by Alexander Prestia
There are many different ways to look at Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
There’s how you and your friends played as kids. Everyone mashed random buttons and picked Samus because: big gun go boom, or Link because: sword.
Then there’s the competitive scene, with a bunch of jargon and other shit that you don’t understand. Filled with grimy teenagers playing 4-8 hours a day. Oh the joys of having nothing better to do with your time.
Competitive is a lot to handle. Don’t get me wrong, it’s definitely a fun way to play the game but for most of us the time commitment just ain’t worth it.
Then there’s how most friend groups play the game now. Everyone sort of knows what they’re trying to do, maybe they’ve even seen a few combo videos on YouTube, but when it comes time to execute they’re really just throwing out random smash attacks and hoping for the best.
This is casual smash, and most of us are stuck in it. The thing is, it’s less difficult than you think to go from playing casually to playing smart. And if you play smart, suddenly you’ll be consistently kicking your friends’ asses.
Look, this guide isn’t going to make you a pro smash player. That takes hours and hours of focused practice. But for the purpose of beating the people you already know, you don’t need all that.
This guide is going to teach you to play the game consciously, and before you know it, you’ll be the best player in your friend group.
This isn’t how to be a pro at Smash. This is how to beat your dumb friends at Smash.
Movement:
The number one problem, the biggest thing holding you back in Smash, is movement.
It’s the part of the game that can be refined and refined and refined to the point where someone who practices twice a week can beat a beginner 3 stocks to 0. Then that same intermediate player can be immediately 3 stocked by a professional player. The more you put in, the more you get out.
This game is a Platform Fighter, that’s the genre. Way back in the Nintendo 64 era, the original Smash Bros. literally created this genre. And there’s a key difference between Platform Fighters and Traditional 2D and 3D fighters (Street Fighter, Tekken, etc.). That difference is the freedom you have while moving.
Lets make a general comparison of two very different video games: Super Mario 64 and God of War 2. You can fight in Mario; he punches and dives and stuff. You can jump in God of War 2; Kratos can jump over attacks or even do a little platforming. But Mario isn’t an action game. God of War isn’t a 3D platformer.
Now obviously both Smash and Street Fighter are fighting games. But Smash is a platform fighter and Street Fighter is a (ok, THE) traditional 2D fighter.
In Smash the platforming part is really damn important. The actual combos, offensive options, defensive options, and grabs are important too, but movement is king. Without precise movement, none of those other aspects can be fully realized.
In Street Fighter, your combo’s, your special moves, your careful defense, and frame perfect inputs take the front seat. Movement is much more limited by the game’s mechanics.
So when you want to learn how to play Smash, the first thing is to get down with controlling your character.
You’re probably thinking “I know how to move, you dingus. It’s easy.” Then why do you keep losing? Why does it always feel like your opponent is faster, or in a better position, or all their attacks are just magically better than yours?
It’s cause you ain’t moving good enough.
Don’t feel bad. The game is so exciting and fast paced that the little things are easy to overlook.
Personally, I didn’t realize how bad I was at moving until I watched a pro player’s YouTube Channel.
He was explaining how to ledge trap.
(Ledge trapping is when your opponent is hanging on the ledge. When you’re on the ledge, you’re in a fundamentally disadvantageous situation because you have fewer options than your opponent. So the theory behind ledge trapping is that you want to keep your opponent either on the ledge or force them into making a bad move because of their limited options. You are basically attempting to guess which bad option they will use to get off of the ledge and back onto the stage).
I understood the theory behind the video perfectly well. He simply directed that you stand at a certain distance from the ledge (dependent on your character’s options) and use moves that can cover as many of those bad options as possible.
The problem occurred when I tried using these techniques in an actual match. I was everywhere, except for the spot I was supposed be in. When I had an opportunity to ledge trap, I was nowhere near the right spot to do so.
