Post by Anthony G on Apr 2, 2008 18:23:56 GMT -5
For those who want to become better at Melee.
*Note: I did not make this, all credit goes to the guy on that website link*
*Note: wavedashing, l-canceling, and crouch canceling don't work in brawl*
www.freewebs.com/typhlosionisme/begginersguide.htm
Beginner's Guide to SSBM: Getting Started in the World of Competitive Smash
Terms I Will Use, and You Should Learn
Much of the jargon we use you will pick up talking with people familiar with it and immersing yourself in it. These terms are the ones I will use in my guide; this is not a complete glossary of terms by far.
Aerial: Any air attack.
Air (Uair, Dair, Nair, Bair): Aerial attacks. U = up, D = down, N = neutral (no direction), B = behind your character. Direction indicates what direction to move the control stick before pressing A in the air.
Dodge: In this case, what happens when you press down from shielding. What happens when you press right or left shall be called a "roll".
Frame: 1/60 of a second. The game is changing the movement of your character 60 times a second. Think of it as claymation or stop-movement photography. Every frame is crucial in the fast paced game of SSBM.
Lag: Period of time after an attack, roll, dodge, ect., when you cannot move. Your character is most vulnerable at this time; you should always try to minimize lag time.
Spike: An attack that sends your opponent flying almost straight downwards. Often used off the edge.
Tilt: An attack that is used by pressing a direction and A together. NOT a smash attack.
Most Important
The most important thing you should learn (but not necessarily the first) is the SHFFL (Shorthop Fast Fall L-cancel). Do not be intimidated by the many steps involved. The real first step is to learn each movement individually. Each of these individual techniques constitutes the largest and most important part in competitive Smashing. Practice in Training Mode before using them on real opponents.
The L-Cancel
L-cancelling is THE single most important technique you are going to learn; other than practice with people better than you, it's the best thing you can do to get better.
First off is learning how to do an L-cancel, and what it is. Pick Link or Young Link, and go into training mode. Use your dair, and hit the ground while your sword is still out. You should notice an extremely long period of time where you cannot move; this is the lag. This period of time is where you are most vulnerable. Link's dair is one of the laggiest moves in the game, which is why it is a good example for L-cancelling.
L-cancelling is a move that essentially "cancels" most of the lag from an aerial attack hitting the ground, hence the name. L does not stand for the button "L". To do an L-cancel, tap either the L or R button the moment before you hit the ground coming down from an air attack. It does not matter whether you hit L or R, it's your preference. You should notice the lag from Link's dair being reduced dramatically. If you do not see this, you are pressing L too early or too late. If your shield comes up after you land, you're holding the L or R button down too long. Once you have it down with Link, try it multiple times with different characters.
The reason why this move is so important is because it allows your movement and attacks to become exponentially faster, and it gives your opponent less openings in which to attack you. Even with characters like Fox, where the shortening of lag is barely noticeable, you will find your game dramatically improving. Use L-cancel at every opportunity. Every time you use it is a few frames of time saved for you, and less time that your opponent can kill you. Practice it until you do it subconsciously and automatically after every aerial.
The Shorthop
A shorthop is just that: a jump that is much lower than a character's normal jump. To do a shorthop, quickly tap X or Y very fast just once. You will only have about 5 or 6 frames to release the jump button before your character jumps off of the ground. If done correctly, your character will do a much shorter hop than a normal jump. Practice this until you can do it almost all of the time. The next step is to do it while running. If you can do this, congratulations. Note that it can be done with the control stick also. Usage of the shorthop will be explained later.
Fast Fall
This is the last and easiest step in your quest to do a SHFFL. Pick any "floaty" character and jump off the edge. Yes, do it. Good. After you die, do it again, but this time quickly press down while in the air. Your character will fall faster. Easy? Good.
The Almighty and Powerful SHFFL
Time to learn the most important move you will ever learn in your SSBM career. Learn this move, I can't stress it enough. Again, it stands for ShortHop Fast Fall L-cancel. Intimidating at first, but with my help and a little love and magic, you shall shffl with the best of them.
To begin to learn a shffl, you need to learn the basics. Pick any character you wish (a floaty character such as Luigi would help), and go into training mode. First of all, do a shorthop, and while in the air, do an air attack. Now, do the same thing, but this time, fastfall directly after you do the air attack. You should come off the ground, pop off a quick aerial, and quickly fall to the ground again. Once you get that down, you can add the L-cancel to your aerial to make the whole process even faster.
