Mr. Game and Watch’s advantages: Range on air attacks, some moves like his jab are spammable, and of course let’s not forget about the fairly fast Down Smash that will kill very early. His Up B has invincibility frames, his Up Air will keep you afloat. His Down Air is a Spike at the very beginning and has pretty good range. He can catch your Aura Spheres in his bucket for a 60% maximum (not like you’ll be surviving that anyway). Be weary of the Mr. G&Ws that frequently use Judge, if 9 connects you can pretty much kiss a stock goodbye. I also heard he is quite fond of turtles. Bucket breaking will allow Mr. G&W survive much longer than you’d expect him to.

Lucario’s advantages: Heavier, Aura Sphere, good priority. Charged Aura Spheres are always a good thing to have and is pretty much an auto mindgame. Charged Aura Spheres will go through Mr. G&W’s turtle and will out prioritize some of his other attacks at higher percents. Lucario’s Forward Smash outranges most of Mr. G&W’s attacks.

Gameplay tips: Lucario needs to be very careful about being aggressive during this match-up. When it comes to approaching Mr. Game and Watch does it a lot better than Lucario. Try to avoid laggier moves like grabs and Force Palm unless you are sure that they will connect as Mr. G&W punishes really hard. Try to have Aura Sphere charged up as much and often as possible and release it when Mr. G&W is vulnerable. Lucario’s Up Air and Up Smash can hit a Mr. G&W out of his Key, but it takes precise timing. Mr. G&W’s food from Chef has really low priority, so using Lucario’s Forward Air may be a preferable way to approach.

Stages with platforms allow Lucario to do a bit of juggling and can protect him from some air spam. Don’t get too happy with Down Air and landing on Mr. G&W because he can use his Up B’s invincibility frames out of shield. Mr. G&W may try to Down Smash you out of his Down Throw, just roll in the direction away from Mr. G&W and you should avoid it. Be aware they know that and may try to tech chase to an Up Smash. Mr. G&W is the second lightest character on the roster, so be ready to kill him when he nears the upper 70s or so.

If counterpicking try to take Mr. G&W to stages with a fairly high ceiling or things you can ukemi off of, so you benefit from the Aura boost more (ex. Luigi's Mansion and Jungle Japes).

Play smart and don’t lose your cool.

Sorry this took so long, been busy in college.

Big thing to know about this fight is that your stocks will always end at lower percents than their stocks. Unless you're just amazing at avoiding his like 9 kill moves.

An average Lucario stock against G&W (judging off of FD), will be about 90%. An average G&W stock against Lucario (assuming no bucket braking) will be around 110%. With bucket braking, it will average 160%+ (from experience). Your best bet in killing G&W is up, so save up air and up smash for the kills, to prevent having G&W sit at 180% forever. Up-tilt will kill him if we're at 70%, at 170% (equal stocks).

As for approach options? Most G&Ws are very aggressive, because they know that they have amazing priority at their disposal with back air, neutral air and down air. If you come up against a campy G&W (back air camping is technically camping), then the fight shouldn't be too hard, because G&Ws are rather telegraphed in that sense. Aggressive play styles from a G&W seem to be the better choice. Anyways, I don't suggest using fair much in this fight. As long as G&W has a hit box out, fair will be outprioritized. Bair is the better choice in attempting to challenge G&W in the air. Nair is a good punisher for whiffed moves, if you're close enough (the back side of nair has a large hitbox, and a higher one). A ground approach is better suited against a G&W.

Options against Back Air: Since I know everyone probably has a problem with probably one of the best moves in the game, and the safest, here's some tips that I've learned to challenge the "formidable" bair (yes, I still have lots of problems with it):
-Shield Grab: Not likely, if the G&W has any clue about spacing, but if they do mess it up at any time, grab after the 4th hit, and don't wait for the 5th delayed hit.
-Down Air: Yes, it's true, you can DI out of the back air for a free down air for some damage. Smash DI makes this even easier, but just holding up via Tap DI is about 70% effective, too. (Note: If you Tap DI, you must be holding up as the first hit connects, otherwise you'll become stuck in the entirety of the move.)
-Up-tilt: Some G&Ws prefer to go through you when using back air, so they don't get shield grabbed. Well, when they land behind you, just smack 'em with an up-tilt and tell 'em to GTFO (most G&Ws will not do it this way, but will approach then float away, or jump behind you into a retreating bair).
-Nair (back side for reverse punishing, front side for spacing punishing): Similar to shield grab you can OoS Nair for a kill or a decent amount of damage (grabs will almost always do more). For "behind-the-back" retreating Bairs, if they are semi-within up-tilt range while floating away, when the 4th hit lands, you can OoS Nair and catch them with the reverse side. This is exceptionally hard to do and is not reccommended.

