The Worst of EVERY Smash Ultimate Animation 

Thanks for watching everyone! This'll be the last video of the year for me, I hope you all have a good holiday period and are looking forward to some spicy videos in 2021. Let me know your thoughts on the choices here, and take care! -Twitter: twitter.com/MrMockRock -Twitch: www.twitch.tv/mockrocktwitch -Patreon: www.patreon.com/mockrock -Teespring: teespring.com/stores/mockrock

Steve‘s ground tech should have been the water bucket

“Extremely long forward air would be unbalanced” *smash introducing sephiroth

Didn’t even realize Rosalina could crawl until this video

Olimar’s smash attacks being here did not surprise me one bit

Surprised there was no mention of Dr Marios taunts. Ever since smash4 outside of his pill taunt the other 2 literally just look like idle animations and it's been a joke since smash4.

Quick prediction: a considerable amount of these will be sonic and olimar. edit: yep

As a Sonic main, if one of Sonic's ball animations aren't on this, I'm gonna be surprised.

Rosalina’s crawl is one of the funniest animations to me... sometimes I play Rosa online and just crawl as an un-official taunt

IF we want to get really technical, Snake "does" have three taunts: He actually lifts the box over him a bit differently depending on the taunt you choose. ...But yeah, he still deserves better.

"a long ranged forward air would be unbalanced" sephiroth, simon, richter, and min min:😐

One of Snake's taunts should've been the exclamation mark appearing above his head and quickly looking at the screen like he's noticed the players or something.

Hey, Brawlimar was even worse. His forward smash went off the ledge and the hitbox never went away, meaning a Pikmin loftily floating towards you on its way to the blast zone suddenly pounds you with the force of ganon's aerials.

Personally I think Wii Fit Trainer's fitness pose animations are hilarious

Cloud should be Nair. They made him look like he's breaking his arm every time he does it.

Once again, people keep forgetting how horrendous is Wolf's howling taunt in Ultimate. Seriously, just compare it to his Brawl's counterpart. Ultimate's Wolf opens his snout as if he was about to say 'A'. Howling does not work that way... you have to actually shape your mouth in the 'O' shape in order to be able to make a similar sound. That's basic phonetics knowledge!

If I'm honest with you, Wii Fit Trainer is one of my favorite characters when it comes to visuals, is just so dumb how all of her attacks are just yoga poses, and the running animation is just hilarious to me.

Meta knight down taunt where he says "come" his wings phase through the damn cape

We all wish Ridley had Sepiroth’s f-air

Honestly I'm just curious how one would even be able to fix Olimar. To keep him loyal to his games and design, I don't know how much better we can get with him.

I actually like mewtwo's tail strike ONLY because it's often done during their double jump, which adds a lot of momentum to the move. It looks bad in isolation, but it looks much more interesting in context

Terry has worst back-special. Fight me.

13:43 AKA the PNG Final Smash

" long range forward air might be considered overpowered " Sephiroth: Hold my Masamune

"How many spin attacks would you like to use?" *"Y E S"*

i like hero's chudat pose when he is selecting down-b

Giving Ridley, a low tier character, an extremely long ranged F-Air would make him unbalanced? That's news to me.. Better tell Byleth, Simon, Richter and Sephiroth!!

thank you for speaking the truth about olimar. he's a character that just isn't designed to be in a fighting game--everything is so stubby and indistinguishable and fighting olimar has always been such a pain in the ass for that exact reason. it almost feels like the olimar player has control of the game by actually knowing what's happening, if that makes sense.

Every character in this game spinning something in their hand *Use The Force*

"It's time to announce the worst animated character in the whole game..." *ad plays* You weren't wrong

Genuinely surprised that you didnt mention Dr. Mario's taunts, or lack thereof... They all look like idle animations

Haven't started watching yet Expectations: I expect to see Olimar and Sonic a lot Reality: Yeah, I was right

You seem to have an obsession with talking about Ridley.

