King Dedede (SSBB)

King Dedede in Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Universe	Kirby
Other playable appearance	in SSB4
Availability	Starter
Final Smash	Waddle Dee Army
Tier	C+ (12)

King Dedede (デデデ, Dedede), also known as Dedede, DDD, and D3, is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. King Dedede is a recurring villain in the Kirby series. He is an anthropomorphic, blue penguin-like being whose main weapon is his massive, wooden mallet, which has now been mechanized. King Dedede has been classified as a "Super Heavyweight", alongside Bowser, Donkey Kong, and Snake. However, he is capable of puffing up for multiple jumps, like Kirby and Jigglypuff. He was confirmed on October 25, 2007 on the Smash Bros. DOJO!! site. Dedede is voiced by the director of the game, Masahiro Sakurai, who also voiced him in Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards.

King Dedede is currently ranked 12th on the tier list on the top of the mid-high tier. King Dedede's most notorious attribute is his amazing grab and throw game; Dedede possesses the longest reaching non-tether grab that is also among the fastest grabs, and he possesses one of the best sets of throws. His down throw is a notorious chain throw that can work on two thirds of the cast at any damage percent (as it possesses set knockback), and is an effective tech chase move on those it can't chain throw. King Dedede is also notoriously difficult to KO; his great weight, the fastest falling speed, and the second best vertical momentum cancelling gives him by far the greatest vertical endurance. He's no slouch at surviving horizontal blows either, possessing great horizontal endurance, and one of the least gimpable and greatest distance covering recoveries. King Dedede additionally possesses a strong aerial game (with his back aerial being considered one of the overall best attacks in Brawl), some of the best reach throughout his moveset, tremendous power throughout his moveset with some attacks being both quick and hard hitting, and a versatile projectile in his Waddle Dee Toss. King Dedede however is one of the slowest moving characters with terrible mobility; he possesses the third slowest dash and the slowest air speed. While Dedede possesses strong camping abilities himself, he has a very difficult time breaking through opposing camping, being such a large and slow moving character whose projectile is not fast enough to outcamp strong projectile campers. Dedede's great weight and falling speed also make him heavily vulnerable to chain throws and combos (though his only moderate falling acceleration saves him from being affected as severely as other fast fallers are). Dedede additionally has general difficulty dealing with fast, small characters, whom Dedede has a hard time keeping up with, while also having to rely much more on his ability to read them. Dedede overall has strong, if polarising, matchups (Dedede counters a large portion of the cast, while also being countered by several top and high tier characters), along with having achieved strong tournament results (especially in Meta Knight banned tournaments).

• King Dedede's selection sound

Attributes

King Dedede has the typical attributes of heavyweight characters: high KOing power, slow mobility and attacks, high range, fast falling speed (the fastest in the game), and large size. His tilts and smash attacks, which are largely disjointed hitboxes, combine with one of the most versatile projectiles in the game, Waddle Dees, for devastating effect. Dedede's recovery puts together four midair jumps and a launch resistant up special move with great vertical distance (and a powerful meteor smash upon its descent, when not canceled). Even though his recovery is predictable due to the Super Dedede Jump's slow speed and inability to grab the ledge at all unless canceled, his overall recovery is much harder to gimp compared to other heavyweights' recovery. He is easy to hit offstage but he can still almost always make it back. Although he is the fastest faller in the game, his falling acceleration is not very fast so it is more beneficial than harmful. As such, this makes King Dedede less vulnerable to chain throws and allows him to pull off two back aerials in a single short hop. King Dedede is also the fourth heaviest character, with the fastest falling speed, giving him the best vertical endurance in the game (noticeably longer than the second most resistant vertical KO character, Snake). He is also great at momentum canceling; Link is the only character in the game that has a more notable benefit from vertical momentum canceling (though Dedede's vertical endurance is still notably better). Even though his basic horizontal momentum canceling is rather poor, the Super Dedede Jump can be used as a difficult but effective horizontal momentum canceling technique (but because of King Dedede's very slow air speed and the fact that he can't use his jumps or aerials after, jumping is generally a safer Momentum Canceling in most cases). Due to the large amount of horizontal momentum it negates, it gives Dedede the fourth best maximum horizontal endurance in the game. This, combined with his far and very hard to gimp recovery, can make him a dangerously tough match-up for many characters that lack reliable KO moves with high knockback scaling.

