Tails (Super Smash Flash 2)

Tails is a playable newcomer starter character in Super Smash Flash 2, accompanying as the representants of the Sonic franchise. His sprites are completely custom made and they are based on his modern appearances, such as Sonic Generations, Sonic Colors and Sonic Lost World.

Tails is ranked the best character on the current tier list; 13 spots higher from his 14th place of B+ tier on the 0.9b tier list. Tails has good priority in his attacks, a solid air game, a great recovery, good combo ability and kill moves in his up smash, down smash, up aerial and his back aerial. Tails has a great recovery with three midair jumps, good air speed, and the ability to glide (by holding the up button in midair). He can use Airlift, Spin Dash and his back aerial to help him travel through the air horizontally, while his Energy Ball Blaster can stall him in the air for a few moments. He has a solid down aerial meteor smash that can net him early K.O.s. He has good mobility with his good air speed and his pseudo wavedash. Most of his attacks flow into each other perfectly giving him amazing combo ability.

However, he has problems dealing with characters who posses disjointed range that can go through his higher priority attacks, ex and. He has problems KO'ing his opponents because he has few KO options and most of his KO moves require good set ups. His projectile is slow, easy to avoid and covers a short distance. He also has a high learning curve which requires tons of practice to master him.

Regardless of Tails' flaws, he is a good character with great potential. It should be note that Tails requires a lot of knowledge on how to use the character and the various techniques that he is able to perform, to be played at his full power. Tails has a growing player and has decent representation in online tournaments, with experienced Tails players making great use of his advanced techniques. Chaos0 is a notable example as he often does well in tournaments with Tails along with Yix dominating the SSF2 metagame as well.

Attributes
Tails has great mobility with having the sixth best dashing speed, good air speed, and having a pseudo-wavedash that, when fully charged, can cover the entire stage of, thus giving him great mobility overall. Tails has amazing combo ability with his attacks being able to flow into one another perfectly. Tails has a projectile in his Energy Ball Blaster that has high priority and does good shield damage. He has kill moves in his up smash, down smash, his up and back aerials. He has a powerful meteor smash in his down aerial which can to lead to early kills on his opponent. His down special, Spin Dash, is one of the main forces behind his advanced techniques in that it is required to perform his pseudo-wavedash, can cancel out low-priority projectiles and gives him a variety of options to mix things up.

Tails has a great recovery, with various horizontal recovery options. He has 4 mid air jumps and Tails Whirlwind to help him recover vertical. He has spin dash, back air and Rhythm Twister to help him recover horizontal. He can also use Energy Ball Blaster to help him stall in the air. Tails Whirlwind is a hard to gimp recovery due to the vortex effect and priority the move has.

However, Tails suffers from poor reach in the majority of his attacks. His projectile is slow, easy to avoid and leaves him vulnerable for a few seconds making it unreliable. Due to having few KO moves; Tails needs to keep them fresh or risk not being able to KO his opponent. He also does not have any reliable set ups that will lead into his KO moves, thus requiring him to get a hard read to net a KO or he will have to over rely on his down air.

Tails has below average weight, which allows him to be KO'ed horizontally early. This further detrimental with Tails having above average accelerated falling speed which makes him good to combo.

His grab & throw game is rather poor when compared to other characters, possessing the 14th longest grab range in the current demo. His up throw is his only throw that he can gain any follow up from, though it is mainly used off stage to net KOs. Back and forward throw are very weak, not allowing any follow up options and only purpose seems to be to start an edge guard. Down throw might be his worse throw due to it not giving any follow ups or being able to start an edge guard.

Tails is similar to Melee's Fox, in that he has a high learning curve. He needs good reflexes, good strategy and knowledge of how he works in order to play him to his full potential.

Ground attacks

 * Standard attack 1: Tails punches. 2%
 * Standard Attack 2: Tails punches. 2%
 * Standard Attack 3: Tails dashes forwards and frantically moves his arms and legs around. 6%
 * Down tilt: Tails whips his tail around him on the ground. Great for putting opponents in the air. Can lead into his up smash. 6%
 * Down smash: A boxing glove on a chain appears, which Tails whips around his body, while dealing tremendous knockback that will send opponents at semi-spike angle. 18% uncharged, 26% fully charged.
 * Side tilt: Tails whips his tail forwards. 10%
 * Forward smash: Claps his hands forward. It does only moderate knockback and his weakest smash attack. 15% uncharged, 21% fully charged.
 * Up tilt: Tails curls into a ball and does a small jump upwards. 11%
 * Up smash: Tails jumps with his rear in the air, while spinning his tails. The multihiting move ends with a final flick of his tails. 17% uncharged, 24% fully charged. Does good knockback.
 * Dash attack: Curls into a ball and rolls forward, like Sonic's but knocks the opponent behind him. If the opponent is hit with the late part of the attack, he will be sent in front of Tails. 9% on the early hit, 4% on the late hit.

Aerial attacks

 * Neutral aerial: Spins in place then ends with a kick. Similar to Sonic's neutral aerial, but deals multiple hits. If all hits connect 17% total.
 * Forward aerial: Whips his tails in front of himself. 12%
 * Back aerial: Spins his tails like a propeller behind himself and propels himself forward. Good knockback and can be used to KO at high percentages and as an edgeguarding tool. 12%
 * Up aerial: Kicks upward with both feet in handstand position. One of the strongest up aerials in the game and useful for KO'ing at high percents if sweetspotted. Sweetspot is at his feet, with the sourspot being the area around them. 13% if sweetspotted, 7% if sourspotted.
 * Down aerial: Whips his tail diagonally underneath himself. It is a powerful meteor smash that sends opponents diagonally downward. Can be Ken Combo'ed into with his forward aerial. 11%

Grabs and throws

 * Grab: Reaches forward with both hands.
 * Pummel: Attacks the opponent with his tails. All hits do 1%
 * Forward throw: Throws his opponent forwards with both hands. 8%
 * Back throw: Throws his opponent behind him and does a mule kick. Sets opponents up for edge-guarding. 12%
 * Up throw: Carries his opponent up into the air and slams him on the floor, sending his opponent upwards, even with no solid ground below him. Tails can move left or right while performing the throw. At low percentages the throw can be followed up with a forward aerial. The throw can be followed up with a forward aerial, back aerial or up aerial depending on the opponent´s damage, weight and DI. This move can be directed off the ledge and also can be fast falled, but Tails will not fall into the lower Blast line. If performed out of a pseudo-wavedash, Tails will keep his momentum and carry his opponent forward, potentially resulting in a self-destruct. 7%
 * Down throw: Stomps on the opponent with one foot. A very powerful KO throw at high percentage(s). 11%

Other

 * Ledge attack: Tails gets up to the ledge while performing a kick. 6%
 * Floor attack: Does a spin encased in a tornado. 6%

Misc.

 * On-screen appearance: Tails flies above the platform using his tails while waving and lands on the ground.
 * Taunts:
 * Standard: Jumps and yells: "Yes!"
 * Side: Spins, then says "Yeah!" while showing the peace sign.
 * Down: Takes out his Game Gear from his pocket, then plays it and put it back from his pocket. It can be held as much as you want.
 * Idle pose]: Faces the screen and yawns.
 * Victory theme: Act Clear theme from Sonic the Hedgehog 3.
 * Wins: Tails checks the Miles Electric from the modern Sonic games, then spins the sign next to him.
 * Loses: Tails claps to the winner.

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, Yix

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 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' portrait was taken from Sonic Adventure.
 * Tails's first pixel art was based on his trophy pose from Super Smash Bros. Brawl.