Ganondorf (SSBM)

Ganondorf (, Ganondorf) appears as an unlockable playable character in Super Smash Bros. Melee. His design (and model) is directly taken from his appearance from the SpaceWorld 2000 GameCube tech demo, which is itself based on his appearance in his original Gerudo form from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Ganondorf is a clone of, and as such, he fights in a brawler style similar to Captain Falcon, but in a slower, more powerful manner.

Ganondorf is voiced by, who reprises his role from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, albeit via repurposed voice clips.

Ganondorf currently ranks 14th in the C+ tier on the Melee tier list, which is his best placement in the series. Ganondorf boasts extreme power, good reach, decent chaingrabbing ability, and very useful aerials, including the strongest meteor smash in the game in his down aerial. He also has several effective edgeguarding options including the aforementioned down aerial, both the strong and weak hitboxes of his up aerial, and his back aerial. Nonetheless, Ganondorf has extreme flaws to counteract these great strengths as well. He has a bad neutral game due to his poor dash dance and lack of non-committal approaching moves, forcing Ganondorf players to rely more on reads and baits, and the punishes that come with them. However, Ganondorf is also very susceptible to punishes himself, as he is easily comboed and chaingrabbed due to his size and weight, and is very easily edgeguarded due to his very predictable (albeit long) recovery; however, the latter would be among the worst should the aerial Wizard's Foot be absent during the process. He is also vulnerable to projectiles and has few ways to deal with characters that outrange him or have very fast attacks. Because of this, while Ganondorf has good matchups against characters ranked lower than him, and a few high tiers reliant on wavedashing for movement, he struggles to maintain ground against top-tier characters, such as and.

How to unlock
To unlock Ganondorf, players must complete Event 29: Triforce Gathering or play 600 VS. matches.

Upon completing this, Ganondorf is fought on, with the track "Great Bay" playing.

Attributes
As a slower, larger clone of Captain Falcon, Ganondorf sacrifices speed for power and range. He is often considered to be the most powerful character in the game, boasting as many as sixteen KO options. This is counteracted by his poor mobility, as he has the 6th slowest dashing speed, the 3rd slowest air speed, and a rather short and slow wavedash. However, he possesses techniques that can partially circumvent his low speed, such as the Moonwalk, a great platform-dashing game, and one of the fastest and longest rolls.

One of Ganondorf's most notable strengths is his extreme power and damage output. His up smash, though laggy, is the strongest in the game if fully charged and both hits connect. His neutral special, Warlock Punch, and his notorious up tilt are two of the slowest moves in the game (the latter is the slowest), but can KO as low as 30%. His down aerial is both the strongest aerial attack and meteor smash in the game; it is notoriously difficult to meteor cancel regardless of damage percentage and is nearly impossible to recover from, even at low percentages, and can reliably star KO some grounded characters under 100%. Ganondorf's powerful attacks are counterbalanced by their slowness, but although most of his aerial attacks have long periods of landing lag, Ganondorf is perhaps the character that benefits the most from L-canceling, as it allows him to effectively combo other characters.

Despite Ganondorf's extreme power, he does not suffer from poor combo ability due to the knockback in his attacks, as he manages to retain some of the excellent combo ability from his clone. His aerials flow very well into each other, and when L-canceled, he can chase his opponents and land a follow-up despite his poor air speed. Due to his benefit from L-canceling, a low short hop, and decent falling speed, Ganondorf has a good SHFFL. The core of Ganondorf's combos lie in his grab game; despite a rather poor grab range, his throws have immense versatility, and his up and down throws are excellent launchers, as well as effective chain-grabs. His forward and back throws can also set up edgeguards.

Ganondorf's greatest strength, however, is his superb edge-guarding game. Despite his poor air speed, he is one of the best edge-guarders, with more aerial guarding options than any other character in the game; all of his aerials deal high damage and knockback and are guaranteed to knock foes offstage; his down air is an extremely powerful meteor smash, and Wizard's Foot is a non-recoverable spike. In particular, his sourspotted reversed up aerial (performed while facing away from the edge) is one of the best gimping moves in the game because of its long duration, range, semi-spiking knockback (hard to tech out of) at a 20° (rear hitbox) or 0° (rear bottom hitbox) trajectory with gravity following suit, extremely high hitstun, and cannot be DI'd due to its low knockback.

