Shantae Moveset

Finally put one together. An idea for Shantae's moveset if she ever got enough votes to be considered. Obviously not final and subject to change.

I had trouble trying to figure out how to incorporate her transformations. I came down to two possibilities: the transformations to be included in specific attacks, or to include them into one attack. I decided on the latter since its a bit more accurate/faithful to the games, in addition to giving Shantae slots for more moves.

I'll also use this as an opportunity again to explain why she should deserve a spot. Shantae is becoming more and more popular. She has 2 upcoming games, both which will be on Nintendo consoles (1 for 3DS eShop, another that will be coming to the Wii U). Looking at various videos for Shantae, she obviously has support as a character in Smash Brothers. Including her would give her more publicity and would undoubtedly be a well-accepted character.

Spoiler:

Neutral Special - Belly Dance
By holding down the special button, Shantae begins dancing. Releasing the special button will stop Shantae’s dance. While dancing, pressing any directional button will cause Shantae to transform into one of three possible forms, and each form performs a specific attack. After the attack, Shantae reverts to her normal form. Shantae can dance in mid-air, which slows her decent at the beginning of the dance (first 1.5 seconds).

Pressing the FORWARD/BACKWARD directional key turns Shantae into her monkey form. Soon after this, Shantae dashes forwards or backwards (based on the direction you used to transform) as the monkey and clings to the first enemy she encounters. She sticks to them, and you can press A to attack them. After Shantae is shrugged off, she returns to normal.

Pressing the UP directional key turns Shantae into her harpy form. This form is unique in that rather than ending based on an attack, Shantae returns to normal after a time period is over. While a harpy, Shantae can press the A button to jump through the air, allowing for up to five aerial jumps. Pressing B allows Shantae to slash opponents while she is airborne. This effect ends after 6 seconds, or if Shantae presses DOWN+B while a Harpy. This form can be used as another means of recovery outside of her normal UP+B.

Pressing the DOWN directional key turns Shantae into her elephant form. Shantae immediately jumps slightly then slams downwards, burying opponents if they are caught. If Shantae transforms in-air, the elephant immediately starts traveling down, and opponents are again crushed if caught within the elephant’s path, in addition to being meteor-mashed if they are hit in-air. Shantae reverts after the stomp has been completed.

ORIGIN: Shantae has the ability to transform into different animals/creatures in her games, all by dancing. The three here are not all of them, but are arguably the most recognizable (monkey and elephant appearing in both games so far, and Harpy being one of the most useful in the original game). Despite the usefulness of these forms, they are not as well suited for combat as Shantae herself is, who uses items and fighting techniques that her animal forms cannot do. So, here the forms are all put into one move, each one having a different use than the other, but not outshining Shantae herself in the fighting department, just like in the original games.

Side Special - Spitfire
If the special button is just pressed, Shantae will fire a fireball that travels at a decent rate and damages opponents. If the special button is held. Shantae will release a stream of fire from her hands that deals good damage over time if opponents are close to her.

ORIGIN: Shantae can purchase the spitfire item and upgrade it. The first purchase just grants a fireball, but upgrading can grant a flamethrower that Shantae shoots from her hands.

Up Special - Warp Squid
When this move is first used, Shantae summons a Warp Squid mother to the location where Shantae is standing. The Warp Squid can be destroyed, with it having 25 HP. When Shantae uses UP+B again, Shantae will teleport to the Warp Squid’s location, dealing light damage around the warp squid as she enters.

ORIGIN: Warp Squids have appeared in both games so far, both in different ways. However, in both appearances they allow Shantae to warp (hence the name) to different places, usually from one warp squid to another. Here, Shantae can teleport to a pre-determined location by placing a warp squid and then teleporting to it.

Down Special - Spikeball
A chargeable move. The longer this move is charged, the more spikeballs appear around Shantae (max. 3). When this move is released, spikeballs (based on the charge level) appear around Shantae, dealing damage to opponents that are too close. Each spikeball can either damage or be hit by a projectile/attack once before disappearing. Attacks that would normally hit Shantae as well as the spikeball hit the spikeball for full damage and the damage to Shantae is halved.

ORIGIN: The pikeball is an item that Shantae can purchase and use. In the games, they rotate around "your bad self" and damage nearby enemies. You can upgrade the pikeballs, granting up to three rotating around Shantae at a given time.

Final Smash - Risky Boots’ Attack!
As Shantae activates her final smash, Risky Boots’ ship crashes onto the stage, and Shantae makes a run for it. Every other character on the stage is fair game as Risky Boots and her army of Tinkerbats attack the opponents on the stage, dealing high damage if opponents are caught within the plethora of Tinkerbats. The tinkerbats themselves have no kill power to speak of; that lies with Risky Boots. Her attacks hit hard and can KO opponents at medium-to-high percentages. After 12 seconds, Risky and her army disappears and Shantae comes back onstage.