“Of course ridley couldn’t use all of his tail to attack because the game developers would have considered it unbalanced” And then there’s sephiroth, and min min, and byleth, and simon

I feel like with the hero thing, playing in another language essentially never happens because when you're playing with your friends, you can probably talk to them

I understand your grievance with Pit/Dark Pit's Power of Flight, but I am going to defend it. In canon, both Pit and Dark Pit are entirely incapable of self-propelled flight (with that in mind I even find it surprising they get their extra jumps in Smash, but I guess it's a byproduct of the wings = more jumps philosophy), so they have to lean on outside help. In Pit's case, he relies on Palutena's magic, and in Dark Pit's case, for most of the game he uses the unlimited pool granted from stealing Pandora's magic until that goes away and he needs Viridi's help instead. This means they don't have to flap their wings to fly and any time they do so may just be a reflex rather than any real attempt at course correction, and also means that they absolutely can be flung into the air without any proper wind-up, since they're essentially being yanked around by whatever Goddess is in charge of them at the moment. Again, I understand your grievance, but I think its canon representation and the particle effects that match this saves it. If I had to pick one to replace it, I would go with Bowser's Whirling Fortress. It's a cool move and useful to use in a match, but I'm not sold on the action being able to propel Bowser upward, and the way the spikes are turned towards the camera for the aerial version of the attack looks bizarre and non-intuitive, plus the Sonic Nair problem that it seems to be rotating on a non-centered anchor point.

What about that one Olimar victory screen with the Pikmin running around Olimar? The Pikmin's walk cycle animation and the actual movement of the Pikmin do not line up at all and they end up looking like they slide across the ground.

"Having a long forward air might make you unbalanced" -Sephiroth with Grinch grin

One thing that bugs me about Ultimate's animations is the way they handled Bowser Jr.'s propellor. First of all, I'm not a fan of the Clown Car being primarily based on sitting on the ground, as that's not a thing it's able to do in most source games, and having him float during all of his grounded animations would make more sense. They often have the propellor slide to different parts of the Clown Car and it just feels unnatural, and in some animations, like N-Air for example, they don't even animate it at all. This is especially egregious in his bat swinging animation, which lasts a long period of time, all of which has Bowser Jr. airborne, but the propellor doesn't spin at all.

Honorable mention to captain falcon's upsmash for just having absolutely no indication for where it actually hits.

Extremely long fair for Ridley would be unbalanced Byleth and Sephiroth: *awkwardly looks away*

Zero Suit Samus's jab combo kinda remind me of Mr Crocker's "Fairy god parents" sequence where he just appears in different poses to a rhythm

Your thoughts about Ridley and Mewtwo's tails will be interesting if they're repeated by Sephiroth's sword.

I dont agree with your Wii Fit Trainer picks because I feel like Wii Git Trainer is meant to have this stiff movement. E.g the running animation IS very stiff almost robotic but in the end shes this 10 year old tutorial character and its true to the Wii Fit game to not have wanky animations like the other characters.

Fun fact: palutena gives both pit, and dark pit the power of flight to use against her, like they could've changed the colors so it was the goddess of nature, or pandora respectively.

Sonic: I sense a great disturbance in the force

You should do signature move tier list for the Monado

Before the nair animation was shown I was thinking about sonic being on the list but not his nair lmfao

I love your intro! The perfectly timed attacks with the great song is just amazing

Martha’s back throw is one of my favorites. I feel like it has so much swagger. He doesn’t even look back at you after he trips you and launches you. Idk it always felt classy to me. Interesting to see how people’s perspectives vary!

Your channel is extremely underrated, I haven’t even watched the video yet, but I know that it’s gonna be very food. Keep it up MockRock!

I'll be honest, as a Yoshi main, his 'Akuma' victory pose is incredibly annoying to me. Not necessarily because it's posed badly, but because it looks like, at the end of the animation once the loop starts, it looks like part of his body by his legs just kind of.. deforms, and I really don't like it. It looks like his right leg is pushed inward too far and the body portion around it pushes in to compensate, particularly above the leg. I'm also not the biggest fan of his peace sign victory pose anymore either due to how the hand grows for it. I know why they did it but it looks weird to me. Yoshi's worst animation though if you ask me is his down special, which just looks like he'd break his tail upon impact with the ground. It's not even how the move is performed in Mario/Yoshi games; there, he slams down with his butt, not with his tail, and it is incredibly grating with the way it's animated right now. Sorry for talking specifically about Yoshi, but with him being my favourite character by a good margin, I guess I just found it easier to find animations hiccups for him in particular. Overall though I don't think he's animated that poorly outside of these things I mentioned, but I was slightly surprised that you didn't mention any of these even as a runner-up.

Mewtwo's back air animation is justified by how you use it. You use it immediately after using your double jump so that the hitbox comes out at the peak of your jump, this can very easily catch people off guard when they're high in the air. Ultimately what it comes down to is that a floaty character like Mewtwo needs at least one move with weird delayed timing that can synergize with his unique jump arcs, Jigglypuff has up air for this same purpose.

I never thought about how weird Sonic's neutral air is...like...what is he doing...

