Ranking EVERY Side Special Animation in Smash Ultimate

[@MockRockTalk]

Go to my sponsor snhu.edu/mockrock to see what the current average annual salary for a game programmer is, and learn how you can get started! Also please let me know what you thought of the tier list, this was a pretty in-depth one but had some interesting moves in it! *Main channel:* kzbin.info *Twitter:* twitter.com/MrMockRock *Patreon:* www.patreon.com/mockrock *Twitch:* www.twitch.tv/mockrocktwitch *Teespring:* teespring.com/stores/mockrock

[@co5micwaffle742]

This is the first time I've ever seen a KZbinr be sponsored by an entire college.

[@aivve]

Man must be doing great work to get that kind of sponsor

[@ErickStarkA10]

1 thing to notice is when you do Bayo's side-B(dive kick version) and hit the ground have a heavy-landing-metalig-heal -like sound effect! Just like when she falls from high places on the original game.

[@mannybot06]

Hey MockRock! Just letting you know that for diddy, if you press up after the command grab he'll jump off the character he grabbed

[@chapterblaq]

​@@co5micwaffle742for someone who lives in southern NH it kinda threw me off guard 😂

[@jobot0114]

One really tiny detail that I like is that on Greninja's Shadow Sneak, while the move is being performed Greninja's normal shadow disappears.

[@turboavs-9082]

The little eyes on the shadow are also a nice reference to how it looks like in Pokémon

[@moqyyyy]

Yeah no this isn’t true, it’s only when Greninja teleports that this happens unfortunately

[@nydeity9100]

Snap back to reality with eminem music

[@turboavs-9082]

​@@moqyyyy Yes I am perfectly aware that this is when it happens, Im just saying that its cool that they added it in at all, although it could just be a particle effect that wasn't intended to have any reference. And also, it's kinda weird that Greninja's shadow doesn't disappear until teleporting.

[@nicocchi]

I could swear that in Smash 4, Greninja's actual shadow disjointed from his body, rather than making that murky purple circular shadow. Of course, the latter reads better from a gameplay perspective and all, but also the Smash 4 iteration realized the concept of the move pretty much flawlessly. It even worked in a stealth sense i.e Snake, Palutena, Mii Gunner, etc., since the shadow was kind of hard to see it compensated for the move being kinda bad otherwise, it allowed you to catch opponents off-guard. You could make some tricky mixups by just walking towards your opponent and making them think you were doing a Shadow Sneak, but weren't actually I'm pretty torn on this one whether the stealth aspect was worth sacrificing over the readability, especially since the move itself is still kinda bad. Just bad and obvious, instead of bad and ambiguous.

[@CarbonMalite]

Robins elfire pose is actually cleverly taken from the GBA mage animation. Sakurai is always on point with his subtle callbacks

[@orlandogarcia7084]

Except for when it matters smh

[@ElecManEXE]

Mages have some of the coolest animations in the GBA games (outside of generals obviously) so I was really happy to see that reference. And the fact that it's a pretty unique pose among Smash characters is a bonus.

[@tehesprite502]

Arcfire*

[@MisterZebra42]

I was about to say, I’ve never seen it close up before but when I did, I was like “I’ve seen that before”

[@benro6564]

Ridley was really starving for a W on these, but his big break is finally here. I would also argue Flame Choke definitely feels like it came from Zelda more than the rest, because it really does fit him and he has grabbed people and lifted them in the air once or twice.

[@KeDe1606]

Yes. Even though Ganondorf‘s never done that *exact* sequence of moves in any of the Zelda games (closest thing we have are when he escapes his banishment in Twilight Princess, and when he chokes Link, Petra and/or Zelda in Wind Waker), it still FEELS like something he‘d actually do. At least, more so than the rest of his moveset (aside from his f-tilt, because that’s just a straight-up reference)

[@jasonramirez1064]

I could see Ridley potentially get S tier in down special

[@pieceofbread5311]

Just unplugged my dads life support to plug in my phone and watch some mockrock

[@MockRockTalk]

RIP to a real one but he'd understand

[@El_Mince]

Understandable have a nice day

[@kwisowofer9872]

Don’t worry about it I’m sure that was just his first stock

[@TrashBoatSA]

That wasn't very Super Smash of you

[@kiru___]

@@MockRockTalktrue

[@Baconator2558]

Another thing with Dr. Mario's is that it also often feels like it should send projectiles up when reflecting them (kind of like Dark Pit's Side Special) instead of straight forward because of the motion of the sheet.

