use his neutral aerial instead. His down aerial is a somewhat handy
spike; mix it in as it's worth the effort.

Donkey Kong's grab game is really defined by his unique cargo carry mechanic.
When he grabs an opponent, he can hit forward to lift them on his back from
which he can carry them around. Other than the obvious use for suicides, this
can let him set up attacks by carrying them to more favorable places. DK should
usually cargo to up throw to attempt to follow up with an up aerial, but he can
really mix it up a lot depending on circumstance. He can also use his Spinning
Kong out of a shield which is generally a good choice.

Donkey Kong's specials are all close range hits and have mixed usefulness. His
Ground Pound can rack up damage decently if it hits just right, but it is
incredibly unsafe and pretty hard to hit with so it really should be used very
seldom if at all. His Headbutt is similarly an interesting move that isn't very
good. Hitting with it is like hitting with a damaging Pitfall item, but the
move's range is poor as is its speed so it is mostly just asking to be
punished.

The Giant Punch is a high quality move. It's a really great killing move, and
it has super armor that Donkey Kong should exploit to ensure he delivers his
powerful attacks. However, throwing the punch in midair leaves Donkey Kong
helpless until he lands so it should mostly be used from the ground. His
Spinning Kong is a very quick move coming out that deals decent damage; he
should whip it out from the ground from time to time for easy damage. It is
also his main recovery move, but it has incredible landing lag when used from
the air so he should really try to hit the ledge with it.

Donkey Kong cannot wall jump, wall cling, or crawl, and he has only one midair
jump. He has a typical roll and spot dodge as well; his only really special
property is his cargo throw.

Donkey Kong's matches are mostly in the same vein as Bowser's with the
difference being that his generally greater speed lets him do much better
against speedy characters like Fox. Of course, his lower power similarly isn't
doing him a lot of favors against a character like Jigglypuff or Kirby; it's a
trade off that Donkey Kong probably wins by a small margin. Donkey Kong may not
be flashy or popular, but he has his monkey business, and that makes him
somewhat viable.

Diddy Kong

Diddy Kong was always everyone's favorite when playing the Donkey Kong Country
games, and he's a favorite here too. He's an all around speedy character in
both mobility and attacking, and that's an excellent thing to be. He has a lot
of quirky moves that serve him very well; he's an excellent character all
around.

On the ground, Diddy Kong really needs to know his good moves from his bad
ones. The general rule is that tilts are good and smashes are bad. His forward
smash is weak and fairly easy to punish, but his forward tilt comes out faster
and with better damage. His up tilt is a good upward hitting move, but it's
much easier to punish than his up tilt which does the same job but better. The
big exception is in the downward direction as Diddy Kong has a fast and
effective down smash while his down tilt is one directional with unuseful knock
back. Diddy Kong also has an incredible running attack. It's very fast and ends
so quickly that Diddy Kong can follow it up with other attacks without being
punished. This means that Diddy Kong should frequently rely on his running
attack for approaches as he can often flow into another move before a shield
grab would interrupt him. This is a great contrast to his jab combo which is
one of the worst in the game; never use his jab combo.

In the air, Diddy Kong's two big assets are his quick and powerful forward and
back aerials. He can approach from either direction and rely on a quick hit
that is decently powerful up in the air; his back aerial is the one with a
little more speed while his forward aerial is the one that packs the power. His
up and neutral aerials are very weak, but they are quick so he can use them to
rack damage when the enemy is very near. His down aerial is tricky to use, but
it's a wonderful spike so try to sneak it in if the opportunity arises.

Diddy's grab game leaves something to be desired, but given that his other
options out of a shield are also lackluster, he must rely on it. In general he
should go for his up throw to try to lead into aerials; his back throw sends
them too far away to do anything, and his other two throws are just generally
bad.

Diddy's specials aren't great, but he has some cool stuff here. His Peanut
Popgun is a rather lousy projectile that is extremely slow and easy to avoid;
only pull it out if the opponent is giving you an ideal chance to projectile
spam. Even then, be cautious as the peanuts can actually be caught and then
thrown back at Diddy as items. His Monkey Flip and Rocketbarrel Boost are both
quality recovery options that make it easy for him to get back to the stage,
but neither is that great otherwise. His Monkey Flip will spike them if he gets
the grab hit from it in the air, but it's tricky. Rocketbarrel Boost needs
practice to recover well with it, and if he gets hit during it, the barrels
might fly off rendering him helpless. If you want to use Diddy, spend some time
in training mode getting the timing on this move down.

His one really high quality special is his ability to summon banana peels. He
can only have two at a time, but he cannot trip on his own banana peels. He can
toss them at opponents to trip them up, but the main use is to plant them in
clever places that will severely restrict the foe's movement. When they trip,
Diddy can move in and punish while his bananas on the ground keep them locked
down. It's really hard to explain just how to plant them efficiently; the
general rule is that you should try to put one between you and the opponent and
the other in the place you figure the opponent most wants to go.

Diddy Kong can wall jump, wall cling, and crawl. He is short enough to crawl
under Pit's arrows but not any of the Star Fox characters' lasers. He has one
midair jump, a fairly quick roll, and an unfortunately slow spot dodge which he
should generally avoid.

Diddy's speed gives him advantage over the big and slow characters such as
Bowser, but he will find faster powerhouses such as Pikachu, Lucas, and Zelda a
real problem. Mr. Game & Watch and Marth's combination of speed and priority
could also be a big worry. Otherwise Diddy should expect generally even to
slightly favorable matches as he's not particularly extreme; he can expect to
perform well in a wide variety of situations.

Yoshi

Everyone is divided over who is good and bad, but few are divided over Yoshi's
standing. Yoshi is just obviously a pretty bad character, but he's really not
completely without merit. Yoshi has a slippery control in the air that,
combined with his very fast running speed, can make him somewhat unpredictable,
and he has surprising reach on several attacks. He's also surprisingly heavy.
Even if he isn't very good, he can at least be full of surprises.

A good general rule with Yoshi's ground attacks is to watch whether they use
his tail. All of his tail based attacks are good whereas his head and feet
based ones are lackluster. All three of his tilts are good and will be his
primary attacks on the ground. His up tilt pops them up into the air which is
fairly useful for Yoshi; use it whenever you have an opening. His forward tilt
and down tilt serve similar purposes; both are great moves to get the opponent
away and score a little damage. Yoshi also uses his down smash like a "fourth
tilt" since it covers a wide area quickly so it's great for racking up damage.
Unfortunately, he has to rely on his slow, poorly ranged forward and up smashes
for kills; Yoshi has trouble in this department.