You may have already realized the importance of the shffl, but in case you didn't, I will explain. There are many uses for it, but the main one is to attack someone who is on the ground with a quick and powerful aerial. You know that crappy dash attack that all characters have? Instead of doing that when approaching an opponent, you can pull off a quick SHFFL instead. Try to incorporate shffl's wherever you can, it's a quick alternative to less fast and more laggy ground moves. It's also a good way to chain together combos and make them more "fluid". Learn it so that you can use it whenever you can without thinking, and use it whenever you can.
end shffl
Teching
This is also one of the most important parts of competitive play. To tech, press L or R right as you hit the ground after you get hit from an attack. To see what I mean, go to training mode and set up a flipper. Jump on top of it, and right before you hit the ground while you are still spinning from the hit, press L or R. Your character should do a little flip or somersault, and immediately get back on his/her feet. Should you be inclined to hold left or right while pressing L or R, you will also do a roll in whatever direction you held.
You can already see why this is important. It allows you to quickly recover from a hit, and get away from your opponent. You can stop most combos by doing it, if you have the right timing. It is an element to speed up your recovery, and avoid being in the "lying on the ground" position. Letting yourself be in that position means you're just asking to be combed. Predicting which direction your opponent will tech is called "tech chasing".
The Wavedash
The wavedash is a powerful and sometimes overrated "move" (really, an abuse of game physics) that should be in any player's bag o' tricks. A wavedash is easier explained than done. You should learn how to wavedash consistently and without thought before you should even try to incorporate it into your game.
To wavedash, simply airdodge diagonally into the ground after you jump before your character leaves the ground. Like I said, easier said than done. First, hold your control stick down and diagonally. Then jump. Then, immediately after you press the jump button, and before you leave the ground, press either L or R to airdodge diagonally into the ground. Your character should be sliding along the ground. Try practicing it with Luigi, because his is the easiest to do and see. If you do not understand how it should look, check out the video on the wavedash site mentioned later.
The premise of wavedashing is basically "standing still while moving". Think of all the moves you can do while standing still: every single move on the ground except for dash attack. When you are running, what do you have? A dash attack.
Application: a Marth user F-smashes. It would take too long for you to roll behind him and do an attack, because by then his lag would be over, and he'd kill you for YOUR lag. You can't just run up to him and attack him; the reach of his sword is too long. So you wavesmash: a smash while you are still moving from the wavedash. This way, you can take the start-up lag time of the move and do it while you're still approaching. By the time you reach Marth, he's still lagging, your start-up time is over, and you unleash the smash (or any other move you choose) on him.
It's also just for fluidity in your games. You can move left while still facing right, which can be a better set-up; you can move between platforms faster, etc.
Overall, try not to think too hard to implement wavedashing. I know that sounds hard when you haven't perfected it, but once you have the pattern in your brain and can pull it off consistently, you should be able to use it in your game without thinking. It's more of a supplement to your game, expanding the possibilities of approach, dodging, and "tricking" your opponent.
For more information, better explanation, and more uses, visit my good friend Tobias XelKythe's website, which has a more comprehensive and very informative essay, at www.freewebs.com/tobiasxk/wavedashing.html
Mind Games
Mindgames are the essence of SSBM. It's basically a fancy word for faking out your opponent. You should always be moving, wavedashing, shffling, doing something so that you can catch your opponent off guard. A good move to use is the dashdance.
To dashdance, smash left and right on the control stick quickly and alternatingly. Your character will be in the beginning animation of the dash, quickly changing directions left and right. This way, your opponent will not know which direction you are going to go next, as you can literally do anything out of it. It's a nice and confusing move to trick your opponent with.
Wavedashing can also be used as a mindgame. Wavedashing back and forth can lead to a very uncomfortable position for your opponent, as he has no inclination as to what you are going to do next. Try to use everything in your arsenal to make your opponent uncomfortable.
More Techniques of Competitive Playing
Do you ever watch the videos of pros, and wonder how they can be so fast and awesomely good? There are many techniques you can learn from them, but here are some of the most important ones:
Don't Spam Smashes
Smash attacks are usually slow with a long period where you can't move. If you have been playing computers or bad humans a lot, you've been using a lot of smashes to kill your opponent. This is a bad idea against fast players, because they'll quickly dodge your attack and punish you. Instead, rely more on your SHFFL's and tilt attacks.
Dodging
Get used to dodging, a lot. New people to competitive playing often spam the roll too often. The roll is not as great as first assumed, as lag at the end of the roll is huge, and your opponent can easily figure out where you are going to end up. He can easily predict where you will end up, and get there and punish you. The solution for this is to use the dodge, by pressing down while using the shield. It happens quickly with little to no lag. Try to cut down on rolling and use this more often.
