Meta Powerhouse - Competitive History of Reptile

[Music] for a short while there was scorpion and sub-zero the two ninjas that really did stand out to a varied audience of video game fans and that was it until at some point certain arcades that updated the revision that was being used people started to notice a green one this mysterious warrior was incredibly hard to find but when you did rewarded a ton of points and the bragging rights of saying i found him reptile has been a staple ninja to mortal kombat and has collected a loyal fan base across the many years he's been a playable character but in the world of competitive play he's been one of the more varied characters the franchise has actually seen both in tier list placement and even general play style and since i started this competitive history video series he has been without question the most requested character of all of them but definitely the most researched too so excuse the delay between uploads this ninja took many forms across the many games he's playable but how good was reptile in the competitive circuit well how about you take a few minutes to join me and allow us to find out [Applause] [Music] what's super cool to me is that we finally get to cover mortal kombat 2 on this channel which is something that i hadn't had the chance to do before so excellent reptile may have been a secret fight in the very first mortal kombat but the playable debut was mortal kombat 2 on the arcade one of the first pallet swaps that would soon become many in these 2d arcade titles but with a bunch of moves and fatalities that allowed the character of reptile to really shine unfortunately in this game reptile was actually not very good and some say even the worst character in the entire game specials are nice and simple you have a simple acid spit a slide very similar to sub-zeros but the main moves here are the force ball which creates a slow moving but launching projectile and an invisibility making reptile actually the very first mortal combat character to ever have invisibility as an option an issue reptile faced in this game was that forceball was absolutely one of your most important moves but bloody hell was it slow you could straight up jump it on reaction and punish him for using it in the first place considering forceball was a very important move but really unsafe it naturally caused him a lot of problems invisibility was something that you had to really abuse when possible but as the input involves pressing up it was best used after attacks or jump-ins to kind of mask the input in the first place when looking at the tools of a lot of other characters and that access to things like anti-airs impressive damage or mobility reptile didn't really have much of that compared to a lot of other characters his purpose in the game was seen by a few players to maybe be somewhat of a counterpick against characters like maybe a cage or katana but even then he wasn't often the best character for those matchups anyway if you're looking to change an interesting first appearance but in competitive mortal kombat 2 not really an appearance that stood out [Music] this would all change in ultimate mortal kombat 3 where a bunch of ninjas made a playable appearance reptile included making a statement as one of the most execution heavy characters in the game one of the heaviest hitting characters in the game and one of the game's only true zoners which is the art of keeping people at certain ranges really for people unfamiliar with the term he was absolutely a high tier character in tournament play and here's why acid spit invisibility and slide are all here once more with the force ball becoming an incredible move and ultimate as it has a slow and fast version much faster recovery and absolutely insane combo potential but the force ball wasn't the only combo tool this run attack that reptile games is crucial for mobility and combos after a launch we'll get into that later because it really is what made reptile who he was string-wise he does have a few options this three-hit launcher can be comboed into four-spool to start big juggles the setback is that it starts off a high so it's not really as good for general pressure and off a jump in punch where some launchers are most common the fourth hit that you gain from the jump in stops force ball from coming out due to the general combo limitations that are built in but if you land a punish or something that's where the three hit shines reptiles kickstarter is a simple three hit which isn't terrible and it creates a decent range at least and this string right here is good for when a jump in connects or if you have the opponent in the corner and still want good damage if we're talking the general meta of reptile it's that he pretty much has the biggest practical combo potential in the entire roster and it's thanks to dash attack and forceball although very execution heavy reptile can get some impressive combos using some jabs and the dash in between to chase them down but if you have really good execution you can do combos like this something like that uh yeah something like that uh is gonna happen so that's if they jump which again some characters is an actual infinite leading to a true touch of death for a single launch but damage like this is only one part of reptiles game plan there are many other layers ultima mk3 doesn't have a lot of zoners the game is so insanely aggressive that most can't spend a lot of the game at range and enforce any kind of projectile plan characters like unmasked sub-zero can create space sector on player one side because of the no missile limit and cabal instant airs for sure all of them are viable zoning tools but it is reptile that fully fits the bill and can use force ball combinations to keep you where he wants you but more importantly to bait out your movement this doesn't even factor in the obvious utility of his invisibility either which takes this insane screen control and adds total unpredictability as i mean you can't see him right now there are other utilities here as well for example reptile isn't bad at fighting cabal using instant air gas blasts something that genuinely nullifies like 70 of the cast but