Bomberman (SSF2)

Bomberman is a newcomer starter character in Super Smash Flash 2, hailing from Konami's (formerly by the defunct Hudson Soft) series of the same name. He was revealed on the second day of APEX 2013 and officially debuted in v0.9a, released a few weeks later. His moveset appears to be inspired by an obscure mod in Project M from 2012, though this has never been officially confirmed by the developers themselves. His sprites are custom-made and based on his appearance in Bomberman Generation, where he is depicted wearing a red scarf and golden bracelets.

Bomberman is currently ranked 34rd of C tier on the current tier list, a noticeable drop from his 21st place in B tier on the last tier list, and a noticeable small drop from 23rd of B tier from the previous tier list. Bomberman has an incredible stage-control, due to his ability to plant and move around up to five bombs on the stage which, when detonated, produce very large, high-damaging explosions that have to potential to cover the entire stage. He also possesses very good maneuverability; due to his good aerial mobility and a ludicrously fast initial dash that gives him a long dash-dance and can be repeatedly crouch-cancelled to zip around the stage. This is further compounded by his solid air game due to his fast, powerful, disjointed aerials that enable him to combo opponents off-stage, as well as his wealth of good and strong KO moves, including his smash attacks, power bombs, all aerials, all throws, as well as his formidably powerful special moves, Bomb, Bomb Detonator and Jetpack. Bomberman is also assisted by a potent combo and juggling game, as well as for a strong edgeguarding and zoning game.

However, Bomberman is held back by a few notable weaknesses. Bomberman suffers from a high falling speed (the third-highest) which keeps him away from the floatier side of the cast, and a large hurtbox, that make him susceptible to combos and chain-grabs. His relatively below-average weight, combined with his large hurtbox and high gravity, makes him combo fodder and causes him to be suspectible to early KOs reliably below 40%. His recovery, while covering a great vertical distance, is very linear and covers very little horizontal distance, making him easy to gimp. Outside of several moves that utilize his head, Bomberman's attacking range is mostly lackluster, giving him disadvantageous matchups against characters with disjointed hitboxes, such as, and. In addition to this, Bomberman becomes considerably even more fragile on the stage if his opponent overwhelms him before he has a chance to set up his bombs.

Bomberman appears to have a small playerbase and poor representation in online tournaments. However, the players that do participate in tournaments take high spots. Regardless, Bomberman's cons and pros are basically balanced, placing him directly at the middle of mid-tier.

Attributes
Bomberman is a middleweight character who, by his true playstyle, focuses on stage-controlling, utilizing his bombs to pressure the opponents. Bomberman possesses fairly standard mobility: he possesses the 20th-fastest running speeds, above-average (the 20th-highest) jumping heights, the third-highest falling speed, the 15th-slowest short hop and walking speeds, the 4th-highest gravity, below-average (the 10th-slowest) air speed, the highest air acceleration, and the 12th-highest traction. Overall, Bomberman's mobility in the ground and the air is quite exceptional, but his aerial and falling speed can be both somewhat determinetal, making him highly suspectible to juggles and combos.

Generally, Bomberman is a fairly unorthodox fighter who battles his opponents by using his forehead (to headbutt his opponents) and primarily his bombs. As mentioned above, Bomberman's most significant attribute is his ability to place up to five bombs on-stage via his standard special move, Bomb. This grants him an incredible stage-control, which is further supplemented by the ability to charge these bombs for a bigger explosion with more power, and Bomb Kick, which allows Bomberman to move the bombs around the stage. His down special, Bomb Detonate, detonates and explodes the bomb(s) he has laid all at once, allowing him to play mindgames with his opponent, or set up ledge-traps.

