LogFAQs > #967428991

Diddy Kong - Donkey Kong Country 2

The gold standard to which 2D platforming characters should be held up to. Diddy Kong is near flawless in his execution - nimble, but clumsy, needing to hold a barrel in front of himself as he doesnt have the power to lift it over his head. Yet he turns even that into a strength, making him a lot safer than the more reckless Dixie and more confident Donkey. The cartwheel is a masterclass in burst movement, being a very safe option, but one that you have to be very cognizant of its range lest you run it out right in front of an enemy. And when you ram into an enemy and get your speed multiplied, ohhh that feels INCREDIBLE. Add in the roll jump, and Diddy has absolute mastery of whatever terrain is ahead of him, as long as youre moving forward, with purpose, and theres not a Zinger directly in your path. And then you couple that with the team-up moves added in DKC2, giving the pair of Diddy and Dixie so much confidence and flexibility to plunder every secret in a level as they toss each other around them. Diddy simultaneously feels like he should be able to dominate any level, but is vulnerable enough that losing him or Dixie makes the other feel so weak, at risk of dying to anything at any second. Its a brilliant combination of tension, exploration, and simple in the zone platforming, and its something that I dont feel any other 2D platformer has matched since. Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair was pretty damn good, though; not AS good as Diddy, but Diddy-adjacent.

Best Smash Appearance: Smash 4 - Its a shame, then, that none of that carries over into Smash. Diddy is a character who should always be moving forward, doubling down on his momentum to reach newer heights. Diddy in Smash is a character who sets up a banana and juggles it around, then looks to take some opportunist damage before running away and doing it again. If he were simply heehee, annoying monkey, this would work fine but hes an inexperienced, cocksure hero wanna-be who puts up an all-out offensive. Smash has an issue with a lot of its rushdown characters doubling as frustrating keepaway characters, Fox and Falcon somehow being the exceptions to the rule despite debuting first, and Diddy is no different. Whats frustrating is that there are ELEMENTS of Diddy within Diddys moveset - hes got the hat flip, his cartwheel is there in fashion but not function, his self-destructing popgun fits him perfectly but never happens, his jetpack being able to be swatted away is pretty great - but so much of what makes Diddy a character is sacrificed to make him a more accurate monkey. And even that seems like something that Smash team wants to get away from - Diddys been nerfed every single game since his introduction, and while Smash 4 successfully got him away from being COMPLETELY oppressive just tossing double nanners out everywhere, it accidentally made him way too good with universal system changes. Ultimate simply toning him down just doesnt DO anything to make him appealing, and the only real impression he left in the past decade before Ultimate was top tier, leaving him as a really forgettable part of the cast. Diddy isnt the most disappointed Ive been in a Smash Bros character, but hes one that I was VERY fond of before he was added to the roster and feel very little of why I loved him in this interpretation. Hes aces in Subspace cutscenes, though. Like, somehow THOSE nail him while his gameplay suffers. D-

Ridley - Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

I THINK this is the only playable appearance of Ridley? I dont care to check if he had a brief cameo. In any case Im of two minds with Ridley. On one hand, he does a really solid job being a big, menacing brute, Space Pirate Rush is one of the most enjoyable moves in the game, and theres a great level of brutality to his moveset that captures his character very well. This is a dangerous alien species that only wants to kill you, and he sells that excellently. On the other hand, this playable version is also the worst version of Ridley thats been in Smash. As much as Brawl Ridley is just Dyna Blade but a dragon in function, it does sell the guy as a vicious force with absolute command of the skies. Ridley just feels gimped to play as in Ultimate in a similar way to Charizard, where he SHOULD have command of the air but doesnt because hes a heavy. The way his Up B is so limited, his lack of control, his general vulnerability with very small and precise hitboxes - WARIO feels more threatening in the air. BANJO feels like he has a better off-stage presence. Im not asking for him to be utterly dominant and never have to touch the ground, but in a world where Sora can effortlessly glide around off-stage, having the giant dragon feel so needlessly restricted seems VERY off. He feels more like a design mandate of make these ideas work for Ridley so he can be a unique heavy rather than coming out of Ridleys natural design, and I do think thats made him fall off drastically from his initial heavy demand; theres a reason why K. Rool ended up the more memorable of the two despite being a lower tier character! Theres some solid ideas and I love the melding of his Metroid 1, Super Metroid, and Other M designs here, like Ridley just LOOKS very good, but I find the guy really awkward in implementation. D