reptile's acid spit goes underneath it no matter what height and it allows him to get some presence on the screen super useful and this is just one example jumping being as powerful as it is isn't as much of an issue for reptile who can use his dash on reaction to a jump to make it with another unique property now there's definitely some weaknesses to go through though some of which being matchups teleport characters mostly the human ninjas like scorpion human smoke or irmak who have really fast ones and can teleport on reaction to a force ball and shut it down it kind of takes his zoning plan and it hits it quite hard alternatively there are characters that are a lot harder to loop in combos or can't be infinite at all which is good for slipping out of his common situations reptile and ultimate mk3 is one of the highest maintenance characters in the roster but is super good if you have the execution to pull it off shout outs to biggs by the way who sat down with me and recorded a lot of the combo paths that you've seen in this video he is one of the best reptile players in the scene and he does it all on a classic fight stick too which is even more impressive that thing takes skill to use at this level now trilogy actually changes reptile a little bit not really in his own way but it's the game's universal differences the game is a lot faster and rush down oriented so reptile can't get his zoning game into effect like he can in ultimate additionally the game's speed differences make his combos feel a bit different and on n64 trilogy which although is the preferred competitive version for many suffers from rather inconsistent performances which can cause weird frame drops that make you drop your giant combos reptile is generally not considered quite as strong as his ultimate mk3 counterpart because the differences of trilogy make him feel not quite as overwhelming as he is in ultimate [Music] although definitely a lot of fans least favorite visual design of reptile mk4 did have reptile showcase an impressive moveset as one of the game's strongest characters entirely a strange journey though as although he was definitely very strong he wasn't really interesting so actually wasn't played by as many people as you'd think either way this is reptile in mortal kombat 4. but worth noting that it's mk4 on the playstation 1 that i'm using to record rather than arcade as it is a bit easier to capture this way special moves are a little different this time round acid spit is a really average projectile but it doesn't really matter because this character is a lot more about mobility in mk4 invisibility returns and functions exactly how you'd expect he gains this dash punch which is really good for ending combos as it's fast and it goes so far but easily his most important move in this game is the super cruel which is kind of a mixture between slide and run but this one launches which is really important there isn't anything to go over with in combo strings as they are basically universal in mortal kombat 4 and gold so let's just cut to the chase over why reptile was pretty broken in this game this axe it doesn't look like much but it's the function of this axe that makes it such an insane difference to the character reptile standing low punch with this weapon is a launcher but you can cancel its recovery when it connects into a special move another attack or importantly a block if you block cancel this normal and cut the recovery short it actually leads to true infinite juggles that is until max damage kicks in obviously this button can be linked from a close high kick so pretty much if reptile is point blank he has this crazy threatening launching advantage aside from this trick reptile slide can punish things like sweep on block in fact it's a really good punisher in general the fact that it launches it's just the cherry on top really and it's an incredible anti-cross-up tool guess what he can do specials with the axe out as well so axe reptile is still able to use his greatest utility in slide and other attacks like dash punts for combo enders the thing is reptiles swinging an axe around and doing this infinite or sliding around all over the place doesn't really feel like reptile to a lot of people in a weird way he is one of the best characters in the entire game because of these but he isn't played much by the community because he's just kind of boring really nothing like his ultimate mk3 counterpart and the meta of what makes him so good really is kind of swing axe a lot and do slide not the most appealing game plan too many the funny thing is as much as people hate this costume reptile has he does actually have a classic skin in this game if you do the whole hold start and press any button twice to rotate the costume and character select problem is that this skin doesn't have the broken axe but that's fine because he still has jarek's broke-ass machete that has a built-in launching option select off of high kick and down high punch and it works with slide wonderfully so is that really a loss i'm not really convinced with the giant push onto what was the next generation of consoles at the time deadly alliance brought back a bunch of fan favorite characters but a really decent amount of brand new ones too reptile makes his first ever appearance as a full-on lizard but in the competitive space was actually once again one of the best characters in the entire game he's been doing quite well recently as he oh mk3 mk4 mkba with many players listing him a solid third place in the tier list next to bow ride show and scorpion reptile had a bit of a brick wall style to him in this game with buttons that could really reward a player who just had this lock on what the opponent was trying to do in the neutral but although he had two fighting styles and a weapon like everyone it was his funny looking crab style that would really be the one that pushed him over the top he actually only has two special moves in this game the acid spit that's high damage but slow recovery and his lizard roll which is a low attack and it goes super far it can be hard to punish too but this is a button heavy game and when it comes to buttons reptile has many good ones starting