Battle Blaze (SNES)
Not wholly unplayable, but it’s possibly the most ‘token’ fighter on the system. There’s only two buttons, and one’s for jumping. All jump attacks are active until landing. Hitstun is invincible, so no combos. Wakeup is invincible for days, so oki is a no-go. There’s a lot of pushback in general, so even tick throws can be difficult. Characters can only throw in a fixed direction. Blockstun is curious–there are no formal reversals, but you can reversal with a jump. There’s no ‘close’ normals, though most characters automatically do a ‘dashing’ version of their normal attack when standing at a certain range.
No mirrors, either–World Warrior stuff. If you’re not playing Kerrel/Lang as player 2, you’re outta luck.
A-Kerrel/Lang
B-Shnouzer, Tesya
C-Gustoff
D-Adrick
[details=Spoiler]
Kerrel/Lang’s air 8A is hilarious. A multi-hit ghetto tatsu that can cross up, trumps nearly every other air attack, and allows for 50/50 throw/tatsu shenanigans. A huge chunk of the cast gets reamed by neutral jump ia8A in the corner–he can repeat this constantly, and since the only reversal option is to jump, they’ll get chunked by it and be knocked down. The only way out is to sandbag it, which lets him keep doing it again anyway. His only serious flaws are clunky ground normals (which he rarely needs) and a difficult time against Shnouzer–he has no good normals to respond to his pounce.
Shnouzer is fast. He has good tick throws, and his unusual dog stance creates a frustrating midrange game, too. The dog stance pounce is a long, fast, tall unblockable that trades extremely favourably and knocks down. He can hold his own, and poses a lot of problems for Kerrel/Lang because their air 8A can’t do much about it. He has some problems with Tesya’s projectile, but otherwise he’s solid.
Tesya is nimble, has a decent projectile (a rarity), a totally safe slide, a low-crushing sobat, a “divekick”, and arguably the best throw game in the cast. Her ‘dashing’ attack puts her at a perfect throw range–a long one. Her throw does a truckload of damage and doesn’t knock down, leading to shenanigans in the corner. Additionally, her slide has amazing pushback on block, letting her repeatedly check opponents at midrange for just-do-it knockdowns. Her “divekick”–no change in altitude, just a different hitbox–lets her stuff anti-airs more reliably, and her air attack is a great air-to-air. Her sobat is pretty reliable as a ‘wakeup’, and stuffs jumpers like crazy. If she had better answers to Kerrel’s air 8A and Shnouzer’s pounce she’d be a monster.
Gustoff’s not that bad. He has perhaps the best normals, with a good compromise between speed, reach, and damage. His [2]8A is a reliable anti-air, but it charges so slowly that air-to-air is probably the wise option. He can do a crappier version of Kerrel/Lang’s corner bullshit, and has a similar “divekick” to Tesya, so he may have the best matchup against Shnouzer–his divekick trades slightly more favourably, and he can aggress him more easily with his normals. He’s only this low because he has no cheap stuff.
In another game, Adrick would be baller, but alas. Amazing range–with horrid frames. Excellent zone control–except for his poor anti-air. He’s your typical high-damage, slow-moving bloke, but he needs an incredible series of reads to make the most of his powerful poking game. He has essentially zero responses to shenanigans because all of his normals are too damn slow. He has a cool 50/50 between his sweep and ia2A (Helm Breaker ayy), but the risk/reward is heavily skewed against him. His projectile is like Tesya’s–it’d be a killer preemptive anti-air if it weren’t a charged move. His throw is great and he looks radical, but unfortunately Adrick just doesn’t cut the mustard. [/details]
