Mr. Game & Watch (SSB4): Difference between revisions

Mr. Game & Watch is currently ranked 39th out of 55 on the tier list, placing him at the top of the E tier. This is a significant drop from his ranking in ''Brawl'', where he was ranked 16th out of 38. Mr. Game & Watch's strengths include great combo and air games, as well as a high overall damage output in spite of his size and weight. His overall mobility is also decent, with his recovery in particular being impressive due to [[Fire]]'s long-ranged distance, large [[Edge sweet spot|edge sweetspot]], and general safety. He is also good at [[edgeguard]]ing, due to his recovery and moderately fast aerials. His landing lag, while not supplemented by autocancels, is actually quite low and is among the best in the game in terms of the total amount of frames in aerial move lag upon landing.

However, Mr. Game & Watch possesses notable weaknesses as well. A big flaw is his surprising inability to KO at higher percentages despite dealing a lot of damage quickly. This is due to his finishers being plagued in one way or another, including inconsistent KO set-ups (such as down throw into up aerial) and KOing options that are too sluggish or have large sourspots (such as forward and down smashes, respectively). Additionally, while he has surprisingly good range for his size due to his disjointed hitboxes, he still has shorter range than a handful of the cast, such as {{SSB4|Shulk}}, {{SSB4|Ike}}, {{SSB4|Marth}}, and {{SSB4|Cloud}}. He is also the third lightest character in the game, making him prone to getting KO'd quite easily, which is further exacerbated by the loss of [[Bucket Braking]] and the introduction of [[rage]].

His grab game is also lackluster outside of down throw, as his pummel is one of the slowest in the game, and none of his other throws possess the same utility that his down throw does, nor are they strong enough to KO at realistic percentages. His neutral game is also lacking, due to having no aerials that autocancel from a short hop and his limited amount of safe options on shield. Lastly, some of his moves are considered to be situational, due to either needing luck ([[Judge]]) or needing the opponent to have an energy-based projectile ([[Oil Panic]]).

His neutral aerial has pretty high range above him and does very high damage if all hits connect and the last hit has moderate knockback, making it difficult to punish, as well as being rarely escaped by SDI and able to be followed up by other moves. His forward aerial has decent range and knockback (when clean), making it useful for edgeguarding, and the late hit can be followed up by another attack when late despite the moves' ending lag. His back aerial, while less damaging than in ''Brawl'', is still pretty useful due to its disjointed range and low knockback that allows it to be followed by another one, giving it effective [[wall of pain]] ability. His up and down aerials are mainly used for KOing. His up aerial is his strongest one, but its windbox can make it difficult to connect into the second hit, which carries all the knockback. Nevertheless, its windbox can also safely space the move and juggle opponents. Meanwhile, his down aerial is an effective meteor smash as well as being a [[stall-then-fall]], giving Mr. Game & Watch an effective move for edgeguarding, ending a stock early, and getting out of juggles.

While he has fairly damaging moves, Mr. Game & Watch also has plenty of reliable and powerful finishers for his weight class, which can put him on par with some heavyweights. The most notable examples include his forward and down tilts at high percents, all of his smash attacks, his aerials, Judge 9 and Oil Panic. Finally, his special moveset is pretty decent, albeit polarized. His neutral special, Chef, is weak but can effectively stun players, as well as work as an efficient anti-pressure option from afar. His up special, [[Fire]], grants exceptional vertical distance and deals average knockback, as well as slows his descent down after usage, giving Mr. Game & Watch an amazing recovery that is also difficult to edgeguard. His side special, [[Judge]], is infamously polarized due to being luck-based; its effects range from causing no knockback while damaging Mr. Game & Watch himself (1) to inflicting extremely high knockback that can KO even at very low percents (9). Finally, Oil Panic can absorb three energy-based projectiles (or one extremely powerful energy-based projectile) before unleashing a powerful attack that can score a [[one-hit KO]] depending on how much damage it has absorbed. However, it only works on characters with absorbable projectiles such as {{SSB4|Zelda}} and {{SSB4|Samus}}, making it very situational and generally not that useful.