with the hunger hand-to-hand stance and before i go into any moves it is important to note that in deadly alliance the act of backdash cancelling was really big it basically is just doing a back dash as soon as you can after certain moves to make them much better recovery wise back three a high damage mid that knocks down has great range and can be backdash cancelled standing two a long range mid that again can be backdash cancelled but this one on hit or width forward four a high damage and safe low that can be backdash cancelled you'll mix in this low with the two mids that i just mentioned down four is a long range low and it lets you stay in crouching one three is a main combo string as it goes into one three two as a combo ender and this full start switch combo that is a fantastic punisher as it leads to great damage indeed remember that the r1 button in deadly alliance is kind of like a unique attack for different stances hungar has the shove which is great for spacing or importantly frame advantage against the wall we've already established he has this mid-low game that's pretty safe crab is next look okay it looks silly but trust me it's an amazing stance mechanically back 3 is a high damage low with very high advantage abuse this for sure standing four is a safe mid to easily mix up with the back three one one one it's incredibly fast and has great advantage one one can lead into one one back two which launches and you can even add stance change to the end of that for an even bigger launch still this is a simple stance don't get me wrong but the moves i just mentioned are all really really good and finally the r1 in crab is a reversal that allows a full combo in crab 1-1 back to stance change is the easiest source of damage once a reversal lands reptile's weapon is strong and it's worth noting that the weapon stance moves can't be parried down 4 is a mega safe mid up one is another solid mid still with back three and down three acting as long ranged lows this weapon plays the simple low to mid game plan with impressive range to boot reptile easy and fast mix-ups wide variety of buttons and decent damage makes him a top three character to many in deadly alliance he just seemed to play the game superbly well and it was indeed once again a playable appearance where a reptile would show up as an incredibly strong pick competitively [Music] reptile now it's time for his armageddon appearance at this stage shaolin monks had just come out so reptile had his new look which personally is my favorite ever visual appearance that he's ever had but if you want that d a reptile look you can actually still pick it as an alternate costume unfortunately reptile was nowhere near as prominent in this game as he was in deadly alliance backdash cancelling wasn't present in armageddon so that entire game plan goes right out the window additionally he has an entirely new stance as hungar was given to someone else and i don't even think crab was in this game so now he's left with pau shui i'm sorry if i said that wrong i probably did i'll call it hand to hand for the rest of it special wise the acid spit and ball roll return from deadly alliance but the acid spit it's not very good not really worth using at all in this game the ball roll can be an effective anti-projectile tool though so that one's definitely not terrible additionally his running serpent comes back after being missing for quite a few games it's fast and a nice unbreakable option after certain launches although online don't even bother with it because in this games online the second hit almost always whiffs finally and this one is definitely the most significant invisibility this is fast quick recovering and a major tool to help his game plan as this vanish is easily the most obnoxious tool that he has available just watch for having your weapon out during it they can kind of see where you are with his two stances there are some key moves here hand to hands 4 3 is your primary neutral option as it has good tracking leads to a free throw which is important in armageddon and it's a very easy move to parry cancel for extra range back three is one of those armageddon style tracking sweeps so a solid low for sure up four is your tracking launcher but watch out because it's unsafe on block although it is definitely a 50 50 between this and his lows down one and down four are both standard low pokes not much to say about them but definitely both usable weapon has some new tricks too standing three leads to a free throw and it's a mid it's just kind of slow two two three is a fairly safe string that has good knockdown attached it's also a good little online gimmick due to the different frame data of the netcode up one extremely unsafe but it tracks and advances down one is a great poke for weapon stance and your down two is a very solid uppercut this leads to things like the running serpent unbreakable that i mentioned earlier overall reptile isn't exactly terrible in mortal kombat armageddon but he's definitely nowhere near as lethal as deadly alliance mechanically he's totally different anyway but the game plan is to abuse invisibility and play a very poke-heavy run style he's not going to be up in your face all match but he's definitely tricky his pokes are solid decent tracking fast punish options his best normals work well with parry cancel and he even has some of the easier air infinite sets for larger combos still the problem is he's got pretty low damage far away he doesn't pose much threat his weapon stance is kind of average in armageddon and the big thing that i always mention about the non-top tiers in this game is that he wasn't broken enough you had to be broken to be top tier in armageddon there's no getting around that and reptile was okay fun but okay reptile right it's time to start with the mortal kombat games that most of you are most familiar with i suppose mortal kombat 9 bringing reptile back as he very much was expected with all of his original 2d style gameplay bringing back some crucial attacks that would very much define what kind of character he turned out to be acid spit it's a basic fast projectile once again with the enhanced version creating kind of a