Sandbag (SSF2)

Sandbag is a newcomer starter character in Super Smash Flash 2. He was first revealed in SSF2 Dev Blog #5 on April 1st, 2016, and initially thought to be an April Fools' Day joke. However, a special blog, SSF2 Dev Blog #5.1, was released two days later confirming Sandbag's inclusion as the game's "joke" character. Sandbag was a pet-project by developer, James Hadden, and its development was completed in a week's time; thanks to the character using only three sprites in all of its animations; which were then rotated, stretched, and distorted in Super Smash Flash to create over 70 unique animations. Unlike its traditional availability as an unlockable character from Beta 1.1, he makes his availability as a starter instead in Beta 1.2.

Sandbag is currently ranked at the bottom of the entire current tier list, ranking it as the absolute worst character in the game, ten times lower than his previous placement, 45 of C- tier, and a noticeable small drop from 38th of D- tier from the second-previous tier list, where he was residing at lower-tier. He utilizes a highly unorthodox playstyle that breaks many conventions of character design in the game to great effect, making him one of the most unpredictable characters in the game. He possesses a high number of moves that are deceptively strong, capable of racking up big damage or scoring some very cheesy KOs. He also has a strong air game, with fast aerials and quick burst-movement options like Sanddash and Sandgrab. His grab possesses long reach; while his throws are ridiculously powerful, giving him an amazing grab and throw game as well. His unorthodox recovery contain a lot of flexibility and, when mastered, allow Sandbag to recover from a surprisingly high number of situations off the stage. Sandbag also contains powerful KO moves in his smash attacks, aerials, forward throw and back throw, as well as for his potentially powerful special moves, Bomb-omb Toss and Capsule. Sandbag possesses an extreme high damage-output, a great aerial game, and the most powerful spike with down aerial in the game. He also provides an oppressive spacing and edgeguarding game, a solid grab and throw game, as well as for long range in most of his attacks (thanks to its large-sized body possessing unique and great properties). His special moves also possess powerful properties, and his infinite recovery is among the best in the game (as long as Sandbag is not KO'd), and most of his moves are fast enough to contain little-to-no startup to easily rack up enough damage to KO opponents afterward.

However, as one would expect from a joke character, Sandbag is plagued by an abundance of weaknesses. He contains some of the worst grounded-movement in the game; due to his unique walking and dashing animations causing him to slowly "hop" forwards with long pauses in between. Many of Sandbag's strong attacks have medium-to-heavy endlag, making them highly punishable on whiff. His neutral getup is by far the longest in the game, making him extremely vulnerable to jab-resetting. Sandbag's biggest flaw is his inability to grab ledges at all, removing his ability to edgehog opponents while giving him a very poor disadvantaged state off-stage; despite his unique recovery. Speaking of which, his primary recovery tool causes him to literally blow himself up, which deals a lot of self-inflicted damage and will cause him to KO himself if his damage gets too high. Sandbag contains severe difficultes within the neutral game; due to most of its aerials (such as down aerial) being hard to land. Many of his other attacks, especially ones that contain powerful knockback, are slow and laggy or may contain awkward properties that make them difficult in the neutral game, and they possess medium-to-heavy endlag, causing Sandbag to be vulnerable to attacks that easily overwhelm him. While Sandbag does have a great aerial game, he is notrious for possessing one of the worst grounded games. As an anthropomorphic bag, he possesses attributes highly based on a typical bag; the second-slowest running speed, relatively slow walking speeds, and overall laggy and short-reaching attacks (with the expection of his tilt attacks) also compounds this flaw, as well as for ranking his approach the second-weakest. Sandbag's defensive game is also very punishable; possessing slow and short-reaching rolls that gain less intangibilities, causing Sandbag to be vulnerable to attacks with lingering hitboxes. His sidestep possesses less amount of intangibilities, making it extremely punishable. Sandbag also suffers a high falling speed and an outlarged hurtbox, giving him disadvantageous struggles against characters with large, disjointed and long-lasting hitboxes like and, and (due to lacking a real projectile itself) zoners with projectile-heavy playstyles, like ,  and. His special moves are also overall situational, with Capsule Spawn containing a rare occurence of exploding (with the expection of if all items are turned off), Sandgrab covering short horizontal distance and high endlag if landed (making Sandbag vulnerable), and Bomb-omb Toss being somewhat linear for a recovery and causing Sandbag to SD and get stage-spiked. His high falling speed makes him suspectible to juggles or combos. Despite being a middleweight, it also possesses high hitstun; which (coupled with Bomb-omb Toss, high falling speeds, an outlarged hurtbox, below-average speed and a mediocre defense) makes him extremely suspectible to early KOs, especially off the top of the screen.

