Jouster
In the realm of Midway, mostly petrified and turned into ruin through the power of the Redstone, a Jouster has been stasis for 50 years, in search of an artifact from the fabled AirWorld. Freed through Olivia's tampering accidentally undoing some of the enchantments on the realm of Midway, Jouster flies into battle on their ostrich and wielding their lance. Hailing from the arcade game Joust, The Jouster is intend on saving their realm- even if it means they may never awaken from stone again.
Jouster is a love letter to retro arcade and Atari titles, using most of the mechanics of Joust and lacking normals because of it, but they passively always have a hitbox active that will allow them to deal damage. Additionally, their specials use characters and objects from SwordQuest, Adventure, Space Invader, Centipede, and Defender, giving them ways to keep opponents on their toes, being intensely powerful in the air as well. They can even reshape the stage to better resemble their hometurf.
 Jouster mechanically always has a lance in front of them which acts as a passive attack at all times. However, to register as a hit, a opponent must not be attacking or if they are, the attack hitboxes of their attack must not be above the lances' when active. Projectiles do not factor really into the jousting hitbox, this is solely for physical attacks. If the opponent's attack is below the lance, it will not count as damage for the Jouster and they will have priority of attack. Additionally, Jouster can ascend indefinitely using Flap. |
Flap
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Pressing the standard attack button causes the Jouster to flap the wings of their bird, ascending them upwards slightly. Repeatedly tapping will continue to carry them higher into the air. They have infinite air ascension, but they will be forced to glide in the air unless they use Fast Drop, one of their special moves, which puts them into a fast fall state and stomps the ground. As outlined in their gimmick, as long as their lance is above any attack hitboxes the opponent has, they will deal 10 damage on contact and knockback opponents. | ||
Swordquest
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Jouster can pick between a Talisman of Earth, Chalice of Fire, or a Crown of Water and melt them down into infused elemental power for their lance. In Jouster's character hints, there is said to be a Stone of Air but... that's just a myth. When a Swordquest Artifact is infused into the Jouster's lance, they deal earth, fire, or water damage depending on the artifact chosen, and this stays active for 20 seconds before returning to normal. Attacking with B with an Artifact boost will cause Jouster to poke the lance out further, dealing 17 damage of their chosen element. | Dragons 
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Jouster uses an Adventure tablet to summon one random Dragon from Adventure- the yellow Yorgle, the green Grundle, and the red Rhindle- who can be interrupted by direct attacks in their open stomaches but each let out a different roar that inflicts a breath attack when the opponent gets close. Yorgle lets out an electric breath attack that deals 10 electric damage and Shock, Grundle lets out an slime breath attack that deals 10 slime damage and Absorber, and finally Rhindle lets out an fire breath attack that deals 10 fire damage and Burn. |
Space Invader 
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Jouster summons a Space Invader from Space Invaders, who ascends to the top of the screen and shoots electric projectiles at a crawling pace, dealing 8 damage and inflicting Shock on hit. Jouster can summon up to three Space Invaders at a time, although Space Invaders can be easily defeated with any attack. | Fast Drop 
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Jouster immediately drops to a fast fall on top of their mount, inflicting 8 damage to opponents with a stomp attack and dealing 3 damage with dust hitboxes that come out to the left and right of the mount. Jouster can do this to immediately hit the ground. |
| Centipede Level 1 |
Jouster summons the titular Centipede from Centipede, who comes from the top of the screen and rapidly ascends down in a zig-zagging pattern, dealing 10 damage on contact with foes with short knockback, usually able to chain multiple hits together. If the opponent destroys one of Centipede's segments with an attack, it'll split or grow a new head, having a total of 10 segments overall which have be destroyed with attacks dealing 5+ damage. |
| Defender Level 2 |
Jouster summons the spaceship from Defender, who comes in from the left side of the screen and begins to fire lasers at opponents which deal 8 damage on hit and inflict Solar on impact. The space ship will continue to move to the right of the screen while actively targetting opponents before finally letting off a "smart bomb" that deals 15 ambient damage to all opponents on screen as it disappears into a hyperspace jump. |
| Edge Distortion Level 3 |
Jouster brings up their lance to the sky and begins to spacially distort the stage, removing walls and causing the left and right edges of the screen to be effected by a wraparound effect. Jouster can then safely go to the left or right of the screen and end up on the other sides, as do their opponents although they take 8 space damage from doing so unlike Jouster. Jouster also is joined by two other spectral Jousters, who act identically to Jouster except they have no special attacks and deal 15 anima damage with their lances instead. The effects of this Finisher last for 17 seconds before everything returns to normal. |
| AirWorld Artifact Level 3 (Joust Arena only) |
Jouster recovers the Air Stone, the secret last Swordquest artifact and melts it down into their lance. When Jouster uses Flap, they create a current of wind that blows opponents back and deals 8 damage with cutting gales and can create wind trails that they can then rapidly slide on to deal 30 air damage to opponents caught up in them. Additionally, the lance itself deals 25 electric damage and Shocks opponents on impact. This replaces Jouster's Edge Distortion Finisher in Joust Arena, as Joust Arena already has the edge distortion effect present. |
Default |
 Retro |
 Buzzard |
 Sleeping Warrior Art by nomarios |
 Lost One |
 Amazon Art by kidchuckle |
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 Characters can undergo transformations when special effects are placed under them. | |||
| Makai Spell |
Jouster becomes Frankenstein's Monster, taken from the front cover of the port for the Atari 2600.
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| Heaven Spell |
Jouster becomes the monster on the cover of See-Monster for the port for the Atari 2600.
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| Midnight Bliss |
Jouster becomes Ladybug for Universal’s October 1981 arcade release Ladybug, which bizarrely went for human designs despite the fact the characters were just straight up bugs in-game.
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| Incubus Delight |
Jouster becomes the Nintendo Entertainment System design for the Jouster, which features a blue bird and blue knight.
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| Jokerified |
Jouster becomes bird-like themselves, taking on traits of their mount. Based off a design by Miguel Regodon. When Jokerized, the Jouster is faster in the air and will become weaker on the ground, dealing 0.8x less damage with their lance while on the ground but 1.2x more damage while in the air. Lasts for 12 seconds.
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| Power Drain |
When Jouster is caught by Rogue, they are kissed on the helmet. Rogue gains Swordqust as a replacement for her neutral special Photon Blast, allowing her to enfuse a blast with the elemental powers of the SwordQuest artifacts. She also gains a elemental bonus, boosting her elemental damage by 1.3x for six seconds. | ||
| Talent |
When The Monstars rob the talent of Jouster, they gain Dragons to replace their side special, Intercept. This allows them to summon a random Dragon to do a breath attack. The active Monstar gains Jouster's armor and wear a ostrich costume over their lower half as a physical attribute. | ||
| Insight |
Jouster's secret is revealed. Jouster had a partner who fell to the lava monster, and this death has greatly impacted them despite all appearances. | ||
| Testimony |
Saul Goodman gives a testimony for his client. Your honor, my client had to fight a bunch of other knights on ostriches to the death- they didn't have a choice due to the spacial warping of the arena and the rules instilled by the vizier at the time. Beyond that, it's been like... 50 years, that probably gets past statute of limitations? | ||
| Torture |
When Jouster is caught by Posion, Poison wraps her whip around them and puts them into the lava, inflicting 45 damage to them and causing them to be inflicted with Burn. | ||
| R-Action |
When Ralsei encounters Jouster, he feeds Jouster's mount some bird seed, which causes it to take 2 levels of Drowsiness. | ||
Unlock 2 Reel Stages.
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