5/12/18— Welcome! (Character Overview #1)
Hello everyone, and welcome to the very first Dev Blog for a Super Smash Flash 2 modding project known as SSF2 Delta. The goal of the project is to completely redesign and rebalance the meta of the game by retooling every single character in the cast. This doesn’t mean just changing values and calling it a day. We’re changing physics, mechanics, hitboxes, and even making new moves or reviving old ones in a new fashion. Aside from just balancing the roster, SSF2 Delta will also include an increased number of tournament-legal stages.
Oh, right! Almost forgot to introduce myself. I’m David, the director and engine programmer of Delta. A lot of you may recognize me by my YouTube name, Starlight. I’ve been hinting at this project a lot recently, but haven’t even publicly revealed the official name of it until the creation of this blog (its internal name is “Triangle Game”, so if you saw anything about that, it’s this!)
The project has been in development since September of 2017, and I’ve managed to keep myself and friends fairly quiet about its existence until recently, with teases on my YouTube channel as well as discussions about it on the official SSF2 Mods Discord server. But as the project nears its debut 1.0 release, I wanted to talk a bit more about what to expect from it. There are a lot of surprises in Delta, though, so I’m going to make sure these blogs don’t spoil everything the game has to offer!
Anyway, for the very first blog, I’ll be going over the changes made to the fan-favorite character, Sonic the Hedgehog!
In the vanilla version of Super Smash Flash 2 v1.0.3.2, Sonic… isn’t all that great. Sure, his sprites are pretty cool; can’t take that from the devs. But in terms of overall power ranking, he’s pretty far down on the ladder.
Really, a problem that seems to be common in SSF2 is that all the characters that are B- or above are really good, and the characters below B- tend to feel really underwhelming or unsatisfying to play. Delta aims to fix that issue, closing the gap between the two categories.
In SSF2, Sonic has generally low damage output and seemingly-limited combo potential. He relies off of stray hits in neutral to build damage on the opponent and then takes stocks by getting the opponent offstage via an aerial attack or a throw. It doesn’t really help that his Side Special puts him into a tumble and his Up Special leaves him wide open for punishes. And, on top of all that, he’s a very light character that can be killed easily.
So, for Delta, we decided to change things up a bit so that he has easier access to combos as well as kills. Surprisingly, this was able to get the job done without messing with his damage output, weight, or speed.
Note: Everything you see here and in any other Developer Blog is subject to change at any time.
Neutral Air: Insta-Shield (Sonic the Hedgehog 3)
If you’ve ever played Sonic the Hedgehog 3 or Sonic and Knuckles, you’d remember that when you pressed A as Sonic while in the air, you’d see a white flash that would appear for only a few frames. You were able to use this to briefly become invincible as well as destroy any enemies you came in contact with.
For SSF2 Delta, we’ve recreated this move as Sonic’s neutral air attack, with a few changes, of course.
- It doesn’t give you any invincibility frames.
- Rather than coming out on frame 1, it comes out on frame 2.
- It doesn’t kill the opponent. Instead, it knocks them away at an angle that sets up combos!
- You can only use it once before it disables. Touching the ground will reenable it, of course.
Side Special: Light Speed Dash Changes
So, Sonic’s Side Special. It’s… a thing, but it’s a little weird. It’s Sonic’s horizontal recovery move, but it’s a little too… “exposing” for our tastes. You can angle the attack up and down, and Sonic will quickly dash forward depending on the direction you held. Problem is, if you’re in the air, doing this will put you in a tumble state you can’t act out of.
It’s really weird, too. Side Special wasn’t always this bad. In fact, in SSF2 v0.9a, it was perfect.
…okay, maybe it wasn’t perfect. It was quite overpowered, really:
- You could charge it for a long period of time to go longer distances
- Way easier to land
- It flew right past the opponent when it connected instead of stopping in place
- You could freaking jump-cancel it at any time
- No lag, startup or ending
- Free aerials??
- No helpless state???
But it did make him super good. So, with that in mind, we brought ALL OF IT back for Delta Sonic!
Just messing with you. But it is a bit similar. Here’s how it works in SSF2 Delta.
- Can be charged to go farther distances
- Can use aerials out of it
- Can’t angle it
- Can’t use other specials
- No longer puts you in a tumble.
Giving these properties to Sonic’s Side Special gives it a much more fluid and flexible feel than its vanilla counterpart.
Up Smash Changes
I’ll be honest, there’s really not much to say for this one! Instead of it being a multiple-hit attack, it’s a single hit with decent knockback. It can even KO at the higher percents.
Down Air: Stomp
If you’ve ever played Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Generations, or Sonic Forces, then you know exactly what this move is. In the boost titles, Sonic’s been able to perform a powerful stomp that breaks any objects and kills any enemies in its path, causing a shock wave upon landing on the ground. It could also be used for precision platforming as well as breaking your momentum.
In SSF2 Delta, it functions almost the same way, minus the shock wave bit.
The camera shake should serve as your warning that this move is not to be taken lightly. With Stomp, Sonic can knock you right out of the air and spike you.
If you combine all these changed attacks together, you have a VERY threatening Sonic, far better than what we’ve seen from vanilla so far.
And with that, all of the super major changes are out of the way. Here’s a list of other changes that I decided weren’t big enough to have their own section:
- Side Special’s sweetspot is weaker and deals less damage.
- Gravity increased. This change is universal to all the characters in Delta so that it’ll be easier to transfer over once SSF2 Beta 1.1 releases.
- Forward Air’s sourspot is weaker.
Now, I’m almost certain that a number of you that made it this far are thinking, “Wow, they really busted Sonic”. And based on what I showed here? Yes! Definitely! Its busted! Thank you for noticing. Anyway, like I said at the beginning of this, everything you see here is subject to change. SSF2 Delta is an ever-changing meta with the placement of characters shifting around so much that we’ve actually gotten to the point where no character in the game is bad per se, but there’re just characters better than whoever you chose. Sonic isn’t even the best. With that being said, Sonic’s already going to get some changes from what you saw here. I’m listing them now so there’s no mystery.
- Up Smash’s knockback and knockback growth will be reduced.
- I’m sure you noticed that Sonic can jump after his Side Special. Yeah, that’s being removed.
- Not shown: Sonic’s grounded Up Special, for some reason, allowed you to use Side Special out of it. I don’t know how that happened, but it’s also getting removed.
- Due to how good Sonic is now, one of two things will happen to his physics: 1) His top speed is reduced by a tiny bit, or 2) His weight is reduced even more to make him a total glass cannon.
And with that, I hope you enjoyed reading the first installment of the SSF2 Delta Developer Blogs! If you liked what you saw here today, feel free to “applaud” the post. If you want to be notified the next time one of these pop up, be sure to Follow the publication! And finally, I must say: I would’ve never gotten this far with modding if it weren’t for the SSF2 modding community. I taught myself quite a few things, but they taught me most of what I know. So, be sure to visit the official Discord server for SSF2 modding. Until next time, I’m out. Peace!~
