Kirby may be bad competitively but he really is enjoyable to play imo

As a Kirby main I can admit I second the belmonts because if I’m getting camped out I can’t do anything. If Kirby was 20% faster he’d be a absolutely terrifying. He’d easily be high tier being an absolute menace. Sadly we are so slow we either get our grab combos or get camped

I WANTED THIS EPISODE!! BUT I ALSO DIDN'T KNOW HOW SAD IT WOULD MAKE ME!! Kirby deserve better. 😭

Kirby and Sonic are the prime example of “This move set sucks and there plenty of source material to make a new one… lets keep it”

Sometimes I feel like Kirby is criminally underrated for how good his normals are, and then I run into Young Link on quickplay.

sakurai: i like to try and keep characters playing closely to their home games. also sakurai: 90% made up moveset for his own son

I think a lot of people don’t pick him up because of the stigma of him being the beginner character for new people, who inevitably just fly to the very top of the stage and down b lol.

Honestly if I was going to re-work kirby from the ground up, I'd go even more extreme than what you're suggesting. I'd go all-in on his powers, not just on his specials but his normals too. Kirby in his native games doesn't do much punching and kicking unless he has a power for it, so why not lean into it: Make his up-smash him opening parasol over his head, his forward smash the hammer, down-smash he does a short hop into stone, instead of his nair being a spin, he breaks out Spark or Needle. Kirby is one of those rare cases where he has *so many powers* that you could fill every single move slot on his kit with one and still be leaving out things, so the fact that kirby has so many basic punches and kicks is a crime.

You see, you don’t see a lot of Kirby players in tournaments because they don’t reach the height requirement and can’t go without their parents :(

On the topic of Kirby's inhale and projectiles (And your take on them healing him), I think we can do even better at capturing kirby's inhale ability. It's right there in the kirby games: If kirby inhales a projectile, he gets a powerful projectile he can spit back, but his mobility is hampered while he's holding it. If the returned projectile is chunky enough and slow enough, he can run behind it as it travels to buy him more space against a zoner, using it as a shield against follow-up projectiles fired at that angle.

>inhale opponent >walk off edge

As someone who really wants a port or sequel of Kirby Air Ride, the City Trial music right at the start of the video hits me in the feels

I fully agree about inhale needing that % healing rework, it's something I've been thinking for a very long time. Another idea would be to get rid of hammer altogether and give him a move that lets him get in more easily. I've considered giving him wheel - similar to Bowser Jr's cart move - to answer for his horizontal speed and approach options

How do you always make such clean videos so regularly over three channels?

Pouring one out to all the Kirby mains out there (me included 😔)

Kirby is in desperate need of some speed

In short, Kirby is an all-rounder who struggles to do basic things.

Kirby was mainstream before Smash. His first game sold over 5 million copies lol. He owes as much of his exposure to smash as Donkey Kong or Link do.

If anything about Kirby needs to change, it's his inhale (neutral B). Just look at the frame data on it: 10 startup and a minimum of 19 if you immediately release it. It's wayyy to committal to be used in competitive. Edit: thats not even counting the windbox requirements for inhalation which can be beaten very easily by anything disjointed

It’s because he is pink and pink is for girls

A crazy way they could change Kirby's neutral B would break it. When you absorb a projectile, Kirby will hold it in his mouth for a few seconds or until the player takes action. Side-B would shoot it back like King Dedede, down-B would convert it to health (but more than just 2%). But neutral-B would actually absorb the ability itself so that Kirby then changes out his neutral B for whatever projectile was thrown at him. Kirby could absorb Samus' Charged shot, or he can wait for her to file a missile and absorb that ability instead, turning her missile into his neutral B. Similarly, he could get Link's boomerange or bomb instead of just his bow. Be careful throwing a bomb-omb at him, because if he absorbs it, he now has free access throw bomb-ombs whenever he wants.

I know Captain Falcon is more well known for Smash at this point but it really hurts to hear that.

