@@rethardotv5874 yeah her up oos is really good but I dont think charge shot is the best out of all of them, monado arts and steve's blocks exist after all but charge shot is a good nomination!
One thing I like about Samus is that while her speed is slow, she is slow in a way that is punishing for your choices in-game, and not punishing you simply for the choice you made at the character selection screen.
I mean even then, she's not really that slow. Her dash and run speed are fine, and her airspeed is good, too. She's more like average speed with a bit of floatiness, which can feel a tiny bit awkward, but doesn't make her bad.
It helps me get better at the fundamentals! I only just learned about tilt attacks despite having like 50 wins online with cloud… Only just started playing without abusing smash attacks
I think her tether was touched on but not elaborated, probably because Samus has so many other great aspects. Simply having a long-range, non-reflectable zair disjoint opens up a lot of options other characters don't have, offensively as well as for recovery mix-ups. It's especially the tool you want to use when your opponent has a reflector.
Problem is the fact that it does set off counters. This is fine when youre out of range but when you just so happento be going towards you opponent while at the ledge then it becomes an issue
I've played Samus extensively since Smash 64 way back in the day. Makes me real happy to see her getting so much love from the devs in Ultimate now, even though she's always been a fairly viable pick. She has a lot of good stuff going for her all around, but man, landing a full power Charge Shot is on another level of satisfaction. Great video.
Makes you wonder how Samus would be designed if she came out in Smash 4 or Ultimate instead of 64. She'd probably have a gimmick about switching between her beam types or have Morph Ball be a transformation that gives her an entirely new moveset (Boost Ball, Morph Ball Bombs, Spider Ball, Power Bombs).
There is one more big downside of charge shot that is matchup dependent - charge shot is classified as a normal projectile, and thus once it hits a hurtbox it disappears. This makes it so that most character spawnable tems in the game will block even a fully charged shot, such as snake grenade, bonus fruit, gyro (specifically when thrown not launched and when it’s spinning), all link bombs, etc. it also gets stopped by all spawnable entities such as zelda phantom, all of duck hunt’s projectiles, pikmin (attached and thrown alike, yellows don’t even take damage), villager tree and lloid rocket, luma obviously, Steve blocks and minecart, etc. It doesn’t always come into play due to matchups like i said, but when it does, it is a biiiig downside for samus, and there are a surprising amount of them in the game
Yes! Someone smart. People act like the move is so godly but more than half the roster has a tool to deal with it. I miss the days of smash 64 when fox was the only one who could reflect 😅
Characters with more spammable projectiles also ruin chargeshot's viability imo. You can just interrupt them with pressure every time they charge and poke them so hard at mid-range, that they can never set-up their pressure, then you beat them close quarters once they get scared. I picked up wolf recently, and Samus just has no way to get around laser.
I always enjoyed Samus in this game, being one the OGs yet she plays so consistently, air charge shot is literally made this character more fun in way, and no, it's not only just her charge shot.
Little correction on cancelling Charge Shot: She, along with many other charge shot-like characters like Wii Fit and Mewtwo, can "light cancel" charge shot by lightly tapping shield; This means she can go into standing within a 4 frame window, effectively giving her access to every grounded option out of Charge shot. You can just cancel Charge Shot into a grab and its completely unreactable, I often do this as Wii Fit, cancelling sun salutation with a light tap into a running grab because its just that fast. Being in the charging state is basically better than standing, because you also have the option of shooting it outright, along with everything else at the push of a button
And that's why she works at top level, because there's never a distance Samus doesn't work. At melee she has stuff like F-air and Up-B, at midrange she has a tether grab who can kill at high percentages, a Z-air and barely charged shot setups, and at long range she has charged shots and Super missiles, which makes the opponent uncomfortable at all times because you can always lose in certain scenario.
The only think I hate more than zoners playstyle is them having the audacity to delude themselves into thinking Samus is cool or they're not like the other Samus players. You run away and spam projectiles. You don't get to pretend you're hype
After so many games of Samus being low tier, I'm so happy that she's finally good in Ultimate. Not the greatest, and she does struggle against a lot of the common top tiers, but still. She has a fun combo game, strong projectiles, a great oos option, good normals, and great survivability due to the combination of high weight and good recovery. She feels so satisfying to play, and I like that she doesn't have to sacrifice close-range offense for her projectiles.
Charge Shot is such cool design. The arm cannon is the center of Samus's home-series playstyle, so it makes sense that her Smash kit would center around it too. But they achieved that in a way that *isn't* "rapidfire projectile spam" like in Metroid, but rather by making it a constant threat that defines how her opponent interacts with her. Perfect execution IMO.
I dunno man, the way the Charge Shot works in Smash is pretty inaccurate to how it works in her home game. You don’t get to shoot normal power beams like Fox’s Blaster, you have to hold to charge in her games, where in Smash, it charges automatically, and it’s even in the wrong color (it’s in a orange-yellow color in her home game, but it’s blue in Smash.)
@@dariuscox3576 my instincts, tell me that Sakurai couldn’t figure out how to give Samus a resource mechanic, like Robin. So, instead, he simplified Samus, by making the chart shot more powerful than the missiles. The good news is, it does kind of resemble that Charge shot in the prime games .
Charge Shot is huge, yes. But I think its Charge Shot on top of Samus having great boxing aerials and Up-B being a great get-off-me panic button out of shield.
I was waiting for this video!!! Samus is my ONLY character since N64! I thought it was going to be a "why no one plays" video, so I am even happier she is as popular as I hoped 🤣 Awesome video.
@@DarkXreamso many people like the duke of dorks, constantly complain that Samus doesn’t represent Metroid enough. They even blame Metroid being a niche series because of that. However, he didn’t talk about competitive Samus.
@@orangeslash1667 i think metroid is represented well. I've never played it and I've probably seen like 2 minutes of gameplay my whole life of different metroid games. but I know who Samus and ridley are and that they're from metroid. The people you're describing probably just want it to be more popular than it already is, but in no way is it underrepresented.
