Smash Advent Calendar - Day 7 - King Dedede

King Dedede is a series newbie, only appearing recently in Brawl. A very solid addition, Dedede helped bring some more representation forward for the Kirby franchise. He's a fairly popular character in his own right, being a funny antihero brimming with personality. His inclusion looks fairly likely for Smash 4 as he's the brainchild of director Sakurai, so let's look at what he brings to the table.

Dedede is a high tier character, in part due to his infinite, but we'll get to that. He has some incredible tilt attacks with good range and power, his Up+A tilt in particular is useful as it has some good speed to it as well. His Smashes are slow, yes, but they are the strongest smashes in the game by far - an enemy stands no chance even at 80-90%! His B moves are also fairly good; his Neutral+B inhale allows some nice damage at a good range whilst allowing the player to decide where to position the enemy; his Side+B projectile gives Dedede a decent long range game that keeps opponents guessing; his Up+B allows him great vertical recovery which combined with his multiple jumps makes him damn near unkillable.

And now on to the previously mentioned infinite...

Dedede does, however, need some changes. For one his chain grab, in my opinion, needs to go. It allows infinite combos against several characters - this means that Dedede can take a character like Ganondorf, get him from 0-300% in a combo and end with a deadly backthrow. However, he could also use some buffs: a more useful dash attack for starters, as the damage is negligible and leaves Dedede ridiculously open for several seconds. His Down+B is also an attack that requires some slight tweaking - it effectively allows him to move around with a charged smash attack... but it lacks some smash power considering the predictability of the move and how easy it is to avoid. Perhaps the hit could do with being slightly faster, or Dedede could move a little faster whilst charging it.

Overall though, Dedede is a really fun character to play with. His incredible power is well balanced with his stupidly low speed which suits Dedede to a tee. He's a clunky, unruly character and you feel exactly like that when you play as him. Removal of his infinite will drop him down on the tier list but with some small tweaks it's possible he'll remain solid and playable.

What do you guys think of this Royal penguin? Is his strange, brash playstyle fun? Or just too slow to be useful? Will he be viable without his chain grab?Should chain grabs exist? Let me know in the comments below or go to the facebook page and leave a stamp there.