The worst animated character is the ad that showed up right before he announced the "worst animated character"

I think the great flourish at the end of Wolf's Utilt disqualifies it from being the worst.

so basically when an animation holds back for the sake of game ballance, you'd say it could have been done better.

“Rollout is generic and bad” Mandjtv approves this message

On Sonic’s neutral air, let’s not forget the missed opportunity of the appearance of the Insta-shield or the horizontal trick from the advance trilogy (don’t know the name) where he spins, not in a ball, with his hip as the pivot point, resulting in a ryu and Ken side b-esque kicking move (not in function though). Would’ve looked really clean with ultimate’s animations. (Edit) and about his down B (the fact that there’s two spindashes aside), I have no idea why they didn’t just 1. Give him the spiral effect on his ball form seen in the classic games when he’s charging the down B 2. Give the down B the classic SFX (and maybe a small multi hit charging hitbox like Corrin’s smash attacks except they don’t suck you closer into the move) and the side B the Adventure SFX, that way you could also justify being able to store a fully charged side B that moves even faster and does more damage than the regular version at the cost of some speed to reference the light speed attack, and/or make it so after you fully charge the side B you can then homing attack, and if it lands, it’ll home in and hit two more times if the opponent is close enough after the first hit, also to reference the light speed attack. (Edit but again) Steve should do the water bucket thing (you see it in speedruns and stuff a lot, it’s for avoiding fall damage, you know what I’m talking about) whenever he techs

Seriously underrated channel! Great videos and have a great rest of the year!

I think one way you could fix Olimar's animations is by having some moves have a heavy color trail follow behind the thrown pikmin, and the pikmin used for Smash Attacks to have less color trails

I clicked on this at frame 1

No matter what, that will always be one of the best intros I’ve ever seen on a RU-vid video

8:04 *Laughs in Sephiroth*

It honestly really sucks how boring Byleth's final smash. Compare it to Sephiroth's, and its night and day.

Oh yeah Byleth’s final smash, or as I like to call it: loli png

I'm so glad you mentioned Mewtwo's Back-Air and Wii Fit's Up-Air. Those moves have always felt awkward to use because of how clunky those animations are. Nice job on this video; I never would have noticed how off stuff like Ridley Fair and Pit's Up B are.

Hey MockRock. I think I have a video suggestion that I think you might like. I was thinking you could do a most used/ least used move for each character. You could explain why they are always using that move and what’s so good/ bad about it. I really like your videos and I thought this could be something you could do for your video format

If not Olimar's smashes, who would be your second choice for each? I agree with Olimar, but he does seem like kind of a shoe-in and I wanted to hear your take on second place.

8:55 This quote feels like a hint at Sans Am I the only person who thought of Sans during this line?

Spectaular video. I highly appreciate the insight on why certain attacks feel awkward or unsatisfying. However, while it's pointless to debate opinions, I have a few objections I wish to bring up and why I feel certain animations are better than some might think... -Chrom's jab could be more unique but I think he does it with a strength and boldness fitting for him. I'd even argue Roy's version is more awkward and unrealistic given his smaller frame. Either way, it's interesting to see the devs try to personalize moves by tweaking animation alone. -Not entirely an objection but the end pose of Mr. G&W's down tilt works fine, it's just the inbetween pose that makes the animation unsatisfying. He should be squishing further down like Kirby before springing out to the side. As it is he just sort of melts into place. And while I'm on G&W, I'm fine with him using the same juggle animation for all his throws but at the very least his eyes should be looking in the direction he'll be throwing you to assist in DI reading, a similar conundrum to Olimar's smashes. -I haven't considered Wolf's up tilt being uncharacteristic for him. Considering the move's combo and kill potential, I've always found it to be satisfying. He is quite athletic and fairly flexible after all. -Again I find Sonic's nair satisfying primarily on a gameplay front, but I couldn't explain why it is what it is. He's somehow zooming back and forth around a small space while it midair while also falling. Not entirely certain it he can do that in his games. While I'm not opposed to *all* of Sonic's current moveset, I would not mind seeing some updates. -I don't get how Little Mac's nair is wimpy. We all know he's intentially bad in midair but that animation is the most competent midair punch I've seen all week. Not to mention that move has some fun drag-down combo potential. -You kinda say it yourself, but I consider Wii Fit's stiffness to be a deliberate choice similar to Mr. G&W and Steve. Her gimmick is attacking with exercise moves. Her jogging run is fitting and her up air is satisfying if only in a funny way. -Jigglypuff's rollout may have its particle effects to thank for me never noticing she doesn't even squash and stretch after hitting an opponent. Then again, maybe that's all that move needs considering how much power/weight her little body is supposed to have for that move. -Mii Swordfighters's side b may not be as flashy as Ike's version of the concept, but it doesn't do anything wrong from what I can tell. It's got the proper windup and follow-through that makes it satisfying in its own right to me. -Steve's dodges perhaps could be a bit more flashy and distinct, but they do have the necessary particle effects to tell what's coming out and I've simply committed his animations (what's there of them) to memory. -Only Chrom's down taunt is not worth being a taunt. The other two are pretty good. (Side note: I have no idea why Snake uses basically the same box taunt for all 3 taunts. It's debatably fitting for Brawl, but in Ultimate I was disappointed to see he didn't get 2 brand new taunts.) -Mr. G&W's victory screens are totally ok, but I'd be curious to see what better possibilities there could be though.