Fellow Chris here who also mained Samus since n64. Her kit is just so fun to use, and using her properly means using everything she has. Spammers give her a bad rep. 10/10 always
It’s such a fascinating process having been a Samus player since Brawl and seeing how she was barely played up until the final patch of Smash 4, and now she’s only gotten way more popular as Ultimate has been out. Kudos Samus, I’m glad you’re finally popular now! 🥳
The main reasons why I think everyone plays Samus is because her gameplan and win conditions are simple yet very effective. I think she has prob the best projectile in the game top 5 at worse in charge shot because it pressures opponents and instills fear due to its wide range and strong KO power. She’s also got some of the best zoning and non committal ledgetrapping tools in the game with super missile and Bomb at ledge to create deadly ledgetraps. She in addition has little to no trouble killing her opponents with sweet spot back air, charge shot, dash attack burst option, Nair, down smash, and more. Her up b oos is also very good because it’s frame 4 and hits both sides making pressuring her annoying. Samus also brings that feeling of frustrating their opponents because her gameplan is so effective at shutting down most characters. All of this is why she is a common tournament character and like Muteace said, she’s very good at winning games because she is a matchup check but one to really think about.
Way back when I was a little kid. The 1st time the GameCube turned on and we put in melee for the 1st time. I had no idea who Samus was. I just saw cool robot armor and picked her. I won that match. My 1st ever smash bros match. Then from there was introduced to the Metroid franchise and it became one of my favorites. Always wanted Ridley to be a character. He was my #1 pick to be a character in smash. He is now in smash. I have mained him ever since ultimate released. My life is complete.
I love these series so much. I’ve only dabbled in Ultimate (SSB player since 1999!!) but this makes me want to get out my Switch and play the game sooooo much! Thank you!
More like a Pokémon team, you have at any point 4 options in neutral, with clear moments of when to default to what, with Charge shot being the equivalent to switching.
One of the many characters that I choose to secondary Mii Gunner for. The many Samuses I've encountered that I just flip the script on and reverse-camp until they cry.
In addition to Samus being a zoner, with simple combos and flowcharts, she has a lot of nuance that is hard to master until you start playing her for a long time. Such as the bomb slides off platforms, dair bair confirms that kill starting as low as 50, knowing different chargeshot sizes for different followups and projectile clankings and so much more thats hard to encompass in a single comment. She still feels quite underdeveloped and I think that she is one of the smoothest characters in the game movement wise.
I mean she's also very annoying. No point being this technical when playing defensive and being annoying will always be more rewarding do to being reliable to pull off tbh.
@@illford this is right to an extent. It stops being effective at higher level when counterplay to each character is more fleshed out. Then being technical is a necessity to everyone. Also schmovement is so much cooler and I'd rather style and die rather than camp and win. It's an honor thing
her throw combos, kills, neutral b allows for easy movement with b reversing, good recovery/disadvantage, and good ledge trapping. just an overall really solid character that doesnt feel super punishing to play.
As someone who plays Samus a lot in Smash, I find her comboing capabilities to be incredibly fun to pull off. By the way, where does this specific remix of Red Brinstar come from? It's truly fantastic.
Her combos are neat but tbh it's not really her main thing. Be real her main thing is zoning, which i enjoy, but it's not the most exciting thing to most people, her combo game is deep enough to make up for it, You see a lot of up air, up air at a mid-high level. I'd argue only top players really have interesting samuses but it's not even all of them. imo Sisqui and Yaura are the most interesting ones to watch
@@illfordi disagree, samus benefits the most from following up her projectiles with another move like an aerial or something else that keeps her opponent in hit stun. Zoning is only half of what she can do and sisqui and icymist are the 2 i think understand this the most. I havent seen much of yaura tho and quik kinda fell off
Picked up Mii Gunner recently and it just reminds me of how solid of a moveset Samus has (and totally not bias from maining her for early smash 4). 1322 is basically Samus's specials on mii gunner, just I usually replace the screw attack option with the mobility option. More of an emphasis on the range, without Samus's floatiness. That said, Samus's moves are just a bit too strong in this game for what they are.
Nice vid. Samus also has solid combo options that lead into a lot of damage. When Ultimate came out, it annoyed me to hear people say that she wasn't good. A sentiment that people who don't play Samus usually share.
What makes her busted is the fact you can not only combo off her zoning tools…..but then PUNISH THEM for trying to mash out of hit stun with her Z air.
I've said it multiple times but calling Samus a pure Zoner is kinda misleading. She's a hybrid of Zoner and Brawler with oddly well rounded strengths and clear focus. There's not a range Samus doesn't work, which makes her appealing for a lot of players. Short range? Frame 4 up B and good melee attacks like F-Air or F-Tilt. Midrange? Bombs, Z-Air and charge shots setups. Long range? Charge shot and Missiles. That's kinda unique to her which makes Samus quite attractive as a character, she always has an option. PS: Adoro la bola.
I just love being aggressive with Samus and going for as much off stage shenanigans as possible. When im forced to start ledge trapping and using proper zoning a little piece of my dies (and typically gets the boring W as well).
No, is that now she has enough melee tools to not be a pure Zoner, nor she relied on cheese, which was a problem in previous entries. She was good during the first decade of Melee btw, but the game became too rushdown for her existance. In the rest she was either a low tier due to being just bad or a mid tier who relied on rage cheese to win.
i'd love to see an episode on my main, Luigi. feel like the answer just boils down to just being far too overcentralized but would still be interesting to hear
@@illford i feel like that's both bc of what i said above and fighters pass 2 LOL like, why play luigi when you have luigi deluxe AKA mr. Kazyua himself? It's a shame he's not common bc i always have a fucking blast watching luigi play. he's such an explosive character
I see Samue mains everywhere. The fact that she has great zoning tools, yet busted close-range options make her *incredibly* good. I normally struggle against her, but I play Corrin and Marth so it makes sense. I don't know who does better between the two mains, though.
As a samus main, Marth. Corrin's attacks are slower and if you try to contest range with her stun ball bite arm thing you're just going to get blasted. Marth forces you to close in on her and keep mid range, which samus (at least for me) struggles with a little. I hate fighting Lucina and Marth is basically the same character. Also jump a lot
@@trevorparker6400 Also, Marth/Lucina outspeed Samus by quite a margin, while Corrin has slightly lower than her. That means they're much better at playing the midrange game.
