Project V/King K. Rool



King K. Rool (Donkey Kong) "You deserve a kingly beating! Come on! Graaaw haw haaaaaaaw!"

King K. Rool is one of the fifteen selectable fighters in Project V, representing the Donkey Kong franchise. He had been selected largely thanks to the director's bias towards him and his "vast potential" for a game like Super Smash Bros. King K. Rool breaks the stereotypes often set by heavyweights, being a very mobile one with a variety of different attacks and strategies to pull off. Using his Disguise move, he can transform into his different disguises and utilize different moves. In each different movepool, he has different strengths and weaknesses, which means he has an overwhelming amount of ways to brawl and beat down on his opponents. In the light of Project V's release, he has been seen as a very viable character in competitive play thanks to his practically limitless attacking options. Oddly enough for a heavyweight, his attacks aren't too strong, making it easy for him to string attacks together.

Despite only demos of Project V being out, King K. Rool has been seen as a top choice in the game thanks to his variety of different attacks and talents, and his ability to alter movesets with his down special. He ranks as far up as 2nd on the tier, only below Poison, with his projectiles all able to apply pressure on foes like Marie, Little Mac and Pirate Man, who struggle breaking through his projectiles and even just landing hits on him. Thanks to his great recovery options, he can last a very long time in battle. He does have some weaknesses though; he's easy to juggle with combos if one can get up close to him and his attacks can be easy to read with enough practice. Big and Ridley can pressure him into keeping away as well, for their own power surpasses his own and can knock him off stage easily.

Attributes
Instead of being a power-heavy heavyweight such as Ganondorf or Shadow Queen, King K. Rool has mostly subpar or average power in his attacks, which allows him to more easily string his attacks together. Combined with his good jumps and fast air speed, he can easily punish foes with the grace of a typical lightweight fighter. With a number of good projectiles, K. Rool is a successful and reliable punisher character, able to take out his foes by surprise. Regardless of disguise, he has slow walking speed, above average dashing speed, moderate falling speed, fast air speed, and high jumps, making him a surprisingly agile heavyweight that's aided by great recovery. King K. Rool is a rushdown character, able to beat down and throw his opponents out of the ring quickly. By disguising himself, he can use different special attacks and change his statistics in general: K. Rool has some glaring flaws of his own, however. The most notable one is having to constantly manage his disguises in order to suit to situations a little more; every skin that isn't the usual king disguise has two big weaknesses and only one huge strength. Some of his forms have flaws of their own, and it can all be hard to track. His disguising element means that he has an unusually high learning curve; attempting to master his disguises can be a difficult and grueling task, and also a risky one. Even when playing as his usual form, his lack of power and ability to be juggled can make him annoying to play as, and opponents like James with his technical skills and Bonkers with his great range can annoy him, even though he has the advantage against them.
 * King K. Rool is the default K. Rool form.
 * Kaptain K. Rool has lower offense and defense, yet higher speed.
 * Baron K. Roolenstein has lower offense and speed, yet higher defense.
 * Krusha K. Rool has lower defense and speed, yet higher offense.

