Neutral B:
-ngl Neutral B’s total frames being so low set off alarm bells in my head; my go-to example of a low-duration move is Yink’s arrows, and a Yink spamming them as fast as he can is still a few frames slower than King Bob doing this move. It’s completely different from a projectile however, instead being delayed setplay that doesn’t have a hitbox at first.
Writing as I read along (matches the way I read normally, taking a moment to put each piece available together, even if I haven’t seen the full picture yet), it’s a knee-jerk reaction but they’re part of the fun.
I have a massive soft spot for underhand tosses in general, plus it’s a cute reference to the great Paper Jam fight, but I also like how it’s both visually & functionally unique - curious to see what you explore.
-Explanation of the Bob-Ombs’ mechanics sounds good so far. Appreciated the detail of them intercepting combos reliant on chaining landing aerials together, that was a green flag~
-Allowing 5 at once is a lot, there’s a reason the rule is typically 1. Lasting for up to 6 seconds, waddling around and doing their own things, and ESPECIALLY the aforementioned non-committal toss make me worried Bob could spam them when he gets a chance (imagine him knocking you off-stage at high%s, and you have to get off ledge with 4-5 of those buggers around… they can bump into their king & each other so he can have multiple linger near the ledge, gross). Maybe 2-3 at most, if the toss was more committal then I could see an argument for 4 (since there’d be very little time to exploit all of them), but 5 with that speed is too much.
“5 should be a good limit, considering how many other objects he can summon aside from them” is ominous.
-Oh, Bob-Ombs are completely different when summoned mid-air, neat. Although, why not give him a way to do either one whenever? Maybe tap B for one variant and hold for the other, maybe press B to turn any already mid-air one… but that’s just what I’d do, you do you. One of the first things I thought of when I saw the frame data & throw angle was jumping away from the opponent to throw the waddling variants while semi-safely retreating, so this made me both rethink that strategy and question this choice.
Why don’t they count to the limit? They still have the same spam capability, but now not only do they last MUCH longer in the air (in exchange for detonating on landing), they’re basically projectiles now since they explode on contact.
Feels weird that Bob has a fail animation for trying to use Neutral B on the ground for the 6th time in a row, but it’s not just perfectly fine if he jumps for the 6th, he could do indefinite jumping ones in a row and create a cascading wall of the buggers.
It’s not too unfair onstage, but doing it past the ledge is a little gross. That being said, the mental image is hilarious.
-Feels weird to see some clever details peppered throughout the move, only for the doc to abruptly move onto Side Special the moment you run out of. They’re not obligatory, but a wrap-up paragraph (or even just a couple of sentences) to put a bow on the whole move tends to help a lot, both with giving the reader a good sendoff summary of the move & how you think it should be used, and giving you more opportunities to have fun with the details & impress the reader.
Admittedly, was hoping that peppered details were appetizers for a “main course” later on. Don’t get me wrong, the details are great on their own, but the move doesn’t feel quite complete, y’know? Take that with a grain of salt though, if this is the way you prefer writing docs, it’s hardly a moveset-ruiner.
Side B:
-Love the summon animation, something about a king summoning a relatively-simple conveyor belt as if he’s sending his greatest knights to battle tickles my neurons.
-Curious idea, giving him a conveyor belt he can place nigh-wherever.
I believe the speed’s effect on players is negligible, bordering on meaningless. Taking 5.25 seconds to cross 6 grids/tiles is very very slow, 0.75 seconds per grid is equivalent to 45 frames; take Pac-Man/Shulk, they have a roughly average run speed (1.672, 49th), and they can cross a grid in roughly 7 frames, rounded up. At most, the full conveyor belt is likely only giving most characters a single-digit amount of extra frames in travel time.
To be fair, Smash is a game where every frame counts, the slowdown miiiight make certain actions barely safe when otherwise they could’ve been punished… also the fact that there’s at least 1 bomb in the way might give opponents hesitation. But at the end of the day, when the conveyor is almost half the speed of a backwards crawl, I don’t think it’ll hinder their movement quite like you’d expect.
-Because of that, the move feels a lot better in concept than (theoretical) execution; while it may subtly affect small moments in gameplay, and the approaching-at-a-snail’s-pace KBO doing his own thing is pretty funny (not to mention other characters using it), the horribly slow speed affects the entire move. Not just the players, but any of KBO’s spawnables, and how little their movements are altered.
Judging on its intended merits, this move is a’ight, I like the mental stack of the multiple bomb varieties and the conveyor being similar to a controllable/moveable stage hazard. But that’s the power of key numbers.
Although, the slow speed DOES make the bombs interesting in a different way, as compared to the waddling versions they’re moving but only ever so slightly, so they’re a lot more reliable for shepherding the Neutral B ones. A silver lining.