Sandbag appears to have a little playerbase and a somewhat-lackluster representation in online tournaments. The only notable competitive players of Sandbag are Mew2ube and MedK, who are currently inactive and do not use Sandbag for recent online tournaments. Though his strengths are not be be underestimated, the multipility of weaknesses drastically overshadow the aformentioned positive traits, ranking Sandbag as the absolute worst character in the game.

Attributes
Sandbag, true to its playstyle, is a highly unorthodox character in responsibilities, utilizing several attacks that ordinarily wouldn't be viewed on any other fighter in the series. Sandbag is a relatively heavyweight character that possesses standard attributes of an ordinary anthropomorphic bag. Sandbag possesses poor grounded mobility: the 2nd-slowest running speeds; because it consists of constant hops that pauses between its frames — as opposed to realistic styles of running. However, its walking speeds are tied with for being the fastest in the game. Sandbag's aerial mobility is quite sub-standard; the 7th-slowest air speed, excellent air friction, the lowest air acceleration (on par with, , , , , , , , , and ), the 11th-highest traction (on par with  and ), a below-average jumping height, the lowest short hop, the 11th-lowest gravity on par with  and , and the 11th-highest falling speed (on par with , ,  and ). Though its mobility is mostly underwhelming for a handful of the cast, its relatively small size makes him mostly difficult to hit, but its falling speed is somewhat detrimental.

Sandbag's substainal strength is its high damage-racking capabilities. Several of Sandbag's attacks throughout his playstyle deal high amounts of damage and possess high range. On top of it, they possess extremely swift startup, allowing Sandbag to increase its opponents' damage quickly and efficiently. Because of this, it also boasts good setups into several different finishers, such as its forward smash and dash attack. Sandbag also has effective KO moves in its smash attacks, tilts, aerials, throws and its formidable special moves; Capsule and Bomb-omb Toss. It also possesses one of the fastest sidesteps in the game, giving him a decent defensive game.

Sandbag's grounded attacks possess their own various type of strengths; Sandbag's jab, for example, is one of the strongest in the game that KOs a certain amount of the cast outright at 100%, even outbeating 's forward smash, although it is currently the slowest in the game. Forward tilt and up tilt come out quickly, with the former launching the opponent at a strong semi-spike stream and possessing great range; both of them can KO reliably as early as under 100%. Down tilt and dash attack possess the same attributes; they also travel Sandbag at a further distance while lowering his hurtbox, allowing him to crawl and low-profile certain attacks or projectiles. They also possess the interesting trait of effectively KOing reliably under 35% or lower precents; unlike any other type of tilt attack or dash attack by their kind. All smash attacks possess unique properties: its up smash hits up to two times while possessing outlarged range, forward smash comes out quickly and puts Sandbag's hurtbox off the ground, evading certain horizontal attacks. Down smash possesses two hitboxes; one being a meteor smash, the other being a semi-spike.

Sandbag's aerial game is also very prominent. Despite possessing relatively low aerial mobility, all of its aerials, with the potential exclusion of down aerial, possess swift startup and possess the utility to be combo starters or extenders, such as its neutral and back aerials, and they are strengthened enough to possess high KO potential to be finishers, most notably with its down aerial, which is currently the strongest spike in the game and among the fastest, although it possesses noticeable startup of all aerials. Sandbag's up aerial possesses utility for being a notorious anti-air and juggling tool to fast-fallers and heavyweights.

Sandbag sports a formidable grab and throw game; possessing one of the longest-reaching grabs in the game. On top of that; similarly to, his dashing grab possesses the interesting trait of travelling Sandbag at a further distance to grab opponents by a distance. Sandbag's up throw is its best throw, and can easily chain-grab against fast-fallers and heavyweights (ex. and ). Down throw and especially up throw are simple combo throws, which can easily combo into its aerials, Bomb-omb Toss or even Sandgrab. Lastly, forward throw is Sandbag's strongest throw, being able to effectively KO a handful of the cast as early as 100%. Back throw, a strong semi-spike throw, is very useful for setting up edgeguards, and, along with up and down throws, is strengthened enough to become a viable KO throw at higher precents, killing under 120%. Lastly, back throw and up throw possess the interesting trait of hitting opponents nearby their hitboxes.

