Mr. Game & Watch (SSB4)

Mr. Game & Watch in Super Smash Bros. 4
Universe	Game & Watch
Other playable appearances	in Melee in Brawl in Ultimate
Availability	Unlockable
Final Smash	Octopus
Tier	E (38)

Mr. Game & Watch (Mr.ゲーム＆ウォッチ, Mr. Game & Watch) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. 4. After making a cameo in Pac-Man's trailer, Mr. Game & Watch was announced during the Super Smash Bros. for Wii U 50-Fact Extravaganza on October 23rd, 2014. Like in Smash 4's predecessors, he emits Game & Watch-esque sound effects to represent his "voice".

Mr. Game & Watch is ranked 38th out of 54 on the tier list, placing him at the top of the E tier. This is a significant drop from his ranking in Brawl, where he was ranked 16th out of 38. Mr. Game & Watch's strengths lie in excellent combo and air games, as well as a high overall damage output and renowned KO potential in spite of his size and weight, due to the power of his forward and down tilts, smash attacks, aerials, Judge and Oil Panic. His overall mobility is also decent, with his recovery in particular being impressive due to Fire's long-ranged distance, large edge sweetspot and general safety.

Mr. Game & Watch is also good at edgeguarding, due to his recovery and moderately fast aerials. His landing lag, while not supplemented by auto-cancels, is actually quite low and is among the best in the game in terms of the total amount of frames in aerial move-lag upon landing.

However, Mr. Game & Watch possesses notable weaknesses as well. One of his biggest flaws includes a surprising inability to KO at higher percentages despite dealing a lot of damage quickly. This is due to his finishers being plagued with either inconsistent KO set-ups (such as down throw into up aerial), KOing options that are too sluggish, or have large sourspots (such as forward and down smashes, respectively). Additionally, while he has surprisingly good range for his size due to his disjointed hitboxes, he still has shorter range than a handful of the cast, such as Shulk, Ike, Marth, and Cloud. He is also the third-lightest character in the game, making him prone to getting KO'd quite easily, which is further exacerbated by the loss of Bucket Braking and the introduction of rage.

Mr. Game & Watch's grab game is also lackluster outside of down throw, as his grab has short reach, his pummel is one of the slowest in the game, and none of his other throws possess the same utility that his down throw does, nor are they strong enough to KO at realistic percentages. His neutral game is also lacking, due to none of his aerials auto-canceling from a short hop and having limited amount of safe options on shield. Lastly, his special moves are considered to be situational, due to either requiring luck (Judge) or the opponent to have an energy-based projectile (Oil Panic) in order to have the moves function.

Overall, Mr. Game & Watch's strengths are generally on par with his weaknesses. While his tournament representation is poor overall due to his noticeable flaws and unpopularity in competitive play, he has still achieved surprisingly high tournament results for a mid-tier, such as Regi placing 17th at EVO 2016 and Maister placing 13th and 17th at GENESIS 5 and 2GG: Hyrule Saga, respectively. In addition, some professional smashers, like ESAM and ZeRo, rank Mr. Game & Watch much higher in their own tier lists compared his current standing.

How to unlock

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS

• Play 90 VS Matches.
• Complete Classic Mode with 10 different characters.

Mr. Game & Watch must then be defeated on Flat Zone 2.

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U

• Play 80 VS Matches.
• Clear Classic Mode on Intensity 2.0 or higher with 5 characters.

Mr. Game & Watch must then be defeated on Flat Zone X.

Attributes

Mr. Game & Watch's archetype as a small lightweight slightly differs from the majority of his fellow lightweights. While he has a small size, has the third lightest weight, the fifth slowest falling speed, below average gravity, low jumps and is tied for the seventh fastest air acceleration, he has a slightly above average walking speed, an average dashing speed, a low short hop and above average air speed. Overall, Mr. Game & Watch's mobility is quite exceptional for a lightweight, but his slow falling speed can be somewhat detrimental. His short size also makes him difficult to hit, especially when crouching.