[@MrGameguyC]

I've heard the same arguement for Min Min's Up-Smash and I completely agree there. Doc might make more sense that way, but he really needs all the help he can get.

[@LegacyKricketune111]

Another cool animation quirk about Ridley's SPR is that it has a unique throw animation what you hit a wall, where he instead plants the opponent into the wall, the impact sending the opponent behind him. This is a callback to his boss fight in Metroid: Samus Returns, where he performs the same maneuvers.

[@sethstoll8525]

It's also insanely strong, slamming Steve into his own wall near the ledge will kill at like 65-70%

[@soulcyclone360]

​@@sethstoll8525assuming he doesn't Tech off the air.

[@DragonMaster1818]

@@soulcyclone360Lmfao

[@NarniaJGC]

Fun fact: DDD doesn't have 3 gordo angles he actually has EIGHTEEN, this is because smash angle and tilt angles are different but not JUST THAT, depending how long you hold the button, sometimes even for 1 specific frame, it gives a different angle that is ever so slightly different.

[@FuryJack07]

W H A T .

[@YounesLayachi]

It's not just angle difference the overall trajectories, speed and bounces are different. Some tosses speed up on contact with ground while others slow down, some tosses bounce lower each time while others bounce higher and higher

[@arjayecho9890]

yeah i was gonna try to learn ddd a while back, saw a video talking about that, and just gave up on the spot lmao

[@RNGuice]

I’ll be real. I don’t give a FUCK. (I quit smash months ago)

[@dippin4dots]

​​@@RNGuicethanks for the info 12-14 year old, nobody asked.

[@swift7842]

1:28:27 I’m quite surprised you didn’t mention it, but the lights on Samus’s suit actually change color when you use her side b.

[@Silvershire]

I’ve always interpreted Flame Choke differently. I think Ganondorf is still holding his opponent as the explosion goes off, and then once the damage is done, he casually drops their body.

[@ElecManEXE]

Yeah, that's how I always viewed it. He pumps them full of dark magic while holding them the whole time, then casually drops their injured body. Very stereotypical badass evil villain behavior. I think maybe it doesn't come across as clearly because of how quick the drop is. In many depictions of such an action they'd hold you a lot longer after the attack to really rub it in and raise the tension. But considering its already a pretty lengthy animation and the fact you can sometimes chain multiple uses of the move back-to-back against opponents who don't know how to avoid it, and I think it's necessary the drop be as quick as it is.

[@TheB5randon]

I always interpreted it as energy explosion coming out of his palm and since they are being held by the top of their heads they would go straight down.

[@lightbluedude7628]

I think why Mii Brawler's Burning Dropkick feels off is because the Sm4sh version could be charged. I think the lack of charge in Ultimate is why it feels a bit too fast buildup wise.

[@runningoncylinders3829]

That’s kind of a weird change to a move.

[@lightbluedude7628]

@@runningoncylinders3829 yeah idk why they nerfed it like that

[@Moon-nk3co]

It’s very fun that they bothered to say how Ness and Lucas use their own friends to help teach them. And the fun aspect of having them use the fire for their own thing is icing on the cake

[@ThePivot5005]

I love how when Joker uses his side special with Arsène, you can see an evil face rise up from the explosion just like in his source game.

[@TheAntiburglar]

While it's not particularly flashy, I'm pretty sure I used Link's side special more than any other move over all. Despite that, I can't honestly say that I've ever paid attention to its animation beyond "when does he release the boomerang" so I am, as always, stoked to get an in depth look into these 😃

[@curtdog647]

Fun and helpful fact; in the Settings menu, there's a way to just hear voices and just hear sound effects while you're in gameplay; if you really wanted to hear one certain line without the sound effects for recording, you can!

[@johnjekyllson28]

I’m surprised you hate Mythra’s animation. The day I bought the DLC I played against an unprepared friend, and when I used that move against him he yelled “WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!” It’s a really intimidating move, and there’s not a single other move like it in the game.

