User:Steamboat Williy/Ice Climbers (SSF2)

The Ice Climbers are veteran starter characters in Super Smash Flash 2, hailing from their original eponymous game Ice Climber. They were revealed at the first day of Super Smash Con 2020. Their moveset and sprite-designs are custom-made and taken from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and their voice-clips are ripped from the same game. In previous patches of the game, they retained their voice-clips from Melee and Brawl. Contrary to their ordinary appearances from the official series of the Super Smash Bros. franchise and from the former game, they make available appearances as starter characters in Super Smash Flash 2.

The Ice Climbers are currently ranked at 26th of A- tier on the current tier list, placing them at the bottom of high-tier. The Ice Climbers have strong KO moves in their smash attacks, all aerials, forward throw, back throw, down throw, as well as for their potentially special moves, Squall Hammer and Belay. Unlike the other characters (with the possible exception of and ), they appear as a team instead of being individual, having great abilities of extremely high damage output. Due to their air speed, they possess an amazing air game, with fast aerial attacks with high priority that provide good spacing and edgeguarding tools, with their forward aerial being able to meteor smash powerfully at the sweetspot. They also possess a potentially deadly grab and throw game, as most of their throws set up juggles or combo into aerials for KO potential at higher precents. He also possesses a very strong juggling game, as well as for a strong edgeguarding game. They also possess a strong recovery himself, with a fast up special with tiny startup and covers long launchment, and being able to grab the ledge.

However, The Ice Climbers are thrashed by numerous weaknesses. They are tied with and  for being the fourteenth-lightest characters in the game (making their weight mostly below-average), which, along with the fact that the partner is much more lighter than the leader and takes more damage and knockback, makes their horizontal and vertical survivability mostly awful. Additionally, while they are a team to dish out extremely high damage output and KO potential, it becomes horribly diminished if the partner is KO'd, since the partner is much more ligther than the leader. While the partner possesses more help for the leader, the partner possesses unabilities to react to the other characters' attacks or threats due to occasionally being difficult to control, which makes the partner more disadvantageous in fighting situations. They also have overall complications with ranges, which is worsened by the fact that a multipility of moves like up tilt, forward smash, down tilt and down smash contain underwhelming ranges, which makes them vunerable to characters with disjointed hitboxes, like, and. Their grab and throw is also a lackluster outside of down throw, due to the shortest grabbing-range, none of their throws outside of down throw being very useful or tending to KO until at extremely high precents, with their strongest throw, down throw, KOing at around 170%. Without the partner, most of the leader's attacks are severly weakened. Their zoning game is also below-average by best, with neutral special, Ice Shot, releasing a icy projectile that deals extreme weakened knockback, and down special, Blizzard, releasing tons of "snowy" projectiles that does not KO at realistic precents. Also, if the leader gets KO'd, the partner will instantly be KO'd too.

The Ice Climbers have a small playerbase and a somewhat lackluster neutral game. The Ice Climbers retain three notable players, Big D, Daiki, and ????, achieving respectable tournament results while using them. While their weaknesses are signficantlly blanant, their strengths are enough to cause them to reside around high-tier.

Attributes
The Ice Climbers are a pair of relative lightweights (weighing the same as and ) that are the archetypical tag-team characters, though each climber is a unique character in their own rights. The partner (Nana, by default) has higher mobility attributes (walking, dashing, air and falling speeds, gravity, and air acceleration), but simltaneously takes more damage and knockback than the leader (Popo, by default). Another unique trait that the partner possesses is their forward aerial's abilities of meteor smashing. Each climber have above-average walking speeds, fast running speeds, and a high jumping height. The most notable attributes about them are their light weight, being the lightest of the middleweightened cast, and are rather on the floatier side of the cast.

