DJ Tempora
Smash Cadet
Well, Omegablackmage has a very good G&W Guide up already that I'm sure most of you have read, but I figured I should give my impressions as well. I've only played G&W for about 2 or 2 1/2 hours now, but I know alot of you are looking for as much info on our beloved Game and Watch as possible. Head to OBM's thread first if you haven't read it yet, because it's much more comprehensive than mine and he did a great job. I'm just offering some additional thoughts.
As for me, I secondaried G&W in Melee. Not as in "oh, I played G&W and a couple other characters," but like a legit secondary. I love the guy, and he's even more awesome in Brawl. With that out of the way...
__ Impressions __
Up B - even though I already digged it in Melee, this is probably the move that received the biggest buff. It still has a great vertical, but now covers alot of horizontal distance too (thanks to the new parachute). The parachute opens up so much potential. You can float with it the whole way down if you want, or cancel it right away or just whenever. If you decide to cancel, you can either fastfall, or combo right into an attack! All of G&W's A and B aerials, except for another up B, are available to combo. In application, you can use this to essentially pillar attacks with the new up B. The most prominent and useful example of this is probably up B -> dair -> up B -> dair -> repeat. There's so much more... the move is highly versatile and you'll find yourself using it more often in almost every situation. Edge guarding, combo starting, you name it. Too much to list.
Neutral B - pan is pretty decent. The sausages come in different shapes now, and it seems like the rate of fire is about the same (if I remember right). The pan itself has decent knockback still, and you can still sh it into an opponent like in Melee. I didn't get a chance to try pan spike, so no word on that side of it.
Dair - the new dair is just plain sick. It feels as powerful as before, only now it auto-fastfalls at a high rate. In my experience, this aspect of the dair is a buff. There are instances where the dair will not fastfall, though I haven't been paying attention enough to figure out what causes it. However, I believe it is repeatable and controllable, so this opens up different attacks and combo potential. You can DI the attack slightly to the left or right as it's coming down, which is very useful for adjusting to an opponent's attempted evasion. Also, in addition to the OBM key stomp mentioned in OBM's thread, I've discovered a slightly different technique. Since performing a dair close to the ground will cancel the lag, you can spam sh'd dairs at a very high rate. This can be done on a platform or on solid ground. My apologies if someone else has already mentioned this, but it's an excellent and fun-to-use technique. Finally, the dair fastfall can be cancelled after a certain number of frames using up B. Therefore, you can use it as an edgeguard offstage and not suicide. I've had no problems getting back onstage using the dair -> up B cancel method. Good stuff.
Dtilt - well, our old dtilt is totally different now. But parachute is gone too (so no dtilt -> parachute combos anyway) so no loss right? Dtilt now has a larger, more useful hitbox, you can still spam it, and it gives horizontal knockback. It's more useful as an edgeguard than in Melee, and less useful as an aerial combo starter. It seems slightly better to me, but only time will tell.
Nair - parachute as we knew it is gone, but I can promise you you'll love fishbowl (the new nair). It has a nice range, comes out quickly, and hits multiple times. Nair isn't a killer anymore, but it's a great defensive and offensive move in G&W's repertoire. Not much else to say, but I like it alot.
Fair - good ol' credit card / director's slate / whatever. I loved advancing on an opponent in Melee with sh'd fairs, and Brawl is no different. Fair still seems to have good KO and edgeguard potential. No disappointments here.
Bair - seems to be buffed. It's very easy to get the turtle to go for multiple hits. The effect is somewhat similar to Melee Yoshi's dair, where the opponent will lag and eat all the hits if you catch them in the attack. I had good success adding bairs into aerial combos. Bair out of up B parachute cancel can be great.
Fsmash - still awesome. Fsmash leaves the hitbox out for a long time like in Melee, but this aspect of it doesn't seem as useful now that opponents won't be WDing into it. Nevetheless, still a killer.
Upsmash - eh, situational. It KOs very well still, but I had only limited success with it in 1v1. When it lands, it's great, but I think G&W has better options in most situations. Still, it's got da power.
Taunts - the bell is back, and improved! There are now two flavors of bell to choose from. As I explained in this post, you can spam the two bell taunts super fast. The third taunt is pretty neat I guess, but nothing beats turbo bell spam.
General thoughts - Game and Watch is amazing. He retains his fun playstyle from Melee, only now he's a viable and competent character in competition. He's fast, seems to get KOed at higher percentages now, and has many more options than before. As an aside, perhaps 15-20% of the people in the Brawl tourney I attended were using G&W. Everyone seems to love him, and that might say something by itself.
