Mecha Godzilla (Showa)

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Introduction

The fullscreen projectile specialist of the game, with a very simple and straightforward gameplan, but deceptively cerebral implementation. He will need to understand the situational uses of all his many antiairs and make good use of his good priority frame advantage normals to fight for space. Once able to establish his distance, his opponent is forced to either get chipped or risk being antiaired, with little chance of effective retaliation. Somewhat similar to ST Guile, a solid pick for players who don't mind running the clock while chipping away.

Overview

Strengths

  • qcb+Y is an amazingly versatile projectile
  • A lot of projectile chip pressure from afar
  • Low risk playstyle
  • Good priority normals that are all significantly frame advantage and safe
  • An unreasonable number of lows. Even his wrath and dd+Y/X hits low
  • Flight and beam shield gives him strong projectile defense options
  • Hurtbox doesn't lean forward when crouching like most of the cast. Unsure if this also means the extra throw vulnerability doesn't apply to him.
  • Fastest wake up speed in the game, though not fast enough to nullify Biollante's infinite. Might deny other unblockable or oki setups though

Weaknesses

  • No knockdowns outside of throws and stun, making side switching and getting out of a corner a real challenge
  • d+Y pressure can be answered with reversal roar spam, since roars stun first frame
  • Terrible throws with low damage and weak followup options
  • Low comeback potential
  • Tall crouch hurtbox

General Strategy

The main backbone of his gameplay is qcb+Y. This single missile has a very fast load time, chips, has excellent recovery, and controls a huge amount of space at the right angles. Instant air down angled missile is a very safe way to control an amount of screenspace comparable to ST Akuma/Gouki. Instant air forward missile can also be used a long range antiair if you spot them jumping during your startup. Because of input leniency, this means you will want to avoid touching forward unless necessary, since the flamethrower overrides the missile input.

If you have already established fullscreen range, it's time to harass them with missile follow up options. Qcf+Y will antiair with big damage if they jump forward, qcf+X will pile on lots of chip if they block, and huge damage if they neutral jumped. Running forward will allow you in many cases to antiair forward jumps, and max damage punish (which is sadly just close st X or throw) air fireballs if they preemptively try to float over your eye beams. Most of the time, depending on the matchup, you will instead out air to air them with your incredibly high priority j d+X, which also does massive horizontal knockback and take a huge amount of screenspace back so you can Y missile some more.

For lower priority jump ins, st Y works similar to Dhalsim b+LP. Despite the very small hitbox, it has pretty good priority and pulls them down, and can link into another st Y or d+Y, both of which are frame advantage, initiating a simple low/throw frame trap. He is plus enough that they cannot reversal throw you in between d+Y spam, though not enough to link them. Because of the relatively low damage potential of his throws and techs being punishable, you will usually be happy just fishing for them to press a button, and follow up with d+Y xN, d+X, st X, or dd+Y to push them back out, maintain their stun bar, and sneak in some more chip. Every option there is + and safe on block, making him impressively annoying at close range despite being a long range character.

For the really strong jump in options, or if you're just not sure, you can always just run up and hcb+Y~u to antiair with flamethrower for a single hit, and juggle with d+X for consistent reliable damage. Also in some scenarios, if you're about to get cornered, you might find the opportunity to just cross under with the top speed of his run, giving yourself space to work with.

Sometimes, they will try to simply out projectile your single missile instead. While it's tempting to use his beam shield which is projectile invincible first frame, this is actually a losing option because of the long minimum duration, allowing them to close the gap somewhat and take your screenspace. Instead, consider jump and fly and go into his air missile pressure options to push them back. The main mixup there is fly Y then either fly down and qcf+Y, or fly up forward behind your missile and uf~d+A to unfly with uf momentum to come down with d+X. After which, you can retreat on the ground and go back to spamming Y missile traps.

Despite your efforts, you will eventually get cornered because stages are kinda small and some characters just have really strong approaches on you. At this point, things can start to suck if they just stay at close-mid range and exploit your stubby short range pokes. Your best bet if you can't push them back is to jump up or forward, and either come down with d+X or fly unfly into crossup j d+X. u+A~X to threaten with the huge stun potential delayed missiles can be an effective option to let you fly to the other side for crossup unfly. Fly Y missile can also work in some matchups. If you manage to get a throw, I'd forget the follow up and just hold up forward and look to do a quick fly unfly crossup then just run away.

Once you have wrath, you can lame them out even harder. Compared to Godzilla's, MG74's is much easier to antiair on reaction with. If the clock is running low, you can also just hold it and put them in a very awkward position. If they jump, they die. For most projectiles, if they try them, they die. All they can do is slowly inch forward, only to eventually get chipped and pushed back anyways because it hits low and has extremely long blockstun, wasting valuable time on the clock. This of course, only works if you have the lead at the time. It is unfortunately not a very useful wrath attack if you're behind, though the extra chip from the passive damage bonus is still welcome.