In the air, Yoshi's two best moves are his up and back aerials. His back aerial
covers a huge range and racks up damage very nicely; use this move as often as
possible as it's one of Yoshi's best. Yoshi's up aerial will probably be his
most important killing move as it comes out quickly and hits opponents straight
up. Don't allow this move to be worn down by stale move negation as Yoshi has
very few other good killing options. Yoshi's neutral aerial is a decent option
for a quick hit, but it's very weak so it should be used sparingly. Speaking of
using moves sparingly, only use his forward aerial when you're sure you can hit
the spike as it is extremely slow and easy to punish. His down aerial is a very
difficult move to hit with, but it should be used anyways due to its great
ability to rack up damage on a clean hit.

Yoshi's out of shield game is just pathetic. His grab has big range, but it is
incredibly slow which makes it hard to use effectively. His up and down throws
both pop opponents up nicely and can be good options to attempt to follow up
with an up aerial, but he lacks direct killing power in grabs. His saddest
problem, however, is that he cannot jump out of his shield. This means that he
must roll, grab, or drop his shield after blocking an attack; he cannot do an
aerial or an up smash or special. His roll is also a very slow roll so it
really leaves him pretty helpless after blocking.

Yoshi's specials are mostly bad. His Egg Roll leaves him very open if your
opponent has a decent sense of timing; only use it for quick retreats and
surprise attacks. His Ground Pound is generally a bad move due to how unsafe on
landing it is; it should mostly just be used when Yoshi will hit the ledge
after using it. It is also somewhat useful if you can hit the opponent on the
way up as it forms a small combo, but given the risk, it usually isn't worth
it. Yoshi's Egg Lay is handy; he can use it to somewhat replace his slow grab
with the bonus of being able to use it in the air. He really can't follow up
turning an opponent into an egg with anything; just try to get a back or down
aerial on them quickly before they break out.

Yoshi's Egg Toss is his primary special. With careful aim, Yoshi can bombard
opponents anywhere from right next to him to about two thirds of Final
Destination away; good Yoshi players absolutely must master subtle aiming with
this move as solid projectile spam is one of the few things Yoshi can really do
well. In the air, it gains Yoshi a bit of height, but the returns diminish so
much after each use that it should only be used once. It's the closest thing to
a triple jump Yoshi has by the way; his recovery is pretty easy to mess up.
Additionally, this move can be used for a pretty clever edge stall. Yoshi can
let go of a ledge by hitting back and then immediately throw an egg. The height
he gains should be just right to grab the ledge again if done right. With
practice, Yoshi can snipe at the opponent with eggs while enjoying a lot of
invincibility from constant ledge grabbing.

Yoshi cannot wall jump or wall cling, but he can crawl. Yoshi is short enough
to duck under Pit's arrows, but while crawling he gains a bit of height so he
gets hit which means he can only use crawling to very slowly approach Pit. Of
course, he cannot duck under any of the team Star Fox projectiles at all. Yoshi
has a very slow roll which he should seldom use, and his spot dodge seems
slightly slower than average. Yoshi's inability to jump out of a shield is a
huge handicap which severely limits his game, but he does have the minor
benefit of having a shield that never shrinks. It will break like every other
character's shield, but it changes colors instead of growing smaller and always
covers his whole body. Yoshi also has a tremendous weight gain when he is
starting his double jump which allows him to take many attacks without
flinching, but this only helps him in recovery. Yoshi can continue following
the path of his double jump while attacking as well which allows him to very
quickly gain height during an attack; I suggest using up aerials out of his
double jump to catch opponents coming down.

All in all, Yoshi is just a character with a lot of problems. He has a lot of
special properties which are good, but then his inability to jump out of a
shield takes it all away. His shield game as a whole turns out to just be awful
as he is cursed with a bad grab and roll; he really doesn't have much he can do
after blocking. Yoshi also is a poor character at racking up kills which just
does him no favors. I really can't say much about specific matches as Yoshi
will have trouble with most characters for the same reasons, but he should have
a somewhat palatable match with Wario due to his ability to outrange Wario and
control space. He also can have a generally good time against characters such
as Bowser and Ganondorf with very poor mobility thanks mostly to eggs, but I'm
really just struggling to find anything to help out poor Yoshi.

Wario

Wario is from the start an obviously unusual character, but his play style is
even more off the wall than you would at first expect. While he does have high
weight, he doesn't play like the heavy characters at all; he is actually most
similar to Jigglypuff! Wario uses his amazing aerial mobility and an array of
attacks with surprising speed and power to make himself into a large threat on
the battlefield, but his absolutely horrible range really limits him. He seems
above average, but his inability to threaten from afar seems like it keeps him
from the upper echelons of play.

On the ground, Wario should definitely mostly rely on his tilts. Wario has a
powerful and medium speed forward tilt that will be his main source of grounded
kills. His forward smash is a more powerful option, but it has a range so awful
that it is usually really impractical to connect with. Still, it's actually
quick so he can be tricky by comboing into it after a weak aerial such as his
forward aerial. His upward attacks are similar except his up smash is just a
damage racking move; it's a move to generally refrain from using. Wario's down
tilt is a fairly slow option, but it is still a better choice than his super
slow down smash.

In the air is where Wario really shines. Wario's forward aerial will be his
most used and relied upon move as he can jump in, attack with it, and weave
back out to land out of range of retaliation. This is the central Wario
strategy so be sure to use it frequently. Wario's neutral aerial and up aerial
can be difficult to connect with, but they are his two main killing options in
the air. His up aerial kills off the top pretty easily, and his neutral aerial
sends them much farther away. His down aerial is just a damage dealer, but it's
pretty potent with little landing lag so use it whenever the chance arises. His
one aerial to generally avoid is his back aerial since it has so much landing
lag when he hits the ground during it. It's pretty powerful though so you can
mix it in; just be sure to use it after full hops or from higher up in general
so Wario completes the move before landing.

Wario's grab game is as quirky as you have come to expect from this character.
His main killing throw is his forward throw while his back throw generally gets
poor distance which is the exact opposite of nearly every other character.
However, when you aren't going for a kill, you should look to his up and down
throws. Wario's up throw sets the opponent up for aerials, but Wario has a
chain grab out of his down throw against Bowser and Donkey Kong. After the
throw, the opponent is knocked right behind Wario so he can turn around and
grab again. While those two are the only ones against which he can pull off
long forced grab combos, he can frequently get several in a row with the
others. If they don't directionally influence, he doesn't even have to move to
continue against Ganondorf, Captain Falcon, Wolf, or Falco. Pick whatever
throws best suit the situation to make sure Wario is maintaining maximum
pressure.

