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Description

Super Mario’s OG Damsel In Distress, Pauline!

Pauline was Mario’s first Damsel-In-Distress and appeared in the very first Mario game, the arcade classic, Donkey Kong. Pauline (Originally known as Lady) was kidnapped by Donkey Kong (Who at the time was a younger version of Cranky Kong), a pet gorilla who was owned by her past boyfriend, Mario. She is taken up onto a building and loses various articles on the way and Mario then climbs up the building, avoiding all the hazards in the way, to rescue her. However, when Mario reaches the top of the building, Donkey Kong grabs Lady and takes her higher up, forcing Mario to do another level. Several levels later, Donkey Kong is trapped as Mario removes the bolts from the platform, sending Donkey Kong plummeting. Lady is finally saved by Mario, and they share a special moment together. And then it continued to happen in the Mario Vs. Donkey Kong games, but then she made a grand return in Super Mario Odyssey as the mayor of New Donk City, becoming the lead singer of the city festival. And now, she’s looking to march to the beat of her song as we get to see what she would be like if she jumped up into the odyssey of Project AT! So getting right into things, Pauline is an above-average lightweight fighter (Around the weight value of Little Mac) with some relatively fast movement but some rather poor traction, making her a rather slippery fighter, she has 2 jumps and actually has an entire fighter ability of additional movement options.

Basic Attacks & Fighter Ability: The Odyssey

So the best way of how I’m going to be incorporating Pauline is much like in the same vein as Rosalina's moveset, Pauline's moveset will be pulling inspiration from 3 main sources, the original Donkey Kong games; the Mario Vs Donkey Kong games and Super Mario Odyssey. Since that this Fighter Ability is essentially a plethora of unique and exclusive mobility options, it’s simply called 'The Odyssey'! For the majority of Pauline’s basic attacks, they will have some additional inputs that can allow for Pauline to perform unique mobility options that can allow for her to weave around the battlefield.

So starting off with her jab, it’s a 2-hit jab that has her do 2 punches straight forwards. Her dash attack has her do a sliding kick, almost in the same manner as Mario’s dash attack, although this dash attack can be cancelled out of it into the Backflip, a leaping backflip that propels Pauline a great distance backwards and can be useful to escape from harm. The side tilt has her do a smack with her hat, it has decent disjoint and great priority, her up tilt has her do the Handstand, backflip and doing a handstand. The handstand was the most important move in Donkey Kong ‘94 as it allowed for Mario to protect him from any dangers above, for Project AT, this will cause Pauline to become completely immune to any projectiles that attack below her, and you can hold the handstand for 5 seconds by holding up on the control stick, though that’s not all to the handstand, if you press the attack button again while in the Handstand, she’ll perform the Handstand Jump, jumping even higher than before, and if you press the attack button again right as soon as Pauline lands from a Handstand Jump, she’ll perform the Handstand Double Jump, a spinning jump that’s practically the highest grounded jumps of any fighter in the game; and the down tilt has her do the Roll, rolling along the ground to launch foes vertically upwards on contact, you can cancel out of the roll into the Long Jump, a leaping forwards jump that can grant a long distance to approach.

For her side smash, she makes use of the Donkey Kong series staple, the Hammer! She brings out the Hammer and slams it overhead from back to front, it does a ton of damage and knockback if you land the move, though an emphasis on if, as it has a ton of start-up and end lag. Her up smash has her bring out one of her lost items in the arcade Donkey Kong, an umbrella and pull it open straight upwards, this attack has heavy knockback and much like with her up tilt, can be used to protect from attacks above her, but it has trouble hitting on Pauline’s sides and her down smash has her go a breakdance spin kick, while it may look similar to Mario’s down smash but it more so references a trick animation seen in Mario Kart Tour.

For her N-air, she does a spinning split kick, based on the mid-air spins performed in Super Mario Odyssey, and much like in the game, this briefly halts Pauline’s vertical momentum, but only once while in the air; her F-air has her do the dive, diving forwards at an arc before falling diagonally downwards, it lacks damage and is very unsafe on shield but it provides great horizontal distance and has an easy time snapping to the ledge, and when she lands on the ground, she automatically performs the roll if you hold the control stick forward; her B-air has her use another of her lost items, her bag, swinging horizontally behind herself; her U-air has her swing her hat above from front to back, while it has excellent coverage, it has poor end lag and her D-air has her do the Ground Pound, frontfliping then crashing down with her rum, any foe caught at the start of the move will be spiked and she will continue to fall until she lands on the ground so you do need to be wary of the move, however, you can cancel the start-up of the D-air into her F-air, just like how you can cancel out of it in Super Mario Odyssey.

