Senator Armstrong (SSBU)

This article is about Senator Armstrong's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. For the character in other contexts, see Senator Armstrong.

Senator Armstrong in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
File:MetalGearSeriesSymbol.png
Universe	Metal Gear
Availability	Released. Link can be found here
Final Smash	Exploding Punch Barrage

“	Senator Armstrong Elects for a Brawl!	”
—Introduction tagline

Senator Armstrong (スティーヴン・アームストロング一, Sutivun Amusutorongu) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and the second fighter from the Metal Gear series after Snake. He was officially confirmed and released initially for SSB:EXO around 2022-2023, then released standalone around 2024, and finally revealed at the 2024 Modding Direct. Armstrong is classified as Fighter 83.

Alastair Duncan, who voiced Senator Armstrong in the English Versions of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance reprises his role as the character, via recycled voice clips from Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.

Senator Armstrong primarily serves as a character who retains the vanilla playstyle and most of the moveset of vanilla Ganondorf, which is why most of the moves are almost identical to vanilla.

(Notice, this version is primarily referring to the version of Armstrong found in SSB:EXO. The version you can find in the link is different from the former, and thus not all the move information is accurate to the linked version).

Attributes

Armstrong is a superheavy, weighing in at 116 units, and is mainly defined by the sheer damage his moves do, with almost all of his moves dealing double digit damage, some even exceeding 30% in damage. This in turn makes his KO power among the best in the game. To counterbalance this great strength, Armstrong has poor mobility, subpar recovery, and mediocre framedata.

His punish game is exceptional among most fighters, easily being able to KO at sub 100% with most of his moves, and even below 50% with some moves. Due to some increased combo potential on his moves, Armstrong can easily secure a KO within a couple moves. Additionally, most of Armstrong's moves deal heavy shield damage, with some even being able to hard break shields. This results in a character who can capitalize greatly off of correct reads on the opponent.

Armstrong's grab game isn't lacking either, having several command grabs, the longest non tether grab in the game, and decent throws, with all but one throw being a kill throw, and that other throw being a great combo throw. Most of his kill throws will KO the opponent in the upper 120%-130% ranges, allowing him to condition opponents from other moves into these kill throws.

Armstrong has two notable attributes, which are listed as follows:

The first notable attribute is damage based armor. For all of Armstrong's grounded moves, he gains some level of damage based armor, and knockback reduction from the start of the move, until the attacks hitbox ends. The level of armor that he has on each move will be listed with the respective move, but the knockback resistance during the move always stays at 15% increased resistance.

The second notable attribute is his ability to charge moves. By holding down the attack button for normals, or the special button for specials, Armstrong can charge up his moves to increase their startup, but also increase their damage, knockback resistance, and damage based armor. The maximum amount of time the move can be held for is 20 frames, and it maxes out at 1.4x the original damage, 65% knockback resistance, and a ~2.8x damage based armor increase. The charge can be released at any point. Forward/Up/Down Tilt, Fair/Bair/Uair/Dair, and Side/Down Special are the chargable moves.

With the ability to charge his moves, he can mix up opponents to punish them even harder than he normally can, resulting in devastatingly early KO's, and additionally, the increasing armor and knockback resistance, in tandem with the fact that most of Armstrong's moves are now transcendent, means that he can easily break through other characters counterattacks, and even if he does get knocked out of his moves, said attributes means he shrugs off the counterattacks better than most characters.

However, despite all these strengths, there are quite a few glaring flaws with the character. Due to his tall frame, high fall speed, high weight, and poor air speed and acceleration, he's extremely susceptible to juggles. Additionally, his mediocre framedata and, in tandem with the previously mentioned weaknesses, make it so that he has trouble approaching. Whilst he does have a reflector, it's relatively slow and has a small window of reflection, making it difficult to utilize.

One notable problem is that none of his smash attacks cover much area, with Down Smash covering the most area, but being the weakest overall. Aside from this, another glaring flaw is his mediocre recovery. While it is better than previously, it's still not particularly great due to it being reactable, and the recovery options are mostly linear.

Overall, Armstrong is a character with great power, decent dps, and strong punish game. However, subpar aspects in other areas in his kit means he needs to play a step ahead or two of the opponent, and usually means he cannot afford to make as many mistakes as other fighters.

Moveset

Note: All numbers are listed as base damage, without the 1v1 multiplier.

