Character Sheet: Jumpman

JUMPMAN

Today, we have one single newcomer, and it's not one I expected to add. As I revisited some of these early Mario games, I started to notice that there was a distinct difference between the Mario we all know and love, the hero of the Mushroom Kingdom who bounces around, eats mushrooms, and jumps on turtles, and the pre-Super Mario Bros. era Mario. In all of those early games, Mario had a much greater focus on construction, hammers, jacks, filling up cement trucks, and fighting gorillas. So, with that wide of a gap between the two eras of the character, a distinct name to help differentiate, and a few design possibilities to go off of to be able to distinguish the two characters on screen, I think I have enough of a case to make two separate characters.

For reference, the possible design ideas include going the 8-bit pixelized route, base his design off of those early Donkey Kong posters, or even possibly pull from his appearance in Saturday Supercade. Either way.

Here's the moveset I came up with:

Standard B: Hammer

Now, I'm a little iffy here because some of Mario's other alt forms likewise use a hammer, but Paper Mario's would function significantly differently, and Builder has a lot of other unique aspects to him that I think it's fine. If there's any version of Mario the hammer is essential to, it's this one.

Side B: Klaptraps

An old move that had been in Mario's early movesets when I only had the arcades to rely on. This is based on Donkey Kong Jr. where Mario would flick a whip to send a Klaptrap forward to attack his opponent. The Klaptraps would be pixelized to differentiate from other characters that might use them.

Up B: Jack

This one is based on the springs that tend to crop up in a lot of the early Mario games and other games that hearken back to the early games. Basically, he'll just drop the jack on the ground and bounce off of it, somewhat Sonic-esque.

Down B: Cement

While there are a few others I can go with, this game was the one that finalized Jumpman's differentiation in my mind, so I went with this in honor of that. He will pull a cord and a cement dispenser will appear in the sky and drop a load of cement on top of anyone standing under it.

Final Smash: 100m

So, 8-bit Donkey Kong is an option, but I rather like a different option I've thought of. The layout of 100m from the Donkey Kong arcade will appear above the stage. Jumpman will jump across it, hopping over each of the removeable hinges and making them disappear, causing all three of the center floors to come crashing down on top of the stage.

Entrance: He will climb up a ladder onto the stage just like he does in Donkey Kong.

Taunts: Up, he will hold up a finished cake from Mario Bros. (Game & Watch). Side, he will flick his whip. Down, he will flop down onto the ground dead, just like his current Smash taunt.

Thanks for reading! Now, let's update the roster!