The Diddy Kong Forums
Diddy Match up Chart
This is a list of Diddy Kong matchups comprising of evaluations of Diddy's advantages and disadvantages against each character. This is shown both as a hard, numerical ratio, a small description and links to informative analysis's of these matchups.
Please note, this is a work in progress.
Previously, the matchup thread comprised of descriptions based of of Player-1's thread:
The final version of the old Matchup List can be found below on this page.
Also, located here is Player-1's Video Thread on Character Match Up's
---Diddy Match up Chart
This is a list of Diddy Kong matchups comprising of evaluations of Diddy's advantages and disadvantages against each character. This is shown both as a hard, numerical ratio, a small description and links to informative analysis's of these matchups.
Please note, this is a work in progress.
Previously, the matchup thread comprised of descriptions based of of Player-1's thread:
The final version of the old Matchup List can be found below on this page.
Also, located here is Player-1's Video Thread on Character Match Up's
Le_THieN said:Week #2
Falco
Match-Up Estimate - 4 : 6
[This match-up is slightly in Falco's favor]
Falco's Advantages:
- superior projectile pressure
- abusable chain-throw
- a very big boost grab/pivot grab range
- high-priority, auto-canceling aerial attacks with multi-hit properties
- a large, ranged, and disjointed reflector
Diddy's Advantages:
- superior ground speed
- more balanced aerial movement
- longer and more versatile recovery
- slightly faster smashes overall
Specific Match-Up Points:
- First order of business: Falco's F-smash. Please acclimate yourselves to the range and sheer hit-box size on this move ASAP. The hit-box starts from behind him as he draws his arms behind him and lunges forward as he strikes, creating a hit-box arc similar to Marth's F-smash. This makes jumping over it a tricky chore, and rolling through it is akin to pretty much inviting Falco into your village to **** your women and pillage the wheat supply. If you're out of position to counter or retaliate, run or roll away. Also, punish this move carefully, for there are IASA frames that can be canceled directly into Falco's ridiculously ranged and higher-priority-than-normal jab combo.
- Falco's lasers are, as far as I know, the only projectile in the game that does not dissipate after traversing a certain distance. They can cover any known length and short-hopped or full-jumped lasers can create irritating walls that hinder and interrupt approaches. Falco's lasers are, along with Pit's Light Arrows, the only projectiles in the game that do not dissipate after traversing a certain distance.
- If Diddy is grabbed at any point before roughly 40%, he can and will be chain-thrown. No amount of DI (smash-assisted or not) can stave this off as Diddy's general weight makes this inescapable. Falco's diverse grabbing options combined with short-hopped lasers really makes avoiding being grabbed quite the challenge.
- The reflector has an asininely long activation time, starting immediately from the point it his kicked out all the way to when it is retracted.
- Since it appears that the Rocket Barrel Blast loses priority over great distances, attempts to get back to the stage will be thwarted by Falco's B-air virtually every single time if he is in position to intercept your trajectory.
- With the exception of F-air, all of Falco's aerial attacks can be short-hopped and auto-canceled.
- Expect constant shield pressure from Falco's ability to DLX-cancel. Falco can bait the shield-grab with the dash attack, but then interrupt by canceling into an U-smash once you have dropped your shield.
Strategic Notes:
- One of Falco's best options to interrupt Diddy's momentum is to activate the reflector. The benefits to this are twofold: Diddy's momentum is usually tied into his banana approach, and not only will they be reflector, but Diddy will take 5-6% damage each time as well as trip if he's on the ground. One good way to punish this is to bait the reflector and perfect-shield it. Once the hit-box has been shielded, you have more than enough time to attack before the move is over. Make sure you're baiting him without a banana though; even though you will no longer get hit once you're inside the range of the reflector, it can still reflect back at you, regardless of whatever direction you choose to throw.
- The other, less exploited solution to the reflector is to bait the reflector with a banana and then crawling underneath it. Once you have crawled past the actual reflector and its hit-box, you have the option to D-tilt with a banana in hand or glide-toss.
- Although you can't DI away from the chain-throw, you can occasionally smash-DI toward the ledge if you are about to end up off-stage and avoid Falco's D-air spike setup.
- In the event that you do end up being D-air spiked, make note of Falco's positioning and the number of jumps he has left in order to evaluate your recovery options. Sometimes you can use your second jump in order to grab the ledge depending on how far you were spiked; other times you have no choice but to barrel-rocket back to the ledge. If you are forced to use the barrel rockets and you are in danger of being edge-hogged, stall by charging the barrels in order to exhaust Falco's invincibility frames on the ledge, and then recover. Your opponent will have no choice but to either get off or eat 10% damage while you still make it back to the ledge.