Some G&Ws are extremely good at doing what I call "The Bair Setup". Basically, they make a bair come out at the time that they would land immediately after the 4th hit so they can do whatever they want, due to it's 0 landing lag, in which they usually down smash for an easy kill. This will always hit you if you do anything but jump or double team. AIRDODGING AND ATTEPTING TO FALL AND SHIELD WILL NOT WORK IF THEY DON'T FAIL AT BUFFERING THIS. The biggest plus side for us about this, is the if you double team this, it's a guarateed hit.

Some Notes about Down Throw (G&W's):
-If you tech it (standing tech), you can hold shield to powershield almost any attack he sends your way. He doesn't have enough time to grab again if you tech, so be ready to get away if you don't shield anything immediately.
-Rolling Tech is the most advised way of getting out of this.
-If you don't tech it, you should almost NEVER roll. Unless for a fact that you know you've conditioned them for a non-roll, or they just plain gave up on the tech chasing trick that used to be his "bread-and-butter", you SHOULD NOT ROLL OUT OF DOWN THROW (non-tech). Get up attack (maybe), or just stand up are much better options.

If you're extremely scared of down smash, then here are a few things that challenge it rather easily (assuming you're in range for them):
-Jab (yes, jab)
-Grab
-Buffered Dash Grab, or amazingly quick dash grab.
-Up-tilt (back side)
(If in the air)
-Nair
-Uair (small window)
-Dair (sometimes)

Jabs are amazing against G&W, imo. You can jab-jab-FP, for the most part, and most jab combos in general work against him, since he has nothing he can do out of it except up B, and because of the hitstun provided to him from the jabs, he really needs to buffer it (not sure why, but he seems to suffer from a lot of stun from our jabs). And for teh lulz, if you're amazing at timing and you can predict their up-B to prevent a jab combo, you can press jump at the exact same time they up-B and buffer a uair for a retardedly amazing kill XD. I've only been able to do it twice, and both were flukes and not actual attempts (I was buffering an up tilt, but hit jump at the same time, both times). Biggest thing I love doing with jabs against G&W is bait a roll. His roll is probably the worst one in the game, so if he does choose to roll, I've got a 1/4 charged down smash waiting for him during his slow animation, lol. A nice kill, and earlier than what he would hope for.

Some final side notes:
-Fsmash: I don't suggest using this all too much, even though he can't punish the afterlag very well, it will almost never hit him, lol.
-Down air: Stalling with this move is almost essential, because of the up air. a G&W will use up air not only to refresh kill moves but to force you to land where he wants you to land. Don't let him do this by stalling once you notice he's no longer try to keep you in the air.
-Stages: Avoid stages with many platforms, unless you have exceptional platform game. G&W loves platforms for juggling and nair combos. Frigate is probably your best choice, imo. Don't go Japes, Castle Siege or anywhere with an extremely high ceiling. Yes, you want to live long, but those high ceilings do almost nothing to stop G&Ws exceptional killing power, and severly hinder your ability to kill him.
-UP!: It's the only way (to kill him, for the most part).

Oh man, I've got a lot of good experience against this guy. GaW was my very first trouble character I had to deal with.

Alright, this is how I play against GaW. I'm not saying you have to do this; I'm just saying this is my strategy.

Against Bair
- Shield it.
-- If he's within grab range by the time the fourth or fifth hit makes contact with the shield, grab him.
-- If he's NOT within grab range by the time the move finishes, roll away immediately; he's going to try to *** his way out of you with some sort of smash.

- Other options
-- Roll away before anything makes contact with you; in some cases, flight > fight, and at high percents, you don't want to be caught by this thing.
-- Roll so GaW is between you and the turtle; you probably won't get a chance to do this, but if you can, give it a try. It's a good way to put some pressure on him, even if you are unable to punish his Bair.

Against Dair
- Shield it.
-- If you can grab him, grab him.
-- If you can't grab him, jump or roll away; he's going in for a smash, and of course, you don't want to get hit by one.

