Lame suggestions I shared over in "Revamp a Veteran":
I don't really have any fundamental issues with his current moveset, honestly. Inhaling all of a character's specials does sound pretty cool on paper, but not only would it be a programming nightmare, but some specials would definitely be pretty dang OP with a floating puffball with five midair jumps.
But he definitely needs buffs. He is just so, so bad right now. (Which is surprising, given the fact he's Sakurai's son). While the intensity of his weaknesses certiantly varied between games, it was still the same basic stuff that brought him down every time; he had great options, but he just wasn't fast enough to make good use of them. So, he really dosen't need very much to become a good character. So here's some balance changes I came up with a while back.
General
- Kirby has his Brawl voice clips again for a majority of his moves, and his “Hiiiii!” taunt.
- Kirby has much better air speed (0.8 → 0.9). I formerly gave him air speed close to Jigglypuff, but I realized (well, actually, I read some other posts on the thread) that that actually kinda conflicts with how he plays in Kirby games. I still think he needs a tiny improvement at least, so I still boosted it a little bit.
- Kirby has faster walking speed (0.93 → 1). This, I just now realized, would probably be a bit more impactful than an air speed boost, because his tilts are arguably some of the best aspects of him, and now he can use them a bit more freely.
- Some of his attacks have slightly more range, because he is a little larger now. (Nothing big, just his Brawl height)
Ground Attacks
- All three of his tilts, dash attack's final hit, and the first two hits of his jab combo have larger hitboxes.
- Dash attack has slightly less startup (Frame 12 → 10).
- Kirby’s up smash is faster (Frame 14 → 7). This may seem OP, but Fox’s up smash, which is much stronger and has better range, is Frame 8.
Air Attacks
- Kirby’s n-air has no landing lag, like in Brawl; this gives it utility as an air to ground transition and a setup into his tilt attacks, giving the move some actual use now.
- Diddy Kong was actually the one who suggested this; Kirby now has his Smash 64 forward air. It's a more reliable combo tool, hits 7 times rather than 3, deals more damage when all hits connect (12% → 18%) and has a landing hitbox that deals 3% damage.
- Back and up aerials have larger hitboxes. Back and up air have less landing lag as well (9 frames each, rather than back air having 17 frames and up air having 12 frames)
- Down air deals more damage on the looping hits (1% → 2%)
Grab/throws
- Standing and dash grabs have increased range.
- Kirby’s down throw has a different angle (63 → 90) and more damage (10.2% → 12%) and altered knockback (60 (base)/180 (growth) → 40/140), making it just like his Brawl down throw, because that was a good combo move and his current down throw is pretty much useless.
Special moves
- Kirby’s Inhale can now suck up projectiles like Wario’s Chomp. I’ve seen this suggested often, and I fully agree. I don’t know why Wario was given this feature before Kirbeh. Seeing as how Kirby is basically, well, Sakurai’s son, I’m baffled as to how he gave this critical feature to Wario and completely forgot about Kirby, who, well, loves to eat stuff, all day every day.
- The shockwave produced by Final Cutter now has double the range. More interestingly, it can be angled to the side like in the Kirby game's and Project M, (known as the “Cutter Dash”, it is a single horizontal slash that can be cancelled into another aerial at the end) and this applies to the custom variations as well. Always found this to be a perfectly natural change that should have been in from the beginning.
- Kirby’s Final Smash now has Kirby and the opponent pause in place after each hit briefly before continuing with the next.
So essentially, this can be summed up as a buffed Brawl Kirby because damn, he's fun in that game. (Also, normally, I put my changes in a spoilerbox. The reason I didn't do it for Kirby is because I simply forgot to do it, and I'm too lazy to fix it.)
Also, my friend came up with an Alph/Koopalings styled alt for him. Say hello to..... Shadow Kirby.
You know...... This guy. The one on the right:
(Not official art, but I just like this fanart.)