Dedede is good at keeping pressure on the opponent, despite his very slow movement in the air and on the ground (third slowest dash speed and slowest air speed). Dedede has reach, power, favorable hitboxes, and attack speed mixed throughout his entire arsenal - with arguably his best attack, the back aerial, possessing all four attributes. Despite being a super heavyweight and having early KO moves, KOing can be difficult at times due to his KO moves either having slow start-up/ending lag, being forced to have the opponent in the air, being predictable, and/or having low horizontal reach. This can be one of his biggest problems, as almost every attack Dedede uses has some sort of lag. However, his up tilt, arguably his best finisher, has great vertical reach with a very large and long lasting hitbox, with great vertical knockback (it is the third strongest up tilt in the game and KOs at percentages similar to that of Snake's). While it is a great KO move in some situations, on platform-less stages such as Final Destination, it can have difficulty KOing without setting up as its hitbox doesn't extend that far from Dedede's body.

Despite this, he is excellent at edge-guarding and gimping. He is a versatile edgeguarder, with many edgeguard options. He can edgeguard with a back or forward aerial wall of pain, both of which are powerful aerials that reliably KO under 150%. He can gimp recoveries with thrown Waddle Dees, his forward tilt, and his down tilt. His forward smash is especially deadly on recovering opponents, often KOing any recovering opponent above 25%. Even his dash attack can be used for edgeguarding due to its hitbox having far horizontal reach and having long duration. A crafty Dedede can even fool an opponent into a KO at 40% by using his forward smash, although this is risky as his forward smash (the strongest uncharged smash in the game) is extremely laggy despite its reach (which includes a shockwave slightly in front of the hammer). From a distance, Dedede can prod his opponent with his quick forward tilt, the furthest reaching standard attack in the game, or he can use his Waddle Dee Toss to toss living projectiles at the opponent, which are capable of attacking of their own accord and absorbing projectiles to defend Dedede. Waddle Dee Toss can not be properly reflected (excluding Gordos). The danger of the odd Gordo is also an excellent pressure, as they are extremely strong KO projectiles. Dedede can also perform Dededecide, or Regicide, easiest when King Dedede is offstage for punishing characters close to the edge or edge guarders, though these are not very useful used onstage because it gives the opponent a long time to escape from Inhale even when they are at high damage. Although Dedede can keep pressure on opponents well, he himself is particularly susceptible to projectiles (although Waddle Dees can block projectiles), air camping by characters like Wario, (though with his huge defense it can be hard to approach and get the lead), and meteor smashes (though he can recover from them easily if not KOd by them given his great vertical recovery) due to being a slow, large target. That means he can be tough to get close for damage without high damage risks because of his amazing grab game, but because of his very slow mobility and lack of a good enough projectile to be used to force or stop approaches it forces the opponent to camp very hard against him. As a result of the opponent being forced to camp, King Dedede matches tend to take a long time against many characters.

Where Dedede really shines is in his ability to transition defense into a powerful offense. With powerful throws and the one of the best chain throws in the game, many characters can be easily punished while approaching Dedede. His down throw can chain throw many characters regardless of damage percent due to having set knockback, and he is capable of infinitely chain throwing Donkey Kong, Bowser, Wolf, Samus, Mario, and Luigi (though in the last three cases, he has to pummel after 5 throws to refresh it so the stale-move negation doesn't remove the infinite, and because of his very slow pummel, it is possible to mash fast enough to escape from the pummel until about 120%). He can also chain throw anyone weighing 85 (Marth or heavier) infinitely against a wall. Dedede's forward throw ends chain throws that have reached the edge with significant damage, with the added bonus of putting opponents into a recovery situation, where Dedede can begin utilizing his amazing edgeguard game which is deadly against characters with a poor recovery like Link and to a lesser extent, characters with a slow recovery like Snake. His back throw is very strong, both in knockback and in damage (16%, the most damaging throw in the game), and can KO at higher percentages when performed from the edge. Dedede's grab game, which is augmented by the longest non-tether grabbing reach in the game and an easy shield grab, is also complimented by his excellent range all around. Dedede also has two very quick, powerful moves to get the opponent off him while in close, outside of grabbing: his horizontal-knockback down tilt and the aforementioned up tilt.