Marth doesn't take stocks fast enough to contest a good Samus. His neutral is better in some ways, but Corrin has longer range, more dmg, more kill potential, and more pressure. Corrin's better in the modern meta, so go with them.
Pro: Samus is good again at last so Metroid gets representation Con: It's mostly cause of charge shot and not cause most people are playing her like the hero she is in the Metroid series
Also their meta viability. Neutral, speed, and ease of use was prized in the early meta, so zss was good then, but reliable fast stocktaking, complex/versatile toolkits are prized while speed wasn't as important, so Samus is good now.
One underrated aspect about your channel is your use of action vocabulary. Speed, power, etc It makes the concepts sound so much more real, and I feel no one does this. Very good stuff as always
I like fully charging neutral B and then rushing down my opponents just to mess with their head Using neutral B to actually kill is optional, but the mind games are always worth it and Way more fun than playing her as a zoner
While Samus has a lot of projectiles, I think that she's actually at her best when she's up close and personal, using her projectiles to allow an easier approach, extend and finish combos, and eventually kill from a long distance. Her mid and close range gameplay is pretty good, as she doesn't rely on her projectiles to get kills (just look at that ridiculous forward smash), and has good combo potential.
'charge shots only counter is reflectors' uh. No, it isn't. You just think that. The comparison of "samus has CRAZY normals where other zoners don't". Err, megaman, villager, duck hunt...their normal moves are also GREAT. And have you seen pac man? People think samus is a zoner because of charge shot and then don't understand why the rest of the kit works the way it does. Samus DOES NOT pressure from "long range" with charge shot. She works at mid range, the grab range, constantly implementing mixups and setups that beat one another. Her moves are awful at dealing with foes from long range, because they're reactable and punishable. Unlike other zoners who get + on shield moves they can spam from far away. Nobody uses missiles, because they're just an awful move.
I enjoy the few times I’ve managed to 3 stock a Min min as Samus or even make a 3 stock come back. But last one I played over discord just used her as a one and done counter play before switching off to jiggly puff and loosing repeatedly to me. I insisted I could still beat their min min but they hate playing against Samus and refused.
If you ask me, the decision to make already annoying moves like charge shot and spindash have more options makes the characters a little too toxic and campy, especially online. The campiness of characters needs to be toned down.
Interestingly, if you watch Samus matches with Spanish commentaries (I watch a lot of Sisqui's stuff he's my favorite), they've nicknamed charge shot "la bola" which just means "the ball" lol. "Disparo carga" is the official translation from Nintendo but is a mouthful when you're trying to high-speed commentate, and sounds kinda weird honestly
3:40 While it is technically correct that Samus could only shield or roll out of Charge Shot (aside from shooting, of course) in smash 4, you could still spot dodge or jump out of shield. Which could be done very fast. If my memory serves, I think you could even do shield>jump cancel>up-smash/up-B out of Charge Shot charging? But yeah, Samus is still for sure better in Ultimate.
I've mained Link since the first game, and a friend of mine has mained Samus for just as long. Our win:loss ratio is about 40:60 in his favor, and I always have to go Ultra Instinct to beat him. It's been a rough time but I wouldn't trade my mains for anything.
I use like 12+ characters in ultimate, Samus accounts for about 40% of my playtime. Flowchart play style is a perfect way to describe how to use her. I honestly feel like she has an answer for every situation.
@@illford i would only consider using about 3-4 of them in a competitive setting. I’m significantly better than my friend group that I play with regularly, so to give myself a challenge I’ve branched out to using a lot of different characters. If money were on the line, I would use Samus or Lucina.
Samus main here at a decently high level, I place at locals, I'm by no means anywhere near the top level of play though. I agree with almost everything you said but wanted to add some thoughts Missiles are very situational because of how slow they are, the amount of the cast that cant close in the gap on Samus while she's simply getting out the move is very slim, so as a general rule, I wouldn't really count missiles as a zoning tool, some exceptions apply of course. People put way too much stock into Samus's missiles when they're probably one of her lower tier moves, maybe low mid. Also Samus still struggles at close range with very few non committal attacks aside from CS. Upair is good but leaves her completely exposed horizontally, ftilt is decent but her entire leg is a hurt box, and dtilt is close to how you described fsmash, high risk high reward because it has a fairly lengthy cool down Lastly, it's worth mentioning how many moves get priority over Charge shot at varying levels of charge. At maximum charge before full charge, wolf nair completely nullifies the shot,similar with his fair, and we can evaluate through the rest of the cast. On the positive side, I think you could have mentioned the utility of bombs in zoning and trapping because they're a go to far more often than missiles. Bombs are really really good, not just at ledge.
I picked Samus up all the way back in Brawl because my brother told me she was widely considered the single worst character in the game at the time. I proceeded to get good enough with her to trounce him, thus proving the point that tier lists aren't the sole determiner of matches in fighting games. I stuck with her ever since then, and it's really funny that she's now one of the best characters in the game. Her biggest strength IMO is that she has no bad options. All of her throws are good. All of her aerials are good. All of her tilts are good. All of her smashes are good. And all of her specials are good. I would argue that among Samus' moveset lie at least ten of the game's top fifty moves. Bomb, missile, charge beam, grapple beam, Fair, Bair, and Dair are all absolutely incredible, just to name a few. This may be a bit biased, but I'd say that Samus is the single best character in the game by overall moveset quality, since she has no stinkers. This is why I also think she's the most beginner friendly, even above Mario.
Predictions of future videos: Why everyone plays Mr game and watch Why no one play Jigglypuff Why everyone plays Olimar Why no one plays Bowser Why no one plays Bowser Jr Why everyone plays Yoshi Why no one plays Meta Knight
I wish PAC-MAN was popular enough for a Why Everyone Plays. Just feels like he belongs with Samus, R.O.B., Snake, Steve... zoner/trapper but also 'autopilot-y with multiple options and even close quarter combat option' characters.