- Falco's DLX cancel is punishable in two specific ways: you must perfect-shield the initial dash attack in order to have enough time to interrupt the approach with a shield-grab, or you must shield both attacks completely. Split-second spacing adjustments can ruin the attempt, as Falco's dash attack needs to make contact against hurt-boxes or shields immediately within the first few frames of activation so that he can quickly activate an U-smash afterward. The cool-down lag on Falco's whiffed DLX attempt can then be punished accordingly.
- The Falco Phantasm is difficult to punish, but peanuts and bananas can interrupt his recovery off-stage and force him to resort to the infinitely more mediocre Firebird (which can be easily edge-hogged). Other, more difficult ways you can interrupt the Phantasm is simply by jabbing once at the edge of the stage and following up with a spike or edge-hog attempt, a Diddy Hump during the Phantasm's activation frames, or – believe it or not – a perfectly-timed F-tilt. Alternatively, the Phantasm can still be punished if he makes it back on-stage in the event that you shield it with a banana in hand so that you can follow up with a glide-toss as soon as the attack is over.
Week #3
Meta Knight
Match-Up Estimate: 4 : 6
[This match-up is slightly in Meta Knight's favor]
~ Props to Le_THieN for doing a massive re-write
Meta Knight's Advantages:
Diddy's Advantages:
- superiority in almost every characteristic facet imaginable:
- speed
- range
- priority
- aerial mobility
- very small hurt-boxes
- disjointed hit-boxes on virtually all attacks
- boasts the longest, safest, and most versatile recovery in the game
Specific Match-Up Points:
- bananas out-prioritize every single move in Meta Knight's arsenal
- can arguably kill with successfully-landed KO moves at earlier percentages
Strategic Notes:
- Meta Knight's Shuttle Loop is, best to my knowledge, still in the running to be named the absolute best special move in the game. It is a special attack that combines blistering speed, high priority, and an absurd amount of knock-back at low percentages that not only makes it the perfect anti-air and anti-edge-guarding tool, but also doubles as an ideal off-stage gimping resource.
- On top of that, it has at least one frame of super armor during its nearly nonexistent start-up, and automatically places Meta Knight into a gliding state - setting him up for a glide attack equal in priority and power.
- If the glide attack is executed near the ground, it can be lag-canceled into any number of Meta Knight's other, near-lagless ground attacks. This makes this possible three-move chain virtually unpunishable.
- Meta Knight's fast ground speed, high-priority special moves and plethora of ranged, disjointed attacks all grant him the ability to quite literally crush the spacing of every single character in the game.
- Additionally, Meta Knight has absolute aerial superiority in every way. Aside from a ground game that shuts down most other characters' abilities to safely approach horizontally, Meta Knight is even able to administer a ridiculous degree of pressure by vertically spacing with his fast, ranged and lagless U-air and D-air.
- All four of MK's special moves grant him some degree of significant mobility; this effectively grants him four different recovery options.
- Most Meta Knight mains will stay in a constant state of flight and zone from the air in order to decrease the effectiveness of Diddy's banana approaches.
- Diddy is very, very susceptible to Meta Knight's off-stage gimping game due to the vulnerable nature of both the charged and blasted states of the Rocket Barrel Blast. If Meta Knight intercepts Diddy at any point of the Rocket Barrel Blast, Diddy is almost as good as dead.
- As previously mentioned, there is one trump card that Diddy has over Meta Knight (as well as the remaining entirety of the rest of the Brawl cast) that he will never be able to beat if they are effectively deployed: bananas. Combined with unique ability to readjust spacing with glide-tossing, you will always be able to quickly capitalize on a Meta Knight who enters a tripping state or a short banana hit-stun state in the air. The smart, measured application of bananas in this match-up will ultimately determine which direction the favor will swing in; it's therefore imperative that Diddy has bananas out at all times.
- The Mach Tornado is one specific move that MK mains are fond of whose respective cool-down frames can be taken advantage of with glide-tossing. Diddy has surprisingly diligent shield endurance against the Mach Tornado, and he can immediately glide-toss out of a shield in order to punish the Mach Tornado's period of cool-down.
