by fammydamammy, Guest Contributor, Wario in Disguise
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I’m fammydamammy, a fairly prominent amiibo trainer known for several amiibo, one of which being Mr. Game & Watch. My Mr. Game & Watch amiibo is one of the best of its kind, holding three wins and several top eight placements in vanilla amiibo tournaments which is very solid for a character that is considered bottom ten in amiibo.
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AI Issues
Mr. Game & Watch’s AI is pretty solid for the most part, though it does have one noteworthy flaw. Very occasionally Mr. Game & Watch can SD while trying to make it back to the stage. His Up Special can be acted out of with in aerial or airdodge instead of going into freefall, which leads to the AI occasionally botching his recovery by using an aerial on his way back to the stage, usually leading to SDs.
Overall Playstyle
The Mr. Game & Watch amiibo is yet another character that benefits most from an overall grounded and defensive playstyle; walking; and making heavy use of his Forward Tilt, Up Smash, and strong juggling game to build damage and take stocks. Mr. Game & Watch also heavily benefits from parrying, allowing him to prolong his stocks longer as a featherweight.
Getting Started
When training, I strongly recommend mirror matching your amiibo, meaning Mr. Game & Watch vs Mr. Game & Watch the entire training session. Once you see your amiibo use the moves you want to use, turn the learn button off so that it will level up without changing the base amiibo data. Do note that the amiibo get a better AI as they level up and will not play poorly because you turned off learning at an early level.
If you intend to train your amiibo with spirits, it’s best to add spirits before any training happens because of how adding spirits will shuffle an amiibo’s move values. That being said, an even 2100/2100 is the most viable option for pretty much all amiibo. For support spirits, Super Armor, Great Autoheal, and Armor Knight are the best spirits in the game but are banned from the current spirit amiibo tournament ruleset. A tournament legal spirit set I recommend for Mr. Game & Watch is Weapon Attack ↑, Weapon Attack Up ↑, and Air Defense. I would normally be against using duplicate spirit effects on amiibo due to the power of the effect diminishing with each duplicate, but in the case of a small amount of characters, duplicate spirit effects are viable due to how many of a certain character’s moves are classified under a certain attack type, since Mr. Game & Watch boasts almost an entire kit of just Weapon-type moves. Alongside two Weapon Attack ↑ spirits, I recommend Air Defense since it decreases the amount of damage he takes when he is in the air, helping his survivability.
How to Train the Mr. Game & Watch amiibo
Forward Tilt is one of Mr. Game & Watch’s strongest close quarter tools. It’s quick, does good damage, has a lingering hitbox, and can even kill at higher percents. Use this move a lot up close.
Up Smash is Mr. Game & Watch’s best kill move. It’s strong, has a large hitbox, invincibility frames, and can even lead into Neutral Air and Up Air juggling. Use this move to kill and catch landings frequently.
Down Smash is very solid for damage building in amiibo, and although the AI struggles to punish buried opponents from landing the sweet spot with Forward Smash, the AI can follow up with Forward Tilt, Dash Attack, or another Down Smash, which is just free damage. The AI also knows how to respond to the amiibo mashing out of the bury, being able to respond with Neutral Air or Up Air juggling for even more damage. On top of that, the sour spot that doesn’t bury launches opponents at a nasty angle for most characters to recover from, making this move very solid overall. Make sure to not overuse Down Smash though. Focus on Forward Tilt and Up Smash more heavily, but use it a good amount. When you land the bury hitbox during training, always follow up with Forward Tilt.
Dash Attack is very good for approaching. It’s quick, deals good damage, and can even chain into itself. Use it at a distance to approach a lot during training.
Grab should be mixed in fairly often, since Mr. Game & Watch has some very solid throw combos, and it is one of his only ways of beating shielding and parrying. During training, mix in grab often up close and use Down Throw -> Neutral Air and Down Throw -> Up Air.
Forward Smash is an alright move to mix in every so often, since the tipper sweet spot of the move is very strong, though it is fairly slow and vulnerable to parrying.
Side Special is a decent move to mix in every so often since most of its possible outcomes are fairly decent, especially since the famous Nine hammer, which is super strong, can take a stock at 0% on some characters. Use it every so often, but don’t spam it, since getting a One hammer leaves Mr. Game & Watch horribly vulnerable in addition to dealing 12% recoil damage, which is a heavy blow for a featherweight like him.
Neutral Air and Up Air make Mr. Game & Watch’s juggling game brutal, with Up Air letting him juggle opponents very well from a safe distance and Neutral Air being large and long-lasting for when they get closer in the air. Use these moves to juggle often, but with all amiibo and teaching aerials, don’t overuse them to prevent the amiibo from getting jumpy.
Back Air and Forward Air are going to be Mr. Game & Watch’s main tools for hitting opponents offstage, since both are great for gimping. Go offstage with these a lot.
Down Air is Mr. Game & Watch’s main landing option, since it’s strong, disjointed, and able to quickly take him down from the air as a “stall and fall.” Don’t use this move too often though, since he can easily overuse it.
Why It Works
Mr. Game & Watch has an overall decent kit for an amiibo, with his Forward Tilt and Up Smash being very solid moves that let him kill and take stocks fairly well compared to other low tier amiibo like Inkling and Sheik.
How to push the Mr. Game & Watch amiibo even further – Theorycrafting
He has a lot of potential to move up the tier list, since he does have some not-terrible matchups against amiibo that are tiers above him, like Zelda, Piranha Plant, and Mii Swordfighter. However, he still has a few things holding him back apart from the aforementioned AI flaw that makes him SD. Mr. Game & Watch’s most notable character flaw in amiibo is his weight, being the fourth lightest character in the game. Having high weight is an important trait to have for an amiibo, being part of the reason why characters like Bowser and King K. Rool are high tier amiibo. Mr. Game & Watch also struggles against amiibo that parry a lot, due to not having any good multi-hit options on the ground, making him use his grab game to remedy the issue.
That about wraps up my Mr. Game & Watch amiibo guide. Thanks for reading, and good luck training!
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