Project V/Bonkers



Bonkers (Kirby) ''"Bonkers is so tough that your attacks won't make him flinch at all." - In-game description''

Bonkers is one of the fifteen selectable fighters in Project V, representing the Kirby franchise. He had been selected for experimental reasons, the development team wanting to explore the abilities Bonkers can utilize with his hammer. Bonkers is a recurring midboss in the Kirby series, attacking with his giant hammer. Bonkers has fairly short range, but has several abilities with his hammer and has a ping-pong game with his typical Hammer Swing move, which allows him to reflect projectiles and knock close foes far away. Using his hammer, Bonkers is the ultimate "punisher" character in the game, able to deflect projectiles and smash them back into enemies and knock foes straight out of the air with his valuable aerials.

On the beta, unreleased form of the game that the competitive scene relies on, Bonkers is currently 10th on the list. Bonkers is an incredible powerhouse with a variety of different ways to break through his opponents' defensive strategies and go completely out with power, especially given that he cannot flinch. With his range and reflecting attacks, he can corner Ridley and the Shadow Queen and stand a chance against Pirate Man and Greedy. Bonkers has slow speed, however, and his recovery is poor, which means that staying on the stage is vital for his survival. While Bonkers has no harsh counters, half the roster has an advantage against him and makes it difficult for him to get anywhere above his current placement in competitive.

Attributes
Bonkers is a mid-weight character with a mixture of different attack moves, several of them dealing varying degrees of damage. Most of his moves involve the usage of his hammer, which can be landed in several different ways. Due to the very similar-looking attacks that Bonkers does with his hammer, what he can do is actually unpredictable and hard to read. Bonkers has slow walking speed, poor dashing speed, high falling speed, decent air speed, and moderate jumps. Using his hammer, he can reflect opponents away from him and bounce items away with his hammer, and pressure opponents with his Coconut Toss, his only projectile. He can use his weaker attacks (like his ground moves) for combos and lead into stronger attacks (which are often his aerials). Moreever, he has a lot of KO options, possessing at least ten -- all four of his special moves, his smash attacks, his forward and back aerials, and his up tilt.

Bonkers is affected with a slew of flaws, however. His mobility is very poor, and when coupled with his abysmal recovery, the chances of him making it back to the stage safely are quite slim. While possessing a weapon, its range is low when compared to Poison's or K. Rool's, and leaves him vulnerable to attacks if he happens to miss thanks to little bits of end lag on his moves. Despite being able to rebound attacks back at his opponents, Ganondorf and James Hetfield can both return the harm, potentially K.O.'ing Bonkers. While these make Bonkers a vulnerable and easy-to-KO fighter, they don't make him not viable in competitive play thanks to being able to counter and KO opponents that can't knock away his attacks.

Moveset
Bonkers almost exclusively uses his hammer, with one exception: his Coconut Toss move. Using his hammer, he can smash opponents below the stage, flip it into opponents like a screw and drive them off the stage's top, or even swing it in a full circle to drive off opponents and reflect any weapon coming his way. He does not have a great throw game, but he makes up for it with his genuinely speedy attacks. A quirk unique to him is that he can toss his hammer away for massive damage and knockback, but fights with his fists afterwards for about ~17 seconds before his hammer returns to him. While his attacks have shorter range, they are slightly more powerful and his smash attacks deal much more knockback.
 * Neutral Special: Giant Swing.  Bonkers will swing around his hammer and keep doing this as long as the player keeps tapping the green button, reflecting projectiles that get in the way of his weapon.  If the player stops, Bonkers will swing his hammer forward for a harsh, really powerful swing that can launch opponents far off of the screen at even moderate percentages.  It has rather low end lag, making it risky to intercept.  The powered version of this move allows Bonkers to move left and right via holding in those directions, doing even more damage as he traps opponents in his cyclone.
 * Forward Special: Coconut Toss.  Quickly Bonkers will toss coconuts in the air, which explode if they make contact with opponents or the ground.  If Bonkers has to reflect his own coconuts, they will be on fire and deal multi-hit damage if they make contact.  While the coconuts have low launch power, they deal plenty of damage and can reliably go into combos.  If the attack is charged, the next coconut thrown is much bigger and explodes like a huge bomb, blowing all opponents in the radius of the coconut off of the screen.
 * Recovery Special: Goin' Bonkers.  Bonkers will flip and then go high up in the air, similar to the Super Dedede Jump move in Super Smash Bros.  When he comes back down, he will go down with his hammer, pounding opponents and potentially launching them.  Due to the speed of this move, it's difficult to actually counter.  If the attack is charged, Bonkers will move faster and create shockwaves along the ground that paralyze opponents and leave them open to Bonkers' powerful, brutal attacks.  Lightweights in particular are in danger of this move.
 * Crouch Special: Hammer Throw. This unique move has Bonkers spin around and then toss his hammer, which bounces along the ground.  If it hits any opponent, it will do great damage and knockback.  However, Bonkers will be left without his hammer for some time, causing him to rely on his more powerful physical attacks, but they don't have as much range as his hammer does.  After around 17 seconds, Bonkers regains his hammer.

In competitive play
Due to time constraints, this is incomplete.