A Beginners Guide to Mr. Game & Watch.

Overview

Despite G&W’s very straight forward play style focusing both on aerial and ground combat equally he can be quite hard to master due to his moves possessing high amounts of end lag and awkward movement.

Of G&W’s best traits the best by far is his disjointed hitboxes, his spacing, and unrelenting power. Despite his light weight and small size most of G&W’s moves can kill easily and effectively making a deadly and unpredictable character.

Neutral and Tilts:

· Jab

· F-Tilt

· U-Tilt

· D-Tilt

· Dash Attack

G&W’s tilts and neutral game is decent though he does have better options at hand but are still relatively good options. His Jab combo is him consecutive pushing air out of a…….. the name skips me, but the move comes out extremely fast and can be mashed repeatedly and indefinitely. The move can be used to jab reset an opponent or as an edge guarding move against some most notably the Space Animals, though the move is very situational it can be quite helpful but there are usually better options at hand. F-Tilt is like his Jab, is very situational. The move has decent knockback, decent power, and the move lingers for a bit but it has a good amount of startup lag that makes somewhat useless compared to his other Tilts. U-Tilt is a great move that comes out little slow but can be combo’ed into itself (depending on percent) and lead into other moves effectively. D-Tilt is by far one of his best moves alone, the move comes out quick, has a good hitbox, can kill at high percents, followed up with another move, good to use when pressured, and can be used as an edge guarding move. You want to use this move a good amount of the time it’s an answer to a lot of problems. His Dash Attack is a good move as well having decent speed and hard to read, the first couple frames send the opponent forward setting up for combos and in the first frame you can cancel it into a grab, while the last frames send them behind him allowing for escape so be wary of situation and decide which one would suit you better.

Aerial moves:

· F-Air

· D-Air

· U-Air

· B-Air

· N-Air

G&W’s aerial moves are no slouch most of them really help is approach options and significantly improve his combo game and unlike in Melee all of his aerial moves can be L-Cancelled improving their usability. F-Air is his best approach option being able to come out really fast, possess good knock, the move lingers, has light hit fames to set up for combos, and is one big disjointed hitbox. D-Air is also a great option as it also lingers, also comes out fast, can meteor, can be used for gimping, and can make an opponent Spike bounce setting up for combos. U-Air is G&W’s fastest move and in the game in general it the hitbox comes out on the first frame and ends very quickly making the hit window very strict but also unpredictable. The move does lack power and the hit box is very small, it’s more useful for setting up combos and for ceiling kills though they are very situational. B-Air is almost an exact opposite to F-Air besides the speed and lingering hitbox. F-Air is a great option for setting up combos, gimping, and spacing. Though possessing little knockback this move is definitely used to set up combos so try not use this move as kill move it just won’t work. N-Air is his deadly aerial finisher possessing, great knockback, and an unusual animation, and a humongous hitbox, this move is his signature killer most victims don’t see this move coming because of its odd animation that makes t unpredictable. The move though does suffer from having severe startup lag making it very punishable if read so this is best used when your opponent is in hitstun.

Smashes:

· F-Smash

· D-Smash

· U-Smash

In Melee these moves were very situational possessing a good amount of lag to them and not enough payoff (besides F-Smash). Luckily in P:M, all the smashes have been given significant buffs possessing more power, though still having a good amount of lag to them they are still great kill options. F-Smash is his safest kill option being the one with quickest startup, a large hitbox, and being able to hit multiple times. Though the move is not as powerful as the others it makes u for it in speed. D-Smash is still has a very unusual effects depending whether it hits the opponent in the air or on the ground. If your opponent is on the ground then be semi-spiked making kills near the edge of the stage easy. While in the air, the move will cause you to fly extremely high making a ceiling KO very likely at mid percents. Overall the move is very much a mix of F-Smash and U-Smash being in the very middle of those two possessing more power than F-Smash but more startup lag, while it has less startup lag than U-Smash but is weaker. U-Smash this move has so many uses but yet it has so many draw backs, let’s go over the positives first. The move is the most powerful U-Smash in the game; causes major shield stun, and can be DACUSed. The draw backs the move has are, significant startup lag, easily read, and a strict hitbox. I can’t really go into detail on this one since it’s a move I rarely use since I like to play it safe but it has gotten me very early kills as a fully charged one can kill Jiggs at 30%, but I digress.