- Similarly, D-smash is easily one of MK's most used and abused attacks due to its blinding attack speed and strength, as well as nearly nonexistent execution lag. If I recall correctly, the second hit of the attack actually has more knock-back, so expect to see a D-smash if you anywhere in range, especially from behind. Use prudent positioning in order to get behind him and bait the move - even with slight shield-stun, there is still just enough time for Diddy to get in a glide-toss before Meta Knight can spot-dodge or get his own shield up. Even if the timing is whiffed and MK manages to block the banana, make sure that you always glide toss forward in order to close distance and quickly follow up with a grab.
- If Meta Knight takes to the skies, do not even attempt to go head-to-head with any of his disjointed aerial attacks (unless you have a banana in your hand or you are punishing a whiffed attack). Hit, re-space and run by harassing Meta Knight while he is in the air with a salvo of peanuts varying in height and jumping banana throws in order to bring him back to the ground.
- Surprisingly, Diddy has a diverse array of options in order to interrupt and override the Mach Tornado:
- Banana Peels
- Diddy Hump
- F-tilt
- fast-falled N-air (above the whirlwind)
- Rocket Barrel Blast (you must allow yourself to be hit during the charged state)
The Diddy Hump and F-tilt in particular require a high degree of spacing awareness and directional anticipation of which way Meta Knight will go once he has activated the Mach Tornado.- For as excellent as Meta Knight's overall recovery might be, Diddy has the distinct advantage of having the superior recovery that combines the longest and furthest horizontal and vertical trajectory – with, of course, proper aerial spacing and enough of a barrel charge. Meta Knight mains who are aggressively edge-guarding you will almost never chase you any further off-stage if you actually jump or Monkey Flip backwards in order to adjust spacing for your Rocket Barrel Blast. By that point, you will already be charging your barrels to maximum charge, and the slow descent of your charged state will position you off-stage in such a way that you are actually too low and too far away for Meta Knight to gimp you and recover himself. It takes some practice and precise directional influence, but it is logically one of the safest ways to recover without putting yourself in immediate danger of being directly gimped.
- If possible, it is worth the effort for you to bait Meta Knight some distance off-stage before you re-space by jumping backwards. Opponents will then be faced with the dilemma of pushing onward with the chase (in which case they will also face the higher probability of death), or simply turning around and flying back on-stage. If they choose the latter, you occasionally score free damage by to rocket-barreling back onto the stage, but not before you blow through an actually helpless Meta Knight.
- The Drill Rush is easily escapable. You can minimize the damage it inflicts by smash-DIing through it.
Week #7
Wolf
Match Up Ratio - 6 : 4
Wolf's Favour
Match-Up Facts:
- Wolf's Shine has a plethora of uses, not just in reflecting bananas, but it will be used more-so in interrupting whatever offensive you might try to launch against him
- Wolf's Dsmash is comparable to Metaknight's. It comes out fast and punishes hard. It'll kill you as early as 90% off the edge of any stage.
- Wolf has a nasty Bair. Comes out quick, and with good air control, is hard to punish.
- His laser is very effective at stopping ground approaches, and prediction on Wolf's part will stop a short hop approach as well from a short hopped laser.
Match-Up Strategies:
- Wolf has a relatively long trip animation, making banana lock combo's very lethal.
- Wolf has a relatively sub-par recovery, making gimping an effective means of defeating Wolf.
- Don't let Wolf camp you! It might seem obvious, and is true for any match up, but you can't let him get into a position where Wolf can sit back and control the match.
Stage Counter Picks:
- It's tough to counter pick stages against Wolf. Going with Diddy's staple stages may be the best option. I'd pick between Battlefield, FD and Smashville.
Greater Insights into this matchup can be found in the following posts:Le_THieN said:As far as match-up advantage is concerned, I would give the slight edge to Wolf. The two primary components behind my reasoning lies in Wolf’s shine game (his invincibility frames as well as his ability to interrupt every single move as early as the first five frames has a tendency to abduct any momentum you might have built) and his D-smash (a difficult-to-punish attack that clever Wolf mains will quite literally hold onto this move until around 90%, where it spells instant KO at the edge of virtually any stage). Other things that might elicit a substantial headache are Wolf mains who abuses B-airs in Wall of Pain tactics. The reason why this is effective is because of Wolf’s swift aerial movement: he moves through the air in both vertical and horizontal directions much quicker than Diddy can, although his heavy weight makes for some stiff DI.