Unlike most lightweights, Mr. Game & Watch's moveset benefits from disjointed hitboxes, with some of them reaching relatively far from him. His damage output is excellent despite his small size and light weight, supplemented by possessing one of the best combo games in SSB4, allowing him to easily inflict an impressive amount of damage by landing only a few hits. His down throw is a reliable combo starter, being able to be followed by his up tilt (on floaty characters) or neutral attack (on fast-fallers) at low percents, Judge, up smash, or Oil Panic from low to high percents, all aerials excluding down aerial from medium to high percents, and Fire at high percents.

His combo game is further compounded by his outstanding air game, possessing a damaging and versatile set of aerial attacks with useful applications. His neutral aerial provides high coverage around him and deals exceptional damage if all hits connect. The last hit deals moderate knockback, making it difficult to punish and allowing it to KO at high percentages, as well as being rarely escaped by SDI and able to be followed up by other moves. His forward aerial has decent range and knockback (when clean), making it useful for edgeguarding and KOing off the edge at high percentages, and the late hit can be followed up by another attack when late despite the moves' ending lag. His back aerial, while less damaging than in Brawl, is still quite useful due to its disjointed range and low knockback that allows it to be followed by another one, giving it an effective wall of pain ability.

Mr. Game & Watch's up and down aerials have primary utility for KOs. His up aerial is his strongest one, but its windbox can make it difficult to connect into the second hit, which carries all the knockback. Nevertheless, its windbox can also safely space the move and anti-air or juggle opponents. Meanwhile, his down aerial is an effective meteor smash as well as being a stall-then-fall, giving Mr. Game & Watch an effective move for edgeguarding, ending a stock early, and getting out of juggles, while the move's late hit has decent knockback to KO at high percentages if the clean hit is unreliable.

While he boasts a fairly damaging moveset and combo game, Mr. Game & Watch also boasts plenty of reliable and powerful finishers for his weight class, to the point his own power rivals those of super heavyweights. The most notable examples include his forward and down tilts at high percents, all of his smash attacks, his aerials, Judge (9), and Oil Panic. Finally, his special moveset is relatively versatile, albeit polarized. His neutral special, Chef, deals weak knockback, but can effectively stun players, as well as working as an efficient anti-pressuring and edgeguarding option from afar. Hitting with the pan is much more rewarding at edgeguarding, as it is a semi-spike that can gimp characters with short-ranged projectiles. His up special, Fire, grants exceptional vertical distance and deals moderate knockback, as well as slowing his descent down after usage, giving Mr. Game & Watch an amazing recovery that is also difficult to edgeguard.

Mr. Game & Watch's side special, Judge, is infamously polarizing due to being luck-based; its effects range from inflicting no knockback while damaging Mr. Game & Watch himself (1) to inflicting extremely high knockback that is often a virtual one-hit KO (9). Finally, Oil Panic can absorb three energy-based projectiles (or one extremely powerful energy-based projectile) before unleashing a powerful attack that can score a one-hit KO depending on how much damage the absorbed projectiles. However, it only works on characters with absorbable projectiles, such as Zelda and Samus, making it situational and dependent on the matchup, limiting its utility.

Despite these exploitable strengths, Mr. Game & Watch possesses notable weaknesses. Due to his two-dimensional nature, he is the third-lightest character in the game, which makes him susceptible to early KOs, especially vertically. He also suffers from poor defensive options: he possesses short-reaching dodges that are quite slow, often punishable even when used sparingly. His grab game leaves a lot to be desired outside of combos, as his grab still has short reach, his pummel is one of the slowest in the game; in particular, this makes it unreliable for racking up damage until past medium precents despite being damaging as the opponent can get grab released after a single pummel at low precents, and none of his throws share the utility his down throw does, and none of his throws can KO until very high precents.

