General Character Opinions

[Maxxthepenguin]

I'm a character agnostic. I don't stick with one and play 90% of matches with him, I play the field, and as such I have formulated some general opinions. This is not top 5, this requires saying what you think I'd rather not focus on specific characters ITT, though I'd love suggestions on how to use characters that I can't use.

Bowser: He seems a lot stronger than Melee. The change in the side B move is great and he seems far more usable in general.

Capn Falcon: Unfortunately, I can't use him in Brawl. I was pretty decent with him in melee but in brawl something changed to make him much harder to use

Diddy: I don't get his specials. The popgun is too slow to be spammed but too weak to be precisely used. The Side B just seems weak and mostly useless to me. Bananas suck. That said, I seem to find him quick and annoying when I just stick to his non-specials. Though he doesn't have the best smashes, he can usually dodge enough to get them higher than 100%

DK: Aside from a truly pathetic FS, he's not too bad. His up tilt seems quite good to me.

Fox and Falco: fuck them

Ganon: Like falcon, I can't use him anymore. Sadface

Ice Climbers: Seem the same as melee but I've seen some crazy Nana antics where nana attacks and Popo isn't anywhere close

Ike: Dwight D Eisenhower was a truly great president, probably the last great republican. We like Ike!

Jiggly: Oh god the puff sucks. Sucks SO hard. The only saving grace is rollout Rollout spam is still crazy annoying.

Dedededede: A character that I just can't use well for some reason. Some people can though due to his powerful as hell smashes. One thing I do like is the range on his Inhale. I can't figure out how to work Jet Hammer.

Kirby: Still seems weak to me :/ I don't see any really good finishers.

Link: Outperformed by toon link, sadly

Lucario: Something about Luca is great to play as. Double team is a lot more fun than counter, but the long cooldown if missed is a drag. The aura-ness also makes him excellent against characters like meta knight who have a hard time finishing him off.

Lucas: I have no idea why but I find him SO much more fun to play than Ness (in brawl or melee at least, I loved ness in 64). I'm not especially good at him and when I mess up that light weight gets in my way, but I still find him fun.

Luigi: I haven't played that much as him in Brawl but I love his FS lol. The hitbox for the power up+b seems reduced, which sucks, and the low traction gets on my nerves. I need to play him more >_>

Mario: Can go fuck himself. I haven't barely seen him used or barely used him myself.

Marth: Since ike is in town, I haven't really been using him tbh, so no comment

Meta Knight: The insane speed he has and ability to find a way to hurt his opponent in almost any situation makes him a clear winner in my books.

Mr Game and Watch: Seems buffed from Melee, the down air is pretty strong now and his recovery is now really fantastic. His specials aside from up, of course, suck. Is more fun and still kinda wacky.

Ness: Lucas has taken my playing time for this duo, so I haven't really messed with Ness.

Olimar: This guy can be such a nuisance. If he lands a white pikmin on you, the damage adds up pretty damn fast. He seems like he has a lot of untapped power that somebody who can micro the pikmin well and adjust on the spot depending which is the leader can utilize. I am not that person, though.

Peach: Down smash nerf ftw. Can still be a nuisance but nothing I worry about. I also don't really play her much. Her FS is pretty nuts

Pikachu: This damn rat is a dirty, rotten whore now. Maybe it's just the different pace but he was tolerable in melee but as annoying as 64 in brawl. I don't really care to play as him.

Pit: My homeboy. If anybody could be considered my main, it would be Pit. From the insane recovery (as long as you dodge attacks lol) to the arrows to the spinning blades, I wuv him. It's not especially easy to get that killing blow but you can usually survive and dodge long enough to make sure you'll get there. Fun fact that nobody suspects: in a sudden death, a charged arrow wins.

Pokemans Trainer: Fun to play. All 3 pokemon have good uses, with squirtle's amazing quickness and withdraw invincibility, ivysaur's amazing range and overpowered bullet seed, and charizard's smashes from hell you can have a pokemon for every situation. As long as you keep range while you change, you can keep great variance in your attacks to be a good opportunist.

ROB: I just can't use this guy. He has some cool stuff but I have such trouble with him.

Samus: Projectile power, as always. As long as you play keep away, samus can harass with the best of them. Not nearly as bad as a lot of people think
ZSS: The Blue Sheik. Moves very fast, though I haven't been able to get used to her. Probably partially because I never remember to use her >_>

Snake: Sooooo fucking fun to play on certain stages. He is probably the most stage dependent character in the game. Planting his bombs, using his up smash, everything makes him amazing at setting traps. If you can predict the flow of the game and know where people will be, you can snake it up. On the other hand, I can't get grenade timing right and I can't quite detonate the C4 exactly when I want yet.