Overall, the climbers fairly possess an unorthdox playstyle focused on horizontal and vertical combos; characters who focus fighting with hammers and a variety of gadgets that have to do with winter or ice. Although minor, the Ice Climbers nevertheless have a unique fighter ability: their traction is not affected by the conditions of slippery surfaces such as ice, whereas they will slide somewhat on non-slippery surfaces. The climbers' greatest strength is their extreme high damage-output. The Ice Climbers are great at dealing damage when together, possessing decent speed in their attacks, and possess a few interesting attacks in their arsenal. Their neutral special, Ice Shot, is a projectile fired by each Ice Climber which slides along the ground, making it impossible to avoid by crouching/crawling, though it can damage the Climbers themselves if the blocks are attacked or reflected. Blizzard, their down special, can freeze opponents and has both Ice Climbers attacking one side whether on the ground or in midair. Squall Hammer is a decent approaching attack with good damage and speed, spinning the Ice Climbers around each other in a forward-moving hammering attack. By mashing the button, they can gain a little height, making it a potential recovering option (albeit not an effective one). Belay, their up special, is a powerful KO move if the second climber connects with the opponent (who becomes invincible during the frames of the move), but it is generally a risky use of the move given that it separates the Climbers and forces them into a helpless condition. It is much more suited for recovery, as well as for saving the separated partner from falling off-stage.

The climbers also have powerful KO moves in most of their attacks. Forward tilt and down tilt come out quickly with high knockback growth, and launches the opponent at a strong and awkward semi-spike angle, being able to KO most characters at around 80-90% by the ledge. All smash attacks possess high power and strong knockback, being able to effectively KO opponents reliably below 90%, with unique properties of their kind. Forward smash is one of the strongest in the game of its kind; due to hitting up to twice it the partner is on-stage, up smash also functions the same way as forward smash, and is very powerful by its kind; due to its high knockback and high range; in comparison to 's up smash. Down smash functions similar to Vermin; possessing range in front of and behind themselves, although they don't require a sweetspot or a sourspot, and it is easy to 2-frame recoveries due to its high range. Their up aerial comes out swiftly, and are strengthened enough to become a viable KO move at high precents, killing below 70%.

The climbers also possess a strong edgeguarding game, with them having the abilities to take out a numerous amount of "iceberg" projectiles with neutral special to prevent linear approaches and recoveries, high aerial mobility, long-lasting aerials, down smash's 2-framing ability; like 's down smash, side special taking out a large multipility of hits, and the ability to quickly react to opponents above them with up special. Forward aerial boasts a strong meteor smash when sweetspotted to KO reliably below 65%, and the sourspot is strengthened enough to KO reliably below 100%. They also possess a potent juggling and combo game themselves, with all of their throws, Squall Hammer comboing into their aerials or Belay, and with neutral aerial possessing a large vertical hitbox, forward aerial's sweetspot being able to juggle at low-to-mid precents, down aerial possessing a large hitbox while descending downward, Squall Hammer being able to rack up damage and juggle at low-to-mid precents, Belay being able to retain opponents in the air.

The Ice Climbers also have a decent grab and throw game, while also possessing unique properties (similar to and ). Down throw and up throw are combo throws which can combo into neutral aerial or up aerial, or Belay against fast-fallers or heavyweights (such as and ) for KOing opponents at higher precents, forward throw and back throw combo into forward aerial or Squall Hammer, and are very useful for setting up edgeguards. Down throw are the climbers' strongest throw, being able to KO most characters at around 150%. However, they truly possess no KO throw outside of back throw, with up throw, their best throw, not KOing skilfully beyond 200%. Out of all the characters in the game, the leader's grabbing range is the shortest in the game, not even their dashing and pivot grabs have good range at all, making him effectively one of the worst approaching options in the game.

The Ice Climbers have good KO power in their smash attacks, all aerials, forward throw, back throw, down throw, as well as for their potentially special moves, Squall Hammer and Belay, with their aerials and special moves being fast for their decent power. Lastly, the climbers possess a strong approach, with fast running speeds and fast speed in their tilt attacks and dash attack, and many of their attacks, including hammer-wielding ones, are notable for possessing disjointance in their hitboxes, giving them great advantages in spacing abilities; in a similar vein to, and. Overall, the climbers (as well as for other characters like, and ) are extremely deadly at the ledge or at the air, even those with great recoveries, like  or.

However, the Ice Climbers are battered with notable numerous weaknesses. Due to taking lots of vegtables, the Ice Climbers possess mostly below-average weight, combined with being tied with and  for being the fourteenth-lightest characters in the game; as well as for their relative floatiness, which causes them to get KO'd as early as 50% by any powerful attacks in the game. One of the Ice Climbers' greatest weaknesses is their dependability on each-other. While having decent amount of damage output and KO potential, it becomes horribly diminished if the partner is KO'd, and the fact that the partner takes more damage and knockback further compounds this situation and worsens it too. When they are separated, while the AI guides the partner back to the leader, the partner is unable to react and defend themself from any other threats; due to the occasional difficulty of being controlled. Because of this, it is important for the leader to hurry back to the partner, though this can potentially lead the leader into dangerous situations as well.