Grabs

Pauline grabs with one arm and pummels by slapping the foe. Her forward throw has her lift the foe overhead then toss them forwards; her back throw has her trade places and hip check the foe; her up throw has her vault and somersault to build momentum and toss them upwards and the down throw has her vault then jump up onto the foe, leaving them in a hard knockdown and propelling Pauline upwards.

Special Attacks

For Pauline’s Neutral Special, she uses the most iconic toys and goodies in Mario Vs. Donkey Kong, the Minis! Minis are the staple toys that would help Mario to rescue Pauline from various of Donkey Kong’s traps and obstacles. For Project AT, this has Pauline bring a toy capsule and a mini pops out. The Minis themselves act very much like the Bonsly Pokemon from Brawl, moving around left and right and not stopping off cliffs. The Minis can be jumped and ride on as a type of platform, but more importantly, they can be picked up and tossed at other players, with it breaking immediately once it hits the stage, wall or opponent. There are 4 Minis that can appear during the neutral special. The first is the Mini Mario, being the most balanced with average walk, throw distance, damage and knockback; the second is the Mini Toad, having the fastest walk but the worst damage; the third is the Mini Peach, having the furthest throwing distance but the slowest walk and the final is the Mini Donkey Kong, having the highest damage and knockback but having the worse throwing distance.

Her Side Special has her tap into one of Mario’s techniques in Super Mario Odyssey, the Cap Throw! This has Pauline toss forwards her hat as it flies forwards then stays in its position for a second to boomerang back to her. It deals minimal damage and knockback when thrown, and when floating, does flinching damage much like Corrin’s Side Smash. You can hold it out for 3 seconds by holding the special button down and if Pauline collides with her hat, she’ll perform the Cap Jump, bouncing off to gain a bit of extra distance, but she can only do this once, though she can throw her hat a second time. And lastly, using the move in the air stalls her in the air while also halting her horizontal momentum.

Next, for Pauline’s Up Special, she uses a prominent tool introduced in Donkey Kong Jr., the Spring! This is a fairly simple recovery move that has Pauline bring out the spring and spring upwards to the sky. It grants substantial vertical height, and Pauline doesn’t go into freefall afterwards, however, she has rather limited horizontal influence, making her somewhat vulnerable to edgeguarding from the sides. The spring itself acts as a projectile once it starts to fall, much like with Sonic’s Spring (Conveniently enough).

And finally, for Pauline’s Down Special, this actually taps into her recent hobby as a musician, I call it, New Donk Musical! This has Pauline tap dance while surrounded in a red aura, this start-up giving her heavy armour, then once charged, strikes a stylish pose that releases a musical notes shaped bubble, any foe hit by this move will take moderate damage and minimal knockback, but if they get hit while facing at Pauline, they’ll be forced to taunt, leaving them wide open to potential damage. Since some characters have longer taunts than others, it might be fairly useful against certain characters.

So overall, Pauline is the queen of mobility options, having movement and mix-ups that most anyone can wish to have. Foes will have to take advantage of her poor weight and tall height to get the jump on Pauline. But with the amount of mobility and recovery she has to offer, good luck with that.

Final Smash: March of the Minis

For Pauline’s Final Smash, I call this Final Smash, March of the Minis! It starts with Pauline smacking forwards with her hammer and any foe caught in the attack will be pulled. The cinematic then shows the foe collapsed on a catwalk, after a moment of respite, a bunch of Minis soon start waddling and walking over the foe, trouncing over them as Pauline soon stands atop a skyscraper, Pauline then snapping her fingers as a myriad of barrels drop down onto the foe, launching them away and ending the cinematic.