ORIGIN: Shantae does not really have anything that suits a "final smash", so a cameo from her arch-nemesis was decided upon instead. Risky Boots is a pirate, known for her ruthlessness and bringing destruction upon areas she decides to pillage. Her army is composed of tinkerbats, which make an appearance.

Jab
Shantae cracks her large ponytail forward like a whip. A 1-hit jab, but can be executed in quick succession. Based on the basic attack from the games.
Forward Tilt
Shantae kicks forwards.
Up Tilt
Shantae lifts her hand upwards, creating a small ball of electricity that damages opponents above her.
Down Tilt
Shantae cracks her ponytail forward while crouching, hitting opponents she might not be able to normally with her jab. This attack has the same attackspeed as her Jab and Neutral Air. Based on the basic attack while crouching from the games.

Dash Attack
Elbow Dash: Shantae slides forwards with her elbow extended. Travels a decent length. Based on a fighting skill from the GBC game.
Get-Up Attack
Shantae stands on her head and extends her legs outwards to hit both sides, then she flips to stand upright.
Edge Attack
Shantae flips onto the stage and kicks.

Forward Smash
Shantae moves forwards while spinning in place, dealing multiple hits of damage. Based on a fighting skill from the GBC game, which is normally used while doing an Elbow Dash.
Down Smash
A storm cloud appears above Shantae. When released, the thundercloud releases two large thunderbolts on both sides of where Shantae is. Based on an item you can purchase in Shantae, which summons a stormcloud above her that shoots lightning out at enemies.
Up Smash
Shantae kicks upwards twice while rising into the air, dealing damage. Shantae ends up in the air after this attack, allowing for an aerial attack follow-up if desired. Based on a fighting skill from the GBC game.

Neutral Air
An aerial version of her jab, Shantae uses her ponytail like a whip to rapidly attack aerial opponents. Has same attack speed as jab and down tilt. Again, based on the basic attack from the Shantae games.
Forward Air
Shantae kicks forwards twice.
Back Air
Shantae uses her elbow to bash opponents to the back of her.
Down Air
Shantae moves diagonally downwards while spinning, damaging opponents with her legs. Based on a fighting skill from the original Shantae game for GBC.
Up Air
Shantae extends her arms upwards to create an arc of magical energy above herself, dealing damage to opponents.

Grab
Shantae attempts to grab opponents in front of her.
Pummel
Shantae uses her knees to pummel the opponent.
Forward Throw
Shantae kicks the opponent away.
Back Throw
Shantae uses all her might to thrust the opponents away.
Down Throw
Shantae jumps onto the opponent and slams down foot-first onto them.
Up Throw
Shantae throws the opponent up, then kicks them to launch them away.

Taunt
Shantae puts her hand behind her head and smiles.
Entrance
Shantae teleports onto the battlefield.
Win
Shantae jumps up and puts her hands into the air.
Lose
Shantae claps for the winner.

Thank ye C_Mill

also added origins for moves in italics under the moves that are based on things from the games

would really appreciate any feedback for this to improve

StayPuft wrote:

^ CLICK FOR MUSIC ^ (stolen from AEM)

As for the moveset, I absolutely what you have in mind for her Neutral Special. The rest of it is pretty good too, but I gotta say that the neutral one is the star of the show.

D'aaw thank you AEM

I was bored, so

have a sprite and alt colors!

Official Johnny's Seal of Aproval

Spoiler:

Honestly speaking, those sprites are delicious, i would like to say that to the moveset, but i haven't played any single game of Shantae, so yeah... can't help you on that

I suppose I can also use this thread to try and campaign for Shantae in general as well.
I know Smash King said on a Facebook chat that Shantae stood out in terms of moveset, and agreed that she is rising in popularity, but those alone would not give her a good chance of being included. I'm curious if there's anything else you guys would want to know about her?

One thing off the top of my head I can think of is that she can represent the Nintendo eShop. Her second game was on the DSi eShop exclusively for a while before being ported to other platforms and her upcoming 3rd game is going to be on the 3DS eShop as well. I don't think there's a character currently in-game that represents this, though there are other characters that are on the poll that also represent the eShop (Dillon, maybe a few others).

She would also stand out because of what she is. There may be other "magic" users within the cast, but none are "half-genies". Shantae is the daughter of a genie and male human, which grants her strong magic capabilities as well as very formidable fighting techniques outside of her magic (hopefully I illustrated this well enough in the moveset, I still may need to tweak it slightly eventually).

Shantae has my support!

Well, Shantae has my support as well

For my half-wish, I shall support!

Yuusssss thank youuuuusss

SK again what else must I dooooo

Support!