Super Smash Bros Ultimate's Terry Bogard arrived on November 6th, and it's time to take a close look at how he works and where he ranks among the complete roster. With some DLC characters like Hiro entering the game with complex enough gameplay mechanics that they were immediately banned from traditional Smash tournaments, having another fighting character join the party is always exciting.

Thanks to the massive number of characters already available in Super Smash Bros Ultimate, it's fairly easy for fighters to find themselves relegated down to bottom tier quickly, never to be seen again. In Terry's case, his similarities to other classic fighting characters might affect his popularity as players compare him to Ryu.

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In a "Mr. Sakurai Presents" special on the Nintendo YouTube channel, Masahiro Sakurai showed off all of Terry's moves and the special mechanics that transferred over from the Fatal Fury/King of Fighters franchises that the character originally comes from. From the way Sakurai explains and shows off Terry's abilities, it seems as though he is a fairly versatile fighter with special and super special attacks, an ability to close distances, and some range options. However, Super Smash Bros is its own beast, and with that there are more factors to take into consideration.

One of the most important factors to keep in mind is recovery, specifically being able to recover from being thrown off the edge of any given map. Terry has a number of different ways to recover, even if it's one of his own attacks that sends him flying over the side of the arena. Most notably, Terry can do both his Burning Knuckles (Side Special) and Rising Tackle (Up Special) one after the other, giving him increased recovery.

As for Terry's combat abilities, the new fighter's balance of range strength and speed is similar to other fighting game characters like Ryu, but his build is all his own. For instance, while Ryu has distance in the form of his hadoken, Terry's ranged ability comes in the form of Power Wave, a crawling blast that follows the ground. While this doesn't give Terry the kind of range control as Samus or Richter Belmont, it at the very least allows him options to keep the pressure on even when he's out of his comfort zone.

Although, the best use of Terry's abilities at range is to maximize on the two Side Special attacks, Burning Knuckles and Crack Shoot, which can close the distance between the new fighter and his opponent. The presence of the two Side Specials is also a first for Super Smash Bros, with different attacks activated depending on what direction the player attacks in, relative to how the character was facing when imputing the command. Thanks to the two attacks having variations on how they close the distance, with Burning Knuckles being a straight shot and Crack Shoot being an arc, each one has its own benefits depending on the situation.

super smash bros terry bogard

The final mechanic that puts Terry over the competition is what happens when his health reaches over 100%, or below 30% of max in Stamina Battles. Once this damage threshold has been reached, Super Special Attacks that can prove to be some of the strongest in Super Smash Bros Ultimate open up for the player use to turn the tide of battle right at the end. The two attacks, Power Geyser and Buster Wolf, are high risk/high reward strikes that can kill enemies even at low damage percentages, but leaves Terry open for punishment, which can be brutal since he's already getting close to death anyway.

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Terry's tactical advantages make him incredibly useful in head to head fights, which is a perfect fit for Super Smash Bros Ultimate tournaments. Some pros are even ranking the new fighter as High Tier based on the limited access they've had so far. However, it still remains to be seen if those early predictions will hold once Terry makes his esports debut.

Given his recovery, his varied moveset, and the overall power of most of his attacks, Terry will be a tough obstacle to pass in any one on one fight. However, his crowd control is where he seems to fall short. With so many of his abilities centered around helping him properly earn the right to be the first Fatal Fury and King of Fighters character in Super Smash Bros, it gives Terry a tunneling approach to combat that doesn't have much room for balancing multiple enemies at once. This is generally more of an issue for casual players than professional play, though.

Every new update to a fighting game like Super Smash Bros Ultimate can bring major changes to the meta of the game, and adding new characters to the roster can completely upset players choices in fighters. Terry specifically doesn't seem to have any hard counters to any other major character, high tier or low, but his solidified placement among the rest of the characters won't be determined until the pros have picked apart every piece of his moveset and mastered his combos.

Super Smash Bros Ultimate is available now for Nintendo Switch.

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