Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: Breaking down Steve’s moveset
Minecraft’s blocky boxman Steve enters a whole new Biome as he mines his way into the Super Smash Bros. universe.
Recently the newest update to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate went live adding the newest character(s) to the game. Steve from Minecraft has entered the Smash Biome.
In addition to three outfits, including one in a kilt that is now my main, you can also choose to play as Alex, who also has three costumes. Cycling to the end of the costumes also gives you the option to play as either a Zombie or a shorter than normal Enderman. None of this changes anything other than some slight animation and sounds.
Steve’s moves are pretty interesting. He starts off with wooden tools. When he spawns, a crafting table appears as well.
Over the course of the round, if you find yourself blessed with enough space, you can mine the ground. Mining fills up a special meter. If you do it for a couple of seconds and see the meter fill a little, interacting with the crafting table will upgrade your sword and tools to steel.
But as you continue to mine you’ll see small icons for gold and then diamond. Interacting after you see these will give you much stronger tools. These will stay with you until you lose a life and then you start back at wood. It’s definitely worth doing though as this affects the strength of all of your moves. And Steve got some moves.
His regular attacks are clever. The basic attack has him swinging whatever sword he has but if you do his upward attack he creates a block of Lava over his head, burning anything that hits it repeatedly before smashing it away. His down attack has him mining the ground causing temporary lava pools.
His Smash attacks are a lot more all over the place and this is where his real strengths lay. We already talked about his regular smash mines. This does absolutely no damage so make sure you do this when you feel safe.
His forward Smash, however, covers a ridiculous area. He generates a mine cart that he rides in while building a track in front of him as it moves. Not only is this a powerful attack, but if you jump out of it and the enemy happens to get hit the right way, they’re taken for a ride instead like this unfortunate Team Rocket member about to slam into a fake Smash Ball.
In addition, his downward Smash generates a TNT box that blows up over time or when attacked enough. The explosion, which is done in a Minecraft pixel style, covers an impressive area and does a lot of damage. It’s also good to note that if, as I found out, if you drop a TNT box on one side of the arena and then send your opponent on a minecart ride INTO the TNT box it does obscene damage and…is really funny to watch.
His upward Smash though is something that took me a lot of practice and I still keep killing myself with. Donning a pair of Elytra wings (see, all my research into Minecraft terms for this article paid off) Steve shoots up in the sky. The gliding with the wings is easily controlled but cannot be turned around so while you can move up and down in a gliding motion you need to make sure you don’t leave the stage or you’re taking a flight into the abyss.
All in all, he’s an awesome character. His move set is versatile even though he’s neither fast or able to jump high (I mean he REALLY can’t jump high). His Smash moves have a lot of ability for creative attacks. And there’s a lot of interesting things you’re able to do over time which I think could make matches really interesting as people get more comfortable with him.