Sandbag (Super Smash Flash 2)

Sandbag is a newcomer unlockable character in Super Smash Flash 2. It was first revealed in SSF2 Dev Blog #5 on April 1, 2016 and initially thought to be an April Fools' Day joke. However, a special blog, SSF2 Dev Blog #5.1, was released two days later confirming Sandbag's inclusion as the game's "joke" character. Sandbag was a pet project by developer, James Hadden, and its development was completed in a week's time thanks to the character using only three sprites in all of its animations which were then rotated, stretched, and distorted in Flash to create over 70 unique animations.

Attributes
Sandbag, true to its playstyle, is a highly unorthodox character in function, utilizing moves that normally would not be seen on any other fighter in the series. Sandbag has fairly average attributes all around, his weight being tied with Mario, Luigi and Waluigi, counting as a middleweight character, his walking speeds are fast, even being tied with Fox, but his running speeds are very slow, since he only hops as opposed of actually running, counted as the second-slowest character in the game, the first character to be the slowest is Jigglypuff.

One of Sandbag's biggest strengths is its damage-racking capability. Most of its moves deal good amounts of damage and have very fast startup, letting Sandbag increase its opponents' damage quickly and efficiently. Because of this, it also boasts good setups into many different finishers, such as its forward smash and dash attack. It also possesses one of the fastest sidesteps in the game.

Its aerial game is also very prominent. All of its aerials have good startup and can be used as combo starters or extenders, such as its neutral and back aerials, or as finishers, most notably with its down aerial, which is currently the strongest meteor smash in the game and among the fastest.

Sandbag's special moves also reflect its absurdity and unorthodox playstyle. Its neutral special, Capsule Spawn, allows it to spawn a Capsule that can contain any item currently active in the item switch and has a chance to explode instead, dealing high damage and knockback, making it a situational finisher. Its side special, Sandgrab, is a command grab, allowing it to bypass shields, and it can also provide good horizontal recovery in midair. Its down special, Sanddash, is a controllable burst of movement that can be directed anywhere, and it can cancel into any of his attacks. Lastly, its up special, Bomb-omb Toss, can potentially turn the tide of battle if a player touches the Bomb-omb first.

However, Sandbag does possess a few notable weakness, as Sandbag is a joke character, its useful qualities are overwhelmed by an abundance of weak points, especially concerning its mobility, as it possesses some of the slowest raw mobility in the game. This can be remedied by using Soaping and Sanddash, with which it can then move extremely fast, covering the entire Waiting Room in about two thirds of a second. Most of its ground moves, even though they have a fast startup, also have medium to heavy ending lag, making Sandbag open to attacks if it misses said moves.

Most of its special moves are also not reliable. Though Capsule Spawn has a chance to spawn an explosive capsule, the chances of this happening are very rare; additionally, the move only has use as a "get-off-me" option if all items are turned off. Despite Sandgrab being a command grab, Sandbag will undergo heavy ending lag if it misses, making it open for punishment much like some of its ground moves. Additionally, although Sandbag has a theoretically infinite recovery in Bomb-omb Toss, it requires Sandbag to damage itself to actually gain any height at all, making the move risky at high percentages and most likely resulting in a self-destruct, which is further exacerbated though Sandbag's inability to grab ledges, and if Sandbag is under the stage, it may have the risk of stage-spiking itself on the underside or the sides of the stage, completely obliterating its offstage survivability.

Overall, Sandbag is a very powerful fighter who has a very unorthodox playstyle. However, its multiple strengths are drastically outnumbered by its abundance of flaws, preventing it from being a top-tier or high-tier character.

Changes and revisions
Sandbag had his combo game and KO power nerfed, and his neutral game buffed, as patches passed. Below are the major changes done to him from Beta 1.0.3.2 to Beta 1.1.



Notable players

 * CraftGMC

Trivia

 * Sandbag,, , , and are currently the only true "silent characters" in the game.
 * Sandbag, alongside, , , and Jigglypuff, are the only characters that don't clap for the winner.
 * Sandbag's reveal trailer highlighted the revamped item sprites that would later be shown in Dev Blog #7.
 * Sandbag cannot grab the ledge and can only move in hops instead of full sprint. It is the only character with these traits.
 * Despite this, Sandbag actually has seemingly unfinished move data for a tether, despite having no ledge data or animations, as seen here in this image. The move has no animation and no actual hitbox, only being able to grab the ledge.
 * Sandbag is currently the only character in the game to have a unique forward tilt and dash attack when using battering items.
 * In v0.9b, a glitch in the early online made it possible for Sandbag to win against a player if they self-destructed. Because Sandbag was not playable at the time, at the results screen, the announcer and victory theme remained silent, and Sandbag itself stood still.

External link

 * Sandbag's reveal video