[@W_Sinner]

2:04:23 Just wanted to add that the reason they didnt go with a specific animation for it is because sora actually has a really big window for when he can cancel up b into side b and i imagine they didnt want it to apply only to a specific part of the animation

[@TheMrCMG]

Not sure if anyone mentioned this yet, but little Mac's side b is called the "jolt" because the jolt is a boxing move where you throw your whole body into a punch. It's usually used for counters but mac throws everything he has into that lunge! 🫡

[@vossboss220]

I think the use of the magical sound effect is a carryover from brawl. The magical sound effect used in Brawl sounded very very different and I'm pretty sure we shared between electric and magic effects. Now in Ultimate where electric and Magic have two different sounds is very weird that they chose Magic. The same thing can be seen with IV sores sweetspot Vine whip, only they kept the electric sound

[@YounesLayachi]

I didn't notice they have wolf flash the magical fairy sound before, eww

[@vossboss220]

"IV sores" lol if it wasn't clear I used voice to text to send this message. I meant Ivysaur's

[@landlighterfirestar5550]

1:06:53 -- Okay, I just realized something that made me love the Pits' side B even more. First of all, the despawning animation of the arm I've always felt *very* satisfying, but it also synced PERFECTLY with the other player losing their stock. That's awesome

[@hungryfriend6124]

A few things, Roller is one of I believe two moves in Inkling's kit that has a substantially different animation based on whether or not they have ink. Something I would've personally docked points for on Bowser is that at the height of his jump he's positioned like he's about to do an elbow drop on the opponent but he just sticks his arms way out like he has in the last two iterations of the move. And lastly, I don't know if it would change your opinion on the move at all, but Space Pirate Rush has a third variation where Ridley crashes into a wall while slamming the opponent into it

[@Matteo_nr1_evermore_stan]

Byleth placement… it looks so good, the motion is so nice. I know they could have done much more with a Lance, but as you said Areadbhar isn’t a Lance, it actually fights like a sword on a stick so I like that it slashes. To me maybe a bit too much of the “missed opportunity tax” on that one. It still looks stunning.

[@theofmino6180]

Agreed

[@ihopeyouandicanbefriends]

yeah that one threw me off lol it's a gorgeous move and also fills a niche in byleth's kit, giving them access to an arcing "forward air" since they only have purely horizontal poking tools for bair and fair. it could have been a cooler concept but you could say this about almost every move in the game

[@trombonegamer14]

This is literally one of my favorite looking moves in the game lol

[@v47r]

yeah fr it looks amazing he was tripping with that placement

[@greenmcbean6429]

Good to know I wasn’t alone in this thought lol. It’s honestly my favorite side special in the game in terms of how pleasing it is to look at.

[@PinkSunrise_spl]

Robin's side special actually directly uses the casting animation from the GBA games base mage class, which is a really cool reference when I first noticed it

[@blutarchtheblue8453]

Fun fact : when dark samus use a super missile while holding a battering or a shooting item, the item will float for the animation

[@GumshoeClassic]

Shulks odd jump kinda makes me chuckle because it reminds me of the goofy Xenoblade hops. *Alley-yoop!*

[@tolotos95]

No, Reyn!!!!

[@Garomasta]

Dark Samus' super missile firing animation is one of my favorites in the whole game. It's so overly dramatic, like she's absolutely reveling in her power, which is a nice contrast to the more nonchalant animations for the normal missile and charge shot.

[@wheat8789]

Just cant wait for the down special vid, as a hero main im excited to hear your thoughts. There are also a lot of counters and im wondering how those will hold up

[@RNGuice]

It’s gonna be a lot of “Welp, that sure is a counter.”😭

[@mayz7753]

@@RNGuice well at least counters do tend to have character-specific animations (not counting the swordies)

[@asierx7047]

I wonder how he'd rank steve's. It's just literally a 1-to-1 copy of the minecraft block placing animation after all

[@antmancometh]

2:02:19 don't worry man I'm an animation student and I get a lot out of watching these long analytical videos. Really helps me notice the physics, anticipation, breakdowns, arcs, and creativity of the moves. I watch until the end and appreciate all the work you put into them (: Shoutouts to my mains Incineroar and GnW for snagging S tier!