Edgeguarding
What's the use of hitting your opponent off the edge, when you cannot keep him off? Edgeguarding is one of the most important aspects of advanced SSBM play. While it is mostly character-specific and learned from experience, there are some general tips I can bestow unto you.
It is wise to play conservatively, don't always jump off the edge yourself to spike, because then you are as vulnerable as him. Instead, try to fend him off from the stage with aerials and smashes. Some characters spike at an angle; this way you can spike your opponent off without you having to jump off yourself.
When you are the one hanging off the edge, one of the worst things to do is press A to get back on. In these situations, usually the best thing to do is to drop off the edge by pressing either down or away, and immediately jumping. Your character should jump up above the edge. This will allow you to use any of your aerials, and have a lot more freedom in what you want to do.
Then there is the edgehog. This is you grabbing onto the edge while your opponent is coming back, preventing him from grabbing on because you already took the spot. This gives your opponent no chance to climb back on the edge. If your opponent is under you threatening to hit you off with an up-B, simply either climb back on or press A. This will give you a few frames of invincibility, and the game still registers you as hanging on the edge. Your opponent will fall to his doom.
The best way to start hanging is to wavedash backwards from the stage, falling off the stage onto the edge. This can cause an airdodge off the edge if you have not yet mastered wavedashing, so be careful. The safest and longest way is to turn around and shorthop backwards onto the edge. There is a fast way to stop running and immediately turn around...
Crouch Cancel
To see the effects of a crouch cancel, pick your character and start running. Turn around while running. Your character will slide a little before turning, wasting time. This also happens when you stop. Now, run and go into a crouch. You can see that the "sliding" part of the animation goes away and your character stops immediately. Now, from the crouch, you can start running the opposite direction with little to no delay. Eventually, you can speed up the whole process. This is just a way of stopping and turning faster, and as you know, the faster you are, the better.
Another effect of the crouch cancel is to stop yourself from going far. If you are crouched on the ground as you get hit, you will go an amazingly short distance compared to what you would have gone. This can be used in low percentage situations. Your opponent hits you when you're in a crouch. You go nowhere, and you immediately retaliate with a downsmash. Your opponent dies. It's a nice thing to know.
*Note: I did not make this, all credit goes to the guy on that website link*
*Note: wavedashing, l-canceling, and crouch canceling don't work in brawl*
www.freewebs.com/typhlosionisme/begginersguide.htm
Beginner's Guide to SSBM: Getting Started in the World of Competitive Smash
Terms I Will Use, and You Should Learn
Much of the jargon we use you will pick up talking with people familiar with it and immersing yourself in it. These terms are the ones I will use in my guide; this is not a complete glossary of terms by far.
Aerial: Any air attack.
Air (Uair, Dair, Nair, Bair): Aerial attacks. U = up, D = down, N = neutral (no direction), B = behind your character. Direction indicates what direction to move the control stick before pressing A in the air.
Dodge: In this case, what happens when you press down from shielding. What happens when you press right or left shall be called a "roll".
Frame: 1/60 of a second. The game is changing the movement of your character 60 times a second. Think of it as claymation or stop-movement photography. Every frame is crucial in the fast paced game of SSBM.
Lag: Period of time after an attack, roll, dodge, ect., when you cannot move. Your character is most vulnerable at this time; you should always try to minimize lag time.
Spike: An attack that sends your opponent flying almost straight downwards. Often used off the edge.
Tilt: An attack that is used by pressing a direction and A together. NOT a smash attack.
Most Important
The most important thing you should learn (but not necessarily the first) is the SHFFL (Shorthop Fast Fall L-cancel). Do not be intimidated by the many steps involved. The real first step is to learn each movement individually. Each of these individual techniques constitutes the largest and most important part in competitive Smashing. Practice in Training Mode before using them on real opponents.
The L-Cancel
L-cancelling is THE single most important technique you are going to learn; other than practice with people better than you, it's the best thing you can do to get better.
First off is learning how to do an L-cancel, and what it is. Pick Link or Young Link, and go into training mode. Use your dair, and hit the ground while your sword is still out. You should notice an extremely long period of time where you cannot move; this is the lag. This period of time is where you are most vulnerable. Link's dair is one of the laggiest moves in the game, which is why it is a good example for L-cancelling.
