Make Your Move 27: Voting Open! (2024)

IT'S JAMCOMENT TIME

Oogie Boogie by Arctic Tern

Make Your Move 27: Voting Open! (2)

Oogie Boogie feels like one of those classic MYM characters to me, even though he's apparently only had one moveset. Maybe I'm conflating him and Pennywise for some reason, but I had thought both Kat AND Kupa made Oogie sets in the past. Oh my, I'm going senile in my old age.

As someone with a hobby for rolling dice as well as a general love of statistics, it does bother me that the Neutral Special's dice rolls don't actually line up to what real dice percentages are (in which 7 is the most likely number at about 17% and 2 and 12 are the least likely at just under 3% - the likelihood that you roll a 6, 7, or 8 is about 42%!) but I understand the importance of fun game mechanics, and the loaded dice mechanic is very fun in and of itself. I think, even with all of the set's fun traps and set ups, the simple fact that it encourages a volleyball game between Oogie and his opponent attempting to smack his dice around to get it to land on the preferred number is the most fun the set offers in terms of things I'd like to see in a smash game. Im already imagining some sick Oogie dice combos in my head, expecially paired with his shadows and suction moves.

Oogie is a very fun set that keeps its momentum up throughout the entire read, bolstering its very fun central dice and trap mechanic with a very solid melee game that pairs well with the traps. I don't think it's a particularly deeply mechanically interesting set, but it is still mechanically interesting and, as mentioned, that central hook is absolutely killer. It's really good, though not quite on the level that Fredreich was for me. Oogie gets an "A" for Aaaaaaah!

Symmetra by BrazilianGuy

Make Your Move 27: Voting Open! (4)

I played Symmetra in the initial release of Overwatch 1. Man, I hate Overwatch. Miss my turrets that went brrrrrrr. Bad times.

Symm pulling from every iteration of her many, many, many, many changes is a good choice, I think - I personally found her much more interesting as a support hero than as an attack hero, but Blizzard is a bad company and makes bad decisions - as it gives her a more varied pool of abilities to draw from. Side Special I think is the neatest move in the set, though that might be my own bias towards liking platform creation. The moveset in general takes from Symmetra's Overwatch kit while also dipping into some emotes and expounding upon some victory animations, keeping everything nice and in-character. Given OW isn't (generally) a movement-based game, letting Symmetra's athletic and dancer-like emotes become a part of her gameplay is a fun choice.

I do think the moveset sort of runs out of steam around the time we gat past the Standards, but I think even then there's some fun stuff even if it's either fairly basic, inspired by another Smash attack or sort of undercooked mechanically. I understand this was a Jamcon and therefore written with a time limit in mind, but (and not to push my own ideas for Symmetra onto another set maker) I think expanding on the varying levels of charge she gets for her Photon beam (here basically just made into a pretty unique and fun Jab) and making that a bigger part of the set as a whole would be really fun - maybe tie it in with her turrets being able to build the charge as well, giving her a reason to strategically place and defend them. I dunno, that's just my take.

Symmetra's on the whole a pretty fun set that unfortunately sorta loses my towards the end. For the fun ideas at the start and sprinkled throughout, though, I'm gonna rank it a "C".

Akuma by GolisoPower

Make Your Move 27: Voting Open! (6)

This man never showers, very stinky. All that grime is the reason he's not the lightest mf in the game.

I think Akuma accomplishes being exactly what it needs to be: a scarier, more damage-forward version of the already established SF characters in smash, with a few different options to differentiate him and turn him into a rushdown beast as opposed to the more patient playstyles of Ryu and Ken. The interperetation of Akuma's glass cannon-ness as being weak to recover offstage is a good one I think. Also giving Akuma a highly customizable burst movement option on top of the already mobile tatsu just further reinforces the rushdown feel of the character, and allows him to play both more aggressively and more trickily than Ryu or Ken, is great. All good choices without cluttering the set with meter mechanics or EX meters like other Street Fighter sets we've had (that's not to take away from those, I just think something like this is refreshing).

The ACTUAL mechanic we have cluttering the set is a fairly cool one that differentiates him even further, though I think it's a bit more elegant than a meter mechanic. I'm a little confused on how its activated - so, basically any move that deals above 15% makes it activate? So Akuma's best bet is to go for the grab variation of his down special, which will automatically put him into this state if it lands, or so I'm being led to believe. Putting him in a turbo-state is hilarious, tbh. Even with the cooldowns on the insane specials, them combined with Turbo mode increasing his damage and giving him even more power makes Akuma feel hilariously overpowered, especially when he has to land just 1 (one) attack to activate it.

Akuma's a lot of fun, even if after the specials and mechanic (which is just about over half the set's full word count) he sorta just becomes faster Ryu/Ken. Obviously those moves get recontextualized when paired with the new mechanics, but the set does become less exciting when it becomes less insane. That's sorta what Jamcons are for, though - making insane thoughts happen and then supergluing the rest together into something workable without the time to agonize over it. Akuma gets a "B" because of how "B"at**** it is.

Rambi & Squawks by BridgesWithTurtles

Make Your Move 27: Voting Open! (8)

Squawks getting KOd nerfing your weight from definitive second heaviest to tied for second heaviest is my favorite little detail in this entire set.

