The hero of Shadow Moses makes his return in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It’s been a long wait, but Snake is finally back in Smash. Making his debut to the series in Brawl, Snake was one of the game’s strongest characters. Fast forward to today and Snake is one of the most polarizing characters in the early days of Smash Ultimate. Before launch, many thought that Snake wouldn’t be very strong, but after a few tournaments, this notion quickly changed. With Panda Global’s Jestise “MVD” Negron recently winning Don’t Park On the Grass 2018 using only Snake, the character has received a lot of attention. Some think Snake is a great character that has top tier potential. Others think that he’s overrated and is a product of overblown hype and matchup inexperience. Today, we will get to the bottom of how good Snake really is.
Snake’s kit is very diverse, and very tough to deal with.
Smash Bros
Snake is a very volatile character who can easily rattle his opponent. His many projectiles and traps build a wall that’s very tough to get over. His neutral revolves around his grenades and combo-ing his opponents after his grenades explode on them. He sets up traps in the form of C4 and catches opponents with the move’s devastating kill power. This sounds like normal fare for a projectile character, but Snake isn’t your average zoner. Snake’s weight and incredible kill power with his normals make him one of the strongest projectile characters in the game, at least early on.
Snake uses his bombs not only to approach, but also to combo break. He’s not the fastest and is fairly heavy, so he can get juggled pretty hard. Luckily for him, though, he can use grenades to break out of combos. This is a must for Snake because without it, his disadvantage state is brutal. Snake’s recovery travels a great distance, but is very linear and easy to predict. It also primarily travels vertically, so he’s often forced to recover high to avoid being edge-guarded.
He struggles to land, but his formidable weight makes him able to afford to trade here and there. His insanely strong normals and aerials, combined with his decent out of shield options like down air, give him a pretty strong kit. Mix in grenades, C4 for traps and his Nikita launcher to edge-guard or force costly air dodges and Snake appears to have an answer for everything. But does he really?
MVD definitely put Snake back on the map!
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Snake’s absence in Smash 4 is undoubtedly a contributing factor to his early success in Ultimate. Once Brawl veterans got their hands on the character again, it became immediately clear that many Smash Ultimate players did not know what to do against the character. Fighting Snake is like trying to make your way through a minefield. Explosives go off everywhere, and it can seem impossible to get in. This is entertaining to watch, but maybe it’s also an explanation for how much hype the character is receiving. Maybe Snake isn’t as good as many believe he is, and Brawl veterans are just taking advantage of Smash 4 players’ inexperience.
This idea has been floating around for a while, and only intensified once MVD won a big tournament using Snake. While this is a plausible answer, people may be overthinking this. Instead of searching for reasons to justify why Snake is doing so well, let the results speak for themselves. Snake is crushing it right now and that’s because he’s a good character. No, he isn’t the best character in the game and he might not even be top ten – but one thing is for sure: he’s not a bad character. Snake has too many good tools and options to be a definitively bad character. Snake has an option to deal with many situations, and can often cover his disadvantages. He has weaknesses that can be exploited, but they aren’t deal breakers for him.
It’s still very early on in Smash Ultimate’s life cycle and Snake bounced around the tier list in Brawl a lot as well. Some even thought Snake was #2 in Brawl, behind Meta Knight, which completely changed by the end of Brawl’s life cycle.
Snake’s in a weird place where people haven’t completely figured him out yet. However, it is clear that he is a strong character who has the potential to win big tournaments. Only time will tell exactly where he’ll end up on the tier list.
How good do you think Snake is In Smash Ultimate? Let us know down in the comments below!
Featured image courtesy of Smash Bros.
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