Wario's special moves are pretty odd and for the most part pretty limited. His
Bite is a very short range move, but it can be used as an aerial grab and can
interrupt many low priority attacks, especially from Sonic. For the most part
this move shouldn't be used much, but it can be viable defensively. If the
opponent gets into Wario's mouth, the Wario player should press B rapidly to do
as much damage as possible. Wario can also eat various projectiles, but
explosives still hurt him so this is pretty limited. The useful things he can
eat are R.O.B.'s gyro, Peach's turnips, Wario's bike and bike fragments, Diddy
Kong's peanuts and banana peels, and Zero Suit Samus's suit parts. He can also
eat King Dedede's Waddle Dees while they walk around on the ground, but he
can't eat them as they are being thrown. Speaking of Wario's bike, it's a
pretty poor attack in general since he is very vulnerable unless he is doing a
wheelie which makes him very slow, but he can use it in the air and then leap
from it for recovery. Only one bike can be out at a time so Wario players
should try to keep the bike ready to use for this purpose.

Wario's Corkscrew is a pretty bad recovery move and has such poor range that it
can seldom be used as an attack, but, if the opponent is caught in the entire
thing, it will do good damage. It should be used very sparingly save when the
height is truly needed to make a recovery, but it can be a good surprise attack
if a golden opportunity arises. Wario's Wario Waft has some use for recovery if
it is really needed, but the best use of the move is to wait for it to fully
charge and then use it as a finishing blow. It takes approximately 1 minute and
51 seconds for the move to fully charge, but the charge is retained between
stock.

Wario cannot wall jump or wall cling, but he can crawl for little practical
benefit. Wario has but one midair jump, and he is unfortunate to have both a
slow roll and a slow spot dodge.

Wario's only big handicap in most matches is his horrible range so characters
with huge range are going to make this problem most apparent. Marth and Ike
just completely outdistance Wario, and even characters like Olimar and Mr. Game
& Watch could prove problematic. However, Wario's superb aerial control means
that characters such as Jigglypuff and Squirtle who were relying on superior
aerial control to win could be in trouble. Wario also tends to do well against
very low priority characters such as Sonic and characters who try to attack
from very close range such as Captain Falcon.

Link

This is another case where being candid won't earn me many friends, but it must
be done. Link is really bad in this game for the sole reason that Toon Link
exists and is way better at using what's essentially the same move set. The
only real reason to use Link is to be stubborn; those who want to use Link and
win should just pick Toon Link. Okay, that's out of the way. I'm going to
assume everyone from this point on is stubborn and wants to use Link to his
potential even if he's an obviously inferior character. Link has some good
stuff; he can play a solid keep away game with his three projectiles, and his
melee attacks have solid range and power thanks to his sword.

Link has a lot of good moves on the ground so he'll be spending a lot of time
here. His forward and up tilts both swing over his head and hit in front of
him, but they hit in different directions. His up tilt hits up, and his forward
tilt hits forward. Use whichever one fits your specific needs, but both are
great, quick, high range moves Link should use a lot. His down tilt is a bit
slower, but it tends to poke under shields and is nice for popping the enemy
into the air. Link's down smash is a typical one that clears out opponents
rolling around too much, and his up smash is a great damage dealer that tends
to set the opponents up in the air nicely. However, Link's real gem on the
ground is his forward smash. He does one fairly low knock back but decently
damaging swing, and if A or any direction on the c-stick is pressed somewhat
within the timing of the attack, he'll do a very powerful follow up swing. He
can vary the timing to be very unpredictable which makes this move very
dangerous. If you just want to do a double attack as quickly as possible,
simply mashing A will make it happen. Link's jab combo and running attack are
also both decent, but neither is anything special.

Link in the air is also pretty solid as he has six pretty good aerials. Yes, I
meant six. His forward aerial is a nice range and speed double sword hit; he
should be sure to throw it out at every opportunity. His back aerial is a
double quick kick of pretty average strength that he should also use a lot. His
neutral aerial is also a kick, but it is so weak that it's less useful by
comparison to the back version. His up aerial is pretty slow and has a lot of
landing lag, but it has very high priority and decent power so Link can throw
it out with confidence to approach enemies coming at him from below. Link's
down aerial is a fan favorite for its great power, but the move is very slow
thanks to huge landing lag. Only use it when you are sure to hit. If it hits
twice, all landing lag is canceled so it's a somewhat more viable move against
the Ice Climbers than normal. Link also has a sixth aerial he can use by
hitting Z in midair to fire his Clawshot. This move has literally no landing
lag, and despite how weak it is, it has solid range. Short hop approaching with
the Clawshot is a great tactic that Link should be sure to exploit, but this
move has a very long recovery time in the air so when Link is not able to
quickly land during the move he should only use it to tether the ledge as per
the move's original purpose.

Link's grab game is pretty hampered by his relatively slow grab, but for his
absolutely huge range, it's at least of a tolerable speed. None of his throws
are particularly good unfortunately, but his down throw does leave them close
enough to follow up with a quick attack if they are at low percentages. His up
smash out of a shield will be useful, but his Spin Attack should generally not
be used like that.

Link's special moves mostly revolve around the concept of spamming projectiles.
If he needs to quickly apply pressure in a nearly straight line in front of
him, he should shoot his Bow. His Gale Boomerang can be angled to hit at a wide
variety of locations, and it should be used to control space and force the
opponent to not go where he most wants to go. Unfortunately, the gale effect is
really bad; pulling the enemy in if the enemy is prepared is actually to Link's
disadvantage as he was using his projectiles to keep them out in the first
place. Be ready for it to happen, but in general, don't try to hit with the
returning Gale Boomerang. Link's last fun tool is his ability to throw bombs.
Link should always try to be tossing these just where the opponent wants to go,
and given their high power, they will be very effective at keeping the enemy at
bay. Link will especially profit from throwing a bomb right as he's running at
an opponent to force the opponent to answer the bomb just moments before Link's
attack. If the opponent gets clever and starts catching many bombs, delay
tossing them so they explode as they reach their target. It's an easy mistake
for Link players to make to not use enough projectiles, but they are really
what make Link the character he is. At almost all times in a match, Link should
either have at least one projectile out or should be following up on the
immediate advantage gained from his projectiles that were there shortly before.

Link's Spin Attack is his recovery option, and this is getting its own
paragraph so I can make it a very clear point. The Spin Attack should only be
used for recovery. On the ground, it is slow, predictable, and fairly weak.
Charging it only makes Link even more slow and predictable, and it really can't
be used to spike like it could in Super Smash Brothers Melee. The "combo" down
throw to Spin Attack does not work. Seriously, only use this move for recovery,
and you'll be a much better Link player.