In addition, despite possessing large and disjointed hitboxes, his overall range is mostly mediocre. This is further worsened by the fact that most of his disjointed moves, like up tilt, down tilt, and forward smash, have underwhelming range for a disjoint. Their range was also nerfed from Brawl, with their attacks being much less wide and far. Swordfighters, like Marth and Cloud, can easily outrange Mr. Game & Watch and stop his approaches. The latter is compounded by his relative lack of approach options. Additionally, his neutral game is hindered by none of his aerials auto-canceling out of short hops and a limited amount of safe options on shield. While the majority of his moveset has quick startup, it suffers from high ending/landing lag in most of his attacks; his aerial attacks, in particular, are burdened with high landing lag, allowing him to be easily punished when his moves are whiffed or shielded. Finally, some of his special moves are considered to be situational depending on the matchup, with Judge being an unsafe move in general due to its randomness, and Oil Panic being only useful when facing an opponent with an absorbable projectile.

Regarding custom moves, Mr. Game & Watch noticeably benefits from a few of them. Short-Order Chef deals even weaker knockback, but has a much quicker execution, allowing him to space and zone out his opponents more easily while giving Mr. Game & Watch an approaching option. Chain Judge lacks special effects, but deals more damage the higher the displayed number is, significantly improving the move's consistency and damage-racking capabilities. XXL Chef sacrifices speed for power, as it can KO at very high percentages when hitting with the bacon. Heavy Trampoline sacrifices distance for more KO potential, while Trampoline Launch sacrifices a parachute for improved distance and KO potential. Efficient Panic's oil spill is weaker and has less range, but requires only one projectile to be filled instead of three and has less ending lag upon absorption, allowing Mr. Game & Watch to use one of the most situational tools in his kit much more frequently. Panic Overload's bucket has a smaller absorption radius, but the oil spill sacrifices speed for more power.

Overall, Mr. Game & Watch is described as a potent glass cannon, as he can inflict serious damage by collectively using his combos and KO his opponents early. By these same merits, he himself is susceptible to being finished off earlier than most characters due to his lightweight status. All in all, Mr. Game & Watch's strengths are generally on par with his weaknesses. While he has held poor tournament representation due to his noticeable flaws and low overall popularity in competitive play, Mr. Game & Watch still maintains notable success in competitive play due to the efforts of dedicated players to his credit, such as GimR, Regi, and Maister.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. Brawl

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Mr. Game & Watch was typically perceived as an upper mid-tier/lower high-tier character. Mr. Game & Watch was a small target with solid overall mobility, who possessed surprisingly powerful attacks, several disjointed attacks with large hitboxes, a great recovery, and an especially powerful tool in Oil Panic. Oil Panic was not only a very powerful tool to deal with projectiles, but it was also an incredible momentum canceling tool, allowing Mr. Game & Watch to maintain solid horizontal endurance despite his light weight. On the other hand, Mr. Game & Watch suffered from possessing slow startup on several of his attacks, possessing an array of multi-hitting attacks which could be SDIed out of, and he generally lacked strong options to approach his opponents, or reliable ways to rack up a ton of damage. Because of this, Mr. Game & Watch was an overall solid threat, but he was outclassed by a sizeable portion of the cast, and he overall struggled against most top/high-tier characters. Most likely owing to this, Mr. Game & Watch has received a mixture of buffs and nerfs in the transition to Smash 4, being overall nerfed.

A majority of his moveset is burdened with increased lag, such as his neutral aerial possessing a shorter duration, more ending lag, more landing lag, and no longer auto-canceling with short hops, which weakens his options to approach or punish opponents. His other aerials (excluding forward aerial) also have increased landing lag, especially his down aerial, making Mr. Game & Watch himself more vulnerable to punishes if his moves get whiffed and/or shielded. Mr. Game & Watch's overall range, damage output, and KO potential have received various reductions, making it more difficult for him to rack up damage and land KOs. The changes to hitstun canceling can be considered a double-edged sword for Mr. Game & Watch: they indirectly removed Bucket Braking and momentum canceling, which greatly hinders his endurance, especially horizontally, and it makes him more susceptible to combos, yet it improves his combo game due to his altered and combo-oriented down throw. He also suffers from the removal of edge momentum shifting, as it removes the approaching potential of his special moves when Mr. Game & Watch slides off edges/stage platforms. The inclusion of rage also does not benefit Mr. Game & Watch as much as the majority of the cast, as while it improves his KO potential, the increased knockback delivered by adversaries under the influence of rage makes the liability of his poor endurance more prominent in Smash 4.

