[Ganondorf laughing]
There's a lot that goes into picking a character in a fighting game
There's the sentimental value-
Who is your childhood favorite?
There's the mechanical aspect- who can respond the quickest, adapt to the most situations
Then there's the decision of who can KO young Link at 30% by smashing a sword
the size of a goddamn filing cabinet into his weedy little body!
Ganondorf, Ganondorf, this video is about Ganondorf.
I love him.
I'm revealing my age a little bit here, but the first time I encountered Ganondorf was in Twilight Princess.
And in that game, his entire presence is kind of a subversion.
The first villain is Zant. This kind of crazy, bug-eyed dude.
He's pretty scary, mostly because he seems completely nuts.
Who knows what he could do!
Spin... around... a lot, as it turns out.
But Zant isn't the final boss of the game. Ohh, no.
That honor goes to this man right here- with eyes aflame and heart full of rage
and ultimately a chest full of... sword.
He's the guy who's been giving Zant directions the whole time and he's freaking terrifying!
Where Zant is chaotic, Ganondorf simmers.
He's patient. He doesn't even show up until, like, 30 hours into this game
And Ganondorf shows up in most Zelda titles in one way or another
Sometimes he's more monstrous, sometimes he's disarmingly human
In Twilight Princess, he's... all of the above!
A demonic spirit turned- giant boar turned- ticked off swordsman?
He blows up Hyrule Castle for Christ's sake!
He's also been a dual-wielding Colossus, an engimatic spirit, a robot-lava-spider-thing!
A bling-wearing pig!
He has so many looks.
And in Super Smash Bros, the iconic fighting series, where everyone from Nintendo lore
comes to knock each other's teeth out,
Ganondorf, Lord of Darkness, Hyrule's Demise, got to be a...
slower... Captain Falcon...
It was better than nothing. I guess.
We did get to play as him! And he was satisfyingly powerful.
He, like Captain Falcon, had a BIG punch.
He- grunted a lot.
[Ganondorf yelling]
But as a fighter, he was solidly... D-tier.
He was whipped out as a- choke or a proof of skill.
"I'm so good I can even beat you with Ganondorf!"
It was... humiliating.
But fast forward.
It's 2019.
The world is a much scarier place than the good old Smash Bros Melee days
The ice caps are melting
Young Sheldon is a TV show...
There are... other- things- that are bad!
But Smash Bros Ultimate is out! With every fighter you can shake a stick at
and a bunch of sword boys I think they just made up-
and Ganondorf- is still here.
And... he has NOT been slacking off-
-Ohh, no, he's *mumbling*
OHHHHH
The thing is- you might not know it at first.
Because Ganondorf usually looks like he's losing for almost all of the match
Smash characters really wildly vary in their speed and attack output
Pichu, for instance, is an incredibly quick little rodent.
It can toss Ganondorf up, combo him in the air, dodge most of his attacks
and generally cover about a 1000% more distance during any given match
Aside from a few stray attacks, Pichu is controlling this match, right?
Well- sure. Until-
That's the dang forward air!
It's weird for such a legendary and intimidating figure,
but Ganondorf frequently feels like an underdog in match-ups.
Especially at high-level play, quick characters can combo up and down the map.
They can link attacks together like nobody's business-
Leaving almost no room to escape!
Our boy, Ganondorf, he doesn't really... combo.
Even most standard attacks are a series of rapid punches or combined swings,
but not this man!
Just one... goofy-looking jab!
Ganondorf can take his time.
Ganondorf can get toyed with a little by an electric rat.
Because all it takes is one good hit to turn the tide.
And the rhythm of this character-
getting beat down until he suddenly retaliates with the power of a god-
it's a rhythm familiar to some of our favorite heroes.
It's the whole point of Brad Pitt's character in Snatch
It's why Rocky doesn't dance around everyone else's punches.
We love a good comeback!
See Biscuit, the Mighty Ducks.
-Robert Downey Jr...
-Uh, who else...
-Rocky!
-Yes!
-Kim Kardashian!
-Kim- well...
-This rhythm means it's incredibly fun to watch Ganondorf in high-level competition
and even more fun to hear people TALK about Ganondorf in high-level competition!
Because- and this just might be my personal biases-
I kind of feel like everyone is rooting for him.
-Oo! How boutta-boutta-
*mumbling, voices mixing, and screaming*
People aren't personally invested in another Marth victory
We've seen those. We know what they look like.
But people get going for Ganondorf!
*screaming*
*screaming*
-You ran up- you ran up and just-
-When people talk about good fighting animation, one of the most frequently brought up subjects is
hitstop
Hitstop is basically what it sounds like-
when a particularly hard hit connects, everything freezes for a second to emphasize just how hard that hit was
I've linked some videos that talk about this better than me, but my point in bringing it up
is that Smash Ultimate leans in HARD on this style.
In a strong, final attack, hitstop.
Successfully fall asleep on someone as Jigglypuff?
Hitstop.
Hit someone in this impressively flexible, skull-crusher of a kick and send them into the stratosphere?
Hit-stop.
-*background* don't even care *talking*
-Ganondorf is a one-man hitstop machine
-*background talking*
-and Smash Ultimate is a game that seemingly constructed itself out of these climatic moments
-WHOA-HO-HOOH- THAT'S AT LEAST TWO!
No wonder all the commentators are rooting for him- he makes this game look incredible!
And he builds so much anticipation. His moves are so... slow.
We all hold our breath for the approximately 5 minutes it takes to execute this but when he does...
Oh! And have I mentioned his stomp?
Because it- good god!
I wouldn't call myself great at Ganondorf.
I'm not great at Smash in general. I'm not particularly good at stringing together combos,
or landing clutch grabs or doing any of that high-level stuff that I need to in order to really up my game.
I'm working on it. I'm improving. But Smash is a fighting game and holy crap are people good at fighting games!
Maybe part of the reason I love him is I can get beat up for the entire match,
land one lucky attack, and pretend like it was my strategy all along!
Ganondorf, after everything, is just that scary of a dude!
I remember that climatic final duel in Twilight Princess.
I remember the shock of his transformation in Ocarina.
I remember Skyward Sword attempting to make up for its 80-hr collect-o-than
with a truly incredible final match against someone- who wasn't technically Ganondorf
but WAS Ganondorf.
We don't remember consistency; we remember moments.
And I can't think of many characters, fighting games or otherwise,
who have given me the same kind of moments as this guy.
- *mumbling* OHHH *mumbling*
-OHHHHHH MYYYY GOOOOD, HE SAID HE WAS DOING IT FOR THE PEOPLE.
HE WAS NOT LYING.
*laughing*