- Other options
-- Get out of there. Roll away quickly if you fear death over your desire to punish.

Against Smashes
- DSmash
-- Shield > Dash Grab
-- Roll away
-- Roll behind > Grab (Not recommended, as Lucario's roll is fast and may still be vulnerable to the smash.)
-- Shield > Get out of there; if you're in no position to punish his DSmash, he's going to try another one.

- USmash (Note that he's only going to try to do this after a DThrow or if you're in the air.)
-- From the air
--- Don't get anywhere near him at high percents; he's going to charge one up and hope you land on top of him. Virtually an insta-kill if this happens.
--- Dair him. Your hitbox is bigger.

- FSmash
-- Roll behind, do something quickly. Grab, jab, Bside, w/e.
-- Don't approach him from the front; His FSmash has a longer lasting hitbox than anything in the world.
-- Get away; easy kill if he makes contact.

- In general
-- Just get away from GaW more often then you attack; he's going to abuse his smashes at close range.
-- If you see a very clear opening, take it.

Stages Against GaW
- Final Destination
- Smashville

Grabs are overall risky in this particular match-up if you miss that's an easy dsmash.

Also, c'mon guys there should be a bit more discussion here.

A missed grab could easily be followed up by a spotdodge with time to spare.

In addition, if one misses the grab, then that's their problem for miscalculating. All I'm saying is that there's enough time between certain attacks to get a grab in.

Shield and Punish, the cool thing about this strategy is it works against game and watch with anyone, not saying this is an easy match up, and shield and punish is certainly easier said than done, but of Lucarios "hard" matchups, this is my fav hands down... game and watches arials have sooooo much lag when they dont hit you, its insane. The only exception is is Nair, which you can still shield grab if your patient.... I find patience goes a long way, in both surviving(easier not to get owned by smashes) and in punishing, Game and Watch hits like a truck and does a lot of damage very fast if you try to out play him aggressively, but if you wait, they are *relatively* easy to predict, and you can do your best to punish what they do... also, Jungle Japes is the best stage to bring them for Lucario as their kill moves are less scary, and ive found from personal experience that Yoshi's island aint half bad, but their might be better picks, i just like that stage... lol.... Oh, and keep a nearly or fully charged AS at all times, there is very little point camping in this matchup and if you have it charged sometimes they will pull out their bucket giving you a free grab at the very least.... also Di out of the turtle when your hit, it gives you a free down air which is always nice.... well thats about all i know, this is from somewhat limited experience against GW's too, but still, im pretty sure most of what i say holds in the matchup.

Edit: @Nubsta, they do plenty to stop him killing early(Japes walls), and he can bucket brake up too.... The platforms dont hurt that much and you get some nice range to keep away from the smashes better, iono, maybe its just personal preference but i love japes for that much up(then again, my lucario hardly kills up, except against falco lol...)

The reason I don't like Japes against G&W is because it only extends our stocks by about 20%, whereas it extends his stocks by a good 40-60%.

I got raped by a G&W today.

What needs to be tested vs. G&W:
Aura Sphere (and other) priority.

What needs to be found is how much damage is needed before Aura Sphere beats out things like the Turtle and G&Ws Fair.

G&W's moves may be powerful and/or have a lot of priority, but if he misses there is a bit of afterlag where an Aura Sphere could be launched.

I can't offer true matchup analysis since I haven't played good G&Ws (it is clearly in G&W favor though), but I can offer some tips...

-Don't spam AS too much. Only use it when you know it hits. If you can bait the G&W into absorbing three uncharged AS when you are at low percents, then they cannot Bucket Brake. But you will always have to be wary of a full bucket. Just something to consider...

-G&Ws fsmash sends you at a relatively 45degree angle. In some situations, you may not need to DI it.

--You can SDI out of G&Ws nair and bair. Learn to do so, and you may just be able to counterattack them.

-His dtilt is pretty amazing. It can be used to challenge most of Lucario's moves, including fsmash. Watch out for a G&W spamming dtilt near the edge while recovering.

-His dair can be challenged by Lucario's uair, but I'm not sure exactly how. I've done it before. I should test this...

I don't see how it could be in G&W's advantage unless you're being taken to Norfair or something with a ridiculously low ceiling.

Lucario's Back air can give G&W a hard time approaching in some situations. Stages with platforms above will help prevent some key spam too.