Sonic: People either love him or hate him. His signature moves dissapointed me (down and side special) but those are totally made up for the neutral B homing attack. It's so spammable and so opportunist it's great. Though as people play more they will learn to counter it, at the moment it just frustrates the shit out of most people. For that reason alone, I love sonic, even though his high speed is hard to control and his roll moves aren't all that. The awesome up special is also quite nice. If only he wasn't so light and he had a better finisher. I also like is down air attack.

Toon Link: Link but lighter and stronger means I have trouble surviving. Despite his major projectiles, I've mostly been an up close link and this makes Toon Link hard for me to play. Any pointers, or just general evasion?

Wario: Seems severely underestimated by everyone, including me. His aerials are unreal and chomp is annoying. His disjointed attacks make him somewhat unpredictable and make him seem faster than he is, similar to game and watch. I might want to play him more, actually. His FS is freaking great lol

Wolf: I hate the furries but for some reason find him fun to play. His attacks (specifically side smash) have momentum, making him a bit of a harder target to hit and makes it easier to pursue his enemies in. In a 4 player FFA he is a blast.

Yoshi: I just want somebody to break him

Zelda/Shiek: Rather than Melee, where they were only supposed to compliment each other, this time they actually do. Using shiek against fast characters and zelda against large ones, or using shiek at low percentages and zelda at high ones, you can actually have the variety to always be able to counter your foes. Particularly worth noting is Zelda's nayru's love buff, as a reflector it is actually usable now.


So what are your thoughts on mine? Am I a fool? A genius? How can I improve?

[Metah]

Jigglypuff seems vastly improved from Melee, and an even better aerialist than before. I wouldn't say she's garbage just yet.

[Ryko]

Diddy's bananas are pretty much key to an awesome diddy

[Maxxthepenguin]

Really? I guess I've just never seen them used right. How do you do it? Spam?

[nivlakian]

Diddy: I don't get his specials. The popgun is too slow to be spammed but too weak to be precisely used. The Side B just seems weak and mostly useless to me. Bananas suck. That said, I seem to find him quick and annoying when I just stick to his non-specials. Though he doesn't have the best smashes, he can usually dodge enough to get them higher than 100%

As Ryko said, bananas are key as they mess up dash attacks and rolls if positioned properly giving you an opportunity to smash them off. Also, they work well for a combo involving banana on ground then diddy dash cartwheel while picking up banana and hitting foe followed by throwing the banana at them again. The bananas can be used against you too though so have to be careful.

Edit: The side B gives you some options. If you press B again, he'll kick. It can be used as part of recovering, but make sure you don't press B again to do the kick or else you can no longer up+B afterward. If you're close to someone, you can latch on to them. From there, you can hit A to hit them and jump backwards or press jump and go up (which sends them down if you happen to do this while you and your foe are off the edge).

Edit2: Not sure A or B matters to do the kick or to hit them and jump backwards when latched on. I'll have to try it in a bit.

Samus: Projectile power, as always. As long as you play keep away, samus can harass with the best of them. Not nearly as bad as a lot of people think

As a Samus main in melee, they did change her alot. I won't say she's bad as I haven't used her enough yet (mostly play Diddy Kong), but her straight missile now lacks the punch it had and the neutral air doesn't knock people away like it used to even at high percentages. She's floaty when jumping and to kill in air, it seems you need to depend on the reverse kick and meteor smash. Grapple spamming in air works to rack up a bit of damage though.

[Maguspk]

Zelda's B always reflected, but ya they did improve her on the whole.

[Boyiee]

With diddly It really is all about the banana's, and pikachu is dirty, by far my favorite to play. I have been using him nonstop lately. In FFA and Team brawls, I'm pretty nasty with pikachu... 1on1 I tend to make mistakes now and then, but it's usually a good match still.

Starting to finally get really dangerous with bolt tackle too ;D

[Rex]

Diddy's side b can sort of work as a meteor smash if you grab someone then jump up instead of hitting them, you'll step on their head and they'll head straight down, obviously better on heavier characters as they fall really fast. His up b recovery can also meteor but it's got pretty crazy range regardless. Aside from that, his side smash is really good, and if you use bananas right it's absolutely aggravating.

Going through a few in your list :

Captain Falcon: only good use I've seen is 2 or more falcons in a match using nothing but falcon punch. Great for a laugh, seems awkward to play compared to before otherwise.

Kirby: weak? He seems like he got buffed from melee. His forward air has multiple hits and sends people flying. His side b got majorly buffed, and his down b brick thing is as good as ever (especially if you've got ike below you readying an up smash). His new dash a attack is great too, multiple hits ending with an up spike. Side smash is great for KOs too, with a much better range than side b. Up smash could be better but it's so fast that it doesn't really matter.

