IM GONNA SKIN YOU ALIIIIIIIVE

Zazz

Zazz is a member of the Deadly Six, a group of generic demons that act as the main antagonists for Sonic Lost World. Zazz is the first member you fight, where he rides around on a tacky moon mech. As the Deadly Six each represent a generic personality trait, Zazz’s is “crazy”, something that arguably makes him more interesting and animated than any of the others. Unfortunately, because he is the first boss, it means he gets a bit less screentime than the rest of the Deadly Six.

Zazz is responsible for some of Lost World’s most infamous and violent lines, which helps him stand out among his bland piers. Also, for some reason, Zazz keeps showing up in spinoff games, specifically mobile ones. He’s a boss in Sonic Dash, playable in Sonic Forces Speed Battle, and was the focus of Sonic Runners’ only raid event, which had a plot of Zazz trying to get revenge on Sonic and just generally being the butt of jokes for some reason.

Stats
Weight – 95
Walk Speed – 0.94
Run Speed – 2.3
Air Speed – 1.3
Fall Speed – 1.95

Zazz is a very reckless character. He’s very fast in almost every way but his walk, but has very low traction, making him skid a lot while on the ground. It’s very easy to get caught up in his speed and end up doing something stupid in the process. That, as will become obvious, is the main pitfall of playing Zazz.

For his model, Zazz takes a hunched posture, like the picture above, and is slightly shorter than Bowser and K. Rool, but equally as wide. He’s significantly larger than Sonic, so that’s all that matters to him. His jumps are average, reaching 2.5 Blocks on his first, and an additional 2.5 on his second.

Specials
Side Special – Goin’ For A Ride!
Zazz goes on all fours, before leaping forward in a crazed pounce. This has a bit of starting lag but is still relatively fast. It’s comparable to a similar move, Diddy’s Monkey Flip. In fact, this move has a lot of similarities. The attack turns Zazz’s entire body into a hitbox, and if he lands, he’ll latch onto the opponent he hits, much like how Diddy Kong does. If he misses, Zazz will land on his face and enter some bad endlag where he shakes himself off and gets back to his feet.

The difference between this and Monkey Flip is what actually happens when Zazz latches onto the opponent. Instead of entering a pretty basic command grab and locking the opponent in place, Zazz instead wraps his legs around their body, but still lets them move around. During this time, inputting any attack button will have Zazz do a sort of combo on them, slamming down one fist, then the other, and finally bringing both down, preferably as close to the opponent’s head as he can get. This happens when you do the input rapidly of course. The first two pounds deal 1%, while the two handed one deals 2%. All of these hits come out insanely quickly, with very little frames between them if you mash.

Zazz will remain on the opponent until they shake him off, which takes 1.5x the amount of mashing as a grab at 100%, which does get stronger when at higher percents. This puts both players in a bad position. Why? Well, Zazz gets so focused on his beatdown that he kind of forgets that he can get off, meaning the only way to end the move is for the opponent to force him off, or for an outside party to hit him off. If the opponent stands still, however, Zazz will get bored and hop off after 5 seconds.

With Zazz on the opponent’s back, he’s left at their mercy, and wherever he’s let off may be extremely disadvantageous… like directly into a trap, obstacle, or even directly off the stage. Throwing him off the stage is the one that enemies will usually want to go for, as Zazz has VERY bad recovery. The unfortunate thing is that this attack is one of the best damage dealers in the game, as even at 0% the pummel can deal 32% damage, which is a ton in the early game.

This attack is also one of the most important in Zazz’s moveset, as a lot of his attacks play off of it or interact with it, as we’ll be covering when we get to them. It’s also important as it’s Zazz’s only efficient recovery tool, which is still pretty bad. Like the Monkey Flip, this sends Zazz flying in an arc, but it’s a slightly larger arc since Zazz is significantly larger than the funny monkey. This is similar to how Incineroar’s SSpec is used, expect Zazz doesn’t even have a bad recovery to play off of it. This is basically all Zazz gets for the most part, which really, really sucks.

Neutral Special – Ball of Rage

Down Special – RRRAAAAGGGGHHHHHH!

Up Special – A Real Luna-tic