Grabs and Throws:

· Grab Range

· F-Throw

· U-Throw

· B-Throw

· D-Throw

G&W in Melee and even P:M has been known for having a mediocre grab game his throws are fine since each grab has its own uses and each throw has the same throwing animation making it hard to read. To be more specific G&W has a very short and small window to grab his opponent so your timing has to be good or you have to know read your opponent correctly, luckily his throws are good so it’s not totally unusable. F-Throw is a decent throw option its good for setting up for F-Air which can kill at high percents. U-Throw is decent as well being able to combo into U-Air (picking up a pattern here). B-Throw is decent to being able to combo into B-Air which as you already know can lead into other moves. But D-Throw is his best throw since the move throws your opponent to the ground which can lead into a plethora of moves like D-Tilt, F-Smash, Side-B, and D-Smash to name a few. But since the opponent is thrown to the ground they can tech it if they read it correctly but there are ways to counter act the tech. The first thing you can do is re-grab them which could lead into another throw or if they tech left or right you can follow which way they roll and re-grab them, if there is no tech you can jab reset them and grab them again for extra damage.

Specials:

*This section will be set up differently than others, since there is more detail to the special moves each has their own paragraph of information.

Neutral-B: Chef

G&W’s Neutral-B, Chef is a solid projectile each one that is fired goes at a different angle (though you can somewhat control the angle of them with your control stick) making it unpredictable and hard for your opponent to read making it an excellent spacing tool, they can also have landing cancel properties ala Fox and Falco so getting out bacon will be really quick and make it even more dangerous. Each piece of meat that is flung from G&W’s frying pan has their own unique damage and knockback and each are flung at random.

Side-B: Judgment

Judgment is by far the most unpredictable move in the game since every time you use the move you never really know what you will get next. Basically the move works like a slot machine, locking in a number that goes from 1-9 and always spouting out a random number each time and each time. The damage, knockback, and effect varies on each number, here is a list of there descriptions.

1

Horrendous: possessing no hitstun upon hit, doing very little damage, and if you miss it will actually tackle damage on to you.

2- Weak : A slight improvement from 1, the 2 has actual hitstun and deals a little more damage and will not damage you and has the added effect of stunning your opponent.

3- Okay: The 3 causes your opponent to fly behind you and it puts a flower on their head for extra damage. 3 also will break shields in one hit no matter what so it’s got that going for it.

4- Decent: This one causes a decent amount of damage and semi-spikes so it’s good for gimping.

5- Good: 5 is a very in middle possessing good damage, decent knockback for setting up aerial combs, can hit multiple times, and an electrical effect.

6- Great: Possessing good power, and knockback, FIRE, and being able to kill at mid percents, the 6 is where Judgment really starts to shine.

7- Smashing: Possess more knockback and power than 6 with the added bonus of dropping an apple upon landing but even if you miss it will still restore 10%.

8- FREEZE: Though being a move that can't regularly kill the 8 is still great. Upon landing it will instantly freeze you opponent in ice as if a Freezie hit them. This will allow you to any move you want to them without any repercussions so I would suggest throwing out as many U-Smashes as possible for maximum effect.

9- OHH S@$%: 9 is the cream dela crop of G&W’s Judgment, 9 possesses a slightly lager hitbox and WILL one hit kill upon impact if your opponent doesn’t shield but even then it will cause major shield stun and damage

Overall, Judgment is unpredictable and most of the times a good mix-up option…………..but there is probably still one over arching question that you are asking.

What da hell do the dots above the move mean? Well it’s actually very, very simple. One dot above the number means that the next number will be an odd number so it could be 1,3,5,7, or 9, while two means it could be 2,4,6,8. So predicting 9 is a lot easier with these dots but there’s a trick to predicting the numbers. Say you just got a 3 and the dot that appeared over it was one, than that means the next number will be odd but since you just got a 3 you won’t get that twice in a row s that moves your options down to 1, 5, 7, and 9. This same trick can be applied with even numbers as well.

Up-B: Fire

Fire is G&W’s “get away” move, coming out extremely fast and launching very high in the air his, Up-B is always a great out of shield option when pressured. But the move is not only a great move for escape but also for attack, once the move is released G&W entire body is engulfed with a hitbox making him a human cannonball (horrible analogy) but when he hits someone it only causes very minimal damage and knockback, BUT this still works because in P:M G&W can do any aerial move out of Up-B making it a great way to set up for combos. Plus if you have not used your second jump you can jump at the peak of height improving his options even further. Now Fires main purpose for G&W is his recovery and it does a good job of doing so. It send G&W very high as stated before making vertical recovery a breeze but horizontal recovery is lacking making uses as a vertical recovery is risky.

