GalacticPetey
Donkey Kong
Oh Ganon. You're probably the second most iconic villain in Nintendo history. You're always around to battle the various reincarnations of Link and Zelda. Whether you're a Gerudo, a blue pig demon, or whatever the hell Calamity Ganon is, you always have a fun and memorable boss fight.
Naturally the demon king would join the ranks in the Super Smash Bros. series. And yet Ganondorf remains the source of much controversy and debate in the Smash community. I'm sure I don't have to tell you that he is Captain Falcon semi-clone (clone in Melee). It is a bit strange that the great king of evil from the Legend of Zelda has the moveset of a racecar driver from a completely different series. Especially since Ganon has such a wide history of games to pull attacks from. It also doesn't help that in Brawl and SSB4, he's been pretty garbage competitively. Even despite his higher ranked position in Melee, which is still only mid-tier, he struggles in a meta game dominated by spacies and Sheik. So the question I pose for you this. What do you want changed about Ganon in future installments? Should he get a new moveset or should he retain his current moveset with some balance tweaks?
Before answering, I feel like a little background is important. As some of you may know, Melee had a very fast and rushed development. As a result, some corners had to be cut. When creating the roster, initially only 20 characters were to be included (19 if you don't count Sheik). With the remaining time that Sakurai had available to him, he could either add one more unique fighter, or add more characters who would be clones. Sakurai opted for the clone route and we got the six Melee clones. Going through the game data shows that Ganondorf was the very last character added to Melee. Sakurai even states that he was very lucky to make it in. Sakurai saw the huge demand for Ganon and a couple of factors helped seal his inclusion. One, his body frame was similar to Captain Falcon, so that gave them a solid foundation to work from. Two, they also had a Ganondorf model from an old Gamecube tech demo available to them. Put those two things together, add some darkness effects, and make him slower and stronger and bam, you've got Ganondorf.
So that's why Ganon is the way he is. He got a lot of tweaks in Brawl to move him to semi-clone status, but he still shares a lot with Falcon. As for why he has retained this moveset, the answer is simply tradition. While many characters have gotten some major moveset changes across games. An overhaul to make Ganon more game accurate is sorta unprecedented in the series thus far. Sakurai likely doesn't want alienate the fans who have been maining Ganondorf since the old days. A moveset overhaul would essentially mean losing your main that you've had for years and years. No one wants to lose their main.
Where do I fall in this debate? Well, Zelda is my favorite game series and Ganondorf is probably my favorite video game villain. I would love to see him depicted as the great demon king he truly is. But I've also grown to love Ganon's smash moveset for how fun he can be. So I offer the best of both worlds. Many have said it before but is they decide to revamp the Dorf, give his old moveset to Black Shadow and add him as a Falcon semi-clone. It would also show the F-Zero series some much needed love. As for Ganondorf's new moveset, I've come up with one. Click the spoiler tag to see it.
I probably spent way too much time on that but whatever. I want to know what you guys think.
Naturally the demon king would join the ranks in the Super Smash Bros. series. And yet Ganondorf remains the source of much controversy and debate in the Smash community. I'm sure I don't have to tell you that he is Captain Falcon semi-clone (clone in Melee). It is a bit strange that the great king of evil from the Legend of Zelda has the moveset of a racecar driver from a completely different series. Especially since Ganon has such a wide history of games to pull attacks from. It also doesn't help that in Brawl and SSB4, he's been pretty garbage competitively. Even despite his higher ranked position in Melee, which is still only mid-tier, he struggles in a meta game dominated by spacies and Sheik. So the question I pose for you this. What do you want changed about Ganon in future installments? Should he get a new moveset or should he retain his current moveset with some balance tweaks?
Before answering, I feel like a little background is important. As some of you may know, Melee had a very fast and rushed development. As a result, some corners had to be cut. When creating the roster, initially only 20 characters were to be included (19 if you don't count Sheik). With the remaining time that Sakurai had available to him, he could either add one more unique fighter, or add more characters who would be clones. Sakurai opted for the clone route and we got the six Melee clones. Going through the game data shows that Ganondorf was the very last character added to Melee. Sakurai even states that he was very lucky to make it in. Sakurai saw the huge demand for Ganon and a couple of factors helped seal his inclusion. One, his body frame was similar to Captain Falcon, so that gave them a solid foundation to work from. Two, they also had a Ganondorf model from an old Gamecube tech demo available to them. Put those two things together, add some darkness effects, and make him slower and stronger and bam, you've got Ganondorf.
So that's why Ganon is the way he is. He got a lot of tweaks in Brawl to move him to semi-clone status, but he still shares a lot with Falcon. As for why he has retained this moveset, the answer is simply tradition. While many characters have gotten some major moveset changes across games. An overhaul to make Ganon more game accurate is sorta unprecedented in the series thus far. Sakurai likely doesn't want alienate the fans who have been maining Ganondorf since the old days. A moveset overhaul would essentially mean losing your main that you've had for years and years. No one wants to lose their main.