Strategy Against

Data Arsenal

+

  • Run with acceleration. Impressive top speed and can run slide some attacks.

+

  • Run with acceleration. Impressive top speed and can run slide some attacks.

  • ?

Range

  • Technically below average, but because he has such good close range lows, his opponents are almost always crouching when he's close. So he can play as if he had average throw range.

Stun Gauge

  • ?

Stun Recovery

  • ?

Wake Up Speed

  • Fastest in the game

Other Mechanics

  • Can fly. Cannot block or recover stun in flight. Has a very short but long flight hurtbox.
  • Tall crouching hurtbox.

Movelist

Ground Normals

  • A karate chop. Very similar to Dhalsim's b+lp, though doesn't cover his head quite as well. Very fast startup and great recovery, priority, and active frames, but hitbox starts over his head so not often used to ground poke. An ok antiair to that pulls them down into meaty guaranteed d+Y, but can be difficult to time and will get stuffed clean sometimes.

  • Short ranged toe kick. Very fast, lots of active frames, good recovery, and is about even on hit/block. Can link into itself if it hits late meaty on an opponent that lands on it though. A superb button all around held back only by it's small hitbox. Great for tick throws, challenging out of pressure, and spamming to push an opponent away. Susceptible to most low crushes.

  • 2 hit throat stab. First hit has extremely short range, but fast startup. Both hits have massive priority and very long active frames. Great recovery too. Moves forward slightly. In many cases, this is his highest damage punish, which isn't much. Otherwise, still a great button to throw out as long as they're in its fairly short range. Can stuff many mid pokes and is great both for frame trapping with, and for challenging out of frame traps.

  • Sliding toe kick. Also has very fast startup, and recovery starts as soon as it connects, making it completely safe on block, but very sketchy on whiff. Slightly longer hitbox than his d+Y. Has a long acceleration period at the start and travels faster later, but hitbox is active before he starts moving at all. Another excellent button, as long as you're careful about being low crushed and not whiffing. Very risky at longer ranges where they might react to the long acceleration period.

Jumping Normals

  • A small chop. Never used.

  • Toe kick active for entire jump. Relatively high knockback for a light, but still unsafe if it hits early.

  • A slower small chop. Spikes aerial opponents down on hit. His best jump normal against fliers and sometimes used as air to air. Overall a terrible button though, due to it's slow startup and awful reach. Still important to learn to use with MG74.

  • Toe kick. Has excellent priority, good startup, and high knockback. A great jumping poke, and also his preferred air to air. Because the hitbox is so low, he will need to be higher than his opponent when he uses it, which isn't always possible.

Throws

  • Quick finger thrust that knocks down. 2nd worst easy throw in the game due to its low damage potential. OTG d+X follow up lets him create good distance though.

  • Flamethrower to the face. Still less damage potential than some bite throws, but much higher than his own easy throw. Unremarkable otherwise.

Special Moves

/ (flying ok)

  • Cosmic eye beams. Underwhelming startup, but good recovery. Ducks down quite low for the second part of the animation, but unlike Megalon, this lacks practical application due to his longer startup. Flying version has faster startup and recovery, giving it a very high rate of fire.

/

  • Chest laser. Fires at a downwards angle, and must be blocked low. Good range, startup, and recovery. Mediocre damage, but great stun. An excellent midrange tool to poke and harass with chip every now and then. Also a superb meaty. Pretty vulnerable to jumps, so don't get too predictable with it.

/ (hold ok, can release in the air)

  • Finger missiles. His core attack. Holding the button down will let him hold the missile and adjust his angle before firing. When released in the air, he will float like most normal air fireballs. Can be angled straight, up, or down. Jumping quickly releasing a downwards angle missile controls a very large portion of the stage.
  • Y version has very fast startup and recovery, and fires one missile. Sets up all his forced damage traps. The damage and chip from the missile itself isn't particularly remarkable, but his ability to cover all their avoidance options makes this move extremely powerful, and he should be looking to get as many of them off as possible in most matches. Since it's only 1 missile, it's somewhat susceptible to them just shooting through it with their own fireball. However, by holding the button and having some good reflexes, you can jump, float over their beam, and counter pressure with a down angled air missile in response. Can also use a quick up angled shot to antiair if they try to preemptive jump. The most important move to master and explore possibilities for MG74 mains.
  • X version spins up his wrist first, having much longer startup. Recovery is about the same though. Generally doesn't hurt to mix this in every now and then to greed for more chip potential, but theoretically it's always better to just use Y version, since most of the value comes from his wide array of followups. X version does do pretty high damage if it hits though.

