Author: Fray
Date: May 16, 2021
Category: SSB Characters
Description:
Slippy Toad for Smash Remix 1.0
Created with Smash Remix 0.9.7
Special thanks to Sope for creating Slipyy's base model and default costume.
This is a fun little side project that I decided to spend a few days on. I love designing character movesets, and Slippy Toad seemed like the perfect candidate for a self-imposed challenge of crafting a unique fighter without adding any new animations to the game. It was also an opportunity to do a couple of the things that usually get left up to the artists, like creating all of the alternate costumes, stock icons, and the character select portrait.
About Slippy
You'll probably notice that all of Slippy's animations are inherited from Fox, Wario, Luigi and Mario. I felt like Wario and Luigi's movements and animations fit particularly well with Slippy's body type and usual characterization. Even though the animations have been re-used, the speed, timing, and behaviour of the attacks is usually different in ways both subtle and obvious. You can think of Slippy as being a "clone" character, but influenced by aspects of a few different characters, rather than just one. At his core I still wanted Slippy to feel reminiscent of the "space animal" character archetype (Fox, Wolf, and Falco), so all of his special moves are reminiscent of Fox's.
Special Moves
Neutral Special - Sniper
Rather than using a small Blaster, Slippy carries a large Sniper Rifle. This hefty weapon has a considerably longer windup time and cooldown than Fox's Blaster, but the laser it fires is much larger, faster, and stronger. It's quite risky to use this move up close due to the long duration, but it excels at racking up damange and finishing off kills from afar.
This special is probably what ended up being my favourite part of Slippy's moveset. Finishing off an opponent with a well aimed snipe is a unique gameplay moment for Slippy which ends up feeling pretty core to his playstyle and sets him apart from the cast.
Up Special - Jetpack
You'll probably notice that Slippy comes outfitted with a Jetpack on at all times. Taking this piece of technology into battle with him felt appropriate for Slippy's character, and it adds a nice cosmetic touch to his Fire Fox inspired up special. Slippy will take off a lot sooner than Fox does after beginning the up special, but unlike Fox, Slippy will always begin by moving upwards. Once he gets going, Slippy's Jetpack behaves quite differently to Fire Fox as it moves slower but lasts much longer, and allows Slippy to turn and alter his trajectory while moving.
Be on the lookout for the difficult to master spike hitbox on this move, which will only hit opponents who are touching the flames right as Slippy takes off. This up special ended up being a lot of fun and provides a new spin on the Fire Fox formula. Just a warning though, switching to Fox immediately after using this move can definitely have an awkward temporary effect on your muscle memory.
Down Special - Reflector
Of course, Slippy wouldn't feel like a Star Fox character without the quintessential down special: Reflector. When you reflect a projectile, the damage multiplier is higher than Fox's but the projectile's speed will slow down dramatically. You'll notice that Slippy drops a lot quicker after using this move in the air than Fox, similarly to Wolf. The hitbox deals much more damage than Fox's, and knocks opponents downwards at a steeper angle, but with much less knockback.
Experienced players should take note of the fact that this reflector doesn't knock down opponents, which adds a lot of potential variation to Slippy's combos. The higher damage coupled with the move's electric effect give the opponent a lot of room to escape with DI, but proves itself to be very useful against shield opponents.
Installation
Requirements
Instructions
If using the Smash Remix patcher:
- Move the file "Slippy v1.xdelta" into the "patches" subfolder of the Smash Remix patcher.
- Run the Smash Remix patcher as you normally would, there should now be a Slippy V1 ROM in the "output" subfolder.
If not using the Smash Remix patcher:
- For this method, your rom MUST be in the Big Endian(.z64) format.
- Go to https://hack64.net/tools/patcher.php, choose the respective ROM(.z64) and Patch(.xdelta) files. Run the patcher and save the resulting ROM.
Netplay
If you want to use this ROM online, open project64.rdb or pj64.rdb(depends on the emulator) in notepad and paste in the following rom entry:
[5F3BCDEB-E354123C-C:45]
Good Name=Slippy v1.0
Internal Name=Slippy
Status=Compatible
Counter Factor=1
Culling=1
SMM-Cache=0
SMM-FUNC=0
SMM-TLB=0
RDRAM Size=8
ViRefresh=2200
FAQ
Q: Why isn't this in Smash Remix?
A: This was just a fun side project. I didn't make it with the intention of creating an official Remix character, I just wanted to crank out something quick and simple and try out a couple of design ideas I had. This is below the scope of something that I would feel is deserving of having its own spot in Remix.
Q: Will this be in Smash Remix?
A: I won't say never, but don't expect this to be added to Remix any time soon if at all. Even a small project like this eats up valuable ROM space. If more extra characters like this are made by myself or others, perhaps one day there can be an easier way for people to manage/install additional characters they're interested in.
Q: There's no Announcer voice, name textures, etc… will you fix this?
A: It's unlikely at this time for me to do that, as my main focus was on making something playable and I didn't feel the need to put the same level of polish on it as an official Smash Remix release.
Q: Will this be updated when a new Smash Remix patch releases?
A: Potentially, it depends on how motivated I feel towards it and the level of demand there is for it to be continually updated.
Usually when I do a small side project like this, the fulfillment comes from the completion of whatever idea I had, and I don't feel the need to share it. However, I was particularly happy with how this one turned out so I decided to put it out there. Whether or not I'll do something like this again in the future is uncertain, but I hope everyone enjoys trying out Slippy.
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