Gotenks

In a nutshell

Gotenks is a character whose game is based around mobility and finding a way to land one clean hit for the match. His normals are among the worst in the game, but he can make up for that with his quick jump speed, small size and surprise aerial attacks. You wont be on the ground very often with Gotenks; rather, you'll be jumping around aiming to annoy your opponent into making a fatal mistake. His infinite restun combo involving his Shine Shine Missile attack means that one successful jump-in or close st.Y is all it takes for Gotenks to take the game, but the opportunity to do so will only come if you bide your time and earn it. Good choice for players who like to frustrate their opponents into making mistakes.

Moves List

Normal Moves

Close st.Y - A quick uppercut at waist level. Second fastest close st.Y in the game, and one of Gotenks' few acceptable grounded normals. Used mostly for the hitconfirm.

Close st.B - Swift boot to the chin. Can't be special cancelled. 4 frames slower than close st.Y, but slightly better hitbox. Can be used to stuff close range hops.

Far st.Y - Gotenks steps forward then stretches out his tiny arm for a straight punch. Slow, stubby and quite bad. If you're in the range where this move might hit, you're better off just repositioning yourself instead.

Far st.B - Gotenks steps forward then stretches out his tiny leg for a roundhouse kick. Slowest far st.B in the game, terrible range and long recovery. Overall very useless normal.

cr.Y - Short uppercut with a little extra effort put into it. Hits twice. Key component of the Gotenks infinite, but useless for pretty much everything else.

cr.B - Gotenks uses both legs to sweep the opponent. Hits low. Knocks down. Special cancellable but not normal cancellable. Short range and mediocre speed. Another normal you wont be using very often. The fact that it forces knockdown hurts this move because it means you can't use it in any worthwhile combos, and you have a far better low for poking with.

j.Y - Dual-fisted superman punch. Quite fast with very nice active frames, this is your go-to jumping normal and the move you are constantly trying to land air-to-ground to start your infinite.

j.B - Flying ass attack. 2 frames slower than j.Y and far less active, but unlike j.Y, this move can be special cancelled, giving it a small utility bonus.

Special Moves

Sliding Headbutt - Y - A short face down slide at the ankles. Hits low. This move significantly lowers Gotenks' hurtbox and as a result, can low profile many attacks, such as Goku and Vegeta's far st.B and fully charged kamehameha blasts. As such, can be a pretty nice midrange poke if you ever feel like stopping the jumps and surprising your opponent with a sudden low. Just beware of hops.

Omaenanka Combo - Y after "Sliding Headbutt" - Follow up to Sliding Headbutt. Gotenks grabs the opponent and tosses them in the opposite direction. Since you can't get anything else off of Sliding Headbutt, you might as well buffer this every time you use it.

Wild Boar Takedown - Y - Gotenks dashes forward and throws himself at the opponent. Maximum run length of roughly 1/3 of the screen. This can be used as a pre-emptive anti-air against hops, since before the actual attack comes out, Gotenks does duck a little bit which lowers his hurtbox, enough to get under some jumping normals. Since the attack comes out as soon as the opponent is in range, there isn't much to timing it. Still, it is extremely punishable on block, so only use this if you know for sure that it will hit.

Rolling Thunder Uppercut - Y - Gotenks winds up his puny arm then runs up and delivers a rising uppercut. Not invincible. Uppercut launches the opponent. Recovers in the air a little after you start to fall back down, which means you can come down with any air action afterwards, allowing for follow-up combos. Also makes it very hard to punish if the final hit gets blocked. If the wind up part wasn't so easy to guard counter against, this move might be viable as a blockstring, but as it stands, no dice. Still, it is his fastest move, which makes it useful as his best guard counter option.

Ultra Diving Headbutt - Y while in the air - Dive... face. Second fastest divekick in the game. While jumping around, can be used on reaction to hops, jumps, fireballs and any whiffed attack. Very punishable on block or whiff, so don't get trigger happy with it.

Aerial Kantsu Energy Dan - A while in the air - Fires a very dense level 3 projectile straight forwards. Costs 5 health to perform. Gotenks recoils back upon firing this, halting his air momentum. Is dense enough to eat through most other projectiles, making it a very strong anti-zoning attack and long range air-to-air. This projectile is another great attack to surprise opponents with and because of the recoil, is very safe to just throw out at most ranges. This along with his divekick make for a nice keep-away game.