Le_THieN's very in depth and endorsed description of this matchup
Nitrix's Analysis
Gheb_01's Analysis (Which is discussed in further posts)
Le_THieN said:Week #8
Dedede
Match-Up Estimate - 6 : 4
[This match-up is in Diddy's favor]
Dedede's Advantages:
- Massive ground range
- superior speed and priority on primary aerial attacks
- Waddle Dees can potentially interfere with banana setups
- high capacity for early KOs
- massive, nearly ungimpable recovery
- heavyweight
Diddy's Advantages:
- superior ground speed
- more versatile ground offense
- quickly racks up damage
- D3's sheer size doubles his susceptibility to combos
- nearly omnipresent stage control via projectile pressure
- bananas negate chain-grab
Specific Match-Up Points:
- D3 will often take to the skies after he posts up a Waddle Dee or two in order to temporarily discourage glide-tossing approaches. B-air will beat your aerial approaches more often than not, and N-air - although not particularly very strong - has instant activation. His multiple jumps also makes approaching him while he's airborne a headache, as he can advance to pressure and retreat at will without the threat of being shield-grabbed looming over him. It's very possible to punish both moves with appropriate spacing, but I never even bother going head to head in an aerial battle. An effective way to bring him back to the ground is with arced popgun shots or jump-thrown bananas.
- There's some debate and clarification needed on this next point, but it's unclear whether or not Diddy is one of the few characters who can create enough separation between him and D3 in-between grabs in order to spot-dodge or roll away by smash DIing. Either way, smash DIing never hurt anyone, and capitalizing on the opportunity of whiffed dash grabs comes up surprisingly often. An effective go-to move after side-stepping a dash-grab approach is to U-smash upon reappearance.
- D3 out-ranges you on the ground with three specific moves (F-smash, F-tilt and his jab combo), but the lag on these as well as the remainder of his ground arsenal are so punishable, it's almost laughable. Unless you've already breached his defenses with a banana, there's really no reason to be that close to him, anyway. You can't go wrong with being on either the offense or defense in this match-up, especially since both modes tend to yield very favorable results.
- The only ground move that I would be wary of his U-tilt. It's one of the faster options he has, and can kill in the range of 90% if it's been kept fresh. Although D3's actual defense game isn't great against Diddy, his actual tools (particularly his fast spot-dodge and fast, long roll) are great. If you whiff a cartwheel due to a spot-dodge and you're in critical percentages, expect to eat an U-tilt and die. Likewise, D3 can just space his roll to where he reappears in range and still use the move on you. Although considerably less common, D3's U-tilt can double as an anti-air tactic due to the invincibility frames he has at the very beginning of the move.
- Always be conscious of D3's grab range. It's definitely a top contender for longest, non-tethered grab, and having this applied in a reverse pivot makes it even more ridiculous-looking. D3 lacks proper setups out of D-throw or F-throw if he isn't near the ledge, but it can certainly spell trouble for you later down the stock if you're eating 7-9% at a time during several points of the match.
- Hitting Waddle Dees will decay/refresh your moves. It becomes immediately obvious as to why this is important. Be careful of wasting attack strength on them, however, also be aware that hitting them can also refresh moves, so mixing up the attacks you use to clear them away is important.
- This is one of D3's asininely terrible match-ups, and his shortcomings here need to be exploited to the fullest extent. Only carelessness and laziness are your enemies. Watch out for that rare but still perilous death at 30% at the edge of the stage. That can really derail your momentum if you're having to spend the remainder of your stocks playing catch up because you either hesitated to challenge the F-smash or because you blindly ran into it.
Strategic Notes:
- The infamous D3 chain-grab is pretty simple to deter; make sure there's a always a banana around, or even in your hand in the event that D3's D-throw forces you to accidentally drop it. Even if you end up eating a few D-throws and end up off-stage, use your recovery options wisely and even space yourself away from an approaching D3 who his trying to gimp you if necessary. He'll have a much harder time chasing you off-stage if you're rocket-barreling from great distances. Avoid being put in a position where you have to recover below stage level though, because D3 will have a considerably easier time gimping you.
- Diddy far and away outclasses D3 on defense, so if he decides to start turtling behind Waddle Dees, start pressuring with arced peanuts and jump-tossed bananas. Hell, you can even run past the Waddle Dees and glide-toss. Once you're in range, it ought to be Combo City from there.
- The last thing you all need to really consider is actively saving your smashes. Pick one - it doesn't matter. Otherwise, you'll be racking up anywhere between 400-600% between two or three stocks every match, and that's a lot of unnecessary work. It goes without saying that D3 is one of the heaviest characters in the game, and he has a tendency to make move decay become quickly and painfully apparent.
