by Doc – Owner, Founder, the Hidden Factor in Your Mother
Imagine that you’re training a Little Mac amiibo.
You know that, according to the guide I just linked, his best moves are Forward Smash, Up Smash and Forward Tilt. So you decide to train him to avoid opponents by jumping, but then using one of those moves the second he hits the ground. It works – you end up with a Mac that uses the right moves, but also spends a lot of time in the air avoiding the enemy.
That should work, right? After all, you got the move usage down. The Little Mac using the attacks that it’s supposed to use, right? So there shouldn’t be a problem.
But there obviously is a problem, because Little Mac isn’t supposed to be in the air. His movement needs to change as well. A Little Mac amiibo needs to stay on the ground at all times. After all, it’s Little Mac. You ain’t no air fighter, son. Even if the amiibo is using the right attacks, the movement is still very important – as any Little Mac amiibo trainer can tell you, an aerial Little Mac is a bird waiting to get shot out of the sky.
Focus on more than training the right attacks…
…and try to put in the right movement as well. Little Mac is an easy example because the character is designed to stay on the ground, but this doesn’t just extend to Mac. Every amiibo has an optimal movement style according to their attack usage. Bowser, for example, is most dominant when he’s not in the air (unless he’s offstage), and is instead defensively walking and taking his time. Slow, grounded movements work well for Little Mac and Bowser because they’re both very defensive characters – Little Mac has Super Armor on many Smash attacks, and Bowser has Tough Guy.
But on lighter characters, the story is sometimes different.
My Mega Man, Protoman, is considered the template for the optimal Mega Man amiibo. Protoman jumps like a madman, and it works to his advantage – because he’s lighter, and his optimal move usage includes his 3-hit Back air, it’s not so bad for Mega Man to be jumping around so long as there’s purpose to it.
When you’re training an amiibo, don’t just look at the list of moves to use and take it as a given. Be sure to look for footage of optimal amiibo as well so you can mimic their movements. Unfortunately, the written word can’t always describe less specific things like patterns of behavior – so be sure to subscribe to the Amiibo Doctor Youtube channel, where you can see it in action.
Amiibo Doctor 