I knew I was supposed to be standing near the ledge, but so often I was in the middle of a silly jump, or in the center of the stage, or generally just mucking around, and never in a position to properly take advantage of the situation.
I wasn’t moving well enough to even play the game at that level. I wasn’t moving well enough to play the game smart.
My movement was sloppy. I was making wasteful jumps and dashes. I wasn’t hyper aware of where my character was –or- I was focusing too much just on moving my character and wasn’t focusing on where the opponent was at all.
So I started practicing. Training mode. Boring stuff. Jumping around the platforms. Nailing down the exact distances of my jumps. Dashing back and forth as quickly as possible (dash dancing, as the kids call it). Turning around on a dime without moving.
After just a little practice, I started to get it. It’s the sort of thing where you can really feel the gradual improvement.
All of the sudden I was looking at my opponent during matches instead of myself. I knew exactly what my character was doing, how my character moved, and where my character was at all times.
Now that I was watching them instead of myself, I noticed my friends’ movements were sloppy. It was pretty clear they didn’t know where the fuck they were half of the time.
And the results among my friend group were huge. I was winning left and right. I had become better than anyone else in my friend group to a point where it wasn’t even debatable.
All it took was figuring out that the game was really just about precise movement. It’s a platformer.
So here are five quick things you can practice to improve your Movement in Smash Bros. Ultimate (Small note: most of these are applicable in other games of the series too. These tips are so fundamental that they mostly stay true from game to game. However, different games have a lot of different mechanics; don’t expect a 1 to 1 translation):
1. Turning Around-
It sounds so simple doesn’t it? All you need to do is face the right way. How could anyone mess that up?
The truth is, this is something that every person I’ve played with has said at one point or another: “I’m just not facing the right way.” It’s the first milestone of someone becoming aware of their movement in this game.
Facing the right direction is especially hard for people who play traditional fighting games. It’s just not a concern in those games, the characters are always facing the right way automatically. And for a lot of traditional fighting fans, Ryu, Ken, and Terry are popular character choices because they turn around to face the opponent automatically in Smash Ultimate.
That’s nice and all, but not being able to face your opponent just means you aren’t making very conscious movement decisions yet. You’re rushing; you’re jumping over the opponent and landing behind them without a single thought of what you’re trying to do next. Or you’re defending without a thought of the next step. You aren’t fluid yet.
Two ways to work on this: (1) Slow the fuck down while you’re playing. (2) Go to training mode and lightly move the stick back and forth, back and forth, attempting to cleanly turn around without walking forward.
It’s surprisingly difficult, right? Keep doing it. It will get easier.
2. Recovering-
Recovery is a character’s ability to get back on stage after being knocked off. Knowing your character’s recovery options is absolutely essential for defensive reasons. If you can’t get back on stage, bye-bye stock.
The next level of recovering is about offense. You need to know how far offstage you can chase an opponent to try and take a stock. All of this while keeping in mind how deep you can go with your recovery options.
This offensive offstage chase even has a name: Edgeguarding. Referring to the idea that you’re essentially trying to guard the edge of the stage from your opponent’s recovery attempts.
Every character has a different recovery. Some are pathetically small (looking at you- Lil’ Mac) and others have monstrous range (R.O.B. can basically just fly). Learning your characters limitations and maximum recovery distance are the first steps.
To practice recovery: Work on directional air dodges to the ledge. Practice approaching the stage from beneath. Consciously save your double jump until you really need it.
3. Double-jumps- In Smash, after leaving the ground, every character can jump at least one more time. This is the double-jump, and it’s helpful and useful all of the time.
Except for when new players use them. Time and again it seems new players think that using a double jump immediately after their first jump is a requirement.
You don’t have to double jump before you hit the ground.
Think about it logically: if you use your double jump, you are now in the air with fewer resources, you’re basically falling with no parachute. You’re a sitting duck.
Instead of just spamming the double-jump, use it strategically. Hold it like a precious resource, or a gold nugget in Animal Crossing: sure you’ll use it when you need to, but not a moment too soon.