spray slide is a fast low with the enhanced version adding a second hit and granting armor elbow dash returns and this one is crazy fast it knocks down on hit but is mostly used for closing that jump distance gap instantly and linking combos together for some stylish bnbs enhanced version adds a second hit and it knocks them up and on block is a way of keeping the pressure on as it's plus acid hand is a safe overhead option that's really good at the end of pretty much anything to be honest enhanced version causes a knock-up invisibility is back but the regular version only partially cloaks reptile this time round the enhanced version of it is what hides you completely and even grant a damage boost finally slow and fast 4 spool return with their enhanced versions being different speeds and if you hold the button down create a giant one these moves together all allow reptile to play an incredibly slippery hit and run style game with zoning elements and rush down elements very reminiscent really of his ultimate mk3 self many years prior instead of listing his strings it's actually more notable i think to go just right into game plan because the buttons and strings you do use they're not plentiful but they serve a really important purpose down 3 and down 4 are both incredible low pokes the down 3 for general pressure and the down 4 into acid hand for safety and poke potential this down 4 is easily one of the best downfalls in the entire game because the hurt box almost completely disappears it's one of those mk9 downfalls it gives reptile his entire game plan and it creates the range that he's most effective in range though being the magic word he is a fantastic zoner one of the best owners in the game force balls work so well together with the enhanced slow ball creating something that you almost always have to respect seriously this move in the neutral is his entire game sometimes it's incredibly powerful because it's so hard to challenge once it's out there and reptiles point blank constantly putting you in situations where you want to press but you kind of can't because the ball's out there it's a bit of a nightmare his staggers with moves like standing 1 and his 3 2 1 string are all scary at close ranges because they often have fast recovery and you can be really sneaky and throw in an invis or something although acid hand can be used as well for safety it moves them far away so it basically ends your offense on block this is not to be used as often as you might think but if we're talking the little details about reptile he was a really tricky character his combo potential was fantastic and anywhere he lands a hit he can generally get a full combo for force balls combo into more force balls into combo enders and after a combo you can end into more offense more zoning invisibility the world is yours really however reptile also has a string in two four three one plus two which on hit does an unscaled seven percent at the end if they don't block on the ground and is about plus eight on block if they're blocking anyway so reptile truly can choose to zone out or keep offense going his movement required the elbow dash because although his walk speed is fast once it gets going the initial start up of that is critically slow it makes his dash block game really weak so you need elbow dash to move around enhanced elbow dash being about plus eight on block means that it's a very sneaky tool to get offense started and it adds to his mobility being scary once he gets going honestly but it is the mobility rather unique to reptile so you need to get used to it in terms of match-ups reptile's oppressive game plan was one that could do superbly well against quite a few characters in fact he actually did quite decently against some incredibly popular characters like cabal kenshi and even freddy krueger but in the opposite end other popular characters like sonia julie cage and kung lao would actually give him a lot of trouble any airborne focused opponent that could make his enhanced elbow dash whiff and punish or avoid his force balls basically even sindel could fight him which says a lot about airborne tools i think reptile had some weird tricks where his force ball limit caused some of them to disappear mid-travel which was really strange in some matchups in older patches of the game he had a point-blank invisible forceball glitch that was super busted but in the final version reptile sat about number 13 in the tit list high mid basically he's a really good character in his own way and he can fight a decent amount of the top competition but there were still some matchups that were simply a bit too hard to conquer a master of multiple styles and if cabal didn't exist he might have even been the best zoner in the game even with kenshi playable trust me and at last the final current playable version of reptile mortal kombat xl i say excel specifically here because as always with the game that saw many changes to the characters and general meta to be honest i'm focusing on how reptile was at the very end of the game's lifetime where he's a stylish character with awesome combos reaction heavy gameplay and a general all-round fan favorite to watch i usually don't go over bass moves much in excel because of how much the variations change things up but for reptile it's actually appropriate because every variation gains one crucial new move keeping the basic kit intact reptile has a bunch of specials acid spit is still acid spit but it has a damage on the floor effect when you meter burn it elbow dash is once again great for combos and mobility with the meatband version once again causing a knock up four spools return with a slow and fast version with similar properties to mk9 even but in this game you can stop a force ball mid-travel to create an obstacle for the cost of one bar this is a very good tool by the way claw pounce is a range knock down with the meter burn version acting as an armored attack claw swipe is a regular knock down stand alone but on meter burn will actually launch the opponent once upon a time this was a fantastic armored launcher but in the final patch of xl the armor on this move was actually taken away his x-ray which is called