Miscellaneous

For the colors, her default has her in her dress that she commonly seen in the majority of her appearances, and she has a alternate costume in the form of her mayor suit in Super Mario Odyssey; her second alt gives her a pink dress, referencing her sprite appearance in the main majority versions of Donkey Kong and Pinball, though it could also be a nod to Princess Peach; her third alt gives her suit a white jacket and blue pants and hat, referencing Stanley, the protagonist of Donkey Kong 3; the fourth alt gives her a cyan dress, referencing her sprite appearance in the Atari 2600, Atari 8-Bit, Commodore VIC-20 and Apple 2 versions of Donkey Kong, though it could also be a nod to Princess Rosalina; the fifth alt gives her shiny grey suit, referencing the Party Time outfit from Mario Kart Tour; the sixth alt gives her a yellow dress and hat, referencing her appearance in the MSX, ZX Spectrum and Game Boy versions of Donkey Kong, although it could be seen as a nod to Princess Daisy and the final alt gives her a brown suit and hat, referencing the iconic Donkey Kong.

For her stage intro, she climbs up onto the stage from a ladder, just like Donkey Kong in the arcades. For taunts, her first has her twirl then pose, her intro animation Mario Tennis Aces; her second has her hugging a Mini-Mario capsule and her final has her blow a kiss to the camera.

And finally, for her victory animations, her first has her fist pump, then wave at the camera, referencing her victory animation in Mario Tennis Aces; her second has her throw her hat as it then boomerangs back to her, then she gives a bow, a nod to the announcement trailer for Super Mario Odyssey and the final has a Mini-Mario walk up beside Pauline and she simply cuddles it (Aww…).

And that is what Pauline could've been like in Project AT. During the time when Super Mario Odyssey was announced, when I found that Pauline was returning, it was a rather awesome surprise, it was nice to have the old D.I.D finally get some recognition and it's honestly great that she's being used more often. Would a concept like this actually be put into Smash Bros? Honestly, it doesn't really matter, cause when it comes to making movesets, there's only 1 thing I focus on, if the fighter would be fun, and I think I may have achieved that with Pauline. I think she could make for an interesting newcomer but for now, only time will tell if she may get that chance. If you wish to see more of Project AT, follow on me Reddit, and if you have any questions on the moveset, then leave them down below. I’ll see you next time for the next fighter!

Description

Super Mario’s OG Damsel In Distress, Pauline!

Pauline was Mario’s first Damsel-In-Distress and appeared in the very first Mario game, the arcade classic, Donkey Kong. Pauline (Originally known as Lady) was kidnapped by Donkey Kong (Who at the time was a younger version of Cranky Kong), a pet gorilla who was owned by her past boyfriend, Mario. She is taken up onto a building and loses various articles on the way and Mario then climbs up the building, avoiding all the hazards in the way, to rescue her. However, when Mario reaches the top of the building, Donkey Kong grabs Lady and takes her higher up, forcing Mario to do another level. Several levels later, Donkey Kong is trapped as Mario removes the bolts from the platform, sending Donkey Kong plummeting. Lady is finally saved by Mario, and they share a special moment together. And then it continued to happen in the Mario Vs. Donkey Kong games, but then she made a grand return in Super Mario Odyssey as the mayor of New Donk City, becoming the lead singer of the city festival. And now, she’s looking to march to the beat of her song as we get to see what she would be like if she jumped up into the odyssey of Project AT! So getting right into things, Pauline is an above-average lightweight fighter (Around the weight value of Little Mac) with some relatively fast movement but some rather poor traction, making her a rather slippery fighter, she has 2 jumps and actually has an entire fighter ability of additional movement options.

Basic Attacks & Fighter Ability: The Odyssey

So the best way of how I’m going to be incorporating Pauline is much like in the same vein as Rosalina's moveset, Pauline's moveset will be pulling inspiration from 3 main sources, the original Donkey Kong games; the Mario Vs Donkey Kong games and Super Mario Odyssey. Since that this Fighter Ability is essentially a plethora of unique and exclusive mobility options, it’s simply called 'The Odyssey'! For the majority of Pauline’s basic attacks, they will have some additional inputs that can allow for Pauline to perform unique mobility options that can allow for her to weave around the battlefield.