Ganondorf's major weakness is his poor approach and neutral game. Although his weight and quick falling speed enables him to live longer, they also make him highly susceptible to combos and chaingrabs. His mobility and approach are ultimately crippled by his short, relatively slow wavedash and poor dashing and air speeds. A lack of a projectile also makes it difficult for him to break opposing camping. He also has a very poor dash-dance, as it is among the shortest in the game and leaves him vulnerable to being camped or rushed down. Additionally, he lacks safe moves that allow him to approach noncommittally. As a result, Ganondorf is dependent on punishing opponents through reads and baits.

Ganondorf is also regarded as one of the most easily edge-guarded and edge-hogged characters in the game. On paper, he has a long, extendable horizontal recovery, thanks to his down special, Wizard's Foot, which is one of the only two specials that allow the character to regain their midair jump (the other being Falcon Kick, but is considered inferior to Wizard's Foot because of how much farther downward it travels and Captain Falcon's higher falling speed). Ganondorf's aforementioned abysmal air speed prevents him from efficiently moving off-stage, and his mid-air jumps fail to give enough height to reliably recover offstage. This makes edgehogging very threatening if Ganondorf is positioned poorly offstage.

Overall, Ganondorf is a powerhouse; with some of the strongest moves in the game, he can easily KO the entire Melee cast at very lower percents with his powerful moves. All that's holding him back are his unimpressive mobility and prediction-reliant neutral game, requiring players to play a bait-and punish style to try and land his powerful moves while being careful not to get attacked himself.

Differences from
Ganondorf struggles more often than Captain Falcon due to his slower mobility and a weaker combo game, causing Ganondorf to be more prediction-reliant when approaching and having more difficulty in competing with faster characters like or. However, Ganondorf boasts noticeably stronger attacks, a more dangerous edgeguarding game, and greater reach. He also has no sourspots on his attacks barring his forward tilt, and still retains a few of Captain Falcon's good combo starters, enabling him to still have an good combo game. Despite being designed as a "slower" Captain Falcon, almost all of Ganondorf's moves have the exact same frame data in terms of start-up and ending lag, although all his aerials do have much higher landing lag. A few of Ganondorf's moves also have different knockback angles, usually toward vertically rather than horizontally. Finally, Ganondorf has more electric effects in addition to darkness on his attacks, with only one move (up tilt) using flame.

Ground attacks

 * Neutral attack:
 * Forward tilt:
 * Up tilt:
 * Down tilt:
 * Dash attack:
 * Forward smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Forward tilt:
 * Up tilt:
 * Down tilt:
 * Dash attack:
 * Forward smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Down tilt:
 * Dash attack:
 * Forward smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Dash attack:
 * Forward smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Forward smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Down smash:

Aerial attacks

 * Neutral aerial:
 * Forward aerial:
 * Back aerial
 * Up aerial
 * Down aerial:
 * Forward aerial:
 * Back aerial
 * Up aerial
 * Down aerial:
 * Forward aerial:
 * Back aerial
 * Up aerial
 * Down aerial:
 * Back aerial
 * Up aerial
 * Down aerial:
 * Back aerial
 * Up aerial
 * Down aerial:
 * Back aerial
 * Up aerial
 * Down aerial:
 * Back aerial
 * Up aerial
 * Down aerial:
 * Up aerial
 * Down aerial:
 * Up aerial
 * Down aerial:
 * Up aerial
 * Down aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Down aerial:

Throws/other attacks

 * Down throw
 * Down throw

Special moves

 * Warlock Punch:
 * Gerudo Dragon:
 * Dark Dive:
 * Wizard's Foot:
 * Gerudo Dragon:
 * Dark Dive:
 * Wizard's Foot:
 * Dark Dive:
 * Wizard's Foot:
 * Dark Dive:
 * Wizard's Foot:
 * Dark Dive:
 * Wizard's Foot:
 * Wizard's Foot:
 * Wizard's Foot:
 * Wizard's Foot:
 * Wizard's Foot:
 * Wizard's Foot:

Version history
NTSC 1.01 addressed some oversights and bugs with Ganondorf, fixing glitches where he performs a second jab with a Bunnyhood equipped and no longer being considered grounded when using Dark Dive on the ground. The startup lag on the second hit of his neutral aerial was also increased to match the move's animation which had the side-effects of reducing it's ending lag and making it autocancel later.

