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 Donkey Kong Donkey Kong's Grounded Hand Slap and Back-Air are the core to DK’s mixup game when in range. They both compliment eachother's shortcomings for coverage, and are also incredibly rewarding on hit. When the opponent stays grounded, Grounded Hand Slap , while also being safe on block with proper spacing. Back air punishes opponents attempting to jump over Grounded Hand Slap, as it makes a fantastic air-to-air normal that is quick with lots of reward. Mixing in burst options like Dash-Attack or threatening an incredibly potent Grab with these two options gives DK a surprisingly strong neutral against most of the cast.
Donkey Kong’s Down-Tilt and Forward-Tilt are also other more non-committal challenge grounded opponents with a high degree of safety. Up-tilts, Upward-Angled Forward-Tilts, and fadeback Back-Airs gives Donkey Kong access to swatting out aerial opponents very well too. Donkey Kong can also gain important advantages from these moves, with tripping Down-Tilts leading to grabs, dash attacks, and Giant Punch, Up-Tilts leading to combos into Up-Airs, and Forward-Tilts leading to better stage positioning. Mix that in with the high reward from Donkey Kong's grabs thanks to Cargo Throw and we got a character who can take the upper hand and completely run with it.
One who wants a versatile toolkit capable of playing many styles with a lean towards controlling space with explosive rewards would need to look no further than the leader of the bunch. |
- Versatile: Donkey Kong is above average just about everything, and can perform any style necessary for the situation or matchup.
- Explosive Advantage State: If Donkey Kong gets his hands on his opponent, his potent juggling, combo tree, and edgeguarding can absolutely obliterate stocks.
- Great Burst Options: Donkey Kong’s dash attack is incredibly large, so DK can call out grounded movement very easily. aggressive RAR Back-Airs can catch aerial movement as well.
- High Range for Startup: Donkey Kong’s moves have impressive range, but what’s more impressive is that, unlike other characters, DK doesn’t sacrifice startup and can reasonably box out sword characters like Marth, Corrin, Ike, and many others!
- Quick Mobility: Donkey Kong is above average in terms of mobility, which allows him to position himself better than most. He has a top 10 walkspeed in particular, which complements his ability to space.
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- Combo Food: While Donkey Kong is very heavy, his large size and poor options out of disadvantage means that he will die in very few neutral interactions.
- Exploitable Recovery: Donkey Kong is very prone to being edgeguarded in a rinse-repeat fashion to death if he doesn’t mix up properly. Spinning Kong does not have particularly great vertical distance either and lacks hitbox placements above and below him making him very prone to dying off of meteors which can kill Donkey Kong incredibly early if he doesn't have his double jump.
- Poor Out of Shield Options: If Donkey Kong is forced to shield, his options are slower than most of the cast. He has niche options with armor in Grounded Spinning Kong, but they are not very reliable outside of hard reads.
- Poor Diagonal Presence: If the opponent approaches DK at an angle, they will find it much easier to exploit DK’s blindspots
- Gets Whiff Punished Easily: If Donkey Kong misses an attack, he will be in lag for a very long time. Furthermore, his whiffs extend his hurtbox massively. This makes moving around Donkey Kong for a whiff punish very effective.
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