meleebrawler
Smash Hero
Spider, I would put emphasis on grab power, and possibly give extra range to Shantae's moves, at the cost of either slightly reduced damage or attack speed on normals. It has always been about clinging to things one way or the other, and the venom ball in the original was one of the best ranged options there was. I suppose in this way you could compare it to Ivysaur. But don't forget the human form needs specials too, besides dancing!Not just that, but also the AI involved with it. Nana has her own AI the system has to run every time the Icies are in a match, regardless of who is playing her. In short, a CPU Ice Climbers would need two AI controlling it, while say, a CPU Pokemon trainer still would only need one.
So if you had an 8 Player Smash of any other CPU character, the game has to run 8 character AI, but ice climbers would have to double that at 16. And even if it was all human players, it would have to be reading 8 sets of inputs and then running 8 sets of AI to match them. ...I’m grossly oversimplifying it. The point is, there’s a lot of complicated reasons why the Icies are difficult to work with, and why most duo characters transform into eachother or are just two models programmed in unison like Duck Hunt.
Actually, seeing how Pyra and Mythra work made it way easier for me to picture how Shantae would play. Since the Aegis duo share normal attacks but alter their hitboxes and frame data, that lets two characters effectively share a moveset while still feeling distinct AND reducing the amount of work to make them.
So, instead of fully transforming for Shantae’s special moves, stick all of her combat moves from the GBC game and some familiar spells like fireball and storm puff to fill up her normals and Smash attacks. Then, make her down special her Transformation dance, which she can cycle between 3-4 forms. That makes it so they only have to animate new special moves, like Pyra and Mythra, and only bring in the new models on those moves. Then, let the new forms just change her frame data on her normals so you don’t have to reanimate everything, just assign some hitboxes and speed up or slow down some animations.
-Monkey form makes her attacks much faster but much weaker, and makes her special moves Monkey Bullet for Neutral, probably a high jump or monkey acrobatics for an up and side special.
-Elephant form makes her slower and heavier, but makes her attacks hit like a truck. Her specials are now Elephant Stomp for neutral, Elephant Charge for the side, and a slight jump with a heavy plummet for an up special.
-Harpy makes her way lighter and gives her better air mobility and additional jumps (or if model swapping just for additional jumps is too much, just higher jumps?) at the cost of lots of attack power. Harpy feather neutral special, maybe a charging side special based on the Harpy’s run, and Harpy Flight up special.
-Spider... uh... Not sure what special properties spider would bring. Spider Venom neutral special, maybe a web slinging command grab side special, Spider Silk tether recovery up special.
And as an added bonus, Kirby would always have Shantae’s hair when transformed, but depending on what form she’s in when he copies her he takes on that special move!
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