Link cannot crawl, wall jump, or wall cling, and he has only one midair jump.
His roll is a little on the slow side which limits its use, but he does have a
pretty typical spot dodge. Link can use his Clawshot as a tether in the air
both as an attack and as a way to automatically grab ledges if he is within
range. Link's shield (the one he is holding, not the one he gets by pressing a
shield button) can also be used to block projectiles. If Link is in an idle or
crouching pose and a projectile hits his shield, Link will be pushed slightly
back and take no damage. If he hasn't moved at all for a while, he sometimes
moves his shield slightly to his side which leaves him open, but crouching
prevents this from happening. Also, just in case you were wondering, Link's
shield does not block the recoil from the main cannons on the Great Fox at
Corneria.

Due to the whole outclassed factor, Link will obviously not enjoy a match
against Toon Link. His shield and wide array of versatile projectiles makes him
a great choice against other projectile abusers such as Pit, but against the
faster and stronger swordsmanship of Marth, he'll be in trouble. Small
characters that can hurt him very badly once they get inside such as Olimar and
Ness could also be issues. However, in general, Link shouldn't expect too
extreme of advantages or disadvantages in battle. He has a wide array of decent
but not spectacular options that should keep his head just above water against
most foes.

Zelda

Before talking about Zelda or Sheik, I'm going to spend a bit of time talking
about their ability to transform back and forth with their down special. In
general, this is a really bad strategy. The transformation is very slow, and
the opponent can usually hit them with a powerful attack when it ends. They are
fully invincible while changing, and since the change time lasts the duration
of the time it takes for the game to load the data on the other character, it
is not a consistent duration which makes predicting when to smash them
difficult. The transformation will happen faster if your opponent is the
character you are turning into, and pausing in the middle of the transformation
can also speed it up. However, unless you are really having trouble in the
match and feel like you could use a new character to turn things around, you
should start as the one you want to use and stick it out until the end.

Anyway, Zelda is pretty much just a powerhouse of a character. She's light and
has some speed issues, but her ability to consistently score low percent kills
is second to none. That's right, even such powerhouses as Ike and Bowser can't
kill as easily as Zelda can. Zelda is definitely an above average character who
can compete with the best though she's not really one of the best herself, and
she's a great choice if you are looking for someone with power.

On the ground, Zelda has a lot of decent, high damage options. Her forward
smash is a good move to hit opponents approaching from the front as the magical
burst is far out in front of her, and the move hits hard. Her up smash is of
similar use against aerial foes as it catches them in the magic ring doing big
damage. Her down smash has no magic and only a small hit area; reserve it for
those who like to roll too much. Of her tilts, her best is easily her forward
tilt as it pops the enemy right above her in a really useful way. At low
percentages, she can lead into an up smash for massive damage, and at higher
percentages, she can attempt an up aerial for a finisher. Her up tilt covers a
huge area so it's a nice safety move; use it when you just want to get the
enemy away. Her down tilt is just a tripping move at lower percentages that
should only be used to get a quick hit and maybe stab under a shield, but at
higher percentages, it pops the enemy up and can lead into an up smash the same
way the forward tilt could at lower percentages. Her jab and running attack
aren't particularly special, but both are good ways to push an enemy away due
to the magic burst in front of them.

In the air is where Zelda makes it clear that she is absolutely deadly. Her
forward and back aerials are pretty much identical in all but direction, and
both are ridiculously dangerous. If she hits with the tip of her foot where
there's the magic burst, the game will pause for a bit to let everyone see that
a big hit has just been landed, and then the foe will be electrocuted and fly
away with incredible knock back. This kills ridiculously early, and since Zelda
has two moves here, she doesn't have to worry about stale move negation very
much. This is how she gets kills; abuse this very heavily. Her up aerial isn't
quite as notable of a killer, but it is still great. On a weaker character, it
would probably be a main kill move. She creates an explosion above her with
good knock back; you can use this to easily score star KOs on opponents who
dare try to approach from above. Her neutral aerial isn't strong like the
others, but it hits over a wide area so it's a good option if you need a safe
move in the air. Her down aerial is a third lightning kick, but it sends foes
straight down. Use it for spikes, but the small hit area means you will
probably use it the least of Zelda's aerials.

Zelda has some prospects of killing with her back throw so it should be her
option if the opponent is very hurt, but her best trick with grabs in general
is to do a down throw followed up by a lightning kick. Her up throw is a good
choice for those middling percentages where the down throw isn't as effective
but the back can't kill; she can put them up in the air and try to threaten
them with her up aerial. You probably could have guessed that up smash out of
shield is useful for Zelda; it's a great way to rack damage against foes that
try to land behind you to avoid a shield grab.

Zelda only has three real special moves due to her transformation, but they do
their jobs. Farore's Wind is a wonderful recovery with hits in just the right
places to make it hard to punish. It should be used mostly for recovery, but
Zelda should try to be unpredictable with it and end in unexpected places.
She's covering a huge distance with it so the question is really more one of
where you want to recover to instead of one of if you can recover at all. If
she's in an unfavorable position on the course, Farore's Wind can also be an
effective way to relocate. Be sure to practice this move and the nuances of
positioning if you are serious about Zelda; it's important. Nayru's Love can
act as a reflector, but it has too much delay between uses to be effective at
that. In general, it's a pretty bad move; Zelda should only use it if she needs
a quick hit all around her body which is pretty seldom.

Zelda's really important special move is Din's Fire. She can direct this to a
large extent, and she can choose when to detonate it so she can effectively use
it to harass opponents over a huge area in front of her. It is an effective
keep away move and at higher percentages can be used to lead opponents off the
top of the screen; abuse this frequently and force opponents to come to you.
However, watch out as if she uses it in the air, she'll be helpless until she
lands. This is a bad move to use in the air in general; use it from the ground
when you think you have found a good defensive position.

Zelda cannot wall jump, wall cling, or crawl, and she has only one midair jump.
Her roll is somewhat above average speed wise, but her spot dodge seems a
little slow. Both are still within the range at which she can use them like
most characters do.

Zelda's power in the air means that the lightweights who try to approach her
from the air are going to have a hard time. That means Jigglypuff, Kirby, and
Meta Knight mostly. She can even do pretty well against such characters as Toon
Link and Mr. Game & Watch thanks to her ability to so easily score kills, but
it might be unfair to say she has an advantage. Against the heavier slow
characters, she might struggle a bit since they can actually kill her easier
than she can kill them, but in general, she shouldn't expect to find any foes
terrible problems. Ness and Lucas can answer her projectile better than she can
answer theirs and also kill really easily; she'll have some of her more intense
fights against them.

Sheik

Sheik is what happens when Zelda wonders what it would be like to be a ninja.
Much unlike Zelda, Sheik is a pure speed character. Be it attacking or just
running around, everything Sheik does is very, very fast. However, in just as
much of a contrast to Zelda, Sheik is weak and has trouble getting kills. Sheik
is overall probably a worse character than Zelda, but Sheik is not without
merit and appeals to an entirely different sort of player. If you're a big fan
of a character who is proficient at rush downs and has a surprisingly good edge
guarding game, Sheik just might be your character.

