Editing Ike (SSBB)

Ike is a moderately [[Weight#SSBB_Weight_Ranking|heavy]] character with very slow but powerful attacks. Although Ike himself is also slow, his attacks will surprise opponents when hitting from maximum range. Most of his attacks possess high damage, great knockback, and outstanding range, giving Ike excellent KO potential at low damages. Ike is also one of the best characters to crouch-cancel a jab with, as the move can accrue upwards of 20% on opponents when crouch-canceling the original hit into another jab a few times. Ike works best when playing the range game, best maximized by using his [[forward aerial|forward]] and [[back aerial|back]] aerials whenever retreating. His forward aerial has the distinction of having the most horizontal attack range of any normal aerial in the game. Using the attack to effectively approach depending on the situation, Ike can pursue follow ups such as more forward aerials, his far-reaching dash attack, or an attempt at outwitting the foe into his [[Quick Draw]] side special. However, all three of these moves have high ending lag and are quite punishable if they miss. At a distance, one can even use Quick Draw to punish [[Floor recovery|floor recoveries]] and [[floor attack]]s because of the move's ability to be held indefinitely.

Should Ike have to deal with opponents close in, he can easily use his competent jab to either put the spacing back on or to transfer to a throw, with either the back or forward variants capable of putting the opponent in a vulnerable position should they be at the edge. Though more effective as a [[KO]] move, Ike's back aerial has very fast startup (especially when considering its power) and can catch opponents off-guard but has high ending lag, should the player be in a position to chase or attack in-close. If the close-in war is being waged at the edge, Ike can be an effective edge guarder, having his long-ranged forward aerial, his down tilt [[meteor smash]], his [[Aether]] special, and his deadly down aerial meteor smash or back aerial as options to harass the opponent (as well as the aforementioned jab/throws). Ike is also one of the game's deadliest air-dodge/roll trappers, given his far-reaching forward smash and its tremendous power; it is a useful move so long as Ike is never predictable with it. Up-smash can be also be used in this fashion due to its similarly wide sweeping motion, and is preferable to Ike's down-smash for punishing excessive rolling and also giving him the ability to have a surprisingly long hyphen smash considering his dash speed.

However, Ike definitely has his drawbacks. His dash speed is fairly slow, and he is a somewhat tall target. His [[counter]] is quite slow, requiring some prediction to use effectively (it takes approximately six frames longer than {{SSBB|Marth}}'s counter compared to Marth's which takes only four frames for the counter frames to start). On the other hand, Ike's counter frames end six frames later than Marth's (both of their counters last for about 59 frames, 23 of them being counter frames), making him less vulnerable afterwards. His throws do low damage. Ike's recovery is also somewhat predictable, because he has a short double jump and only two main recovery moves (Quick Draw and Aether) which have limited trajectories and cannot both be used in the same recovery. Quick Draw needs to be charged to get far, and is easily blocked by anyone willing to get hit by it before Ike can reach the ledge, making him extremely vulnerable to low-angle attacks and edge guarding. Aether is very predictable but also difficult to guard against by any character with short ranged attack, due to the knockback resistance the move grants and the fact that Ike's sword reaches the ledge long before he does. Still, he is vulnerable to edgehogging as it does not grab the ledge until he is descending with the attack and most characters have at least one attack that can knock Ike out of Aether. It is also vulnerable to [[gimp]]s from moves that push others away (e.g. {{SSBB|Mario}}'s [[F.L.U.D.D.]] or {{SSBB|Squirtle}}'s [[Water Gun]]). Also, Ike lacks a projectile, and is himself extremely vulnerable to projectile camping from characters such as {{SSBB|Falco}} and {{SSBB|Pikachu}}. His attacks can generally be avoided/dodged easily because of the massive starting lag on all of his attacks. Additionally, he is one of the easiest characters in the game to punish a missed move due to the extreme ending lag on his attacks and extreme unsafeness on his moves when shielded. Because he is a large heavyweight with fast falling speed, he is susceptible to [[chain grab]]s and [[Wall of pain|walls of pain]].

In the end, Ike must rely on careful prediction and spacing of the opponent to even land a single attack, much less win the match, but when effectively doing so, smart Ike players can end or mostly obliterate a stock within a matter of seconds. Still, Ike cannot handle many high-level match-ups, due to his lack of fast aerials and slow speed overall that forces over-reliance on the opponent's mistakes.