Officer Howard (Super Smash Bros. Infinite)

*This article is about Officer Howard's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Infinite. For other uses, see Officer Howard.*

## Officer Howard

* Male
* Female

## Voice Talent

### English Voice

Aleks Le (Male)
 Brianna Knickerbocker (Female)

### Japanese Voice

Nobunaga Shimazaki (Male)
 Chika Anzai (Female)

**Officer Howard** is a playable character in *Super Smash Bros. Infinite*. They were officially revealed during Nintendo's E3 direct on (date) along with Dr. Eggman. As with other characters in the same vein, both male and female versions of Officer Howard are available. Officer Howard is classified as Fighter #95.

Aleks Le and Brianna Knickerbocker, who voice provided the male and female versions respectively of Officer Howard in *Astral Chain* reprise their role in the overseas versions of *Super Smash Bros. Infinite.* Nobunaga Shimazaki and Chika Anzai also continue their portrayals of both male and female Officer Howard for the Japanese version.

## Attributes

Officer Howard is a slower character with focuses on trapping, stage control, and movement. This reflects much of the player's traits in *Astral Chain*, where the player must effectively control crowds of enemies and move quickly along the ground and air to anticipate attacks. Officer Howard's weapon of choice is the X-Baton, of which its three modes offer a wide variety of uses. The standard Baton mode that is featured in many of their moves is quick and deals decent damage. The Blaster mode offers much greater range and speed at the cost of raw damage, while the Gladius sacrifices speed and leaves Officer Howard wide open in return for great power and knockback.

However, perhaps Officer Howard's greatest weapon is their Legion. The variety in Legions allow for Officer Howard to have a wide array of options for movement, recover, defense and offense. It is through these Legions that Officer Howard becomes a character that is highly mobile with a variable range that can be used towards the player's advantage. The ability for Officer Howard to control their Legion with almost no limitations allows for effective crowd control during Free-for-All and Team matches and strategic gameplay during 1 versus 1 matches.

Like all characters, Officer Howard is not without their weaknesses. As a heavier character, they are prone to being trapped in combos themselves by smaller, faster characters. Additionally, overreliance on the Legion may leave Officer Howard defenseless, as running the cooldown leads to inability to use the Legion for a longer amount of time. Likewise, the Legion is not an invincible wall that would protect Officer Howard at every second - its ability to be attacked leads to the cooldown dropping faster. As such, effectively using Officer Howard in gameplay means managing the Legion's Limiter Gauge, managing which Legion is out, as well as effectively using all movement options available to avoid being heavily damaged by combos.

## Gimmick: Legion

Officer Howard has near limitless control over a living weapon called a Legion. These Legions are like the player's second body in *Astral Chain*, providing methods of offense and support for the player. Similarly to *Astral Chain*, Officer Howard has access to five different types of Legion, all of which with their own options. They are able to switch between each type of Legion freely by tapping the special button while holding the shield button. They can also select the Legion directly from a menu by holding both buttons and then tilting the stick in the direction of their preferred Legion, similar to Shulk's Monado Arts. The menu will always be in the same order, with the Sword, Arrow, Arm, Beast and Axe Legion in this order clockwise. Cycling through by tapping will also always be in this order. While the Legion is out, it will automatically attack anything that comes near it, though the attacks have much ending lag. Additionally, it can be moved freely by holding the special button, allowing Officer Howard to set it up wherever they like, though the Legion cannot attack while being moved. Each Legion, as long as it is selected, changes Officer Howard's Side and Down specials, thus giving a wide array of options for Officer Howard depending on the current situation.

However, the Legion is not without its downsides. The Legion can only be out a certain amount of time, which is indicated by a Limiter Gauge on Officer Howard's damage display. The Limiter Gauge determines when and how long a Legion stays out, as Officer Howard requires at least a third of the Gauge to be filled in order to call the Legion. While the Legion is active, save for special circumstances, the Gauge will automatically deplete. The Gauge will also deplete if the Legion is attacked. It takes 8 seconds for the Gauge to be completely depleted at maximum and the Gauge will be refilled at a rate of a sixth a second. However, if Officer Howard lets the Gauge run out completely, the Gauge will take 12 seconds to be completely refill, which will leave Officer Howard much more open to being attacked. The Legion's range is also finite, as it is limited by the Astral Chain's length of about a third of Final Destination. It is unable to jump and if it is called in the air, it will slowly descend.

## Moveset

### Taunts

* **Up Taunt**: Officer Horward breifly unleashes the Legion who then slashes forward. If the Legion is out, it does a dramatic slash. He will say "Come forth, Legion!"
* **Down Taunt**: Officer Howard pulls out a comically oversized avalanche special ice cream and drops it, then looks at the spilled ice cream longingly.it references an ice cream minigame.
* **Right Taunt**: A phone call symbol appears in front of Officer Howard who then says "Meh, I will take it later.
* **Left Taunt**: Lappy appears and does two fist bumps into the air before leaving. Officer Horward says "Hey, it's Lappy!"

### On-Screen Appearance

* Officer Howard shows up on a motorcycle like in the first few moments of the game, then in stark contrast with Wario, does an amazing and graceful flip jump off of it before landing on the ground and taking out the X-Baton.

### Idle Poses

* Shuffles his/her feet.
* Runs his/her hand through his/her hair.

### Victory Poses

* Officer Horward lands from above and then takes their batons and slashes three times before posing.
* Summons the Sword Legion as they perform a spinning slash attack together.
* Appears along with their twin sibling and they both perform a pose together while brandishing their batons.

## Classic Mode: Legion Assault

Opponents are based on enemies found in AstralChain; in particular Chimeras. Stages are also based techno/sci-fi themes.​