---Week #8
Yoshi
Match-Up Estimate - 5 : 5
[This match-up is relatively neutral]
Yoshi's Advantages:
- Greater Range on Diddy Kong, which can make close range play difficult at times.
- Yoshi has a chain grab on Diddy Kong (As well as most other characters)
- Yoshi's Double Jump + Air Dodge makes him much less gimpable
Diddy's Advantages:
- Diddy's Chain Grab is effective against Yoshi
- Despite being out ranged, with bananas in hand, Diddy can apply a close ranged pressure game
- Quicker Tilts and Smashers at his disposal can quickly apply pressure and force Yoshi to back off.
Specific Match-Up Points:
- Diddy's main problem in this matchup is that most of his attacks (except continuous jab and possibly bair) get outranged. This problem can be mostly eliminated by running a close range game, something that Diddy isn't too bad at between his jab, tilts and grab.
- Yoshi can't Glide Toss. However, he has DJC toss which is like Glide Tossing. So when Yoshi has a banana in hand, expect something of the sort.
- If Yoshi can't deal with bananas or doesn't have the patience to work past them, Diddy has won. Since it is an even match up, it becomes less about characters and more about player mentality.
- Diddy has a harder time edgeguarding Yoshi, and requires a lot of reading, fakeouts and punishing
- Watch out for the sliding up smash.
- Yoshi's chain grab works better against Diddy than a lot of other characters, so be careful.
Strategic Notes:
- Always have a banana behind you so that Yoshi trips while grabbing.
- The way to control this match is by playing an aggressive, close range game using the bananas as much as possible.
- Save those smashes, and nail Yoshi with them at KO percents, this is because Yoshi's recovery is difficult to gimp
In light of what Colbert has said and indications from others, I'm going to say this. Feel free to discuss any character, and ask questions about them. Each week will have a focal character that people can speak their opinions on in particular. But people should also feel free to talk about other characters as well.
Basically, this thread should serve to (Amongst other things) prevent the need for 'How do I beat 'X' character?' threads.
***
The idea behind this thread is not a new one. In a few of the character sub-forums there are 'weekly match up' discussion threads wherein users will discuss the pro's and con's of a particular match up, and various strategies for winning against said characters. This discussion will last for a week before discussion will move onto a new match up.
So I figure, why not do this for Diddy Kong as well
Of course, we also have AlphaZealot's 'Get Better Fast' matchup articles to look forward to as well, so maybe we can give him a little inspiration as well to eh?
-
Character Discussions thusfar:
1st Week: Snake - Pages 1 to 2
2nd Week: Falco - Page 2 to 3
3rd Week: MetaKnight - Page 3 to 6
4th Week: ROB - Page 6 to 8
5th Week: Peach - Page 8 to 9
6th Week: G&W - Page 9 to 15
7th Week: Wolf - Page 15 to 18
8th Week: Dedede and Yoshi - Page 18 to 20
9th Week: Luigi - Page 20 to 21
10th Week: Marth - Page 21 to 23
11th Week: Zero Suit Samus - Page 23 to 24
12th Week: Olimar - Page 24 to 27
13th Week: Toon Link - Page 27 to 29
14th Week: Diddy Kong and Lucario - Page 29 to 31
15th Week: Donkey Kong and Bowser - Page 31 to 36
16th Week: Zelda - Page 36 to 37
17th Week: Lucario - Page 37 to 40
18th Week: Fox and Kirby - Page 40 to 42
19th Week: Sonic - Page 42 to 47
20th Week: Wario - Page 47 to 50
21st Week: Ike - Page 50 to 56
22nd Week: Pit - Page 57 to 59
23rd Week: Link - Page 59 to 62
24th Week: Ice Climbers - Page 62 to page 65
25th Week: Pokemon Trainer and Lucas AND Ness - Page 65 to 69
26th Week: Mario, Samus, Sheik, Ganondorf, Captain Falcon, Jigglypuff - Page 69+
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I decided to begin with Snake, since Metaknight is already a hot topic of discussion in another thread. So let's get to it!
I think for the smart Diddy player, this is a reasonably balanced match up. Diddy has the speed, and the bananas to out pace Snake, but Snake's monstrously powerful tilts and grenades can make life quite hellish.
Diddy's relatively light weight lets him down here, also it can be hard at times to spike snake through Snake's up + b. (I meant dair spike - meh, I don't vs Snakes all that often believe it or not)
I think with enough glide toss pressuring, it can turn to Diddy's favour.