Lucas: being my character of choice, I definitely agree he's way more fun to play than Ness. I used to always play as Ness previously, so a faster, more responsive, all around better Ness was great news to me. I still enjoy playing Ness from time to time, but doing so now always messes up my lightning timing and I usually SD off the stage

Ness: good ol' familiar Ness. The mechanics are still pretty much the same, though he feels somewhat heavier and clunkier than before, probably to contrast against Lucas some more. You gotta work with his forward dash and forward air as they've got good priority, and his up yo-yo is like a smaller range ike up smash, pretty good finisher. Not sure if his PK Lightning got sped up or if it just seems that way compared to Lucas, but if it's on course, it's really hard to avoid; bigger arcs mean more planning ahead if you're gonna launch yourself though. Really wish his bat hadn't been nerfed.

Toon Link: learning the timing for forward/back air is pretty key. They're both really strong and quick, and his sword range is quite good compared to his small hitbox. Playing evasion and throwing projectiles/bombs around is okay, boomerang can be a lifesaver if you throw it ahead of a fall and have it hit someone from behind as they're attacking you, or add to your combo as it'll knock the person towards you. Down air is also really awesome, and even protects you from counter, but really sucks as a meteor smash unless you're 100% certain you'll hit.

Luigi: Low traction is both good and bad I guess, mainly good due to his dash A which makes him keep going farther than people may expect. His side smash is awesome and fairly quick, but other than relying on his back air it's hard to smash people off the stage so you usually end up being opportunistic with up b or try your luck at an explosive side b. Also, down b can really throw people off being as fast as it is.

Mario: for a staple Nintendo character, he seemingly got the shaft with Brawl. I still don't see the use of down b other than to be annoying and for Nintendo to say "hey, who here remembers Mario Sunshine?" It woulda been much cooler to use as propulsion for some decent recovery (just like in *gasp* Mario Sunshine!) His FS is also pretty laughable and easy to dodge for something that covers the entire stage.

Marth: I don't see enough people using Marth, but from what I can tell it seems his "tip of the sword" thing has been emphasized. Even up b, if it hits you just right, hurts like all hell and smashes pretty easily. Though he's still no contest to ike's "press side smash to win the game" overpoweredness.

[Oxyminus]

Pikachu: This damn rat is a dirty, rotten whore now.

Right before I got Brawl, I arbitrarily decided Pikachu was going to be my main. so, for now, he's been the only character I've really been using, and I'm finally figuring out his mechanics. And yes, he is, a very dirty whore!

[MisterBob]

Mario's Down-B was definitely designed to edge guard, and it does the job pretty well.

[Kwijiboe]

Only been playing as Snake because I'm a rampant MGS-fanboy. Just recently discovered you could attach C4 to other players, it's made for some fun moments.

[BRP]

I've been trying to get good with Wario. He's a lot of fun, but fast characters are still a struggle.

[Cheerios]

I use Samus, Link, Mario, Lucas, Ike, Marth, and Snake.

Mario is kinda meh because his range is so bad, and the water gun thing takes too long to charge for an edge guard. His meteor smash is really good for KO, but his up+B recovery is pretty poor so you might end up KO'ing yourself in the process if you aren't careful.

Snake's Forward smash can KO lighter characters by 70% if there are no walls to bounce off of (like Shadow Moses). Guarding the edge with the down+b (remote mine?) works well because it can be used from mid-air. It falls about the same speed as snake though, so don't detonate it too early or you'll kill yourself. It's also quick to detonate, so you can down+b while launched, then up+b recover. I do find myself getting stuck under some stages with his up+B though .

[Metah]

Charge FLUDD if you get a Star KO or if they get pushed off very far to the side... I charge Gyro on R.O.B. all the time and it takes roughly the same amount of time.

[Ryko]

Here, I played diddy tonight trying to use what I saw niv and silverbreeze use against me, it's really banana heavy so you'll see what we were talking about.

Diddy vs ZSS

[Metah]

Diddy's usmash is seriously tough shit

[nivlakian]

Messing around with Samus now in training mode. I just realized, her second jump gives virtually no additional height now.

Edit: Nvm, jumping against other characters suggest it's the same. Just looked to me like she doesn't really go anywhere.

[BRP]

I can honestly say I hate Pikachu. Not really playing him, but against him. He's the only CPU lvl 9 that I have a hard time beating. Thunder is faggotry incarnate.

[Nirokun!]

airdodge :D its painfully easy unless he dsmashes/upsmashes you then runs under you and does it like a player would (im pretty sure he doesnt)

[BRP]

His bolt of lightning lasts longer than the airdodge, especially now you can't move while doing it.