Moveset
K. Rool has a unique moveset for a heavyweight, having attacks with low or moderate power with characteristics of a lightweight, such as high attack speed and little to no lag on most of his attacks. When disguising, K. Rool's properties change around, which give him a great advantage and two strong disadvantages (besides the default "disguise"), which means that he has several ways he can play around on the battlefield. Apart from his ability to do combos with total ease, he also has several projectiles and a number of good finisher moves. K. Rool's strategy is entirely situational; what he can do is entirely dependent on what opponent he's facing, what stage he's on, and what to defeat them with. His non-special moves do not change with each disguise.
 * Neutral Special
 * K. Rool: Kannonball Krash.  King K. Rool lifts a big cannonball and tosses it forward, which can cause a lot of damage.  If it lands on the ground, it will bounce and then roll, which allows it to be picked up.  K. Rool can pick up the cannonball again if it misses. If the attack is charged, then he tosses the cannonball into the ground, which causes a shower of cannonballs to fall down.
 * Kaptain: Blunderbuss Blast.  Kaptain K. Rool fires cannonballs out of his blunderbuss at an alarming rate, and can also fire out gases that can daze or lure opponents to sleep. While each shot has a bit of end lag, these can pressure opponents and keep them off the stage.  If this attack is charged, K. Rool can fire his weapons out faster and gain more range with them.
 * Roolenstein: Thunder Surge.  Roolenstein creates an electric shockwave that paralyzes opponents, making them easier to hit with Roolenstein's own attacks.  The attack does a little damage, but not much.  If the attack is charged, the electricity fired from Roolenstein's weapon comes out faster and shocks opponents before launcing them a good distance away from him.
 * Krusha: Gloverang.  Krusha fires his gloves off in a boomerang arc, launching foes away from him with good power.  During the phase of where his gloves are off, he is vulnerable to any attack, making him easy to punish if he fails.  If powered up, he'll launch his fists in big arcs and have them deal more damage than usual in addition to giving him more range.
 * Forward Special
 * K. Rool: Krown Toss.  K. Rool will toss his crown forward, which deals different amounts of damage depending on which part of the crown hits the opponent.  If the pointy parts land, the opponent takes the most damage and knockback. Otherwise, it doesn't deal too much. If charged, the attack goes a considerable distance and hits like a bomb before heading back to K. Rool.
 * Kaptain: Vacuum Wave.  The Kaptain will suck in opponents with his blunderbuss, then send them back out after having dealt a fixed amount of damage.  When charged, the move will suck in items and food to aid K. Rool as well as damage opponents.  This is a good move if his cannonballs are still hanging around, as the move can be used to push opponents into them.
 * Roolenstein: Flamethrower.  Roolenstein will utilize his flamethrower weapon, spreading flames over a distance and keeping opponents in place.  On the last hit of the flames, they will deal high knockback.  Shall Flamethrower be charged, it will move up and down and move through shields, preventing opponents from blocking the attack well.
 * Krusha: Shockwave Pound.  Krusha moves his arms up and slams them in the ground, creating shockwaves that trip over opponents on contact with them.  This can be used to quickly punish the opponent.  If powered up, the waves will travel faster and create a ripple in the floor that trips opponents.
 * Recovery Special
 * K. Rool: Super Bounce.  K. Rool bounces really high in the air -- similar to King Dedede -- and slams into the ground, bouncing opponents into the air.  If charged, K. Rool will bounce even higher and collide with the ground, tilting the side of the platform he happens to land on.  Regardless of its charged or not, it will meteor smash foes if Rool is heading down.
 * Kaptain: Geyser Burst.  The Kaptain will burst upwards with a geyser, although it lacks the brutal downfall of "Super Bounce".  This gives the Kaptain a more controllable way to land.  If charged, the geyser will damage opponents on contact and send the Kaptain an even higher distance compared to before.
 * Roolenstein: KAOS Rise.  K. Rool will climb into his KAOS mech and rise up.  By pressing B, the machine will rise higher and turn around, firing its gloves.  If it runs out of fuel, it will drop straight down -- so he should make it over the platform.  It will then disappear.  If charged, KAOS will have more fuel and explode on contact with the ground.
 * Krusha: Barrel Bang.  Krusha will use a barrel and be able to fire himself onto the platform any way he wishes.  Ledges are really easy to sweetspot here.  Shall Barrel Bang be charged, Krusha will be on fire and burn through opponents that happen to separate him from the ledge of the targetted platform.
 * Crouch Special: Disguise.  This is the most important part in K. Rool's overall moveset.  K. Rool will take nine seconds to disguise, so he really needs to find a good moment to disguise, such as between his opponent's stocks.  Before landing in the ring or after losing a stock, K. Rool can choose to be any of his forms.  Each disguise can take up to 90% damage before breaking, causing K. Rool to revert back to his normal self due to costume damage.

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