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R.O.B. Match-Up Discussion Week #11: Kirby

Egitor

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Wow Sudai, that's one scary picture you have there!
I'm very interested in what the more advanced players think of this matchup. My girlfriend plays a reasonable Kirby...

I would just like to state, as Kirby often does when battling R.O.B.: BEEEEP!
 

buenob

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BEAM!

during friendlies, I always let kirby eat me, because that sound make sme laugh 100% of the time... i usually lose the match because i'm laughing too hard

that aside, unfortunately for kirby robs fsmash is just disjoint enough... a lot of kirby's game revolves around approaching with bairs, but it rob has none of that... playing against kirby, you just have to resign the fact that you're going to be at +50% damage all the time 'cause he can combo you easily up to that... once there, it's essential not to die... kirby has pretty good ko potential, but not great, so living to +175% is not unheard of on a regular basis (and is key to winning)

I also find that both kirby and rob have similar air speeds, so aside from the rock you're going to be moving at similar speeds, which means that it's overall easier to ledge kirby, and that means robs one recovery weakness (his slow air speed) isn't actually that bad

kirby was my second for a long time, but i was mediocre with him, so hopefully I'll learn how to bring him up via. paying attention to this thread :)
 

NinjaLink

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u can smash DI the uair in the combo and u wont take the extra damage. He does fthrow, uair (smash DI this away) and thats it.
 

Jamnt0ast

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ROB vs Kirby is a tough one to get straight because both characters have some huge advantages over the other.

ROB does well by being able to rack up huge ammounts of damage while being difficult to kill (with correct DI) He's not particularly well known for early kill power. HOWEVER, IF you save your nair against kirby so that it is at full power, you can gain kills at around 100% which isn't bad.

Both Kirby and ROB have advantages below their opponents and have some weakness above (particularly noticable with ROB) But rob has the double jump advantage of being able to stay above kirby, putting him in the advantagious place in the air. If ROB gets caught in a combo though, it can easily cost him 45 + percentage.

On the ground, ROB has the range advantage, but not the power advantage. As Datfu said, your Ftilt outranges every move kirby can dish out. (sept up b because it's a projectile) Your projectiles are also good vs kirby, so use them to your advantage. On the ground, ROB has the range, but none of his smashes will kill a grounded kirby because of lack of range/speed, and your dsmash can be shield punished into kirby's fsmash which can kill easily at 110%.

DON'T LET KIRBY GET YOUR POWER!!!!!!!
Kirby with Robo laser is very bad for rob. It sets kirby up so that he can camp almost as well as you, and can leave for some annoying setups that kirby can go into through use of the laser. If kirby is using B, feed it gyros and then laser. DO NOT GET SUCKED IN.

That's how I feel about strategy and info about the matchup. I wouuld place it pretty even at:

55-45 Slightly in ROB's favor
 

ipitydatfu

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oh yeah, watch out for that nair-> fsmash, very nasty, nairs wears down the shield, giving kirby a chance to shieldpoke with fsmash.

recovery wise, be creative, if you're caught in its dair, go under the stage, rather trying to straight up.
(as long as the stage allowsyou too of course),

just avoid being grabbed at low percentages.

gonna go eat a cinnamon roll.
 

JCaesar

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My post from this discussion on the Kirby boards:

Why the Kirby boards would waste their time discussing Yoshi and Poke Trainer before MK is beyond me...

Anyways, I think this matchup is pretty even. ROB can handle Kirby in the air (I believe ROB's fair and Kirby's bair trade hits, but someone may want to check that), and he beats Kirby on the ground, just with sheer range and speed. Kirby approaches very well and wins by a large margin in straight up kill power though, and dying under 100% makes ROB sad.

ROB basically can't be spiked (I've played probably around 8 tournament sets vs Chu and he hasn't successfully spiked me once). It's also very tough to gimp ROB unless you have near perfect prediction and spacing on your bairs. Kirby doesn't rely on gimps the way ROB does though, since even a DIed fsmash or hammer from Kirby can kill under 100%.

