DK smash 4 info!!!

[itsaxelol]

a lot of time will go into playing with the king, since hes my main and i love him no matter what

in the demo that i had a lot of time with, i mentioned hes brawl dk, with a few moves coming out a little faster. but that was pretty much it. right now he just comes off as a worse bowser to me. that doesnt mean hes bad. just doesnt seem to have much going for him

its going to be hard to tests things like super armor, since i only have one copy of the game. but range, cargo stage spiking, cargo ff kongcide, the roll, mega punch, cargo uthrow uair, combos etc ill all mess around with and post here

things look scary for the king of the jungle with all these new disjointed hitboxes, projectiles and floaty characters. lets hope the engine is nice to him and he got some special tweaks

 

[Krynxe]

From the time I got to play him in the demo, he definitely seems like a solid character. DK will always have something that many characters lack, and that's kill power. That seems to be a particular issue with smash 4 so far, characters seem to perform well on stage but lack the power to finish an opponent off, especially given how hard edgeguarding is now - you need a kill!

I think DK will be pretty good because of that.

 

[itsaxelol]

downloading now

 

[itsaxelol]

run speed is like brawl, not pm

short hop double bair is in

cargo down throw was changed from the e3 demo and it looks ******** in the air. there has to be some bug. with all his might he chucks them downward, but instead they go horizontally, and not very far

usmash has a better side hit box

dair faster

side b faster

fair faster

perlect landing up b is gone. he will pose if you do it perfectly. and the landing lag from falling on his back if you dont do it perfectly isnt even so much more than his pose. stupid

nair uair bair autocancel

nair isnt pm nair

cargo uthrow is the only cargo throw that doesnt have lag afterwards (no pm cargo f/b throw into fair), cargo uthrow uair works

cargo stage spike like brawl is out. might still be possible. but its risky. he has lag after his throws and his verticle recovery is crap so theres a lot of room to mess up

k im gonna start playing now

 

[itsaxelol]

fsmash kill power severely nerfed

easier to charge punch in air and cancel it without airdodging. havent sd'd once

massive biceps (ground up b) wont hit them if theyre behind you on the groud but still really close. at least on medium size chars. but its really good and eats some projecticles

cargo is on the same mash buttons timer as the initial grab

ive been wrecking everyone in japan with dk since theyre using all new characters and im just sticking with the same guy ive been using since 1999 lol

PIVOT CANCEL MASSIVE BICEPS! YES!

fair range and kill power nerf

 

[Chaos Archangel]

Uh.. for those of us who don't know all these terms, what's "massive biceps?"'

Btw ty for taking the time to note your findings!

 

[itsaxelol]

massive biceps (ground up b)

 

[Chaos Archangel]

Thanks. How's his down+b in this one? Any particular uses for it in the air?

 

[itsaxelol]

down b is even faster in this one

havent tried it in the air its laggy

 

[Chaos Archangel]

Nice. Any new combos discovered? Any particularly challenging matchups?

And how does the game feel overall in your opinion? Brawlish? Meleeish? Its own unique beast?

Oh and dude! Custom moves!?

 

[itsaxelol]

not many combos really so far. its just tilt chaining

itsa faster brawl more than anything

no go on custom moves i cant read jp lol

macs really bad. hes super good. super fast and super armor. the game is nice to him since he cant be ledgehogged. zss will be a problem for dk again too

its hard to tell if your punch is charged because you start smoking after your char has a certain percent

 

[Nokonoko]

its hard to tell if your punch is charged because you start smoking after your char has a certain percent

So that’s what that was.

Oh and dude! Custom moves!?

One of the down B custom moves (#3 “Fire Slap”) creates pillars of fire where DK’s hands hit the ground. There’s one per slap (ie, two per down B input), with the second being stronger than the first and rising a bit higher. But they’re both basically just high enough to hit someone on a platform above you. Doesn’t hit behind DK and less far in front.

I’ll try and unlock more while itsaxelol does research of actual value.

Edit—
Neutral B #2: Rapid Charge Punch (charges much faster but is weaker).
Side B #3: Enduring Headbutt (slower but has super armour throughout)
Down B #2: Pinpoint Slap (right hand stuns, left hand hits heavily, small area of effect)

 

[Takehiko]

Take a picture and send it to me. I can translate Japanese
Awesome stuff guys.

 

[Toph_87]

Good stuff. Keep the DK info coming. DK has been lost in the shuffle of hype but we will keep our favorite primeape alive.