4:59 he says that it’s only punishable point blank, which is true but only on whiff. 95% charge shot is +4 on shield point blank which is so absurd for a midrange zoning tool. also, the attack at slightly below full charge does around 33-35%, not 20%. I also disagree with the comparison between Samus and WFT. WFT’s problem is not killing imo, once deep breathing is active, literally everything in her kit becomes a kill move. db ftilt at ledge kills earlier than Snake utilt while equally fast startup. bair fair and uair become stray hit kill moves and nair1 usmash kills as early as 50%. her kill power consistency isn’t on the level of Samus but that isn’t the main issue. the main difference between her and Samus is that Samus has an outright better charge shot (frame data, damage, combos and kill power) and actually has the hitboxes and tether grab to play the charge shot RPS effectively. This is the same reason why Samus is better at using charge shot than gunner or m2 as well. running up and shielding is so much safer vs other charge shot characters than Samus since to punish, they need to cancel charge shot and dash grab which is slowenough to be reacted to whereas Samus can just tether grab. Samus’ uair nair and fair are all excellent anti airs and cover a wide angle of aerial approaches with good reward so jumping in on her when she’s charging charge shot is much riskier than jumping in on a gunner m2 or WFT. also, the reason why Samus struggles so much with zoners like DH and Oli is that their projectiles (pikmin, can, gunman, and clay pigeon) can all block charge shot and missiles which nullifies her strongest long range camping tool and allows them to outcamp her. If Samus is getting outcamped, then she has to approach the zoner as a floaty projectile based character with lackluster approach options.
Samus is one of my favorite characters in the game as a character. But as a combatant she's kinda mid tier for me. She has some pretty neat tricks up her arm cannon, but in the end the faster characters usually dominate the ring in Smash games.
small correction: Full charge shot does 33 %Damage not 20% good samus players just don´t use full charge since it: 1. requires more frames to recover after being shot, meaning u can´t combo into it 2. removes the the ability to charge it and threaten the enmy, thus stopping any possible mindgames
I play Dark Samus for a few reasons. One is she's fun. Two is because Metroid is my favorite franchise. Three is because I can't stand to use Samus in her Other M suit, and I'd rather represent a good game like Prime 3.
Every Samus ever is run away and down b. Absolutely no talent and can’t think for themselves. I love an aggressive Samus that also knows how to mess their opponent up. It’s not even hard so I don’t get why more people don’t player her like that.
Charge Shot
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Charge Shot
Ah yes, charge shot is one of the best specials in the game and its so simple, its just powerful as heck
Charge Shot is so good its literally a better character than most bottom, low and mid tiers.
Charge shot is the best special, Period.
She also has awesome melee options and her aerials hit like a truck.
@@rethardotv5874 yeah her up oos is really good but I dont think charge shot is the best out of all of them, monado arts and steve's blocks exist after all but charge shot is a good nomination!
@@rethardotv5874 Monado Wheel
@@rethardotv5874I do think it’s a top tier neutral special but Shulk’s Monado, Steve’s block, & Joker’s gun are up there with it
One thing I like about Samus is that while her speed is slow, she is slow in a way that is punishing for your choices in-game, and not punishing you simply for the choice you made at the character selection screen.
That's a good way of putting it actually
Ah yes. A smash 4 veteran. When the only safe aerial IN THE GAME was sheik fair 😂😂😂. Dark times, but I did love them.
I mean even then, she's not really that slow. Her dash and run speed are fine, and her airspeed is good, too. She's more like average speed with a bit of floatiness, which can feel a tiny bit awkward, but doesn't make her bad.
It helps me get better at the fundamentals! I only just learned about tilt attacks despite having like 50 wins online with cloud…
Only just started playing without abusing smash attacks
I think her tether was touched on but not elaborated, probably because Samus has so many other great aspects. Simply having a long-range, non-reflectable zair disjoint opens up a lot of options other characters don't have, offensively as well as for recovery mix-ups. It's especially the tool you want to use when your opponent has a reflector.
Problem is the fact that it does set off counters. This is fine when youre out of range but when you just so happento be going towards you opponent while at the ledge then it becomes an issue
I've played Samus extensively since Smash 64 way back in the day. Makes me real happy to see her getting so much love from the devs in Ultimate now, even though she's always been a fairly viable pick. She has a lot of good stuff going for her all around, but man, landing a full power Charge Shot is on another level of satisfaction. Great video.
Makes you wonder how Samus would be designed if she came out in Smash 4 or Ultimate instead of 64. She'd probably have a gimmick about switching between her beam types or have Morph Ball be a transformation that gives her an entirely new moveset (Boost Ball, Morph Ball Bombs, Spider Ball, Power Bombs).
yes, an even more annoying character, perfect
I was thinking about this exact idea, where Dark Samus was more reminiscent of Samus from Metroid Prime instead of the regular collection.
Morph ball being a transformation sounds dumb ngl. Just do what project m did and make it so you can crawl using it
They added the aerial charging from PM. There's a good chance we'll get the morph ball crawl from PM in a future title as well.
There is one more big downside of charge shot that is matchup dependent - charge shot is classified as a normal projectile, and thus once it hits a hurtbox it disappears. This makes it so that most character spawnable tems in the game will block even a fully charged shot, such as snake grenade, bonus fruit, gyro (specifically when thrown not launched and when it’s spinning), all link bombs, etc. it also gets stopped by all spawnable entities such as zelda phantom, all of duck hunt’s projectiles, pikmin (attached and thrown alike, yellows don’t even take damage), villager tree and lloid rocket, luma obviously, Steve blocks and minecart, etc.
It doesn’t always come into play due to matchups like i said, but when it does, it is a biiiig downside for samus, and there are a surprising amount of them in the game
It's not transcendent, and thank god for that! It's the only thing keeping CS in check from being too broken.
Yes! Someone smart. People act like the move is so godly but more than half the roster has a tool to deal with it. I miss the days of smash 64 when fox was the only one who could reflect 😅
Characters with more spammable projectiles also ruin chargeshot's viability imo. You can just interrupt them with pressure every time they charge and poke them so hard at mid-range, that they can never set-up their pressure, then you beat them close quarters once they get scared. I picked up wolf recently, and Samus just has no way to get around laser.