Where do I fall in this debate? Well, Zelda is my favorite game series and Ganondorf is probably my favorite video game villain. I would love to see him depicted as the great demon king he truly is. But I've also grown to love Ganon's smash moveset for how fun he can be. So I offer the best of both worlds. Many have said it before but is they decide to revamp the Dorf, give his old moveset to Black Shadow and add him as a Falcon semi-clone. It would also show the F-Zero series some much needed love. As for Ganondorf's new moveset, I've come up with one. Click the spoiler tag to see it.
I wanted to give him a sword but not a moveset entirely based on it. He has his Twilight Princess sword but uses a lot of magic attacks.
Jab- Keep the electric palm thrust.
F tilt- Keep the "Sparta kick" since he actually did that in TP.
Up tilt- Upward sword swing.
Down tilt- Low sweeping strike.
Dash attack- Lunges forward with his hand outstretched for a short range magic burst.
F smash- A powerful forward stab.
Up smash- The Marth "Thundercats" attack, but add some dark magic effects to the blade and on either side of Ganon so the hitbox is bigger.
Down smash- Slams his sword into the ground and creates a shockwave.
Nair- A small burst of energy that hist all around.
Fair- Forward slice. Similar to Marth's.
Bair- Fires a backhanded burst of magic behind him.
Up air- Upward sword slice.
Dair- Keep the stomp. It's too cool.
Grab- A Dark Vader like telekinetic hold where he holds the opponent up in the air.
Pummel- Squeezes his hand and deals electric damage to the opponent as they float in front of him.
F throw- Fires an energy blast that launches the opponent forward.
Back throw- A really casual and disrespectful backhanded throw.
Up throw- Tosses the opponent up slightly and hits them with his sword.
Down throw- Flies up while still holding the opponent and tosses them down.
Neutral B- Dead Man's Volley. Fires an orb of energy. Can be knocked back and forth a la OoT. Using Neutral b while the ball is out does the swat to knock it back. The orb will explode after a certain point.
Side B- Keep the flame choke. So badass and disrespectful.
Up B- Either a teleport similar to Mewtwo or flying upwards like a shorter and less mobile version of Villager's recovery.
Down B- That downward slam he does in Ocarina of Time. When used in the air it goes straight down. When on ground he jumps up and forward before slamming down. Similar to Yoshi and Bowser.
Final Smash- Can stay the same.
Other attributes- A float, similar to Peach's. Project M did this and it was very cool. Also make him slightly faster. More in line with his Melee incarnation's speed.
Cosmetic tweaks- Fix that silly looking run animation and instead have him float like Mewtwo. Tweak his face a little. He looks off in SSB4 sometimes. Change his sword taunt to him hovering up and overflowing with power. Give him better costumes. Maybe some that reflect other characters like Zant or Ghirahim. A Phantom Ganon skin or an OoT skin would be awesome. And for his victory theme, either give him the Ganondorf theme or a darker version of the current Zelda victory theme.
Jab- Keep the electric palm thrust.
F tilt- Keep the "Sparta kick" since he actually did that in TP.
Up tilt- Upward sword swing.
Down tilt- Low sweeping strike.
Dash attack- Lunges forward with his hand outstretched for a short range magic burst.
F smash- A powerful forward stab.
Up smash- The Marth "Thundercats" attack, but add some dark magic effects to the blade and on either side of Ganon so the hitbox is bigger.
Down smash- Slams his sword into the ground and creates a shockwave.
Nair- A small burst of energy that hist all around.
Fair- Forward slice. Similar to Marth's.
Bair- Fires a backhanded burst of magic behind him.
Up air- Upward sword slice.
Dair- Keep the stomp. It's too cool.
Grab- A Dark Vader like telekinetic hold where he holds the opponent up in the air.
Pummel- Squeezes his hand and deals electric damage to the opponent as they float in front of him.
F throw- Fires an energy blast that launches the opponent forward.
Back throw- A really casual and disrespectful backhanded throw.
Up throw- Tosses the opponent up slightly and hits them with his sword.
Down throw- Flies up while still holding the opponent and tosses them down.
Neutral B- Dead Man's Volley. Fires an orb of energy. Can be knocked back and forth a la OoT. Using Neutral b while the ball is out does the swat to knock it back. The orb will explode after a certain point.
Side B- Keep the flame choke. So badass and disrespectful.
Up B- Either a teleport similar to Mewtwo or flying upwards like a shorter and less mobile version of Villager's recovery.
Down B- That downward slam he does in Ocarina of Time. When used in the air it goes straight down. When on ground he jumps up and forward before slamming down. Similar to Yoshi and Bowser.
Final Smash- Can stay the same.
Other attributes- A float, similar to Peach's. Project M did this and it was very cool. Also make him slightly faster. More in line with his Melee incarnation's speed.
Cosmetic tweaks- Fix that silly looking run animation and instead have him float like Mewtwo. Tweak his face a little. He looks off in SSB4 sometimes. Change his sword taunt to him hovering up and overflowing with power. Give him better costumes. Maybe some that reflect other characters like Zant or Ghirahim. A Phantom Ganon skin or an OoT skin would be awesome. And for his victory theme, either give him the Ganondorf theme or a darker version of the current Zelda victory theme.
I probably spent way too much time on that but whatever. I want to know what you guys think.
