warlord's CNPTE character review compilation

Old Ben 10:

Neutral Special: Turns into some fire alien and fires one fireball high, one fireball low. The high fireball will go over most of the short characters like the powerpuffs but both will hit taller characters like Aku. Infinite range, powerfull against tall characters since it does 10% per fireball.

Side Special: Turns into some giant alien and shouts "Humongous Saur" tardishly and charges forward, dealing 12% and fairly high knockback but with lots of lag.

Up Special: Turns into some Winged Ice Alien and generically goes up, goes decent distance. He fires icicles below himself that are the move's hitbox and deal 13%, main body is not a hitbox. The icicles do horizontal knockback, maybe could gimp people?

Down Special: Turns into some ice alien and lets out an annoying scream, makes a hitbox around himself. Generic bad GTFO move at high percents that does 6%, at low percents can combo into itself. (6% per hit)

Final Smash: Turns into the alien from Side Special, then gains armor and fires projectiles out of his arms, generically strong final smash that seems to have decent range around him.

Fsmash: Generic Kick that does 13% and is an okay if weak kill move.
Usmash: Uppercut that doesn't hit people in front of him, deals 14%.
Dsmash: Generic kick that hits in front of him, dealing 16%. Will not hit grounded enemies who are short.

Jab: Generic punch punch kick jab combo that does 7% if all hits connect. Cannot jab cancel it into anything.
Dashing Attack: Skidding Kick, deals 9%, unsafe on hit and does barely any knockback.
Utilt: Overhead Punch, 7%, fairly high knockback for tilt, can hit people in front of him.
Dtilt: Sweepkick, 9%, one of his few attacks that even hits prone characters.

Nair: Spin kicks around himself multiple times. Good range and very fast.
Side Air: Generic kick forwards.
Uair: Weak flipkick.
Dair: Axekick downwards. Does horizontal knockback, not downwards knockback.

Grab/Throw: Generic tiny range grab and throw that does 5% and very weak upwards knockback that will literally never kill.

Analysis: The projectile is one of the more spammable ones in the game and he could be decent as a counter against Aku. His projectile is his only noteworthy special and his other attacks are very mediocre, fsmash is your primary generic melee move. Terrible against short people.


Aku:

When Aku is in the air, he enters bat form and has 3 midair jumps. He moves much faster through the air than on the ground, faster than most characters can move period. This changes his Neutral Special. There are various glitches that can be performed in 1 player mode/with assist trophies/etc to glitch Aku into bat form on the ground which enables him to glitchily perform his grounded attacks in bat form, though this has no practical use from what I can see even if it could be consistently triggered in a 1v1 scenario.

If Aku enters prone state and falls on top of a character, he will magically float on top of them until he exits prone. His prone state in general is glitchy and can sometimes almost clip through the floor.

Aku is the last character on the character select screen and his Neutral Special is very obviously based off Vilgax's given the grounded version is identical, indicating he was probably a rushed character addition given his lack of polish, even by this game's standards.

Neutral Special: Whe used on the ground, Aku sweeps a laser along the ground about 2.5 Battlefield platforms fairly quickly, dealing 6% and weak knockback but it scales decently. In the air, the laser comes out instantly with its full range, looking more like a big red wall than a laser. The laser does not merely shoot out from Aku in bat form, the full range of the laser just instantly spawns in front of him with no lag. Aku laughs whenever he performs the attack and it is very easy to have 3 instances of him laughing at once from how spammable the attack is. The aerial version has no landing lag, and can be canceled out of very very quickly if Aku shorthops the move, which he'll be doing a lot to hit the many short characters in the game anyway. The aerial version actually seems more powerful, dealing 7%. The base knockback is very low but it scales decently. The aerial version is the most spammable zoning tool in the game, especially when coupled with Aku's aerial mobility, and is what defines the character.

The grounded version, while slower, still has use. Notably, if fired when on a higher elevation of ground downwards, such as the ledge, the move has infinite downwards range. While the move does horizontal knockback (Downwards knockback is extremely rare in this game), this is still spammable enough it can be very obnoxious for gimping, letting Aku aggressively edgeguard from on-stage, though he's certainly capable of pursuing foes off-stage.

Side Special: Aku turns into a bull and charges forwards, aiding his already fantastic recovery with additional horizontal recovery and being a decent KO move, dealing 10% and fairly high horizontal knockback. At 0%, the move can potentially hit up to 3 times. There is a headbutt at the very end that does very slightly higher knockback but is not really worth trying to hit with, and it still does the same damage.

Up Special: Aku turns into a spinning mass of tentacles as going upwards, dealing 13% and  high knockback that is a rare move capable of killing off the top. This is the move's primary use, as his recovery is so good Aku should use his other options to not enter helpless if at all possible.