As a huge Kirby fan, I would love if they remade his moveset. I think the main why reason they may not want to change it though, is because of the Smash ability in the Kirby series. If they remade his Smash moveset, they would have to remake the Smash ability in every future game it's in, and that would be a little weird. His Smash moveset may be bad in Smash, but it is amazing in the Kirby games, especially in Amazing Mirror which has a lot of puzzles where you need different abilities, and Smash can solve just about any puzzle.

I think what this video shows is that Kirby’s neutral b is key. The point about his neutral b arguably being the best in the game, because it’ll always be as good as your opponents is interesting. other characters have those tools that Kirby lacks, so in some matchups you just gotta get lucky with what you get

Vars your comments here and in the "Who should be deleted" video kind of betray the fact that Kirby must've missed you while you were growing up. He's not some unknown character who only boomer players love that is only carried by Smash like ROB and G&W. He's like the biggest Nintendo hero after Mario and Link. The most recent Kirby game was also the biggest seller in his series, so his popularity is increasing.

Its annoying that all of Kirby's specials are so _basic_ when Kirby himself has a TON of different abilities in his games that he could have picked from.

6:14 Vars, his Side+B is what most people sleep on. It’s an interesting and strong edge-guarding / shield-breaking ability. Juggleboy covered a breakdown of this move 2 years ago

This channel deserves more recognition. Consistent, entertaining content- who could want more?

thank you so much for this, you nailed every point!! you have no idea how exhausting it was to always explain this to new people all the time. now i can just link them this

Chefs Kirby Smash Moveset Idea: Jab- Smash Jab GentleJab- Smash GJab FTilt- Bell 2hit combo UTilt- Needle Up Attack (Triple Deluxe) DTilt- Slide Kick (Uses Anim from DreamLand3) Dash- Cutter Dash Nair- Smash Nair Fair- Fighter Spin Kick (Squeak Squad) Bair- Rick Spike Attack (DL3) Uair- Tornado Up Attack (Return To Dreamland) Dair- Cutter Dair. Has Projectile. Zair- Whip FSmash- Jet Charge Attack (More Charge, More Distance. Similar to Smash FSmash) USmash- Claw Attack (K64) DSmash- Sword Spin NSpecial- Inhale (Can copy or spit out projectiles, cant heal. Special copied is based off character. Can be more then just NSpecial.) SSpecial- Wing Dash. Press again for Combo Dive. Freefall is CDive only. USpecial- Fighter Uppercut. Freefall. DSpecial- Smoke Screen. A very fast, close range move that can 2frame and break poorly spaced comboes. Hold Input for Blossom Screen. A slower more powerful version with more damage, hitbox, and a spike. (Ninja Triple Deluxe) Grab- Smash Grab. DGrab- Suplex Tackle. PGrab- Smash Grab. FThrow- Ice Throw BThrow- Smash BThrow UThrow-Wing Throw. Shuttle Loop available by pressing special after the throw. DThrow- Whip DThrow. Great dmg. Other: Tap Grab for a close Grab, Hold for a Tether Grab that can Zair. SLIGHTLY better air and ground speed. Blossom Screen can AirStall and Anti-Air. Disjointed. SLoop Comboes into CDive. Final- Transform into Kabuki Kirby and fire a huge laser across the screen!

Man I'm hooked with your videos literally following all your channel. Seriously admirer your passion for games

Honestly when it comes to small changes I wish kirby had, I would love for Final cutter to have a the startup from Super Star when close to ooponents. Like if you're far away it does the normal version but when you someones in your face it does a A slash combo like Cloud's Side-B and ends with the up B.

2:26 I always love it when American say "from Europe" after quoting US or any state, it's like if we say "MKleo from North America just defeated acola from Asia after beating Sonix from some random island" There is litteraly "je suis" on his name, come on xD

I would love to see a video on Puff because these 2 initially had the same model and similar moves. Great video as always!

8:51 the Star does CRAZY damage and knockback. The issue is how slow everything is to activate, and how many projectiles DONT activate this. The auto swallow is used 99% of the time for projectiles, only heals 1%, and is SO LAGGY. Manual swallow is super fast, and I wish that’s what eating all projectiles was like. I also really wish EVERY projectile could be inhaled, it would give Kirby a STRONGER counter to camping, something he loses to.

Also. The stars damage changes depending on the size of the projectile along with its speed.

