In Need of Criticism from good Toon Links

[TsarAce]

As you could tell I'm really new to playing super smash bros. competitively, and even newer to these forums. This video was taken today againist my friend Ed. I will take any constructive criticism seriously.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsmRNTPVncM

haha i pretty much get owned. Can you help?

[Fire52388]

First off as a disclaimer, I've been playing TL for a little while and consider myself to be a decent player but I am by no means even close to "pro". That being said a couple tips I noticed from watching:

I think the main thing to work on at first is your directional influence (DI). One or two of Ed's kills on you could have been avoided if you had DIed away from him instead of landing right on top. Try to clear yourself a landing place or dodge as you land to ensure that you're not left open to attacks. Secondly, I would work on your air game a little more: short hop and use some of your aerials instead of attacking on the ground so much. It seemed like almost all your attacks were running attacks from the ground or Fsmashes/tilts. If you vary your game between ground and air it makes you a lot less predictable. Finally, you used some projectiles in the beginning but then stopped after a while, TL is a beast with projectiles so go ahead and uses them constantly to keep foes at bay and control which way they approach you. As an end note though, that wasn't a horrible game so don't feel down about it. With a little bit of practice I think you'll do just fine.

[TsarAce]

haha i wondered what DI stood for. Yea sometimes I hit in the opposite direction of my opponent by mistake. I will definitely be using my projectiles more also. Also, could you tell me what air moves are the most effective? I greatly appreciate your response, and I hope I will see you a lot on these boards.

[ZillaB]

I know I'm very new to the boards so take my advice with a grain of salt, but B-air is your "bread and butter" which is a great combo move. Fair's are good for KO's, and also mix some Nair's in ur game.

[TsarAce]

I'm new too! And yeah I got to use b up more. I just get worked up in the moment and sometimes i forget to use some attacks.. oops my bad b up mean b air. and thanks for the aerial tips!

[Supax]

It's obvious that you are still learning how to use Toon Link because of some obvious mistakes that you made, but you will get better over time. Here are some things that I noticed you did wrong...

1. You started the game off with 3 arrows - Projectiles aren't a bad way to start the game, but it was obvious that your opponent predicted them. If you aren't using your projectiles effectively, then you might want to try to switch some things up in your opening attack to make yourself less predictable.

2. Your spacing - Falco is a really close range character, and you let him take full advantage of his strengths. You tried to get as close as possible to attack him when you could have gotten % on him from a slightly farther range.

3. Ground fighting - Toon Link has a great aerial game, take advantage of that. 2 strengths of TL are his aerial game and his projectiles, and you didn't take advantage of either one.

4. You were PREDICTABLE - Your opponent spammed his smash attacks and you just rolled right into them giving him easy % on you. When someone is spamming Smash attacks, it is easy to dodge them, so instead of rushing them, wait until they miss and just punish him. Also when your opponent is edge guarding you, you just seem to recover right back to him instead of on to the ledge or behind him.

I could tell that you were trying to use his projectiles effectively, but it just wasn't working. Try to practice with him a little bit more and just try to fix the mistakes I posted.

[TLMarth]

I don't even have brawl but as a player of Melee I can see a glaring problem in your gameplay- you attack on the ground too much. Basically you should do more of this: short hop, attack, get back to the ground. Here is a video on Melee advanced how to play by Wak017. It will help you.
Note some of the things in the video can't be done in Brawl.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=4n4s5yB7ZkE
http://youtube.com/watch?v=xiZLs2doK8E
http://youtube.com/watch?v=PFmGIOcWdsM

Also I didn't see you using any projectiles. USE THEM. Watch lots of videos, some players to search for are:
Aion
Jose
Diem
Kizzu

And you can also wait for Falco to come by baiting him with projectiles, then attacking him.

[TsarAce]

thanks Supax and TL Marth. Im going to go try out the advice.

[Phoenix~Lament]

1: Shorthopping. Learn to do it, practice it, do it consistently, ingrain it into your thoughts.
Especially for approaching, shorthopping an aerial allows you to attack faster (aerials are faster than tilts/smashes) while leaving yourself less open because you can immediately dodge after you land. For everything really, attacking or retreating or positioning, you should be shorthopping or dashing.

2: Spin Attack.
There should only be a few cases where you use this attack: When you pull the opponent in and rack some percentage on them or to kill them (Never approach with this, it's generally used more for KO'ing or countering in awkward positions), or to recover to the stage. In a few instances, you used UpB for recovering when you were already above the stage, which simply leaves you wide open (The game doesn't allow you to do anything after an UpB until you land) and easily punishable. A better way to recover from above is using an aerial at the right moment or simply air dodging down.

3: Dair (Down Air)
This issue is basically the same as Spin Attack. Don't be in a hurry to get down, because landing on a platform using Dair leaves you even more wide open to attack than spin attack does. There are times Dair'ing is a good choice, but you generally want to pull that off when you're right above the opponent, instead of way far up there.

4: Grabbing
Don't overuse it, because it does leave you vulnerable just like Spin Attacking and Dair'ing does, but grabbing is pretty important. I don't think you grabbed once in the video you posted, and there were many good opportunities because of how much time you spent on land.

I would say Shorthopping is most important, because once mastered, it allows you to improve your aerial game which is the core of TL. Also, it allows you to control your character better and move more intelligently.

[Fire52388]

I know I'm very new to the boards so take my advice with a grain of salt, but B-air is your "bread and butter" which is a great combo move. Fair's are good for KO's, and also mix some Nair's in ur game.

Yea, I would echo this to supplement my post. B-air is used mostly for comboing. The thing that's tricky here is doing short hops instead of full hops so that you don't jump over your opponent when trying to attack. I still have trouble short hopping every time I want to with TL. Once this is mastered though, the aerial game opens wide.

[Phoenix~Lament]

Yea, I would echo this to supplement my post. B-air is used mostly for comboing. The thing that's tricky here is doing short hops instead of full hops so that you don't jump over your opponent when trying to attack. I still have trouble short hopping every time I want to with TL. Once this is mastered though, the aerial game opens wide.

For comboing, fullhopping Bairs isn't shabby either. While fooling around in training mode, I found shorthops are only useful for consecutive Bairs when the opponent is below 60% or so. Past that, fullhops work well until they start flying too far away.

[Stimpy]

I'll critique a bit.


At 00:36 you roll right into his fsmash. This means you're predictable, he knows you like rolling towards him and he punished you for it. You do this several times throughout the game, as seen at the end of your first stock. My advice is to wait till after he smashes and then quickly counter with your own smash or an utilt to bair combo.


At 00:49 you dair for no apparent reason. This is very punishable and you should hold off on dairs unless you're absolutely sure you'll hit.


Try to cut the dash attack out of your game a bit, if you miss it it's very punishable and theres better approaches that the dash attack.

Also, what's the deal without using ariels? TL's game mostly consists of bair combos. Here, watch this video here to get an idea on how TL ariel game should be played...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLyGB3tgV-w


Also, the above "Advanced How to play" videos should help you with the name of attacks you might not know (bair, fair, fsmash)

[WakerofWinds]

Toon Link is fast, take advantage of that. If you aren't good with his air game then keep practicing and get hits in when you can, but you have a little bit of range on a lot of characters. Stay just outside of their range and use your attacks to get close, use projectiles often, if your friend charges up for a smash, hit him with your boomerang or your arrows.