Bomberman's grounded game is also very potent. His high dashing speed allows him to catch up to and approach other characters relatively quickly, granting him the ability to rush down other characters to start or extend combos, or KO. His standard attack comes out relatively quickly, and the first two hits can lock, allowing Bomberman to set up for his forward smash via this method. His up and down tilts are both rather quick, and their low knockback allow them to start or extend combos. Additionally, all his smash attacks boast respectable power, with all of his smash attacks being able to KO opponents relatively early, KOing opponents reliably below 45% if fully charged up. His aerial game is also very useful and amazing, with fast and damaging aerials, with forward aerial, back aerial, up aerial notable for being Bomberman's most reliable KO options. Bomberman also possesses a strong edgeguarding game, due to his ability to push the opponents away from the ledge with his special moves, high aerial mobility, long-lasting and disjointed aerials, and the ability to quickly react and shove the opponents away from the stage with his up aerial and Jetpack. His down aerial, a pair of stomps, is also very easy to edgeguard with, although it fraily meteor smashes (which is a rare occurence), it is a very potent stage spike, and its lingering hitbox allows it to beat out or trade with nearly every recovering move in the game, severely punishing and gimping opponents that possess poor recoveries, such as and.

Bomberman also sports a solid grab and throw game; despite his grab possessing short range, it is one of the fastest grabs in the game. His up and down throw are both chain-grabs, which can help him set up Bomb KOs or rack up damage, while also being potent combo and juggling starters, which can combo into neutral aerial, forward aerial or Jetpack for KO confirms at higher precents. His forward and back throws are good at sending opponents far off-stage, where they may not be able to recover if not killing them outright, and they are very useful for setting up edgeguarding situations. Outside of that, all of his throws are strengthened enough to be strong KO throws, being able to KO most characters at around 100%. While his grab is one of the fastest in the game, it is still one of the shortest grabs in the game.

Bomberman also have powerful attacks that utilize his head (which is his most strongest attribute, but is backfired by its weakness), while possessing unique properties and attributes. Many of his attacks, including the ones that wield his head, are notable for possessing a trait to give Bomberman a staple asset: large, long-lasting hitboxes, extremely long melee range from both the ground and the air, and stronger knockback. Dash attack, the first attack that wields his head, possesses long melee range, and is notable for possessing a lingering hitbox, similar to 's dash attack, Helmet, and it has powerful knockback to KO the opponent relatively early. His up aerial, another headbutt-move, boasts high juggling and anti-air capabilities, while also possessing strong knockback for early KOs in the air. Lastly, his forward aerial, his final headbutt-move, boasts an extreme powerful headbutt with great knockback to KO opponents reliably under 50%, while also being notable for having a lingering hitbox.

However, while Bomberman possesses these type of numerous energies, Bomberman is not without his weaknesses. Bomberman's most primary weakness is his large head: while it gives him extreme long melee range, large and long-lasting hitboxes, strong knockback in attacks that utilize it, it also functions as a large hurtbox, making him easier to thrash because of this, in a similar vein to and 's attacks, which extend their hurtboxes.

Due to his nature as an anthropomorphic robotic-like character, his third-highest falling speed also compounds this type of flaw, as he is very susceptible to juggles and combos, and, due to his relatively below-average weight, early KOs horizontally and vertically. Additionally, any attacks that rejects using Bomberman's head possess lackluster range, leaving him at disadvantageous struggles against characters who possess disjointed hitboxes (i.e., , ). His recovery is also very linear, as Jetpack covers very little horizontal distance; despite its impressive vertical distance, and it does not decrease his falling speed during startup, letting other characters easily gimp him. It is also a much more situational recovery in general, due to its decently high startup (also being in comparison to a realistic type of Jetpack, taking an amount of time to prepare), taking more amount of time to prepare before releasing Bomberman to the air, which can potentially cause Bomberman to reach the lower blast zone off-stage before recovering.

Outside of these typical flaws, Bomberman's aerials are fairly out of reliableness. His neutral aerial, a simple sex kick, possesses mostly mediocre range; despite its high knockback growth. His forward aerial and up aerial, his strongest aerials, causes his hurtbox to extend due to his vast head. Should Bomberman perform these paticular aerials to characters with extreme melee range or disjointed hitboxes, Bomberman will easily get overwhelmingly outspaced. His down aerial is likely his weakest aerial of all of them; dealing likely the weakest knockback, less KO potential, and it has a rare occurence to meteor smash the opponents. Also, his grab and throw game is also somewhat poor outside of forward throw and back throw; despite all of his throws being able to KO relatively as early as 100%, among the fastest grab and pummel, it is overall situational outside of those, with his grab being the 8th-shortest in the game, his down throw, his most damaging throw, not being able to KO reliably well beyond 200%. Also, most of his grounded attacks are flawed as well, with his dash attack, while being among the strongest in the game, has decent endlag, making him vulnerable to attacks after performing it once he misses his opponent. His forward smash, while among the strongest, has relatively short range, even though when charged up. His smash attacks also have decent endlag, making him once again vulnerable to attacks if he misses his opponent with them.