It is naturally in G&W's favor if you don't play it right. He has plenty of moves that can deal damage and quite a few kill options. A lot of his aerials can challenge Lucario's aerials or just outright beat them. That said, G&W's main weakness of being light can be exploited if Lucario lives long enough with his Aura Boost.

It's not a terrible matchup, but it certainly is nowhere near even. I think it is in G&W's favor, 40-60 if you want numbers.

G&W has very predictable kill moves though. Its plenty obvious when he's going to try to smash or fair. Lucario has many more kill moves than G&W (uair, dair, fsmash, usmash, nair, the list goes on). G&W shouldn't be able to kill Lucario until at least 80% or so with proper DI (unless you're at Norfair or something).

The idea isn't to just run at G&W, that's suicide. You've gotta be patient this match, but I still believe this is an even match-up.

Predictable doesn't matter. The fact that they do kill at low percents is bad news. Also, most of G&W's kill moves aren't very hard to setup. And G&W is one of the few characters that can kill Lucario at very low percents when given the opportunity.

Of course running blindly into the matchup is suicide, but even by learning the matchup, it's still not in Lucario's favor. It's just the G&W does have more going for him than Lucario does in this matchup...:/

G&W are easy. You have to make the game long though. You have to find places to approach G&W. If you let G&W approach then counter it you may be in trouble. Just dont get to close to GAW at ANY TIME. I find that to be my downfall in the match-up. Also dont be afrid to use aura shpere in the air while somewhat close to him his bucket has some lag to it.

I never liked having to approach G&W (since our only approach is Fair)
I think forcing the approach would be a better idea (which wouldn't be that hard since it's G&W)

Definitely learn to mixup recovery during dthrow. You have three options: not tech and just stand up, tech in place, or tech and roll away. I know it sounds counter-intuitive to not tech but sometimes doing weird and unexpected stuff works.

Aight, I retract a lot of the things I said in that huge guide I made above.

If you want to fight against Game and Watch, you've gotta have your priorities straight. Pay attention to what you're doing, and what your opponent is doing.

If Game and Watch tries to hit you with anything, your best shot is either to jump over him, or shield and roll away. Odds are you'll be in no position to touch him after his overpowered attack shoved you and your shield some 20 feet away from him, so just leave it at that for now. Mind you, if he hits you with something, and you manage to powershield it, or just shield it to the point where he's still close to you, you should go in for a jab or a grab. Game and Watch has low ending lag, but it's enough that you could do one of those two things after he hits you, if you're close enough.

Getting more specific, you may want to pay attention to what moves Game and Watch is using. If he's trying to Dair you, simply hold up your shield and grab him if he landed in front of you. If he used Bair or Fair, wait for the attack to finish, then grab him. If you can't grab him, roll away, as you don't want to miss a grab and leave yourself wide open as Game and Watch whips out his hammers. Essentially, you can't really punish any of Game and Watch's aerials with a jab; their hitbox properties are too messed up to allow that. All you can really do from these positions are either grab, or roll away.

The smashes are a little easier on Lucario, but you've still got to be careful.

Against FSmash, you simply have to shield and get out of there, due to the long lasting hitbox of the fire. Mind you, if you powershield, by all means, go in for a jab or a grab.

If he's trying to DSmash you, you should shield, obviously. If he's within grab range, jab or grab. If he's not, you may want to consider dash grabbing, as you have just enough time to do it. Try to learn the timing as you rush him. If you're out of Game and Watch's DSmash range, just FSmash or AS him. It'll hit. So what if he shielded? Teach him to respect your range.

If he wants to USmash you, you have to be very careful. If he's right on top of you, just hold up your shield and punish. Don't try to hit him before the attack comes out; countless lives have been lost having their skulls shattered on that thing trying to get him beforehand. If he's trying to hit you as you're falling, you should just get away from him. You may also want to consider Dair, which is risky, but the benefits do weigh in evenly with the risks, depending on the damages.

Jabs, Grabs, the occasional FSmash, your Aura Spheres, and aerial combos are going to be your tools in this matchup. Keep it real, and just keep away from him if you're in no position to mount an attack.

when you play a good game and watch tech chasing, and sheild approaching is main priority, especially since lucario has one of the best sheilds in the game. It is vital to realize that lucario is bad against OOS attacks, but if you're not above game and watch then you only have to really worry about bair. Just ban Bf

Lucario has horrbile platform control agaisn't most charaters for some reason. But What makes lucario shield so specail?