King K. Rool (Super Smash Bros. Ultimate)

This article is about King K. Rool's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. For other uses, see King K. Rool.

“	With long-distance special moves like the Blunderbuss, and counter moves like Stomach Attack, he is a versatile fighter. His Final Smash, Blast-O-Matic, was apparently a weapon created to destroy DK Island...	”
—Description from the Super Smash Blog.

King K. Rool
Universe	Donkey Kong
Availability	Unlockable
Final Smash	Blast-O-Matic
Character Statistics
Number of Jumps	2
Has a Tether	No

King K. Rool is a newcomer fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. He was confirmed during the August 8th Smash direct.

Attributes

Strengths

• Possesses Super Armor on many attacks: forward tilt, up smash, down smash, dash attack, and neutral aerial
• Second heaviest character in the game, only behind Bowser, giving him high survivability
• High launch power on many attacks
• Possesses two meteor smashes: down aerial and back aerial
• Has several moves that bury opponents in the ground, leaving them open to attack: down tilt, down throw
• Has the best recovery of any Super Heavyweight and Heavyweight character, being able to recover from the edge of the stage all the way to the edge of a platform without any problems. His recovery can also send opponents upwards if the make direct contact with it, giving K. Rool the oppurtunity to fair to gain an advantage.

Weaknesses

• Tanking enemy attacks with Super Armor too often can break K. Rool's
  • K. Rool's armor health is indicated by cracks on K. Rool's belly. Over time, these cracks will repair themselves, as long as attacks that have Super Armor are not being used. If K. Rool's belly takes too much damage it will stun him, similarly to a shield break.
  • Some moves have significant start-up or endlag.
• Super Armor does not resist grabs.
• Projectiles are relatively slow: making them ineffective at long ranges.
• Large hurtbox makes him easy to hit, susceptible to combos and juggling.
• Rather slow on the ground and in the air.
• Despite K. Rool's superb recovery, with enough precision, one is able to spike our crocodile friend and send him back where he came from.

Summary

King K. Rool is a Super Heavyweight character, with strong super armour on a lot of his moves. His side blunderbuss and crownmerang are projectile based, and has a very style-focused playstyle, with his meteor-smashing back air and down air, and his "K. Roolicide" where he sucks his opponent into his neutral special and launch them out to the blast zone (even though K. Rool can possibly still recover from it).

Moveset

Certain belly-based moves in King K. Rool's moveset grant armor. However, taking damage with these moves cracks his stomach armor, with K. Rool getting dazed upon it breaking completely after three armored hits. The armor regenerates when not using belly attacks.

Ground Attacks

Normal

• Neutral Attack: A palm strike, then a claw swipe and then a kick.
• Forward Tilt: Claps his hand together. Can be angled and has super armor.
• Up Tilt: An uppercut.
• Down Tilt: Stomps downward. Can bury when sweetspotted.
• Dash Attack: A belly charge with super armor. Deals 14% damage.

Smash Attacks

• Forward Smash: Punches while using his boxing glove from Donkey Kong 64. Can be angled. Deals 20% uncharged.
• Up Smash: Headbutts up, then falls to the ground. Has super armor. Deals 12% uncharged.
• Down Smash: Belly-flops on the ground. Has super armor. Deals 29% uncharged.

Other attacks

• Floor Attack (Front):
• Floor Attack (Back):
• Floor Attack (Trip):
• Ledge Attack: Fast horizontal swipe of his claw.

Aerial Attacks

• Neutral aerial: Extends his body, having a hitbox all around. Has super armor. Deals 12% damage.
• Forward aerial: A dropkick with a large amount of knock back. Deals 14% damage.
• Back aerial: A slow arm swing behind him, like Ganondorf's forward air. Can meteor smash if sweetspotted. Deals 19% damage.
• Up aerial: A quick headbutt upwards. Also gains a little height upwards. Has super armor. Deals 13% damage.
• Down aerial: A strong stomp downward which meteor smashes. Has super armor. Deals 13% damage.

Grabs and Throws

• Pummel: Headbutts the enemy.
• Forward Throw: Slams the opponent on the ground. Deals 10% damage.
• Back Throw: K. Rool drags his opponent across the ground and throws them backwards. Deals 11% damage.
• Up Throw: K. Rool heaves the opponent on his back and jumps high and comes back down, sending the enemy with vertical knockback. Deals 16% damage. This is the strongest up throw damage-wise.
• Down Throw: Picks up the opponent and slams them with enough power to bury them in the ground. Deals 5% damage.

Special Moves

King K. Rool's Special Moves
	Ultimate
Standard Special	Blunderbuss
Side Special	Crownerang
Up Special	Propellerpack
Down Special	Gut Check
Final Smash	Blast-O-Matic

Taunts

• Up Taunt: K. Rool slaps his belly. Has super armor.
• Down Taunt: K. Rool does a sumo-esque stomp.
• Side Taunt: K. Rool viciously snaps forward, similar to Bowser's side taunt.

On-Screen Appearance

• Drops from the sky with his arms crossed before chuckling.

Victory Poses:

• Spins around, flips his cape and points forward.
• Shifts his eyes left and right before ending with a triumphant pose.
• Belly-flops on screen and rebounds with a backflip before successfully landing on his feet and slapping his belly with pride.
  

  

In competitive play

King K. Rool is currently called a low-skill, powerful character. Despite that, King K. Rool still has not even made top 8 at any A or S-tier tournaments.

Palette Swaps

Gallery

King K. Rool's splash screen. King K. Rool Comes Aboard!

Screenshot featuring two of K. Rool's palette swaps, a purple and blue variation.

King K. Rool using his Up Throw on Mewtwo.

King K. Rool throwing his Crown then Villager pocketing it.

King K. Rool using his Up Special.

Videos

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - The Rivals - Nintendo Switch

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – King K. Rool gameplay (Nintendo Switch)

67 King K. Rool – Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Trivia

• Outside of minor cameos, Ultimate marks King K. Rool's first physical appearance in a decade, as he last appeared in 2008's Mario Super Sluggers.
• King K. Rool is the third playable Smash Bros. character to have been created outside Japan, following Diddy Kong, also created as part of the Donkey Kong Country series by the British developer Rare, and Dark Samus, who was created by the Texas-based Retro Studios.
• According to Masahiro Sakurai, King K. Rool's inclusion in Ultimate was a result of his popularity in the Super Smash Bros. Fighter Ballot.
  • This is reflected in K. Rool's trailer; where King Dedede (voiced by Masahiro Sakurai) trolls DK and Diddy (and the audience) with a fake reveal; only to be ambushed by the real K. Rool.
• In King K. Rool's trailer, King Dedede disguising himself as King K. Rool is similar to the Donkey Kong Country episode "Just Kidding", in which Diddy Kong and Candy Kong make Donkey Kong use a King K. Rool costume to pull a prank on Cranky on All Fool's Day, but backfire when they accidentally bring the real King K. Rool to Cranky's house and the Crystal Coconut.
• King K. Rool is the second fighter in the series whose back-aerial meteor-smashes the opponent, with the first being Lucas.