However, Mr. Game & Watch has received some noticeable buffs. As previously mentioned, his down throw is now a potent combo starter, which can potentially lead into an up aerial for a KO. While Oil Panic has had its valuable "Bucket Braking" ability removed, it also fills faster, and absorbing more damaging projectiles will fill it up by multiple units instead of only one, letting Mr. Game & Watch use one of the most situational moves in his kit more frequently. The weakening of SDI has also improved the reliability and consistency of his multi-hitting attacks, like neutral aerial and back aerial. His up smash has been improved rather drastically: it not only gains invincibility instead of intangibility, Mr. Game & Watch's frontal limbs are now invincible are now invincible with his head, granting it more frontal protection. In addition, the move's invincibility lasts as soon as the move charges until the hitbox dissipates. Altogether, these changes collectively make it much more effective at stuffing out attacks and have effectively rendered the move more as a legitimate pseudo-counterattack. Although it remains as one of the strongest up smashes in the game, the move's decreased knockback has also made it more reliable for starting combos. Finally, his recovery has also been improved due to his faster air speed, Fire's increased vertical distance, which also no longer suffers from the grab release glitch, and Oil Panic's newly acquired jump-boost mechanic.

Overall, Mr. Game & Watch is noticeably less effective in comparison to Brawl, as while most of his strengths are still renowned, such as high KO potential and damage output, they were nevertheless toned down, and his weaknesses were not properly addressed, such as his poor endurance, lackluster range, and lack of reliable ways to approach. Additionally, he also did not benefit from the changes to the game's mechanics as much as the other returning veterans. Despite this, he still maintains notable success in competitive play, due to the efforts of dedicated players to his credit, such as GimR, Regi, and Maister.

Aesthetics

• Mr. Game & Watch's design has been changed. He now has a rounder head; a slightly smaller and rounder nose; a slightly wider torso; circular hands, shorter arms, and slightly smaller feet; and a thinner outline that is layered gray and white. His hands are now depicted as more clenched fists instead of open hands. Altogether, these changes make Mr. Game & Watch appear much more in line with his appearance in Game & Watch Gallery 4. His animations are also choppier, which better simulates the frame-by-frame movement within the Game & Watch series.
• His walking animation has changed: Mr. Game & Watch now walks more flippantly while he repeatedly looks back and forth. This originates from Helmet.
  • His running animation has also been changed, so Mr. Game & Watch runs more flippantly.
  • In , Mr. Game & Watch's hands are clenched fists when running/walking. In , Mr. Game & Watch's hands are spread out.
• Mr. Game & Watch has a new down taunt. He now sits down and sighs, instead of jumping once with his hands open. This originates from the Game & Watch version of Mario Bros.
• In , Mr. Game & Watch's hands are spread out during the windup of swinging the Home-Run Bat. In , Mr. Game & Watch's hands are clenched fists. This is shared with his Ultimate iteration.
• Mr. Game & Watch no longer opens his mouth in his looking behind idle pose.

Attributes

• Mr. Game & Watch is smaller. This makes his hurtbox slightly smaller, but slightly hinders his range.
  • Due to the general change in size between small and large characters combined with many hitboxes having reduced vertical range, Mr. Game & Watch's smaller size significantly improves his crouch's defensive potential.
• Mr. Game & Watch walks faster (1.1 → 1.1242).
• Mr. Game & Watch dashes slightly slower (1.553 → 1.5264), unlike almost all of the returning veterans, going from the 15th fastest out of 39 characters to only the 34th fastest out of 58 characters.
• Mr. Game & Watch's air speed is faster (1.081 → 1.12).
• Mr. Game & Watch's gravity is higher (0.07505 → 0.08).
• Mr. Game & Watch's fast falling speed is higher (1.736 → 1.984), although it has gone from the 9th lowest out of 39 characters to the 5th lowest out of 58.
• Rolls have less ending lag (FAF 36 → 30).
• Rolls have less intangibility (frames 4-19 → 4-16).
• Air dodge has less startup (frame 4 → 2) and ending lag (FAF 50 → 32).
• Air dodge has slightly less intangibility (frames 4-29 → 2-26).
• Spot dodge has less intangibility (frames 2-20 → 2-16).

