Simon Belmont

Simon Belmont is one of the main protagonist from the Castlevania games.

At the age of 22 in 1691, he would be given the opportunity to prove himself worthy of his family's legacy. On Easter Day, 100 years after he was defeated by Christopher Belmont, Count Dracula had returned. He was reawakened by a dark order of humans on Easter Day during a dark mass in an abandoned monastery.

Simon was determined to end the threat of a new reign of terror, and entered Dracula's Castle alone to face the Count. Simon slew Dracula's servants and then faced off against Dracula himself as his ancestors had. Unable to kill him in the battle and unbeknownst to Simon at the time, Dracula had managed to place a curse on a wound he inflicted on Simon's back.

Appearance
Simon wears a leather breast plate, tall boots, and a bandana. He is sometimes also depicted with a cape.

Simon's hair color is brown on the cover art, contrary to the artwork from the Japanese instruction manual, in which it is red. This hair color would later carry on to Kojima's design of the character.

Personality
Simon is rather brash and inclined to force his way through situations.

Abilities
Simon is a moderately heavy fighter with a handful of effective projectiles and incredibly long disjointed attacks. In turn, he is burdened with poor mobility, especially in the air; despite having the eighth fastest falling speed and fast falling speed, he has the fourth slowest walk speed, thirteenth slowest dashing speed and air speeds, and the worst air acceleration in the game.

One of Simon's most notable traits are his notorious projectiles within his special moves. Firstly, Axe is a very strong projectile that can be thrown in three directions, which makes it effective at both edgeguarding and a threatening anti-air option, compounded by its ability to go through solid terrain. His side special, the Cross, functions like a boomerang, though unlike other boomerang projectiles, it does not follow Simon, instead going straight and then briefly going backwards on its own if not grabbed by Simon; in addition to this, it sends opponents vertically in the air with low knockback, which is favorable for setups into aerial attacks, the Axe or an up smash. His up special, Uppercut, is a very fast out of shield option with decent kill power that has multiple setups into it, such as the Cross, or more notably, down aerial. Finally, his down special, Holy Water is a great projectile for ledge-trapping, combo setups or kill setups.

Simon's other notable trait is his impressive range. His Vampire Killer whip offers the overall longest disjointed range out of any fighter in the roster, and it makes his overall kit well-rounded and versatile. In the air, despite his aerial mobility being sluggish, his aerials are effective in their own rights; his up, forward and back aerials all have impressive range and can be used as tether recoveries, along with the latter two having the unique ability to be angled. His down aerial is a notoriously effective combo tool, as it functions much like Greninja's down aerial; it meteor smashes at the beginning, but what makes it versatile is its late hit. On the late hit, both Simon and the opponent will bounce back up at diagonal angles, which opens up many KO confirms, notably into his Uppercut. At low percentages, it can combo into itself multiple times, which can potentially make it a zero-to-death tool if the opponent reacts poorly.

Simon's range is also effective on the ground, as his sluggish frame data is compensated by his attacks having immense range and power at the spiked ball at the end of the whip, to the point where they can be considered safe on shield if spaced, despite their lag. All of his smash attacks are notable examples of this; his forward smash is very powerful when tippered, and when combined with its ability to be angled, this makes it a deadly edgeguarding and ledge-trapping tool. His up smash is very strong when tippered, making it a reliable anti-air tool and a combo finisher and KO confirm out of his Cross. His down smash hits on both sides like most others, and keeps his trademark range and has decent power when sweetspotted.

Simon’s grab game is also decently effective. His forward and back throws have good KO potential despite their rather quick speed, and can be used to set up edgeguards otherwise. His up throw is considered to be his most useful throw, as its decent damage is compounded with its great setup ability, being able to start juggles. His down throw is rather situational and is his least used throw, but nevertheless has combo potential thanks to Simon's good range.

Despite all these strengths, Simon has some very noteworthy weaknesses. Perhaps his most infamous shortcoming is his extremely poor recovery, being among the worst in the game, despite having three aerials function as tether recoveries; his very low air movement, combined with Uppercut offering very poor vertical and horizontal momentum, give him very poor offstage presence. He is very easy to gimp, and overall has a slim chance to return to the ledge.

Despite his zoning and spacing potential, it is overall burdened by his poor frame data, overall lackluster mobility, and his status as a rather tall heavyweight. Simon's poor mobility makes him vulnerable to camping and rushdowns. While he has his projectiles, they each have noticeable startup and are susceptible to being reflected back, which can be a huge turnabout especially because the projectiles play a huge role in Simon's neutral game. An opponent can also catch Holy Water mid-flight and use it against Simon, as he can only have one out at a time, allowing his opponents to perform combo setups or kill setups on him. Simon's poor frame data also gives him a mediocre close-range game, as many of his attacks are unsafe if not spaced, which often leaves him heavily susceptible to punishment. This is further compounded with his susceptibility to combos due to his tall stature, heavy weight and poor frame data, preventing him from easily getting out of combos.

Overall, Simon is a fighter who excels when he is distanced from his opponent and controlling the main stage: he should use his variety of projectiles to keep opponents at a workable distance, all while avoiding getting sent offstage due to his poor offstage survivability. Despite his weaknesses, Simon has been a relatively popular character in Ultimate 's early lifespan, with moderately good results and representation alongside his Echo Fighter, Richter.

Trivia

 * Along with Mario, Mega Man, and its fast paced military action themed sibling Contra, Castlevania has long been considered a Nintendo classic for filling in the niche of a horror themed and fantasyesque platforming game. Classic Castlevania games are also considered to have helped represent the difficulty testament of Nintendo Hard, being games that are challenging, tricky, yet sense tempering and extremely rewarding with the effort.
 * Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is Simon's second appearance in a multi-franchise crossover fighting game, with his first appearance being the Japan-exclusive GameCube game Dream Mix TV World Fighters which also starred Solid Snake as a playable fighter. Simon and Richter, or homages to them at least, were also originally planned to be playable characters in the Konami fighting game Battle Tryst, under the names "Shemon" and "Rheter."
 * While Simon is portrayed in his classic Conan-esque 80s/Sharp X68000 design in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the hilt of his and Richter's Vampire Killer whip is cross shaped, in reference to the Combat Cross weapon from Lords of Shadow, a similarly magically-enhanced chain whip. The Simon of that universe would also wield the Combat Cross during his adventure as seen in Mirror of Fate.