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SHELLSHIFTING AND HYDROPLANING: now with TUTORIAL VID!!!!!
Now, this is barely a technique worth having a name like that, really, but "cool squirtle mindgame" isn't a topic that I would even bother checking, because it sounds stupid and mindgames don't work like that. As is, though, I've just stolen the name of Bowser's sliding up+B, anyways.
In any case, I haven't seen much/any discussion of this (though admittedly I haven't read through all of these topics because Smashboards treats nodes like johns and I'm constantly getting "no nodes" errors when I try to come here), but I think it's worth noting.
I've been playing a lot of Squirtle, because I'm trying to play Squirtle/Charizard with as little Ivysaur as possible (Squirtle is adorable, Charizard is a dragon, Ivysaur is hideous).
And a major thing that I've noticed and come to use a lot in my matches with Hylian is Squirtle's amazing skid/turnaround. It's unique from the rest of the cast not only because it's really quick, but because its actual animation and mechanic is special. Squirtle withdraws into his shell and slides a bit forward before sliding back at basically full-speed.
It's a really strange motion when you actually see it, and has plenty of advantages. For one thing, Squirtle is already really small. And being in his shell makes him even smaller. The main reason I noticed and started putting practice into this "technique" was initially because I've had to play Hylian's Samus a lot, and he can like brickwall most characters' approaches with zair spam if he spaces/times it properly.
At first, I was dash->crawling under them, because unless he did it at the lowest possible height, it wouldn't hit me, and then as he started to get better at consistently hitting me no matter what I did, I tried mixing it up with skid approaches.
And it worked really really well.
Squirtle getting shorter makes him all the harder to hit, and since Squirtle in general is pretty quick and his skid barely lowers his momentum at all, it can becomes like the equivalent of the staple dash forward->wavedash back from Melee.
And moreover, you can interrupt different parts of the skid/turnaround by dashing or dash-canceling (in this game, Shielding), which gives Squirtle basically the utility of an actual dash dance, where you can alter distances, interrupt and attack, mix things up by "fox-trotting", etc.
For instance, you can dash forward, skid back and immediately dash forwards again, which'll cancel the skid animation and give you like a half-dash from the very front of the skid. Or you can wait a few frames before you do it, which will make you skid backwards for a little bit before the dash puts you right back at where the front of your skid was. ***This in particular is amazing, because you can dodge attacks this way and immediately retaliate.
You can also attack directly out of the skid after the beginning of the animation (you have to wait till Squirtle goes into the animation where he's coming out of his shell, which doesn't take too long really). If you want to attack behind you, just skid and cancel it into an attack. If you want to attack in front of you, you'll need to hold the control stick forward a bit as the skid occurs so you'll be facing the right direction when you come out of your shell.
One way that I've come to use this basically makes the equivalent of dash-dancing or wavedancing into an attack. You dash away from your opponent, skid to turn around and cancel it into an attack or grab.
This "technique" in general just gives you a fantastic amount of options. Squirtle's skid is incredibly versatile and adds a lot of depth to his approach and defensive games, which of course lead nicely into his rape turtlecombos.
OFFICIAL NAME: HYDROPLANING (naming credit to vericz)
It's in the video, but here's a quick rundown of how it works:
During Squirtle's turnaround animation, there's a part where you're in the shell and the animation for you coming out of the shell. At a certain time during the "coming out" animation, you can perform an Up Smash that will slide very far across the stage.
I can't check things frame-by-frame, so it's hard to describe the timing exactly, but I can do it pretty consistently by now and I believe that if you wait until after you're entirely out of your shell, it's too late and you'll just hyphen smash. Adversely, doing it while you're still in your shell completely will just cancel the skid animation into a standing upsmash.
I also have performed it at varying lengths and speeds. I think this has to do mostly with timing, but it could also factor in momentum, as many other parts of this game do, so as we all experiment with it more we'll probably learn more about the mechanics of it.
For now, though, it's just amazing, in my opinion.
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Last edited by TobiasXK; 03-08-2008 at 03:34 PM..
Reason: update
This is something that I really didn't experiment with or develop well until just last night, so none of my PT vids thus far show it off at all (and in fact they're all horrible; Hyli and Kal just rape me). But my PT's loads better now than it was a week ago, so the next time we record matches, I'll definitely try and get some good footage up that showcase Squirtle tricksies.
Then there's his pivot when he's dashing, and I'm surprised I don't see more discussion of this. When you're dashing with Squirtle simply tap the other way to run in the opposite direction. Squirtle turns around extremely quickly compared to other characters, and the way he does so is unique. He withdraws into his shell and moves in the other direction with very little, if any, drop in speed.
What does this mean? Remember back in Melee there was a little something called wavedashing? Yeah apparently it was this great approach thing, and one of its uses was to move forward to bait, wavedash backwards and punish your opponent's afterlag if he bit. Squirtle's pivot when dashing feels remarkably like a wavedash, with a major difference being, of course, that you're facing the opposite way. No matter for Squirtle really - his b-air is just as good as his f-air if you ask me. Dash in, pivot out, then sh b-air into your opponent. It's harder to defend from a shield grab with b-air like this, but hey, if your opponent made a move that left them open long enough for you to attack like this, they shouldn't be able to shield, right? If you can stay close enough when you pivot away, a short hop backwards into a d-air is another option.
You may even have time to pivot out, pivot back in and go into a dashing shield grab. Let's say your opponent catches on. He sees you running towards him, and says "ok, i'm gonna follow his pivot". You can always pivot into a u-smash. Seriously, this pivot of Squirtle's is perfect for mindgames, and I'm predicting it will be used much more as we develop PT as a character. Even just pivoting back and forth makes his movements more unpredictable, and although it may not be as effective as Melee's dashdance, I've found it very useful.
...from my impressions thread, and I agree that it needs more discussion. I actually like the name shellshifting, or shelldashing, or something. It's such an easy technique to discover that I don't think it's fair that any one person should get complete credit for its discovery.
I'm pretty sure most of us knew this already, but thanks for putting it in a nice topic with a nice description. I like "shelldashing" better. It sounds cool and it gives a hint to what it actually does.
...from my impressions thread, and I agree that it needs more discussion. I actually like the name shellshifting, or shelldashing, or something. It's such an easy technique to discover that I don't think it's fair that any one person should get complete credit for its discovery.
Yea, being credited with techniques is pretty unnecessary. If it's like something that you've popularized and really made an iconic part of your playstyle (like Ken Combo), that's different, but techniques or more basic/general strats are just things that should maybe have a name just for convenience in discussion. Who cares who "found" it or claims to have been the first?
This topic was just to point out some of the stuff I noticed and played around with. Your post was really good also; I hadn't seen that topic. =]
K cool...this is now the official shellshifting/dashing/sliding/gliding/waving/shocking/wisping/whatever topic. I seem to have gravitated towards the simple Pivot in my description. It's easy to type and say ("pivot in", "pivot around", etc.) but Squirtle is pretty unique in this trait and maybe this should get a more unique name?
I haven't gotten the chance to play much since that post, but man this move still psyches out my opponents easy. The movement is just so erratic that it must be hard to get used to it unless you've played as Squirtle a bit too.
thanks for making this topic but instead of this being like a wavedash. i see it more along the lines of a moon walk.u probobly know what this is but if not just look up captain falcon moon walk on you tube and u will deffinently see a resemblence
SHELLSHIFTING AND HYDROPLANING: now with TUTORIAL VID!!!!!
I like "shelldashing" better. It sounds cool and it gives a hint to what it actually does.
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