Impressions: Terry for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – Welcome the King of Fighters

Terry Bogard of Fatal Fury and King of Fighters fame finally makes his arrival to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and he has easily become my favorite character, as well as my top pick at the next GameLuster Smash tournament.  While he wasn’t among most people’s top picks to be in Smash—myself included—he definitely has made a splash in the community. From his easy to pick up but insanely hard to master style of play, to his unique traits and mechanics that bring something new to the field, Terry keeps players on their toes. Now, I’ve never actually bought any Smash DLC before, but after buying Terry and seeing how faithfully recreated he is, I question whether or not to buy the Fighter’s Pass for the rest of Smash‘s extra characters.

The Basics of Scary Terry

terry bogard and kirby bogard arrive in super smash bros ultimate today
The best Terry costume.

To start, Terry’s design is very faithful to his classic depiction in Fatal Fury and King of Fighters, which means he looks like most jacked trucker you’ve ever seen. Terry’s standard red jacket, jeans, and trucker hat are all there as his main costume, and his other costumes don’t really stray from that formula, with them all just being color changes with some slight hat alterations. My favorite has to be his seventh costume, which is predominantly black but makes his hat look like a Naruto headband. Honorable mention to the costume that references the Neo Geo, the console that Terry made his debut on.

Terry, appearing mostly in 2D fighting games, plays akin to Smash’s Street Fighter characters but with more options. Terry has short combos that deal a decent amount of damage with pretty reasonable mobility and recovery. Terry can also special cancel, meaning he cancels the recovery animation on certain attacks using a special move to deal more damage. Like the Street Fighter representatives, Terry will always face his opponent, which is slightly annoying, because if you want to break the Smash Ball, you have to moonwalk behind it awkwardly. However, it does make defending crossovers easier.

For the first time in Smash, Terry is the only character to have five special moves instead of the normal four, which are as follows:

  • Neutral B – Power Wave, basically a Hadouken that moves on the floor.
  • Forward B – Burn Knuckle, a forward dashing punch.
  • Backward B – Crack Shoot, a long-reaching kick that travels in a crescent shape.
  • Down B – Power Dunk, a diagonal up dash to diagonal down punch.
  • Up B – Rising Tackle, a vertical spinning dropkick

All of these, except his neutral B, have traditional fighting game-style button inputs that can also trigger a stronger move that causes more damage instead of simply pressing B. So if you want a guaranteed knockout, don’t be lazy.

And here I was thinking smash was accessible” – Austin Suther, Reviews and Features Editor

As for his Final Smash,  it’s one of the easiest to land. It starts with three Power Geysers that move forward along the ground. If the last of these geysers lands, he then launches into an animation where he Power Dunks the target down and then unleashes a powerful Buster Wolf, all with great Japanglish being spoken.

This Final Smash does some good damage, as well. I like to use it as a counter if someone tries to be sneaky and rush in to knock the Smash Ball out of me, but honestly, you can very easily throw this Final Smash blind. As long as someone is in front of you, there’s a good chance it’ll land.

The Go! Mechanic (Are you OK?!!)

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Top 10 best hats in video games

Terry brings with him his special mechanic, dubbed the Go! mechanic by the fans. This mechanic mimics the desperation moves that make an appearance in King of Fighters. When Terry reaches 100 percent damage or below 30 percent in stamina mode, the word GO! will appear above his icon. This means that you are now able to do two super moves: Buster Wolf and Power Geyser. Buster Wolf is an upgraded version of Burn Knuckle and begins with Terry’s classic and badly-dubbed line “Are you OK!” Terry then lunges with a punch at the target, and if it lands a second hit, it will cause an explosion and knock back the opponent. Power Geyser is a technique where Terry punches the ground, causing a large blast of energy to come from the ground and is tall enough to hit the top platform on battlefield maps.

These moves can only be done by using the button inputs for them, so they can be a bit hard to get the hang of at first. The somewhat complex inputs for these moves aren’t helped by Smash’s low sensitivity to inputs, so you might accidentally do the wrong attack. I also find that the standard Joy-Con controllers aren’t the best for this, mainly because the joysticks themselves are just a bit too small.

These supers are extremely punishable if missed, as Terry will take a few seconds to reset if Buster Wolf doesn’t land, and always does after Power Geyser, so make sure you hit confirm. These moves do pretty good damage, and at around 70 percent, depending on where you land it, these attacks can completely launch your opponent outside of the arena. It’s seriously surprising at how early these can KO confirm. Keep in mind that neither of these moves can be done in the air, so you can’t use Buster Wolf’s long range to recover.

Terry Summed Up

Terry’s a great addition to the roster in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Much more than just Ken in a trucker hat, Terry brings new dynamics and mechanics to the game that appeal to people like me who couldn’t find anyone on the roster they wanted as their main. Terry is easy to pick up, and he makes you want to master his inputs and timing because of how powerful he becomes if you do. I also have to mention the so bad it’s good voice acting whenever he does a special move. It’s almost worth buying him just for that.

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