While Mr. Game & Watch does have many positive traits, he also possesses many notable weaknesses. Due to his two-dimensional nature, he is one of the lightest characters in the game, which makes him susceptible to early KOs, especially vertically. He has a very short roll that is quite slow, often punishable even when used sparingly. His grab game is also very poor outside of grab combos: his grab still has very short reach, his pummel is slow and he has no useful throws other than his down throw. His attacks, despite possessing large, disjointed hitboxes that are far reaching from him, mostly have poor to mediocre reach, making spacing less effective when against long-reaching sword users (such as {{SSB4|Cloud}} and {{SSB4|Shulk}}). Their range was also nerfed from ''Brawl'', with his attacks being much less wide and far. While the majority of his moveset has quick startup, it suffers from particularly high ending and landing lag in most of his attacks, allowing him to be easily punished when his moves are whiffed. Finally, some of his special moves are considered to be situational depending on the matchup, with Judge being an unsafe move in general due to its randomness, and Oil Panic being only useful when facing a character with an absorbable projectile.

*{{change|Mr. Game & Watch's design has changed. He now has a rounder head, a slightly smaller and rounder nose, a slightly wider torso, circular hands, shorter arms, slightly smaller feet, and a thinner outline that is layered gray and white. Altogether, these changes make Mr. Game & Watch appear much more in line with his appearance in ''{{s|mariowiki|Game & Watch Gallery 4}}''. His animations are also choppier, which better simulate the frame-by-frame movement within the ''Game & Watch'' series.}}

*{{change|Forward tilt has received a late hitbox that deals 4%. This lengthens its duration (6 frames → 8), but makes it more susceptible to punishment at low to medium percentages.}}

*{{nerf|Forward tilt has increased ending lag (20 frames → 21).}}

*{{change|Due to consisting of two hitboxes instead of one, up tilt no longer deals consistent damage (8% → 7% (both)). This enables it to hit twice at low percentages, but makes it unable to effectively hit opponents in front of or above Mr. Game & Watch because of its hitboxes being smaller than the previous one.}}

*{{nerf|Up tilt has increased ending lag (8 frames → 14).}}

*{{nerf|Down tilt has increased ending lag (10 frames → 29).}}

*{{nerf|Dash attack deals 1% less damage (11% → 10%), although its knockback was compensated. It also has increased ending lag (8 frames → 19).}}

*{{change|Dash attack has received a late hitbox that deals 6.5%. This lengthens its duration, but makes it more susceptible to punishment at low to medium percentages.}}

*{{nerf|Forward smash has decreased knockback growth, hindering its KO potential (98 → 91). Additionally, its sourspot now takes priority over its sweetspot. Lastly, due to its late hitbox being removed, forward smash has a shorter duration (17 frames → 2).}}

*{{nerf|Up smash deals 2% less damage (18% → 16%) and has decreased knockback, hindering its KO potential. It also has increased ending lag (10 frames → 14) and a shorter duration (4 frames → 2).}}

*{{nerf|Sweetspotted down smash has decreased knockback growth (98 → 85), hindering its KO potential. Additionally, down smash's sourspot is larger and weaker. Lastly, down smash has increased ending lag (33 frames → 42).}}

*{{nerf|Neutral aerial has increased ending lag (35 frames → 43) and each hit has a shorter duration (4 frames → 1).}}

*{{nerf|Forward aerial deals 4.5% less damage (16% → 11.5%), significantly hindering its KO potential. It also has a shorter duration (3 frames → 2 (clean, 19 frames → 14).}}

*{{buff|Back aerial's hits connect together better, improving its reliability.}}

*{{buff|Clean down aerial's hitbox duration is a frame longer.}}

*{{change|[[Judge]] can now have the same number appear consecutively, instead of having to cycle through three subsequent swings. This removes the need to pull "dummy" hammers, but also makes it overall more random.}}

*{{buff|[[Fire]] has decreased start-up lag and covers more vertical distance, improving its recovery potential.}}

*{{buff|[[Oil Panic]] can now fill up multiple units at once if a projectile is strong enough, significantly improving its reliability.}}

*{{change|Aerial Oil Panic increases a jump's height and [[Falling speed#Floaty|floatiness]] when used immediately after a jump. However, it also no longer stalls Mr. Game & Watch.}}

*{{nerf|Oil Panic has increased ending lag.}}

Mr. Game & Watch has received a small mix of buffs and nerfs via game updates. His tilts have had minor tweaks, which includes down tilt becoming more potent and up tilt less reliable. Chef's pan became one unit larger. Back air had a decent buff: its landing lag was reduced by 5 frames, which is a common aerial to land with. The changes to shield mechanics in update [[1.1.1]] notably benefit him indirectly; especially his moves that hit multiple times or have high damage outputs. This includes his dash attack, smash attacks, safer landings with back and forward aerial, as well as Judge 3/9 for slightly easier shield breaks in rare circumstances. However, his potential in doubles play has been significantly weakened due to Oil Panic now dealing halved damage should he absorb a teammate's projectile.