Redesigning Samus (but keeping her the same)

[Jotari]

I said I had one of these knocking around for Samus when I posted the one for Ganondorf, so I might as well show it off.

First up her Forward Smash. Nothing particularly wrong with it now, but I love that new Melee counter and want to see it in the game. In fact, someone has already modded it in.

I don't want to see it as an actual counter though. We have enough of them. Instead it is a powerful arm canon bash. While there's no built in counter effect, it has very little ending lag allowing Samus to successfully combo it into other attacks (provided the knockback hasn't sent enemies flying) or bait enemies into attacking by whiffing it and then following up with something else. It also has great priority over other moves, a bit like Sonic's forward Smash.

 

Next up is her Down Smash is a new item from Dread that just really works as a Down Smash for her in my mind, the Cross Bomb.

The charging part of the Smash attack happens when Samus is in morph ball, meaning she is harder to hit when preparing for this move. And though the bombs hit in a fair distance, their area is quite precise.

 

Samus's up Smash is fine as it is, a stream of fire. Fun fact, one can consider this a reference to the Flame Thrower in Metroid Prime, but the attack actually predates Metroid Prime. Anyway, her up smash is fine, but I don't really like her up tilt. Samus did quite a few kicks in Other M, but an axe kick like that just doesn't strike me as Samus. Plus it's a clone move of Captain Falcon she's been holding on to for about 20 years now. So I think it's best to change it. So my version of her up tilt would be based on the wave beam. In visuals it would be similar to her up smash, Samus sweeps her arm canon in an arc upwards releasing a jet of purple electricity that trails behind in a sinewave pattern (this is too complex for me to make a gif out of, at least this late in the evening). This makes her up tilt and up Smash similar to Zelda's, both are arcing attacks travelling over Samus, with the Smash attack being a multi hit powerful attack, while the up tilt is a quicker attack that knocks enemies away.

EDIT: Alternatively her overhead kick she uses when countering out of morph ball could work as an Up Tilt. Hell actually that could work well as an upair, only it'd be a bit similar to Ganondorf/Falcon whom she already shares a dash attac, with.

 

Now onto her new down tilt. Functionally in a lot of ways this attack remains unchanged. It still deals quick, decent, vertical knockback. However it is now an ice attack that freezes at high %.

Samus can freeze things, it's a pretty noteworthy trait of hers, yet it is absent entirely in Smash and this irks me to no end. It's only her main method of dealing with Metroids for crying out loud! So it's been added to her down tilt.

 

In addition to giving her an ice attack on her down tilt, I've given it to two more attacks. The first is her neutral aerial.

This attack is much weaker and the freeze function of it is almost non existent, only coming into play with enemies that have such high damage they should have been dead long ago.  It's based on the Ice Shield, a secret attack for Samus in Super Metroid. Imagery from the secret techniques in Super Metroid could also maybe be used on her forward aerial.

The last ice attack is one that is purely visual, her up throw. Currently her up throw involves tossing her enemies upwards and blasting them with her arm canon. This remains the same attack for the most part, only before tossing her enemy upwards, Samus freezes them, not the standard big iceberg freeze of Smash bros., but a different visual element that makes the enemy go entirely white. Right now Samus blasts the enemy from point blank range with her arm canon, but for my variation of the attack they will be thrown a bit higher and it will be clear that Samus is firing a Super Missile at them. This sequence is of course in reference to Samus's typical way of dealing with Metroids, by freezing them first and then blasting them with missiles.

 

Other M has an attack called Over Blast, which was also used as an animation in Samus Returns. Basically Samus jumps on top of an enemy and fires her into them. I think this could work well as Samus's down throw. Unlike regular throws, the amount of power this throw deals is increased if Samus has a fully charged charge shot. However it uses up the charge.

I also think her Dash Attack should be an obvious reference to the Speed Booster. This wouldn't be difficult to do, just put some after images of Samus behind her as she performs the attack

I was going to make her bicycle kick Melee counter from Dread an uptilt, but I actually think this would work perfectly as a getup attack.

 

For her special attacks, I'm in two minds about the Charge Blast. On one hand, it's kind of cool and it's been around in Smash forever. On the the other hand Samus's charge attacks looks nothing like that in any of her games. And functionally it could be altered without changing many of the hitboxes of the attack by having her shoot the Spazer/Wide beam. In either case I think being able to aim it like you can ROB's Robolaser would make the attack way more useful and authentic, though perhaps that would make it too useful.

 

No way to fit her slide in 😞 I just like her current dash attack and down tilt too much. Maybe as an esoteric ledge recovery move.

 

Edited April 23, 2022 by Jotari

[Perkilator]

I know this is a hella late reply, but I did see a video about basing Samus on her Dread appearance while keeping what works and expanding on it.

 

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Perkilator said:

I know this is a hella late reply, but I did see a video about basing Samus on her Dread appearance while keeping what works and expanding on it.

 

I have seen that video. I think it makes a few changes just for the sake of changing them. Like she doesn't need a new down tilt, and they didn't even give her an ability from her own games but decided she needed a new one any way. I like using her Diffusion Beam as a Smash Attack though, but just personally I think the Melee Counter, as a new major ability for her, works better as a forward smash than any other kind of move. It needs to have that raw power of a forward smash to have that same peak satisfaction that as it has in Metroid.