On the ground, Sheiks will mostly be relying on her very quick tilts. Her
forward tilt is easily her best; it is ridiculously fast, covers a large area,
and moves Sheik slightly forward. She can oftentimes string several of these
together on opponents to rack up solid damage. Her up tilt hits over a narrow
area but hits very high up making a great move to answer opponents from above,
and her down tilt is a quick way to poke under a shield and leads into aerials
at higher percentages. Her running attack is also very quick and pops opponents
right up into the air; it's a good choice. Her forward smash is really limited
since it has pretty much no killing potential and has a long animation, but she
should go for it when she is fairly sure she can hit since it racks damage
nicely. Her down smash is not only great for clearing out those who roll too
much but is also her best option to do right after landing from an aerial; it
just lets her keep up her constant string of attacks. Her up smash is hard to
hit with, but it's her only move from the ground that has any hope of killing
so go for it if the chance arises or a shield should break.

In the air, Sheik has a few killing options and a few damage dealers, but most
of her stuff is still quick. Her forward aerial is a quick swat that is handy
for racking up damage, but it has almost no killing potential. Her back and up
aerials can kill in their respective directions at higher percentages, and both
also come out very quickly. Her neutral aerial is just a standard weak but
quick neutral aerial that she won't be using too much, but it's not a bad move
so there's no harm in mixing it in. Her down aerial plunges her downward in a
predictable fashion with more landing lag than Sheik usually has; use this move
when you want to be generally ineffective and give your opponent a free grab.
Other than her down aerial, you will notice that none of Sheik's aerials have
noticeable landing lag; abuse this and flow from air to ground in a constant
flurry of attacks.

Sheik's grabs don't give her any kill options, but her down throw is a
wonderful throw to lead into other attacks. Depending on how the opponent
directionally influences, she will get different aerials out of it, but she can
usually hit with an aerial after a down throw. At lower percentages, she
sometimes will want to up throw to follow up with an up aerial, but that's a
nice case. If she is being shield pressured and is looking to turn things
around with a kill, she could always up smash out of a shield. It will surely
catch the opponent off guard.

Sheik's three special moves are not particularly noteworthy but are worth some
attention. Her Chain is more or less entirely useless as an attack, but it can
be used as a tether recovery over the ledge. Vanish is a teleport she can
recover with much like Zelda can, but she has a small hop before she disappears
and doesn't get a second hit after she appears again. Master teleporting around
with Sheik to make recoveries as unpredictable as possible. Her last special,
Needle Storm, is easily her most useful. Pressing B causes her to begin
charging needles, and pressing it again causes her to release. The more she has
charged, the more needles she shoots. In general, she should just double tap B
to throw one needle quickly. From the ground, it's a great way to interrupt an
opponent before rushing in to attack, and in the air, it goes at a downward
angle that can really mess with opponents trying to recover.

Sheik can wall jump, wall cling, and crawl. She is short enough to crawl under
both Pit's arrows and Fox and Falco's lasers, but Wolf's laser will still nail
her. She can even crawl under Samus's Super Missiles and Charge Shot as long as
it is not near to a full charge. Sheik has a quick roll and a typical spot
dodge as well.

Sheik's blinding speed makes her more than a match for the big slow characters
such as Bowser or King Dedede, but the characters who are not so slow but have
a lot of power and priority could be concerns. This means Olimar, Marth, and
Mr. Game & Watch could be hard matches for her. She will also do well against
characters like Pit and Snake as her speed lets her maneuver around projectiles
better than most, and she is so much faster than them up close that she can do
great damage.

Ganondorf

How to unlock:

-Play 200 brawls.
-Have Ganondorf join your party in The Subspace Emissary.
-Clear Classic on Hard or greater with Link or Zelda.

Well, here comes Ganondorf. Ganondorf, like all characters from the Zelda
series, has a lot of fans, but he is just a catastrophe of a character. The
idea is that he's slow but has enough strength to make up for it. Ganondorf
certainly does have absolutely phenomenal strength, but slow only begins to
describe. Ganondorf is so slow that he has pretty much no ability to follow up
any attacks with any other attacks and gets punished time and time again every
time he misses anything. Ganondorf has easily the game's worst attack speed and
mobility so everyone can just take turns abusing his flagrant and nearly
insurmountable weaknesses. Ganondorf does still have a few high points that
dedicated players can focus on, but only use him if you are willing to accept
being at a disadvantage from the word go in pretty much every match.

Ganondorf has no trouble doing damage if he can hit so his main goal on the
ground is to find attacks with which he can hit. It's a pretty hopeless goal,
but let's see what he has. Ganondorf's fastest attack is unsurprisingly his
jab. He has no jab combo; it's just a single quick sucker punch. Use it to keep
enemies on their toes and to score easy damage. Ganondorf also has a pretty
quick running attack, but it leaves him open to shield grab so watch out. Of
his tilts and smashes, his somewhat decent forward tilt should be what he
primarily falls back on, but his down tilt, despite the poor hit and only
average speed, is still useful. Never, ever use his up tilt; even with the
vacuum effect that pulls them into the huge hit, it is way too slow to ever be
useful. All three of his smashes are slow but very strong; use them when the
opponent gives you a golden opportunity and is in the appropriate direction
(rolling around in the case of the down one).

In the air, Ganondorf's best bet by far is his quick and fairly powerful up
aerial. This move does a flip all around him, and it has very little landing
lag. Abuse it heavily. Ganondorf also has a good option in his back aerial as
it is quick and has almost no landing lag as well, but the hit area is very
small. Try in general to rack up damage with the up aerial and finish with the
back aerial. The forward aerial is very strong, but it's very easy to punish if
you miss so only use it occasionally. The neutral aerial is a just plain bad
move, and the down aerial is a very interesting choice. It sends the enemy
straight down and have a very nice bounce when they hit the ground. The move is
really slow with somewhat poor and awkward range, but it's often a good idea
for Ganondorf to try to position himself for this move. If he gets really
lucky, a hit from this might even lead into his up aerial, but you shouldn't
expect one move to lead into another in general with Ganondorf.

Since Ganondorf can't follow up on anything, his best option out of a grab is
to just throw them up so he can try to hit with an up aerial as they come down.
Grabbing is pretty much all he should do out of a shield as his grab is
actually a pretty quick one.

