Done some more observations of Wario compared to the cast, and competitive-wise it feels like Wario is just a low-tier counter to some characters.

DK
Yoshi
Ichigo
Naruto

"It's a cold stormy night. A chilly wind accompanied by an ominous tone flows throughout the field. Tombstones are lined up evenly across the ground. It reeks of death and garlic. There are names inscribed on some tombstones that are distinguishable, yet fading away. slaypes, jorrja, JayVoltage, Marvin, Arsenec. A gravedigger (some random BR player idfk), with shovel in hand, is strolling through and observing this graveyard, making sure everything is in check. However, off to a lonely section of the yard is a tombstone that seems to have been disturbed and is laying flat on the ground. The gravedigger goes to the tombstone, and sees a rather large hole in the ground; it seems to have been dug up. The gravedigger acquires a sense of panic and confusion. 'Could someone have disgraced this grave and taken the corpse away?' He suddenly hears footsteps behind him. Instinctively, he turns around... only to acquire an even more powerful sense of panic. The corpse- yes, the corpse itself, has appeared right before the gravedigger, reanimated and reeking of rotten garlic and rotting skin. The corpse is merely an arm length away. Along with panic, the gravedigger has a sense of confusion; 'why is the corpse's back turned to me? Should I try and bring it down with the shovel?' And just like the flash from a camera, the gravedigger suddenly drops his shovel and sprints away from the corpse as if his life was in danger. And in the next moment... *BLLLLLLP*! Green cloud-like gas has erupted from where the corpse was standing, and it spreads across the graveyard. A few seconds later, the gas clears up. The gravedigger is nowhere to be found. Neither is the corpse, but like a bird shot out of the sky, the corpse has fallen to the ground from a height at a very fast speed moments later. Free at last, the corpse begins its journey into the arena, determined to use his powers to compete with countless other players in the arena."

Sorry about that, I got bored and decided to write something. Basically it references the fact that many people have dropped Wario dead in favor of other characters. And that re-animated corpse is yours truly.


Anyways, here's some things about Wario that don't float my boat.

- Ftilt is near useless, and not as powerful as it should be, taking its startup and range into account. It's also quite slow and punishable.

- Fsmash is not as powerful as it should be to reward the dedication it takes to land it. It is also quite punishable. Brawl Wario's Ftilt is around as strong as this Fsmash.

- Usmash has some startup lag, and it's a little too easy to DI out of. It's also very slow.

- Dtilt has no pushback on Shield, which would make it a legit spacing tool like the illusion it tries to show you. Wario can get shield-grabbed by the fingers, which punishes Warios who use spacing very well.

- Dair is too slow, both in terms of startup and on the way down. It also has a lot of endlag. Not that powerful of a reward with how risky it is to use this move.

- A lot of moves outright beat Shoulder Bash, which adds salt to the wound. The wound being it's already unsafe and risky to use, and it's not that fast unless you wanna land it a very specific distances.

- Jab is terrible, although that's kind of normal. Wario can't jab reset into grab unless the foe is lying down and Wario is point blank. The combo itself isn't true vs certain characters.

- Corkscrew is very slow. I understand this can be a good thing since it lasts long enough to ward off edgehoggers, but it is still easily gimped. It also can't have its angle changed enough for Wario to recover from anywhere except at certain depths.

- Uair has a sourspot that is very difficult to land. Given how much the sweetspot deals in terms of knockback, it's very hard to react to a sourspot and land a followup. If the sourspot were more apparent, players (me) wouldn't have as much of an issue missing the followup since the sourspot is very miniscule. Although, the sweetspot should be adjusted accordingly to balance out with the sourspot.

That double post.

ikr, but no one besides me posts here anyway so lol

So much dedication towards a Fat man Jeezus

Wario's Fsmash and Ftilt are near useless right now.

I'm aware that Shoulder Bash is Wario's staple move from the Land series, and it's a very nostalgic attack. But taking into account the lack of potential Fsmash and Ftilt have right now, the lack of armor Wario has as a heavyweight, Shoulder Bash complained about despite being a very restricted and difficult move to use without leaving yourself vulnerable or KOing yourself, and Wario having to always take risks in every situation, I believe some changes could happen that will help Wario out with his major problems.

I think it's easy to tell where I'm going with this. I'll just get to the point; Wario should get his Fsmash from Brawl, have his Ftilt match the power of his Brawl Ftilt, and have Wario Bike from either Brawl or 4 replace Shoulder Bash as a Side Special.

These may only be a small number of changes, but they will help Wario out in a big number of ways.

SSF2 Fsmash is almost never used, because Wario has much more favorable tools he'd rather utilize. But if Wario had his Brawl Fsmash, he would actually have many of his major problems remedied a little more, and make use of it. Brawl Fsmash is faster, more powerful, and has armor. This would help Wario out in terms of his KO power, and it would also help out his combo and ground game.

SSF2 Ftilt is pretty much in the same boat as SSF2 Fsmash. All it needs is to match Brawl's knockback and maybe have his hand expand in size in order to slightly increase the hitbox and hurtbox.

With Brawl Fsmash, Wario's Side Special should be replaced with Wario Bike. Bike shenanigans will help Wario out a lot in terms of approaches and defense. Since everything Wario does right now is very risky and he struggles against many types of characters, having a Bike bouncing around while he dances around it will remedy so many of the issues he has. Bike can also do things that Shoulder Bash can already do, just with less risk outside of leaving his Bike onstage while recovering. Bike helps Wario's recovery so much better than Shoulder Bash. Tires being able to be picked up and thrown upon wreckage of the Bike would also help out with Wario's lack of safe approaches. The only downside to having Bike instead of Shoulder would be less KO power, although having wheelies could make up for it, albeit unnecessary.

I like Shoulder Bash the way it is: why can't you just make the move have dramatically less endlag and bounce off of shields?

Obviously you're the expert here, but I'm interested in what you think of this.

I've already tried to ask for that, but people said it'd be unbalanced due to the spammy nature it'd create.

Wario's ground game could be improved a lot.

His so-called "spacing" tools are not safe. Ftilt and Dtilt have no pushback on Shield, and Dtilt extends his hurtbox so far out, even beyond his fingers. Ftilt also doesn't have enough reward for the risk to land it because of startup lag, ending lag, and being very weak.

His ground KO options aren't useful at all. Fsmash and Usmash both come out too slow, and Fsmash needs to either be sped up and have an increase in KB, or just be Brawl's Fsmash and have his Shoulder Bash be replaced with Bike.

With Wario's shortest grab range in the game, only his Dthrow is justified for it. Fthrow and Uthrow are pretty much too identical, so his Fthrow could be replaced by something like Brawl's Fthrow and have this Fthrow become his Uthrow.

Wario's Jab is also useless, and it can't even Jab-Reset.

I just thought of an alternative to buffing Dair; replace it with Wario's Dair from Brawl or 4. This would help out Wario's combo game and even help out his piss poor range too.

what would his b-air be then?

It could be like Brawl and 4's Bair... but this Bair is better overall. And hey, SSF2 could have Wario be like a ballerina; we already got Usmash and Bair, might as well have his Dair from Brawl/4, which is much better than crappy Dair right now.

Since I've reached my peak of skill with Wario I never have used Dair in a serious match.

Why, does Shoulder Bash get stuffed by Jabs?

Wow you really are the only one who posts here...

Why does dthrow look weird?