Super Smash Bros. Ultimate character guide (part 11)

Welcome back to the eleventh installment of our in-depth guide to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's stellar cast of playable characters

In this ours guide, we will devote ourselves to the many characters playable of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, starting with Mario up to the latest additions of the second Fighters Pass. In each episode we will describe about five or six fighters, however, dividing them according to the chapter of Smash in which they made their debut. After the delusional ranting about the Mii, today we will bite the brake a little despite the fact that we will talk about six fighters. We will deal with Lucina, Daraen, Pac-Man, Shulk, Bowser Junior e Pit Oscuro. The first and last of these six are more than "semi-clones": we will talk about the Eco characters at the end of the article.

Quick Preamble

Before moving on to the characters, let's clarify the fulcrum of the guide: in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate the task of each player is to throw opponents off the screen, fighting in arenas that mix the genre of fighting with elements of platformer (X and Y allow you to jump). The A and B keys, used in combination with the various directions, give life to the most disparate moves, as well as the back keys to manage shields, dodges and holds. The game also implements tools that irremediably alter the fate of each encounter, but in this guide we will basically focus only and only on the characters themselves. Increasing the opponent's damage will make him lighter and, therefore, vulnerable.

Lucina - Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Character Guide

La daughter Chrom (which we will talk about in a few episodes) and the female version of Daraen (which we will see below), Lucina, is the first fighter to come from Fire emblem awakening. This is also the first real clone, or Echo Character, that has happened to us in the guide. Being a swordswoman who even in the game of origin initially passed off as Marth, her attacks can only have been taken from him.

• Franchise of origin: Fire Emblem
• Origins: Lucina is there distant descendant of Marth, from whom he took the divine heritage and even the sword itself, the Falchion, although forged over and over over the centuries. At the beginning of Fire Emblem Awakening, Lucina comes from an alternate future and calls herself "Marth" while wearing a mask (the same one that peeks out in her taunts, above). The purpose of his time travel is to warn his unsuspecting father, Chrom, of the devastation the demonic dragon Grima will bring if he is not stopped in time.
• Gameplay: The only difference between Marth and Lucina is that the latter is a more balanced version of the base character. The Falchion of Lucina it does not boast a stronger point than another: hitting the tip, in his case, is useless. This does not prevent Slash (B) to break the shields, at Dancing Blades (↔ + B) to ring combos with each press of B, a Dolphin shot (↑ + B) to recover altitude with an upward stroke and to the Counterattack (↓ + B) to act, well, as a counterattack.

Daraen - Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Character Guide

The avatar of Fire emblem awakening joins with the fourth game to the characters that we are analyzing in this guide to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Known as Reflet in Japan and Robin in English, Daraen it can be a male or a female: a distinction present in alternative customs, and which we will see later also with Corrin and Byleth. If you remember the ninth episode of the guide, Daraen is one of the characters with a separate indicator: let's find out why.

• Franchise of origin: Fire Emblem
• Origins: Daraen debuts in Fire Emblem Awakening with no memory of her past, when Chrom, Lissa and Frederick find him / her in a meadow. After testing her tactical and fighting skills on the field, Chrom recruits him / her as strategist of Ylisse's army.
• Gameplay: Daraen has to alternate Thunderbolt sword and magic. Running out of one will leave the other as the only possible alternative. Regular attacks (A / A + ↔ / ↑ / ↓ / right analog lever) consume theindicator relative to the sword, while the special ones (B / B + ↔ / ↑ / ↓) do the same with the relative bar. Thunder (B) starts a charge: pressing B again throws the strongest variants, thus increasing its range and power. Arcfuoco (↔ + B) is a slower variant of Ness's PsychoFire, and how the latter traps the opponent. Elf wind (↑ + B) launches downward a blast of air that hurls Daraen upward. Nosferatu (↓ + B), as the “vampire” name of the short-range move implies, increases the damage of the opponent it manages to trap by stealing it from Daraen.

