Mr. Game & Watch (SSBC)

*This article is about Mr. Game & Watch's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Crusade. For general information about the character, see Mr. Game & Watch.*

**Mr. Game & Watch** is a veteran starter character in *Super Smash Bros. Crusade*. He was revealed to make his first appearance in v0.9.0 of the game. Unlike his original appearance of being an unlockable character in the previous versions of the game like **v0.9.3** and v0.6, he was made as a starter character in the latest updates of *Super Smash Bros. Crusade*, first being a starter character in v0.7.

Mr. Game & Watch is currently placed at 3rd of S tier on the current tier list, currently residing in top-tier. Mr. Game & Watch has strong KO moves in his disjointed smash attacks, all aerial attacks (excluding back aerial), and Fire, as well as his potentially strong Judge and Oil Panic. Due to his high air speed, he has an amazing air game, along with fast and high priority aerial attacks that provide good spacing and edgeguarding tools, with his down aerial able to meteor-smash if landed on the initial hitbox. His relatively slow falling speed allows him to break out of juggles, and combined with Fire, he has one of the best vertical recoveries in the game. Since forward aerial has good and slightly disjointed range and has slow falling speed, this helps in Mr. Game & Watch's great edgeguarding tactic in the wall of pain.

## Attributes

* Has large disjointed hitboxes on several moves.
* All throw animations use the same animation, making for unpredictable throws.
* Small body frame and lowest crouch in the game, allowing him to avoid more attacks like Marth's shield breaker and Simon's forward tilt.
* Less fluid animations on all attacks to simulate the frame-by-frame movements of his original games, thus making him more unpredictable.
* Up Aerial and Down Tilt can occasionally "super jump" opponents and delay down aerial moves.
* Has an amazing aerial and combo game.
* Chef can knockback opponents if hit at point-blank range and has enough strength to stop most attacks.
* Judge #9 can 0% OHKO players if used correctly. It will always KO if the target hit has 40% or higher damage. In addition, each Judge has various effects, such as freezing or inflicting high shield damage.
* Judge #3 is capable of being a shield breaker, which deals significant damage to destroy full shields.
* Fire is one of the best moves in the game, alongside the best up special in the game for several reasons. It provides him with an amazing recovery and allows him to edgeguard opponents very well while being very resistant to being edgeguarded himself giving him a tremendous offstage presence, is the single best OoS option in the game due to its frame 3 hitbox and intangibility throughout the move, can be used as a potent combo-starter and extender, can stage spike opponents offstage or KO them outright at high percents due to its high knockback, and is a fantastic option for getting out of disadvantage.
* Oil Panic provides Mr. Game & Watch with an amazing defensive tool against projectiles as it absorbs energy based projectiles and reflects anything it can't absorb. The move can so be used as an attack when it the bucket is full from absorbing projectiles and can even OHKO characters at 0% depending on what was absorbed.
* Possesses a fantastic set of smash attacks due to their high power and low ending lag.
* Down Throw provides the most available and interesting mindgames, and also is his only KO throw which kills opponents relaibly under 150%.
* Vermin can bury opponents if sweetspotted.
* Very fast and strong overall moveset with overall excellent range.
* Oil Panic is capable of breaking shields (can be used on Jigglypuff to KO it because its shield can send it forcefully more higher than the other characters), along with Judge if the number is 3 (9 if the opponent's shield is running out). Oil Panic can also reflect various attacks, like Simon, King K. Rool, Pyra & Mythra and Villager.
* Mr. Game & Watch's keyblade can meteor-smash.
* Some of his attacks can multi-hit, such as up aerial, neutral aerial and back aerial.
* Parachute can be used to KO opponents off-stage, along with back aerial, forward aerial and up aerial.
* Final Smash can generate multiple damage to opponents who are trapped into it, and can also hit the opponents with its body.
* Many of his attacks are strong on the opponent's shield, leading to the point of the shield breaking, making all of his moves shield breakers.