Mewtwo’s back air is like that because it is cool that he bairly cares that he just did a move that kills people

I wish Olimar’s jab involved the “rocket fist” from pikmin 2.

9:53 I’ve never heard the phrase “a vertical take on the Mewtwo Problem” before. I love it.

back air and down air intro screen looks like a dead mario chalk outline

worst taunts should be dr mario

I forgot how underwhelming wolf's uptilt was. To me it always looked like he was trying to hit people with his gun

Surprised Fox was never mentioned, his animations look very boring to me.

Your videos are always so well made. It really shows how much you love this because you always give such in depth analysis for even the tiniest of things. Keep up the good work!

15:43 : add plays Add:come on down to KFC it's finger licking good Me:I knew it was KFC he has some very bad animations

Cloud's up air has always bothered me. Like, he's just holding the sword edge-up and falling? No real motion or satisfying heft in the animation, and it's made worse by the fact that it was a cornerstone of his playstyle in Smash 4, so I had to see and deal with it over and over and over. As someone with no nostalgia value for the character I was genuinely pissed about his inclusion and his up air had a lot to do with it. I don't especially mind Cloud these days but his up air is still irritating to look at.

In Byleth's defense, Sothis was probably animated that way to keep the age rating at E10+

Might wanna revisit this, with the obvious addition here Roy and Chrom's Back Throw, just look at it in slow-mo if you don't understand and you will NEVER unsee it

12:40 also, Pit’s Power of Flight’s colors don’t match the lore. Pit’s wings glow red because Palutena is letting him borrow that power. This iteration of Dark Pit, according to in-game lore established in Palutena’s Guidance, is working for Viridi, which makes his wings glow green. This is all well and good, but it'd make sense if Pit's power of Flight animation changed if he was fighting Palutena. That'd imply that he's using Viridi's Power of Flight like in Uprising. This is explained in a Palutena's Guidance: Palu allows Pit to continue using the Power of Flight in the interest of fairness, which makes sense. I just wish they worked in that easter egg with the animation. It’s a potential inconsistency with the characters’ lore.

finalsmash.png

Cant wait to see Sephiroth’s sakurai presents so we can put him on one of these

What make Zero Suit Jab even worse is they appear to have copied the first jab’s animation to Pyra and Mythra!

Sonic's Nair is a recreation of the instant spin from Sonic 3, as a recreation of the move it's honestly pretty damn well done, it's just awkward due to how powerful it is. Also his Down-B isn't the problem move, holding down and tapping a button to charge spin is how the spin should work, the badly-done spin charge is his side-B

Cloud's Nair. I know why it looks bad. it still has the problem Ridley's Fair does

I would love to see him make his own smash game, I’m sure everything would be perfect.

I think you should do a series where you go in depth on certain characters who's move sets are a bit outdated and giving them a new or updated and improved moveset, like sonic or Mario and dk or something like that would be cool

I never even noticed wolf's up tilt was using his leg, I always thought it was his arm like mario

Great video over all, giving reason for each claim, however im surprised that Meta Knight's side taunt (i think) isn't on here because one frame, Meta Knight's wings are outstretched, then the next they are magically back to a Cape. It just feels awkward

5:43 Let’s talk about this transition.

What if Olimar’s forward smash was him grabbing the pikmin by the leaf and swinging it like a bat. That would at least make it more distinct and actually feel like a smash attack

Ridleys Fair should’ve been him lunging at the opponent like a feral creature

where mockrock

sonics animation be like: gotta go fast

When I saw ridles foward air I originally thought it was a back air

ridley's fair makes me feel like i should hide under a blanket and reconsider my life