Tails (Super Smash Flash 2)

Tails is a newcomer starter character in Super Smash Flash 2, accompanying as representatives of the  franchise. Tails' sprites are custom-made and based on his appearance in modern games such as Sonic Colors, Sonic Generations, and Sonic Lost World. His voice clips are taken directly from  (2006) and Sonic Generations. His moveset mostly comes from Sonic the Fighters, Sonic Battle, and Tails Adventure.

Tails is currently ranked 8th out of 40 on the tier list, placing him in the A tier. He appears to have a low playerbase but decent representation in online tournaments, with experienced players making great use of his advanced techniques. Normally, he places low to mid in tournaments that his players participate in.

Attributes
Tails is a middleweight who has average mobility, dashing, and air speed, with above-average walking and falling speed as well. Despite his below-average gravity and slow air acceleration, Tails can rack up damage during combos in a short amount of time. Additionally, he can effectively mix up his options with his pseudo wavedash, which can cover all of. However, Tails is highly susceptible to edgeguarding and gimping because of his five midair jumps and him lacking a traditional recovery move.

Tails' neutral attack, tilts, and throws deals decent damage and has minimal lag, making them hard to punish. His grab game is somewhat average and his pummel is slightly slow, but he can still rack up a decent amount of damage before throwing an opponent. Up throw and forward throw are reliable combo starters that gives Tails the ability to do damaging combos beginning at 0%. Back throw is a semi-spike that can start tech-chase situations and edgeguard attempts. It also has KO potential because of its high base knockback, especially when used near the edge. Lastly, Down throw is his least reliable throw but it can still start combos at low percents and also has KO potential, although it KOs at extremely high percents if used near the top blast line.

Tails also has a good air game. Neutral aerial is a great combo move because of its minimal lag and launching angle. Forward aerial is useful for starting combos but in most cases, it can combo into itself thanks to its lack of startup and ending lag. Down aerial is a meteor smash that is effective at continuing or finishing combos and KO opponents. Back aerial's clean hitbox is strong, making it one of his few reliable KO options. It also pushes him forward, which can help him with horizontal recovery. Lastly, Up aerial is Tails' least effective aerial but it has KO potential near the upper blast line and can also be used for combos.

Tails has useful special moves. Energy Ball is a projectile with a decently long range that can be used to follow up with other attacks. It can also be useful at disrupting and edgeguarding opponents despite its moderately slow speed. Remote Robot always walks back and forth across the stage no matter the circumstances and explodes upon contact, giving him another disruption tool. Airlift is a command grab that can be useful in combos and as horizontal recovery that can instantly snap to the ledge. allows him to not only move across the stage but also deal damage upon contact. Unlike Sonic, Tails' Spin Dash doesn't require mashing to charge, instead it automatically charges as long as the special move button is held. He also can't turn around at any point of the move and it can only hit once instead of multiple times. However, he can cancel it with a jump or perform a pseudo wavedash that significantly increases his mobility, giving him more options to mix things up with.

Mastering Tails requires a high learning curve in order to effectively use him. Tails players often take advantage of his air game, command grab, disruption tools, and his advanced techniques, which can often be used as mix ups during gameplay. His pseudo wavedash however, allows players to become even harder to punish compared to the rest of his options. These advantages help players add pressure on opponents and punish their mistakes whenever there's an opening. Additionally, players can also utilize a bait-and-punish playstyle as a way to change strategies.

However, Tails has noticeable weaknesses. His KO potential is held back by his most reliable KO options (all of his smash attacks, back aerial, and down aerial), requiring good positioning. While Tails' ability to mix up and rack up damage is respectable, he struggles to KO, resulting in opponents living up to even at very high percentages. He may also have trouble getting back onstage due to his jumps not gaining as much height as characters like and, meaning he can get easily gimped at low percents. Tails is also susceptible of early KOs and juggling due to his below-average weight and slow air acceleration respectively.

Overall, Tails has great neutral thanks to his mix up options for offensive play. But despite his notable strengths, he has trouble killing often and in most cases, getting back onstage with his easily exploitable recovery.

Changes from v1.0.2 Beta
Tails has received significant buffs and very few nerfs from multiple moves which overall greatly improves him.

Notable players

 * Chaos0
 * Yix9

Tier placement history
In tier lists for demo v0.7, Tails was seen as a top tier character because he ranked 2nd of A tier on the first list and ranked 1st of S tier on the second list. In demo v0.8b; Tails dropped to 16th of D tier from his 1st-place position of S tier which he was tied of with Sonic for having had the largest tier drop from demo v0.7 to v0.8b (dropped by 15 tier positions). In demo 0.9a; Tails rose to 8th of what can considered A tier where he is seen as a top tier character once more. In demo v0.9b, Tails dropped to 11th of A tier where he was seen as a high tier character. However, Tails rose up a spot to 10th of A tier, and is still seen as a high tier character.

Trivia

 * From demo v0.7 to v0.8b, Tails' voice clips came from a custom voice actor, Mary "Tinker Jet" Bruhand. In demo v0.9a, these voice clips were replaced by those from the official Sonic games.
 * Tails' first artwork was based on his trophy pose from Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
 * Tails' current artwork is based on the pose he makes at the end of the intro from Sonic Colors.
 * Tails along with Yoshi, Jigglypuff,, , , and are the only characters so far who do not go into a helpless state under normal circumstances.