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Culex

Culex, the superboss from Super Mario RPG, descends upon RIvals of Aether in all of his 2D glory! (and yes, I mean ALL of his 2D glory.)
This heavyweight puppet fighter uses his ever-loyal Crystals and array of deadly spells to rein terror and despair upon his enemies! Made for the ExW server's Mario Jam.
Yes, he's from mario, he counts.

Like his fight in Mario RPG, Culex carries with him an arsenal of Crystal minions at his beck and call.
These Crystals -- the Fire, Earth and Water Crystals -- have their own health bars, and attack for the majority of Culex's normals.
Crystals can either be attached to Culex or detach from him using NSPECIAL, and will attack remotely if detached from Culex! They can also be told to perform spells with FSPECIAL if attached to Culex.
When a Crystal's health is reduced to 0, they will be removed from play for 10 seconds until returning to Culex. Additionally, when Culex dies, all Crystals will be destroyed and suffer from the same respawn timer.

Fairly self-explanatory. You can either place a Crystal directly in front of Culex, or retrieve it if it's detached from him.
While Crystals are detached, they will perform attacks remotely based on your inputs.
Additionally, every 5 seconds when not attacking, Crystals will perform their own FSPECIAL Spells. After performing two regular Spells, they'll perform enhanced versions of these Spells permanently until destroyed or returned to Culex.

Tell one of your Crystals to perform a Spell! Your highlighted Crystal is the one who will use this Spell, regardless of if they're attached to you or not.
Fire Crystal: Hot Shot (Launches two fireballs on each side. Travels horizontally.)
Water Crystal: Solidify (Launches slow-travelling crystals in all diagonal directions.)
Earth Crystal: Storm (A multi-hit electric attack around the Crystal.)

Changes which active Crystal you have, rotating from Fire -> Water -> Earth.
(Red -> Blue -> Yellow).
Your active Crystal is highlighted by your HUD.

The power of the Super FX chip can produce incredible graphics! Watch as this sprite is rotated and manipulated to teleport in the blink of an eye! What do you mean this isn't actually what Mode 7 is? It's the 90s, who cares?

At last! The power of the third dimension is in harmony with Culex's evil power!
What do you mean this is just a pre-rendered sprite? That's the way of the future, man. Silicon Graphics Computers were used in the making of this character, the same technology used for the Nintendo Ultra 64!

-DAttack, Culex Booster, is a notable burst option in Culex's kit that can be jumped out of after releasing the attack button. Use this off of ledge for a big burst of momentum!
-FStrong, Meteor, is Culex's signature spell, with incredible startup and power to boot. Work together with your Crystals to lock down opponents to hit them with this attack!
-UStrong brings out the elusive Wind Crystal! Why is it here instead of being also attached to Culex? It's shy.(Blame Dan Fornace for having a 3-article-per-character-limit.)
-TAUNT will return all of your stray Crystals to you. It also performs your grandiose and heart-wrenching speech, if you care about that sort of thing.
-Culex cannot roll. To roll implies the existence of a Z-Axis, a 3-Dimensional concept unfathomable to a 2-Dimensional being like Culex.

TheMH06: Spriting, animatinglol, coding
TehEnd, Chrisy15: Playtesting