Samus is one of my favorite video game characters of all time.
To see her back in the spotlight in smash in her armor brings a big smile to my face
maybe if she was actually and engaging/skilled character, then it would be better.
Her design is shit though...
She deserves the spotlight, but not like this.
@@davidmcwilliams123 cope
I love Metroid, but this moveset feels disappointing, relative to Samus' in-game movement. I would have loved to have seen an update.
@@davidmcwilliams123 You mean in smash or in Metroid?
Either way youre silly lolol
I always enjoyed Samus in this game, being one the OGs yet she plays so consistently, air charge shot is literally made this character more fun in way, and no, it's not only just her charge shot.
Little correction on cancelling Charge Shot: She, along with many other charge shot-like characters like Wii Fit and Mewtwo, can "light cancel" charge shot by lightly tapping shield; This means she can go into standing within a 4 frame window, effectively giving her access to every grounded option out of Charge shot. You can just cancel Charge Shot into a grab and its completely unreactable, I often do this as Wii Fit, cancelling sun salutation with a light tap into a running grab because its just that fast. Being in the charging state is basically better than standing, because you also have the option of shooting it outright, along with everything else at the push of a button
Samus grab is reactable though because it's very slow, not just the cooldown
So that's how you can do the charge shot cancel spam. Got it
People who spam Charge Shot do Samus a disservice.
Her movement and normals push her so god damn far.
Love her so much 💜
And that's why she works at top level, because there's never a distance Samus doesn't work. At melee she has stuff like F-air and Up-B, at midrange she has a tether grab who can kill at high percentages, a Z-air and barely charged shot setups, and at long range she has charged shots and Super missiles, which makes the opponent uncomfortable at all times because you can always lose in certain scenario.
The only think I hate more than zoners playstyle is them having the audacity to delude themselves into thinking Samus is cool or they're not like the other Samus players. You run away and spam projectiles. You don't get to pretend you're hype
@@Sambroke imagine being so shit at the game Lmaoo. Get good and learn to play
@@Sambroke I agree, a samus can be well executed, and I respect that to a degree, but at the on of the day it‘s one of the lamer campy playstyles
@@Sambroke Some samus payers are pretty exciting even if defensive, i think Ult players think the game is faster than it is.
After so many games of Samus being low tier, I'm so happy that she's finally good in Ultimate. Not the greatest, and she does struggle against a lot of the common top tiers, but still. She has a fun combo game, strong projectiles, a great oos option, good normals, and great survivability due to the combination of high weight and good recovery. She feels so satisfying to play, and I like that she doesn't have to sacrifice close-range offense for her projectiles.
Just approach tools because she's bad at approaching. Not terrible but bad.
Charge Shot is such cool design. The arm cannon is the center of Samus's home-series playstyle, so it makes sense that her Smash kit would center around it too. But they achieved that in a way that *isn't* "rapidfire projectile spam" like in Metroid, but rather by making it a constant threat that defines how her opponent interacts with her. Perfect execution IMO.
Ehhh...
I dunno man, the way the Charge Shot works in Smash is pretty inaccurate to how it works in her home game.
You don’t get to shoot normal power beams like Fox’s Blaster, you have to hold to charge in her games, where in Smash, it charges automatically, and it’s even in the wrong color (it’s in a orange-yellow color in her home game, but it’s blue in Smash.)
This is definitely a Samus main, this move is annoying and broken
@@dariuscox3576 my instincts, tell me that Sakurai couldn’t figure out how to give Samus a resource mechanic, like Robin. So, instead, he simplified Samus, by making the chart shot more powerful than the missiles.
The good news is, it does kind of resemble that Charge shot in the prime games .
@@jayandjlps Tbf everything in ult is annoying to me but that's because of the stupid mechanics surrounding the game, lord almighty i hate the buffer
I am so glad you made this. I was just getting frustrated with Samus. But this helped me decide to keep practicing her. 😊
Charge Shot is huge, yes. But I think its Charge Shot on top of Samus having great boxing aerials and Up-B being a great get-off-me panic button out of shield.
I was waiting for this video!!! Samus is my ONLY character since N64! I thought it was going to be a "why no one plays" video, so I am even happier she is as popular as I hoped 🤣 Awesome video.
Why would it ever be a "why no one plays" video for samus?? You guys are everywhere
@@DarkXreamso many people like the duke of dorks, constantly complain that Samus doesn’t represent Metroid enough. They even blame Metroid being a niche series because of that.
However, he didn’t talk about competitive Samus.
@@orangeslash1667 i think metroid is represented well. I've never played it and I've probably seen like 2 minutes of gameplay my whole life of different metroid games. but I know who Samus and ridley are and that they're from metroid. The people you're describing probably just want it to be more popular than it already is, but in no way is it underrepresented.
Ignore metronidazole that shit was autocrrect lmao
Fellow Chris here who also mained Samus since n64. Her kit is just so fun to use, and using her properly means using everything she has. Spammers give her a bad rep.
10/10 always
It’s such a fascinating process having been a Samus player since Brawl and seeing how she was barely played up until the final patch of Smash 4, and now she’s only gotten way more popular as Ultimate has been out. Kudos Samus, I’m glad you’re finally popular now! 🥳
The main reasons why I think everyone plays Samus is because her gameplan and win conditions are simple yet very effective.
I think she has prob the best projectile in the game top 5 at worse in charge shot because it pressures opponents and instills fear due to its wide range and strong KO power. She’s also got some of the best zoning and non committal ledgetrapping tools in the game with super missile and Bomb at ledge to create deadly ledgetraps. She in addition has little to no trouble killing her opponents with sweet spot back air, charge shot, dash attack burst option, Nair, down smash, and more. Her up b oos is also very good because it’s frame 4 and hits both sides making pressuring her annoying. Samus also brings that feeling of frustrating their opponents because her gameplan is so effective at shutting down most characters.
All of this is why she is a common tournament character and like Muteace said, she’s very good at winning games because she is a matchup check but one to really think about.
