The Ganondorf Challenge in Smash 4

In Melee, there was a certain challenge called the "Ganondorf Challenge", in which the user would set their own handicap to 1 or 3 and setting Ganondorf's handicap and CPU level to 9. This would cause Ganondorf to take very low knockback while the player would take very high knockback. It would essentially be a boss fight of sorts.

Handicaps in Smash 4 don't work the same way, simply granting a % at the beginning of every stock, but it's still possible for both the Wii U and the 3DS systems to create a match with similar conditions if you're interested enough to experience the challenge without playing Melee, or you simply want to try it with different characters.

For the rest of the post, I'll refer to the Ganondorf with quotation marks, since the challenge uses Ganondorf by default, but truly any character could take the role. With a few experiments, I found that Shulk and Little Mac were excellent replacements for the role. If you really want destruction, pass the role to an amiibo. Vanilla amiibo will be a large threat with their stats already being passively boosted by their level. If that's not enough, a fed amiibo will surely cause enough mayhem (Shield breaker Little Macs, anyone?).

My re-creation of the challenge requires:
- Setting the Launch Rate to 0.5x
- Setting Handicap to "On" (not auto), and setting all players opposing the "Ganondorf" to a handicap of 300%
- Item spawning is deactivated.
- Optionally, set the CPU level of the "Ganondorf" to level 9. If an Amiibo has this role, it should be at least level 50 (Saving them after a match of this is NOT recommended).
- Stage Choice doesn't really matter. Melee's default was Hyrule Temple to aid survival, although that's exclusive to the Wii U version.

Overall, this is pretty similar to how it functioned in Melee, but there are a few differences. Because you're already at 300% damage, the knockback you take will scale up at slower speeds, but that % will allow most attacks to be extremely dangerous and Smash Attacks will still destroy you unless you tech. Being at 300% also means you're at maximum rage, which gives Lucario an advantage.

This challenge in Smash 4 has some interesting possibilities, such as having 32 more characters than Melee, using amiibo as allies or the enemy and using various equipment to make more unique setups. The Wii U's 8 player smash allows for more reinforcements, but I'd recommend having 2 "Ganondorfs" against a team of 4 or more.

It's mainly a challenge against a CPU. You could put amiibo on your team to help you or give them the "ganondorf" role to have a greater challenge. With friends, it becomes a cooperative struggle where long combos are rewarded. You could even make somebody control the "ganondorf" for a new way to play.

It certainly is a challenge.

Sounds interesting, I might use this to help me with competitive smash 4.

I didn't test it yet !

Question: Are the Ganondorfs on one team and the challenger, the other? If so, then is Team Attack ON?

And how many stocks was it?

Unoriginal Username wrote:Question: Are the Ganondorfs on one team and the challenger, the other? If so, then is Team Attack ON?

And how many stocks was it?

The challenge has 2 teams:

- Team 1, the Challengers, is usually the one players will be in. Every member of the team must have a handicap set to 300%. When there are multiple players, this team will usually be the one that gains numbers.

- Team 2, the "Ganondorfs", usually only contains a single Level 9 CPU (Melee used Ganondorf), who has no Handicap (0%), this makes him highly durable due to the 0.5x launch rate. Of course, anybody could replace the Ganondorf, be it another CPU (Lucina is particularly deadly), an amiibo or a player. In 8 player smash, having a second CPU/Amiibo/Player in the team is recommended if there are 4 or more Challengers.

Team attack, by default, should be OFF. You shouldn't have to worry about hitting allies when you're trying this challenge.

Melee's version uses 3 stocks, but I find that 2 stocks is more fitting for shorter matches.

It's impossible this challenge :D

Tilin wrote:It's impossible this challenge :D

Pfffft...I bet I could do it with no problem against 3 of Cloud's Little Macs without a teammate!