Ground attacks

• Neutral attack:
  • The attack button now needs to be mashed at least three times in quick succession to initiate neutral attack's infinite, if the first hit does not connect. This makes it more difficult to initiate the infinite, as it can no longer be buffered.
  • Neutral infinite has less startup lag (frame 8 → 7).
  • Neutral infinite's hand hitbox is now extended, giving it more range inside Mr. Game & Watch.
  • The weakening of SDI makes neutral infinite significantly more difficult to escape from.
  • Neutral infinite now deals consistent damage (1% (far)/2% (near)/3% (back) → 1%).
  • Neutral infinite's body hitbox has been removed, reducing its range behind Mr. Game & Watch.
  • Neutral infinite now pushes Mr. Game & Watch away from his opponent after a few hits. This significantly hinders its damage-racking potential, especially at walls.
    • However, this makes the move safer near an edge, as if Mr. Game & Watch is facing away from the edge, he can slide off it, increasing the move's safety.
    • Additionally, this improves the move's damage-racking potential against opponents from behind, especially at a wall.
  • Neutral attack has received an updated finisher, a large blast of gas from the insecticide pump.
    • This new finisher uses a regular hitbox (rather than a windbox) which deals damage (0% → 2%) and much more knockback (29 (set), 100 (scaling) → 60 (base)/180).
    • This new finisher also has much more range.
    • However, this new finisher also has much more ending lag to compensate (FAF 9 → 24).
  • In , his hands are portrayed to be more realistic. In , his hands are clenched fists.
• Forward tilt:
  • Forward tilt has a longer duration (frames 10-15 → 10-17).
    • However, the move now has a clean hit and a much weaker late hit, with the clean hit only lasting for one frame (frames 10-15 → 10).
  • Forward tilt has increased base knockback (20 → 35).
  • The top of the chair sends opponents at a more favourable angle (45° → 361°).
  • Forward tilt now has two extended hitboxes instead of four regular hitboxes. These hitboxes are smaller (4.8u/5u/4.8u/3.84u → 4.8u/4u), and they overall have less range compared to the previous hitboxes.
    • Additionally, the new late hit has even smaller hitboxes (4.8u/5u/4.8u/3.84u → 4.5u/3.5u).
  • Forward tilt's handle/body hitbox deals less damage (10% → 9%).
  • The lower chair/handle/body hitboxes send opponents at a higher angle (37° → 361°), hindering their KO potential.
  • The new late hit deals much less damage (10% → 4%), drastically hindering forward tilt's KO potential, especially since the late hit is active for most of the move's duration.
• Up tilt:
  • Up tilt has less startup lag (frame 13 → 10).
  • Up tilt now consists of two hits, increasing its maximum damage potential (8% → 7% (hit 1 & 2)/14% (total)).
    • However, this also shortens its duration (frames 13-21 → 10-12 (hit 1), 20-22 (hit 2)), worsening its use as an anti-air.
    • Additionally, the first hit only saw a decrease to its damage and base knockback (30 → 20), which both hinders its KO potential and prevents it from leading into the second hit under multiple scenarios, especially if Mr. Game & Watch has rage.
  • Up tilt has more ending lag (FAF 30 → 36).
    • Despite this, it still has greater combo potential overall due to the changes to hitstun canceling and directional influence.
  • Up tilt's animation has been altered, so Mr. Game & Watch's arch is much more shallow. This hinders its ability to hit in front of or behind Mr. Game & Watch.
  • Up tilt has smaller hitboxes (6.5u/4.5u/3.8u → 5.5u/3u) and the body hitbox has been removed. This, combined with its altered animation, decreases up tilt's range, especially inside of Mr. Game & Watch, despite the hand hitbox being moved closer to Mr. Game & Watch (y offset: 0 → -1.5).
  • The second hit launches opponents at a less favorable angle (100° → 115°), hindering its KO and combo potential.
• Down tilt:
  • Down tilt deals much more knockback (50 (base), 50 (scaling) → 40/125), now having KO potential.
  • Down tilt has received a large, damaging and powerful windbox against aerial opponents, improving its utility.
  • The new windbox has a larger hitbox (9u → 10.5u) compared to the previous aerial hitbox, which is additionally now an extended hitbox.
  • The new windbox has a rehit rate of 4, allowing it to hit opponents multiple times.
  • Down tilt has much more ending lag (FAF 26 → 40).
  • Down tilt launches opponents at a higher angle (20° → 30°).
  • Down tilt has a shorter duration (frames 6-15 → 6-11).
    • However, the new windbox has a longer duration (frames 6-15 → 7-19).
  • The new windbox has more startup lag (frame 6 → 7).
  • Down tilt now only uses a small extended hitbox rather than a large regular hitbox against grounded opponents (8u → 2.5u). This decreases its range, especially vertically.
