Mecha-Plankton
"Oh, ohhh… It’s evil. It’s diabolical. It’s lemon-scented. This (new) Plan Z can’t possibly fail!"
After many attempts of trying and failing to steal the Krabby Patty Secret formula from Mr. Krabs, Plankton has contacted a new scheme to get it. Apparently, Spongebob has traveled to the faraway land of Aether, so Plankton figures that he must be on a mission to get a secret ingredient for the formula. Piloting the fitted-out Mecha-Plankton into this new and crazy world, Plankton will stop at nothing to make sure he gets the formula, and anyone who gets in his way will taste his wrath (and his chum)!
Playstyle: Zoner-Grappler Hybrid
Mecha-Plankton is a truly diabolical combination of a zoner and a grappler, meaning that he has many tools for both zoning and close-range combat. He does a great job at keeping the opponent away from him with Nspec and his aerials, and then ending the stock with a devastating command grab with his side special “Chum Bucket Buster”. Plankton also has some buttons with incredible range, can easily wall his opponents out with his devastating ledgetrapping tools, and he is able to mix up his recovery with up air, up special, and air fstrong. However, these powerful tools come at a cost, as Plankton is still held back by his size, albeit ironically because of just how big he is. With a combination of a large hurtbox, slow mobility, and committal options, he ends up falling short defensively especially on smaller stages where he has less room to move, meaning that if any of his plans go wrong, they WILL blow up in his face.
Mecha-Plankton comes to the world of Aether carrying over many of his abilities from his moveset in Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2, including his aerial strongs and especially his unique Sauce status effect mechanic. However, not wanting to be too predictable with his schemes, Plankton has switched up how the Sauce functions here, and so when applying Sauce to the opponent, hitting a Sauced opponent with any of his fire or explosive attacks will consume the Sauce to deal increased damage and knockback. Sauce goes away after a short period of time, but the more that Plankton applies Sauce to the opponent, the longer it will take for Sauce to go away, although the opponent can also parry most of Plankton’s attacks to get rid of the Sauce immediately.
Mecha Plankton has several attacks that can inflict the Sauce status effect, these attacks being his Neutral Special, air up strong, and the back portion of his Dash attack. As for the attacks that consume the Sauce, these include his up tilt, forward air, all three of his grounded strongs, his aerial down strong, his side special, and his up special.
Additionally, Mecha-Plankton’s down special creates a poison field that deals damage over time to opponents inside it, but if the opponent has Sauce on them, the poison will stick to them after leaving the cloud, preventing natural Sauce decay and requiring the opponent to either hit or parry Mecha-Plankton.
NEUTRAL SPECIAL: Alright! The Sauce
Mecha-Plankton shoots Sauce from his arm cannons in front of himself for as long as the Special Button is held, which can be angled up and down. Even though this does not make the opponent flinch, this move acts as a quick and efficient way to apply Sauce to the opponent from a distance.
SIDE SPECIAL: Chum Bucket Buster
Mecha-Plankton scoops his opponent, flies up into the air and slams them back down against the ground. This command grab is one of the core aspects of Mecha-Plankton’s gameplan as a grappler, as landing it works as a great way to deal damage and function as a kill option, especially when the opponent is covered in Sauce.
UP SPECIAL: 99% Hot Gas / Shia-Kazing
Mecha-Plankton’s up special has two parts to it, with one being the initial rise and an optional follow-up. 99% Hot Gas: Plankton ascends in the air with the robot’s rocket. Shia-Kazing: Input again to clap and perform an explosive magic trick.
DOWN SPECIAL: Chum Bucket’s Toxic Tuesday Special
Mecha-Plankton throws a bucket of chum at his opponents that leaves a Poison cloud when it crashes against a surface. Any opponent inside the cloud takes damage over time, and if they are Sauced, then they are inflicted with a Poison status effect that deals damage to them even when outside the cloud. The Poison status effect goes away upon hitting Plankton, but the Sauced status will still be active at the same time, meaning the opponent needs to parry Plankton’s attacks to get rid of both at once.
Miscellaneous Notes:
Mecha-Plankton has three different taunts, consisting of a Neutral, Down, and Up taunt.
Mecha-Plankton has a voice toggle that is selectable on the character select screen.
Mecha-Plankton has a unique red kill screen when a galaxy happens on a sauced opponent
Jab 3 can either be a slam or it can be a flurry of punches from Karen before the slam depending on if the button is simply pressed or held, respectively.
All three of his aerial strongs stall him in the air, which makes recovery a bit easier especially with air fstrong. This is also further helped by his up air boosting him upward, allowing Mecha-Plankton to have surprisingly solid recovery.
There are a variety of different runes to check out that are a ton of fun, highly would recommend checking them out.
Credits
Aether’s Asylum: Project Coordinator and NASB2 Mecha-Plankton main (1% workshop dev, 99% Hot Gas)
Lood: Main spriter and collaborator, did most of the animations, portrait, and the majority of the other work
Rang: Helped to finish the final animations of Mecha Plankton in time for release as well as making the excellent Steam Page Preview art
Nixliz: Helped with some animations (jab, nair, fair)
NuggetB: Main Coder for all of Mecha-Plankton
"Spongebob, we need to talk. Stop what you’re doing and let’s take a walk! Look right here, in the machine. I need what you’ve seen in between your thoughts. LET’S GO! Think about the formula, I need the FORMULA, that’s what I need! (OK Plankton, I’m ready) Let’s go, proceed."