I don't know anything about competitive balance, but one thing I've always wanted for Kirby is a proper star spit projectile. Being able to inhale, run, jump, and then spit was his very first attack, and in his games the star has always done huge damage compared to abilities. Basically update inhale so that an item or projectile can be spit out as a big, slow moving, hard hitting, far traveling star, along with cargo carry while it's in his mouth. Maybe even do the thing from the games where inhaling two things at once forms a stronger piercing star.

lol I liked the visual 'fanning out' of swordies when giving MU examples en masse 😆

I love this series. How about one on Terry, Ryu, and Ken sometime? They are my mains with Terry being my highest

Kirby’s garbage air speed makes it incredibly easy for him to get hit and incredibly hard for him to get in

Great video. Maybe you could do why no one plays Banjo and Kazooie next since he is rarely talked about in competitive smash.

I liked Kirby in the first few games but he is clearly underpowered now. Curious all the reasons you have in this video.

He doesn't even need a bigger heal for eating projectiles, he just needs less lag for doing so. I'm not even sure bigger healing would offset the fact that if Kirby eats a projectile, his opponent can hard punish him from across half the stage. O.o

They should have made Kirby’s neutral B’s spit send the opponent in a completely horizontal trajectory rather than turning the opponent into a star and then making the opponent leap a little. They also should buff his air mobility a bit, and if not, give him 6 midair jumps instead of 5.

Kirby also has the interesting problem of developer bias. Its not a secret that Sakurai **overly favors** the kirby games he works on and doesn't have much that isn't from his era with the series. The most significant edition being 2 different skins on Meta Knight. This bias hurts him IMO cause it severely restricts the era of moves he pulls from and possible avenues of being changed in the future.

I think what woulda made Kirby way More fun is if his inhale gave him the enemies entire kit. Up special down special side special and down special

To match Kirby's games, they should have made it so neutral special could eat projectiles and spit them back out as star projectiles, with Kirby able to walk and jump around with the projectile in his mouth (much like how he can when he swallows other fighters) and the power/size of the stars he spits out would reflect that of the projectile he ate instead of just being a flat reflector like Dedede.

I'd like to see one about the miis, duck hunt, or min-min. I think they are all interesting characters but don't see much light.

Would love to see an adult Link video. Why no one and everyone plays Link. Super popular amongst plebs, but completely unrepresented in high level tournament.

As a Kirby main, one of the struggles I face often is timing and zoning. Hammer flip could be the down smash, and maybe could even have a reflector, like you mentioned, and side special should be a ranged burst like Plasma. And Up Special should be able to have the downwards fall part be cancellable, like Dedede’s up special.

Good video, but remember, kirby has zoning tools against all Neutal b zoners. Also, aerial hammer is a great shield break move, and grounded hammer is excellent for ledge trapping. Moving / jumping with a move that powerful is very valuable

There are so many things such as air speed, disjoints, and specials that if tweaked a little bit or made a bit better would make Kirby a top tier. Already has some of the best frame data in the game with frame 2 jab, his tilts, his aerials, has amazing low profiling, and if Kirby had a usable kit of specials, higher speed, or more disjoints Kirby would be top 10.

It’s so hard for kirby mains to not have a secondary, he just has too many weaknesses. Also literally the only kirby specials i actually use often is up b and maybe down b sometimes, his specials are just kinda meh and inhale usually needs a setup into it, you cant really throw it out in neutral too much-

An interesting buff to Kirby could be to give neutral B absorb proper fixed knockback and a bit more hitstun than it currently has around 30-40%. That way it could kill confirm into Bair by inhaling, then jump-press down- DJ Bair

Buffs I'd like for Kirby: * Inhale - more effective range, can spit back projectiles or eat them up. So essentially, you get a reflector and a command grab. *Hammer* gets super armor on release regardless of charge and has way more knockback , killing earlier. Also, it deals heavy damage on shields so you can potentially break a shield after a couple dtilt pokes. * Upb. Shave off startup frames or add intangibility frames on startup. * Stone. Kirby gains the armor effect some frames earlierr and it works just like bowser's down b being able to break shields

Kirby (along side Pit) was my favorite character in Brawl. I remember picking up Kirby in SSB4 for the first time and remember feeling he had been totally gutted in that game.

