I was going to put this in the blogs section, but I figure this could actually be entertaining content for some, and a learning experience for others as new as me, so instead decided it would work here -- this place definitely needs the traffic. I'll be chronicling the details of my slow learning and mastery of general mechanics to specific characters. Mods, please let me know if this isn't cool, and I'll post elsewhere.
Hey, guys, I'm your resident newbie who got in to Smash thanks to Axe at EVO2014, downloaded Project M thanks to my real-life crew, and is finally ready to get in to the deep end of the game. I'm more or less familiar with most advanced play in the game, but the execution of said techniques... well, that's another matter. Here, I'll be chronicling the arduous process of learning Smash Bros., first with Project M, and now with Melee. Hopefully this is somewhat entertaining to people, and, hell, maybe some other newbies will learn something with me.
Read Part One here
Part Two: There Is Hope, and Melee on The Horizon
This game is hard. That's not the only reason I quit, but a major factor in my motivation is, "damn, this game is hard." With sporadic and far-between opportunities to actually play against other people -- you know, the fun part -- it didn't take long to grow bored and frustrated with lonely one-vs-bot mechanics practice. Sometimes, though, a break is exactly what is needed to remove mistakes from muscle memory.
In late April I came back to the game that once grabbed my attention in the span of a single EVO 2014 set. I'd never stopped watching tournaments, and with each one that same itch to play, to experience Smash, grew. Axe's strong run at MVG Sandstorm finally resulted in an order for a Mayflash USB controller adapter, and while this time around I wasn't naive enough to think I could yet wrastle feisty little Pikachu like my favourite player, the drive carried over to who I'd once settled-on: Toon Link. AGT wasn't going to stop me any longer: let's go, you slow-fingered old fuck. You're committing this time.
Again, I'm by no means a good gamer nor a fast learner, specifically when it comes to dexterous feats, so I haven't made ridiculous headway in these last few months, but that break was definitely a boon. I'd quickly picked-up where I left-off with mechanics, but this time it was fresh, the frustration out of memory. While I'm still trash at wave-dashing, this is one thing I'm proud to have grown a lot closer to implementing fully in regular play. Some recent practice in the last few days has consisted of wave-dashing as the only method of movement, in to various tilts as quickly as I can respond, to send the opposing bot off-stage.
Currently, I'm not too confident in consistent wave-dashes on a whim, but I am confident in them enough to throw-in a planned, very deliberate reverse-wave-dash or simple wave-dash to hog that ledge -- where we started with this whole journey. That alone is motivation enough to push-on.
Thankfully, while movement is one of the most important aspects of this game, and I do have plenty to work on still, I've generally wrangled most other aspects important to it. My SHFFL game on Toon Link is in regular play, my wave-lands are praised by my friends, and my AGT -- the one deceptively-simple mechanics I never thought I'd grasp -- has been more an ally than false hope to me of late.
While practice has definitely been the most important part of this, I found that one big factor in bad jumping and confused AGT'ing was having tap-jump active -- moreso the latter. Finally trying my hand at Melee has been a little difficult thanks to this different in default controls, but I don't think I'd ever go back in Project M, as it's very, very useful performing proper tilts and AGTs with tap-jump off. AGT'ing is now a regular form of movement for me, and I've bomb-jumped to safety and the awe of friends in matches.
It's funny, that -- the awe. Looking at the larger picture, at our local Toon Link savant, and everything harder I still need to work on, it really seems elementary, as if it should see no praise. Maybe it's simply to give me a pat on the back and keep me going. I'm fine with that, because it works. I've taken sets off my friends, finally, and feel like I'm finally approaching the local competitive level.
Finally approaching the competitive level. Locally. Four months. Fuck, this game is hard.
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Thanks for reading and watching, guys. I plan to stick with Project M as my main game for the foreseeable future, as I really love Toon Link, and have a good number of friends who play PM despite the recent Nintendo-related fall-out. Right now everyone is playing the 3.6 beta, though, which is detrimental to my netplay practice as Toon Link actually has a bug. Since I'll be waiting 'til 3.6 proper to practice Toon Link on netplay (as I've got a modded file right now to fix that bug) I've finally taken-up Melee, starting with Yoshi and quickly leading to some Fox mechanical funsies. Once I'm confident in my Yoshi mechanics and taking some games on netplay, I'll probably post my stream around here, finally with something more relevant to this local community to bond with than barely-active LR threads <3
I'll likely update with the next part post-Summer, after 3.6 is released and I'm more likely to have matches that are sufficiently un-embarrassing to record and post. Oh, and Melee content. Fuck yeah.