Kirby on the other hand isn't especially tough for ROB to gimp and that is what ROB does best. Kirby is in a lot of trouble if he's coming back to the stage from below.

Kirby doesn't have too much trouble getting close when ROB tries to camp. He's small and quick and approaches well, even against ROB's quick and long-ranged tilts.

ROB can jump out of the Gonzo combo after the uair I believe.

Kirby should consider counterpicking a stage with small boundaries like Halberd, so he can kill ROB low and make ROB's awesome survivability a nonfactor. Rainbow Cruise may also be a good pick because Kirby is more mobile in the air and ROB can't really camp there (not to mention Kirby's gay uthrow trixies there). I dunno what Kirby should ban, I dunno what stages he's bad on. I usually CP Frigate just because I feel comfortable there and it's a bit easier to gimp.

I'd put this at 50:50 at worst for Kirby but maybe that's just bias from getting stomped on by the best Kirby in the world a couple times a month.
Oddly enough, the only Kirby player that really agreed with me that the matchup is even was Gonzo. One good point that he brought up that I didn't mention is that you need to be careful when recovering if Kirby is above you. If he sees you start the up-B, he can immediately down-B and hit you before you can do anything about it, and it kills VERY low.
 

Mr.E

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I don't think Stone is a big deal when you're recovering, if you're not close enough to hit it with UAir during start-up then you're far enough away to simply fly out from under it (or sweetspot the ledge) before he reaches you. I'd be more worried about Hammer since it can come in from the side and eats FAir.

Anyway, Kirby isn't too bad once you get past the low-percent throw combos. Of course, between that and his kill power there isn't too much more damage to rack up. :embarrass
 

kirbz

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i'd say near 45-55. This is only because he seems less of a threat than marth/snake/G&W, but more of a threat than DK, pika, etc.

Don't rely on projectiles too much, they are kind of predictable.

If a kirby gets near you, he might try suck you in so keep out of range and space him.

Don't let him copy you unless you want to fight a GAWD OF BEEP.

That's all i (might) know
 

JCaesar

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Anyway, Kirby isn't too bad once you get past the low-percent throw combos. Of course, between that and his kill power there isn't too much more damage to rack up. :embarrass
As NL and I said, Kirby has no low % throw combos on ROB. You can jump out of the Gonzo combo after the uair, even at 0%.

As for the Stone thing, it's dangerous because it's unexpected. If they're spamming it then yeah, you should be able to predict it. But it's really not that slow, this isn't the Melee Stone.
 

TheTantalus

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instead of Fthrow, I think Kirby and do Dthrow-utilt-bair but i'm not 100% on that

The stone is a lot like G&W key, in the fact that it has 2 hit boxes, it's fall and then the one on the ground, and it will hit you through your shield a lot. If you catch kirby off guard and dodge his stone, make sure to capitalize on the recovery out of stone. Kirby can hammer/bair out of stone immediately, so be careful.

45-55 slightly in kirby's favor, i say if kirby had a little less power it would be neutral. If you can live to a ROB normal 150-170 in this matchup, you can fight. If kirby takes you out at 90-100, it's gonna be tough. And I think this happens more often than not.
 

CJTHeroofTime

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ROB basically can't be spiked
In my opinon, Kirby is one of the better characters at spiking ROB, merely because of his multiple jumps. He can pull off a dair, follow ROB for either another dair or a footstool and still recover. Considering ROB is a lame duck during his Up-B startup, this can pose a problem recovering from below. Although, I've never seen that down-b tactic you mentioned, and I can imagine that is even more effective than/in combination with multiple spikes.

In this matchup, I love f-tilts and jabs. Yay ftilts and jabs. Although, something wierd happened today when I was playing my friend. I caught him with a tipperftilt, but we clashed for some reason... It wasn't an fsmash, or at least Im 90% sure it wasn't an fsmash. I think it might have been a multi-jab thing 'cause I thought I saw some blue aura stuff. But that worries me that kirby has something to clash our tipper ftilts...