/

  • Flamethrower. A steerable breath with quick startup and recovery, but short range. Unlike Godzilla's, it doesn't make for a very good poke or chip pressure. However, it is still an excellent unbeatable antiair. Because of overlapping inputs, this takes priority over the missile. Along with input leniency, it's very easy to get this accidentally if you're trying to missile after press f for any reason.

/

(while descending from jump)

  • Fly. Has a relatively large hurtbox and low mobility in flight mode. Also, his aerial momentum carries over during the transformation, so doing it just slightly late can result in him dropping a lot of height. This can sometimes be good if you're just looking to go prone on the ground for the low profile hurtbox to hover under opponent's ground projectile height. Also note that he doesn't recover stun while in flight mode.

(while flying) while not pressing

  • Unfly. Returns to him to a jump state, allowing him to drop down with a jump normal. His flight momentum also carries over during the transformation, allowing him to slightly alter how he falls. Because it can be done fairly quickly after initiating fly, and he turns to face his opponent while in flight, you can do some stuff like crossup jump into quick fly unfly to drop down with a turn around air normal, and make his jump in game just a bit harder to deal with.

(while flying)/

  • Knee missile. Goes down, then arcs at various angles. Chips on block. Y version will always go straight horizontal after the initial arc, while X angle changes depending on what dpad direction you're holding when you press it. B goes straight up, U goes at a high angle, F at a slight angle, and D goes straight like Y.

(while flying)Hold 1-3s, release

  • Drops 1-3 missile mines down from his knee. Each deals extremely high stun, and explode after a set time rather than on impact. It doesn't deal any damage or hitstun on impact, but instead a very small amount of stun and gives them a small amount of wrath, and will cause the missiles to bounce off and away from them. If it hits the ground, it'll stick until it explodes. A very awkward special that can be really rewarding if anyone finds a good setup for it. The simplest usage is as a strong deterrent to discourage them from approaching briefly. Likewise, you can also generally get a free jump in by unflying after doing it over their head, since no one wants to risk trading with it and getting stunned for their trouble. But since MG doesn't have a particularly dangerous jump in mixup game, the benefits are rather slim.

Wrath Attack

+ (hold ok)

  • All weapons fire. Does a short screech, then spams all his projectiles from all over his body, with extremely high hit/block stun, stun, and high damage. Has extremely long recovery, but will be safe as long as it connects because they're stuck in blockstun so long. You can hold down X to delay firing indefinitely, and also aim it up or down. It will fire immediately upon releasing X.
  • Primarily used as antiair or to stall or chip. When using it as antiair, it's almost always better to aim it forward, cuz the top projectile will make them fall down into the rest of the projectiles. Angling it up will generally result in them falling away from a large chunk of damage, so only do that when they're at an angle where you absolutely need to.
  • Aiming it down is very situational, pretty much only for dealing damage to a stunned opponent or on Anguirus.
  • It has much faster startup than Godzilla's wrath, which along with MG's superb recovery speed on his projectiles, makes this a much more reliable reactionary antiair, that can passively force his opponent to eat missile chip for days.
  • Between the wide coverage and the extreme lag it causes, it's also incredibly difficult to jump over, though it is technically possible, and they will get a full punish of their choice if they do.
  • Because of the long recovery, you're unlikely to be able to get any followup damage after it stuns. However, because the stun takes away their wrath, you're still in an extremely advantageous position.
  • Needs to be blocked low.

Combos/Punishes

Tech Punish

  • dd+Y
    • Very frame tight, but still some guaranteed chip even if you're slow. The better option, imo.
  • Run slide d+X
    • Also extremely precise, you want just enough run momentum so the d+X hits on the first active frame and doesn't have to travel. More damage and slightly more lenient than the above, but still difficult
  • b+A
    • Using the frame advantage to run away is a bit wasteful, but works out ok for his playstyle

General OTG

  • d+X
  • dd+Y
  • meaty dd+Y/X
    • Less guaranteed damage, but lets you pile on some stun. Also a chance they'll just get hit anyways, and can condition a human opponent for another throw

Links

Advanced

  • antiair st Y, Y/d+Y
  • antiair hcb+Y (1 hit), juggle d+X

Matchups

Godzilla

Anguirus

King Ghidorah

Gigan

Megalon

MechaGodzilla 74

Biollante

Mothra

Super MechaGodzilla

Godzilla Kaijuu Daikessen
Godzilla Anguirus King Ghidorah Gigan
Megalon Biollante Mothra Gotengo
Mecha Godzilla (Showa) Mecha Godzilla (Heisei)
Super Mecha Godzilla
List of Fighting Games
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