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack		Straight Strike ( ストレートストライク一, Sutoretosutoraiku)||7.0%||rowspan=1|A straight punch. Similar to that of Melee Ganondorf's Jab, with relatively low KO power, but comes out on frame 4, making it his fastest attack. Unlike Melee Ganondorf's Jab, it has a much easier time hitting low profiling opponents due to adjusted low profile hitboxes. Serves best as Armstrong's close quarters scrapping tool when he doesn't really know what the opponent will do. Armor/Knockback Resistance Stats: Knockback Resistance Strength: 15% Knockback Resistance Duration: 1-6 Armor Strength: 1.2% Armor Duration: 1-6
Forward tilt		Hyper Kick ( ハイパーキック一, Haipakikku)||13.0%-18.2% (Leg)/14.0%-19.6% (Foot)||rowspan="1"|Performs a front push kick. Can be angled up and down. It has a decently slow startup of frame 10, and is the first of Armstrongs moves to be chargable. Retaining the similarly low angle to Vanilla Ganondorf, the move has great edgeguarding potential against characters with poor horizontal recovery, and the move being angleable now permits it to serve as his best anti air for the up angled version, and a decent two frame tool for the down angled version. Charge Armor/Knockback Resistance Stats: Knockback Resistance Strength: 15%-65% Knockback Resistance Duration: 1-12/1-32 Armor Strength: 6.0%-8.4% Armor Duration: 1-12/1-32 Based on the push kick Armstrong performs on Raiden during one of the fight cutscenes.
Up tilt		Earth Shattering Stomp ( 地球を揺るがす踏みつけ, Chikyu o yurugasu fumitsuke)||6.0% (Initial Leg Swing)/18.0%-25.2%(Stomp)/8.0%/10.0% (Shockwave)||rowspan="1"|Swings his left leg in a clockwise motion into an axe kick. Creates a shockwave that can hit grounded and aerial opponents when the foot slams into the ground. It is Armstrong's overall strongest tilt attack, and the third highest damaging move on his kit (only behind Grounded Neutral Special and Final Smash). This extremely high damage allows it to also secure stocks extremely early, easily koing opponents before 100%, and additionally nearly shattering vanilla shields in one hit. Due to the exceptionally quick startup on the initial leg startup (Frame 6), it can be deceptively easy to land this move, and with it's drastically reduced startup compared to Ganondorf's version of the move, it's a far more useful part of his kit. Charge Armor/Knockback Resistance Stats: Knockback Resistance Strength: 15%-65% Knockback Resistance Duration: 1-31/1-51 Armor Strength: 7.0%-9.8% Armor Duration: 1-32/1-51
Down tilt		Toe Strike	14.0%	Knockback Resistance Strength: 15%-65% Knockback Resistance Duration: 1-12/1-32 Armor Strength: 4.5%-6.3% Armor Duration: 1-12/1-32
Dash attack		Football Tackle	15.0% (Clean)/11.0% (Late)	Knockback Resistance Strength: 15% Knockback Resistance Duration: 1-19 Armor Strength: 6.0% Armor Duration: 1-19
Forward smash		Obliterator	24%	Knockback Resistance Strength: 15% Knockback Resistance Duration: 1-26 Armor Strength: 9.5% Armor Duration: 1-26
Up smash		Rising Uppercut	22%	Knockback Resistance Strength: 15% Knockback Resistance Duration: 1-21 Armor Strength: 8.5% Armor Duration: 1-21
Down smash		Country Cleanser	20% (Fist)/19% (Arm)/18% (Shoulder)	Knockback Resistance Strength: 15% Knockback Resistance Duration: 1-21 Armor Strength: 8.5% Armor Duration: 1-21
Neutral aerial		Double Strike	7% (Hit 1 Clean)/5.25% (Hit 1 Late)/12% (Hit 2 Clean)/9% (Hit 2 Late)
Forward aerial		Touchdown	17%-23.8% (Arm)/18%-25.2% (Hand)
Back aerial		Cross Country Swing	14%-19.6% (Hip)/15%-21% (Knee)/18%-25.2% (Foot)
Up aerial		Backflip Kick	13%-18.2% (Foot, Early)/12%-16.8% (Knee, Early)/12%-16.8% (Foot, Middle)/10%-14.0% (Knee, Middle)/8%-11.2% (Foot, Late)/6%-8.4% (Knee, Late)
Down aerial		Skull Crusher	17%-23.8% (Hip)/19%-26.6% (Feet)
Grab		{{{grabname}}}	—	{{{grabdesc}}}
Pummel		{{{pummelname}}}	{{{pummeldmg}}}	{{{pummeldesc}}}
Forward throw		{{{fthrowname}}}	{{{fthrowdmg}}}	{{{fthrowdesc}}}
Back throw		{{{bthrowname}}}	{{{bthrowdmg}}}	{{{bthrowdesc}}}
Up throw		{{{uthrowname}}}	{{{uthrowdmg}}}	{{{uthrowdesc}}}
Down throw		{{{dthrowname}}}	{{{dthrowdmg}}}	{{{dthrowdesc}}}
Forward roll Back roll Spot dodge Air dodge		—	—
Techs		—	—
Floor attack (front) Floor getups (front)		{{{floorfname}}}	{{{floorfdmg}}}	{{{floorfdesc}}}
Floor attack (back) Floor getups (back)		{{{floorbname}}}	{{{floorbdmg}}}	{{{floorbdesc}}}
Floor attack (trip) Floor getups (trip)		{{{floortname}}}	{{{floortdmg}}}	{{{floortdesc}}}
Edge attack Edge getups		{{{edgename}}}	{{{edgedmg}}}	{{{edgedesc}}}
Neutral special		[[{{{nsname}}}]]	{{{nsdmg}}}	{{{nsdesc}}}
Side special		[[{{{ssname}}}]]	{{{ssdmg}}}	{{{ssdesc}}}
Up special		[[{{{usname}}}]]	{{{usdmg}}}	{{{usdesc}}}
Down special		[[{{{dsname}}}]]	{{{dsdmg}}}	{{{dsdesc}}}
Final Smash		[[{{{fsname}}}]]	{{{fsdmg}}}	{{{fsdesc}}}