Diddy Kong (SSBU)

Diddy Kong (, Diddy Kong) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. He was officially confirmed on June 12th, 2018 alongside and the rest of the returning roster. Unlike his previous appearances in the Super Smash Bros. series, Diddy Kong is now an unlockable character instead of a starter character. Diddy Kong is classified as Fighter #36.

Diddy Kong once again retains his realistic chimpanzee screeches that were used in both Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. 4 instead of being voiced by Katsumi Suzuki.

Diddy Kong is currently ranked 12th out of 82 characters on the current Ultimate tier list, ranking him in S- tier. This is a sizeable drop from his ranking in Smash 4, where he was tied with at 2nd/3rd out of 54, and is technically his worst placement in the series. Diddy Kong possesses many strengths that are core to his gameplan. He has a strong neutral with his signature item being the Banana Peel. It offers him an extensive and flexible array of options at his disposal, using it for combos or setups into KOs or edgeguards. His small size makes him generally hard to hit or pin down. Diddy Kong also has good frame data on his moves, allowing him to box out his opponents at ease. He also possesses a command grab which can also be a burst option in Monkey Flip to condition foes to shield.

Despite these strengths, Diddy Kong has some weaknesses. He is mainly reliant on his Banana and since it is an item, opponents can use it against him, allowing for their own combo or KO confirm on Diddy. Diddy Kong also does not have much reliable ways to secure stocks at high percents if his opponents are past KO confirm percentages, making him rely on stray hits. Finally, his recovery is relatively exploitable as if he gets hit during Rocketbarrel Boost, he is in a lot of endlag until he can recover again.

Overall, while Diddy has a lot of strengths to contend with the best of the best, he has some weaknesses that can be exploited from players who know the matchup. He has seen strong tournament results from most notably, who has won several majors with him, and other players, such as and.

How to unlock
Complete one of the following: With the exception of the third method, Diddy Kong must then be defeated on Kongo Falls. In World of Light, he is fought on the Ω form of.
 * Play VS. matches, with Diddy Kong being the 37th character to be unlocked.
 * Clear with  or any character in his unlock tree, being the 7th character unlocked after.
 * Have Diddy Kong join the player's party in World of Light.

Attributes
Diddy Kong is a small middleweight with typical attributes for his weight class; he has very fast dash, run, and walk speeds, which allows him to move on the ground very well. In contrast, his air mobility is rather lacking, as his air speed and air acceleration are both below average. Overall, while Diddy outspeeds many characters on the ground, his air game is rather clunky due to his lackluster air attributes.

Similar to other characters of his weight and size, Diddy Kong has very fast frame data, which allows him to throw out a flurry of moves at his opponent while still being able to chase them with his strong grounded mobility. In fact, nearly all of his moves, with the exception of his forward smash, down aerial, and special moves, come out before frame 10, with many of them also having low endlag. Thanks to these attributes, Diddy has a strong, flexible combo game, allowing him to use multiple different moves to string into each other and continually pressure his opponent even if they escape his combos, as he has multiple ways to keep them in a disadvantageous position.

Another important aspect of Diddy's combo game is his excellent selection of combo starters, which lets him start combos reliably both in the air and on the ground and also lets him create mix-ups and play unpredictably. One of his main combo starters is from a grab, as both his down and up throws have low endlag and send at great angles for immediate follow-ups, as down throw can lead into a forward or back aerial and up throw can lead into any of his aerials except for down aerial. Up throw also has potential KO setups into up aerial, although these are inconsistent and unreliable. His dash attack has a long duration and extremely low endlag and sends the opponent upwards, which lets Diddy follow up with an up, back or forward aerial. His neutral aerial has a long lasting hitbox and can lead into another aerial from low to high percents, with the late hit being particularly useful at high percents due to its lower knockback. Diddy's up and down tilts are both excellent combo starters themselves, with the latter having the ability to KO confirm into an up-smash at high percents. Additionally, all of Diddy's aerials except for neutral and up aerial can lead into a grab when landed on grounded opponents thanks to their low knockback and landing lag.