 

[itsaxelol]

mega punch is 11 winds, still really good. not sure on super armor. has behind hitbox

hard for me to test the smashes out in gameplay without a cstick

roll is great

pivot cancel massive biceps is one of the most fun things period in this game. great option for DK. that and bair are his best moves

massive biceps WILL hit larger chargers from behind

fair range big nerf

 

[itsaxelol]

oh man. fsmash hitbox has a gap in it.. if the character is literally ontop of you, and you fsmash... youll miss...yea.... couple unnecessary nerfs like this are really going to hurt him

side b to mega punch on a 110% lucina didnt kill her. its hard to kill in this game, even for dk

 

[Buzz Spendus]

The most important thing I've discovered about DK so far is that his neutral headbutt breaks shields in one hit.

Poor jigglypuff. She didn't stand a chance. I headbutted her by accident which broke her shied and immediately KO'd her. My friends and I tested this with a bunch of other characters (large characters with big shields like Bowser and DeDeDe) with the same result.

The only chance your shield has is if it's at full power. If it's full, a headbutt will bring it down to it's breaking point, but still keep it intact. If the shield is at any strength aside from full, it wil break and daze your character.

A powershield can prevent a break from a headbutt, but they seem harder to do in Smash 4 and even if they get hit still weakens the shield to minimun capacity.

This attribute seems terribly broken at first, (and considering how much faster they made DK's headbutt it kinda is) but it's a little harder to do in practice and may require trickery & prediction to pull off.

 

[Mccdbz5]

Pardon me for asking, but how are you playing Donkey Kong in the demo? I thought he wasn't available in the demo. Or are you playing the full game?

 

[Buzz Spendus]

I've got the Japanese release.

 

[Takehiko]

@ N Nokonoko I'm really interested about the Fire Slap. Can it stop some projectiles?

 

[Aninymouse]

Thanks so much to @ itsaxelol and others for all the info. It's always great to learn what to do (and what not to do) as early as possible. Those custom moves all sound like a blast! Definitely going to experiment with many of those when I get the game (hopefully in October).

I fully expect to main DK this go 'round (no Mewtwo to vie for my affections). There might be other characters I love to play as well, though. DK, historically, has some highly polarized machups. There are some characters that DK just sucks against - or at least that's usually how it has been. Some characters that are probably going to be frustrating to fight may include Lucina, Zelda, Duck Hunt, ZSS, and any number of other assorted sword characters. In Melee, Mewtwo was my other mainstay. Not really because he complimented DK's matchups (I always felt like Mewtwo and DK have similar matchups), but just because I like Mewtwo so much. This time, I think I'll pick up a character or two that will help "defend" DK's shortcomings. Not sure who that is yet. I'll figure that out later.

Not sure why they nerfed DK's fair... It was already a moderately difficult move to land successfully. Pivot grounded up b and headbutt's buffs both sound great, though! Hardly enough to define an entire playstyle, but it does lay some good groundwork. Bair, of course (and thankfully), is still a solid option for just about every situation ever. I always hated having to rely on bair, though, since it's a pain in the ass to have to face backwards so often. No c-stick will also make it tough, but then there isn't forward momentum on jumps, anyway... Classic cargo up throw to uair is good to have intact. Aerial cargo down throw being busted is very frustrating. You can probably still reliably spike/meteor people with dair, but with fair getting even harder to use, cargo down throw would have been nice for setups... Que sara sara.

Keep up the good work, guys!

 

[Mccdbz5]

I've got the Japanese release.

Sorry, I meant to ask @ itsaxelol .

 

[Buzz Spendus]

The fire ground pound is pretty good. Also, his fair is very similar to Project M.

 

[itsaxelol]

down b can break shields

mega punch has a sour spot, lol, 3 feet of knockback, even if they have 150%. so many nerfs

 

[Toph_87]

down b can break shields

mega punch has a sour spot, lol, 3 feet of knockback, even if they have 150%. so many nerfs

So right now ,(excluding custom moves) what would you say is DK's best killing options?

 

[itsaxelol]

unstale utilt
backthrow at the edge
downsmash
fsmash if it hits
mega punch if it hits
uair

but none of these are generally killing before 130%

 

[Krynxe]

It's sad that DK has had hitbox and killpower nerfs like this. I noticed in the e3 build that DK's dsmash had less range too, specifically it didn't hit as high as it did in Brawl (since it had amazing hitboxes in Brawl). Are you noticing this in the final version as well?

Also, 11 wind mega punch? Kind of weird. In brawl, 9 wind had the most killpower but 10 wind (max) had super armor. Is it like this in smash 4, is a 10 wind punch better at killing? Super armor on a fully charged punch?