Ganondorf has exactly one good special, but let's cover the other three first.
His Wizard's Punch is exceedingly strong, but it's so laughably slow that he
should never expect to hit with it. He can tap and hold the opposite direction
while starting it up to reverse it, but that's a rare trick he should only try
to pull if he really needs to land a huge hit to come back from the opponent's
lead. Dark Dive is a below average recovery, but due to the awkward way he
throws himself up, it's very hard to hit as an attack and leaves him very open
to punishment. It's quite hilarious when he hits someone with the grab portion
of this move, but the move should really be saved for just recovery. His
Wizard's Foot seems like a fast option at first, but it is very predictable and
easy to punish even more so than most of Ganondorf's other moves. Due to the
relatively great speed at which Ganondorf flies across the course, it can be
good as a surprise attack, but leave it at that. In the air, it is a somewhat
reasonable option to get down quickly though it has enormous landing lag. Use
it just once in a while just like on the ground. Especially don't use it over
the edge; it's a suicide move all the way.

Ganondorf's one real point of pride is his excellent "Flame Choke" which is his
forward special. This move lets him cover ground quickly, but it has enough lag
afterward that he can't immediately follow up with an attack. However, if he
can hit with it which isn't that hard, he'll do some damage and plant the enemy
right on the ground. He really has nothing to follow this up with, but it's a
good way to deal damage. Your best bet is probably to try to predict the
enemy's movement and time well to follow up with this move again, but don't
expect to pull off long strings. Used in the air, this move slams opponents to
the ground and leaves them there so it's pretty much the same thing and handy
to escape juggles. If you slam them down over a pit, the predictable happens
and Ganondorf does a "suicide throw" to both of your demises. However, if you
miss, Ganondorf is left in a helpless state and will probably die alone so only
use this over a pit if you're sure to hit. Speaking of pits, watch out as
Ganondorf can kill himself if he goes over the edge with this move.

Ganondorf cannot wall jump, wall cling, or crawl, and he has only one midair
jump. His roll is just a tiny bit slow, and his spot dodge is very ordinary.

Ganondorf really has trouble against the entire rest of the cast, but due to
the extreme nature of the differences, his greatest problems will come from
speed characters such as Fox and Sonic. Ganondorf is at his best against very
light and floaty characters such as Jigglypuff and Kirby who he can kill with a
very small number of attacks and against whom he can more easily exploit his
few quick aerials.

Toon Link

How to unlock:

-Play 400 brawls.
-Have Toon Link join your party in The Subspace Emissary.
-Clear Classic mode after clearing The Subspace Emissary.

Those unfamiliar with Toon Link might not be sure about what makes him better
than Link. The main thing is speed; Toon Link is ridiculously fast. He has one
of the highest running speeds in the game, all of his attacks are quick, and he
has a combination of floatiness and solid aerial control that lets him do what
he needs to do in the air. Factor in the fact that his projectile game is even
better than Link's and you have what is rightly considered by many to be one of
the best characters in the game.

Toon Link's ground game is essentially just a faster, lower range version of
Link's. Toon Link's forward and up tilts both swing overhead and in front of
him, and each one sends the enemy in the direction its name indicates. Toon
Link has a down tilt that just sends the enemy away weakly, but his down tilt
is very quick so he can easily use it to get the enemy away if he gets in
trouble. Toon Link's down smash is a really great move; it can not only clear
out rolling foes but generally does big damage to everyone it hits. He hits
enemies toward him instead of away with his down smash so he can frequently hit
with both hits, and the knock back on it is pretty high. Toon Link's up smash
is a quite powerful single hit that not only hits above him but in front of
him; he should use this to go for kills off the top as it is quite effective.
Toon Link has the same double forward smash Link has, but due to his small
size, it's far more deceptive. Toon Link should delay the second hit as long as
possible to sucker opponents into trying to approach, and then he can use it to
hit way out in front of him with an exceedingly powerful strike. Toon Link also
has fast and useable options in his running attack and jab combo; nothing he
has on the ground is bad.

Much like Link, Toon Link also has six solid aerials. However, Toon Link mostly
gets single sword strikes instead of multiple hits. Toon Link's forward and
back aerials are both quick slashes in the appropriate direction, and he should
use both to generally attack foes on either side. His neutral aerial is weak
but hits all around him so it's a good defensive move, and his up aerial, much
like Link's, is a high priority option to hit above him. However, unlike with
Link, Toon Link doesn't have a terribly large amount of landing lag on his up
aerial so he can use it more frequently with confidence. Toon Link's down
aerial is a very interesting move; he plunges down on his opponent with great
speed, but if he hits, he bounces upward. After a second hit, the move
automatically ends and he can do another move. With good timing and spacing,
Toon Link can bounce from opponents many times in a row to rapidly rack up
large damage, but watch out as the move has a substantial recovery time upon
landing. Toon Link can also use his Hookshot as a decent attack in the air by
pressing Z to try to exploit a move with literally zero landing lag, but the
range is a bit too short to rely on it very often. However, it recovers much
faster than Link's in the air so he can use it from higher up without as much
risk.

Toon Link's grab game mostly comes down to his down throw while being mindful
of his slower than average grab. None of his throws are likely to kill, but his
down throw puts opponents in the best position for Toon Link to follow up with
his powerful arsenal of dangerous attacks. Toon Link should also use his up
smash out of a shield somewhat often; it's a powerful option that lets him do
big damage all around himself.

Toon Link's projectile game is essentially the same thing as Link's so I'm
going to save the repetition and only point out how it is different. Toon
Link's Boomerang has a weak hit on the return instead of a gale effect so he
can use it to control space much more effectively. The hit on the way back is
weak, but it stuns the enemy. Toon Link can approach from the front and his
Boomerang comes back to hit them from behind, and the combined attack will be
very hard to answer. Toon Link's bombs are also slightly weaker but with a much
better blast radius; he can use this fact to control space even better with
them. His arrows are also a bit slower, but due to his better Boomerang, he
doesn't lose out on his ability to control the space in a line right in front
of him. The arrows are still useful if the Boomerang is out on another mission;
be sure not to neglect them.

His Spin Attack is still a strictly recovery move. He gets a ton of air from it
much unlike Link, but on the ground, it sucks the opponent in to rack up damage
instead of knocking them away. The damage really isn't that great, and the move
is dangerous. Seriously, I repeat again, only use the Spin Attack to recover.

Toon Link can wall jump, but he cannot wall cling or crawl. He has only one
midair jump, a slightly slow roll, and a slightly quick spot dodge. His shield
has the same properties Link's does right down to the trouble during idle
animations; read Link's section for more information.

Toon Link doesn't have trouble against any characters really. He's just a
ridiculously powerful character who has an answer for everything. Marth can
give him some trouble if he gets past the wall of projectiles, and characters
who are very quick in the air such as Meta Knight or Jigglypuff have more hope
than most of getting past the flurry of projectiles and then catching the
speedy Toon Link behind them. Toon Link is clearly one of the game's best
characters so he can go into any match with confidence that he has the tools he
needs to win. Play Toon Link like the champ that he is and strike fear into
your enemies' hearts.

