Smash Corner - Lucas: basically Ness 2.0

Have you been waiting on the edge of your seat for us to finally write a Smash Corner article on one of the many famous Fire Emblem playable fighters in Ultimate? Well, you can put your swords back in their sheath because we are going, once again, to that obscure franchise EarthBound with character #37 of the roster, Lucas.

That’s right, the franchise also known as Mother has not only one but two fighters representing it, even though probably none of us have actually played it. Lucas appeared as the protagonist of the third instalment of the series, making his entrance to the Smash roster in Brawl, and has now been in every game ever since, despite the fact that they tried to get rid of him in the Wii U version. He persisted as a very light, floaty and mobile character with PSI attacks to dominate his opponents within a medium to long range.

The heart of Lucas’s move set is his special, of which the most important one being his neutral, PK Freeze. It is a slow long-ranged projectile that freezes your enemy for a short duration, launching them off the edge of the screen defenceless. Then comes his side-special PK Fire, a medium-range linear projectile which explodes and knocks back enemies. Lucas’s down-B is his PSI Magnet, a great defensive tool that will absorb any of your opponent’s energy-based projectile to heal himself. And finally, his up-special is his PK Thunder, a highly dirigible tool which can be used as both a long range attack or a recovery if you hit yourself with it.

The hardest part of playing Lucas is mastering these specials. Firstly, he has one of the weirdest recoveries of the game, but once you master your PK Thunder recovery, you can also launch yourself at your opponent with it to obtain a devastating meteor smash. Then his PK Freeze is also hard to use, but once you manage to steer it and anticipate your enemy’s movements, you have one of the best edge guarding tools that can obtain a kill from the comfort and safety of the stage. And even though it is not that complicated, you will probably end up spamming PK Fire as it is a great tool to simultaneously dish out the damage and keep the opponents away.

Lucas’s normal tilt and smash attacks do still fit very well with his playstyle, as most of them have a big knockback to keep opponents away if they come too close. Take the knockback to the extreme and you have a great killing tool; the prime example being his up-smash an attack with a huge hitbox that will finish anybody higher than 80%. However, you will easily be punished if you miss it is slow and have a lot of lag time. If you want a safer option to end a stock, Lucas has a very good tether grab to catch your opponent even at range and follow it up with his forward, back or up kill-throw.

All in all, Lucas has a lot going for him, with his high mobility, powerful specials, his killing throws. This takes him up to a solid high tier, not too far behind his Earthbound buddy. But I personally prefer to play Lucas since he relies more on his specials than Ness, so I suggest you try him out for once instead of the usual basic-boy.