[@josiahtheawkward6008]

1:17:37 I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Pikmin idle animation. Red dude’s just chilling.

[@DauntlessBlade___]

I think you forgot to mention banjo's failing animation when he has no wonder wings left but still attempts to use the move.

[@deadriccow]

1:19:09 The wind up backwards feels like the toys that charge up by pulling them backwards then releasing when the tension is built up.

[@Tonjit41]

4:09 Dr. Mario's side b actually hits under ledge against some characters, and this can be comboed from into an easy kill. weird little dope difference

[@quantwomwhale5984]

29:11 Dimitri, the owner of this lance, likes to do these kinds of arching slashes with his lance attacks though. While I doubt thats what they were going for, if they were that is fantastic attention to detail imo

[@tolotos95]

I think it's the animation of his first attack when he counters on 1-range Post-Timeskip... I usually play Golden Deer, so I'm a little rusty😅

[@quantwomwhale5984]

@@tolotos95 Pre-Timeskip he also likes to do an over under smackdown as well. So Dimitri when using lances does this not so uncommonly. If they wanted to portray Dimitri's animations that's cool, but since Amyr and Failnaught both dont really do that I'm not sure they went for that. Amyr kinda sorta but Failnaught not even slightly

[@tolotos95]

@@quantwomwhale5984 Imagine if they mimicked Claude's little flourish with the arrow🤤

[@quantwomwhale5984]

@@tolotos95 that would at the very least justify the horrific speed the charged version has. I think it's (maybe????) Trying to be Fell Star and just failing but idk man

[@tolotos95]

@@quantwomwhale5984 But then they should hold the bow sideways since Fallen Star uses the standard Bow-CA-animation... so maybe Wind God?

[@XBC3403]

A really nice touch regarding Pyra's side special is that when she uses it, green lines light up across her body. its a nice reference to the original game when you would use the move to end certain combos. especially since its a detail that is easy to miss in motion in a game like smash. The same is true for Mythra during her neutral special.

[@Azurald55]

Yeah it happens with all of their specials including their final smash.

[@XBC3403]

@@Azurald55 it is not with all their specials. its only those two and their final smashes.

[@Azurald55]

@@XBC3403 My bad I was remembering it wrong. Cool that they did it for their level 3 and 4 specials specifically even when some were on different moves.

[@XBC3403]

@@Azurald55 its a neat attention to detail cause even in the original game's gameplay, those lines only really appear in their level 3 and 4 specials.

[@KrispyKorpse]

I finally get to hear mockrock talk about Onslaught's animation. My day has been made

[@AdventureKnockout]

I know you already put Green Missle in S tier (deserved), but my favorite little detail is when Luigi gets his head stuck in a wall! The plunger sound effect and stretchy head make it super funny, even though gameplay-wise, I've gotten spiked from accidental misfires because of it...

[@dubblebrick]

1:39:30 You forgot to talk about the jump part of Diddy's side special (when he grabs someone he can footstool jump off of them)

[@HerMajestyVelvet]

He probably did look at it but he doesn’t always talk about every part of a move if he doesn’t have anything interesting to say about it

[@TimoDmon007]

Hmmm true

[@idavid8391]

YES! My crippling addiction to these videos can finally be satiated once again!

[@Novum228]

Normally I’d say you missed Incineroar’s revenge version, but that wouldn’t change his rank

[@dysr]

1:21:41 Snake is supposed to be viewing the missile from its perspective though a camera. My interpretation is that he’s like someone flailing around with a VR helmet, when they’re using a controller but still can’t help moving around.

[@billybill1270]

The fact that grounded Flame Choke lifts the opponent up but launches them into the ground always seemed strange to me too. It seems the Smash 4 developers may have agreed as one of his custom side specials, Flame Wave, actually did launch opponents away as implied by the animation.

[@RNGuice]

Yeah, I feel like it should launch straight out after the explosion, or maybe more of a 35°

[@HiImAiden]

Byleth Side B placement feels really harsh, like yeah, its a pretty lame concept for a move, but its execution is terrific for all the reasons you mentioned, beautiful particle effects, great vocalization and the amount of weight Byleth puts into it makes it feel like a world ender, helps that the end pose is also awesome.