Samus

Samus has historically been a big projectile spammer, but she's less effective
at it in this game. She's actually just a not very effective character all
around. She's slow and overly floaty with a move set that doesn't really
benefit from her floatiness, and despite being a 6'6" tall woman in a giant
robotic suit of armor, she frequently has trouble getting kills.

Samus's ground game is largely a lead in to her air game; her down tilt is a
quick blast to knock opponents into the air, and her up tilt is a slow but wide
range kick that does the same thing. Her down smash also sends opponents up and
is fast so she can use it for that as well as the usual punishment of overly
zealous roll abusers. Her forward tilt is quick but has poor and unuseful knock
back so it's just a move to get opponents away, but her forward smash is one of
her main killing moves. Her up smash creates several blasts over her head that
are great for racking up damage on an opponent coming down on her; perhaps this
move would work well with another that knocks the opponent into the air? She
also has a pretty standard fare jab combo and running attack that she can mix
in.

In the air, Samus has a few quality options. Her back aerial is very quick with
just enough knock back so it can be quite dangerous if she attempts to chase
with it. Her up aerial has very poor knock back, but if she can catch an
opponent in it, it racks up damage nicely. Her forward aerial works on the same
principle but hits over a pretty huge area; she should use it when she needs to
just cause damage. Her neutral aerial is pretty standard fare with a quick but
weak hit, but the knock back is enough so that she could throw it out, land,
turn around, and then edge guard with the back aerial in hope of a kill. Her
down aerial is actually a pretty good move. It hits over a small area, but it's
a high damage spike. Don't use it a whole lot since it's not a move you can
expect to hit with often, but it will always be rewarding when it does hit.
Samus also has her great "sixth aerial" in her Grapple Beam. By pressing Z in
the air, Samus shoot out her very long Grapple Beam which has absolutely no lag
upon landing. She mostly will make approaches by doing this move after a short
hop over and over again to rack up damage from a very safe distance.

Samus is a character with very few options out of a shield as her roll is
awful, and her grab is very slow. If she does get a grab, her two main choices
are to either do a down throw followed up by a forward aerial or an up throw
followed up by an up aerial. Her up smash probably won't be very handy out of a
shield, but she can use the Screw Attack out of her shield for some decent
results.

Samus's special moves are all useful to her. Her Charge Shot and Missiles
should both be used to constantly harass opponents. She should rain Super
Missiles on opponents to rack up damage and even kill the more weakened ones
and use free moments to charge up the Charge Shot which is a great finisher for
when an opening arises. If the opponent has made himself difficult to approach,
standard homing Missiles can be used to make the position indefensible. For the
unaware, she does a "smash" motion to fire a Super Missile while a "tilt"
motion fires a standard Missile. Additionally, Samus cancels her Missile firing
animation if she hits the ground while doing it so firing one just at the right
height so it will come out as she lands is a great way to shoot a bit more
quickly or to do any attack or even rush at the opponent right after a shot.

Samus's Bombs are useful to let her get down without opponents harassing her
from above, and she can lay a bomb between herself and her opponent to
effectively control space for a short period of time. In the air, she can bomb
jump by laying a bomb, not pressing anything else, and then laying a second
bomb to stall her in the air just as the first bomb would hit her. This is
handy in recovery; serious Samus players should definitely practice it. Her
Screw Attack is a handy recovery move and also is effective at racking up
damage. It leaves Samus pretty open if she misses, but it's a good move to mix
in every once in a while.

Samus can wall jump but not wall cling or crawl. Samus has the single slowest
roll in the game that she should almost never use, but her spot dodge is
decent. If a Samus user inputs up taunt, down taunt, up taunt extremely
quickly, Samus will do a one way transformation into Zero Suit Samus.

Samus won't like Snake as he accomplishes what she does with her projectiles
with his much better. Pretty much all other characters with solid projectile
games such as Link, Pit, or Falco will cause her trouble. Very fast characters
such as Fox, Sonic, or the mildly ironic Zero Suit Samus can rush her down
pretty effectively as well. Being a projectile user, she will like fighting
slower targets such as Bowser, and she should be able to handle herself against
even quicker power characters such as Lucas and Zelda.

Zero Suit Samus

Zero Suit Samus may be a fan favorite for all the wrong reasons, but as an
actual character, she's pretty interesting. She's very fast with good range and
a few moves that have a handy "stun" effect. She generally lacks power and has
what is probably the single worst grab in the game, but otherwise she's a solid
contender worth serious consideration.

On the ground, Zero Suit Samus has fast tilts and wide range smashes that
compliment each other nicely. Her forward tilts and jab combo both have very
little knock back but great speed and are essentially just tools to knock the
opponent away. Her up and down tilts both pop opponents into the air, and her
down tilt sends low percent opponents low enough that she can sometimes follow
up with a running attack. Her running attack is actually pretty decent; she can
use it once in a while. Her forward smash isn't very powerful, but it hits an
absolutely huge range in front of her and is decently quick so she should be
sure to use it. Her up smash racks up decent damage and sends the opponent back
up into the air so it's a great move for juggles. Her down smash is her most
interesting move; it stuns the opponent which gives her time to do whatever she
wants. She can go for loops with her Plasma Wire or try for a finisher with the
Plasma Whip; she has choices. Yes, her down smash does suspend aerial foes in
midair; it's quite cool.

In the air, Zero Suit Samus has a bit of an odd problem. She has a delay after
jumping during which she cannot attack that means she can't do aerials until
the peak of her jumps. That makes her aerials far less useful to her than they
would be to other characters. Her forward aerial is a weak double kick in front
of her that is only good for damage racking, and her neutral aerial causes her
to spin her whip around her for weak but safe damage. Her up aerial starts off
with horrible knock back, but the damage scaling is nice so it can be a source
of off the top kills for her. Her back aerial also has some decent power and
speed so it's useful. Her down aerial is a horrible diving move that just
leaves her open; I suggest against ever using it. Despite having her
prominently featured whip, she actually doesn't have a "z" aerial attack so
this is all she has to work with.

Her grab game has a lot of problems. Her only good throw is her down throw
which she can lead into a Plasma Wire which is generally a pretty productive
choice; if the opponent really messes up, she can do loops like this. However,
getting that grab will be hard. She has what you will notice is the slowest
grab in the game so despite its bad reach it's pretty bad. However, that's only
the beginning of her woes. If the opponent is too far away and sufficiently
short, he can duck under her grab! Even big opponents like Charizard can duck
under it at the right ranges so in effect it's just very unreliable. She might
consider using her up smash and Plasma Wire out of a shield instead, but both
only hit right on top of her and above her.

