Smash Advent Calendar - Day 9 - Luigi

Our Day 9 spotlight falls on the man who's year it is - Luigi, the mean green machine. He's an incredibly popular character and, whilst perhaps not being as widely known as his brother, has one of the biggest cult followings around when it comes to Nintendo characters. He's spineless, awkward and will constantly babble on in many of his modern appearances. But whether getting stranded in ghost houses in "Mario Galaxy" or boring his brother to sleep with long tales in "Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Old Door", his unique personality and strange fighting style has won over many Smash Bros. players since he first appeared in the original game.

Luigi has not fared very well when it comes to tiers. He was low in both Brawl and the original, being considered joint second worst in the N64 game with Link. This is usually down to his awkward physics, including slipping across the arena after stopping and having slow and floaty jumps. Combined with his low falling speed, this all meant that Luigi had a massive problem approaching enemies, especially characters that could safely camp behind projectiles and quick attacks. His dash attack also added to the problem - Luigi flails his fists several times, offering okay damage but at the cost of terrible speed and awful recovery; blocked blows are easily shield grabbed and even hitting the full attack doesn't leave Luigi in a good position.

Luigi had his shining moment in Melee when wavedashing was the name of the game, having the easiest one to perform with great effectiveness. This allowed him to charge across stages at great speed charging smash attacks. Of course, this isn't an option in Smash 4 as wavedashing is out, so he needs to make up some maneuverability in other areas. Perhaps a little more traction, though not so much as to ruin his character. A higher speed would be a way to balance him out if traction remained low.

Get a grip, Luigi.

In all games, Luigi also has good grabs - they are almost identical to Mario's, with back-grabs sending opponents massive distances and up throws leading into nice aerial combos. In Brawl he received some buffs in the power department, particularly in his iconic forward smash, so it would be nice to see more of that; higher power would mean that Luigi has a hard time getting to opponents but is highly rewarded for doing so. Luigi's Side+B also started well and became better in brawl, providing decent damage, good recovery and in it's Wii iteration became less risky as well. He could also do with a better dash move, and although his flail has been confirmed to reappear, it could be made faster with a more push-back for himself and the enemy on the final hit, even if blocked.

All in all, Luigi just needs some tweaks and buffs rather than any extensive work-over. People have suggested that his hoover should be incorporated into his moveset but whilst it could potentially be interesting, it's easy to see it becoming a wasted slot on his moves list in the same fashion as Mario's FLUDD pack in Brawl. His Final Smash should also stay similar, being a very amusing attack that matches Luigi's quirkiness and being fairly effective in a fight too. So stay strange, green hero, and with some luck in the buff departments, you'll go far.

What do you guys think of Luigi? Unruly and untamable? Or misunderstood and endearing? Let me know in the comments below or leave a post over on the facebook page.