The most common mistake I see with this is double-jumping during a recovery much too early.
Often new players get sent off the stage high left or high right, and then do what immediately? Double jump. Why? Reptile brain, I guess.
Now they’re stuck floating through the air with their best movement option to dodge my edge guarding chicanery completely used up.
Good players see someone waste a double jump while recovering, and then immediately think “Time to eat.”
Don’t waste your damn double jumps.
4. Short-Hops vs Full Hops-
Did you know that if you press the jump button quickly you will do a short-hop, and that with a normal push you do your regular full-hop?
It may not sound like it at first, but having access to quick short hops will let you navigate the stage and outmaneuver your opponent much better than if you only full hop. It will also open up a lot of aerial combos that benefit from little, precise movements in the air.
Now getting good at these takes the most practice, but the method is incredibly simple. Just try and do as many short hops in a row as possible. Again. And Again. Now do it some more. Now put it down for a day. Now it’s tomorrow. Do it again.
It does get easier, I promise. But grinding it out is the only way forward. Luckily, just for the purposes of beating your friends, you don’t need to be perfect at this just yet.
5. Picking a character you vibe with-
Characters in this game have a bunch of different stats that determine how they move and feel.
There’s dash speed (how quickly they run on the ground).
There’s jump height (how high they jump, duh).
There’s fall speed (how quickly they fall through the air, gravity be damned). There’s horizontal air speed (how quickly they move side to side while in the air).
There’s initial dash speed (the speed your character goes when they break out of a walk into a dash).
These are just a few of the unique stats each character has.
Basically there are a bunch of stats for every character, and it’s all so Minecraft Steve and Sonic don’t only look and attack differently- they fundamentally feel different to move as.
Now, try a few different characters for a while. See which fits your hands best.
Once you’ve got a favorite one in mind don’t worry about some Youtuber’s artificial tier list, or whatever else you saw on the web, because what I’m going to tell you next is the real hard part.
Once you’re picked a character, don’t use anyone else for a few months.
Seriously. You need to learn the game’s movement, not a bunch of different special moves across 80-odd characters.
Pick 1 character that you really like and stick with ‘em. Learn the ins and outs, figure out the little tricks, most of all, get comfortable with how they move and feel.
I know, I know. The game is vibrant and fun because of all the different characters. Me telling you to use only one is sacrilegious.
But listen, it’s only temporary and it’s the most important thing to do when learning the game.
If a beginner played two games right now, one as Samus and the next as Fox, they wouldn’t really feel the difference in their movements. Sure, they’d notice the B-Moves being different. They could tell you immediately that Samus’s gun is a lot more fun than Fox’s. However, they couldn’t tell you much about their jumping.
Now let that same person play just Samus for 3 months. Then let them try playing as Fox.
They’ll tell you it feels like they’re playing a totally different game. It also means that they’re really starting to feel the game.
So my advice for characters: don’t worry about tier lists, pick someone you really gel with, and stick with just that character for a long time.
Winning:
After following this guide, you’re now going to be playing Smash smarter than your friends. Even if you don’t start winning immediately, you’re going to pretty soon. Eventually, you’re going to overtake them completely.
They’ll write songs about you. They’ll say you’re naturally gifted. They’re gonna talk a lot of shit behind your back. You’re a Smash God now, after all.
Don’t be a dick about it. Be humble. Keep practicing, because once you start getting good, other players in your friend group will start getting better too. This article isn’t behind a pay wall, there are a lot of resources out there, and they’ll figure out that the game is really about movement eventually.
Try going to a local tournament and get curb stomped. It’ll hurt but it’s the best way to get better.
And hey, even if you aren’t the best in the world, you are demonstrably better than your friends now, and that’s all that really matters.
-Alexander Prestia
Be sure to check out another guide from Alex focusing on Mario Kart right here !
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