[@RNGuice]

And it’s also mad slow with amazing follow-through in both the air and the ground, which has the added effect of making it feel more impactful or weighty.

[@MrGameguyC]

Same with Doc.

[@placeadrien5566]

It was the move that made me interested in yet another (marth clone) fire emblem character. I was so disappointed when they revealed him, then he does this... I wanted to do his side B all the time

[@bokobo6295]

one of my favorite parts of eigaon is the little evil face that briefly appears in the explosion, accurate to persona and very fun

[@zeckemyro7031]

Luigi can get stuck in the wall from side special (it sucks, but the animation is neat). Also, Isabelle's fishing rod throws are literally the same as her regular throws animation-wise.

[@themetalmastah666]

Idk if this has been said already, but as a pokemon fan, I can assure that Pound is indeed a representative move for Jigglypuff. It's one of the first attacks it learns by leveling up ever since gen 1, and there are a lot of pokemon that don't have access to this move, so Pound and Sing are like the 2 moves you see Jigglypuff use the most (in gen 1).

[@Ramuh.]

3:33 I know youre showing off the move in the air to show it at a more neutral angle, but the sheet starting horizontal makes a lot more sense when its used grounded, rather than only in the air

[@acannoli8287]

Wario picks his nose during the second part of the finger W taunt. I never noticed that before.

[@dreeg1896]

Surprised R.O.B. didn’t get docked for the wire. It looks HORRENDOUS(I’d have gone B maybe C), even at full gameplay speed, to have the wire just… disconnect from his base and stay straight down. I understand this would have been more work, but having it twist around his body and then have the end lag animation being his arms un-rotating would have done SO MUCH for this move. Done right, an S for me.

[@anonymous7024]

32:19 The B-reverse "Where did my bike go?" is so funny to me

[@vaerix0]

Happy i called the RIdley side special criticism, but happy he finally has something that rates so high in this series happy to be one of the ones that watches the whole thing. Looking forward to more whenever they happen o7 Always weird to see some intricacies and "cheats" that go on behind the scenes

[@raze79ex]

mii brawlers onslaught side b does actually spike but you got to use near ledge for it work and its actually a pretty janky spike when it lands

[@katonconnor6680]

Fun fact , Luigi's missfire has some extra flair , if he collides with a wall with it he gets stuck in it in a very cartoonish way, with unique sound effects and all

[@thefolder69]

L take on Byleth. that animation is fucking gorgeous. how is Ike A tier if Byleth is B??? a massive upward slash with a glaive that even tears up the ground as it goes (look at the dust and debris particles) is badass and more than "just a swipe".

[@YounesLayachi]

1:59:20 if you wanna see hero's low resolution aliased/pixelated lightning arcs, a good place is in the last stock final hit zoom, or the victory pose with the same animation. It affects all 3 charges/moves really, even the shattered rocks that fly up are low resolution

[@YaHomieScooty]

58:50 The double fist does spike if Brawler is standing on the ledge and the opponent is in the air off the ledge. Super hard to land, but TCNick made a ranking every spike video that showcased it

[@RedBoi88]

You used to be able to charge Mii Brawler's burning dropkick back in Smash 4 and I have no idea why they got rid of it

[@antant6217]

"Hip" in japan is generally used to refer to buttocks. It's why a lot of games have "hip drop" or "hip attack" moves that clearly don't use the hips.

[@firstwaddledee9182]

Dude, if K Rool doesn’t have his crown he should grab his head and look horrified! “My crown! Where is my crown!?”

[@lucasmanatee6326]

I think the reason its called jolt haymaker is because it comes out fast, hence the "jolt"

[@angeldude101]

I'm not ashamed to say that I clicked on this video _purely_ to see Photon Edge. Honestly? It was toned down _dramatically_ from the source material. If it was actually faithful, then it would hit every single point on the stage, including vertically. It's literally tied for the largest AOE in Xenoblade 2. It's... absolutely insane by just about every metric. I'm a little sad that you didn't mention how you can get multiple separate Mythra's onscreen during certain frames of the animation, but it's not that's surprising given how chaotic it is. Other than that, there's also a really small detail in Blazing End that wasn't mentioned (the same detail is present in Mythra's neutral-B Lightning Buster and both of their Final Smashes), where Pyra has these green lines on her skin and parts of her outfit that light up during Blazing End (and on Mythra during Lightning Buster. They're very subtle and are easily overshadowed by the rest of the move and the other lines on her outfit that always glow regardless of the situation, but it's a detail that was in the base game that not many people noticed their either, so I was really happy to see that it managed to make it into Smash anyways in spite of how easy it is to miss.

