There's going to be a super smash bros. tournament in my dorm next week, and I want to get all the technical advice I can get before it happens. I'm pretty sure we're going with the N64 version, although melee is a possibility.


I traditionally play as Yoshi, but recently I've also had some practice with Jigglypuff (for the lulz). Apparently the common opinion is that Yoshi sucks, but I do quite well as him (thanks in no small part that I've been playing him for years).

The group for some reason will almost always do Fox's stage (the big, long ship with no floating platforms that I can egg people from under), and when they don't do that one, they do Link's stage (the Hyrule castle place that occasionally spawns a tornado). Any other stage seems to make people very angry.



I am not a particularly technical person; from what I've researched online, apparently "high-level" people will have every combo, move, and number memorized by heart and instinct. I do not do this. My tactics go roughly as follows:
With Yoshi:
Ground Pound (down B) is my attack move of choice. I can either go over someone and use it or time it as they're rushing towards me (if you press the move while on the ground, Yoshi will move a horizontal distance before coming down). It is fast and generally hard to block, but there's a significant downtime in which I can get hit after I hit the ground, which means that it's less useful in 1v1s where the opponent will focus all of their attention on me.
Egg Throw (up B) is one of my favorite moves. The N64 eggs have significantly more explosion radius and knocking power (in newer games, the eggs simply do damage), although the N64 attack is MUCH slower, making it only useful for longer distance encounters. I also find that most people aren't used to opponents who use the eggs, probably because it's hard to get used to aiming the arch projectile. The egg works well for damaging/interupting an opponent as they try to jump over me, harassing people who are on platforms above me, and doing serious damage to opponents as they helplessly try to get close to me.
Egg Lay (B) is rarely used, but sometimes I'll use it in encounters when the opponent is vulnerable (not jumping or hitting me) or when they're near an edge (surprisingly, some people don't know that they can direct the fall of the egg).
Headbutt (side A) is useful for encounters where the downtime of pounding is impractical, and can do some serious damage.
Yoshi's jump is amazing, and he doesn't particularly need a third jump most of the time.
(In melee/brawl, Egg Roll is also useful for damaging the opponent, although if I accidentally fall off the edge while using it, I'm dead.)

For Jigglypuff:
Throw (R) is useful for Jigglypuff, unlike Yoshi. It is good for doing damage and harassing opponents, but is unfortunately not particularly useful for killing blows (like most throws are) as Jigglypuff's throw only goes vertically.
Occasionally I will try a sing-rest combo if the opponent makes themselves vulnerable to it, but this is rare, and I sometimes miss with rest even with a sleeping opponent.
Besides that, I mainly try to wear the opponent down by punching/kicking them, while using Jigglypuff's relative speed and aerial ability to avoid damage to myself.
(In melee/brawl, I can also hit opponents with Rollout, but there's a serious risk of accidentally slipping off the edge if I miss the opponent, which equates to certain death, like Yoshi's Egg Roll.)


Generally, my strategy results in me winning, but I've noticed the following issues:
Captain Falcon is the bane of Yoshi. His Up-B grab apparently overrides pounding, and Falcon Kick (down-B) overrides eggs and usually results in me getting hit. His speed makes it difficult to land a decent hit on him. How do I compensate for this?
I cannot for the life of me figure out how to aim Jigglypuff's rest attack. I know that you have to be RIGHT NEXT to the opponent to make it hit, but often I find that I can literally be as close as I can get to the opponent and rest will still miss. Why?
Is there a way Jigglypuff can defend against attacks from below while in the air? Too often I wind up getting kicked upwards off the stage mid-flight.


Any tips?

Yoshi is a pretty bad character to use, dude... Sure, anyone can be good with a character, but some characters (like Yoshi) are terrible at stringing together combos. If it is Melee, I highly suggested not using Yoshi. Also, if it is Melee, you need to watch Jillypuff's life because she is a light-weight character that can die fast.

Hah it's been a long time...

I played samus the most, but I also learned to play jigglypuff quite well for a short period of time. Using the sleep move is probably the hardest thing to learn in the game, and with a lot of determination you can learn to use it. One thing that I liked to do as samus was wait for someone to get knocked off an edge, but recoverably, and then get above them and do "down+a" which is a spike move that is very fast and very effective, if you can actually get in this situation, it kills, always.

This should help you, as well as this.

According to that site, samus is the worst character in the game ;_;

SSBM was where I played most often. From SSBM, Ganondolf (and Capt. Falcon, but nearly not as much in SSB as in SSBM) is a hard hitter that is unstoppable if you can get dodging down. You'll need to, as his attacks are slow but bruising. My favorite character in SSB was Link, though, as he's a middle-of-the-road style player with great agility and moderate weight.

The best thing about Link in SSBM is when you jump up in the air and do A + Down, he puts his sword underneath him and it's pretty much an instant KO if hit against anyone with roughly 70%.

Now that's an interesting mashup.

Link was always my favorite, but I thought he sucked. Maybe I was just playing him wrong.