Would recommend speeding it up, perhaps to one of the slower walking speeds in the game? Might be far more noticeable, but without making it too obnoxious.
-Another “take it with a grain of salt” thing, a large pet peeve of mine is when huge details about a move are saved until the very end of the description, and then hardly elaborated on before shifting to the next attack. It was bearable for Neutral Special since it wasn’t the very last paragraph (and the introductory paragraph had a lot to enjoy in it), but here it’s almost offhandedly mentioned… can appreciate the details though.
There’s at least another paragraph’s worth of potential with this move, and it’s an unfortunate note to end Side B on. Especially since I’d love to hear you discuss turning the move into a far more aggressive move that he can space with and detonate much quicker, alongside the risk/reward of
However, this won’t be brought up further.
Up Special:
-Ooh, a neat little take on a blend between Dedede’s Up B with a hint of K. Rool’s crown sweetspots. The move loses a lot of traits in comparison (distance, power, armor/intangibility, cancelability), but the better mobility, more reliable ledgegrab capabilities, and ESPECIALLY the upward hitbox rewarding clean hits make up for it. And the aesthetic addition of him tucking his legs is fun~
Taking the item box/Kirby stars idea and turning it into him pooping out a Neutral B Bob-Omb behind him is a creative choice; adds an unusual yet fascinating decision to make when going for the hail-mary ground pound while recovering, as you could B-Reverse the Up B to choose which side, with negligible changes to the distance travelled and hitboxes since you can travel backwards and his hitbox isn’t reliant on direction.
-Personal/non-critical note, once wrote a short-lived draft for a KBO moveset a long time ago, and one of the only ideas that stuck was an Up B called “Royal Rules” (based on his SM64 voiceline when you throw him off the mountain and he calls you a cheater): the joke was that it’d be like Hero’s Zoom, but with longer startup, no intangibility (maybe some armor though), and far more predictable landing zones.
Was a dumb idea, but thought it’d be funny since it’d either encourage more honourable play (letting him come back and attempt to punish the landing from the sky) or the exact opposite (more ruthless edgeguarding to exploit his long/vulnerable startup and milk as much damage as you can off of him, or perhaps get a spike).
Anyways.
Down B:
-Was about to question why the cannon specifically landed on the stage, but then you turned it into an alternate F-Smash, lovely decision.
-Both this and Side Special were pretty chunky to read. Not necessarily a problem, but I’d encourage experimenting with how you present huge chunks of important information in the future. Especially with the amount of movesets you like to put out, don’t be afraid with getting it wrong every now and then, if it means your future projects will benefit massively from it. Maybe try breaking up paragraphs more frequently, and placing different spacing between certain segments (i.e. a line breaking it up, pressing Enter twice, etc.), giving the reader more room to breathe and process it all.
I feel like this could be presented in an easily-digestible manner, but it’s up to you whether you’d like to attempt that while maintaining your writing style, or if you like the beefier segments.
-Building off the above, IMO the huge paragraph first explaining hopping into/aiming/flying out of the cannon could’ve been separated, about a third of it is discussing secondary details and tactics, which don’t neeeeeed to be in the same wall of text. The sudden explanation of which game it’s based on is almost jarring (it’s cool, but very unnecessary fluff bundled in a paragraph filled with, and adds to the sense it could’ve been cleaned up and easier/smoother to read), would’ve been better-fitting elsewhere.
-First function is appealing though, it’s clear there’s so much more to the move, but the K. Rool Blunderbuss-esq self-launch sounds like a ton of fun for multiple levels of play - goofing off in free-for-alls and casual matches, some really tricky setups in higher-level 1v1s, or even some filthy strats for 2v2s/doubles.
-hyper nitpick, the “i’ll mention he’s completely armored, but will take damage if hitboxes intersect his hurtboxes” sentence is thoroughly redundant, all you needed to say is that it’s armor with 50% damage reduction, and people know what you mean.
Otherwise, rest of the pre-KBO-jumpscare details are good… particularly fond of the straight upwards failsafe and the hop-cancel details, loving how you think some of these things through.
Quick question, can you grab KBO out of the cannon? Armor normally doesn’t work against grabs, but the cannon’s an unusual state, wonder how that’d work.
-Great details on how the two expected Specials interact with it… but wasn’t expecting the Up B to get some love, nice stuff~
Can you drop the cannon onto your spawned bombs and instantly load them all, or does the hitbox blow them up? Thinking a funny strat would be to herd a bunch of Bob-Ombs by a ledge or wall (using Side B or KBO himself to keep them in one place), then drop Down B on them and have the cannon start rapid-firing them all in a row.
