Jacket (Hotline Miami) Discussion: Do You Like Hurting Other People?

“You’ve done some terrible things of late…”

At the beginning of indie hit Hotline Miami, a middle-aged veteran living in Miami begins receiving mysterious calls from an unknown source. These calls contain coded messages telling Jacket, as he became known to fans, to go to a certain address, don an animal mask, and kill everyone inside. The resulting ultraviolent, high-octane brutality, combined with a surreal David Lynch-inspired narrative which criticizes the very violence the gameplay celebrates, made for one of the most unique gaming experiences in recent memory.

Though Hotline Miami’s distinctive ultraviolent gore likely cannot be brought over to Crusade, the brutality and high-octane action of the game translates well into a momentum-focused rushdown glass cannon, capable of capitalizing on even the smallest mistake and dealing high amounts of damage through creative combos but easily defeated if he lets his guard down. Furthermore, Hotline Miami’s focus on managing a variety of both guns and melee weapons leads to an interesting item-focused angle, inspiring a character who uses a greater variety of items than any other in the game for both zoning and attacking purposes.

Jab - 2-punch combo, identical to the one he uses when unarmed in HLM
Ftilt - Kicks forward, as in his wall execution animation
Utilt - Thrusts a katana upwards. Works as a sort of unconventional anti-air.
Dtilt - Stomps the ground in front of him. Weak in most situations, but spikes on ledge and does extra damage to opponents laying on the ground (punishing missed techs).
Dash Attack - Performs a short shoulder bash, sending opponents straight forward. Low end lag, so a good combo starter.

Fsmash - Swings a sledgehammer overhead. Slow, but possesses a sweetspot right at the end when the hammer reaches the ground.
Usmash - Fires a magnum pistol upwards. Small projectile and does nothing to opponents to the left or right of Jacket, but has insane range, pierces, and can kill.
Dsmash - Fires a double-barreled shotgun at the ground in front of himself, then behind.

Nair - Pulls out two SMGs and “sweeps” around himself in a similar fashion to Smash 4 Shulk. The bursts released from the SMGs and the swinging of the guns are what count as the hitboxes of the move; there are no actual projectiles.
Fair - Swings a golf club in front of him. This move’s utility lies in its range and combo potential, as he pulls the opponent closer to him if successfully connected with.
Bair - Fires a silenced pistol behind him. Weak, but quick and a projectile.
Uair - Swipes above him with a crowbar. Similarly to Fair, it is used more for range and combo potential than pure damage.
Dair - Tosses a glass bottle straight down, which breaks on impact. The shards of glass can also do damage, but their range is fairly low.

Grab - Grabs opponent and slams them to the ground, holding them down.
Pummel - Slams the opponent's head against the ground. High damage for pummel.
All throws have incredibly high (>20%) damage but low knockback and lots of ending lag. When combined with the high pummel damage, the Jacket’s grabs are his most effective tools for building up sheer damage, but can’t kill and are easily punished.
Fthrow - Pulls out a golf club and bashes the opponent’s skull three times in quick succession
Bthrow - Stabs a broken pool cue into the opponent’s throat, then pulls it out, sending them backwards
Uthrow - Slices the opponent’s neck with a knife dramatically, holding it out to the side for a moment afterwards
Dthrow - Pulls out a drill and drives it into the side of the opponent's head.

Most specials involve items of some sort. These function as regular items, complete with opponents having the ability to pick up and use them, and only one of each can be onscreen at a time. If you try to pull out an item while one is already onscreen, Jacket will do a short head shaking animation and the move will have no effect.

Nspec - Shotgun
Equips a Shotgun item and fires it once. Great range and decent damage, but can only be fired 6 times before running out of ammo. The item itself does decent damage when thrown.

Sspec - Knife
Tosses a butterfly knife in a long, low arc. It has two different hitboxes for the blade and handle when thrown, and it's thrown with spin that makes it difficult to plan to hit with one or the other. The blade has higher damage and knockback, but the handle has more hitstun for followups and doesn't stop the projectile's momentum. When equipped as an item, the attack is a quick slash with decent damage but low range.

Dspec - Bat
Pulls out a bat. This is functionally identical to the Home-Run Bat item, but may need a different sprite to prevent confusion.

Uspec - Chainlink
Pulls out the Chainlink from Hotline Miami 2 (a huge chain used as a whip) and whips it at an upwards angle. This does not create an item, but works as a tether recovery.

Final Smash - Deadline
Jacket first does a dashing shoulder bash, with fairly short range (roughly the length of one of Battlefield’s platforms) compared to something like Marth’s Critical Hit. If he fails to hit anyone, the move does nothing. If someone is hit, the screen fills with static for a split second, then the opponent is on the ground and he is standing over them, slamming their head against the ground and dealing damage. Then another split second of static flashes, and he is bashing their head with a steel pipe, dealing yet more damage. Then another split second of static flashes, and he is pouring gasoline onto them. Another split second of static flashes, and he is flicking at a lighter, trying to make it light. Another split second of static, and he drops the lighter on the opponent, igniting them and sending them flying. The move is obviously best suited to 1v1, but the steel pipe and lighter have hitboxes, and the bursts of static pause the game while they’re happening and can disrupt combos. This move is based on the extended execution he performs on the van driver at the end of Hotline Miami’s chapter 11.

