Why Donkey Kong is PAINFULLY AVERAGE in Melee, and how he changed in Project M 

DK is literally the most underrated character in Melee IMO. I have to agree with Aden Whitelaw on this one.

i have a childhood memory of playing melee with my friends on my bday, i picked yoshi and bodied everyone with spamming side b then my one friend picked DK and bodied me spamming down b good times.

Leffen, Rishi, and others have talked about this: Basically DK competes with Marth for both of his archetypes in Melee so he is just outclassed, where as in PM they gave him his own niche in the archetype and made him more extreme. Marth is a psuedo grappler/half grappler. His throws are very strong in certain matchups, he has great range, disjoints edgegaurding, juggles, and movement. In exchange for higher startup and end lag and an ok recovery, and not having a top tier approach. DK is closer to full grappler that has pretty good range, edgegaurding, juggles, and damage, and decent movement. In exchange for higher startup and end lag, being combo food, a bad recovery, and a terrible time approaching in neutral. Yeah DK has unique stuff like Cargo throw that are fun, but pretty much any playstyle that will work at higher level with DK is just better executed with Marth along with Marths greater options on top of that. PM DK got hella buffed. He got disjoints that aren't as good as Marths but are still large. His recovery got buffed to be way better horizontally, (compared to Marths which is better vertically), his edgegaurds got better to compete with Marths with side b being a true spike and fair being way faster. His movement was also improved to again not be as good as Marth but definitely better. So it would seem like DK is still just worse Marth with a Falcon Stomp and slightly better grab game right? Maybe he's not totally dependent on grab now but it's still his main goal? But then they sped up his frame data and gave him one of the best approach options in the game. All of a sudden he's more of a glass cannon than Marth. Now he does a lot of the same things Marth does, but has a better time approaching with his insane dash attack and better tilts, and an amazing cqc boxing game that Marth lacks in exchange for his being more combo food. His still in a lot of the same archetypes ad Marth, arguably more than before. But now he's got his own niche that gives you a reason to pick him over Marth because he has strengths Marth doesn't in exchange for higher risk of death for messing up.

oofff did him dirty on his recovery.... he defs has one of the nastiest recoveries. you cant bring up his recovery without looking at the full picture, DK being as heavy as he is will rarely need to recover from low, not to mention his weight will make him actionable out of hitstun sooner than most, while also not being knocked back as far, this all meaning that opponents do not have as much time to setup an edgeguard. Most hits that would require the rest of the cast to double jump, up-B will require DK to simply double jump or often just drift back to grab edge, leaving his jump and up-B as mix up / timing delays etc. Also the way he grabs edge is from far away and low profile, while also having an invincible up-B (I-frames while on ground or aerial 3-6) with high base and scaling knockback, basically meaning he has a unique and devastating mix up of jumping to ledge, or if the opponent tries to attack his jump to ledge having a massive, invincible shine-esque attack that as designed to flip opponents behind him aka offstage (or stage spike). Also quick note, while he does get combo'd he does too combo having 0-death potential on basically everyone. Even combos jiggly decently. His cargo up-throw up air as a kill confirm is a menace, might kill at higher percent than fox but is much more reliable, being able to confirm on yoshi and peach at 140% ish and no smash-di for opponents. Finallly, his neutral is super solid. trust me i guess

From Donkey to DANKey

A piece of feedback, I think you repeat a lot of the same things, this video could easily be 30% shorter. Good video otherwise, and I'm glad the PM devs took care to not completely remove the characters' weaknesses.

7:27 Dk looks like he is offering Mario as a sacrifice to the monkey god.

i swear every time you upload a video i get hyped

sheesh bro the yt grind never stops o7

Funny how Project M predicted DK getting the roll attack in Smash 4.

Project M/Plus is still beating Melee and Ultimate tbh

Do you know where I could watch videos on how to get good at project + and melee?

I was one of those Melee DK players back in the day. The character was always SUPER underestimated and if you don't have the patience to learn him properly, you would conclude that he was a bad character. I always did rather well with Melee DK even if it was hard at times. But that only shows how skilled I was as a player. I even made top 8 a bunch of times

Konkey Dong is the most underrated character in melee, change my mind.

Banger

I personally think spinning kong should’ve been moved to side special, and that donkey Kong should’ve gotten a new up special like blast barrel, and not just the barrel cannon, that launches dk straight up and not putting him into free fall, that way dk can have a way to recover vertically and horizontally.

i am surpirsed you did not talk about gannon as one of the heavy weights

If you waited one more day before releasing this, you would've had this video on Thunderz's birthday.

Lol 0:39 shout out to all us barely Viable Falcon mains, really do feel like that sometimes. If you don't enjoy suffering just play Fox, Marth, Falco, Puff, or Sheik.

Is this a reupload? I could've sworn I already saw this vid.

Everyone saying DK is the most underrated character; I actually think it’s Doc.

Y’all stay lit with the De Blob music I appreciate that 🔥

You can also really tell how much Sakurai took from PM ideas and put them into Ultimate DK

comment for the alggy

Gotta love that De Blob music

Can you do Roy or ganon next

ThunderReignz put DK on his back

Melee dk is actually so fun

Marths shield also doesn't cover him fully

One thing is that you for sure used the transition sounds a little too much. Other than that very solid video!

Mmm… m o n k e.

Melee donkey kong isn't that bad in my opinion

Even tho dk is bad he’s so much fun to play

His production quality do be slowly rising tho

Hmmmmm did you expect a donkey to not being bellow average

DK is the best DK Main here 🙌

*DONG*

Take DK's strengths and weaknesses and learn what he can and cannot do. His recovery is horrible. Yup! Will die easily. But being combo food is like the spacies. They get juggled to death just the same. Bad hit stun recovery and also being fast fallers. Cool.. DK can still do it. I agree that he can. He seems in the right spot in tier list. Unless there is some stuff I do not know. He has great combo game. But I still think the recovery is his worst thing. Juggle is bad too. But if he had better recovery. He would survive a bit better as well.

So he's very slow (because bowser outrun zelda and jigglypuff making him the 3rd slowest character) Has laggy attacks and can be hit very often Shines (frame 1) destroys him He's a large target His recovery is bad His shield can be grabbed easily And His shield is small for his size Blasters, marth sword will be a challenge for dk Mid teir But it dosent mean he isnt viable He's strong and powerful Lots of knockback Good offence and defence moves 4 to 3 meteor smashes 2nd vest survival only beaten by bowser Can chain grab Back air is decent Dk Punch kills early Good range (above average to slightly above average) C/Mid teir is a decent teir But we all know he should be buffed in melee

dk was literally buffed cus strong bad got wrecked in melee lmao. hes fine in melee until high level thats pretty viable yall are just trash