Sandbag's formidable special moves also reflect its absurdity and unorthodox playstyle. Sandbag's neutral special, Capsule Spawn, allows it to spawn a Capsule that can contain any type of item that is presently active in the item switch. It also possesses a chance to explode instead (randomly or if the item switch is switched off), dealing high damage and knockback, making it a situational KO finisher. Sandbag's side special, Sandgrab, is a command grab, allowing it to by-pass shields; somewhat similarily to 's Stop, and it can also provide good horizontal recovery in mid-air. Sandbag's down special, Sanddash, is a controllable burst of movement that can be directed anywhere, and it can cancel into any of his attacks in his moveset. It also causes Sandbag to breifly become intangible initially during its active utilize, making him immune to any opposing attack or object, and makes it Sandbag's most effective defensive tool. Lastly, Sandbag's up special, Bomb-omb Toss, can potentially turn the tide of battle if a player touches the Bomb-omb first. Once the opponent touches the Bomb-omb first before Sandbag does, it will deal massive knockback and damage to the opponents, effectively KOing them reliably under high-or-mid precents, such as 50%.

While Sandbag is strengthened to have enough versatility to be a powerful fighter, Sandbag is drawbacked by an amalgamation of flaws. As players receive that he is a plesantry character, Sandbag's greatest flaw is its lackluster mobility. Though it sports solid aerial mobility, it possesses arguably the most disadvantageous grounded mobility; while it possesses the fastest walking speeds in the game, it also possesses the second-slowest running speeds — it consists of constant hops that are pausable between its frames, which are noticeably slower than, likely tieing it as the slowest running speed in the game, which causes it to be easily rushdowned by several of the cast with fast mobility (ex. , and ). This can be remedied by utilizing Soaping and Sanddash, with which it can then move extremely fast, covering the entire Waiting Room in about two-thirds of a second. Also, its falling speed makes him suspectible to combos and juggles. Additionally, despite being a relative heavyweight, he possesses high hitstun out of most of the cast. Because of this, he can be easily knocked out as early as 35% by a drastically powerful attack.

Furthermore, Sandbag also possesses a problematic grounded game, which is coupled by its difficult horizontal approach. It possesses the second-slowest running speeds, and it has problematic issues dealing with projectiles while lacking a real projectile itself, causing his approaches to easily get stopped by any spacing attacks that can easily out-space it. In addition, despite possessing high power through his grounded attacks, their range is overall mostly inferior, which is worsened by the fact that several of his powerful attacks (ex. jab, down smash and up tilt) are drawbacked by their underwhelming range, and most of them posesss awkward properties or are either slow to compenstate. Because of this, several of the weapon-wielding cast like and, or ones with superior range like  and  to easily keep him at bay and scrap out his approaches. As said above, several of Sandbag's attacks, combos, setups and finishers throughout its playstyle (ex. jab, down smash, down aerial), while being very powerful, are also relatively slow, inconsistent, short-ranged and sluggish to easily KO opponents outright, despite dealing a lot of damage quickly. On top of this, several of its grounded attacks, even though they possess swift startup, also possess medium-to-heavy ending lag, making Sandbag completely vulnerable to attacks if it misses said attacks.

Outside of these flaws, Sandbag's defensive game is arguably its most downsided asset. Despite such a relatively small size, it is very easy to shield-stab once its shield shrinks; which leaves its forehead and bottom exposed, combined with its large hurtbox. Because it has one of the fastest sidesteps in the game, it possesses the shortest period of intangibility of any type of sidestep. Sandbag's rolls, while being decently fast, gain among the shortest distance period of intangibility. Its air dodge retain the same asset - gaining among the shortest period of intangibility. Because of these traits, Sandbag's defense is ineffective and often punishable if used out of sparingness. Sandbag's most notable flaw is its relatively tall size. Because most of its attacks involve Sandbag stretching out various of its bodyparts; in a similar vein to and, that means, with a few expections, every time Sandbag attacks with its body, its hurtboxes also extend. Should Sandbag perform any type of attack that stretches its body outwards towards players that know his hurtboxes very well, Sandbag will easily get out-spaced and his approaching options will get completely limited.

Sandbag's formidable special moves are also effectively out-of-reliablenes. Though Capsule Spawn possesses a chance to spawn an explosive capsule that serves as a situational KO finisher, the chances of the explosion occuring are extremly seldom; additionally, the neutral special only possesses utility as a "get-off-me" option if all items are turned off. Despite Sandgrab being a command grab; and does have a long duration to grab the opponents upon contact or even at a further distance, Sandbag will undergo heavy ending lag if it misses, making it completely vulnerable for punishment; similarily to its grounded attacks, which is compenstated by its decent landing lag. Additionally, Sandbag also possesses one of the most situationally backfired recoveries in the game. Although Sandbag possesses a theoretically infinite recovery in Bomb-omb Toss, it requires Sandbag to recoil damage itself to actually gain any height at all, causing its recovery to be risky at high percentages, which is further exacerbated though Sandbag's inability to grab ledges, and if Sandbag is underneath the stage, it possesses high risk of stage-spiking itself on the underside or the sides of the stage, completely obliterating its survivability off the stage, especially off the top of the screen. On top of this, if the opponent touches the Bomb-omb initially before Sandbag does, it will deal much more massive knockback and damage to the opponents, but to Sandbag as well, which causes Sandbag to get easily knocked out as early as 35%, which is combined with its high hitstun. Because of this, Sandbag's recovery is easily gimped and backfired by itself. Lastly, Sandbag is completely vulnerable during the entire move and ascent after the explosion, which makes Sandbag's recovery among the easiest to gimp. Therefore, Sandbag's recovery is arguably the worst in the game. Also, Sandbag can still be thrashed by any opposing attack or object during Sanddash (even during its intangibility period), making its intangibility likely useless.

