Kirby (SSBU): Difference between revisions

Kirby's buffs lie in the increased utility of his ground and aerial moveset. The first two hits of his [[jab]] can now [[jab lock]], making them more useful for set-ups for downed characters, and the looping hits connect into the opponent much more reliably, albeit at the cost of reduced damage output. [[Forward tilt]] is a stronger neutral option, as its increased knockback gives it KO potential and its reduced ending lag makes it a harder move to punish overall. [[Dash attack]] has been completely reworked, reverting back to its ''Melee'' iteration—however, it is significantly stronger, dealing much more damage and knockback, has less startup compared to his previous dash attack in ''SSB4'', can cross-up on shields, covers more distance, and is more reliable for catching opponents thanks to only consisting of one, long-lasting hit. These changes make it a stronger punish tool and a much more useful and versatile move overall than his previous dash attack. His [[smash attack]]s are stronger punish options, with [[forward smash]] having an increase in range, [[up smash]] having reduced start-up, and [[down smash]] regaining its semi-spike angle that makes it better for edgeguarding, similarly to one of its hitboxes in ''Brawl'', and all three of have higher power, except for down smash, which has reduced knockback to compensate its lower angle, although it still KOs earlier close to the ledge. His up smash in particular has received alterations to its hitboxes that cause the clean hit and the late hit to swap their durations (one to three frames for the clean hit and viceversa) and with the clean hit sourspot's knockback values matching the sweetspot, thus making it more consistent and a better anti-air option, as well as making the clean hit easier to land. The landing lag in his aerials, already among the lowest in SSB4, was reduced even further and noticeably benefits him, making his aerials not only safer, but now capable of leading into followups, with forward air's first two hits now being able to follow up into forward smash, while his neutral aerial, one of his most situational attacks, has more range, more knockback and much less ending lag, making it safer and more reliable for pressuring, edgeguarding and KOing. In addition, Kirby's neutral and up aerials had their startup reduced, improving their safety and utility as out-of-shield options. Many of Kirby's attacks, such as up tilt and all his aerials except for up aerial also have more range, partially reducing one of his weaknesses from ''SSB4''. Outside of his stronger smash attacks, Kirby's KO potential has been overall improved: forward tilt and his dash attack's clean hit are now strong enough to KO at high percents, the clean hit of his neutral aerial's knockback has been increased to the point that it's now one of the strongest neutral aerials in the game and up aerial's increased damage and knockback restore some of the KO potential it had in ''Melee''. He also benefits from some universal changes, with the universally increased speed improving his approach, and the introduction of [[dash-canceling]] benefits his very fast tilts, and the universal changes to air dodge improve his already solid edgeguarding game and give him a new option to extend his recovery. [[Inhale]] has received a large number of of significant improvements: it has noticeably reduced startup, reduced ending lag, more range, a quadruplified grace period in which Kirby cannot lose his Copy Ability (from 5 seconds up to 20), and a lower probability of losing said ability after this period has ended. Furthermore he can now eat the projectiles he swallows to heal himself (and store certain ones in his mouth as well, enabling him to spit them out as stars) and his [[neutral special]] receives a 1.2× multiplier compared to his opponent, albeit without a corresponding increase to knockback, giving him a greater incentive to Inhale opponents. Lastly, the aerial version of Stone has super armor during its start-up, making it more difficult to interrupt Kirby out of the attack, as in previous ''Smash'' games, he could be interrupted even when he fully transformed.

However, Kirby has also received a few noteworthy nerfs. The most notable were to his [[grab]] game: The universal changes to the ending lag of grabs makes Kirby's riskier to throw out, his already mediocre grab range has been worsened (most notably on his pivot grab), and his [[forward throw]] has him jump up higher after the throw, which runs the risk of possibly landing on top of a soft platform, negating all follow-ups when it happens too early (although following with up aerial, neutral air or forward smash can alleviate this issue at low to mid percents), while back throw has lost its combo potential due to changes in its animation, granting him a less effective combo game off of his grabs overall. Additionally, [[Stone]] no longer hits twice against shielded opponents, reducing its shield pressure considerably, and back aerial, one of his primary KOing options in ''SSB4'', deals less knockback, although the clean hit now lasts for 3 frames instead of 2. Lastly, his [[down aerial]], one of his most reliable combo starters in ''SSB4'', has more range on the looping hits, but slightly less on the final hit and is less advantageous on landing due to the removal of [[frame cancel]]ing, reducing the effectiveness of its follow-ups, since its landing lag was not reduced enough to compensate properly. Some universal changes also are a mixed bag or don't benefit him as much as other characters: while his mobility has improved, some other characters such as Lucario have received more noticeable improvements in that aerea, especially with air speed or falling speed, causing him to still have issues with his slow air speed and his floaty physics, and the chances to air dodges, while improving his edgeguarding game, also make him more vulnerable to edgeguarding himself, especially since his air dodge is now the third slowest.

Overall, while Kirby has been improved from ''SSB4'', he still retains many of the same issues (mediocre range, sluggish aerial mobility, down aerial having noticeable startup, susceptibility to being camped) that made him a poorly viewed character in ''SSB4''. Additionally, a majority of the characters that were ranked on the same tier as Kirby or lower in ''SSB4'' have received notably bigger improvements than Kirby, which includes characters such as {{SSBU|Pac-Man}}, {{SSBU|Falco}}, and {{SSBU|Wii Fit Trainer}}. This, coupled with his sparse tournament results and lack of representation, has garnered him a negative reception across the Smash community; multiple competitive players including {{sm|ESAM}}, {{sm|Tweek}}, {{sm|VoiD}}, {{sm|Dabuz}}, and {{sm|Samsora}} view Kirby just as poorly as in ''SSB4'' or even as one of the worst characters in the game altogether. In recent times, on the other hand, other players such as {{Sm|Mr. R}} and {{Sm|Abadango}} have ranked him higher thanks to his recent success from [[6.0.0_(SSBU)|6.0.0]]. He has additionally earned some representation in all levels of play, with players such as {{sm|Komota}}, {{sm|Jesuischoq}}, and {{sm|Ferretkuma}}. As of now, his overall viability remains questionable.