Let's face it: it feels awful to get killed by such a ridiculously powerful attack. And trust me, I main King K. Rool (the second heaviest character in the game), and it still kills me around 40%. The feeling of frustration only gets amplified more when it is generally accepted that Little Mac is a very unviable character and if you were winning throughout the majority of the match. With almost no startup lag, KO Punch can quite literally punish and take a stock from just a singular mistake. Most players hate having to dance around Little Mac's KO Punch out of fear from exposing themselves for a split second. It's frustrating, and I get it. That is why I am proposing a concept on how to rework Little Mac's mechanic to make him feel like a more balanced and less lopsided fighter with less extreme results.

New Mechanic: Star Points

Instead of having one fillable Power Meter, Little Mac has three separate Stars that can be filled up. When Little Mac has at least one Star filled, any special move that he uses will become stronger and better, consuming the Stars in the process. The more Stars Little Mac has, the better his special moves become.

How to gain Stars:

Little Mac gains Stars by punishing opponents. When an opponent is in endlag or landing lag, hitting them with an attack will grant Little Mac a single Star. If the opponent cannot act due to being paralyzed, stunned, frozen, buried, or Belly Broken (King K. Rool), Little Mac will not gain Stars by hitting them.

How to use Stars:

Little Mac's special moves become powered up once he has at least one Star filled. Upon using a special move, all of Little Mac's Stars are consumed. The more Stars that Little Mac uses, the stronger the attack becomes.

Neutral Special: Star Punch

His neutral special, Straight Lunge, is transformed into the Star Punch with at least one Star. It deals powerful damage and mostly vertical knockback. At 2 Stars, Star Punch ignores counters. At 3 Stars, Star Punch also becomes unblockable. Even at 3 Stars, its speed and power are not as extreme as KO Punch.

​

Side Special: Bronx Bomber

His side special, Jolt Haymaker, is transformed into the Bronx Bomber with at least one Star. With each Star, the Bronx Bomber deals more damage, knockback, and covers more distance. This allows it to improve Little Mac's recovery in times of need. At 2 Stars or higher, the Bronx Bomber allows Little Mac to use his side special again even if he gets hit.

​

Up Special: Rising Smash

His up special, Rising Uppercut, is transformed into Rising Smash with at least one Star. With each Star, Rising Smash deals more hits and covers greater vertical distance.

​

Down Special: Dreamlander

His down special, Slip Counter, is transformed into the Dreamlander with at least one Star. With each Star, the Dreamlander gains more active frames for the counterattack and the damage multiplier is improved.

​

How Stars are lost:

As Little Mac, he can start to lose Stars if he successfully damages opponents too much with non special attacks. Whether the attacks deal knockback, or are affected by enemy super armor does not matter. The only factor is if they deal damage to the opponent.

The rate at which he loses Stars is not fluid, but incremental. For every 30% damage he deals with non special attacks, Little Mac loses half of a Star.

This means that once Little Mac has at least 1 Star, he can either try to reduce usage of standard attacks in order to gain more Star points, or he can still use regular attacks at the cost of potentially earning some more Stars and hampering his current Star progress.

As the opponent, Little Mac can also lose Stars if damage or knockback is dealt to him. For every 15% damage that Little Mac takes, he loses half of a Star. This damage does not need to inflict knockback. Additionally, every time that Little Mac is sent into tumble, he loses half of a Star. Upon losing Star meter via tumble, there is a 4 second cooldown before it can occur again in order to prevent Little Mac from losing Stars extremely quickly due to being hit with combos excessively.

Conclusion:

I realize that my concept is highly experimental and is likely not that polished. Regardless, I do believe Little Mac's core mechanic should be at least a little more engaging and not just an over glorified game of "chicken" once Little Mac gains KO Punch. It's not terribly interesting.

With how Little Mac can gain, use, or lose Stars, I think that my concept will make Little Mac's mechanics more engaging to both the player and any of his opponents. Especially with how Stars improve the distance of his recovery moves and are hampered by overusage of non special moves, I feel that this could incentivize more strategical decision making and the development of different playstyles for Little Mac.

Thanks for reading.