At this past weekend’s Umebura Japan Major, Jason “Mew2King” Zimmerman clinically executed a “ding-dong,” a combo that has elevated DK into the competitive meta-game.
A play on words that references Diddy Kong’s “hoo-hah” combo, “ding-dong” is jargon for a combination where Donkey Kong players use his throw to launch someone up in the air, then hit them with an up-air to take them out at very low percentiles.
It’s a simple combo, and it can kill a good portion of the roster at low-per cent damage, which gets even lower if the DK player has platforms to work with, like on the Animal Crossing stage “Town and City.”
Zimmerman’s variation on the ding-dong included an extra downward slap and throw for good measure, which built up enough percentage to easily out-of-bounds Sheik and earned some style points to boot.
The ding-dong has elevated Donkey Kong’s presence in the game, popularised by players like Zimmerman and Eita “Hikaru” Hoshi, who put on a clinic with the move at Civil War in March.
Other pros, like DK main Konga, have begun to work their way up the rankings with Donkey Kong now. Even Ally showed off a pocket Donkey Kong at DreamHack Austin. Welcome to the age of ding-dong Donkey Kong.
Comments
4 responses to “Top Smash Player Lands Perfect Donkey Kong Combo”
What the crap was that sound?
would be nice to see some top level smash 4 play instead of living in the past – these strategies are new and obsoleted at the same time
Yeah the “ding dong” is hardly new and honestly I don’t know why this particular instance of it was deemed newsworthy in a tournament that honestly featured moments that were 1000x more hype than this was.
How about T’s Link getting a shield break on Nietono’s Sheik and KOing him at just 25% damage before the hit? https://clips.twitch.tv/SincereHonorableMouseWow
Or Nietono, after taking that loss, went on a sick loser’s bracket run, taking out Japanese heavyweights Ranai, komorikiri and Kameme to eventually finish 5th and out-place the guy that knocked him into losers?
Or what about MKLeo, who flew all the way over to Japan, reached winner’s finals, was beaten soundly by arguably Japan’s best player Ken 3-0, then came back from loser’s side, reset the bracket against Ken in grand finals 3-2 and then won the second set with a convincing 3-0 himself to take the crown?
No, none of that is newsworthy. Instead we focus on this one ding dong, that, while it won M2K that particular game, he still went on to lose that set so it had no real bearing on the tournament.
Ding dongs got a funny name.