Overall I would say 50/50.
 

TheTantalus

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In my opinon, Kirby is one of the better characters at spiking ROB, merely because of his multiple jumps. He can pull off a dair, follow ROB for either another dair or a footstool and still recover. Considering ROB is a lame duck during his Up-B startup, this can pose a problem recovering from below. Although, I've never seen that down-b tactic you mentioned, and I can imagine that is even more effective than/in combination with multiple spikes.
Just saying, Uair pretty much ***** kirby's Dair, you just have to anticipate it properly
 

Asdioh

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My girlfriend plays a reasonable Kirby...
That is so hot.


Anyway, I'm really surprised that the ROBs think this is a pretty close matchup, while a lot of the Kirbys have thought it was around 65-35 ROB's favor for months and months now.

Personally, I've never understood why it's so bad. Sure, on paper, his ftilt apparently beats our everything, but so what? I've never had a problem with that while fighting ROB.

I don't really have much to add to the discussion, I agree with most of what's already been said. I'd say the matchup is around even. 50-50? 55-45 ROB's favor because of his ability to camp and outrange? 55-45 Kirby's favor because of his ability to KO early? It all depends. So 50-50 sounds good to me.

I would LOVE to play any of you good ROBs on wifi; I'm home from college at the moment and will be here until Monday, so send me a PM and let's play! The last good ROB I've played was Holynightmare, and even though he beat me 2-1, it didn't feel as difficult as the Kirby boards have said for so long.

And I don't know if you guys agree or not, but I think that ROB performs better online (most characters with projectiles do because of how hard projectiles are to avoid in lag) whereas Kirby doesn't really benefit from lag, yet it doesn't hurt him that much either.

Anyway send me a PM or visitor message. >_>
 

GwJ

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i'd say near 45-55. This is only because he seems less of a threat than marth/snake/G&W, but more of a threat than DK, pika, etc.

Don't rely on projectiles too much, they are kind of predictable.

If a kirby gets near you, he might try suck you in so keep out of range and space him.

Don't let him copy you unless you want to fight a GAWD OF BEEP.

That's all i (might) know
I'm not adding input just yet, but I want to point something out. It doesn't matter if it's predictable. It's a hassle. On top of that, you can't block each one; it just doesn't happen. Would you rather play a ROB with no projectiles as Kirby or one with projectiles?

Kawaii Bunny said:
I hate ROB. Like seriously.
I know.
 

Deadweight

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ROB 45-55 Kirby
Maybe 50-50 more like 47-53 >__>
I main both these so id like to think i know the mechanics behind both pretty well...
Its a hard fight for RoB imo...Especially on a small stage w/ platforms.The Rob can sit there and laser spam the hell out of kirby all day, but if the Kirby is patient he can combo from 0-60 easy >___<. At low percents, don't get grabbed. Kirby is one of the two people i am afraid to go off stage and try to gimp. His dair -> footstool combo is disgusting.
Kirby is going to try to get you into the air and combo the hell out of you... He has so many strings he can use, and with rob being such a big target he can set up fairly easily. Watch out for Dair-> Dtilt->fsmash...Ive seen this kill at ridiculously low percents. DO NOT GET EATEN!!!!!. KIRBY CAN AND WILL OUT CAMP YOU. If you do get eaten....you are forced into a position that either a) you go back and forth laser spamming in which inevitably you will lose or b) beat the hell out of kirby till he loses his power...Option B isnt that hot either, cause kirby wants you to approach so he can set up a WoP or grab combo. Like i said...dont get eaten. Watch out for swallowcides off the stage.