While a Dedede player must be wary of their weaknesses, in the end, they can use his excellent defensive game, survivability, range, power, pressure ability, and grab game to overcome them against most characters.

Moveset

Ground attacks

Normal

• Neutral attack - A three-part attack: first is a horizontal swipe, then a vertical swipe, and finally a repeating, indefinite hammer spin in the fashion of a drill.
• Dash attack - Trips and face-plants forward, like he does in several Kirby games.
• Forward tilt - Extends his hammer forward and spins it.
• Up tilt- Sets his hammer on the ground momentarily and jumps a little upwards, headbutting.
• Down tilt- King Dedede extends one of his feet and sweeps the ground with it.

Smash attacks

• Forward smash - Swings his hammer over his head at the ground in front of him.
• Up smash - Pulls back the hammer then swings vertically upwards from in front of him.
• Down smash - Pulls back the hammer and then swings it horizontally along the ground.

Other attacks

• Ledge attack - Pulls himself up and as he is about halfway up, he quickly kicks out with his foot at the ground in front of him.
• 100% ledge attack - Slowly pulls himself up, and when he is most of the way pulled back onto to the stage, quickly swings his hammer over his head down in front of him.
• Floor attack (facing left)- Quickly kicks to the left, then kicks to the right.
• Floor attack (facing right)- Quickly kicks to the left, then kicks to the right.

Aerial attacks

• Neutral aerial - Sticks his arms out and legs back, attacking with his large stomach.
• Forward aerial - Swings hammer upwards in front of him.
• Back aerial - Sticks a foot out behind him, kicking with it.
• Up aerial - Sticks his hammer above him and spins it.
• Down aerial - Similar to his up aerial, but extends his hammer below him.

Grabs and throws

Note: King Dedede has the longest non-tether grab in the game, which when combined with his weight and high traction, make him arguably the best shield grabber in the game, being even able to shield grab powerful attacks.

• Pummel - Lays his hammer on the ground and headbutts the opponent.
• Forward throw - Hits opponent with hammer.
• Up throw - Hits opponent upward by sticking both his hands upward.
• Down throw - Slams opponent on ground and sits on top of them.

Special moves

King Dedede's special moves

Neutral special	Inhale
Side special	Waddle Dee Toss	Gordo Throw
Up special	Super Dedede Jump
Down special	Jet Hammer
Final Smash	Waddle Dee Army	Dedede Burst	Dede-Rush

Taunts

• Up: Hoists his hammer above his head and pumps it up and down. Oddly, the sound is out of sync with the movement if he does it while facing left.
• Down: Dances in a circle while drumming on his belly.
• Side: Spins his hammer while looking at the camera, laughing.

Cheer

King Dedede's NTSC and PAL cheer

"Kiiiing Dedede!"

Brawl instruction booklet description

The self-proclaimed ruler of Dream Land comes armed with a huge wooden mallet.

In competitive play

Matchups

Super Smash Bros. Brawl Character Matchups

Avg.

According to the current SWF matchup chart, King Dedede's matchup spread has the ninth highest unweighted rank, and eleventh highest weighted total. King Dedede has overall very positive matchups. He is hard countered in two matchups, countered in three matchups, and soft countered in three matchups. He has five even matchups, and soft counters six characters, counters eight, hard counters nine, and has one close to unloseable matchup. King Dedede has seven disadvantageous matchups and three advantageous ones against top and high-tiered characters, and seven disadvantageous and four advantageous against characters higher-tiered than him. King Dedede has only one disadvantageous matchup and five even matchups against characters lower-tiered than him. King Dedede tends to have advantageous matchups against characters he can chain throw with his down throw, and tends to have disadvantageous matchups against characters who can overwhelm him with fast attack speed, such as Meta Knight, as well as characters that can outcamp him and force him to approach, such as Falco. King Dedede hard counters several characters due to his down throw chain throw; King Dedede can perform a small-step and/or infinite chaingrab on Wolf, Donkey Kong, Pokemon Trainer, Link, Bowser, Mario, Samus, and Luigi, that can deal very heavy damage. King Dedede can also perform a standing infinite ground-release-chaingrab on Ness. King Dedede is hard countered by the Ice Climbers due to lack of safe options to approach without getting grabbed.

