LogFAQs > #967388391

Lucas - Mother 3

Man, the little kid really goes through it, huh? I really love the tendency for Mother series protagonists to be the support units of their squads - really helps solidify the themes of kindness and friendship that bring others together, and being thankful for those forged bonds. I think its especially poignant for Lucas, the crybaby who saw his world be ripped away from him, both quickly and agonizing slowly, doing everything he can to hold onto the found family he has left. Really a beautiful expression of propping up others through gameplay, capped off with a beautiful final boss sequence that says so much about all the characters involved. What he does as a gameplay function isnt special, but how it reflects on him man thats good stuff. And hey, the rhythm gameplay keeps the actual combat a lot more engaging! So he gets that as a boost.

Best Smash Appearance: Ultimate - Honestly the best thing that happened to Lucas was the cleaning of his particle effects. Very clearly establishing the PK Love effects to define his strongest Smash attacks goes a very long way toward representing his character. I think of the Mothers boys, Lucas gets out a lot better than Ness. I dont feel either moveset really represents the characters incredibly well, but Lucas has a lot of moves that send the opponent away and cover a large area around him, rather than Ness keeping them in place and WOW COOL YOYO. Plus the addition of the Rope Snake makes him feel like hes taking from his friends all giving him their strength rather than we couldnt really think of moves for a healer. I really wish he had a move representing Boney, though, would really complete the overall theme. I think Lucas gets to actually use most of his moveset fairly effectively, but I do find hes missing a few key elements to make him much more than solid. B-

HanOfTheNekos posted...

Play Xenoblade

Really awful at MMO-styled combat. Like it is just not for me. I went through about half of a Xenoblade Chronicles Let's Play back in the day, enjoyed a lot of the beats, but I feel like I missed some team bonding stuff that would have really invested me. Inter-character stuff like Persona's Social Links or Tales' Skits are candy for me. I am interested in Xeno 3, though, feels like that has a lot of more aggressive innovations I liked from 2 without being TOO trope-based (as I also felt from 2).

Donkey Kong - Mario + Rabbids: Donkey Kong Adventure

Yeah, for real.

The big issue with Donkey Kong as a character is that hes often just a template. Hes the least interesting Kong to play as in the original Donkey Kong Country trilogy, least interesting to play as in Donkey Kong 64, and has absolutely no frills compared to every other Kong in the Retro Studios games. Spin-offs usually play him as the nice strongman compared to Warios evil strongman and Bowsers was criminal strongman, which tends to have the big guy standing out as the least interesting power character as he just doesnt get to do anything besides be strong and banana. There are two major exceptions to that, though: Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, where DK feels great and gets to combo his platforming with combat in an almost Devil May Cry-esque way to beat the crap out of anything in front of him. And then Mario + Rabbids, where he becomes perhaps the best turn-based strategy unit ever made.

Donkey Kong feels like a playble boss character. He has an AoE shockwave that hits everyone immediately around him, as well as a banana boomerang that can hit multiple far away opponents and occasionally bounce them out of position. However, where he really excels are his movement tools. DK can throw ANYTHING he wants during his turn, scooping it up and tossing it as soon as he finishes moving. Allies, enemies, pieces of the terrain - DK can chuck them as far as his arms can carry, even into other enemies for bonus damage. This then combos with his ability to swing off of vines and travel through pipes, which increases his effective movement range to almost the entire map at some points, AND he can play his bongos to attract an entire group of enemies on a cooldown. Playing as Donkey Kong is playing as a boss character, able to go wherever he wants, messing up the enemy ranks as much as he wants, and carrying the momentum hes so good at bringing forward while breaking a wall to set up his teammates perfectly. Hes a better grappler here than he is in Smash, gets to represent his whole patriarch of the Kong family schtick better than any other game, and gets to represent his mischievous but laid-back, fun-loving attitude that so, so often gets forgotten. And as all of DK Adventures stages have a locked party, maps are designed explicitly around DKs capabilities, giving him every opportunity to use his abilities to the fullest rather than needing to compensate for dozens, if not hundreds, of possible party permutations. It is a shame that this content is walled behind the first world of Kingdom Battle, which is fine enough, but suffers from a lack of direction in more than a few maps and Mario not being half as compelling of an anchor as DK is.

Best Smash Appearance: Ultimate - Ive mained DK for every single Smash game up to Ultimate, and let me tell you, being DK is suffering. Through Brawl he was a weird, janky heavy who got combod by everything and could not do anything unless he managed to get a back air in but man is his advantage state fun. So many spikes, so many moves that are just fun to hit with, the mindgames of where youre going with the Cargo Throw, when youre winning as DK, he feels amazing. Getting him to that state is utterly miserable. Smash 4 fixed this, actually gave him his DKC roll which he desperately needed, and boiled him down to getting cargo up throw into up air. Ultimate finally put the big ape in a healthy spot, and well, hes still suffering, but hes got a lot more tools to get to the fun part. Four spikes, one of which is a fun combo starter, grounded Spinning Kong as a fabulous newbie killer, Giant Punch can be used in the air without SDing, FINALLY a functional dash attack, DK could use a better approach move in the air other than his back air, but otherwise hes in a good spot! The issue is, that still only solves half of his puzzle. DK is devoid of any of Donkey Kong Countrys personality, essentially just being big monkey who hit good. And I like that, its fun, but hes a needlessly angry character for someone whos such a laid-back and fun-loving dude - just compare his expressiveness in Smash to his in Punch-Out! Hes got great shocked expressions, but everything else is just a bit off and a bit aggro plus as the premiere grappler archetype he kinda sucks at grappling, my man needs some kind of air throw. Im not demanding you strap the coconut gun on the guy, but something reminiscent of the Country series forward momentum to let him actually play like his games would be a nice start. C