So i just want to start up a thread for the OG smash muscle. No one seems to use him. And to be quite honest… its for good reason. but anyway post up strats or tricks. just wanted to get this started. i mean there has to be somebody else that uses DK : /
Alright w**ell seems like no ones interested in the monkey. I guess I’ll add my 2 cents on him. I’m pretty new to using Donkey Kong. So my advice may be kind of scrubbish, but I’ll tell you guys my thoughts on his moves. Hopefully this is of use, and may get people to actually want to use him.
Summary
DK has some pretty solid specials. His tilts and smashes all have pretty decent range, especially his forward tilt/smash. He is somewhat lacking in the air dept. though, his jumping normals either have low priority or come out too slow.
Tilts
F-Tilt - The range on this move is pretty good. DK does this backhanded swipe at the enemy, which covers a wide area, and comes out very fast (for DK).
U-Tilt - This move also comes out really fast. It has the potential to also smash out if the opponent is at a high enough percentage, but i can’t recall around what dmg level they have to be at. It’s an upward swipe that has good upward horizontal and vertical range.
D-Tilt - Don’t really know what to say about this move hardly use it. But he crouches low to the ground and does a swipe reminiscent of his F-Tilt
Smash Attacks
F-Smash - Very good range. Two handed palm smash on opponent.
U-Smash - DK claps his hand up in the air. Similar to his F-Smash, but vertical
D-Smash - DK lifts both hands in the air, and with clenched fists smashes both of them down simultaneously at his side.
Air Attacks
i’ll get to this section tomorrow sorry getting tired. too much smash
N-Air
F-Air
B-Air
U-Air
D-Air
Specials
okay now on to the good stuff
Neutral B (Donkey Punch) - This move is very crucial for a good DK. You need to try to have this up and charged all the time. The fear of getting socked by one of these really tends to scare people so they don’t rush you down as much. Be patient with trying to land these bc its pretty hard to set up and land. You don’t want to rely too much on landing it, but just having it charged is enough to keep your opponent honest when fighting against you.
Forward B - This move buries the enemy in the ground. You are now able to smash a foe out using the Donkey Punch when theyre in the floor. It is also a meteor when using for air to air combat. The huge con is that it comes out really slow. but landing this on someone with over 35-45% can set up pretty decent dmg.
Up B - His up B doesn’t have very good vertical recovery, but it makes up for it somewhat with a pretty far horizontal recovery. When i use this move it seems to beat out a lot of people when they’re trying to edge hog. The only thing that tends to beat it out is… well i’ll keep that to myself (don’t want to reveal too much)
Down B - This move is very good for zoning purposes. When people try to rush you down use this move to back them off bc it has very good horizontal range in front of and behind DK. If they take to the air just block and immediately do this after to knock them away. or you could just grab and throw if youre by an edge.
DK has pretty good ground normals, but terrible air normals, which are kind of off set by his, in my opinion, very good special attacks. I still for the life of me can’t figure out how to deal with people with mass projectile spammage coughlinkcough. so if anyone can help me there it’d be appreciated
Alright well i’m getting pretty tired typing. so that’s all for now i guess. anyone that can contribute to this please do because my DK is pretty scrubby.
hey, people dont play DK cause they dont know how beastly.
Now, to add some stuff, down tilt is solid because it has decent range, and it has a good chance of tripping your opponent. In that, you get a solid mix up, because they have to wake up, and your staring them right in the face. By the time they even have a chance to get up, you can probably just Down Smash as soon as the down tilt is done, and launch them up.
Now ill say this, his air moves are good if you know how to use them. Up Air gets opponents coming down really well, it hits hard and comes out really quick (watch out for opponents with air moves that bring them down, namely Sonic, ZSS, Kirby etc). Back air is also really good, because of its power, range and speed. Neutral air does well if you expect them to air dodge if they are anticipating an up air or back air. Forward air, when timed right is beastly, and down air is great for edgehogging.
mainly, dk is a great ground character, being able to poke and pressure from a good distance, and once you knock them into the air, giving chase is pretty easy, specially given the fact that he is the second fastest “Big” character.
also, down smash is probably my favorite move, because it starts to hit from above his head, then goes a good distance around him, and comes out pretty quick.
dont sleep on this character, seriously.
word man. DK is flying under the radar. I have yet to play anyone that uses DK. I’ve been practicing up on him because he has some serious potential.