Notable players

See also: Category:King Dedede professionals (SSBB)

•  4GOD
•  Atomsk
•  CO18
•  Coney
•  Isotaku
•  lain
•  Mew2King
•  Seibrik
•  Vex Kasrani

Tier placement and history

In the early Brawl metagame, King Dedede was seen as among the best characters in the game, being ranked as high as 3rd on the first tier list (September 2008). However, since then, he dropped slightly with each tier list, as well as no longer being a top tier character since the fourth tier list (February 2010). Dedede dropped mainly due to his rather troublesome matchups against many characters tiered higher than him, particularly Ice Climbers and Meta Knight, both of which were much more dominant at the time. Dedede is currently ranked 12th in the upper-mid tier, in the eighth tier list, as of April 2013. His current tier position is disputed among many players, with some thinking he is in the high tiers, and others thinking he should be even lower.

Role in The Subspace Emissary

It is revealed on the official website that King Dedede was involved in helping the takeover of the battleship Halberd by the Subspace Army. During this time, Dedede learns of Tabuu's Off Waves and spends the rest of the story preparing for them.

He is first seen during the epilogue of The Battlefield Fortress. The first time King Dedede is shown, he uses his Waddle Dees to ambush Luigi and turn him into a trophy. Then, as Wario approaches on his Cargo carrying two trophies (the princess that was not saved from the arena and Ness), he tries to take the new Luigi trophy and is suddenly ambushed by a herd of Waddle Dees who throw Luigi into the cargo. King Dedede then steals the cargo with the trophies in tow. Later, Dedede rides past Mario, Link, Pit and Yoshi. King Dedede originally tries to steal Mario and Pit/Link and Yoshi as trophies, but Kirby rescues them and King Dedede rides off, trying to escape them. Seeing that King Dedede has apparently kidnapped their friends, the party gives chase to Dedede's castle.

King Dedede in the SSE

Once inside, King Dedede is seen treating the trophies with surprising kindness. He takes out two Dedede Brooches and places them on Luigi and Ness. He goes to put the last badge on the princess, but finds he does not have enough, and ends up using the brooch he made for himself on the princess, another of his moments of kindness. He then intends to make another brooch for himself. The badges' effects are not immediately seen, which may be confusing to some viewers (one might be led to believe that he may have done this simply to mark them as his property). As King Dedede looks proudly at his trophies, Bowser and his minions break open the ceiling. The falling debris knocks King Dedede out cold turning him into a trophy and buries him, Ness and Luigi under rubble. Shortly afterwards, Bowser steals the princess trophy and two R.O.B.s arm and detonate a Subspace Bomb outside of the castle, trapping King Dedede and his friends in Subspace.

Eventually, Luigi and Ness are revived thanks to the Dedede Brooches. Ness makes the connection that King Dedede was the one who created the brooches and therefore revived them, so he revives the King. King Dedede's role in The Subspace Emissary, appearing to be evil at first but turning out to have good intentions in the end, is very characteristic of his roles in the Kirby games. Glad to see that they are okay, and that they revived him, King Dedede sets out with his two companions to save everyone from Subspace. Eventually they encounter Bowser's trophy, and King Dedede revives Bowser, but the Koopa King attacks him. King Dedede fights him alone and wins the fight, then revives Bowser again, but when Bowser tries to attack again, King Dedede stops him by batting the Koopa's nose. He then points out the Master Hand lying on the ground and the staircase leading upward, telling him that they should fight Tabuu instead of each other. King Dedede also finds his rival, Kirby (who incidentally had swallowed one of the badges earlier), but is actually very happy to see him alive (giving him a big hug when he sees him, then literally drags him off to Tabuu's residence). While King Dedede is walking up a staircase, Wario attacks him (probably payback for stealing his ride). However, Wario backs off when he realizes that two characters he turned into trophies, Luigi and Ness, can aid King Dedede, outnumbering Wario. Wario then stops messing with them physically, but messes with them by riding his bike up, showing off the fact that he can get up there faster. Wario casually joins the group after they show him where Tabuu is. King Dedede joins the rest of the characters for the rest of the story.