 

[itsaxelol]

to expand on fsmash gap. its only for characters with small hurtboxes (aka characters that already maul dk lol). mega man, kirby, marth, zss, etc. someone like bowser or whoever is big will always get hit

yes, downsmash does not have a hitbox above DK. it sucks and is a nerf

10 wind punch is stronger than 11 wind. 10 wind kills lucario in the middle of FD at 56 (in training cpu mode, no di, etc). 11 wind kills at 78%. this is in training mode, with a cpu, so its not M2K esque data. but 10 wind is definitely stronger. cant comment on super armor. again, this is weird, since ive nailed people with the mega punch at high percents and no one in this game dies so early. but still

i figured out why mega punch and my smashes were so weak sometimes. the headbutt. if you nail the headbutt and mega punch or smash them while theyre buried. the knockback is reduced. i just said 11 wind mega punch killed lucario in the middle of fd at 78%. a buried lucario at 78% in the middle of FD goes -literally less than half the distance-. barely goes off the stage. he double jumps back onto the stage and lands 20% into the stage, distance wise. another nerf

 

[DonkeyStrong]

still pending

 

[Toph_87]

Thank you for all the info itaxelol. This is very helpful for DK mains. It sounds like we have an uphill battle ahead of us, but I'm still going to use DK with the best of my ability once the game is released in the states.

 

[itsaxelol]

dks size does him no favors in this game. ive been hit by so many characters a a attacks while i was behind them; happens a lot and sucks. him being massive doesnt contribute to his weight as prominently, since everyone lives to high percentages anyway

killing is an issue, even for someone like DK. the counter moves all have knockback multipliers now, and will literally kill you at 70%...while your smashes arent killing people until double that

his recovery is booty compared to most of the cast, even bowsers is better now. a lot of people have really good recoveries in this game. still no wall jumping or wall clinging for DK

robin is so ****ing annoying, his lemon sword hits harder than dks hands and feet

between the questionable nerfs across the board DK got and mewtwo/ridley/krool not making it. i havent been happy lol

 

[toadster101]

dks size does him no favors in this game. ive been hit by so many characters a a attacks while i was behind them; happens a lot and sucks. him being massive doesnt contribute to his weight as prominently, since everyone lives to high percentages anyway

killing is an issue, even for someone like DK. the counter moves all have knockback multipliers now, and will literally kill you at 70%...while your smashes arent killing people until double that

his recovery is booty compared to most of the cast, even bowsers is better now. a lot of people have really good recoveries in this game. still no wall jumping or wall clinging for DK

robin is so ****ing annoying, his lemon sword hits harder than dks hands and feet

between the questionable nerfs across the board DK got and mewtwo/ridley/krool not making it. i havent been happy lol

With Donkey and Diddy both being nerfed, and the lack of new DK content in general, I feel very sad right now.

 

[Aninymouse]

So some of your earlier information was incorrect because you were burying people with headbutt and then trying to kill them?

Shame there's a handicap for buried opponents.

And giant punch is strongest at 10 winds, eh? Guess I better keep count so I don't over charge it!

 

[Luigi player]

I hope all this sounds worse than it is. DK still looks great in this game, so hopefully it won't affect him negatively too much.
I'll miss the Dsmash hitbox above him...

 

[Chauzu]

I just faced a good DK online and I had a few tight games. The spin attack (dunno which it is again) is annoying with its super armor and so many hits but easy to punish if you dodge / get shield up. Otherwise I dunno what to say, it didn't feel to me like DK was bad by any means, he had a lot of attacks that could KO I felt, solid neutral game, could rack up damage etc.

 

[Aninymouse]

I just faced a good DK online and I had a few tight games. The spin attack (dunno which it is again) is annoying with its super armor and so many hits but easy to punish if you dodge / get shield up. Otherwise I dunno what to say, it didn't feel to me like DK was bad by any means, he had a lot of attacks that could KO I felt, solid neutral game, could rack up damage etc.

Out of curiosity, which character were you playing?

 

[Chauzu]

Out of curiosity, which character were you playing?

Duck Hunt.

He had a bit of problem with the projectiles but did well still I think.

 

[TheEmperor]

Duck Hunt.

He had a bit of problem with the projectiles but did well still I think.

Was the DK player character by chance named TheEmperor?if so i think i fought you online , those Frisbees though haha lol.

 

[Chauzu]

Was the DK player character by chance named TheEmperor?if so i think i fought you online , those Frisbees though haha lol.

Yes it was good games. Maybe we could play again in the future.

Best DK I've seen so far in Smash 4 in any case.

 

[TheEmperor]

Thanks^ ....@Axe you found anyway to link his wind up punch more reliably? Ive tired but its hard i use it just for punish