I don't know, I've tried the "good" characters but I usually do terrible as them (I find that Fox and Falcon are too fast to control and aim, Link is too heavy for the aerial maneuvers I'm used to doing as Yoshi, I just plain suck with Ness, etc. Pikachu is ok, although I don't particularly like his jump, and Kirby is ok, but is kind of slow in the air.)


I don't know why everyone hates Yoshi so much. I've been told that I'm the only person they've seen make Yoshi good . (The key is to deal as much damage as possible while the opponent is away from you with eggs. In N64, the eggs are harder to aim due to the startup time, but have a useful knockback effect and more area damage. Yoshi is a great character because he has a great jump while not being a flimsy puffball, an aerial attack, and a projectile attack.)
As for Jiggles, I just play her/it for the lulz of actually beating someone with Jigglypuff (I've never met anyone personally who didn't think that Jigglypuff was a terrible character, although there must be some people who can use her/it's potential as there's guides to it online). I probably won't go Jiggles for the tournament.

Of course, this is on SSB N64. I've found that I don't do as well on Melee, although that probably has more to do with the faster pace and different physics than anything else. From what I remember playing Brawl last year, I did pretty good.



I'm not really looking for a debate on who's the best character. I don't have the time or the desire to learn a new character before the tournament. I'm looking to improve my Yoshi tactics.

Well I can help you there, I pick and main Yoshi every game, of any version of SSB, that I play. I don't win them all, but I'll be damned if I don't give the top tier picks some trouble against a character they don't know well, especially with little experience fighting it and lack of good counters to his moves. But for just a little dorm tournament, here are some tips:

N64 version:
Spam the ever loving shit out out your Down Special and the same for your Down Smash and Side Smash. When they are falling down from the air, try to juggle them with your Up Smash, it won't KO until they go above 100% or so. What makes Yoshi good is the range and damage of his Smash attacks. Abuse them. Also, do not use your basic special it is a waste of time if they can button mash their way out of it.

Melee version:
Do the exact same thing as the N64 except use your Smash attacks even more than you did in the N64, they have been given much more damage and throw people across the screen, if not, they take a lot of damage from them and your Down Attack, the flutter kicks as they are called. You can also spam your eggs, it tends to piss a lot of people off once you get good at aiming them in combo with your up and side smash attacks, pumping out over 30% every time you properly combo these.

Yeah, sounds pretty close to what I do . Maybe with more eggs to build up damage while possible before meleeing (nothing pisses people off more than being unable to get to me because I spam egg throw... well, except losing to Jigglypuff XD). What do I do about Falcon's Kick and Up-B Grab? (For some reason the guides I've found don't seem to cover this, even though one actually had a specific Yoshi v Falcon section)

I have learned from experience that spamming just your b attacks and smashes will get you killed once they learn what you are doing, learn to use tilt attacks and variate your attack patterns.
I can't say much about yoshi because I never play him but I can tell you a little about jiggs. When you play her stay in the air because that's where she can do the most damage and is the most manuverable. To land jigglys rest attack her center has to be inside the opponent. You can usually do her corkscrew (down air) and immediately down b to successfully rest someone, there is also a combo with her against fast fallers where you can up tilt them a couple of times then jump and rest to kill them.
Look up some YouTube videos of matches you're expecting and some combo videos. You might pick up a trick or two.

Don't let anybody tell you that Yoshi sucks in the N64 version.
Because Yoshi sucks dick in Melee and Brawl, but pwns in N64.

A few tips for N64 Yoshi:

• Spam its double jump to pretty much dodge everything and let your opponents duke it out themselves. This strategy works very well in big stages, such as Link's Castle and the Starship stage.
  
• Yoshi's Jump down attack, if hit fully, does over 40% damage. The best way to use this is to jump from under the opponent (such as if the enemy's on a platform in Kirby's dreamland stage) and hit them with this attack as you arch back down. You will not land on the platform, allowing the attack animation to go fully. This attack works against all chars except jigglypuff and samus (because they're too floaty, and will bounce all over the place when @ high damage %)
  
• Yoshi's down B (special) attack can be spammed while on the ground. Use it on unsuspecting foes.
  
• Use your Down B carefully, but do it often enough to make ur opponents wary
  
• Switch up your aerial assaults by using either of the Direction+A attacks.
  
• "Front"+A (hitting the joystick towards the direction Yoshi's facing) can bring down an opponent. You can pull it off with a single jump close to the edge to plummet anyone close to the edge. OR you can whack ppl standing into the ground and up, and then follow up with more aerials.
  
• "Behind"+A has an unexpectedly large range, and is capable of taking ppl out. If anyone's floating back down after being knocked high up and away, simply double jump, have ur back face them, and use this to knock them out.
  
• Up B Special attack > Donkey Kong's Up B recovery.
  
• The Direction+A Smash attack for yoshi has incredible range, use it to your advantage.
  
• Yoshi is weakest against people who fight on the ground. Take advantage by using your normal B attack to stop them and jump away OR use your tongue's extra range to "Grab" them. NEVER fight people on the ground, especially Fox.