Your analysis on his air game is spot on. They’re useful but theyre very situational and have to be used/timed right to get some benefit off them. you can’t just spam them. my only gripe about the down smash is that if they’re grounded too. they have to be at a higher percentage then normal to smash them out (at least that’s what i noticed).
but yeah he’s definitely better as a grounded fighter, because he can space and kind of force the other player to play at your tempo. But the Donkey Punch is fierce. Knowing how to use that is key to playing a good DK.
Also if youre up on lives or if youre desperate his forward throw can be used once in a blue moon to catch the other guy off guard. pick him up and suicide that shit. not something you want to revolve your game around. but keep it in mind if the opportunity arises. yo you got any tips on fighting characters that can just projectile spam?
I always loved DK’s up smash. Clappity-clap-clap. :bgrin:
I’m a DK player. Bringing up Honkey Kong.
On after 7 pm eastern or so.
If these new shield attributes are correct, DK punch out of shield shuts down a lot of approach.
:l: accepting any and all DK mirror matches for any coin or sticker amount. Bet it!
Got to play Brawl on Tuesday. Thoughts on DK, since he’s always been my main man:
Upsmash is holyfucklaunch. We’re talking killing Bowser <100% on a regular basis. Can be hard to land though, still trying to find good setups for it. Was doing a lot of team stuff, and finding that Diddy makes a good partner for him because peel/cartwheel and diddy’s smashes can set up DK’s Usmash. Meta Knight makes a good partner for similar reasons.
Downsmash is slow, but again very damaging. It seems to send them skidding, so I think if you do it to edgeguard, it can meteor somewhere along the way.
Forward smash is beefy. Really beefy.
Forward tilt is AMAZING. Use and abuse, this is your main ground move for sure.
Uptilt is okay again.
Downtilt is much much faster than it used to be, worth using now.
Aerials:
UAir…weird. I’m really not sure what all to do with this yet.
DAir…not as good as SSB64 but better than Melee. Hard to land.
BAir is definitely his best aerial, easy to land and at certain %s can combo into itself. Reminds me of the Knee without the knockback…then again, we have plenty of combo finishers. You can also use it to kill people at higher %s.
FAir is largely junk. Kills people easily if you can actually land it though.
NAir is excellent, and does almost everything you’d ever want FAir to do. It kills people somewhat well.
Specials:
UpB: Waste of time mostly…I think on the ground it can be alright, but it’s VERY risky. As a recovery move it’s very horizontal, and you can’t do a lot of edge tricks characters with more vertical recovery can. It has its uses but not often.
SideB: GOOD now. Very good now. It seems to take people longer to mash out of it (you can get an uncharged fsmash out of the deal) and shorthop sideB is playable. I don’t think it’s going to become a main move, because of how slow it is, but it’s something you should look to land. If you land this on a guy with 50+ percent on him, he’s probably dead because of fsmash or…
B: KAPOW. It hasn’t changed much…it’s still speedy and powerful, with loads of priority. Haven’t tested for super armour. I like using it for all sorts of purposes, just get it charged and throw it out whenever, seriously. If it lands, it hits about as hard as your forward smash. I think a fully charged Fsmash hits harder, but this thing blows it away in terms of speed.
DownB: This is controversial. It seems to have more range and speed, and combos into Usmash at a lot of different percents on different guys. I saw a nice 40% kill setup on Link with this into upsmash. I think we should be trying to figure out how to land this into upsmash and kill people.
Wow. Even before this Brawl DK looked like a monster. When people start playing him, I think you’re definately gonna see him clearing up at tournaments.