Diddy's special moveset also comes with several unique options. His neutral special, Peanut Popgun, is a small projectile with low range and knockback when uncharged. It is useful for pestering the opponent in the neutral game and can be charged, giving it extreme power when fully charged, although it has extremely high lag, doesn't shoot at a distance, and its charge cannot be saved like other chargeable projectiles(such as Samus' Charge Shot). He can also cancel charging the move by shielding, dodging, or spotdodging. His side special, Monkey Flip, has Diddy leap forward and will act as a command grab when landed on the opponent or will be a fast kick if the player presses the attack button again during the duration of the move. Due to its fast speed and decent distance, low endlag, and ability to edge-cancel off platforms or the ledge of the stage, it can be used as both a movement option and a way to approach, as its speed can compensate for his poor air mobility. It can also be used for horizontal recovery. His up special, Rocketbarrel Boost, is Diddy's main vertical recovery option. Uncharged, the move has unremarkable distance, but when fully charged, it moves much faster and travels much further. However, this requires Diddy to stay in place while charging the move in the air, leaving him highly vulnerable to gimps or edgeguards. The move also has a unique property in that if the opponent hits Diddy while using the move, the barrels will fly off and will irregularly move around, with the player having a small amount of control over their trajectory before they lose control. This gives him a useful, although niche stage-controlling option and the barrels will deal high damage and knockback when landed on an opponent. Lastly, Diddy's down special, Banana Peel is his most useful special and one of his best moves. It has him pull out a Banana Peel over himself, which can be picked up and thrown by both Diddy and his opponent. If Diddy places it down before the opponent could grab it, then they will be tripped by it if they attempt to pick it up. This lets Diddy land almost any attack he wants on his opponent if he times it before the tripping animation is done and allows for a plethora of combo options and even KO confirms into his smash attacks. Thanks to its ease of use and low commitment due to him only having to throw it at the opponent for it to work, it is integral to his kit and lets him punish missed attacks, have a strong advantage in the neutral game, create extremely long combos, and take control of the stage. He can also use a held banana as an excellent out-of-shield option when thrown. The only true downside to his Banana Peel is that the opponent can also catch and throw it just like he can, which allows them to use it against Diddy and take away one of his most important tools. Additionally, only one Banana Peel can be used at a time and it disappears when hit by an opponent or thrown twice.

Despite very strong strengths, Diddy isn't without his weaknesses. His two main flaws are a lackluster disadvantage state and predictable recovery. Monkey Flip, while fast, can be extremely predictable when used in a disadvantagous position, as it is Diddy's main way of getting out of juggle situations, due to his horrible air mobility. Diddy especially suffers when the opponent is able to consistently keep him in disadvantage state, not allowing banana to be pulled. This can snowball in some matchups, making it extremely hard to catch up to the opponent if diddy is not able to get his gameplan started. Diddy's other main weakness, his recovery, is arguably worse however. Monkey Flip has respectable distance and safety when the kick version is used, but has some endlag and also doesn't allow him to use Rocketbarrel Boost afterwards. Rocketbarrel Boost itself grants Diddy a relatively long ranged recovery option, the drawback being that it leaves Diddy wide open for attacks. If diddy is hit out of the Rocketbarrel Boost with a weak move he will become helpless and slowly fall to his death, making it easy to gimp him. Diddy Kong also suffers from a lack of range, though this is somewhat offset by his banana, which provides him with a fast and transcendent projectile.

Diddy Kong falls into a quick, bait and punish heavy playstyle. He must control the neutral game with his banana and great ground moves, capitalising on his opponents' mistakes by repeatedly getting them offstage or juggling them to rack up damage. Diddy can use his fast and non-committal down tilt to set up for kills at high percent or use his banana to set up for a smash attack, ending the opponents' stock even earlier. However, players must be smart in how they use his Banana Peel, as the opponent could potentially hinder his options by taking it away from him and also exploiting his linear recovery. Overall, his strengths outweigh his weaknesses and is generally considered to be a solid high tier-, or even top tier character. Diddy has also seen great results and representation in competitive play, indicating that he is still a very viable character, although not to the same extent as in Smash 4.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. 4
Diddy Kong was one of the most dominant characters in both of his first appearances thanks to his useful moves and the ability to produce items, namely s, which grant him an amazing control of the neutral game. Even after receiving nerfs in game updates in SSB4, Diddy would continue dominating other characters, ending his run in top tier (3rd out of 58 characters). Most likely owing to his overwhelming success, Diddy Kong was nerfed significantly in the transition to Ultimate, though he would later receive significant buffs in various updates to compensate. Ultimately, he is considered to be moderately nerfed overall.