______
That's it for now. I'd love to hear everyone else's impressions or thoughts, and if anyone has any questions, I'll do my best to answer.
As for me, I secondaried G&W in Melee. Not as in "oh, I played G&W and a couple other characters," but like a legit secondary. I love the guy, and he's even more awesome in Brawl. With that out of the way...
__ Impressions __
Up B - even though I already digged it in Melee, this is probably the move that received the biggest buff. It still has a great vertical, but now covers alot of horizontal distance too (thanks to the new parachute). The parachute opens up so much potential. You can float with it the whole way down if you want, or cancel it right away or just whenever. If you decide to cancel, you can either fastfall, or combo right into an attack! All of G&W's A and B aerials, except for another up B, are available to combo. In application, you can use this to essentially pillar attacks with the new up B. The most prominent and useful example of this is probably up B -> dair -> up B -> dair -> repeat. There's so much more... the move is highly versatile and you'll find yourself using it more often in almost every situation. Edge guarding, combo starting, you name it. Too much to list.
Neutral B - pan is pretty decent. The sausages come in different shapes now, and it seems like the rate of fire is about the same (if I remember right). The pan itself has decent knockback still, and you can still sh it into an opponent like in Melee. I didn't get a chance to try pan spike, so no word on that side of it.
Dair - the new dair is just plain sick. It feels as powerful as before, only now it auto-fastfalls at a high rate. In my experience, this aspect of the dair is a buff. There are instances where the dair will not fastfall, though I haven't been paying attention enough to figure out what causes it. However, I believe it is repeatable and controllable, so this opens up different attacks and combo potential. You can DI the attack slightly to the left or right as it's coming down, which is very useful for adjusting to an opponent's attempted evasion. Also, in addition to the OBM key stomp mentioned in OBM's thread, I've discovered a slightly different technique. Since performing a dair close to the ground will cancel the lag, you can spam sh'd dairs at a very high rate. This can be done on a platform or on solid ground. My apologies if someone else has already mentioned this, but it's an excellent and fun-to-use technique. Finally, the dair fastfall can be cancelled after a certain number of frames using up B. Therefore, you can use it as an edgeguard offstage and not suicide. I've had no problems getting back onstage using the dair -> up B cancel method. Good stuff.
Dtilt - well, our old dtilt is totally different now. But parachute is gone too (so no dtilt -> parachute combos anyway) so no loss right? Dtilt now has a larger, more useful hitbox, you can still spam it, and it gives horizontal knockback. It's more useful as an edgeguard than in Melee, and less useful as an aerial combo starter. It seems slightly better to me, but only time will tell.
Nair - parachute as we knew it is gone, but I can promise you you'll love fishbowl (the new nair). It has a nice range, comes out quickly, and hits multiple times. Nair isn't a killer anymore, but it's a great defensive and offensive move in G&W's repertoire. Not much else to say, but I like it alot.
Fair - good ol' credit card / director's slate / whatever. I loved advancing on an opponent in Melee with sh'd fairs, and Brawl is no different. Fair still seems to have good KO and edgeguard potential. No disappointments here.
Bair - seems to be buffed. It's very easy to get the turtle to go for multiple hits. The effect is somewhat similar to Melee Yoshi's dair, where the opponent will lag and eat all the hits if you catch them in the attack. I had good success adding bairs into aerial combos. Bair out of up B parachute cancel can be great.
Fsmash - still awesome. Fsmash leaves the hitbox out for a long time like in Melee, but this aspect of it doesn't seem as useful now that opponents won't be WDing into it. Nevetheless, still a killer.
Upsmash - eh, situational. It KOs very well still, but I had only limited success with it in 1v1. When it lands, it's great, but I think G&W has better options in most situations. Still, it's got da power.
Taunts - the bell is back, and improved! There are now two flavors of bell to choose from. As I explained in this post, you can spam the two bell taunts super fast. The third taunt is pretty neat I guess, but nothing beats turbo bell spam.
General thoughts - Game and Watch is amazing. He retains his fun playstyle from Melee, only now he's a viable and competent character in competition. He's fast, seems to get KOed at higher percentages now, and has many more options than before. As an aside, perhaps 15-20% of the people in the Brawl tourney I attended were using G&W. Everyone seems to love him, and that might say something by itself.
______
That's it for now. I'd love to hear everyone else's impressions or thoughts, and if anyone has any questions, I'll do my best to answer.