With 150% being the new 100% in this game, Up smash killing at <100% is making me cry. Is F/D smash stronger in this game? D smash was as close to a “throw it out there” smash as DK was gonna get and it’d be great if it was stronger, even better if it acts as a meteor, as it had mountains of priority late in the attack. Although I’d be just as happy if it had a smaller dead zone.
Fsmash is definitely stronger, it was killing Diddy around 100% easily. Downsmash…I really don’t know how great it is yet, but I’m pretty sure it’s got SOMEWHAT of a downward trajectory to it from the way people fly when hit on a flat stage. No Wii here though, so I can’t just start testing. 
Down Smash sorta launches the opposite direction of the fist that hits the opponent (front fist launches back, back fist launches forward). and i will have to disagree about its speed, because overall its a very quick and powerful move.
I like to use down smash after a successful power shield or dodge, then follow up with either an up tilt or up air. From there its just applying aerial pressure, and seeing if you cant spike them with his MANY spikes.
as for autoguard on giant punch, its wierd, sometimes itll work, but he can be hit out of it. Its godly in anticipation of a wake up attack, either from the ground or the ledge, just watch out if you do it in the air, since you will lose all your jumps (including up B) if you use it. Basically, if your caught winding up in midair, say goodbye…
My results with D-smash are mixed. I have yet to use it too often, but when i do i hardly notice the skidding when you hit someone with it. Although what i do like about it though is that it covers both sides, so if they roll the wrong way they eat a D-smash for some pretty good damage.
I also forgot to add that his neutral attack on the ground is very good to get pressure off you if they’re already in close b/c his D-Special has a lot of startup. it’s a two hit move where he punches then uppercuts and it comes out really fast. You can also D-tilt which comes out almost as fast but has more horizontal distance.
I have noticed the autoguard on his donkey punch. but i don’t know specifically how it works because I ended up getting hit out of it more often than actually guarding against an attack.
i’ll compile everyones opinions and what not in the first post once i get time to do it. gotta go study and do a paper now >.< but yeah if anyone wants to battle tonight, just add me. and pm me and to let me now.
peace
>B wrecks shields
dsmash actually kills now
think dtilt trips
fair hits a very wide area, think it starts above his head, has lots of range, pushes back very far on block
has DK’s grab range improved? I keep forgetting to experiment with throws
oh and I once landed >B in the air and it didn’t spike. Does it have a sweetspot?
DK’s grab range feels like it was in 64 again: significantly longer than a lot of other characters. I barely play Melee, but coming from 64 to Brawl I had an immediate feel for DK’s throw range…unless it’s even LONGER…
DK is best used when Final Smashes are turned off because DK has easily the crappiest Final Smash in the game. In order to get any effect out of it, it requires the opponents to be right on top of DK and it involves timed button presses. The range is bad and DK is vulnerable when he begins putting the drums away.
>B wrecks shields* -What’s the pushback like on that? If it’s anything like DKP pushback, we’re onto a winner. A safe on air meteor on ground stunner with the levels of stun that it has now sounds pretty fucking incredible.
only pulled that trick once but IIRC it was pretty f’ing safe
I’m thinking a little past ftilt range
gotta remember to screw with it tomorrow
ive been playing around with angling DK’s forward tilt (Up forward, down forward, and of course neutral forward) which directs which way he swats.
Interestingly enough, neutral ftilt does 10%, up ftilt does 12% and down ftilt does 8% and has a chance to trip. So remaining at about the same power, and the move already have great speed and range, used correctly this move could be more beastly then it already is.
Keep them from jumping towards you, make them trip from a distance to allow yourself to get in on them, and heck just to poke, i think this is probably one of his best and most functional moves. In all honesty, i just like tripping people.
>B doesn’t push nearly as far as I remembered
but if you land it on a full shield, and they hold it for maybe a half second afterward, it breaks
recovering over the stage doesn’t seem like such a great option for DK because he lands on his back after falling from an upB