Oh, look at what I
found. It’s a ticket for a trip to the
salt mines once again. No, it’s no
problem at all, Sakurai and crew. Let me just get my helmet and gloves -- oh,
and a decent pair of pants, too -- and I’ll just crawl right in. I’m not worried about my lungs at all. Not
like there’s coal or anything for me to breathe in. And what do I even need my lungs for, huh?
*sigh*
The update
that brought Terry Bogard into Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the same
one that buffed Jigglypuff, my least favorite character to fight in the entire
game. Great. I was looking for a reason to throw my Switch
in the trash.
On the other hand,
Buster Wolf. So it evens out. Barely.
I would have had
this post up last week, but in my infinite wisdom, I decided to lay down for a
spell after writing a substantial amount…and then inadvertently fell asleep,
woke up hours later, and then decided to say “screw it” and upload the
following week. It’s hardly
professional, I know, but it works out in the end. Why? I’ve
gotten to spend more time with Fatal Fury’s Terry Bogard, rather than
rushing to throw up a half-assed spread of first impressions. God works in mysterious ways.
I’ll start by pointing
to the stands for a bit. I don’t know if
Terry’s a good character, or if I’ll stick with him, or anything of the
sort. But damned if I didn’t have fun
with him in my limited time thus far -- and, more importantly, I was constantly
left saying “he’s so cool!” in matches I won and lost alike. For context: Terry was never my character
back in the days of King of Fighters and CvS2. Since my brother played with him, I was
conditioned to treat the character as I would a mud-soaked possum. Now I’ve been completely won over by the Wild
Wolf. That’s a turnaround the me from
years ago would never have seen coming.
Terry is Ryu 2.0,
to put it simply. He’s a fighter that
wants to get in and do lots of damage with combos and mechanics unique to
everyone else in the cast -- and once he gets started, he’ll bring the pain on
a level that’d make some of the heavy characters do a double take. But while guys like Bowser just want and get
that BIG DAMAGE from single attacks, Terry can ratchet up those percentages by
chaining grounded, aerial, and special moves into combos.
And if that wasn’t
bad enough, the Fatal Fury hero gets access to his supers once he
reaches 100% damage. Think of it as
Little Mac’s KO Punch, except even if he misses (or hits!), he can do it
again. And again. And again.
Granted it’s not safe on block and readable from a desperate opponent,
but this is a character that becomes significantly more dangerous once
he’s near death. By the way, we’re
talking about a guy who’s already demonstrated 40% and zero-to-death combos.
Don’t let him get
in, is what I’m trying to say here.
The problem with
Terry, at least at this early stage, is that he’s very “conditional”. If he gets in and starts landing his combos,
you’ll feel it. That’s a big if, though,
because -- as I’m almost certain you know by know -- the online space in Smash
Ultimate is rife with fighters and players who’d rather wear
you down to the bone with a spread of projectiles than face you head-on. Terry’s Power Wave is not the kind of
projectile you want to rely on to win fireball wars; you can technically blow
up zoning attempts with well-timed rushes, like a good Crack Shoot or a Buster
Wolf when you spot a lull in the pressure (I clinched a win against a Lucas
player by blasting right through a PK Freeze attempt), but someone who wants to
keep you out…probably will.
I feel like there’s
a strong temptation to go ham with Terry, but it’s better to take a measured
approach until you’re sure you can land a hit, punish, or combo. Nearly all of his special moves are about him
throwing himself at an enemy in various ways/trajectories, which on some level
can get you out of trouble (i.e. making your angle of recovery less
predictable). The problem is that you’re
taking a big risk to use those moves.
Yeah, Burn Knuckle can get you in there, but what happens if it’s
blocked? You’re a dead man.
Also, be sure to
figure out which way you’re facing in a match.
I’ve lost stocks and matches I shouldn’t have because I did the wrong
Side-B and self-destructed because of it.
Given who and what I’ve seen online, I’m not the only one with a few
botches on his belt.
According to the compiled
stats and attributes, Terry is the ninth heaviest character in the game. Shocking, but I believe it; he’s a beefy boy
that can take some damage. He pretty
much has to be able to, or his Go mechanic wouldn’t be viable. So since he’s got so much power and weight,
it follows that he’s not the most mobile, either. His dash leaves him somewhere in the middle,
but walking puts him in 71st place overall. Brutal.
Of course, the real
problem with Mr. Bogard is that his recovery is…poor. It’s not as bad as with Little Mac or the
Belmonts, but 1) his two Side-Bs can lead to some unfortunate SDs, 2) even an
optimal Rising Tackle might not be enough to grab a ledge, and 3) his recovery
is linear enough for characters to read and gimp his desperate attempts to get
back on the stage. I bullied a Terry
into oblivion by tossing out weak fireballs with Hero. Meanwhile, I’ve been on the receiving end
with a Villager whose never-ending hit and run slingshot tactics dragged a
match on for eternity because Terry just couldn’t catch him -- and woe to any
players who get tossed offstage.