Diddy's neutral game has been toned down due to many of his staple moves being worsened in various ways. Up and down tilts, down smash, forward aerial's late hit, up aerial, and grab all have less range, making it harder for Diddy to take advantage of these moves at their highest range. Banana Peels cannot be grabbed as quickly due to him releasing one at a higher arc, and they have a cooldown before they can be produced again after disappearing. Rocketbarrel Boost travels a drastically shorter distance when fully charged, and the charge time itself was reduced by a third, worsening his already vulnerable recovery when hit very far offstage. Diddy is also lighter, making him easier to KO.

Further exacerbating these nerfs, the universal changes hinder Diddy Kong overall. The reduced shieldstun for items and increased lag on grabs weaken his approach and defensive game with Banana Peel; the latter change is compounded by the nerfs to his grabs' range. The faster knockback physics reduce his up throw's combo potential, no longer having reliable combos or KO setups at high percents. He also suffers from the universal increase in jump speed, as he can no longer reliably hit small characters with his back aerial from a rising short hop.

Despite this, Diddy Kong has also received notable buffs to help compensate, some of which have been received through game updates. His neutral attack no longer has an infinite portion, which decreases its damage potential but allows it to connect much more reliably, improving its overall consistency and utility as a close range option. Some of his moves have more range and/or reduced lag that increases their combo ability, namely neutral aerial (which can now autocancel from a SHFF) forward aerial's clean hit, dash attack, up tilt, down aerial, and down throw, the latter working better as an alternative to his up throw at lower percents. A few of Diddy's moves also have more power, such as his up and down smash attacks.

His special moveset has also been improved in a number of ways. Monkey Flip has reduced startup lag and much more range, which when coupled with the changes to jostle mechanics greatly improve its utility as an offensive tool. Peanut Popgun has faster startup, deals more damage and charges significantly faster. Rocketbarrel Boost goes further when uncharged and makes Diddy Kong fall much slower during the charge period, slightly improving his recovery overall. Finally, Banana Peels benefit from the item's tweaked natural properties: they now possess transcendent priority, making them unable to trade with attacks and thus riskier to pick up; and they can now be thrown twice at opponents before disappearing (though this does potentially give opponents more opportunities to use the item against Diddy). Finally, in terms of gameplay changes, the universal increase in mobility benefits Diddy, as his already fast mobility has been further improved, allowing him to keep up with the rest of the cast.

Overall, Diddy Kong's nerfs outweigh his buffs, even accounting for game update changes. Diddy must now take more risks in order to win the neutral game with his standard moves, and his Banana Peels have been nerfed to be less spammable. However, he has been slightly compensated in terms of moveset utility and power, and still possesses an oppressive factor courtesy of his fast frame data and movement speed, and Banana Peels remaining a strong tool in the neutral game. General optimizations and shifts in the metagame, combined with his changes from game updates, have also been benefitial to him. Because of this, Diddy performs overall worse than his SSB4 iteration, but remains a noticeably strong pick in the recent metagame, being considered an "anti-meta" pick despite this being his worst iteration in the series so far.

Update history
Due to the engine changes and the direct nerfs to his most useful tools in the transition from Smash 4 to Ultimate, which overall significantly hindered his viability, Diddy Kong was buffed significantly via game updates. Update 2.0.0 only brought one, but substantial change to his neutral aerial; the move now autocancels significantly earlier. Update 3.0.0 also granted Diddy Kong with some worthwhile buffs. His dash attack is now faster overall with less startup on all of its hitboxes and the move ends slightly sooner. However, the first hitbox now lasts only one frame instead of two due to a frame speed multiplier being used without proper compensation. On the flipside, his forward tilt gained late hitboxes, overall increasing the move's hitbox duration. His down smash was made stronger, his neutral aerial now has bigger hitboxes and his up aerial deals more damage without fully compensated knockback, making the move much stronger.