### Weaknesses

* Tied with Kirby and Bandana Dee, and therefore very easy to launch.
* Spamming Judge can result in harsh punishment as it is very predictable. Hitting the number #1 will also deal 12% recoil-damage to Mr. Game & Watch, regardless if it hits the opponent or not.
* Down Aerial can only spike at the start of the move. If Mr. Game & Watch was not hit when starting this move, the downward momentum is extremely fast and can cause self-destructs. However, if hit the stall-then-fall effect can be used to a greater extent in addition to creating interesting mindgames.
* Oil Panic must be completely full in order to be used.
* Somewhat weak throws and rather slow attack speed with grabs.

## Summary

Mr. Game & Watch is a medium-speedy, yet floaty third-lightweight character who has a movest of disjointed attacks. Mr. Game & Watch has fairly average attributes all around, having over-average jumping height and running speeds, running slightly slower and jumping slightly lower than Mario, but runs faster and jumps higher than most of the other characters like Luigi and Bowser, mainly the lightest characters, such as Kirby and Jigglypuff. He has good air speed and is on the floatier side of the cast. His most notable attribute is his light weight, as he is tied with Kirby and Bandana Dee for being the third-lightest character in the game, which almost makes him a combo-oriented character, and his very low crouch to evade various attacks: like Rayman's forward smash, Jigglypuff's up smash, Simon's side special and Marth's shield breaker, being one of the characters to have the lowest crouch in the game.

His only other notable attributes are his dashing speeds, being tied with Black Mage, Bomberman, Jigglypuff, Luigi, Mario, Simon and Waluigi, and being tied for the twentieth-fastest character in the game, and his jumping speeds being tied with Naruto, along with his jumping height being tied with a few other characters like Rayman, but his walking speeds (tied with Bomberman and Pit) and falling speeds are slow to compensate (tied with Marth and Rayman).

Overall, Mr. Game & Watch has a fairly unorthodox moveset focused on vertical combos, meaning that he is an unorthodox character in his playstyle. He possesses a very strong juggle game, with his neutral air having a large vertical hitbox and combo ability, his up special allowing him to quickly reach opponents above him, and his up air being able to keep opponents in the air with its windbox effect, which results in a KO if used on them off-stage. Many of his attacks, including forward tilt, up tilt, and all of his aerials, are disjointed, which gives him an advantage in spacing and also increases his KO power in the game, and possessing disjointance in most of his attacks may result in the hitboxes awkwardly increasing which can still hit opponents if it misses and having very excellent reach, making his KO power potentially strong and also laggy out of the other characters in the game and is by far his greatest strength, but many of his attacks, especially those with horizontal hitboxes, are either slow or have awkward properties that make them difficult to use in the neutral game, but has rather very strong attacks in his moveset that will grant opponents potent offence and harsh punishment, making him more like a high-tier or top-tier character to have numerous, yet powerful and potent KO options. By far Mr. Game & Watch's greatest weakness is his lack of horizontal approach options. His running speed isn't fast enough to catch many opponents, with the expection of lightweight opponents or characters at below-average running speeds or is tied with him, and his only fast horizontal aerial is his back air, which does a mere 6% and is difficult to combo with, however, using smash attacks and his forward aerial, his other fast horizontal aerial, will catch running opponents since it has good reach. His grab possesses little range (along with slightly slow pummel), but is not tied with Pichu's grab range, however, his grabbing range is somewhat laggy and disjointed, being able to grab opponents behind him or even if he misses grabbing opponents in front of him.