Playable appearances

King Dedede makes several cameo appearances before finally becoming playable. He first appears during the epilogue of The Battlefield Fortress. Then once again in The Lake Shore & The Path to the Ruins where he was crushed from the oncoming falling rubble and turned into Trophy form from Bowser crashing into the castle from its Roof.

• Subspace (Part I)
• The Great Maze

Exclusive stickers

The following stickers can only be used by a few characters including Dedede:

• Cell Phone: [Slash] Resistance + 4
• Dyna Blade: Launch Resistance +46
• Gordo: [Throwing] Attack + 5
• Hot Head: [Flame] Attack +10
• King Dedede & Kirby: [Specials: Direct] Attack +21
• King Dedede (Kirby Super Star): [Leg] Attack +28
• Kirby (Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards): [Body, Spin] Attack +22
• Kirby (Kirby Air Ride): [Arm, Leg] Attack +17
• Maxim Tomato: Maxim Tomato Effect +50
• Meta Knight Ball: Launch Power + 8
• Nruff: [Body, Spin] Attack + 5
• Starman (Kirby: Squeak Squad): Launch Power +33
• Whispy Woods: [Weapon] Attack + 4
• King Dedede (Kirby: Squeak Squad): [Throwing] Attack +30

In event matches

Event 1: Two Trouble Kings - The player plays as Mario and faces the team of Bowser and King Dedede in single player and alongside Kirby in co-op.

Event 15: Hammer of the King - The player is a tiny King Dedede. With the help of two other tiny, CPU controlled Dededes, the player must defeat a giant, metal Dedede. Completing this event unlocks "King Dedede's Theme."

Event 39: All-Star Battle x2 - King Dedede is one of the opponents fought in this all-star battle.

Event 40: The Final Battle - King Dedede is one of the three antagonists.

Co-Op Event 3: Fastest, Shortest, Sudden Death - The players control King Dedede and Yoshi. In 10 seconds, the player must defeat as many enemies as possible, while making sure at least one fighter stays alive.

Co-Op Event 20: The Final Battle for Two - King Dedede is one of the six antagonists.

Co-Op Event 21: The True All-Star Battle - All characters are involved in this event.

Alternate costumes

King Dedede's alternate costumes in Brawl

Trophy

King Dedede's trophy is obtained by clearing Classic Mode as King Dedede.

King Dedede's trophy in Brawl

Description

The self-styled king of the amazingly peaceful Dream Land. He continually does things unbecoming a king, like stealing the kingdom's food supplies or all the stars from the sky. He's not all bad, though, and sometimes performs good deeds. While he and Kirby often battle, they've been known to compete good-naturedly at speed-eating contests and minigames.

: Kirby's Dream Land

: Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards

Trivia

• When King Dedede gets a Hammer or Golden Hammer, he swings both his own hammer and the Hammer/Golden Hammer together, alternating swings for each hammer. His own hammer doesn't actually have a hitbox on it though, as it does no damage if the item is faulty.
• The in-game announcer in the JP version pronounces Dedede "day-day-day", as per Japanese phonetic convention. In other versions, it is pronounced "dee-dee-dee", which is closer to what Western audiences would pronounce the word.
• When King Dedede inhales something big (like a player or a box), there is a gap between his head and his shoulder.
• King Dedede is the only antagonist to KO a fighter without needing the use of a Dark Cannon in the SSE. However, King Dedede is the only antagonist not to have entirely evil intentions in the Subspace Emissary. This is similar to most canon Kirby games, where Dedede often helps the heroes or has hidden goals, which appears to be harmful, but turns out to be helpful in the end.
• Along with Snake, King Dedede was the first "Super-Heavy" Weight character in the top tier. Neither are currently in the S Tier, however.
• King Dedede is the only fast-faller in Brawl that can perform two aerials in a single short-hop by using his back aerial.
• King Dedede's forward smash has the same amount of frames as Ike's and Snake's forward smashes. When compared to them, Dedede's forward smash has the most start-up lag but the least ending lag.

External links

• King Dedede's page at Smash Bros. DOJO!!.
• Screenshots of King Dedede and the rest of The Subspace Emissary characters
• King Dedede character guide at SWF
• King Dedede's hitbox size of each of his moves