Pac-Man - Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Character Guide

hardly Pac-Man it needs introductions, but if that is the case you should already know it. The face of video games par excellence for those unfamiliar with Mario makes his debut in Smash with a citationist moveset in a similar way to (but to a lesser extent) that of Mr. Game & Watch. In the right hands, Pac-Man can create truly unpredictable strategies.

• Franchise of origin: PAC-MAN
• Origins: It was 1974 when Namco, still known for taking video game graphics to the limits of hardware, acquired the bankrupt Japanese division of Atari. Later, Namco began producing games in-house, rather than acting as a publisher. One of the first programmers to be hired was the game designer Tōru Iwatani, which at the beginning of 1979 (for a year and a half, at the time a very long period of development) began to work on its first major project. Seeing the arcades as an environment that is too oriented towards men only, Iwatani wanted to attract the attention of the fair sex with something very rare at the time: a game full of colors. From the female passion for good food, from the shape of a pizza that was missing a slice and from Casper's not very scary ghosts, an idea was born that even today popular culture pays homage with reverential respect.
• Gameplay: Pac-Man alternates its "full" form with the traditional disc composed solely of the mouth in many of its attacks. Bonus fruit (B) Loads a projectile based on the objects seen in the original PAC-MAN, to be launched by pressing B. La again key it is the strongest weapon. Energy pill (↔ + B) causes a trail of directional Pac-dots to appear while holding B; the resulting attack is very strong, but if interrupted it allows other players to collect (A) the Power Pellet at the end of the wake to heal. Pac-Jump (↑ + B) generates a springboard with increasing momentum with each bounce, but if touched when it turns red it causes the last user to fall. Hydrant (↓ + B) generates the hydrant from PAC-LAND under Pac-Man, which can act as a downward mid-air attack, as a disturbing element (the hydrant sprays water on the sides and upwards) and, when hit with a Smash attack, as a powerful projectile. Smash attacks take advantage of the four ghosts Pinky, Blinky, Inky and Clyde.

Shulk - Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Character Guide

After Ness, Lucas and the Pokémon Trainer, among the characters in the guide to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, perhaps one of the greatest representatives of role-playing games of recent memory peeps out. Shulk, the seer of Xenoblade Chronicles, bases his own fighting style on the image you can see above: the possibility of change their strengths (and weak points) with the neutral special move (B). Below we will explain better what it is.

• Franchise of origin: Xenoblade
• Origins: A young engineering student from Colony 9 and belonging to the Homs ethnic group, Shulk acquired the legendary sword monad following an attack by Face Nero (boss that appears in the Plain of Gaur scenario, above). His affinity for the sword allows him to access the latter's abilities, including clairvoyance. The Xenoblade Chronicles game world, exported to the West following the fan campaign known as Operation Rainfall, follows a legendary clash that took place millennia ago between the two titans Bionis and Mechanis. In particular, Colony 9 is located on the colossal body lifeless of the first of the two.
• Gameplay: As we anticipated, Shulk can change his strengths at will. Monad techniques (B) allows the character to switch between five different styles by holding B (image above) or pressing B repeatedly to cycle through them all. Jump blows higher but lowers the defense, Celerity makes it faster but worsens attack and jumps, Shield increases defense but worsens all Haste parameters, Slash increases attack power but weakens throwing power and defense, and ultimately Crash increases casting power at the expense of attack and defense. In Ultimate, Monad Techniques have a separate indicator. colpo proditorie (↔ + B) is a sloping slash that does more damage to the shoulders. Jump shot (↑ + B) is an upward slash that hits twice if it intercepts an enemy. Vision (↓ + B) translates Shulk's clairvoyance into a counterattack with a generous margin of error.

Bowser Junior / Bowserotti - Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Character Guide

After Super Mario Bros. 3 defined the Bowserotti the seven sons of Bowser, Super Mario Sunshine retroactively demoted the Koopa king's elite to mere "generals". In the game (image above) the true heir to the throne made his debut: Bowser Junior. Bringing the Junior Clown Car from New Super Mario Bros. Wii with him, this character has many tricks up his sleeve. In an unusual twist, each fighter costume is a different character: the seven Bowserots (Larry, Morton, Lemmy, Roy Koopa, Wendy, Iggy e Ludwig) are the other skins available.