Ah, Samus. My first Ultimate main and a strong secondary to this day
If you switch between different Smash games frequently, Samus is about the best secondary pick because her moveset hasn't ever changed much
I've been waiting for this video, I've mained Samus since Brawl. I've grown up with her and seen the character evolve
Way back when I was a little kid. The 1st time the GameCube turned on and we put in melee for the 1st time. I had no idea who Samus was. I just saw cool robot armor and picked her. I won that match. My 1st ever smash bros match. Then from there was introduced to the Metroid franchise and it became one of my favorites. Always wanted Ridley to be a character. He was my #1 pick to be a character in smash. He is now in smash. I have mained him ever since ultimate released. My life is complete.
"Where Olimar dies in three hits, she (Samus) does not..."
It hurts cause it's true
The purple in this thumbnail is super satisfying. That’s all
I love these series so much. I’ve only dabbled in Ultimate (SSB player since 1999!!) but this makes me want to get out my Switch and play the game sooooo much! Thank you!
I think Marss said it best: Samus plays like a Pokemon. You have four options in neutral, which sounds like picking one of four Pokemon moves.
Bad Samus players.
All her moves are useful except maybe upsmash.
Lazy people give her a bad name.
More like a Pokémon team, you have at any point 4 options in neutral, with clear moments of when to default to what, with Charge shot being the equivalent to switching.
One of the many characters that I choose to secondary Mii Gunner for. The many Samuses I've encountered that I just flip the script on and reverse-camp until they cry.
Real!
You could do a series like “why everyone likes to play as/against”
I think everyone likes Falcon and DK matches 😂
In addition to Samus being a zoner, with simple combos and flowcharts, she has a lot of nuance that is hard to master until you start playing her for a long time. Such as the bomb slides off platforms, dair bair confirms that kill starting as low as 50, knowing different chargeshot sizes for different followups and projectile clankings and so much more thats hard to encompass in a single comment. She still feels quite underdeveloped and I think that she is one of the smoothest characters in the game movement wise.
I mean she's also very annoying. No point being this technical when playing defensive and being annoying will always be more rewarding do to being reliable to pull off tbh.
@@illford this is right to an extent. It stops being effective at higher level when counterplay to each character is more fleshed out. Then being technical is a necessity to everyone. Also schmovement is so much cooler and I'd rather style and die rather than camp and win. It's an honor thing
@@illford idk defensive samus is pretty easy to beat its the rlly offensive samuses that r a challenge
Also being defensive and lame will only get you so far. It’s also almost never optimal
her throw combos, kills, neutral b allows for easy movement with b reversing, good recovery/disadvantage, and good ledge trapping. just an overall really solid character that doesnt feel super punishing to play.
As someone who plays Samus a lot in Smash, I find her comboing capabilities to be incredibly fun to pull off.
By the way, where does this specific remix of Red Brinstar come from? It's truly fantastic.
I'm fairly certain this version of Red Brinstar is the one from Samus Returns on the 3DS.
Her combos are neat but tbh it's not really her main thing. Be real her main thing is zoning, which i enjoy, but it's not the most exciting thing to most people, her combo game is deep enough to make up for it, You see a lot of up air, up air at a mid-high level. I'd argue only top players really have interesting samuses but it's not even all of them. imo Sisqui and Yaura are the most interesting ones to watch
its probably a remix, but sounds a lot like Quiet Robe's theme from Metroid Dread.
Not the one you're looking for, but a really good version of brinstar is Flowerland of John's drum cover. I think you'd like it.
@@illfordi disagree, samus benefits the most from following up her projectiles with another move like an aerial or something else that keeps her opponent in hit stun. Zoning is only half of what she can do and sisqui and icymist are the 2 i think understand this the most. I havent seen much of yaura tho and quik kinda fell off
This is the most positive comment section I've ever seen about samus. It's honestly refreshing.
Samus has always been my favorite since super smash bros 64. The combos you could do with her are amazing.
Picked up Mii Gunner recently and it just reminds me of how solid of a moveset Samus has (and totally not bias from maining her for early smash 4). 1322 is basically Samus's specials on mii gunner, just I usually replace the screw attack option with the mobility option. More of an emphasis on the range, without Samus's floatiness. That said, Samus's moves are just a bit too strong in this game for what they are.
I really love mixing people up with charge and grab. never gets old to me :)
Nice vid. Samus also has solid combo options that lead into a lot of damage.
When Ultimate came out, it annoyed me to hear people say that she wasn't good. A sentiment that people who don't play Samus usually share.
What makes her busted is the fact you can not only combo off her zoning tools…..but then PUNISH THEM for trying to mash out of hit stun with her Z air.
I've said it multiple times but calling Samus a pure Zoner is kinda misleading. She's a hybrid of Zoner and Brawler with oddly well rounded strengths and clear focus.
There's not a range Samus doesn't work, which makes her appealing for a lot of players. Short range? Frame 4 up B and good melee attacks like F-Air or F-Tilt. Midrange? Bombs, Z-Air and charge shots setups. Long range? Charge shot and Missiles. That's kinda unique to her which makes Samus quite attractive as a character, she always has an option.
PS: Adoro la bola.
you guys really need to collab with mockrock, the double soothing voice combo as well as double efucational content on the world of smash bros
Interesting to see how the tables have turned between Samus and ZSS since Smash 4.
Samus is my secondary personally. She's just fun to play.
Whos your main
@@thewarrior8497 Haha... Incineroar.
There’s so many of these that we’ll eventually get “Why People Sometimes Occasionally Play ______”.
As a Samus Main I’ll say….Utilt is just so satisfying when you kill with it.
Not to mention how versatile her recovery is. She can really mix it up with bombs and even cover herself with missiles.
Ah yes, as a person who mains brawlers, she is the bane of my existence lol
Brawlers are literal devils as a Mii brawler main
I just love being aggressive with Samus and going for as much off stage shenanigans as possible. When im forced to start ledge trapping and using proper zoning a little piece of my dies (and typically gets the boring W as well).
As a Samus Main people are just realizing her potential I’ve been playing her since 64
No, is that now she has enough melee tools to not be a pure Zoner, nor she relied on cheese, which was a problem in previous entries. She was good during the first decade of Melee btw, but the game became too rushdown for her existance. In the rest she was either a low tier due to being just bad or a mid tier who relied on rage cheese to win.