So starting off with her jab, it’s a 2-hit jab that has her do 2 punches straight forwards. Her dash attack has her do a sliding kick, almost in the same manner as Mario’s dash attack, although this dash attack can be cancelled out of it into the Backflip, a leaping backflip that propels Pauline a great distance backwards and can be useful to escape from harm. The side tilt has her do a smack with her hat, it has decent disjoint and great priority, her up tilt has her do the Handstand, backflip and doing a handstand. The handstand was the most important move in Donkey Kong ‘94 as it allowed for Mario to protect him from any dangers above, for Project AT, this will cause Pauline to become completely immune to any projectiles that attack below her, and you can hold the handstand for 5 seconds by holding up on the control stick, though that’s not all to the handstand, if you press the attack button again while in the Handstand, she’ll perform the Handstand Jump, jumping even higher than before, and if you press the attack button again right as soon as Pauline lands from a Handstand Jump, she’ll perform the Handstand Double Jump, a spinning jump that’s practically the highest grounded jumps of any fighter in the game; and the down tilt has her do the Roll, rolling along the ground to launch foes vertically upwards on contact, you can cancel out of the roll into the Long Jump, a leaping forwards jump that can grant a long distance to approach.

For her side smash, she makes use of the Donkey Kong series staple, the Hammer! She brings out the Hammer and slams it overhead from back to front, it does a ton of damage and knockback if you land the move, though an emphasis on if, as it has a ton of start-up and end lag. Her up smash has her bring out one of her lost items in the arcade Donkey Kong, an umbrella and pull it open straight upwards, this attack has heavy knockback and much like with her up tilt, can be used to protect from attacks above her, but it has trouble hitting on Pauline’s sides and her down smash has her go a breakdance spin kick, while it may look similar to Mario’s down smash but it more so references a trick animation seen in Mario Kart Tour.

For her N-air, she does a spinning split kick, based on the mid-air spins performed in Super Mario Odyssey, and much like in the game, this briefly halts Pauline’s vertical momentum, but only once while in the air; her F-air has her do the dive, diving forwards at an arc before falling diagonally downwards, it lacks damage and is very unsafe on shield but it provides great horizontal distance and has an easy time snapping to the ledge, and when she lands on the ground, she automatically performs the roll if you hold the control stick forward; her B-air has her use another of her lost items, her bag, swinging horizontally behind herself; her U-air has her swing her hat above from front to back, while it has excellent coverage, it has poor end lag and her D-air has her do the Ground Pound, frontfliping then crashing down with her rum, any foe caught at the start of the move will be spiked and she will continue to fall until she lands on the ground so you do need to be wary of the move, however, you can cancel the start-up of the D-air into her F-air, just like how you can cancel out of it in Super Mario Odyssey.

Grabs

Pauline grabs with one arm and pummels by slapping the foe. Her forward throw has her lift the foe overhead then toss them forwards; her back throw has her trade places and hip check the foe; her up throw has her vault and somersault to build momentum and toss them upwards and the down throw has her vault then jump up onto the foe, leaving them in a hard knockdown and propelling Pauline upwards.

Special Attacks

For Pauline’s Neutral Special, she uses the most iconic toys and goodies in Mario Vs. Donkey Kong, the Minis! Minis are the staple toys that would help Mario to rescue Pauline from various of Donkey Kong’s traps and obstacles. For Project AT, this has Pauline bring a toy capsule and a mini pops out. The Minis themselves act very much like the Bonsly Pokemon from Brawl, moving around left and right and not stopping off cliffs. The Minis can be jumped and ride on as a type of platform, but more importantly, they can be picked up and tossed at other players, with it breaking immediately once it hits the stage, wall or opponent. There are 4 Minis that can appear during the neutral special. The first is the Mini Mario, being the most balanced with average walk, throw distance, damage and knockback; the second is the Mini Toad, having the fastest walk but the worst damage; the third is the Mini Peach, having the furthest throwing distance but the slowest walk and the final is the Mini Donkey Kong, having the highest damage and knockback but having the worse throwing distance.

Her Side Special has her tap into one of Mario’s techniques in Super Mario Odyssey, the Cap Throw! This has Pauline toss forwards her hat as it flies forwards then stays in its position for a second to boomerang back to her. It deals minimal damage and knockback when thrown, and when floating, does flinching damage much like Corrin’s Side Smash. You can hold it out for 3 seconds by holding the special button down and if Pauline collides with her hat, she’ll perform the Cap Jump, bouncing off to gain a bit of extra distance, but she can only do this once, though she can throw her hat a second time. And lastly, using the move in the air stalls her in the air while also halting her horizontal momentum.