Down Special: Aku turns into a scorpion and does three attacks in place that add up to 30%. Because of this attack changing Aku's model, it will keep going if frozen by Blossom's broken Neutral Special. The freeze duration is not that long, so by the time Aku is finished with the move he should be done using this attack anyway. Aku's Side Special will also not be interrupted, but it will cause him to do the attack in place as encased in the ice. This seems to be something to do with how Aku's transformations are coded with swapping his model. His bat form moves can still be frozen, but while frozen in bat form his model will spaz out and look like a glitchy mess.

Final Smash: Turns into a dragon and breathes fire. Very powerful and will kill most people, about a platform's worth of range in front of him. He'll continue doing the same attack two more times, though against an enemy with a brain only the first hit matters. He is invincible for the duration of the Final Smash.

Fsmash: Aku breathes fire, decent range and deals 13%. Good if enemy hasn't gotten into point blank range yet where Aku is vulnerable.
Usmash: Aku extends his arms forwards and enlarges his hands, stabbing upwards with his claws and dealing 17% with high vertical knockback.
Dsmash: Aku's bottom shapeshifts into spikes that extend out all around him. The spikes will miss short characters unless the move is used at point blank range, but has good range against taller/aerial characters. Deals 14% and decent knockback.

Jab: A jab combo consisting of three slashes, the last one has a lot of range. Deals 8% if all hits connect, deals almost no knockback and is blatantly unsafe on hit. Aside from this, the three hits of the jab combo don't actually always combo into each other unless Aku uses the move at a very specific range, and portions of the jab have a hard time hitting short characters.

Dashing Attack: Aku leans forwards and does a punch with both hands, dealing 8% and generic weak knockback. Has a blind spot at close range.

Utilt: Aku claps above himself, dealing 8% and weak upwards knockback. Cannot hit opponents not in the air. The hitbox goes less high into the air than usmash in the event usmash would miss, but it's not any faster than usmash.

Dtilt: Aku swipes at the ground weakly, dealing 8% and tiny upwards knockback. This has a very weirdly specific hitbox and as such is a terrible move, requiring foes to not be too close or far away. The move's hitbox may actually be targeting too low, as it consistently hits prone enemies but requires insanely specific spacing to hit standing enemies who don't have huge hurtboxes.

Nair: Aku spins around with his wings, doing 7% and absolutely no knockback, blatantly unsafe on hit.

Side Aerial: Aku quickly flaps his wings forwards, dealing 9% and heavy horizontal knockback forwards, very rare for an aerial to do this much knockback in this game. Useful for edgeguarding.

Uair: Aku flaps his wings upwards, doing 7%. It's a pretty specific hitbox but can set up for an Up Special kill. You have to specifically hit with his wings, meaning the move has no hitbox directly above Aku, only above him and to his sides.

Dair: Flaps wings downwards, does horizontal knockback killing at 7% in an awkwardly specific hitbox.

Grab and Throw: Has better grab range than most characters and deals 6% with upwards knockback that can't kill. Like several of his melee moves does not hit foes at point blank range.

Analysis: Aku's melee game is fairly mediocre and he is defined by his laser spam. He is able to kill people quickly off-stage with his gimping game and godly recovery, and can easily run away from people. He has a handful of decent attacks at mid range to knock enemies further away, though his awkward hitboxes make him bad at point blank range. Aku is fairly crap on walk off stages given he loses one of his primary advantages.

None of Aku's moves produce many pickups for him to be able to pickup to raise his Final Smash meter. In addition, because of his laser spam, most of the pickups will be out of range for Aku to collect, so he will rarely even use his Final Smash to begin with and largely has to go out of his way to do so. That said, he doesn't terribly need it to be top tier. On walk-offs, he may be forced to try to build the meter more.


Vilgax:

Neutral Special: It's the infamous Aku laser, but only the grounded version. Vilgax's version was made first given Aku is only in the console version of the game. The hitbox/lag are identical to Aku's laser as he sweeps it along the ground, but it is more powerful as it deals 13% and higher knockback. The added power is actually pretty helpful and it's still a good move, if blatantly worse than Aku's.

Side Special: Vilgax spins his sword around in front of him, doing variable damage that is inconsistent, presumably due to the small range hitbox. Deals roughly 24-32% if all the htis connect. This does no knockback and is unsafe on hit, but does good damage, is easy to hit with, and produces a decent amount of pickups to build Final Smash meter if you can find a way to collect them somehow (If the foe's not braindead, you won't).