I see friends play Samus secondary better than their mains. Feels like she just makes you a better player if you see a friend play her well
I've been a Samus main since Brawl but in a casual, this whole time. Therefore, hearing that she's a popular player surprised me.
i'd love to see an episode on my main, Luigi. feel like the answer just boils down to just being far too overcentralized but would still be interesting to hear
Luigi is not as common really. There's only like 2 Luigi mains it feels and one of them is from the UK so you know it's gotten rough for luigi players
@@illford i feel like that's both bc of what i said above and fighters pass 2 LOL
like, why play luigi when you have luigi deluxe AKA mr. Kazyua himself?
It's a shame he's not common bc i always have a fucking blast watching luigi play. he's such an explosive character
The lower brinstar music from super metroid is so GOOD 😩
Wavebouncing, short-hop zair, bomb setups, and accidentally throwing out jab 2 but it works anyway. Samus is the most fun character.
I see Samue mains everywhere. The fact that she has great zoning tools, yet busted close-range options make her *incredibly* good.
I normally struggle against her, but I play Corrin and Marth so it makes sense. I don't know who does better between the two mains, though.
As a samus main, Marth. Corrin's attacks are slower and if you try to contest range with her stun ball bite arm thing you're just going to get blasted. Marth forces you to close in on her and keep mid range, which samus (at least for me) struggles with a little. I hate fighting Lucina and Marth is basically the same character. Also jump a lot
@@trevorparker6400 Also, Marth/Lucina outspeed Samus by quite a margin, while Corrin has slightly lower than her. That means they're much better at playing the midrange game.
Marth doesn't take stocks fast enough to contest a good Samus. His neutral is better in some ways, but Corrin has longer range, more dmg, more kill potential, and more pressure. Corrin's better in the modern meta, so go with them.
@@trevorparker6400 You said to jump a lot, are you trying to get him cooked?
@tumultoustortellini no. I personally struggle with people who jump a lot, so I figured it would be a helpful tip
Bro rlly thinks samus is a traditional zoner 💀
Pro: Samus is good again at last so Metroid gets representation
Con: It's mostly cause of charge shot and not cause most people are playing her like the hero she is in the Metroid series
I love how samus and zss are exact opposite in this game. Their kit, reliablity of moves and even their gameplan.
I dunno I just played a falco as Samus and him fall out of pretty much every multi hit in her kit
Also their meta viability. Neutral, speed, and ease of use was prized in the early meta, so zss was good then, but reliable fast stocktaking, complex/versatile toolkits are prized while speed wasn't as important, so Samus is good now.
Top 5 back air in the game, and my favorite nair in the game to edge guard with.
One underrated aspect about your channel is your use of action vocabulary. Speed, power, etc
It makes the concepts sound so much more real, and I feel no one does this. Very good stuff as always
4:32 First use of a missile featured in this video talking about Samus Aran.
2:03
Samus is my favorite video game character period 😊
I hella respect using the gravity suit for the thumbnail
I like fully charging neutral B and then rushing down my opponents just to mess with their head
Using neutral B to actually kill is optional, but the mind games are always worth it and Way more fun than playing her as a zoner
I play Samus because the white suit reminds me of Tallgeese from Gundam Wing.
While Samus has a lot of projectiles, I think that she's actually at her best when she's up close and personal, using her projectiles to allow an easier approach, extend and finish combos, and eventually kill from a long distance. Her mid and close range gameplay is pretty good, as she doesn't rely on her projectiles to get kills (just look at that ridiculous forward smash), and has good combo potential.
0:50 "not a top tier threat by any means" vast majority of people, top players included, don't put her below top 30
Quiet Robe theme really fits this expedition video.
i would like to see a video on why no one plays peach and daisy bc i think that would be an interesting history behind the characters
'charge shots only counter is reflectors'
uh. No, it isn't. You just think that.
The comparison of "samus has CRAZY normals where other zoners don't". Err, megaman, villager, duck hunt...their normal moves are also GREAT. And have you seen pac man? People think samus is a zoner because of charge shot and then don't understand why the rest of the kit works the way it does. Samus DOES NOT pressure from "long range" with charge shot. She works at mid range, the grab range, constantly implementing mixups and setups that beat one another. Her moves are awful at dealing with foes from long range, because they're reactable and punishable. Unlike other zoners who get + on shield moves they can spam from far away.
Nobody uses missiles, because they're just an awful move.
My honest answer as someone loving to a play a lot of the kind of villager, puff and meta-knight:
> I press on buttons
> In makes things
> i win
I've been a Samus main for like 20 years. Love zoning gameplay.
I enjoy the few times I’ve managed to 3 stock a Min min as Samus or even make a 3 stock come back. But last one I played over discord just used her as a one and done counter play before switching off to jiggly puff and loosing repeatedly to me. I insisted I could still beat their min min but they hate playing against Samus and refused.
Glad the thumbnail uses the best Samus alt
Fr tho it's so weird that Samus and Zero Suit Samus are so close to viability. That's cool
If you ask me, the decision to make already annoying moves like charge shot and spindash have more options makes the characters a little too toxic and campy, especially online. The campiness of characters needs to be toned down.
Interestingly, if you watch Samus matches with Spanish commentaries (I watch a lot of Sisqui's stuff he's my favorite), they've nicknamed charge shot "la bola" which just means "the ball" lol. "Disparo carga" is the official translation from Nintendo but is a mouthful when you're trying to high-speed commentate, and sounds kinda weird honestly
3:40
While it is technically correct that Samus could only shield or roll out of Charge Shot (aside from shooting, of course) in smash 4, you could still spot dodge or jump out of shield. Which could be done very fast.
If my memory serves, I think you could even do shield>jump cancel>up-smash/up-B out of Charge Shot charging?
But yeah, Samus is still for sure better in Ultimate.
I've mained Link since the first game, and a friend of mine has mained Samus for just as long. Our win:loss ratio is about 40:60 in his favor, and I always have to go Ultra Instinct to beat him. It's been a rough time but I wouldn't trade my mains for anything.