Overall, Sandbag is described as an unorthodox glass cannon. It possesses high damage-racking capabilities, tremendous KO potential, and an unorthodox playstyle; at the expense of a fragile defensive game. Sandbag is also held back by a backfired recovery, high hitstun, poor disadvantaged state, the expandance of its hurtboxes, a problematic approach and grounded game, lackluster mobility, among the weakest survivability off the stage, the inability of ledge-grabbing, overall slow and short-ranged attacks that possess noticeable slow startup and medium-to-heavy ending lag, which are compenstated by a theoretically infinite recovery, a prominent aerial game, a formidable grab and throw game, decent aerial mobility, long-ranged attacks with swift startup, and oppressive power through its grounded attacks, smash attacks, aerials, throws and its formidable special moves. Though, Sandbag can be knocked out just as early before the opponent does; due to its high hitstun. Overall, Sandbag is a very powerful fighter who possesses a highly unorthodox playstyle. However, its multipility of strengths are drastically outnumbered by its abundance of flaws, causing Sandbag to be seen as an extremely fragile character. As a result, these notable flaws are failed to be outnumbered by its strengths, ranking Sandbag to be the absolute worst character in the game.

Changes and revisions from Beta 1.0-Beta 1.3
Have been regarded as a low-ranked character since its inclusion in Beta 1.0; in a similar fashion to, Sandbag possessed its prominent attributes – combo game and KO power – constantly heavily nerfed, although its primary drawback – its neutral game – was certainly buffed. Shortly after Sandbag's inclusion, Sandbag has undergone a considerable myriad of critical buffs and nerfs, though Sandbag was overall nerfed as patches passed by. In prior patches, Sandbag recieved notable flaws that considerably gave it a poor disadvantaged state. Sandbag is lighter than in the current patch of the game; though it improves its recovery well and makes it join the floatier side of the cast, it deprives its survivability even more, making him more suspectible to early KOs - which is coupled with its slightly increased hitstun. Several of Sandbag's attacks have been nerfed, like its Sanddash; which will go into knockdown if it lands at the wrong time, but most of its attributes have been buffed too; as Sandbag's get-up animation possesses proper intangibility.

As patches went by, Sandbag became relatively buffed overall. Its jab possesses higher knockback scaling, and dash attack possesses increased base knockback. However, its forward smash's angle has been raised, drastically nerfing Sandbag's KO power. However, its damage has been increased. Down smash's second hit has increased knockback scaling, improving Sandbag's KO power. However, its up smash has decreased weight-based knockback in all of its hits; unlike almost the rest of the playable roster, but its up smash on the sweetspot increased knockback scaling, asidefrom its reduced base knockback. Its forward aerial has increased knockback scaling, and its down throw's self-hitlag was set to 1, and its ordinary hitlag is set to 3. In Beta 1.1, its jab has more knockback scaling, but is overshadowed by its startup being increased by one frame, making it the slowest jab in the game. However, Sandbag's down aerial has its strength toned down; it has a decreased hitstun-multiplier against grounded opponents, but it has an increased knockback-multiplier against grounded opponents. However, its combo potential is drastically overshadowed; its angle has been lowered, significantlly nerfing Sandbag's combo with down throw into down aerial at the ledge, and also weakening its powerful spike. Lastly, Sanddash's sideways momentum got multiplied by 1.5, and the vertical variant of Sanddash can be cancelled five frames earlier, making it overall significantlly buffed. In recent patches of the game, Sandbag got drastically nerfed by its transition to Beta 1.2, though he recieved multiple positive traits, they are overshadowed by multiple negative nerfs.

Overall, Sandbag is seen as a drastically ineffective character throughout the patches of the game. Though its buffs and positive traits are not to be underestimated, they are drastically underwhelmed by a combinated series of nerfs and bugs, making the character overall very unviable in the neutral game. As a result, Sandbag is left last on the most recent tier list, failing to make any high leaps overtime.