Zangoose/The 100 Mega Shock!'s version

''Featuring sprites courtesy of a pre-rendered custom 3D model, Zangoose darts in armed with its sharp claws, ready to deal some serious damage to anyone who opposes it, though being an exclusive melee attacker puts it at the mercy of projectiles; if it does get in close, however, the safeness of its attacks, even on block, will ensure the opponent gets minimal opportunity to actually punish. Beware of falling Wailord.''

Gameplay


Zangoose is a six-button character featuring a heavy emphasis on a rushdown style of play with damaging combos and a surprising amount of range; the button layout is the traditional three punches (mapped to, and ) and three kicks (mapped to ,  and ) that range in strength from light to heavy, with Zangoose's ability to Chain Combo allowing it to cancel Normals into stronger Normals, as well as punches into kicks of the same strength, but not the reverse. By pressing or  in conjunction with, Zangoose can either throw the opponent backwards or forwards, respectively; the backwards throw sends the opponent from one side of the screen to the other, while the forwards throw sends the opponent a small distance in front of Zangoose, bouncing on the ground once.

Zangoose is not a particularly complex character, featuring a very minimalistic moveset that focuses almost entirely on ground combat outside of two attacks, one of which is an anti-air grab Hyper (Crush Claw) while the other (Pursuit) has a grab followup; coupled with its inability to air combo, this effectively restricts Zangoose's combo game to the ground and limits its options severely, though the raw damage output from even a simple Chain Combo balances this out somewhat. When Zangoose has been knocked down and either or  is pressed, Zangoose will roll a significant distance in that direction while being completely invulnerable, allowing it to easily escape the corner and gain the upper-hand on the opponent, who now resides in the corner instead; this is not the only defensive technique in Zangoose's arsenal, however, as Zangoose can activate its Guard Counter while blocking an opponent's attacks in order to knock them down and give Zangoose room to manoeuvre should it feel pressured, though this may seem unnecessary given that Zangoose's quick attacks would easily allow it to punish and would act as a more effective option, as distance between it and the opponent is counterproductive to its exclusively melee-oriented moveset.

As a melee-rushdown style of character, Zangoose naturally excels at covering ground and dealing damage, but falls victim to projectiles not only due to its large size, but inability to counter them outside of simply blocking and jumping, the latter of which puts Zangoose in an undesirable situation. For a close-range fighter, Zangoose possesses some particularly long-ranged attacks that allow it to hit the opponent even at a distance, though the drawback is that Zangoose's attacks tend to lack priority, allowing it to also be hit from a distance. Once Zangoose does manage to get in close to an opponent, especially a cornered one, the opponent's options become very limited due to the immense shield pressure Zangoose can apply due to the majority of its moveset being completely safe on block and easily pushing Zangoose away from its opponent in order to quash their attempt to counterattack unless they have a quick attack that can cover that distance before Zangoose can run back in and attack again.

Zangoose uses a custom A.I. based on the one used by The_None's Shaq that is very aggressive and will waste no time in backing the opponent into a corner, making it very difficult to counterattack or gain distance; despite its aggressiveness, it will typically block most oncoming attacks (or in the case of projectiles, jump over them) and then punish accordingly, which is something the opponent will have difficulty in performing themselves as the attacks Zangoose's A.I. generally uses are safe on block and thus practically impossible to punish, with the only real exceptions being Iron Tail and X-Scissor. When knocked down, Zangoose's A.I. will always use its getup rolls in a way that puts it behind the opponent and crosses them up, usually guaranteeing a successful hit and thus a damaging combo. It should be noted that the A.I. is programmed to never use Toxic Boost, with The 100 Mega Shock! stating in Zangoose's commands file that he didn't trust the A.I. to use it properly.

General
"Don't bug me with a Caterpie."

"That's it? I'm just getting started!""

"I'm always ready for a fight!""

"Nothing can stand in the way of my claws!""

"Nice fight, but I'll always be the victor!""

"Bring on the next challenge, I'll take them all!""

Character-specific
"Come back when you're strong enough to challenge me."

- vs. Combusken, Torchic, Snivy, Squirtle, Oshawott, Tepig, Pichu, Mudkip and Chespin

"Come at me with that fancy new form next time and maybe you'll put up a fight!"

- vs. Blaziken

"I knew you could never keep up with me!"

- vs. Snorlax

"I don't need an inverse battle to knock you out!"

- vs. Gengar and Mismagius

"Try fighting me without relying on aura next time!"

- vs. Lucario

"Maybe you should re-think your strategy."

- vs. Magikarp

"That's all you've got? I thought your rage was supposed to be impressive!"

- vs. Gyarados

"It doesn't take a psychic to tell this would happen!"

- vs. Gardevoir

"Slicing through stone isn't a problem for me!"

- vs. Iwark

"It doesn't matter what time you're from, nothing can stand up to my claws!"

- vs. Ramparudo

"How many more of you am I gonna fight?"

- vs. Pikachu

"That's all you've got? I'm glad I didn't waste my time on your friends!"

- vs. Rayquaza

"Nice blades. Too bad they can't cut it."

- vs. Gallade

"I liked it better when you were in a TV. Can't you turn into one of those?"

- vs. Rotom

"So much for those fancy powers, loser."

- vs. Mewtwo

"All those tricks and you stil can't win? What a waste of time."

- vs. Zoroark

"Go back to trainer's school and maybe you can win with a hadicap! [sic]"

- vs. Pokémon Trainer

"Have you seen an Old Man around here?"

- vs. MissingNo.

"You look different. Have you lost weight?"

- vs. Pikaman

Trivia

 * Though the first use of Iron Tail will cause the Attack multiplier timer to count down as soon as the hitpause ends, further uses will prevent the timer from counting down until Zangoose makes contact with the opponent again, guaranteeing that Zangoose's next attack will deal increased damage.
 * Zangoose's victory quote against "Iwark" was likely intended to show up against Iwa-ku, though because Iwa-ku's internal name is not Iwark, it does not.