Mr. Game & Watch has decent grab and throw game, with his up throw, forward throw and back throw being arguably the best and strongest throws in the game, with the latter KOing opponents reliably under 100% of damage, with the middle KOing relaibly under 150%, with the former KOing relaibly under 80%, which are a similar vein to Rayman's throws, although he possesses one of the small-ranged grabs in the game, but his throws also possess lag, with forward and back throw launching the opponent in a potentially fast vertical or horizontial angle, immediately KOing high-damaged opponents (can mainly happen during a windbox effect; like in Dream Land, if the opponent is around 100-200% of damage), up throw sending opponents upward with potential force for a KO at low damage, and his down throw pushing a high-damaged opponent away from him at a horizontial angle on the ground, which makes nearly all of his throws very strong and to have great KO capbility. Most of his moves are very strong on shield, especially with a spaced forward air or forward tilt. Along with these, charging up smash attacks, using Judge if the number hits 3 or 9, using Oil Panic or repeatedly using standard, down, or up tilt attacks on the opponent's shield is very strong on shield, almost resulting in the point of the shield breaking, which is counted as shield breakers. Chef also deals more shield damage. As such, he has a simple time getting much of anything started, and can outbox against characters that has a set of attempts to outbox him on the ground, like Kirby and Samus, however, due to having disjointance in his attacks, he can be able to outbox various characters on the ground, especially lightweight ones. He doesn't has trouble with some zoners, as his down special absorbs energy-based projectiles and reflect physical ones. He never struggles to KO due to his fast and powerful smash attacks (as they possess disjointance in their hitboxes, being able to hit opponents behind and in front of him at the same time which has great multi-KO ability), as they give him many KO options outside of forward aerial and neutral air, combos into up air (which is sometimes inconsistent) which will KO opponents above him with its windbox effect, or his grab KO confirm, with all of his throws (excluding down throw) being very strong for KOing. Mr. Game & Watch also has a hard time landing, due to his floatiness, but does not have the lack of a good option to hit below him outside of down air, which occasionally has hefty landing lag.

When he does get in, though, Mr. Game & Watch can deal a lot of damage to opponents. His neutral air, up tilt, up special, and down air are all powerful combo tools that have the ability to link into each other, and forward air and up air are good combo finishers that can net a KO at high percents, along with his standard attack able to rack up damage due to being used repeatedly on opponents, the last hit also KOing opponents reliably under 200%. Mr. Game & Watch's neutral air can also drag the opponent down, leading to a grab or even a smash attack if timed just right. Mr. Game & Watch has an amazing set of smash attacks that will deal huge knockback and KO opponents reliably under 40% of damage, especially when charged up. Mr. Game & Watch also has a potentially deadly grab game, with his up throw setting up for a juggle. Back throw is Mr. Game & Watch's best and strongest throw for being good for setting up edge guards (since he has forward air and down air for meteor-smashing), where it can lead to KOing every opponents, even around 100% or less damage, his down throw forcing the opponent into a tech chase scenario and can also send the opponent off the ledge if used near the ledge for a KO and also can buy enough time to use one of his smash attacks, and his forward throw comboing into neutral air at low percents, forward air at high percents for a KO confirm, or even his potentially deadly side special, Judge — an attack that can KO at even low percentages if the number strikes 9 —, it is extremely easy to KO if hitting 9 both vertically and horizontally, due to his floatiness, combined with his somewhat lightweight status, along with his potentially deadly down special, Oil Panic, which will absorb energy-based projectiles (like Bomberman's bombs, Samus' charge shot and Ness' up special), and if filled, it will release a large and yet disjointed-hitboxed projectile that will OHKO opponents, even at 0% of damage. Mr. Game & Watch also has a strong edgeguarding game, with his high aerial mobility, ability to put out a large number of falling projectiles with his neutral special, long-lasting aerials, and ability to quickly react to opponents trying to jump over him with his up special. His down air is also an extremely strong spike, and its disjointed hitbox allows it to beat out or trade with nearly every recovery move in the game, severely punishing opponents that have to recover low, like Jigglypuff or Bandana Dee. His down air is also very strong on opponents at higher precents of damage, making other characters vunerable to it off-stage. Mr. Game & Watch has a strong recovery himself, with a fast up special that covers a long distance, the ability to mix up his recovery after his up special with aerials, and his ability to retain his double jump after using his up special. Mr. Game & Watch is almost never at a disadvantage off-stage, as up special will KO opponents off-stage.