reptile dysfunction by the way is another simple mk-xl x-ray honestly but again meter is so important that it's not something that you'd often see let's go over the major changing specials that each variation gets because it allows a slightly different style to a similar base design deceptive is first this one gains the invisibility but acts differently to every other version that he's had the base version has much longer recovery but the meter burned version recovers a lot quicker gains full invisibility and it allows him to combo from certain attacks this is incredibly strong because it's done off mix-up situations and it leads to a full combo almost every single time additionally taking the first hit while invisible doesn't actually cause reptile to take damage so if you hit him with a single hit projectile or something he doesn't actually get punished for it at all besides losing invisibility i guess noxious is the second and it was always for some reason the more popular variation to the masses this one gains a passive damage over time effect in general but it can use a special that causes more damage still it adds to anything you do and it doesn't turn off on hit making this variation impossible to make pixel comebacks against at critical low counts the amplified version of this move can be comboed into in very specific circumstances but it just makes his base damage really high you can do kind of gimmicky things like meter burn acid puddle and then the damage over time but it's kind of hard to set that up but the chip damage is kind of ridiculous as you can see [Music] finally the fan favorite nimble reptile can use a move called basilisk to slow down time and create these insane combo situations that hit for an unreasonable amount of damage the big thing here is that the mix-ups that can happen during this slowdown state are utterly insane because things that otherwise wouldn't combo do now fully into huge damage this is hard to play and it requires a ton of on-the-spot execution don't get me wrong but all my days the reward when you really get going this variation has some serious threat once you master it but mastering it definitely isn't easy reptile was a reaction heavy character he had so many tools to play on whatever the situation called for his mix-up game was strong because of some hidden overheads in certain strings and the sheer existence of a low slide giving him these risky mix-ups but then the variations totally added to it in their own way where he genuinely didn't have a bad variation in the final stage of the game losing his fast armored launcher it sucked and i know that some players really didn't like it it puts some people off playing reptile but once you kind of get used to his mix-ups and what he began to be in the final stages he's a scary character i always look back on certain reptile players that really made an impact competitively milky situation being the first mkx reptile that we saw really get those giant results with noxious sharing the top 8a evo with me in 2015 which was a great memory pick of the hutt picking a secondary character in reptile during mkx pro league but over in eu we had that pro stunner who was a real rising star at the time and happy pal both of which playing nimble happy pal still to this day has a mind blowing first to 10 against youpay's kano on this very channel and it's a perfect example of reptile insanity to be honest i asked him about the variation recently and he said something along the lines of creativity mid combo being mega satisfying the ability to control the neutral with more than just force balls and to build meter during the slowdown i'll always think of happy pal as my favorite reptile player because of the execution alone ridiculous stuff reptile once again had what was often considered a high mid placement by the end of the game he's a really really good character but mkxl was such an open question anyway because in the final stages of that game a ton of characters were good and could absolutely win tournaments reptile being one of them he just had a lot of things that make a character strong and that hasn't really changed and believe it or not we're done here that is reptiles entire competitive legacy and it takes the cake once again as the longest video i've ever worked on this character has been so different in so many games that reaching out to all the right people for their competitive insight took a lot longer than i expected so i'm sorry about the slightly lengthy gap between sektor's episode and this one as reptile is the most requested fighter in the whole series i really wanted to go into the nitty gritty and make this one worth the wait i seriously can't thank all the players across all the games enough who helps me with the research and the gameplay this is easily the biggest pro player collaboration i've ever done for a single episode so i want to thank summoning for mortal kombat 2. biggs for ultimate mk3 and trilogy dead and mkk hanzo for their info on mortal kombat 4 boosts for deadly alliance thtb for armageddon costner for mk9 and happy pal for mkx i was able to find a top level reptile player for every inch of the character's legacy and i thoroughly enjoyed the ride learning experience this time around was a really good time let me know who you want next consider maybe subscribing or liking the video make sure you're turning on that notification bell and i'll see you next time take care [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: PNDK&M

Views: 807,359

Keywords: History, of, kurtis, stryker, competitive, high, level, play, combos, combo, ketchup, mustard, pnd, K&M, meta, tournament, tournaments, grand, finals, tutorial, guide, umk3, armageddon, 2011, 2012, 1992, 1995, arcade, arcades, infinite, how, to, do, game, gameplay, moves, move, specials, Rain, Prince, Of, Edenia, pits, meat, character, characters, episode, wind, god, fujin, MK4, mame, dolphin, gamecub, dreamcast, aftermath, variation, variations, history, chameleon, khameleon, trilogy, PS1, Documentary, education, ermac, ps2, gold, broken, reptile, top, tier, list

Id: L6OxeBGch0w

Length: 32min 46sec (1966 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 27 2021