The PAL version of Melee nerfed two of Ganondorf's aerials, with his forward aerial no longer being a reliable KO move (although it can combo into itself better), and his down aerial dealing less knockback and damage (while still remaining the strongest meteor smash in the game.)

NTSC 1.01

PAL

Moveset
For a gallery of Ganondorf's hitboxes, see here.

Stats
NTSC

PAL

Most historically significant players

 * Any number following the Smasher name indicates placement on the 2019 MPGR, which recognizes the official top 100 players in the world in Super Smash Bros. Melee.
 * See also: Category:Ganondorf players (SSBM)


 * - Ganondorf main from NorCal well-known for his eccentric playstyle which focuses heavily on technical skill such as moonwalking, as well as unusual move choices like the Volcano Kick and Warlock Punch. Placed 25th at, 33rd at , 49th at and , and 65th at . Has wins over  and  in sets and infamously beat fellow Ganondorf main Eikelmann 3-0 in a best-of-5 Salty Suite exhibition during.
 * - Chicago-based Ganondorf who showed impressive results with his placings at all four Major League Gaming events in 2006.
 * - Formerly ranked 2nd in Denver; known for being the one of only 3 Ganondorf's to take a game off of 's  in tournament. Entered an indefinite hiatus following allegations of abuse by former partners and his ban from competition in Colorado.
 * (#95) - Ganondorf main from Montreal widely regarded as one of the best Ganondorf players in Melee. Unlike other high-level Ganondorf players who have become less active in recent years, Kage continues to show the character's strengths at recent events such as 17th at and, and 33rd at  with wins over , , and . Ranked 95th on the 2019 MPGR.
 * (#15) - main with an extremely potent Ganondorf secondary. Has placed 1st at, 3rd at , and 5th at  using Ganondorf in some sets. Has notable wins over  at  and  during  using Ganondorf.
 * - Florida Ganondorf main who was regarded as being one of the top in the world for his movement and punish game.
 * - Along with Kage, he was one of the strongest solo Ganondorf players during the late 2000s. Placed high at early CEO events and 33rd at . The technique known as Tech Check was formerly named after him. Became semi-active before being banned from competitive play due to sexual misconduct allegations.
 * - Florida Ganondorf main mostly active in the mid 2000's with high placings at . Known for popularizing the utility of as a semi-spike, which led to the technique sometimes being referred to as the "Tipman spike."

Tier placement and history
Historically, Ganondorf has been considered a high or mid-high tiered character, having fluctuated between 8th and 12th for the first eleven tier lists. Although Ganondorf's great power and strong punish game enabled him to maintain a more powerful presence in the early metagame, this was due to players being less experienced with the character and defensive counter play was less developed. With a better understanding on how to check Ganondorf, his ground with the rest of the cast began to falter, and his flaws became more exacerbated due to Ganondorf players being unable to fend off fast-paced and careful approaches from characters like and. and have developed vastly improved counterplay on his chaingrabs, with the former now considered to win against Ganon. As a result of the metagame shifts favoring against him, Ganondorf's tier placement faltered. This is reflected in the most recent tier list where he is ranked 14th, the lowest he has ever placed.

In
Like and, Ganondorf does not appear as an opponent in the game's Classic Mode, though he can appear as an ally in Team and Giant battles. Despite this, Ganondorf does have an introduction image for the "Now Loading..." screen between matches in the game's files.

In Adventure Mode
Upon being unlocked, Adventure Mode makes no concessions to Ganondorf whatsoever.

In All-Star Mode
In All-Star Mode, Ganondorf and his allies are fought on Brinstar Depths. Unusually, the music remains unchanged.