Kirby's been done dirty in Smash since Melee, both moveset and representation wise.

I think what would be very cool for Kirby would be having side special scroll through a wheel of abilities from his home series that replace his down special. he would keep stone and hammer. but they would be an ability that he can select from.

bro wut is that website were you can see the frames and hitboxes of the characters i need it 😭

kirby could be a great character and all they'd have to do is give him a burst option or reflector/projectile instead of hammer. If he had something like his wheel copy ability he'd have no problem getting to his opponents or if he had the mirror copy ability to reflect it wouldn't be so easy to zone him

when you said shooting the star does no damage, its a good thing you added "i think" because it might be his strongest attack.

It felt like Sakurai didn't want to overly buff Kirby or else he'd be accused of favouritism.

I would love Kirby’s side-b to be based off of the Jester instead of hammer. It’s an iconic ability, is more unique than the hammer, and could be made an actually good move. It would give him a disjointed, mid-range option to deal with swordies, and maybe he could charge it for a short time for a projectile to deal with zoners.

I guess competitively, I swear Kirby is top 5 most common characters in 9-11 million GSP quickplay

final cutter always bothered me because in the base game kirby has to do a couple hits with the base cutter in order to activate final edge, maybe as a way to make this more accurate (and viable) it does the first few hits and then follows up with the final cutter and i think giving hammer the giant swing for when he's in mid air can help him a bit instead of him just having hammer flip

If they replaced his fucking hammer with basically anything from his huge repertoire, with a disjoint, he'd be alright But nooooo

As a Kirby main I can say That yes nobody does indeed play kirby

Having worked with a fan mod, kirby's copy ability is also a huge pain in the ass to code. Switching his moveset would help alleviate the coding struggle he is. Sidenote, in the first kirby game, he could shoot out a puff of air that hurt enemies. Would be cool if he had that

Down B should be quicker and finish when the player releases the buttons. Neutral B should be quicker and mimic Villager's, but with the option to spit it out as a star or swallow it for a minor health gain (except bombs or electricity). Switch his dash attack to his Side B, but with aerial option. Then change his dash attack to the Kirby slide.

He is underrated and also you can use neutral special to gain ability so not to get camped

I love your vids! Kirby has been my main since day 1 on the N64! Hes my boy! The only thing I gotta say is its "Mike kirby" not "singing kirby" lol. And I still don't know why they spell it as mike and not mic... but anyway im praying for kirby to return to at least high tier in the next smash

JE SOUICHOQ xd it's always fun to see when english people say french nick names. great video, wonder if you plan of doing toon link or pit ? i love these characters. (and sorry if my english is bad, i'm french (i guess you already understood it lol))

1 buff to make him good: make his copy ability also copy the opponent's air speed (keeping his air acceleration) so that he can play in the air against fast characters and making the neutral B more worth using

13:05 I think it would be better if Kirby could spit out any projectile into a star like you can with large projectiles because in the actual Kirby games it doesn't matter what you eat as long as it's a thing you can inhale you can spit out as a star. People to the character and makes him more viable

9:41 kirby has surprising good survivability as he has a good recovery and can also be annoying to hit

Love listening to these videos while on my lunch break, glad to see this one here today as a nice surprise! Also I don’t know if you take suggestions or not but a “why no one plays Wario” would be very interesting to see in the future!

Haha just this week I was wondering when you'd do the pink ball xD

In every Smash game we've played, my brother always plays the pink puffer and he *keeps kicking my ass like I'm some piece of meat.*

Kirby is like a training wheel character for people who just started playing. He as multi-jump to help them recover and he also as a bunch of moves which are easy to mash or have decent kill power. He also has easy too learn bread and butter combos and his copy abilities help you learn about other characters in the cast. Things that are very good for noobies. Lets be honest we all played kirby as kids

Just give kirby puff's air speed ez

I'd like kirby so much more if he had a faster air speed. It would really complement his aerials.