Robs have our F-tilt and d-tilt that out ranges almost everything they have. We also have our projectiles that we can sit and camp with. Our Fair has some range to it, and our back air can space us fairly well...but improper spacing with bair can lead to a face full of sweet spotted fsmash...Dont be to aggressive off the stage, it can lead to either a spike toadstool or a swallowcide...it would be better to throw out a strong laser or Beyblade rather than try for a gimp :D
 

GwJ

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Technically, Kirby can't out-camp us. He might have our laser, but we still have our gyro and laser still. And plus, you can literally knock the robot out of him with a nice hit.

e: What you said about Kirbycides reminded me of a match I had earlier this year. Last stock, ROB (me) at 0% and Kirby (guy I was playing) at 134%. I just sat in the middle of yoshi's island (brawl) with lasers and gyro and waited for him to approach. He tried to bait with grab feigns or random moves, or even falling of the edge.

I'm just saying, look out for things like this, and if you have the smallest feeling he'll try to kirbycide, stay away from the ledges, just camp until he approaches you.
 

JCaesar

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Kirby can outcamp ROB. If he has the laser and grabs the gyro, he's in a very good position. Not only are we on even terms, but he's smaller and quicker.

I think Kirby is gimpable. His dair isn't really something to worry about, since it can be SDIed and you should always be able to recover. His up-B can be punished with a stage spike if you're behind him or a dair spike if you're above him.
 

Jamnt0ast

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kirby can use the laser to his advanage because of his size and mobility, but it isnt a huge deal if he has it. You probobly dont want to give it to him though.
 

M.K

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My friend seconds Kirby. Overall, the match is not too hard, but I believe a more experienced Kirby would give me a bit more trouble.
First of all, do not get grabbed. Kirby has many options within his grabs, two of which put you into the "blind spot" situation. Spot dodge is great for this, usually followed by Down Smash.
Camping is great, but you have to be a bit more accurate with your lasers. Fortunately, Kirby doesn't have many options for getting back to the stage other than multi-jumps and/or Up-B, so aiming a Gyro for an off-stage kill is relatively easy!
Tilts are amazing, especially F-Tilt. Outranges EVERYTHING besides FSmash.

Overall, I would give this match-up to ROB. 55:45 seems a bit low, so I'll give it to ROB 60:40.
 

Darth Waffles

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Fortunately, Kirby doesn't have many options for getting back to the stage other than multi-jumps and/or Up-B,
That pretty much describes almost every character's recovery. The problem comes when the kirby throws in some side-b (hammer), and aerials while feinting in and out in the air. and airdodging if necessary

so aiming a Gyro for an off-stage kill is relatively easy!
I wish. =\ aiming is fine. Hitting while the kirby is jumping, airdodging, and moving out of the way... that's not so easy.
 

JCaesar

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CP: Frigate or FD
Ban: Halberd or Battlefield

It also depends on the player. If you're going to have to face a Kirby player, they will usually have a favorite CP, so try to find out what that is and ban it. Some Kirby's really like Rainbow Cruise, some like Jungle Japes, or Brinstar, or Lylat Cruise, etc.
 

Syde7

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CP: Frigate or FD
Ban: Halberd or Battlefield

It also depends on the player. If you're going to have to face a Kirby player, they will usually have a favorite CP, so try to find out what that is and ban it. Some Kirby's really like Rainbow Cruise, some like Jungle Japes, or Brinstar, or Lylat Cruise, etc.
This.

It really does depend on the player. If Your CPing, then you at least have one match under your belt to analyze their playstyles. Some Kirby's dont like BF due to the platform and the subsequent fecking up of their multiple jump mindgames and such. Others love it because of the U-air juggling possibilities from under the platforms. Some like Lylat cruise due to the rock trixies they can use (use rock on the slope, the slope slowly slides them down and can be timed to hit you off the ledge if you let your invincibility frames run out). If it came down to a mere guessing game, I would probably get rid of Halberd.
 

JCaesar

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Yeah, that's my point, every Kirby has their own stage preference. Kirby is a very versatile character and has a lot of good stages.
 

Mr.E

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What's with all the Halberd hate? Kirby can't do anything special there and the slightly lower ceiling helps you out more than him.
 