Entrance Animation - Drives up in his car, then gets out and pulls on the Richard mask

Taunt - Pulls out a photograph and looks at it for a moment before putting it away

Victory Animation - Gets in his car and drives away. If the player won with a single stock or through sudden death, this will be the vandalized car from Hotline Miami’s lategame.

Victory Theme - First 8 seconds of Horse Steppin:



Huge thanks to LEbrosaber from Discord for help with this (I don't know your forum name, sorry).

I like the moveset, but the character has very little relevance to Nintendo & such.

Will start this off with I'm not supporting regardless of moveset. Sorry.


Neutrals are cool. They're unique for this guy, and I don't see any flaw with them.
Smashes are alright, but the Up Smash could be better; something not like Snake's.
Grabs are WAY too brutal. Remember, this is Crusade, not Mortal Kombat. But I do like them; however tone them down.
Specials are good, and I like how they focus on a specific gimmick; items. Makes for an interesting character. Bit bland, though.

However, I will not support because Jacket is a terrible choice for Crusade. But, you didn't provide any reasoning; which in this case is good. You just displayed the moveset, which is a good one. So nice job.

I get what you're saying with the grabs, but the brutality is a huge part of the original game, and those sorts of throws are the best way to bloodlessly represent it.

Also, although I'll concede Jacket kinda has jack shit to do with Nintendo, Hotline Miami was HUGELY influential in indie circles for its aesthetic, gameplay, and unconventional storytelling. Again, not much relevance to Nintendo, but you can still see its influence in a lot of indie games.

Kzinssie wrote:

I get what you're saying with the grabs, but the brutality is a huge part of the original game, and those sorts of throws are the best way to bloodlessly represent it.

Also, although I'll concede Jacket kinda has jack shit to do with Nintendo, Hotline Miami was HUGELY influential in indie circles for its aesthetic, gameplay, and unconventional storytelling. Again, not much relevance to Nintendo, but you can still see its influence in a lot of indie games.

I still think there are better indie reps. I say this often but I really think there are. Heck, even Shovel Knight would be better imo.

I mean, sure, but why's there need to be only one indie rep?

I feel like you think posts in the unofficial characters board are Add This Character Right Now Immediately, but I know that if Jacket ever gets added it's gonna be ages from now, and after several other indie reps past Shantae.

I personally would think the Hotline Miami series and Shovel Knight are on a pretty equal playing field but in regards to Nintendo relevance SK has it beat obviously

Kzinssie wrote:

I mean, sure, but why's there need to be only one indie rep?

I feel like you think posts in the unofficial characters board are Add This Character Right Now Immediately, but I know that if Jacket ever gets added it's gonna be ages from now, and after several other indie reps past Shantae.

Except I argued against that exact philosophy in a recent thread..
And I mean I actually just assumed there wouldn't be more then like 4 indie reps, none of which I think would be Jacket.

I don't really think there needs to be a cap on something like indie reps, since there's such a wide variety of different characters and aesthetics and gameplay styles under the "indie" umbrella. For official Smash? Sure, having a cap on any sort of third-party representation is reasonable. For Crusade? Nah.

Kzinssie wrote:

I don't really think there needs to be a cap on something like indie reps, since there's such a wide variety of different characters and aesthetics and gameplay styles under the "indie" umbrella. For official Smash? Sure, having a cap on any sort of third-party representation is reasonable. For Crusade? Nah.

You make good points. I really think it's just differing opinions on the cap here, and I don't think we'll reach a medium.

I'm ever a patron of indies, and as out of place Jacket may be in a Smash game, I think his unconventional nature makes him an intriguing potential inclusion, at the least. He's brutal, for sure, and if this were a more children-oriented game and accessible game (i.e, not a PC-only fan-game), that, and his lack of any relevance to Nintendo, would work against him. Since his violence is bloodless, though, and we don't have a rule against non-Nintendo characters, I think he's viable at least as someone to consider. Obviously there are other indies I think should be in first (I wonder who???), but I don;t think it's a terrible idea to possibly include Jacket. I support. Most other movesets I've seen that include weapons in this fashion are confusing as to how exactly they work, or feel like they wouldn't execute well. This really feels like it would work well. Pretty solid work here.

Made tweaks to a few moves (specifically usmash, nair, grab, pummel, dthrow, and sspec) to better represent the series (including the sequel, but only sparingly as Jacket was not playable in it) and address issues already mentioned.

Should I do anything with masks? The best option would be to have them as alternate costumes, but I don't know if the devs plan to add costume support beyond palette swapping. Aside from that, I could see them as a purely cosmetic effect on certain animations (Brandon for the dash, Corey from HLM2 for the roll, Aubrey for moves involving guns, etc.)