I love this duo being a way more extreme version of Duck Hunt mixed in with Rosalina & Luma, it's a very fun design choice. I really enjoy the way this set plays with extremes, too, in terms of statistics and the fact that you can just straight up lose access to certain attacks if Squawks gets squawshed. I think the little extra mechanic that's added in in the Jab where you can Shoot Egg during one of Squawks' other attacks is a very neat little idea that makes the rather humdrum projectile just a little more useful, especially since doing to is inevitably going to have the Egg Shoot at different angles than the foe would expect. It's neat, and it's charming.

Which is, I think a good way to describe how I feel about the set in general. It's got neat ideas, and the fact that you were able to squeeze a full moveset out of Donkey Kong Country mounts is kind of astounding, and the whole idea behind it is incredibly charming, and I think the charm really carries the whole set more than its actual mechanics. Which, to be fair, is something to be entirely expected out of this - a Rhino and a Bird can only do so many things without some secret third or fourth thing like the Duck Hunt's secret third partner in the Zapper. I think, mechanically, the most interesting thing about the moveset is actually the Squawks ranged grab, though to be honest I think it ultimately ends up being more interesting conceptually than in practice in the moveset itself.

Can't say I wasn't absolutely delighted though, which is something I tend to just get out of your movesets in general. Vibes alone take Rambi to a "B" for me, though I would probably say that its on the lower end of that. Vibes are immaculate, though.

Bloodless by U UserShadow7989

Make Your Move 27: Voting Open! (9)

I could fix her but I don't want to. I want her to make me worse.

Bloodstained is one of those games I keep telling myself I'm going to play and then never getting around to it, though I do know it's closer on the spectrum to Symphony of the Night than the classic Vanias that I myself am a bigger fan of. Anyway, hot goth vampire girl, hell yeah. This set feels like a wee throwback to classic Goop mechanics from MYM9, but significantly scaled back and reasonable. The idea of an "ammo" mechanic that's also tied to an amount of armor for the character is a very strong design choice, and one that I certainly think can be iterated on beyond its use in this set - not to say that this moveset doesn't use the idea admirably, you have a penchant for striking and effective if simple to grasp hooks. Of course, you pay off the blood splatter in a variety of ways throughout the set, most notably the very cool blood rain down special, and there are some really fun ways of getting it spread all over the place, with forward smash being the most striking example. That F-Smash is one of the standout moves of the set, something I think that Kat touched on in his comment. I love big "just GO for it" moves like it, and similar moves in smash proper.

Bloodless, overall, feels like the baseline of what I expect of a US set: that baseline being that the set is going to have strong foundations, a strong central mechanic, and at the very very least some interesting melee to go with it. In other words: Bloodless is quite good, though I think the general deadline of a Jamcon probably limited the set in scope somewhat. I'd really like to see a set with these sorts of mechanics that's really had a chance to simmer and stew rather than get done quick and dirty. But, like, I think that that feeling ultimately means the moveset intrigues me enough that I wish there was another layer to its "wow" factor. I think Bloodless goes in "A", but if I cared at all about rankings within rankings she'd probably be a low A. Wait hold on I need to make a blood type A joke. Uh. "A" like the blood type. ah ah ah! Because she's a vampire? I dunno man, it's late.

Camilla by T TortoiseNotTurtle

Make Your Move 27: Voting Open! (10)

Jesus Christ, these Fire Emblem guys are programming with one hand, huh.

I won't lie, I find the formatting you use to be a little hard to get used to, but I'm overall not opposed to these sort of information boxes. I don't personally know how I'd organize information in these things, but I will say having the information separated out like this takes some getting used to when you're used to movesets being long and prose-driven like I am.

I think the notable positives of Camilla are the core hook and the dedication to actually getting 2 movesets out of a Wyvern rider. I think mount sets are very cool, and are something I'd like to try my hand at one day, so kudos for attempting something this sort of mechanically complex in such a short amount of time. I also think some of the other ideas, like the Side Special being a tool that can be used to position Marzia and potentially aim her fireballs even more precisely is exactly the kind of cool interplay I want out of a mounted combatant. Some of the special interactions she has while mounted are pretty nifty as well - I like the ability to catch a thrown axe in concept at least, though I don't know what gameplay functions that would have other than a flex or one-time fake-out.

I would say the set suffers quite a bit from a lack of concrete detail. You don't have to go crazy with numbers and think quick in-game comparisons are useful at times, but I don't think the moveset lists actual damage or knockback percents like... at all, sorta letting the whole thing be a sorta oopy goopy miasma of vagaries and mystery, which, brought together with the fact that outside of the central mechanic and a few of the specials there isn't much interplay at all spoken about within the melee portion of her set... just sorta makes it hard to really picture or follow, and definitely makes it a difficult to get excited about past the actually rather strong opening machanic. I'm gonna give Camilla a ranking of "D", which, while we're probably looking at gs at least, D seems to be thematic with her design.

Make Your Move 27: Voting Open! (11)

as was probably obvious by the image, I'm gonna cast my Jamcon vote for Oogie Boogie.

Make Your Move 27: Voting Open! (2024)
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