  • Down tilt has lost its aerial hitbox, completely removing its use as a large disjointed edge-guarding tool, since the windbox launches opponents vertically (361° → 90°).
    • Additionally, the new windbox deals much less damage compared to the previous aerial hitbox (9% → 1%) without full compensation on its knockback (80 (base), 40 (scaling) → 70/120).
• Dash attack:
  • Dash attack has increased knockback scaling (50 → 70), improving its KO potential.
  • Dash attack covers more distance in a shorter amount of time, improving its use as a burst movement option.
  • Dash attack's hitboxes have been moved forwards (y/z offsets: 2/4 → 3.5/6), which, along with the previous point, improves its range.
  • Dash attack now sends opponents in front of Mr. Game & Watch instead of behind him (120° → 50°).
    • This angle is lower than the previous angle, which, along with sending opponents forwards, improves the move's edgeguarding potential.
    • However, due to this angle sending opponents forward, it is now impossible to stage spike ledge hanging opponents.
  • Dash attack now has a late hit which deals much less damage (11% → 6.5%), hindering its KO potential despite its increased knockback scaling.
  • Dash attack's clean hit deals less damage (11% → 10%).
  • Dash attack has a shorter duration (frames 6-29 → 6-9 (early)/10-19 (late)).
  • Dash attack's has smaller hitboxes (6.24u → 6u (early)/5.5u (late)).
• Forward smash:
  • Forward smash has a slightly altered animation. Mr. Game & Watch now swings the torch with both hands, instead of just one. In addition, the torch slightly has more length compared to Brawl.
    • This altered animation gives the move more range, improving its spacing potential.
  • The sourspot has increased knockback scaling (98 → 100), improving its KO potential despite launching opponents at a higher angle (361° → 53°).
  • Forward smash has a much shorter duration (frames 17-20 (clean)/21-34 (late) → 17-18), with the move losing its late hit.
  • The sweetspot has decreased knockback scaling (98 → 91), hindering its KO potential.
  • The sweetspot is much smaller, only possessing one hitbox (6u/5u → 3u), has less priority than the sourspot, and it has been moved closer to Mr. Game & Watch (z offset: 17/10 → 11), now merely covering his hand. This drastically reduces its range and makes it much harder to land.
  • The sourspot is larger (3u → 5.3u) and it has been moved closer to Mr. Game & Watch (z offset: 0 → 17). This, combined with it now out-prioritizing the sweetspot (ID# 2 → 0), makes it much easier to land, hindering forward smash's overall effectiveness.
    • The hitbox is also smaller than the previous sweetspot, giving forward smash less range overall.
  • The body hitbox has been removed.
• Up smash:
  • Up smash's head hitbox has been changed to a static extended hitbox. This gives the move more horizontal range, and for a more consistent amount of time despite its smaller size (6u → 5.5u).
  • Mr. Game & Watch's head now gains invincibility rather than intangibility, making it more effective at stuffing out attacks.
    • In addition to this, Mr Game. & Watch's front hand/arm and foot also gain invincibility, granting him more protection from the front.
    • In addition to this, up smash gains invincibility much sooner and for a much longer period of time (frames 24-28 → 4-25), allowing him to evade attacks long before the hitboxes even come out and even counterattack them.
  • Up smash's animation is now mirrored, with the visor now facing the screen regardless of which direction Mr. Game & Watch is currently facing. Mr. Game & Watch also now swings his head before the hitboxes even come out.
  • Up smash has a shorter duration (frames 24-28 → 24-25).
  • Up smash deals less damage (18% → 16%) and has decreased knockback scaling (97 → 93), hindering its KO potential.
    • However, this also improves its combo potential at lower percents when combined with the changes to hitstun canceling/DI.
  • Up smash lost its large, floating, static hitbox, reducing its vertical range.
• Down smash:
  • Down smash's sourspot is now one extended hitbox, giving it more range.
  • Down smash has a slightly altered animation, with the hammers being larger.
  • Down smash has more ending lag (FAF 34 → 42), no longer having the shortest total duration out of all down smashes.
  • The sourspot deals much less knockback (60 (base), 68 (scaling) → 30/65).
  • The sweetspots have decreased knockback scaling (98 → 85), no longer being the strongest down smash in the game.
  • The sweetspots have smaller hitboxes (7u → 5u). When combined with the hammers' extended size, this reduces their range and results in the move no longer fully covering the hammers, rather than being deceptively disjointed.