Up Special: Vilgax boosts straight up, then diagonally upwards as flashing red. The first portion has no hitbox, the second part can deal 15% with average knockback. Picture a crappy version of Pikachu's recovery where you always have to DI in the same way. While the second part has a hitbox, it is very specific and covers very little of Vilgax's huge character model. This is a very bad recovery by the high standards for recovery in this game.

Down Special: Vilgax takes out some kind of energy shield. This is a very strong close range attack and is his primary kill move, dealing 16% and high knockback. Vilgax is invincible from the front during this move and any attacks that hit the shield, including projectiles and crap like Blossom's ice breath, will instantly be neutralized. This is vastly preferable to his crappy Side Special for damage dealing due to how safe it is, and is preferable to his fsmash for being much faster.

Final Smash: Vilgax turns into a giant flying octopus, somewhat similar to Game & Watch's Final Smash, but he has infinite free flight and the tentacles are a much harder to avoid hitbox. This is one of the best Final Smashes in the game and is largely impossible to avoid compared to how easy it is to avoid most.

Fsmash: Vilgax does a very slow sword swing in front of himself, dealing 19% and high knockback. This attack should not be used given high power is a common feature in Vilgax's moveset, even if this is his most powerful attack knockback wise.

Usmash: Vilgax slashes upwards, which can't hit grounded enemies in front of him. Largely inferior to his utilt because of the poor hitbox, and not that much stronger anyway.

Dsmash: Vilgax slashes in front of himself, then behind himself. Each hit deals 21% and knocks enemies away very forcefully. These hits can't combo into each other or anything, largely just useful to catch rolls for the second hit. This is much faster to come out than fsmash, though if just using it to hit in front of you the move's going to have bad ending lag.

Jab: Vilgax does three sword strikes for his jab combo. The first one consistently deals 4%, the second one can do anywhere from 6% to 10% and seems to have some sort of weird property where it can hit twice, while the last hit deals 6%. The last hit does huge knockback, but is terrible because it slashes way too far in front of Vilgax. Because the first two hits have Vilgax advance forwards, the last hit won't combo into the other two hits of the jab because enemies will be in his blind spot, at least if they're short. As if that wasn't bad enough, the last hit of the jab is also very slow and enemies can knock Vilgax out of the attack even if they were hit during the second hit of the jab!

The first two hits of the jab combo perfectly into Vilgax's Down Special, and make this move amazing by proxy. You should never ever use the normal third hit of the jab, as it's terrible even ignoring the amazing option you have to cancel into Down Special. While Vilgax's Down Special is already fast, using it out of the jab gives Vilgax some more range to use it with as he advances forwards in addition to giving him some more free damage and meter pickups.

Dashing Attack: Vilgax rushes forwards in a red blur, dealing 13% and decent knockback. The move is fast and sees Vilgax rush forwards a good platform's distance or so, making it pretty great for how fast it starts up.

Utilt: Vilgax stabs upwards, dealing 14%. Surprisingly unlike most high hitting moves of tall characters, this has a hitbox all around Vilgax and can actually hit grounded enemies no matter how short, having a great huge hitbox. Unfortunately the knockback isn't too great, though it can kill at high percents.

Dtilt: Vilgax slashes his sword along the ground, dealing 13% in an unimpressive attack that won't realistically kill any time soon with mediocre knockback, but too much ending lag to combo or anything useful.

Nair: Vilgax does a spinning slash around himself, dealing 12% and weak knockback, but enough to make it safe on hit.

Side Aerial: Vilgax slashes his sword in front of himself in a small hitbox, dealing 15% and weak forwards knockback. This cannot hit grounded enemies ever and as such is only really useful for edgeguarding, which Vilgax has minimal business in donig with his bad recovery.

Uair: Vilgax slashes above himself in a small hitbox, dealing 12% and weak upwards knockback.

Dair: Vilgax swings his sword downwards, dealing 18% and lingering slightly with the hitbox with high horizontal knockback. This is his only aerial that can hit short grounded enemies though none of his aerials are very good.

Grab and Throw: Vilgax grabs the enemy with decent range, dealing 8-9% upon throwing them in a lobbing arc forwards and upwards.

Analysis: Vilgax's only ranged tool to make use of is his laser, and aside from that relies on his hard hitting melee game. He has enough attacks that do high knockback he can reliably push enemies away to spam the laser. Despite having bad aerials, the laser is broken enough it can potentially gimp from on-stage. His best option is by far his jab into Down Special combo and the Down Special in general, and he can use his dashing attack to approach well if he needs to. Vilgax should really try to build up his Final Smash meter if possible given how great it is, encouraging him to use his melee game more to get more meter pickups. Vilgax improves on walk-off stages, eliminating his only real weakness.