MK26

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CP: Frigate or FD
Ban: Halberd or Battlefield
Yes to FD and BF
What does ROB like about Frigate? I think its a pretty good Kirby stage
And generally, Kirbies like to avoid Halberd's (read: any stage's) low ceiling. However, that may not be a problem vs. ROB.

(I seriously think vs. ROB is one of the few matches where Kirby has the advantage in outright killpower)

It also depends on the player. If you're going to have to face a Kirby player, they will usually have a favorite CP, so try to find out what that is and ban it. Some Kirby's really like Rainbow Cruise, some like Jungle Japes, or Brinstar, or Lylat Cruise, etc.
QFT.
 

JCaesar

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One of the few? Between his smashes and the hammer, Kirby has great kill power. It's certainly not one of his weaknesses.

ROB loves Frigate because in the first part there's a missing ledge and ROB is pretty much the only character who isn't negatively affected by that (gimp city), and in the second part he can camp like a ***** until the first part comes back. It's ROB's best CP in most matchups if Mansion is banned.

I ban Halberd vs Kirby mostly because I play Chu's Kirby a lot and it's his go-to counterpick. Kirby also does well on stages with nonsolid main platforms, which most characters don't like.
 

Mr.E

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While we're mentioning Mansion as a CP if it's unbanned, don't forget PTAD. And ROB should like nonsolid main platforms, or at least I do. ;) You can fly up through it with a UAir or NAir and few characters can do more than simply try to get out of the way, making it *my* go-to stage if I'm not seeking a particularly "gay" CP like the previously mentioned. It's very good against the few characters which do edgeguard ROB decently, since you can simply come up from anywhere instead of being forced to jump up from the ledge, and the ship deck is as big as FD.

At any rate, I think it's a fairly even matchup too. Kirby is difficult to projectile camp with his small size and multiple jumps but he's much easier to space with melee attacks due to his slow speed. Kirby is just a solid character, his kill power helps make up the weight disparity and he has no particular weaknesses for ROB to exploit. ROB can edgeguard him but it isn't that easy since ROB doesn't have a quick downward aerial to ward off low UAirs and, again, Kirby's size makes projectile kills tougher. High Stone drops are also difficult to stop and going up against an aerial Hammer is risky business.
 

Deadweight

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Question!

What stages would you recommend for counterpicking and banning?
I take em to the mansion :D....Its camp heaven.
I usually ban Norfair....
A good Kirby on Norfair is a very scary thing. And norfair makes our gyro pretty useless 75% of the time.
 

GwJ

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Can anyone confirm that Kirby vs. ROB on norfair is bad? Or at least worse than ROB on norfair in general.
 

Deadweight

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Rob on norfair is bad....Gyro gets caught in lava and just bounces for a good 45 seconds.... Its not campy enough because of all the stage hazards... and the fact we have a blind spot below us and that all the platforms are permeable means kirby can combo the hell out of us. Over all its just too good of a stage for kirby and too poor of a stage for rob.
A good Kirby can take a rob here and have his way. god forbid if he ever got our hat on this stage....

Edit:
To be more specific. RoB is going to try and camp as far away from kirby as possible and let him approach, the problem is...the way the stage is designed kirby can camp even harder by just staying under the rob. Robs lasers cant angle themselves to reach from say for example the top left platform to the bottom left corner of the bottom platform. This eliminates the camping game completely and then it becomes a game of controlling the bottom platform. That is until the lava starts rising...Then Gyro is basically useless and the second tier of platforms becomes the battle zone. As long as kirby is somewhere directly beneath you... Rob is at a HUGE disadvantage. This stage creates this situation wayyyyyyy to much.
 

Sudai

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I'd prefer japes vs a D3, hands down. They're always gonna ban that though, and if japes isn't legal, they ban Norfair on me, so it's probably a pretty good option. I haven't done well on Norfair vs a good D3 for a while now though so I tend to take them to Frigate just out of comfort.

But...why are we talking about D3 in a Kirby match-up thread?
 
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