L-cancelling is a move that essentially "cancels" most of the lag from an aerial attack hitting the ground, hence the name. L does not stand for the button "L". To do an L-cancel, tap either the L or R button the moment before you hit the ground coming down from an air attack. It does not matter whether you hit L or R, it's your preference. You should notice the lag from Link's dair being reduced dramatically. If you do not see this, you are pressing L too early or too late. If your shield comes up after you land, you're holding the L or R button down too long. Once you have it down with Link, try it multiple times with different characters.
The reason why this move is so important is because it allows your movement and attacks to become exponentially faster, and it gives your opponent less openings in which to attack you. Even with characters like Fox, where the shortening of lag is barely noticeable, you will find your game dramatically improving. Use L-cancel at every opportunity. Every time you use it is a few frames of time saved for you, and less time that your opponent can kill you. Practice it until you do it subconsciously and automatically after every aerial.
The Shorthop
A shorthop is just that: a jump that is much lower than a character's normal jump. To do a shorthop, quickly tap X or Y very fast just once. You will only have about 5 or 6 frames to release the jump button before your character jumps off of the ground. If done correctly, your character will do a much shorter hop than a normal jump. Practice this until you can do it almost all of the time. The next step is to do it while running. If you can do this, congratulations. Note that it can be done with the control stick also. Usage of the shorthop will be explained later.
Fast Fall
This is the last and easiest step in your quest to do a SHFFL. Pick any "floaty" character and jump off the edge. Yes, do it. Good. After you die, do it again, but this time quickly press down while in the air. Your character will fall faster. Easy? Good.
The Almighty and Powerful SHFFL
Time to learn the most important move you will ever learn in your SSBM career. Learn this move, I can't stress it enough. Again, it stands for ShortHop Fast Fall L-cancel. Intimidating at first, but with my help and a little love and magic, you shall shffl with the best of them.
To begin to learn a shffl, you need to learn the basics. Pick any character you wish (a floaty character such as Luigi would help), and go into training mode. First of all, do a shorthop, and while in the air, do an air attack. Now, do the same thing, but this time, fastfall directly after you do the air attack. You should come off the ground, pop off a quick aerial, and quickly fall to the ground again. Once you get that down, you can add the L-cancel to your aerial to make the whole process even faster.
You may have already realized the importance of the shffl, but in case you didn't, I will explain. There are many uses for it, but the main one is to attack someone who is on the ground with a quick and powerful aerial. You know that crappy dash attack that all characters have? Instead of doing that when approaching an opponent, you can pull off a quick SHFFL instead. Try to incorporate shffl's wherever you can, it's a quick alternative to less fast and more laggy ground moves. It's also a good way to chain together combos and make them more "fluid". Learn it so that you can use it whenever you can without thinking, and use it whenever you can.
end shffl
Teching
This is also one of the most important parts of competitive play. To tech, press L or R right as you hit the ground after you get hit from an attack. To see what I mean, go to training mode and set up a flipper. Jump on top of it, and right before you hit the ground while you are still spinning from the hit, press L or R. Your character should do a little flip or somersault, and immediately get back on his/her feet. Should you be inclined to hold left or right while pressing L or R, you will also do a roll in whatever direction you held.
You can already see why this is important. It allows you to quickly recover from a hit, and get away from your opponent. You can stop most combos by doing it, if you have the right timing. It is an element to speed up your recovery, and avoid being in the "lying on the ground" position. Letting yourself be in that position means you're just asking to be combed. Predicting which direction your opponent will tech is called "tech chasing".
The Wavedash
The wavedash is a powerful and sometimes overrated "move" (really, an abuse of game physics) that should be in any player's bag o' tricks. A wavedash is easier explained than done. You should learn how to wavedash consistently and without thought before you should even try to incorporate it into your game.
To wavedash, simply airdodge diagonally into the ground after you jump before your character leaves the ground. Like I said, easier said than done. First, hold your control stick down and diagonally. Then jump. Then, immediately after you press the jump button, and before you leave the ground, press either L or R to airdodge diagonally into the ground. Your character should be sliding along the ground. Try practicing it with Luigi, because his is the easiest to do and see. If you do not understand how it should look, check out the video on the wavedash site mentioned later.
The premise of wavedashing is basically "standing still while moving". Think of all the moves you can do while standing still: every single move on the ground except for dash attack. When you are running, what do you have? A dash attack.
Application: a Marth user F-smashes. It would take too long for you to roll behind him and do an attack, because by then his lag would be over, and he'd kill you for YOUR lag. You can't just run up to him and attack him; the reach of his sword is too long. So you wavesmash: a smash while you are still moving from the wavedash. This way, you can take the start-up lag time of the move and do it while you're still approaching. By the time you reach Marth, he's still lagging, your start-up time is over, and you unleash the smash (or any other move you choose) on him.