Next, for Pauline’s Up Special, she uses a prominent tool introduced in Donkey Kong Jr., the Spring! This is a fairly simple recovery move that has Pauline bring out the spring and spring upwards to the sky. It grants substantial vertical height, and Pauline doesn’t go into freefall afterwards, however, she has rather limited horizontal influence, making her somewhat vulnerable to edgeguarding from the sides. The spring itself acts as a projectile once it starts to fall, much like with Sonic’s Spring (Conveniently enough).

And finally, for Pauline’s Down Special, this actually taps into her recent hobby as a musician, I call it, New Donk Musical! This has Pauline tap dance while surrounded in a red aura, this start-up giving her heavy armour, then once charged, strikes a stylish pose that releases a musical notes shaped bubble, any foe hit by this move will take moderate damage and minimal knockback, but if they get hit while facing at Pauline, they’ll be forced to taunt, leaving them wide open to potential damage. Since some characters have longer taunts than others, it might be fairly useful against certain characters.

So overall, Pauline is the queen of mobility options, having movement and mix-ups that most anyone can wish to have. Foes will have to take advantage of her poor weight and tall height to get the jump on Pauline. But with the amount of mobility and recovery she has to offer, good luck with that.

Final Smash: March of the Minis

For Pauline’s Final Smash, I call this Final Smash, March of the Minis! It starts with Pauline smacking forwards with her hammer and any foe caught in the attack will be pulled. The cinematic then shows the foe collapsed on a catwalk, after a moment of respite, a bunch of Minis soon start waddling and walking over the foe, trouncing over them as Pauline soon stands atop a skyscraper, Pauline then snapping her fingers as a myriad of barrels drop down onto the foe, launching them away and ending the cinematic.

Miscellaneous

For the colors, her default has her in her dress that she commonly seen in the majority of her appearances, and she has a alternate costume in the form of her mayor suit in Super Mario Odyssey; her second alt gives her a pink dress, referencing her sprite appearance in the main majority versions of Donkey Kong and Pinball, though it could also be a nod to Princess Peach; her third alt gives her suit a white jacket and blue pants and hat, referencing Stanley, the protagonist of Donkey Kong 3; the fourth alt gives her a cyan dress, referencing her sprite appearance in the Atari 2600, Atari 8-Bit, Commodore VIC-20 and Apple 2 versions of Donkey Kong, though it could also be a nod to Princess Rosalina; the fifth alt gives her shiny grey suit, referencing the Party Time outfit from Mario Kart Tour; the sixth alt gives her a yellow dress and hat, referencing her appearance in the MSX, ZX Spectrum and Game Boy versions of Donkey Kong, although it could be seen as a nod to Princess Daisy and the final alt gives her a brown suit and hat, referencing the iconic Donkey Kong.

For her stage intro, she climbs up onto the stage from a ladder, just like Donkey Kong in the arcades. For taunts, her first has her twirl then pose, her intro animation Mario Tennis Aces; her second has her hugging a Mini-Mario capsule and her final has her blow a kiss to the camera.

And finally, for her victory animations, her first has her fist pump, then wave at the camera, referencing her victory animation in Mario Tennis Aces; her second has her throw her hat as it then boomerangs back to her, then she gives a bow, a nod to the announcement trailer for Super Mario Odyssey and the final has a Mini-Mario walk up beside Pauline and she simply cuddles it (Aww…).

And that is what Pauline could've been like in Project AT. During the time when Super Mario Odyssey was announced, when I found that Pauline was returning, it was a rather awesome surprise, it was nice to have the old D.I.D finally get some recognition and it's honestly great that she's being used more often. Would a concept like this actually be put into Smash Bros? Honestly, it doesn't really matter, cause when it comes to making movesets, there's only 1 thing I focus on, if the fighter would be fun, and I think I may have achieved that with Pauline. I think she could make for an interesting newcomer but for now, only time will tell if she may get that chance. If you wish to see more of Project AT, follow on me Reddit, and if you have any questions on the moveset, then leave them down below. I’ll see you next time for the next fighter!