Down-B: Oil Panic

G&W’s Down-B; Oil Panic is the special move that you defiantly going to use the least being very situational and having a good amount of lag to it. Once the Down-B is executed, G&W will hold out an empty bucket in front of him. The purpose of this bucket is to pick up projectiles but it can only pick up energy based projectiles and not projectiles like Link’s arrows or Peach’s Turnips. Once a projectile lands in the bucket it will turn into Oil and fill 1/3 of the bucket so in total the bucket can store 3 projectiles at a time. Once the bucket has gotten a full charge the next time you use it will shoot out all the Oil very quickly and if your opponent is hit by it will be instantly KO’ed making G&W the only character that has two OKO’s. Now that all seems pretty easy to do but it unfortunately is not. The move has a good amount of end lag (even in P:M) and reading a projectile and getting the move out in time requires precise timing but luckily P:M has made it where you only need one projectile to release it you just need to press Down-B twice to release it, but of course it’s not strong enough to OKO but it still does have decent range and power making it a good gimping tool. Though there is one character that makes Oil Panic extremely deadly but more on that later. Overall, Oil Panic is a very situational but a very deadly move that will give 9 a run for its money!

Mobility:

G&W’s mobility has always been good from Melee to Brawl to P:M. G&W’s running speed is smack dad in the middle possessing average running speed. His aerial mobility is also average being able to move around the air with breeze (see what I did there) allowing his combo game in there air to shine. But the best way to move around the stage is with his “wavedash”. G&W’s wavedash is actually a little above average getting a decent distance while still keeping a constant speed. I also find myself taking full advantage of his waveland on stages with platforms; you can do some crazy S@%& with it, so experiment and see what crazy stuff you can do with G&W’s wavedash and waveland.

This was the basic overview of all of G&W’s moves and their utility now we will go over some “tips & tricks” that I learned and will help G&W even more so.

Tips & Tricks:

U-Air into Wavedash- As stated before U-Air’s startup and end-lag is EXREMLY low so I created a little trick to improve G&W’s mind game play. Basically you short-hop and do U-Air and before you hit the ground you air-dodge in any direction causing you to wavedash. Though simple and straight forward but after testing its utility for awhile I found that it does throw your opponent a curve ball if you approach them with it and wavedash backward I actually caused a Marth player to miss his F-Smash because of this allowing me to go in and grab him. So if you are brave enough you can try this though it’s utility is up to when and where you decide to use it.

Bacon Escape- Though silly it may sound “Bacon Escape” is a really good way to get away from your opponent while preventing them from approaching you. It’s really simple to do simply do a short-hop Chef and once you land you jump again and this time you wavedash backwards, then you do the short-hop Chef again then a wavedash, and rinse and repeat until you feel safe. Though it may sound stupid and repetitive it’s actually really useful especially on larger stages. Basically what you’re doing is moving backwards while firing assortments of meat at your opponent to prevent them from approach or add pressure. Plus with the added addition of big food the opponent may not bother approaching you at all if their wary. You can if you want to use it as an approach option for yourself as well and it does pretty good job at doing so though I find that sometimes the big food can throw me off but if you wish you can.

RARing- Though RARing hasn't really had a good track record in terms of uses due to being easy to read with most characters. But G&W can definitely take use of the pivot cancel really well since he has an odd and hard to tell pivot animation. It’s really simple to do frankly, first is start to build up a run then when you’re going to want to turn around and start running the other way but once you here the screech of his foot sliding jump, after you jump press forward then A and if you do it correctly you would have ended up doing you’re B-Air while still carrying the momentum of your run. This is a really good idea if you want to mix up your approach options but its full utility has yet to be determined.

“If you are strong enough if you hold the Triforce of courage”-Internet Explorer. Wow I can’t believe I just quoted Internet Explorer………….Anyways I hoped this helped anyone who is trying to pick up G&W, and note I will update this soon with 3.0 right around the corner who knows what they’ll do to him. (I heard rumors of him getting a running speed increase *wink *wink)



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Overall G&W is one of those characters that have a lot of untapped potential; people just need to learn how to use him to the fullest and this applies in Melee as well. I would highly recommend you try him in both P:M and in Melee, I play in and both and he can be amazing if you push him to his limits. And maybe just maybe you will pick him up in both of themWow I can’t believe I just quoted Internet Explorer………….Anyways I hoped this helped anyone who is trying to pick up G&W, and note I will update this soon with 3.0 right around the corner who knows what they’ll do to him. (I heard rumors of him getting a running speed increase

3.0 Changes:

- Weight slightly increased

- Dash lengthened

- Forward Smash loop hitboxes removed, now possesses a weaker late flub hitbox

- Neutral B uses Heavy Landing lag (4 frames) instead of instantly switching to Wait upon landing

- Super food removed (Damn YOU!)

- 3 hammer's shield damage reduced

Ask me anything about G&W and I will have an answer -RiDEL

Though I said Oil Panic wasn't that useful as an attack it sure does have a neat effect if you use it while flying back. Say you just got hit by Fox's F-Smash at 100% on Smashville the move will most certainly kill you with no DI BUT instead of using DI you can bring out Oil Panic by pressing Down-B. Once pressed you will notice that G&W has halted all backwards momentum allowing him to survive!