It's also just for fluidity in your games. You can move left while still facing right, which can be a better set-up; you can move between platforms faster, etc.
Overall, try not to think too hard to implement wavedashing. I know that sounds hard when you haven't perfected it, but once you have the pattern in your brain and can pull it off consistently, you should be able to use it in your game without thinking. It's more of a supplement to your game, expanding the possibilities of approach, dodging, and "tricking" your opponent.
For more information, better explanation, and more uses, visit my good friend Tobias XelKythe's website, which has a more comprehensive and very informative essay, at www.freewebs.com/tobiasxk/wavedashing.html
Mind Games
Mindgames are the essence of SSBM. It's basically a fancy word for faking out your opponent. You should always be moving, wavedashing, shffling, doing something so that you can catch your opponent off guard. A good move to use is the dashdance.
To dashdance, smash left and right on the control stick quickly and alternatingly. Your character will be in the beginning animation of the dash, quickly changing directions left and right. This way, your opponent will not know which direction you are going to go next, as you can literally do anything out of it. It's a nice and confusing move to trick your opponent with.
Wavedashing can also be used as a mindgame. Wavedashing back and forth can lead to a very uncomfortable position for your opponent, as he has no inclination as to what you are going to do next. Try to use everything in your arsenal to make your opponent uncomfortable.
More Techniques of Competitive Playing
Do you ever watch the videos of pros, and wonder how they can be so fast and awesomely good? There are many techniques you can learn from them, but here are some of the most important ones:
Don't Spam Smashes
Smash attacks are usually slow with a long period where you can't move. If you have been playing computers or bad humans a lot, you've been using a lot of smashes to kill your opponent. This is a bad idea against fast players, because they'll quickly dodge your attack and punish you. Instead, rely more on your SHFFL's and tilt attacks.
Dodging
Get used to dodging, a lot. New people to competitive playing often spam the roll too often. The roll is not as great as first assumed, as lag at the end of the roll is huge, and your opponent can easily figure out where you are going to end up. He can easily predict where you will end up, and get there and punish you. The solution for this is to use the dodge, by pressing down while using the shield. It happens quickly with little to no lag. Try to cut down on rolling and use this more often.
Edgeguarding
What's the use of hitting your opponent off the edge, when you cannot keep him off? Edgeguarding is one of the most important aspects of advanced SSBM play. While it is mostly character-specific and learned from experience, there are some general tips I can bestow unto you.
It is wise to play conservatively, don't always jump off the edge yourself to spike, because then you are as vulnerable as him. Instead, try to fend him off from the stage with aerials and smashes. Some characters spike at an angle; this way you can spike your opponent off without you having to jump off yourself.
When you are the one hanging off the edge, one of the worst things to do is press A to get back on. In these situations, usually the best thing to do is to drop off the edge by pressing either down or away, and immediately jumping. Your character should jump up above the edge. This will allow you to use any of your aerials, and have a lot more freedom in what you want to do.
Then there is the edgehog. This is you grabbing onto the edge while your opponent is coming back, preventing him from grabbing on because you already took the spot. This gives your opponent no chance to climb back on the edge. If your opponent is under you threatening to hit you off with an up-B, simply either climb back on or press A. This will give you a few frames of invincibility, and the game still registers you as hanging on the edge. Your opponent will fall to his doom.
The best way to start hanging is to wavedash backwards from the stage, falling off the stage onto the edge. This can cause an airdodge off the edge if you have not yet mastered wavedashing, so be careful. The safest and longest way is to turn around and shorthop backwards onto the edge. There is a fast way to stop running and immediately turn around...
Crouch Cancel
To see the effects of a crouch cancel, pick your character and start running. Turn around while running. Your character will slide a little before turning, wasting time. This also happens when you stop. Now, run and go into a crouch. You can see that the "sliding" part of the animation goes away and your character stops immediately. Now, from the crouch, you can start running the opposite direction with little to no delay. Eventually, you can speed up the whole process. This is just a way of stopping and turning faster, and as you know, the faster you are, the better.
Another effect of the crouch cancel is to stop yourself from going far. If you are crouched on the ground as you get hit, you will go an amazingly short distance compared to what you would have gone. This can be used in low percentage situations. Your opponent hits you when you're in a crouch. You go nowhere, and you immediately retaliate with a downsmash. Your opponent dies. It's a nice thing to know.