"What Is The Deal With This Janky Character?!?!?"
It's safe to say that Mr. Game and Watch is the most universally maligned character in the current Project: M metagame. He is accused of being broken, “easy mode”, and pretty much any derogatory you can expect to hear from salty players after a particularly convincing loss to a top tier. However, something sticks out to me as unusual about many of these accusations. I often hear them thrown around by players that I wouldn't characterize as generally being salty. The thing is that I don't see Game and Watch as more oppressive than any other top tier, they all turn my main into a pile of finely chopped mulch. At one point I did think he was an unforgivably broken character, though. Now that I know that the truth is that I'm a fraud, I'd like to address one particular complaint that players have about fighting Game and Watch: the dominating power of his Up-Special and try to present how I handle it when paired against a Game and Watch main. I'm a Ganondorf main, so I'm going to explain this from that perspective (excluding the all-consuming weight of realizing that I am doomed to mediocrity), but the same general principles apply for any character that doesn't overwhelmingly lose on paper to the 2-dimensional menace.
Disclaimer: I am not implying that Game and Watch is not a very strong character or that the moves that people find problematic are not so. I am implying that some of his stronger options, most notably his Up-special, are not as difficult to counter as many people make them out to be. I'm also implying that if you are salty over a loss to Game and Watch you are probably just bad and a little bit too mad.
What Makes Up-Special So Good?
Game and Watch's Up-special is spring-loaded with utility. It allows him to escape shield pressure effectively because it has an active hitbox on the first frame (because shine isn't silly at all, right everyone?), and launches him into the air very swiftly. He can adjust its angle and use it to techchase opponents trapped on platforms. 32 frames after activation, he can use any other action he could normally use in midair, including his second jump, allowing him a decent number of options when recovering, or comboing an opponent.
Okay, obviously this move is very powerful and is a valuable part of G&W's arsenal. As many readers have likely experienced, and become irrationally angry over, proper use of this move can throw a sizable wrench into the hopes and dreams of anyone who is unable to cope with its utility. Of course, despite its exaggerated reputation, there are some effective ways to mitigate its damage.
Or are there?
Yes. There are.
What Can We Do, Exactly?
First of all, pick a character with decent range on their aerial attacks, and preferably good range in neutral as well. If you don't want to, then please close this tab. I already got the page view so I'm not too upset over your loss. This is actually a must to effectively fight Game and Watch overall, so if you don't main a sword character, pick one up as a secondary. You play P:M, it is a fact that you need a secondary.
Next, look at the hitbox(es) on this attack.
Look at that. That is tiny. It's smaller than shine. Sure it hits at an angle that could make the PMDT legally responsible for war crimes, but if he is using that out of shield, you really shouldn't be hit by it. Okay, so what else is notable about this attack? Once active, Game and Watch can't do anything else for 32 frames. That's a bit more than half a second and is certainly enough time to position and prepare oneself to cover and hopefully punish whatever his next action will be. Game and Watch has four reliable options when returning to the stage from above: down-air, neutral air, back-air, and b-reverse neutral-b. If he uses the neutral-b and you are positioned properly, it should be possible to punish on reaction. If he back-airs, the same holds true. Back-air is disjointed behind him, but crossing up should do the trick. In addition, there is no hitbox after frame 22, but he can't act until frame 40. As a Ganon main, I would punish this with either a cross-up back-air, or up-air, depending on my positioning, and my opponent's percentage. (Because I'm a Ganon main, I will probably try to do something horrifyingly sub-optimal instead, fail at it, lose a stock, and all hope for winning the set, and still get treated like a god by half of the spectators.) If I think I can take a stock, I will back-air, otherwise I'll up-air to keep G&W airborne and continue to limit his options. Down-air is punishable in much the same way, though it has far less inactive frames. Ganon's up-air reliably trades with it, though, which makes up for that in my mind. Neutral-air is a more difficult move to deal with, and this holds true in far more situations than the one currently being discussed. It is extraordinarily disjointed, has high damage, and high knockback so attempting to trade with it is foolish, and trying to space your attacks to hit around it is pointless. If performed optimally at ground level it will have an advantage of one frame when shielded, but this scenario is not at ground level. If he is high enough in the air when this is performed he has 15 frames after the parachute disappears where he can do nothing and you can safely punish.
Stages Actually Matter, Too.
None of this is particularly helpful if you have been hit by this attack (as Ganon I can sometimes respond with a back-air if I DI far enough; unfortunately this is situational) , but there is a precaution you can take to make such an event less painful. I don't see it used very often and it actually makes a huge difference. Simply don't go to a three platform stage such as Dreamland or Battlefield. The third center platform makes it far more difficult to descend back to the stage without first going offstage which is almost never where you want to be. Better stage options include Green Hill Zone, Smashville, Final Destination, and Pokemon Stadium 2 in particular. I'm a fan of PS2 myself because it gives me plenty of space to move around and maintain the necessary distance from Game and Watch, and return to the ground without risking a follow-up after a hit from his up-special.
Not-So-Broken After All
The way some players talk about Game and Watch's Up-Special, one would be lead to believe that Game and Watch himself, with a cold smile on his otherwise featureless face, had used it to obliterate an airplane that the parents of said player were on, leaving them a homeless orphan, doomed to panhandle for venue fee money, mug shoppers at local video game stores for spare controllers, and steal 20$ from the wallet of esteemed local Peach main Che$$. From what I've seen, the above is usually not the case (it's probably happened, though; we live in a dark time). The truth is that while a very strong option on an already strong character, a simple analysis of frame-data shows that it is very practical to whiff-punish it. A look at the stagelist shows that it is possible to pick a stage that limits the effectiveness of Up-Special as a combo tool as well.
I hope this article/guide helps people who have trouble with the Game and Watch matchup (read:everyone), and don't forget to git gud.