Their second notable weaknesses is their mediocre recovery. Their main recovering method, Belay, is incredibly situational. If the partner is unable to reach the ledge, then it can place the leader at a disadvantage; even if they make it back to the stage. Since the partner flings the leader much higher, it is possible to overshoot the ledge, leaving the leader unable to defend themselves while descending helplessly on-stage.

The third notable weakness is the earlier loss of the partner. Because the partner recieves more damage and knockback than the leader (causing them to be significantlly lighter than the partner), the partner can be easily finished off by an opponent earlier than the leader, being easily KO'd as early as 35% by powerful attacks. Should the CPU Climber get KO'd during the stock, the remaining climber will have drastically reduced damage output, KO abilities, and recovery, with Belay becoming practically useless and Squall Hammer losing a good deal of distance (whereas with both climbers, they are excellent recovering moves).

Also, while they possess a great grounded-approach, their overall approach is mediocre; as they possess a complicated aerial-approach; possessing a high jumping height, low falling speed, slow and laggy aerials, and the 2nd-lowest air speed in the game (only behind ). Their low aerial and falling speeds also make pursuing-airborne opponent extremely difficult. However, due to their poor air speed and falling speed, and only one situational meteor smash (their forward aerial), their air game overall does not complement their powerful ground game. These various traits also give the Ice Climbers a below-average edgeguarding game, and they lack extremely effective options off-stage. In addition, the Ice Climbers have the second-worst traction in the game; similar to, this makes them highly reliant on wavedashing to approach, and technical errors, such as mistimed air dodges, can set them up for significant punishment. Owing to their slightly below-average weight and low falling speed, the Ice Climbers are also highly vunerable to characters who can easily KO from the upper blast line, even at low precents, like, and.

Despite possessing disjointed hitboxes in their hammer-wielding attacks, their overall range is mostly below-mediocre, which is severly worsened by the fact that a variety of their moves like up tilt, forward smash, down tilt and down smash possess underwhelming ranges for disjointed hitboxes. Because of this, they are vunerable to characters with disjointed hitboxes, like, and , which can easily keep them at a further distance and cancel out their approaches. While all of their throws are strong combo starters, their grab and throw is also a lackluster outside of down throw, due to their grabbing range being the shortest in the game, none of their throws outside of down throw being effectively useful, not even tending to KO until at extremely high precents, with their strongest throw, down throw, overall KOing at around 170%. Without the partner, most of the leader's attacks and abilities, like damage output, KO abilities, forward aerial, and their recoveries, are severly weakened (as forward aerial will only meteor smash if the partner is on the stage). Their zoning game is also below-average by best, with neutral special, Ice Shot, releasing a icy projectile that deals extreme weakened knockback, and down special, Blizzard, releasing tons of "snowy" projectiles that does not KO at realistic precents, same for neutral special. The greatest weakness is both of them being KO'd instantly if the leader gets KO'd before the partner, as if the leader gets KO'd first, the partner will instantly be KO'd too.

All in all, the Ice Climbers are described as winter-based glass cannons, characters who possess a potent offense while being very vunderable themselves. They have high KO potential, extreme high damage-output (thanks to being a team instead of individual, but can be grisly diminished if the partner gets KO'd), an incredible edgeguarding game, a brutal combo and juggling game, an oppressive air game and neutral game, and a great-grounded approach, while also being very easily KO'd themselves due to their extremely light weight, coupled with the fact that the partner is more lighter than the leader. They are also held back by a frail aerial approach, major diffuclties with the partner, overall below-average edgeguarding game, slow and short-ranged attacks, a lackluster grab and throw game, a mediocre zoning game, and most of their attacks and recovery being considerably weakened without the partner, which can be made up and paired with their disjointed and long-lasting hitboxes in their hammer-wielding attacks, fast and long-ranged attacks, a potentially deadly grab and throw game, and an incredible spacing game backed by an excellent recovery in the game. Overall, their strengths drastically outweigh their weaknesses, making the Ice Climbers one of the most fragile characters, but also one of the most powerful in the game, as players either consider them to be high-tier or top-tier.