"In this essay I will.." A** video on Charge Shot
I use like 12+ characters in ultimate, Samus accounts for about 40% of my playtime.
Flowchart play style is a perfect way to describe how to use her. I honestly feel like she has an answer for every situation.
12 characters? That feels like way too many, obviously for freindlies and stuff it's fine but i can't imagine doing a competition like that.
@@illford i would only consider using about 3-4 of them in a competitive setting. I’m significantly better than my friend group that I play with regularly, so to give myself a challenge I’ve branched out to using a lot of different characters.
If money were on the line, I would use Samus or Lucina.
Samus main here at a decently high level, I place at locals, I'm by no means anywhere near the top level of play though.
I agree with almost everything you said but wanted to add some thoughts
Missiles are very situational because of how slow they are, the amount of the cast that cant close in the gap on Samus while she's simply getting out the move is very slim, so as a general rule, I wouldn't really count missiles as a zoning tool, some exceptions apply of course. People put way too much stock into Samus's missiles when they're probably one of her lower tier moves, maybe low mid.
Also Samus still struggles at close range with very few non committal attacks aside from CS. Upair is good but leaves her completely exposed horizontally, ftilt is decent but her entire leg is a hurt box, and dtilt is close to how you described fsmash, high risk high reward because it has a fairly lengthy cool down
Lastly, it's worth mentioning how many moves get priority over Charge shot at varying levels of charge. At maximum charge before full charge, wolf nair completely nullifies the shot,similar with his fair, and we can evaluate through the rest of the cast.
On the positive side, I think you could have mentioned the utility of bombs in zoning and trapping because they're a go to far more often than missiles. Bombs are really really good, not just at ledge.
*Zair*
That bomb thar samus drops is so useful i cant stress that enough
Samos is good sense she has a +3 matchup against Gannon
I can’t explain how many times I’ve died to dash attack sour spot. But yes, charge shot does everything. 90% of this video is charge shot focused lol
I honestly like samus only for her costumes (the blue, green and purple one)
I picked Samus up all the way back in Brawl because my brother told me she was widely considered the single worst character in the game at the time. I proceeded to get good enough with her to trounce him, thus proving the point that tier lists aren't the sole determiner of matches in fighting games. I stuck with her ever since then, and it's really funny that she's now one of the best characters in the game. Her biggest strength IMO is that she has no bad options. All of her throws are good. All of her aerials are good. All of her tilts are good. All of her smashes are good. And all of her specials are good. I would argue that among Samus' moveset lie at least ten of the game's top fifty moves. Bomb, missile, charge beam, grapple beam, Fair, Bair, and Dair are all absolutely incredible, just to name a few. This may be a bit biased, but I'd say that Samus is the single best character in the game by overall moveset quality, since she has no stinkers. This is why I also think she's the most beginner friendly, even above Mario.
I picked up Samus for her grab range and now she’s my main lol
great video, great voice! thanks
Predictions of future videos:
Why everyone plays Mr game and watch
Why no one play Jigglypuff
Why everyone plays Olimar
Why no one plays Bowser
Why no one plays Bowser Jr
Why everyone plays Yoshi
Why no one plays Meta Knight
Alright kids. Get out your tents, its time to go camping.
I wish PAC-MAN was popular enough for a Why Everyone Plays. Just feels like he belongs with Samus, R.O.B., Snake, Steve... zoner/trapper but also 'autopilot-y with multiple options and even close quarter combat option' characters.
Perfect timing just got destroyed by a Samus did not realize how good the character was
4:59 he says that it’s only punishable point blank, which is true but only on whiff. 95% charge shot is +4 on shield point blank which is so absurd for a midrange zoning tool. also, the attack at slightly below full charge does around 33-35%, not 20%.
I also disagree with the comparison between Samus and WFT. WFT’s problem is not killing imo, once deep breathing is active, literally everything in her kit becomes a kill move. db ftilt at ledge kills earlier than Snake utilt while equally fast startup. bair fair and uair become stray hit kill moves and nair1 usmash kills as early as 50%. her kill power consistency isn’t on the level of Samus but that isn’t the main issue. the main difference between her and Samus is that Samus has an outright better charge shot (frame data, damage, combos and kill power) and actually has the hitboxes and tether grab to play the charge shot RPS effectively. This is the same reason why Samus is better at using charge shot than gunner or m2 as well. running up and shielding is so much safer vs other charge shot characters than Samus since to punish, they need to cancel charge shot and dash grab which is slowenough to be reacted to whereas Samus can just tether grab. Samus’ uair nair and fair are all excellent anti airs and cover a wide angle of aerial approaches with good reward so jumping in on her when she’s charging charge shot is much riskier than jumping in on a gunner m2 or WFT.
also, the reason why Samus struggles so much with zoners like DH and Oli is that their projectiles (pikmin, can, gunman, and clay pigeon) can all block charge shot and missiles which nullifies her strongest long range camping tool and allows them to outcamp her. If Samus is getting outcamped, then she has to approach the zoner as a floaty projectile based character with lackluster approach options.
Samus is one of my favorite characters in the game as a character. But as a combatant she's kinda mid tier for me. She has some pretty neat tricks up her arm cannon, but in the end the faster characters usually dominate the ring in Smash games.
I’m glad I main link because he has a good matchup against Samus, one of the reasons for that is because links nair beats fully charged charge shot🙂
And by default, Why Everyone Plays Dark Samus
small correction:
Full charge shot does 33 %Damage not 20% good samus players just don´t use full charge since it:
1. requires more frames to recover after being shot, meaning u can´t combo into it
2. removes the the ability to charge it and threaten the enmy, thus stopping any possible mindgames
next episode should be Why A COUPLE people play Olimar
Maybe because Olimar is a methodical character, so he’s not beginner, friendly?
I play Dark Samus for a few reasons. One is she's fun. Two is because Metroid is my favorite franchise. Three is because I can't stand to use Samus in her Other M suit, and I'd rather represent a good game like Prime 3.
Every Samus ever is run away and down b. Absolutely no talent and can’t think for themselves. I love an aggressive Samus that also knows how to mess their opponent up. It’s not even hard so I don’t get why more people don’t player her like that.