Not to go off on a
tangent, but why does it seem like the coolest characters have the worst
recovery? Terry, Ike, Simon, Incineroar
-- it’s heartbreaking to see the wrecking crew take a dip because of a little
love tap on the cheek.
My brother and I
have both taken our shots with the latest DLC fighter, with varying levels of
success. Our online doubles adventure
went poorly, to put it mildly. Setting
aside the fact that our team composition is never online-friendly (boy does it
help to have somebody in the background sniping with fully-charged shots or
YOLO body projectiles), I’m suspecting more and more that his issues stem from
using a GameCube controller and adapter.
Smash Ultimate online is by no means optimal at any given point,
but the way he’s been playing, you’d think he was playing in a pool of cold mud
two towns over. It’d explain why he
couldn’t even Up-B his way back onto a ledge.
Lag or otherwise,
that didn’t stop him from going solo with Terry while I wasn’t around. When I came in and saw him going at it (if
only to fill time until his copy of Death Stranding came in), I was
greeted with a fighting game expert brought to his knees by every opponent he
crossed. I really need to look into the
issue of GC controllers and/or lag -- it might have something to do with the
USB cords plugged into the Switch itself -- but the end result is that when I
got around to taking Terry online for a solo run, he was at a paltry 1.1
million GSP. Down from the 5 million (and
some change) that marked his peak, even if it was just by way of him passively
earning most of those points. So I
figured it was up to me to bring his point count to a respectable amount.
It didn’t work out
like that. At all.
I assumed that being
in a low-GSP abyss meant that I’d be able to score more than enough wins -- and
easily -- to rocket back out. I was
mistaken. And so began a humiliating,
debilitating, mortifying sequence of matches -- a losing streak the likes of
which I’d pretty much never seen before.
Some of it came from my own botches and unfamiliarity with the character. Some of it came from me being depressingly
unable to seal the final blow, only to give my opponent more than enough time
to land one instead. And some of it came
from me not paying enough attention to rule changes. Had I known that I didn’t have the standard
seven minutes to win, I would have taken notice of my foe’s sudden penchant for
turtling a lot more seriously.
The end result was
that I cut that 1.1 million GSP down by well over half. And for as many ways as I can blame myself
for messing up and drawing so close to a nadir, there’s still a part of me that’s
willing to blame Terry himself for his inherent, exploitable character flaws. It’s easy to zone him out. His recovery is unreliable. He can approach, maybe, but not safely. His super gimmick puts the “desperation” in Desperation
Moves. Props to those who are willing to
take the risks with this character, but for those who aren’t willing to breach
the wall? He’s not a character I can
recommend for those who want a smooth ride into Elite Smash.
But because I’m me
-- and those someone who’s prone to fits of spite, hubris, and a lust for
revenge -- I didn’t give up on the character.
How could I? Death Stranding could
wait. I had to regain my honor. Lo and behold, I did exactly that. Fighting a couple of Terry mirror matches did
the trick, not just to regain my confidence, but to get a better feel for the
character than what I had before. His
F-Smash has deceptive range on top of stunning power, meaning that you can dupe
foes into picking the wrong get-up option from a ledge. Even if his approaches aren’t safe, you can still
whiff punish with a well-placed Burn Knuckle.
Two jabs are all you need to combo into a Buster Wolf.
I didn’t do it, but
I felt like giving myself a pat on the back for such a huge turnaround. How huge?
In one sitting -- the same one that had such a crushing losing streak to
begin with -- I doubled the amount of GSP my brother had left Terry
with, and then some. I had a 90%-win
rate out of my last 10 matches (would’ve been 100%, but Jigglypuff is poison to
me). And overall, I made Terry’s win
percentage climb to 57.57%. Various opponents
were asked if they were okay.
I guess it’s true,
then. It doesn’t (entirely) matter how
good or bad your character is. If you
can learn how to use them, you’ll be better off. If you polish your abilities as a fighter, you’ll
gain an edge. But most of all? If you feel your character -- if you
can sync up with them on a deeper, instinctual, and maybe even spiritual level
-- then you’ll be one step closer to becoming a hero.
Or getting into
Elite Smash. I dunno, maybe, LOL.
And that’ll do it
for now. See you next time. Maybe with more to say about Death
Stranding besides casually acknowledging its existence? Eh, we’ll see.
No comments:
Post a Comment