[@bigt8033]

Did you forget to cover aerial raptor boost?

[@ShinxBOOM247]

You brought up Ken's Tatsu having fire particles during it, but that particular idea is a very recent thing, first appearing in SFV during his V trigger and then more prominently in SF6 during his run. One cool idea that came to mind for what they could do in a future game, though, would be to have him gain the flame effects whenever Ken performs Tatsu via a motion input, which would help give stronger feedback to the player for doing the harder to perform version

[@KaitouKaiju]

Flaming tatsu not new at all. It comes from gem fighter.

[@SketchBookShortFilms]

I feel like with Olimar they should just change his Fsmash. Same function but change Olimar's posing to make it more distinct, like making Olimar grab the pikmin by the stem with both hands and do a sort of baseball swing to yeet them at the enemy. That way its way easier to determine whether he's using fsmash or pikmin throw.

[@parzival-bo]

One thing you missed is that Robin's Arcfire is actually a direct reference to the GBA Fire Emblem games, the pose is the Mage's attack pose and the particle effects are almost a _complete_ match. Given that fact, I'd probably bump them up to S-Tier myself, but hey. Not my list.

[@JB_CY]

As a hero main I spam side b more then I should, but seeing that beautiful zapple go 40% of the stage and do 25% is a hard to top feeling

[@alexpotts6520]

The nice thing is if they think they can jump over it to punish you, you can just hold the B button and they fall straight into the armoured kills-you-at-60 variant.

[@JunkPrat1113]

35:32 that's one of the most cursed things I've seen in a while

[@ivrydice0954]

42:18 Should he tho? I think he's a similar case with Mac where a majority of his moves are based on Martial Arts, and you can't really just flip your stance during those.

[@maureenfowler1960]

It would be cool if mockrock did a taunt or victory animation video

[@Nintendo_Wolf]

Yeah I can't wait for the next animation focused video. Been waiting patiently

[@smashpow]

Can't wait for the battle entrance animation tier list

[@e.m.2168]

I like that with the pits’ side specials, their weapons they summon actually have little appearing/disappearing animations

[@danielnolt3518]

I didn’t even notice the miss animation on incineroar if the target gets separated. The face he makes when that happens is 👌

[@PLAYER42_ready]

Once you’ve done all the move types, put them all into one tier list and then rank **ALL** animations

[@michaelhaviland8207]

One thing I didn’t see you mention about Robin. The motion he does during his side special is the same motion that mages in the GBA fire emblem games do when they cast spells. Arcfire even comes from right above Robin, like how fire spells come out in those games.

[@pedroedmond4343]

I LOVE these videos, but I'm always curious why you dislike Wii Fit Trainer and Megaman so much for having limited animations despite being true to their source material, but tend to really like Mr. Game & Watch as well as Minecraft Steve for the same reasons.

[@kodakai727]

I think Puff's Pound has a much better impact sound they could have gone with: the sound of a dodgeball hitting your face. Rubbery, yet forceful.

[@curtdog647]

Super excited that my home college is sponsoring you!

[@Point5_]

getting sponsored by an university is wild to me. good shit

[@tvb5509]

I kinda like Jigglypuff's pounds slap sound. It's the last remnant of the fan item.

[@jolypoly6743]

I’m surprised about not showing the aerial version of Falcon side B I love the fact that it spikes and adds onto the risky, flashy aspect of his character (since he’s in free fall) and would personally put it at S tier

[@mr.gamer17]

Side specials are possibly my favorite type of special move for how creative they are. Down specials are a character's wild cards.

[@RNGuice]

Or counter

[@neminem233]

Oh sweet! I VERY recently got into your content and have been absolutely loving it! This is such a unqiue idea and I love watching them.

