Taking the majority of the game's biggest fans by surprise when it was announced earlier this month, Minecraft's iconic silent protagonist Steve has finally joined Super Smash Bros Ultimate's roster of guest fighters. The character has brought some iconic staples over from his adventures as well, including several of his best tools, a map that shifts between Minecraft's block-based biomes, and three additional skins.
Another of Minecraft's most synonymous features also makes the jump, with players able to mine surfaces for resources which can be crafted into various weapons when brought to a crafting table. However, it turns out players have started using the crafting table and its ability to be manually placed for more tactical means, with VG_Chat taking to Reddit to showcase a helpful secondary use for the item.
It turns out, the crafting table can actually double up as a pretty strong shield, blocking powerful moves from some of Smash's strongest characters. VG_Chat shows an example of how it can stop Luigi's Green Missile side special, with the character launching into the table, connecting with its hitbox, and bouncing off it. It actually takes Luigi hitting the table with two charged Green Missiles to break it. In the comment section of the post, various other fans have reported moves that are nullified by the crafting table, including Incineroar's Revenge, Squirtle's Withdraw, Charizard's side B, and Banjo's Wonder Wing.
It seems the jury's still out on whether the move can be classed as cheap yet, with some arguing that Steve's crafting table does require the player to mine wood to build. If an opponent was able to break the table and stay on Steve, they could theoretically prevent him from using the table as a frequent shield tactic. Of course, that is in theory though, with many pointing out that the low requirements to build a crafting table make it practically an infinitely spawnable resource for the character.
Overall, a lot of players are already claiming that Steve is one of Super Smash Bros Ultimate's most promising fighters yet, providing a variety of powerful moves that allow him to control any given battle. The introduction of crafting elements is yet another of Nintendo's genius ways of implementing additional mechanics to make a guest character feel unique, so it'll be interesting to see whether the crafting table is nerfed in additional updates. Until then, there's sure to be a lot of Smash players using the technique to null their opponent's more powerful moves.
Super Smash Bros Ultimate is out now on Nintendo Switch.