Zero Suit Samus has some interesting specials. Her most useful one is her
forward special, Plasma Whip. This move has one and only one use, and that is
as a fantastic kill move. It hits far in front of her and has great knock back.
She could also use it to tether ledges, but that's not really practical. Her
Paralyzer is also an interesting move since it's a ranged stun attack, but the
way she has to charge it to get any respectable distance or stun time makes it
very limited so she should not use it very often. Her Flip Jump has no
attacking properties when used normally, but if she hits a wall during it, she
will automatically do a wall jump. It's useful for recovery. She can press B
after using it to do a kick that is surprisingly powerful, but it's not an
attack that can be used very often due to the way this move repositions her.

Her Plasma Wire is a very interesting move. It hits above her like her up smash
racking up good damage, but the hit at the tip is a spike. She can use this on
opponents near a ledge for great profit, but more commonly she uses it to plant
the opponent right back on the ground in front of her. This can set them up for
a down smash which lets her try to make this into a loop. She really can't keep
that up for very long since they can use directional influence to escape, but
it's a nice attempt that she should go for. This is also her main recovery
move, but watch out when dangling from the tether and not grabbing the ledge as
this does not restore her double jump. If she has used three tethers within
range of a ledge since actually standing on solid ground, this move won't come
out quite right so be careful.

Zero Suit Samus can wall jump and crawl but not wall cling. While crouching she
gets hit by Pit's arrows, but while crawling she moves lower to the ground and
can avoid them. She is even low enough to the ground while crawling to avoid
the lasers of Fox and Falco as well as Samus's Super Missiles and uncharged
Charge Shot. Just remember to keep moving if using this tactic. Zero Suit Samus
has a fairly ordinary roll and spot dodge she uses like most characters can use
them. If you were wondering how to start a match as her, you just hold a shield
button during the transition to the character select screen. Assuming you
picked Samus as your character, you will start as Zero Suit Samus. When she
enters battle, Zero Suit Samus drops several armor fragments she or other
characters can pick up and throw as weapons. They stick around for quite a
while and are pretty dangerous; take advantage of them at the start of a match.

Zero Suit Samus's speed makes her more than a match for the slowest of
characters, and her range could make her a problem for the very poor range
Wario and Sonic. Her difficulties in the air, however, will make her easy prey
for characters such as Jigglypuff, Kirby, and Meta Knight, and the great
priority Olimar, Marth, and Mr. Game & Watch have little to fear from her.

Pit

Despite being from an almost literally unknown game from well over a decade
ago, Pit has quickly become a fan favorite in brawl. Pit has multiple jumps, an
up special that lets him literally fly, a weapon which causes most of his
attacks to have disjointed hit boxes, a very spammable projectile, and two
different moves that reflect projectiles. However, I'm going to burst some
bubbles. Pit is wildly overrated. He's definitely a good character, but he's
not really one of the best. Pit is surprisingly slow, and that means his game
largely degenerates into arrow spamming. He's still potent, and there's still a
lot to learn, but don't see his list of strengths at a glance and assume too
much of him.

Pit's better moves for the most part are actually on the ground; he has some
good stuff here. His forward smash comes out and goes away quickly, but the
hitting part of it sticks around for a long time in front of Pit which makes it
a wonderful move to use if the opponent has broken through your wall of arrows.
The best part is that it knocks them away in just such a way that you could
resume shooting arrows! His up smash is like a faster version of Link's and is
a solid option to nail opponents coming down on him, and his down smash is
mostly just a punishment for those who like to roll around him which is pretty
common if they've started using rolling to get past arrow spam. His forward
tilt is really horrible; don't use it. His down tilt is a really good move to
knock opponents in the air which is not something you typically want to do, but
if you find it something you suddenly need to do, remember the move. His up
tilt is a double flip kick that is used in pretty much the same circumstances
as the up smash but only when you need a bit of a faster move. It won't see
much play, but it's not a bad move. Pit's jab combo is also good for knocking
opponents away, but his running attack is poor and should be avoided.

Pit's aerials are shockingly disappointing. His best one is probably his down
aerial which is a wide slash beneath him. The move is fairly slow, but it hits
a wide area. Pit's forward and back aerials are quick, and his back aerial has
decent power, but they both have pretty horrible range so they are of limited
use. Pit's neutral aerial is extremely weak, but it hits all around him so it's
a good move to throw out when you need to get them away from you. His up aerial
has some power and damage racking potential, but it's very slow and hits over
an awkward area so it won't see a lot of use. Also, Pit may have multiple
jumps, but his aerial mobility is surprisingly poor. He really can't chase
opponents in the air nearly as well as one would think.

Pit's grab game is fairly poor, but if he does get them grabbed, he'll mostly
just be using it to throw them forward or backward so he can continue with the
arrows. If they are at a very high percentage, his up throw will be the first
throw to kill. Pit's up smash hits to his sides so up smash out of shield is
also a viable option for him.

Pit has some interesting and very useful special moves that Pit players should
learn well. Let's start with the most important one in his arrow. Pit can press
B to shoot an arrow in a straight line. If he presses up or down while it is in
flight, he can arc it. He can vary this quite a bit so he can really hit over a
much bigger area than it would at first seem. If he holds B instead of just
tapping, he can charge the arrows to do more damage, and he can aim the bow up
or behind him. When he fires up, he obviously hits left or right to arc it
instead of up or down. Pit can fire arrows in rapid succession so he can really
use them to shut people down. I'm not going to beat around the bush; the best
way to play Pit is to stay away from them and rain arrows. A few characters
have easy ways to reflect or absorb them, but those few aside, Pit can just
abuse arrows all day. If they jump in at you to interrupt the arrows, just use
a smash to knock them away and continue. Eventually the smash will just kill.
Pit also uses these while recovering as he can fire one after each jump without
really losing recovery ability, and it makes attacking him while recovering
much more difficult.

Pit's Wings of Icarus are his recovery move, and they literally let him fly.
After bringing them out, simply direct Pit with the control stick to fly
wherever you want. These last for a super long time; Pit can use them to fly
underneath a lot of stages. Stalling by constantly flying under the stage will
be banned in any reasonable rule set, but Pit can still exploit this to recover
to the opposite ledge to get past an opponent or other such nonsense. For the
record, yes, you can fly under Final Destination. Pit can interrupt this by
attacking, but watch out as if Pit for whatever reason terminates using this
move, he cannot use it again until he touches the ground. That includes being
hit; make sure using this is the last thing you do before hitting the ground or
the ledge. Pit's forward special is a spinning blade attack that is nearly
useless, but it does reflect projectiles at least. The main use for it is to
use it while on ice to slide forward very quickly while having a constant whirl
of death before you. Pit's last special is his Mirror Shield which is actually
very useful