Sheik doesn't exist in N64, and I dislike using her in the newer games. Same problem as Fox and Falcon, too fast to control easily. I'm not good with characters that rely heavily on speed and melee maneuvers.


Sounds good .
One question though, what's wrong with fighting people on the ground? I can usually hold my own on the ground as Yoshi (especially if I happen to have a beam sword), even though I prefer to weaken my opponents with eggs first and/or focus on attacking from the air.
(And what's wrong with Yoshi in melee/brawl? I've used him pretty well in all three.)

If its a tournament don't expect to have items on. You don't play Yoshi on the ground because his air game is much better.

There's nothing wrong, but Yoshi's Aerials are a lot stronger, taking advantage of his doublejump

Yoshi in Brawl has added lag time to his two very important attacks, the Jump Forward+A and Jump Down+A. Also, his Behind+A has been nerfed from a strong kick into a useless tail whip. His Down+B has also been nerfed a little bit, and accidentally pressing Direction+B can send you rolling off a cliff.

This was one of my favorite childhood games, and I've been playing this game with some friends for at least an hour every day between classes for almost a year now. If you care for my opinion, read on.

I main as Captain Falcon. He's the fastest, his back throw is pretty good, and his forward throw sets up some good combos. He's really good at juggling (his up air in particular) and choosing where his opponents are going to go (again, the up air, when used properly, is awesome at this), and his smashes are quite effective when you can land them. I would agree with your comment of him being Yoshi's bane. Of course, none of my friends main as Yoshi, so I wouldn't know specifically how unbalanced this match-up is. My suggestion against Captain Falcon would be to swallow him with B and rack up some damage before bothering to finish him.

I haven't often played as Yoshi, but I practice a lot with spiking, and Yoshi just so happens to have one. It's actually a pretty nice spike (forward A in the air) that has a pretty decent hitbox. I would advise you abuse this attack because spikes are imba.

My second is Ness, and if you're going to do the Great Fox stage, I would suggest you use Ness. The reason for this is because you have infinite health. Just heal from the ships shooting on the stage (they appear basically every 30-45 seconds). You can even stand on the very nose of the ship and heal from the shots. As Ness, all you need to do is trap people in PK-Fire where applicable, or using PK-Thunder on two people locked in combat. His yo-yo smashes have decent range (especially down smash) and can be used defensively. Of course, he is a harder character to play and has a bit more risk associated with him. If you're fighting a Ness player, stay close to him and engage in short hop combat. If you have any ranged attacks that he can't absorb (like Yoshi's egg throw, I believe), those can be really effective. Also, his strong attacks in general are pretty slow, so if you can outpace him, you should have no problem. Oh, and if he's recovering, just run into his PK-Thunder bolt before he can hit himself with it (if you want to be a dick ).

One of my friends plays as Kirby, and we're all pretty sure Kirby is broken. If you're thinking about playing as Jigglypuff, switch to Kirby. He has two spikes (up-B and down-air) and possibly the nicest smashes to ever be seen in SSB. I switched to Kirby one round and literally only used forward smash and down smash for ground combat (even if they roll out of the way from your forward smash, your down smash usually is in range before they can counter with anything decent half the time). Tilt-up is amazing for juggling low damaged opponents, and while this is true for a lot of characters, Kirby's hitbox on his tilt-up is pretty large. His rock move is only good if you can catch people who aren't used to it, but otherwise it's usually too predictable to be worth anything. Down-air is a great move; it's similar to Yoshi's down-air except it spikes. I always end up 1v1ing Kirby when I'm playing, usually as Captain Falcon. The best thing to do is avoid situations where Kirby can use his smash attacks. Short hops seem to work well (but then again, that may just be because Falcon's neutral air is amazing). If you're playing against a Kirby that just goes into predictable patterns, it shouldn't be too hard to plan how to deal with him.

Man, now I want to play against a good Yoshi.

Also, do you know if there will be items enabled? One of the reasons I main as Captain Falcon is because I can just grab all the items, which basically guarantees a victory.

And finally:
Just grab. Grab, throw, grab, throw, grab, throw, victory (unless you're Yoshi/Samus/Link).


TL;DR: Short hops, spam grab, down-smash all day.

@Roy
I'll show you shortly ..
Also, i doubt you can aim your weapons at me if I'm jumping all over the place =_='

Kirby's A attacks can be combo'd to hell.. it's definitely broken lol

Since it takes forever to upload videos... i'm just gonna upload two videos that I did today..
the Computers are at lev 8 (Lev 9 computers are predictable)


the 2nd one's just for luls tho

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Sep 29 2011, 5:14 am by UnholyUrine.

Ew, I forgot how slow paced SSB is!

Use Z-Cancelling.

Also, play as fox.

Not sure what help you were looking for here.

Noob question: What's Z-Cancelling?



(Also, I hate Fox. Besides him being too fast for me to control and aim, it seems like every other person uses Fox, especially in the newer games.)