Cloud has undergone some changes for better and for worse. Mostly for worse. In “Smash 4,” Cloud was one of the top two characters due to his lingering ariels, such as his up-air and down-air. His neutral-air was especially powerful due to the wide range it had around his body. However, Cloud’s most powerful weapon was his limit break. This gave him a buff on jump height, fall speed and all of his special moves. This gave Cloud a killing toolbox, allowing him to dispatch opponents at roughly 65 percent and higher depending on situation and character. This killing ability combined with his high damage and superb juggling ability made Cloud into one of the best characters in the game, arguably second only to Bayonetta.
Unfortunately, Cloud has had some significant nerfs, but he largely plays the same. The range on his neutral-air is reduced, suppressing it’s utility to catching double jumps and opponents on
ledges. Up-air has had the hitboxes tweaked, making it harder to hit grounded opponents. Most
significantly, limit break has been nerfed to last only 15 seconds. This drastically reduces
Cloud’s ability to kill, due to the fact that the limit can now be camped. Overall, Now players need to be more precise. It’s important to time the limit-charge to kill-percentage.
Cloud is no longer a top-tier character, but he still dominates.
Ike
Ike has become one of the best swordsman of the “Fire Emblem” characters. He dominates with grab combos, kill confirms, high damage, and being faster in the air and on the ground. Ike has come a long way from his sluggish brawl debut and is boasting impressive abilities.
He has numerous true combos such as down-tilt to up-air, down-throw to forward-air, and the ability to kill opponents at 60 percent by stringing three consecutive up-airs. Ike also has a neutral-air with the best range in the game, sweeping his sword around him in a wide circle that combos into another neutral-air or forward-air, depending on percent.
Ike’s biggest weakness remains to be his recovery. Although it’s not great, it has gotten better with the addition of more frames of super armor on the move and a quicker startup time. Aside from this, Ike is a top-tier character and is really a lot of fun to play.
Ganondorf
The King of Evil has finally come to fruition. Ganondorf is probably the most improved character in the game. With all of his aerials coming out faster, he sports quicker movement and a powerful sword in his smash attacks. Ganondorf’s smash attacks have received significant buffs with generous hitboxes that cover enormous amounts of space. He can cover stages and multiple options at the ledge and do serious damage and knockback.
Along with his already massive power and amazing punishing game, Ganondorf has improved aerials with more damage and less lag to give him the ability to string combos with destructive results. He can still be spaced out, and sometimes it is difficult to land a hit. All Ganondorf needs is one hit, and he is taking the opponents stock, one way or another.
King K. Rool
King K. Pool is arguably the best heavy. This character is a new addition to the roster and is loaded with powerful tools such as his projectiles and super armor. His ground game is where he excels, being able to either wall out characters with projectiles or do major damage with quick smash attacks, a powerful forward-tilt, and a down-tilt or down-grab that can bury.
He also has super armor on down-smash, up-smash, forward-tilt, and a few frames when he throws his crown. His belly doubles as a reflector, giving him more viability against projectile characters. These armor moves cannot be spammed, however. When the armor plating on King K. Rool’s stomach takes damage, it will crack. Once the armor takes too much damage, it will break, leaving him vulnerable to his opponent.
The Kremling King is also armed with a great recovery, allowing him to be able to get back on the stage from just about any distance. He has a hitbox on the top, which provides him safety from spikes and edgeguarding.
King K. Rool’s biggest weaknesses can be found in his air game. His forward air does little damage but can be a combo tool during his up-air. Though powerful, it has an extremely long cool down. His back-air is powerful and spikes, but it comes out very late, limiting its use. His best aerial is his neutral-air. This move has super armor on it, allowing him to be able to land and trade hits with his opponents. This is valuable due to the fact that he is heavy and trading moves help him the most. Overall, King K. Rool is a force to be reckoned with, but one should not mindlessly spam him.