Bomberman's defensive game is potentially his weakest asset; despite a relatively small size, Bomberman is among the easiest to shield-poke, due to possessing a large head as a large hurtbox; which means, with a few expections, that every time Bomberman's shield shrinks, it leaves his head poking out, causing his head to get poked by his shield by every type of spacing-based aerial that is able to strike it. To accompain his weak defense, his rolls, while being very swift, gain among the shortest distance and decent endlag, making it often punishable if used sparingly. His sidestep and air dodge, while being fast, possesses decent endlag and, to top it off, their period of intangibility is quite short.

All in all, Bomberman is described as a bomb-wielding zoner (and is viewed by many to be the most potent zoner in the game), a character who focuses on controlling the stage with numerous tools or projectiles that overwhelm the opponents, at the expense of possessing the lack of speed or power to fight on occasions, focusing on wearing down the opponents from a distance. He possesses the most powerful stage-controlling game, while also possessing a brutal combo and juggling game, high KO potential, a strong edgeguarding game, a solid ground and aerial game, a strong approach, extreme long melee range in his headbutt-moves. He is also held back by overall lackluster range in his non-headbutt moves, a large hurtbox (due to his large head), the 3rd-highest falling speed, and a mediocre linear recovery, and also being suspectible for being finished off earlier than other middleweights (due to his third-highest falling speed, below-average weight, and a large hurtbox). Overall, Bomberman's playstyle relies on his stage-control abilities to overwhelm his opponents, though he must be careful when recovering or attacking without cautions.

Changes from v0.9b-Beta 1.3
Although Bomberman didn't receive changes onward from Beta 1.1 (causing Bomberman to be overall worse in the meta), Bomberman fortunately became buffed as respective patches passed. Bomberman undergone an oppressive phletora of buffs and nerfs, though Bomberman was overall drastically nerfed. While Bomberman recieved productive buffs and changes (such as a stronger forward throw and back throw) that are enough to make Bomberman a much more viable fighter than in previous patches of the game, Bomberman's nerfs (related to his falling speed, reduced base knockback, and a weaker forward smash) drastically outnumber the aformentioned buffs below. Furthermore, his buffs are not enough to outweigh his various nerfs.

Overall, Bomberman is a less effective character as patches passed by (due to these type of drastically overwhelming nerfs and underwhelming buffs), which makes him overall unviable in competitive settings. While several of Bomberman's buffs and positive traits strengthen most of his attacks throughout his playstyle, his overwhelming nerfs completely reduces the power of most of his attacks. Furthermore, Bomberman resides at the middle of mid-tier.

Grounded attacks

 * Dash attack:
 * Forward tilt:
 * Forward tilt:
 * Forward tilt:
 * Forward tilt:

Aerial attacks

 * Neutral aerial:

Notable players

 * Akabonba

Tier placement history
Bomberman made an initial placement in 9th of A tier in the original tier list from v0.9a, which is his greatest placement throughout the series. However, Bomberman made an unfortunately significant drop to 36th of C- tier in the second tier list, causing him to be ranked as the fourth-worst character in the game. Afterwards, Bomberman made a sufficent leap to 21st of B- tier in the third tier list, placing him at the second-bottom of lower mid-tier. Bomberman then made a little leap to 23rd of B- tier, placing him at the top of lower mid-tier. Bomberman then made a sufficent drop to 30th of B+ tier, placing him at higher mid-tier. Finally, Bomberman then dropped to being placed at the middle of mid-tier, ranking him at 34th of B tier.

Alternate Costumes
Changing Bomberman's costume will also change the color appearance of his bombs.