Ganondorf


 * For fighter info, see Ganondorf (SSBM) and Ganondorf (SSBB).
 * "Ganon" redirects here, for his final smash, see Beast Ganon

Ganondorf (ガノンドロフ, Ganondorofu) is the main antagonist in the The Legend of Zelda video game series. His first appearance was as the beast known as Ganon (ガノン) in the original The Legend of Zelda game. The name "Ganondorf" was first mentioned in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past with the villain making his first appearance as Ganondorf in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Since then, the name "Ganondorf" has been used to refer to his human form while "Ganon" is used for his monster form, the only exception being in The Wind Waker. (Though, at times the names have been used interchangeably) In either case, he has been Link's arch-enemy since day one.

Ganondorf has appeared as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Melee and appears once again in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Character Description
Ganondorf was originally introduced in the original The Legend of Zelda game as Ganon. Here, he was established as a power hungry monster who had kidnapped Princess Zelda for her piece of the Triforce, but was destroyed by Link at the end of the game. Since then, collecting the Triforce and conquering Hyrule has usually been Ganon's main goal in the series. He has appeared or been mentioned in nearly every Zelda game, with four exceptions: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass,  Legend Of Zelda Spirit Tracks and The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap. Note that in Phantom Hourglass, he was included in the opening cutscene, describing Wind Waker, in which Ganondorf appears.

Ganon's appearance has changed over the course of the series. In his first appearance, he appears as a monster who's facial features are like that of a pig's and with turquoise skin (though it will change to red at one point, which is the cue to hit him with the Silver Arrow), while in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, he has blue skin and turns silver when weak to the aforementioned Silver Arrows. In Ocarina of Time, Ganon's skin is dark green and he has yellow eyes (and so far, this and Twilight Princess are the only games to depict Ganon with a tail). The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, in a departure from previous games, features a quadrupedal Ganon for the first time, and appears as more of a boar than a pig. This may be to make Ganon similar to Link's "wolf" form.)

In his first appearance as Ganondorf in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, it is revealed that he is the only male in the Gerudo Tribe, born every 100 years. All Gerudos are identified by their noticeably darker skin (which may be due to living in the desert) and red hair. He is seen wearing armor in both Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess, while in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker he appears to be wearing sorcerer's robes.

Ganon is the primary villain in most of the Zelda games, with his schemes usually involving kidnapping Princess Zelda, conquering the land of Hyrule, or obtaining the Triforce (Sometimes all three). Therefore, he has never been a playable character in any Zelda game.

Unlike most of Nintendo's other famous villains, such as Bowser, Ganondorf is a cunning, intelligent, and an extremely powerful character. In Ocarina of Time, Ganondorf accomplishes something that Bowser (and many other villains) struggle with--he conquered the world. Thus, Link had to build up his strength so he could take Hyrule back from Ganondorf, who had ruled for 7 years by that point.

Whether he appears as Ganondorf or as Ganon (A Link to the Past's game manual gives him the name Ganondorf Dragmire which is a name which hasn't appeared before or since), Hyrule knows that it will be facing an incredible evil that only Link and Zelda can stop.

As a playable character

 * Main article: Ganondorf (SSBM)

Ganondorf makes his first appearance in the Smash Bros. series as a secret playable fighter in Super Smash Bros. Melee. He can be unlocked after completing Triforce Gathering or by playing 600 VS. matches.

Ganondorf is often considered the most powerful character in the game, with slow moves but decent speed for his size. He has superior reach and a melee style of fighting. Though comparatively slow to most characters, particularly those in lower tiers of power, he is not so slow as to render his great strength unusable. Almost every attack in his arsenal (with the exception of his dash attack and throws) has high K.O. potential, ensuring that if a hit does connect, it will likely knock an opponent near or past one of the blast line when they're at high damage. His Neutral B move is the Warlock Punch which is similar to the Falcon Punch, except that it is takes more time to execute, but is considerably more powerful, undergoing a further increase in power when connected on the back. His Side B move is the Gerudo Dragon, which launches enemies up into the air. His Up B move is the Dark Dive while his Down B move is Wizard's Foot. His up tilt is extremely powerful and uniquely, sends foes a long horizontal distance rather than a lateral distance. His forward smash is also unique, sending foes vertically more than horizontally. His up smash is the most damaging smash in the game (if you exclude Peach's down smash), dealing 53% when fully charged. What Ganondorf is most known for are his very powerful and surprisingly fast aerials (start-up lag wise), he was the only character in Melee to have all five of their aerials being capable of reliably KOing under 150%. His most known aerial was his dair, which was both the most powerful meteor smash and aerial attack in Melee. Despite being a meteor smash, it was capable of star KOing the majority of the characters under 100%. It also worked well at setting up combos at low percentages despite it power, especially against the fast fallers. Ganondorf was arguably the character who benefited from L-Cancelling the most, as all of his aerials had high landing lag, but L-Cancelling allows him to fully utilize his aerials without being so punishable.

