Snake (SSB18)

**Snake** (スネーク, Snake) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. OC 2018. Despite not returning for *SSB4*, Snake returns to his game and is joined by character Raiden. He was also the second place winner from the Character vote challenge 01 where he placed second (The winner of the challenge was fellow Metal Gear representative Raiden).

## Attributes

Despite not being as large as other heavyweights, Snake is a super heavyweight character; therefore, he has excellent momentum cancelling abilities, giving him high endurance, especially vertical endurance. In competitive play, it is not uncommon for skilled Snake players to survive until 200%. His high weight also allows him to trade blows with opponents at little risk of getting KO'd, particularly with his self-damaging explosives, as few characters can survive at KO percentages as high as he can.

Snake has one of the best ground games, with many attacks that are quick to come out and retain high KO potential. His neutral attack is fast, has good range, and is easy to connect, making it a very easy-to-use and effective combo move. His forward tilt is arguably the best in the game, with very low start-up, great range, high knockback, and monstrously high damage. His up tilt is the best in the game, as it not only has all of the characteristics of his forward tilt, but it also has deceptively high horizontal reach that makes it Snake's most reliable finishing option. Snake’s dash attack shares the speed of his tilts, and unlike most dash attacks, can KO at realistic percentages. Snake has the lowest crawl in the game, which allows him to dodge many projectiles and some melee attacks. Snake's down throw is considered to be one of the best in the game, as it forces his opponent into a tech chase, keeping the opponent close to Snake and in range of his deadly ground game.

Snake is as deadly from afar as he is when close to his opponent, as he has the most projectiles in the game (practically, five, or seven when counting his Final Smash and taunt). His Hand Grenade is arguably his most versatile projectile, able to be used as a shield-dropped throwable item, a defensive option while shielding by damaging nearby opponents caught in the explosion, or a deterrence to opponents from approaching (unlike other throwable explosives, Grenades do not detonate on contact with enemy players). His up smash, the mortar, has the greatest vertical reach of any attack in the game. C4, the Remote Missile, and his down smash claymores act as great edgeguarders in conjunction with his forward aerial meteor smash and his back aerial.

On the downside, Snake suffers from severe mobility problems, particularly in the air. He has a high falling speed and high weight makes him extremely vulnerable to juggling and chain grabs, although his Hand Grenade, which comes out on frame 1, can ameliorate this. Although all of his aerials deal both high damage and knockback, they have long ending and landing lag, making them very punishable if missed. Being multi-hit attacks, his neutral and down aerials can be escaped by players with good SDI, which prevents him from getting the last hits on the attacks with strong knockback while also leaving him open for punishment. Snake also has the slowest ground jump in the game (10 frames). With the disadvantages of having a fast falling speed, very slow ground jump and long start-up, ending and landing lag in his aerial attacks, Snake has one of the worst aerial games (although his aerials themselves are stronger than his tilts).

Snake also has difficulty recovering, especially from below the stage, as Cypher is very slow and predictable. The inability of the Cypher to deal damage to edgeguarding opponents leaves Snake vulnerable to meteor smashes when recovering. Snake's high falling speed also shortens his recovery potential. However, Snake can strategically damage himself with a C4 dropped in the air to allow him to use Cypher again, making his recovery nearly infinite. Also, grab releasing him after he's used his Cypher but before he's landed on the stage will make him lose his Cypher, which forces him to detonate C4 to attempt to recover again.

## Moveset

### On-screen appearance

* Snake's stealth camouflage simply disengages to reveal himself to his opponent(s). Snake will sometimes say "Kept you waiting, huh?" when appearing. Comes from an intro cutscene of Metal Gear Solid 2.

### Taunts

* All Taunts: Puts a cardboard box over himself, which is removable. All three of his taunts are variations of this. His up taunt being the fastest to cancel, his down taunt being the slowest and his side taunt between both of them speed-wise. When he removes it, the enemy receives some damage (if they are in close range). The box can also be picked up and thrown by opponents.
* Smash Taunt: Kneels down and contacts his support team - Colonel Roy Campbell, Otacon, and Mei Ling. Snake then receives information on one of his opponents; this goes for every fighter in the game, including himself. This is possible only on Snake's home stage, Shadow Moses Island, and is performed by pressing the down extremely quickly. Snake will hold a pose for a few seconds, then a conversation between Snake and his support team will begin. This can only be done once each round and if the player is hit while Snake is holding his pose before the conversation starts, it is cancelled. However, the player can be hit while the conversation is going, though the conversation ends if Snake is KO'd, which, in a nod to the Metal Gear Solid game over screens, causes the character Snake was talking with to shout "SNAAAAAAAAKE!!". It can be done with any number of other players on the screen, but if there is more than one opponent, the game will randomly choose one character to talk about.

### Idle poses

* Scratches his beard.
* Quickly looks behind himself.

### Victory poses

* Throws off his cardboard box and stands up, saying "Not even close!"
* Seen in a crouching position from the side, saying "Colonel, mission accomplished." into his codec.
* Crawls forward a step and rolls into a crouching position, saying into his codec "This is Snake. I'm done here."