Since Mr. Game & Watch has mostly strongest attacks, Mr. Game & Watch is described as a powerful "glass cannon" and a "bait and punish" (can sometimes be an "all-rounder"), which is a character that possesses a potent offense, and can deal a lot of damage. Mainly, he can forcibly punish other lightweight characters, since most of his attacks are fairly powerful and has lots of great combos, along with outboxing other slowfallers or lightweight characters while on the ground, like Kirby, Jigglypuff or Bandana Dee, making him more like a high-tier or top-tier character. He is also descirbed as a "grappler" and a "zoner", which is a character who focuses on controlling the stage and use their grabs as a large part of their playstyle.

## Moveset

### Grab and throws

 Forward throw
 Back throw
 Up throw
 Down throw

### Misc.

 Taunts
 Side
 Down
 Up
 Idle poses
 Victory theme
 Victory pose
 (SSF2) Hops two times in the air.
 (SSF2) Dashes to the right in choppy poses after entering the victory screen from the left, performing a grabbing stance halfway, then turns to the left and finally trips, balancing on a single hand and his nose.
(SSBU) Hops around the screen in heaving poses, tripping halfway, before beginning his balance by teetering on his left foot, then proceeds to jump back and forth, landing on a single foot and his head.

## Trivia

* It is possible for Mr. Game & Watch to be a true "silent character" in the game, since he was never heard talking in the game and simply uses a concatenation of "bleep blooping" sounds heard originally from the *Game & Watch* series, along with Sandbag, Chibi-Robo, Mega Man, PAC-MAN, and Bomberman.
* Mr. Game & Watch and Naruto are currently the only characters to have more than one victory pose in the game, with Mr. Game & Watch being the only one to have three.
* All of Mr. Game & Watch's attacks use objects from games in the *Game & Watch* series, making him the only character to have every single move in his arsenal based on a game he appeared previously before.
* Mr. Game & Watch's Ball form when thrown by another Mr. Game & Watch is simply a giant black circle for his head since he does not have a visible nose or a mouth if facing the screen, resembling the other balls thrown.
* Overall, Mr. Game & Watch inclusively has a smiliar appearance of the several replicas of himself from *Fire* and *Parachute* in the *Game & Watch* series, where they jump out of a burning building to a parachute two firefighters have, and they deploy a parachute for soft landings, as this was accompained in his up special.
* That being said, Mr. Game & Watch's jumping frames are similar to these poses of how the replicas of himself jump from the buring building in *Fire*.
* Although Mr. Game & Watch's appearance mainly consists of two flat monochrome colors(a black body and a light gray outline), his appearance when in his metal form consists of multiple shades of gray. To accomplish this, his default sprites are actually the same sprites he uses when metal, which are then recolored for his costumes.
* Mr. Game & Watch, Yoshi, Zero Suit Samus, Jigglypuff, Tails, Mega Man, Rayman, and Luffy are currently the only characters who do not go into a helpless state under normal circumstances.
* Mr. Game & Watch's artwork is based on his official pose in *Super Smash Bros. Melee*, ringing his alarm bell. However, this is the first game where Mr. Game & Watch is facing right instead of left in his official artwork around the *Super Smash Bros.* series.
* In v1.0.0 to v1.2, as costumes were simple filters and hues at the time, Mr. Game & Watch had a few extra costumes with different colors (such as lime, indigo, pure white and light gray), and they became scrapped onwards in the latest updates of Beta 1.2, as the costumes were changed to recolored versions instead of simple tints/hues and hues.
* Prior to SSBC: v0.9.3, in which costumes were simple filters and hues as opposed of recolors, Mr. Game & Watch's sprites were red by default. This was due to the fact that it allowed for more varied costumes for the character, as grayscale colors like black cannot be changed by applying different hues.
* Mr. Game & Watch and Samus are the only two characters to have the lack of visible eyes in the game, and he is overall the only true "silent character" to have this trait.