Ganondorf is considered a clone of Captain Falcon due to their similar moves, though he does have a few notable differences. Ganondorf is slower, but more powerful than Captain Falcon. Ganondorf's neutral attack is a single jab instead of being an infinite jab combo like Captain Falcon's. The most notable difference is that they have different fairs, as while Captain Falcon has the famous knee, Ganondorf has a flying punch, also referred to as the Skull Crusher. The primary statistical difference between the two is that Ganondorf's fair is not as powerful as the knee, but it has no sourspot along with greater reach. Ganondorf is also heavier, making him more difficult to KO horizontally than Captain Falcon (though Captain Falcon's faster falling speed gives him greater vertical endurance).

Trophies
By tradition, Ganondorf as a playable character is featured on his personal 3 trophies. His normal trophy is acquired by beating the Classic mode with Ganondorf on any difficulty, and his Smash Red and Smash Blue trophies are acquired the same way by beating the Adventure and All-Star modes, respectively.

His normal Classic-mode trophy reads as follows:



Ganondorf
''Said to be the sole man born to the Gerudo tribe in a hundred years, Ganondorf aspired to conquer the world. He plundered a piece of the sacred Triforce from the Temple of Time when Link pulled the Master Sword from its pedestal. With the Triforce of Power in Ganondorf's possession, Hyrule was plunged into darkness until Link and Zelda defeated the fiend.''
 * The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, 11/98

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Ganondorf reappears in SSBB as a secret playable character, once again unavailable from the start, and uses his Twilight Princess appearance. Some of his attacks have changed from his Melee set and have undergone large aesthetic changes, while his other attacks are similar to their Melee counterparts. In Brawl, his attacks are noticeably more sluggish (especially the fair) and have less reach. His jumping ability, walking/dashing speed, and his air speed have been hindered, which hinders his mobility rather severely. His rolling dodges, once on par with Captain Falcon's (from whom they were inherited), are now slower and gain less distance. His horizontal recovery is worse due to the Wizard's Foot no longer restoring his midair jump. Many of Ganondorf's attacks were weakened as well, most notably the Dark Dive, grounded Wizard's Foot (both of which are no longer KO moves), the up tilt (though it is still the strongest tilt in the game), the down smash, and the bair. Some of his attacks were buffed in terms of power. His forward smash is stronger with horizontal knockback now (it has less reach however), his dash attack was strengthened significantly (it is now a reliable KO move instead of being his weakest attack that wasn't a throw), his back and forward throws are stronger (they can now KO on the edge at high percentages), and the Warlock Punch was buffed (higher damage, knockback, can be reversed, and slightly faster start-up) and can now get guaranteed KOs at damages as low as from 13%-20%. He has a new side special in Brawl that differs from its  Melee incarnation, choking the opponent, then throwing them downward. With it, Ganondorf has an alternate recovery move and can now Ganoncide. Flame Choke is faster and less punishable than Gerudo Dragon was and is good for setting up as well, but it deals approximately half the damage and is completely incapable of KOing unlike the Gerudo Dragon. Besides Ganondorf being slower and having less overall power, he was especially hurt by the loss of L-Cancelling, which allowed Ganondorf to utilize his very powerful aerials to their fullest in Melee.

Beast Ganon also appears as Ganondorf's Final Smash. Once the Smash Ball is retrieved and activated by the player, Ganondorf immediately transforms into the Twilight Princess rendition of Beast Ganon. He then stomps his front legs on the ground and immobilizes most opponents and charges straightforward in the direction he was facing before the Final Smash was activated. When his final smash is activated, all enemies standing under him will be stuck in the ground temporarily.

Trophies
Ganondorf has a trophy that is awarded each time the Classic mode is completed with Ganondorf on any difficulty. See Beast Ganon for the trophy description of Ganondorf's Final Smash:

Ganondorf
''A man who wants to use the power of the Triforce to conquer the world. In Twilight Princess, he gives strength to the Twilight King, Zant, and tries to change the land into a world of darkness. He possesses Zelda, transforms into a magical beast, and attacks Link. In the end, however, Link deals him a finishing blow and defeats him.''
 * Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998)
 * Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2006)

Ganondorf (Wind Waker)
''The king of evil. Ganondorf aims to collect the Triforce pieces and rule the world. Already in possession of the Triforce of Power, he secures Zelda and her Triforce of Wisdom, thus luring Link to his castle. However, he is ultimately defeated by Zelda's Light Arrows and Link's Master Sword.''
 * Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker (2003)

Trivia

 * Ganondorf and Sheik are the only playable characters in the Super Smash Bros. series that do not have a playable appearance in any other video game (Zelda is playable in Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks).
 * In both Super Smas Bros. games that he appears in, his worst matchup is vs Sheik; in SSBM it is 20:80 and in SSBB it is 0:100.
 * In Brawl, Ganondorf has 0:100 matchups against Ice Climbers, Olimar, and Sheik.


 * As shown by his down taunt, Ganondorf retains the execution sword he stole in Twilight Princess. Although it is inaccessible as a fighting tool in-game, hacking provides a mock means of doing so.