Hey everyone,



Warning, wall of text incoming! TL;DR at the bottom.



I've always loved Donkey Kong and in my endeavor to actually find a character in PM to main, I'm finally starting to settle down with Donkey Kong. I'm a huge fan of watching videos and reading up on guides and discussions to learn about characters. There's plenty of videos of people like Poob, Strong Bad, Mojohnbo, and other really great DKs and we have the great thread with all the videos in general discussion covering that, but what I'm really missing is discussion. The frame data thread is awesome and has a lot of great information, but that information is confusing and useless to someone who doesn't know how to navigate it or what to apply it to. Strong Bad's guide is absolutely amazing with a lot of awesome information, but with any guide that sets out to talk about a character as a whole including its entire moveset and tools all in one guide, it doesn't go into specifics. I mean, you could write an entire guide just on DK's tilts, or his recovery. There is so much more to think about, ask questions about, and discuss when it comes to DK's moves.



When exactly is down b the best option while tech chasing, and what are the best followups? What are the tools DK has for juggling-style combos and what are his finishers while juggling? Once I get the grab during neutral game, what's the best throw option, depending on where I am on the stage and what percentage my opponent is at, and what are the best followups? DK's neutral game is heavily based around grabbing, but what is DK's ultimate goal during matches when it comes to taking stocks (set up ledge guards, combo into finishers, gimp?)? When is it a better option to chase your opponent offstage for an edgeguard, or stay onstage with down tilts and smashes, or ledge hog? What should my thought process be when recovering with DK - when should I recover high, when should I try and sweet spot, and once I'm on the ledge, what are my best options for all situations? How can mobility tech like wave dashing, wave landing, and dash dancing be incorporated into my combos and neutral game? What are some changes I can make to my control scheme or how I actually input actions (I.E. c-stick for aerials vs direction+a) to make my combo game more consistent/easier to execute? What are DK's best matchups and worst matchups? Which stages should I try to avoid, and which ones should I try to pick?



These are all questions that facilitate enough discussion to fill up several pages of a thread each on their own, and I can keep going. These forums are pretty dead and have always been, Strong Bad's guide from a year ago says it was dead then too. So let's change that! I'm not a very skilled player, so I'm not looking to write up strategies or anything but I at least know enough about the game to ask questions that facilitate discussion and outline basic fundamental strategies/techniques to build a foundation to go from. I'm looking to make these discussion threads a regular thing, maybe every other few days post a new discussion or just whenever a discussion seems to be dying out. Or maybe it'd be a good idea to post multiple discussion threads at once. I'd definitely encourage anyone to not only participate in these threads by asking questions and offering input, but also make new threads of their own; these could be threads for questions that are a bit deeper than your average asking for a tip kind of question (I.E. how do I recover against Diddy or Link), or they could be threads by people who are great at DK and want to share some tips or experience (I.E. here are good ways to recover against Diddy and Link I've found). I'd really love to see the DK forums be revived, or really just brought to life, since it seems like it never really lived in the first place.



So, I'd love for anyone to come forward and say any ideas for discussions, or just tell me my idea's bad and I should feel bad. I'm really just looking for some confirmation that there are people here that do want to at the very least see some discussion and/or content about Donkey Kong, if not be the ones doing the discussing. We're fortunate enough to have people like Poob and Mojohnbo who have lots of tournament experience and visit the forums already in an effort to actually help people with their DK game. I think what this forum needs to come alive with discussion is just some direction and someone to push it in that direction. It really does seem like there are a good amount of people who want the discussion here, based on the threads that have been made and contributed to thus far, it just tends to die out if no one really pushes the discussion or brings up another one, then the next discussion happens over a week or a month later. I'm happy to play the role of facilitator for the discussions, even if at the end of the day I'm just another scrub that's looking for advice or just general reading material. I'd imagine that there's so many DK players and PM players who were thinking of picking up DK that have come to this forum looking for some sort of discussion or something to encourage them to learn DK's techniques. The forum being so dead discourages people from being here longer than the 30 sconds it takes to see that it's dead. Let's get this moving!



TL;DR: DK forums have been and are dead, but there's potential for them to live. Between the fact that DK is a character with just as much, if not more, depth as all the other characters in PM and the fact that we have some great DK players that come here, we can get these forums going. I'd like to start posting discussion threads regularly even if just to get people talking; I think having at least one thread floating around will encourage others to post, whether it's a question or tip.



Let me know what you guys think!