[@kylesantos5536]

Not using Richter as the reference for both Belmonts is sacrilegious. We don’t acknowledge the other one

[@ClaireStErin]

Byleth's distinctive particle effects/motion trails are actually taken straight from Three Houses! Whenever a character uses one of the Heroes' Relics, their moves are accompanied by that red smear/black lightning effect. Dimitri shows it off particularly well with his flashy moves, which look extra-deadly when he's using Areadbhar. But you see those same effects with Byleth's down-B as well!

[@Underworlder5]

just to add a little extra, dimitri tends to make sweeping motions in his unique class. both his first attack and follow-up include an upward swing. honestly, his animations in general tend to have a strong sense of impact. fitting for the unit with one of the highest strength stats in the game

[@hi-i-am-atan]

i've always found it weird that rocket headbutt gets consistently criticized as not really operating as it does in the games, because ... it chambers a charge, then rockets forward with a headbutt. that's about as literal of an interpretation of a two-turn attack as you can get, barring the more boring and far less gameplay friendly option of just giving the move like a full second of startup. the move could have armor or something to represent the defense boost i guess, but that was introduced after its first appearance in smash and wouldn't really fit the characters is it because the translation as skull bash give zero indication that the pokemon is launching itself for the attack. did anyone even know i was talking about skull bash until i switched names

[@Dawnleaf]

I always thought that Jigglypuff's Pound would have worked well as Wake-Up Slap instead, keeping the move virtually identical to how it functions in Smash but dealing bonus damage to targets that are sleeping and doubling as a nod to her portrayal in the anime.

[@waffleman8053]

Im surprised you didnt talk about the ghost face on Jokers Arsene Side B.

[@thatkleinguy]

They missed the opportunity to differentiate Dancing Blade from Double Edge Dance by using Melee's animations for Roy. They look way less refined and heavy hitting than Marth's Brawl based version of the move.

[@Leet-iz2fz]

You could think of Ike's slowness in Smash as him holding back, and his special moves are where he lets loose and shows his true abilities - strength with Eruption and Aether's swings, and speed with Quick Draw, Aether's jump and Counter.

[@theovereditedarena5672]

Been having a pretty terrible week, this is what I needed today, thank you man.

[@BigNoseEntmt]

In Sm4sh, Mii Brawler's BDK had such a good animation with the charging at the beginning!

[@Degenerate8]

For Diddy, if you press up while attached to an opponent, you get to jump off of them. Don't think this would change your opinion, but thought I might add it

[@saxeladude]

43:00 the blue screen is for super strong niche attacks just in general such as falcon punch or pk thunder 2. On lucario it makes sense while force palm grab isn't the hardest to get in normal gameplay. It is tricky and I would argue nearly equivalent in both challenge and reward as luigi's up B, well minus the combo's. Force palm grab's main differences from luigi's up B is needing high aura, it has a horizontal trajectory, and it's not as punishing on whiff but if punished is often more devesating.

[@FuryJack07]

47:16 i don't know if you checked it but didn't mention it in the video or you just didn't think about it, but incineroar's revenge makes some attacks, including the powerful hit on his side special, have the special blue background and have a better sense of impact. Just thought I'd tell you in case you forgot.

[@caml1720]

the 8 mile edit on luigi made me laugh, thank you for the love you put into your craft

[@MrGameguyC]

4:29 Trust me, the lack of Cape Stall is the least of his problems. Honestly, it turns it into a really handy B-Reverse option which is great for landing and going to ledge. I'd argue he's better off without the stall.

[@theturtleking2454]

You can get incineroars shrug fail animation if you use the timer item and then go for side b

[@zeospark9715]

Another thing to point out about Luigi's side special is that if he hits like a wall, he'll comically pull his head out. I really love that and found that hilarious lol

[@deadheat1635]

One thing you forgot to show was that Diddy can jump off of an opponent in the command grab instead of the double karate chop, it even spikes in the air. Not sure how much it would affect Diddy’s placement.

[@birds1omega6]

One thing to note about Force Palm is that it's based on how it's shown in the anime, where the user unleashes a blast of energy from their palm, you can see it in full effect in the episode "A Unova League Evolution!". In Japanese it's actually named "Force Discharge", so the animation actually does make perfect sense.

[@saxeladude]

43:08 I would kinda preffer if the grab version had the free hand punch the opponent ,so that the force of the launch doesn't come from nowhere with the grappling hand.