In Event Matches
Ganondorf is featured in the following event matches:


 * Event 29: Triforce Gathering: As and teamed with Zelda, the player faces Ganondorf on the Temple stage. If the player has not yet unlocked Ganondorf upon completing this event, they will have the opportunity to do so after defeating him one-on-one.
 * Event 49: All-Star Match Deluxe: Ganondorf is the final opponent the player must fight in this series of staged battles. The player battles him on, and their character has two stocks, while Ganondorf has one. With a timer of four minutes, the player must defeat him and the other five characters one-by-one with the overall time and life the player is given: Dr. Mario, Falco, Pichu, , and Roy.
 * Event 51: The Showdown: The final event match pits the player against a team of Giga Bowser,, and Ganondorf on the Final Destination stage, without friendly fire, and all four characters having three stocks apiece and unlimited time.

Trophies
In addition to the normal trophy about Ganondorf as a character, there are two trophies about him as a fighter, unlocked by completing the Adventure and All-Star Modes as Ganondorf, respectively, on any difficulty:

Trivia

 * In the 1.0 version of Melee, if Ganondorf had a Bunny Hood equipped, he would during his neutral attack, an apparent leftover from Captain Falcon's moveset. This second jab had no hitboxes however, and was removed in the subsequent versions of Melee.
 * Despite being a rather poor jumper, Ganondorf has the highest ledge jump in the game, jumping higher than his more agile counterpart, Captain Falcon, and even (who has the highest normal jumps, and the second highest ledge jump).
 * Ganondorf's AI is infamous for its extreme level of dominance when fighting other CPUs, where it’s been observed that a level 9 CPU Ganondorf will win the majority of the time against every other level 9 CPU, even against level 9 Luigi (who is normally considered the best CPU character against human players). As such, when AI tournaments are held, where players choose a CPU character to represent them, there are usually limitations on choosing Ganondorf, such as charging a higher fee to pick him.
 * Ganondorf is tied with the for the world record in the Home-Run Contest. Ganondorf is also the only character that can break the max distance in the Home-Run Contest without the use of a glitch or Action Replay (the Ice Climbers have to utilize the freeze glitch to break the max distance).
 * When Ganondorf's trophies are viewed under the "night"/"dark" background in the Trophy Gallery, his eyes glow. He is the only character whose trophy holds this trait.
 * Ganondorf's hand is briefly seen during Link's montage in the introduction to Melee, making him one of the five hidden characters, along with, , , and , to have some kind of involvement with the intro.
 * Most of Ganondorf's voice clips were imported from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time; for example, his victory pose and taunt both use a sped up version of his laugh from that game. One voice clip involving Ganon saying "Ooya!" was imported, but it isn't used anywhere in the game.
 * This "Ooya!" clip would later find itself used in Brawl, as it is the sound that plays when is selected with the Wii Remote, despite him having a new voice actor.
 * The voice clip would later then make a proper usage in Ultimate, since has his voice actor reverted back to Takashi Nagasako's, through Ganondorf's new down smash.
 * Unlike his appearance in Ocarina of Time, Ganondorf's voice sounds more higher-pitched and less monstruous. This is due to his repurposed voice clips from the game being largely unadultered, lacking the digital alteration they had in Ocarina of Time, where they're applied a filter to sound slower, gruffer and lower-pitched. Ironically, in Ultimate, Takashi Nagasako would provide Ganondorf with a closer voice tone to that of Ocarina of Time.
 * Ganondorf is the only clone whose original character is from a different series.
 * Sakurai did not plan to include Ganondorf as a playable character in Melee, only including him later in development because his body had a very similar build to Captain Falcon's, allowing him to be easily added on as a last minute clone of Captain Falcon.
 * Alongside fellow fighter, Melee marks Ganondorf's first playable appearance. Both would eventually become playable characters outside of Smash in.
 * Not counting Donkey Kong and Mario, as they have been both a protagonist and antagonist, Ganondorf, along with Bowser, are the first two playable antagonists in the Smash franchise.
 * Strangely, in his challenger approaching screen, Ganondorf appears to have no cape, more closely matching his design in the promo art of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.