Triple Fireball - A - Fires 3 consecutive generic fireballs. Costs 5 health to perform. Not much use for this move due to Shine Shine Missiles being a thing that exists. Can be used as a long range tool if you don't want to commit to the Shine Shine, but you have better options at that range.

Shine Shine Missiles - A - Gotenks fires 11 consecutive generic fireballs. Eleven. Costs 10 health to perform. This is the move that single-handedly bumps Gotenks up a tier or two. Comboing into this move off of cr.Y leads to huge damage. Comboing into cr.Y off of a jump-in leads to huge stun. Rinse and repeat for your infinite. Can be used raw at very long ranges just to stuff with your opponent's rhythm.

Kikoha - A - Gotenks throws a powerful energy blast diagonally up-forward. Generic anti-air projectile attack. Costs 10 health to perform. Does its job for the most part, and because Gotenks is so small, you get far more time to react to jump-ins with it compared to most characters. May find it too slow to use on reaction to hops but is still useful as a preemptive anti-air or on reaction to full jumps.

Super Ghost Kamikaze Attack - A - Gotenks inhales and then releases 1-3 kamikaze ghosts from his mouth. Chargeable projectile attack. Costs 10 health to perform. Hold down A while performing in order to charge it up to a maximum of 3 power values. No charge will quickly release 1 ghost. Medium charge will release 2 ghosts. Maximum charge will release 3 ghosts. Each ghost counts as a level 1 projectile. The fast recovery time allows you to release a couple of ghosts and run behind them, covering your approach and making for very strong okizeme, should you ever score a knockdown that doesn't result in your infinite combo. Not a good tool to use in neutral however, due to the slow startup and the fact that all projectiles level 2 and above will plow through all 3 ghosts.

Desperation Attack: Gekitotsu Volleyball - Y - Gotenks fires a ring projectile at his opponent which binds them on hit. Level 4 projectile. Not amazingly useful, but has its uses as a surprise projectile from full screen. It's big, beats all other projectiles besides fully charged Kamehameha-type attacks, and isn't all that slow to boot. Can combo into this move by launching the opponent, juggling with cr.Y then cancelling into it.

Gameplay

Gotenks pretty much never wants to be on the ground, all of his ground normals are garbage and there's almost no reward to landing any grounded attack. Stick to the skies and use your speed and small size to jerk your opponent around until they screw up.

Neutral

As stated, the air is where you want to be. The goal is to land a clean jump-in and start your infinite stun combo. Both your jumping normals are good, j.B having a great crossup hitbox and j.Y being better for direct approaches. You have your divekick to react to anything punishable, like hops, jumps, projectiles or far standing normals. Aerial Kantsu Energy Dan is really strong at mid-long ranges, and you can TK it by inputting and then holding while on the ground, pressing A as soon as you leave the ground to hop. On the ground, Sliding Headbutt is good at low-profiling attacks and it leads to knockdown on hit, although it is punishable on block. Your best anti-air option at close range is close st.B, at longer ranges Kikoha works. Always be ready to confirm into Shine Shine Missiles from any successful jump-in.

Offense

Gotenks can run an effective offense thanks to his ghosts, the crossup ability of his j.B, and the fact that his throw backturns the opponent without taking them out of the corner. Backturned opponents can't really do anything on wakeup due to the input direction change, so you get free meaties. Super Ghost Kamikaze Attack is good for oki as it recovers very quickly, allowing you to run behind it for followup pressure. If the opponent is not backturned, then he can option select your crossups by holding on wakeup; if a crossup occurs, he is blocking in the right direction, if no crossup occurs then a reversal hop will come out. There's not much Gotenks can do to prevent reversal hops without ghost oki covering him, so go for that whenever you get a knockdown that doesn't result in backturn or stun. Apart from that, you're pretty much always fishing for a clean jump-in attack to confirm into your infinite.

Defense

Standard reversal hop is good for Gotenks thanks to his above average close range air normals. j.B will crossup should you sail over your opponent's head. Gotenks' can option select throw with close st.B by pressing B+X; if the opponent is in throw range then a throw will come out, if not then close st.B (which is a solid close range anti-air normal) will come out. Gotenks' best guard counter option is Rolling Thunder Uppercut.