Aerial attacks

• All aerials except Forward aerial have more landing lag (9 frames → 12 (neutral/up), 12 → 19 (Back), 15 → 28 (Down)).
• The weakening of SDI makes neutral and back aerials significantly more difficult to escape from.
• Neutral aerial:
  • Neutral aerial has a much shorter duration (frames 7-10, 12-15, 17-20, 22-25 → 7/12/17/22).
  • Neutral aerial has more ending lag (FAF 35 → 43). This notably prevents Mr. Game & Watch from double jumping after performing neutral aerial in a short hop.
  • Neutral aerial auto-cancels later (frame 35 → 44), no longer doing so in a short hop.
  • The loop hits' bowl hitbox is smaller (6u → 5u).
• Forward aerial:
  • Forward aerial has less landing lag (22 frames → 15).
  • Forward aerial auto-cancels earlier (frame 46 → 42).
  • The changes to hitstun canceling make it much more reliable for walls of pain.
  • Forward aerial has a shorter duration (frames 10-12 (clean)/13-32 (late) → 10-11/12-25).
  • Forward aerial has smaller hitboxes (7u/5.5u (clean)/5u/4u (late) → 5.5u (clean)/4u (late)) and the move has lost its near hitbox, removing forward aerial's ability to hit inside of Mr. Game & Watch.
  • The clean hit deals much less damage (16% → 11.5%) with barely increased knockback scaling (80 → 86), significantly hindering its KO potential.
• Back aerial:
  • Back aerial auto-cancels earlier (frame 41 → 38).
  • The loop hits have altered knockback (25 (base), 0 (set), 40 (scaling) → 30/0/40 (far)/0/40/100 (near)) and angles (68° → 366° (far)/25° (near)), making them connect more reliably.
  • The changes to shieldstun significantly benefit back aerial due to its above-average hitlag multipliers. This is because the opponent not only has more shieldstun, but they are also no longer put into shieldstun while Mr. Game & Watch is still in hitlag. Because of this, the opponent can now only perform out of shield options on the same frame that the next hit comes out (assuming the attack connects on the first possible frame), as opposed to four frames prior, preventing the option from rolling, spot dodging or using an intangible up special (if they have access to one) to avoid the rest of the attack.
    • This also makes the final hit in particular much safer on shield.
    • Additionally, the move also benefits from the introduction of