Because he's always in the Arena mode, there's at least 1 Kirby main per 2 arena rooms I main Kirbss getting kills with hammer is actually really cool because nobody expects the Hammer to work

Gotta give him Gun Kirby from Forgotten Land

The current move-set has a lot of room for improvement, but I still play Kirby on occasion. If he's meant to be a beginner-friendly character, I understand, but many ideas, such as the use of other copy abilities like Sword, Fighter, or even Beetle, were missed opportunities.

Correction about kirby's neutral b star, it SUPER kills, a very good projectile of your opponent gets careless. That being said, it's super situational since kirby only turns big projectiles into stars. A simple change imo would be to have kirby be able to spit every projectile as a star, and the power of the star would scale based on the power of the projectile. It'd SUPER help him deal with zoners

I wish they would increase his distance between jumps and give him access to his fast fall "deflate" from his games, Kirby would be so much better with better air mobility so he could actually act like an airborne fighter like Dede and Jigs can, in addition to his current crouch-heavy ground gMe

This is how I would buff Kirby's specials: Inhale: Kirby can now copy a character by swallowing their projectiles like in the Kirby games. This includes explosive projectiles and projectiles not from neutral-B. Hammer Flip: Either rework it into Hammer Swing, a multihitting burst movement tool that also grants armour (intangibility in the Kirby games), or somehow incorporate the functionality of instantly charging the move after dodging an attack like in Forgotten Land. Final Cutter: Much faster to come up and down, and the projectile is stronger too. Also has a brief grab-box at the beginning of the move that adds starter hits, dragging the opponent through the entire move with more damage, similarly to how it activates in the Kirby series. Stone: Spikes all the way through the move and a smash input will produce a laggier but much larger and more powerful stone that can instantly break shields. Both versions of stone will also kill on stage at more reasonable percentages.

They could kirby just by changing his up and forward B based off of the hat the color kirby is. Have a sword, hammer, boomerang, lightning bolt, drill, and or whatever else powers he has gained. At least then, you could fix his variety.

“Jigglypuffs aerial mobility is second to none” Yoshi:

In the beginning cutscene, Kirby is the only fighter to escape Galeem and Darkon. Surfing on his warp star like Japan's friend Kakarot on his flying nimbus 筋斗雲, Kintōun. Yet Kirby cannot recover or travel the air horizontally. Bizarre. Forward Special should be like a Fox/ Falco illusion where Kirby warps to ledge. This combined with the ability to Up Special out of shield would balance him out while staying true to Sakurai's vision for his character.

You know if I could redesign Kirby’s move set I’d personally replace the current up special with Rocket Hi-Jump for extra movement and the current side special with either the proper Final Cutter (à la Marth’s Dancing Blade) or Condor Head (from Wing). And of course improve his ground speed lol

I love these series. I’d love to see one on Link(if you ever want to do one) since Ik Link fell off hard from the meta :)

You covered the points I tell a lot of my friends: he is slow (can't keep up with other characters), light (dies too easily), and stubby with no projectile (has no range to speak of). The good normals he has (along with small hurt box) aren't nearly enough to compensate. I know you said you think he's underrated and that's fine, but I personally think he's bottom 5. Slow brawlers are just not cut out for Ultimate. That's why Ganon and Doc are so bad (I know Doc has some zoning/anti zoning abilities but I don't think they're very good). I used to think Incineroar was at the bottom too but somehow his playerbase started making it work, I'm skeptical they can keep it up though.

8:14 kirby initial dash is actually better than you'd think

Deadass if kirby's physics with his ground and air movement were buffed to be solid, he'd be an absolute menace to society. They might as well as make his crouch even lower while they're at it just to truly strike fear in people's eyes.

3:55 kirby still gets out ranged a lot more than you think

I’m hoping if there’s a new smash game they give Kirby some of the mouthful abilities from forgotten land. Instead of hammer I’d love carby, it could be similar to bowser jr. clown kart, it could give him a rush move when used in air.

Kirby’s hammer in ultimate is definitely a massive improvement imo

you gotta admit that kirby has some of the coolest looking combos tho

This video is just showing waht Kirby can do and it’s pretty cool honestly. Kirby is one of the best characters in the game ngl