Update 3.1.0 was the biggest patch for Diddy Kong, bringing him many plentiful and noteworthy buffs. The second hit of his neutral attack now connects more reliably into the first hit. The final hit of up smash was made stronger and the move now connects much better overall. His up aerial was buffed once more with less startup and ending lag. His down aerial also received similar buffs, with less startup and a shorter overall duration. Peanut Popgun also was graced with considerable buffs, with every charge instead of the max level dealing more damage. The move also charges much faster overall. And finally, his once previously weak recovery, Rocketbarrel Boost, was given two buffs. Diddy Kong now falls slower while charging the move (only applies to the first charge) and the move now flies higher after charging.

After a small buff intangibility buff in update 7.0.0, Diddy Kong was buffed once more in update 8.0.0. His forward tilt now launches opponents at a lower angle, the fist hitboxes were made bigger, and the late hitboxes added in update 3.0.0 now lasts two frames longer, further increasing the move's hitbox duration. The second hit of dash attack now links more reliably into the third hit, with the aforementioned hit now having larger hitboxes. Down smash now has two frames less startup on both hits and a shorter duration overall, making the move end sooner. And finally, the clean hit of his forward aerial has bigger hitboxes.

While Diddy was mostly buffed, he has also received two notable nerfs to his Banana Peel, thanks to update 8.0.0 and once more in update 11.0.0, it now takes longer for Diddy to respawn another Banana. As a result, all of his infinite banana combos are obsolete, though this change is negligible to his gameplay outside of the infinite.

Overall, Diddy Kong was one of the most buffed characters in Ultimate, going from a mid-tier to a high tier, debatably top tier character. While Diddy Kong is still weaker than his Brawl and Smash 4 incarnation, he is still a character that should not be underestimated and continues to receive good placements in tournaments.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moveset
For a gallery of Diddy Kong's hitboxes, see here.
 * Diddy Kong can crawl, wall cling, and wall jump.

Announcer call
''

On-screen appearance

 * Bursts out of a DK Barrel and claps his hands above his head.

Taunts

 * Up taunt: Tosses his cap in the air and has it land on his head. This is a reference to his victory pose in Donkey Kong Country after he defeats a boss or wins in a.
 * Side taunt: Angrily does a playful fighter's stance while growling, trying to assert his dominance.
 * Down taunt: Claps his hands above his head four times, switching feet in the process.

Idle poses

 * Scratches his rump, gets down on all fours, and shakes his fur.
 * Jumps in place twice.

Crowd cheer
 

Victory poses

 * Left: Shoots 3 times with his Peanut Popguns (first with the right, then with the left, then the right again). Afterwards rolls towards the camera, and fires one more shot from his left Peanut Popgun.
 * Up: Rises from the ground with his Rocket Barrels. After doing a spin, he dismounts from them, causing them to fly away. Upon landing, he then faces the screen, dancing with hands on his head and chin.
 * Right: Performs an inverted spin kick, followed by a slap, and then he slams both of his hands on the ground, performing a front flip. He ends up balancing on his hand in a breakdance-like pose, clapping his feet together.

Tier placement and history
Diddy Kong's role in Ultimate competitive play has fluctuated over its lifetime. On release, top professionals immediately noticed his weaknesses, which include inconsistent KO'ing at higher percent and his greatly nerfed recovery. Many of Diddy Kong's top players, such as and, dropped him in favor of other characters. In the early months of Ultimate, Diddy was perceived as a mid-tier character.

When update 3.1.0 dropped, Diddy received a multitude of buffs to his kit to compensate for his main problem of KOing as well as his previously weak recovery. Some players further optimized Diddy's moveset, such as an infinite being discovered on platforms, which was named the Pyramid Scheme. In addition, several dedicated mains, including, , , and , started to see better and more consistent results at nationals. Because of this, the general opinion of Diddy Kong started to improve, with some players, such as, , and viewing him as a solid high-tier character.

During the online metagame, patch 8.0.0 removed Diddy Kong's Pyramid Scheme infinite. However, due to the additional buffs received, players such as and Aaron continued to achieve impressive results. Tweek especially won and  with the character.