• Franchise of origin: Super Mario
• Origins: Bowser Junior's first appearance in Super Mario Sunshine (2002) took place as "Shadow Mario", who preceded Mario on Delfina Island to frame him. Unfortunately for Mario, the islanders do not shine for intelligence: the resultant process (nice welcome!), the court of the Palmensi blamed Mario for the graffiti and for the disappearance of the Keepers Suns (rejecting Peach's objection, which we remember is still a sovereign). In Smash, Mario Shadow looks like Final Smash of Bowser Junior (and, by extension, of the seven Bowserotti).
• Gameplay: More than Bowser Junior himself, in combat he is more theAuto Clown Junior the real character. Clowncannone (B) is a loadable projectile: the later B is released, the greater the range, speed and power. Shooting clown kart (↔ + B) throws Bowser Junior forward (image) is based on the same concept as the Wario Bike. Every man for himself! (↑ + B), on the other hand, sacrifices the Junior Clown Car to detonate it (similar to the Mii Rifleman's Lunar Launch), changing Bowser Junior's air strikes until landing (which immediately regenerates the car). Cave milk (↓ + B) instead releases the enemy of the same name seen for the first time in Super Mario World.

Dark Pit - Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Character Guide

Dark Pit is the second of the Eco Characters that we will see in the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate guide. Introduced in Brawl as a "fallen angel costume" (as the official site nicknamed it, Super Smash Bros. DOJO!!, under the voice of alternative costumes) for Pit, his dark version (not evil, dark) proposes a moveset almost identical, but with important differences.

• Franchise of origin: Kid Icarus
• Origins: Masahiro Sakurai wanted to keep aside the "fallen angel" costume in Kid Icarus Uprising, officially introducing Dark Pit as a character in its own right. When the goddess Pandora uses the Mirror of Truth to create her own Pit, Palutena's champion tries to break it. By interrupting the cloning process right at the end, Pit inadvertently gave his dark counterpart the gift of free will. From that point forward, Dark Pit - never a real villain (such is the purity of Pit's heart) - he alternates phases in which he fights Pit out of pride with others in which he instead assists him. In Smash's pseudo-canon, an easter egg in the Temple of Palutena arena reveals that Dark Pit is now acting on behalf of the nature goddess Viridi (above, background). Pit and Palutena love to call him Tip:, which gets on his nerves.
• Gameplay: The differences between Dark Pit and Pit are poche, but incisive. Silver bow (B) is more difficult to direct than the Arch of Palutena, sacrificing range in favor of damage. The Electroshock arm (↔ + B) differs from the Arm uppercut in the super armor which ignores the weakest attacks of the opponents and in the direction in which it hurls the opponents, horizontally (Dark Pit) rather than upwards (Pit). The Gift of flight (↑ + B) of Pit Oscuro is identical to that of Pit, and the same goes for Orbit shield (↓+B).

Concluding details, eleventh episode: the Eco Characters

We previously talked about the clones, but now it's time for our guide to talk about the Eco characters by Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. When it comes to fighters inspired by other roster members in their moves, we have the opportunity to dwell a little less. We are at the eleventh episode: between abbreviations for inputs and clones, we have reached a point where it is not necessary to repeat some of the explanations from the beginning (“Quick Preamble” permitting). In addition, in each episode of the guide we find the tricks to refer to all the episodes seen so far, so you will be able to review whenever you want.

As for the semi-clones, here too the difference is virtually only in an aesthetic fact. However, the more you play at higher levels, the more you will realize how incisive the subtle differences can be between a fighter and the character he inspired. Later we will see Eco Characters with less marked differences (Daisy) and others who boast a completely different move from the original (Chrom). In the next episode we will conclude the fourth smash speaking of characters with their own unique mechanics, including three guests of honor: Ryu, Cloud and Bayonetta. The game's learning curve is about to get steeper: keep fit!

That's all for today: how are you finding yourselves so far? (You can find the summary here.) Please let us know by leaving us a comment below, and don't forget to stay on Holygamerz to not miss any news from the videogame world and beyond.