The Most Hated Character In Smash Bros. Just Got Nerfed

Rejoice, Diddy Kong haters. The latest Smash Bros. patch has changed the annoying chimp, making him a bit less of a powerhouse than he was before.

For those of you that don’t follow Smash Bros. drama, Diddy Kong is a character that gained notoriety among hardcore players. The reason? He’s very, very good. Some players considered Diddy Kong overpowered thanks to his strong aerial game. Some fans also felt disappointed because many top players flocked to Diddy Kong, which made spectating matches kind of grating. Sure, you can’t blame a player for using a good character—that’s smart. But for people watching, having everything devolve into a Diddy versus Diddy showdown felt boring. Before matches even started, you could count on a very specific sequence of events: Diddy grabbing the other player, throwing them down, and then proceeding to hit the airborne enemy repeatedly.

Things with Diddy Kong got so bad that the biggest tournament of the year saw fans booing the Smash Bros. Wii U champion after he claimed his title—the hate for his preferred character, Diddy Kong, was just that strong.

But last night, a new patch for Smash Bros. dropped. Through this update, some lucky players gained access to Mewtwo, a new downloadable character. Players interested in the minutia of the patch dived into the game to find out what else had changed, too—strangely, Nintendo doesn’t actually detail what their patches do. But through individual testing, top players have confirmed one key thing about the new patch: it’s made Diddy less of a menace.

Here’s DrWeeGee from r/smashbros, detailing what players have found:

Uair nerfed from 8% -> 6%, knockback reduced. CONFIRMED

Fair nerfed from 12%/10% -> 10%/8%, knockback reduced. CONFIRMED

Uthrow nerfed from 10% -> 8%, knockback reduced. CONFIRMED

Dthrow nerfed from 7% -> 6%, knockback unchanged but hitstun reduced. CONFIRMED

Monkey Flip (kick) nerfed 14%/12% -> 12%/10%, knockback reduced. CONFIRMED

Monkey Flip (grab) nerfed 12% -> 10%, knockback reduced. CONFIRMED

Banana (Throw) nerfed from 7% -> 5% CONFIRMED

Here’s the top Smash Bros Wii U player, confirming the changes:

Unsurprisingly, some players are pretty happy about this downgrade:

From Reddit:

And while this clip is old, it’s getting passed around quite a bit right now thanks to Diddy’s nerf:

Damn, people. The hate is strong! Poor Diddy.

You can read about the rest of the changes included in the latest Smash Bros. patch here.