Following the return of offline play, both players continued to see high placements with Diddy Kong, with Tweek notably winning. As such, the current view on Diddy Kong has improved further compared to before the pandemic, with some players believing that he might reassess himself as a top-tier character, albeit still weaker than his previous incarnations. Diddy Kong also has a strong matchup spread, having positive matchups against most top and high tiers, such as, , , , , and. in particular has come out and said that he believes that Diddy Kong is top 10. However, some other players such as, and even  believe that he is overrated and is a high tier at best.

Regardless, Diddy Kong is still seen as a strong character, making him ranked 12th on the first and current tier list, although it is still widely agreed that he is slightly worse than in Brawl and Smash 4.

Most historically significant players
See also: Category:Diddy Kong players (SSBU)


 * - One of the best Diddy Kong players in the world. Placed 7th at both and, 9th at both  and , and 13th at  with wins over players such as , , and . Ranked 30th on UltRank 2022.
 * - One of the best Diddy Kong players in the United States. Placed 2nd at, 13th at , 17th at , and 25th at both and  with wins over players like , , and . Currently ranked 4th in the Las Vegas Power Rankings.
 * - The best Diddy Kong player in Japan prior to his retirement. Placed 5th at, 7th at , 13th at , and 17th at and  with wins over players like , , and.
 * - One of the best Diddy Kong players in Chile. Co-mains Diddy along with . Placed 1st at, 5th at  and 49th at  with wins over  ,  and . Currently ranked 2nd on the Chilean Power Rankings.
 * - One of the best Diddy Kong players in the United States. Placed 7th at, 25th at and , 33rd at , and 49th at  with wins over  and . NorCal Ultimate Power Rankings.
 * - One of the best Diddy Kong players in the United States. Placed 2nd at, 13th at , and 17th at with wins over  and . Currently ranked 5th on the New Jersey Ultimate Power Rankings.
 * - One of the best Diddy Kong players in Japan. Placed 1st at, 7th at and , and 13th at  and . Has wins over players such as , , and.
 * - The best Diddy Kong player in the world. Placed 1st at, and  as well as 2nd at  and . Ranked 8th on OrionRank 2022 and UltRank 2022.

: Hey, Little Buddy!
In Diddy Kong's path, he serves as the "little buddy" to the hero of various Nintendo franchises and fights the respective villains or final bosses. In the penultimate stage he finally teams up with his true partner, Donkey Kong, to defeat their nemesis King K. Rool. Donkey Kong is also Diddy Kong's partner for the final fight against Master Hand and Crazy Hand. The title originated from the manual of ' and was popularized by the ' TV series; Diddy Kong is also referred to as Donkey Kong's "little buddy" in games such as Brawl and .

Credits roll after completing Classic Mode. Completing it as Diddy Kong has  accompany the credits.

Role in World of Light
Diddy Kong was among the fighters that were summoned to fight the army of Master Hands.

During the opening cutscene, Diddy Kong was present on the cliffside when Galeem unleashed its beams of light. He attempted to fly away with using his Rocketbarrel Pack, but a beam of light hit him and he was vaporized and placed under Galeem's imprisonment along with the other fighters, excluding.

To find Diddy Kong, the player must access the DK Island sub-area reminiscent of the first Donkey Kong Country game, where he's found right at the end.

Spirit
Diddy Kong's fighter spirit can be obtained by completing. It is also available periodically for purchase in the shop for 300 Gold, but only after Diddy Kong has been unlocked. Unlocking Diddy Kong in World of Light allows the player to preview the spirit below in the Spirit List under the name "???". As a fighter spirit, it cannot be used in Spirit Battles and is purely aesthetic. His fighter spirit has an alternate version that replaces it with his artwork in Ultimate.

Trivia

 * Diddy Kong's blog mentions his Final Smash utilizing his popguns. However, his new Final Smash, Hyper Rocketbarrel, no longer utilizes the popguns he wielded like in Rocketbarrel Barrage.
 * Diddy Kong and are the only characters who gain a CPU ally in every round of their Classic Mode (excluding the Bonus Game).
 * Barring a few small differences, Diddy Kong's Ultimate artwork is essentially a mirrored version of his artwork in Brawl.
 * Oddly, Diddy Kong's stock icon does not change his fur and skin color to match the costume.

Diddy Kong (SSBU)