Steve Miller (スティーブ・ミラー) is a playable character from the Windjammers series. He is a former professional tennis player and a representative from the United Kingdom.
In the first game, depending on the system's region, he will be instead named Beeho Yoo and become Korean, with only his voice clips being changed.
Features and Analysis[]
Miller is one of the characters that qualifies as an "all-rounder" (versatile character) and is therefore very suitable for beginners. He can be played very defensively at the back of the cages while having access to deceptive shots as long as we know how to exploit his toss, or close to the net thanks to his great mobility. If it remains amply debatable, his quick and long dash can be considered the best of the game. It will sometimes happen to the player who has made a defensive error to even catch up with the disc by chaining a second or even a third dash.
Unlike Mita, Miller's hitbox is ordinary and she even gains a lot of range when dashing or when Miller performs a toss, a characteristic unique to the character.
Its effects are equivalent to those of Mita but slightly less pronounced: they thus describe fuller curves. A good attack with Miller will require a fairly subtle mastery of its more ambiguous effects.
The only obvious flaw of the character is its easily readable custom, even by a novice player.
Summary[]
- + Second best movement speed in the game.
- + Very good defense thanks to the reactivity of the character.
- + Good aggression potential.
- + Great dash.
- + Best toss in the game, gain range bonus.
- + Best propensity to achieve reversals and supersonic shots in the game.
- + Easy to handle.
- - Cannot delay his shots effectively due to his lack of power.
- - Super custom not very useful.
Attack[]
Miller's lack of power does not allow him to stay on the baseline while being truly effective. It will therefore be necessary to use the toss and in general to seek the supershot. Remember that the power of the character and the ease of supershot increases with the gap in points or when the remaining time decreases. Miller takes advantage of this factor more than the other characters: patience is therefore required even when late in points, a situation during which Miller has more opportunities to score points.
After a toss, feel free to use Miller's high walking speed to move around the Frisbee and not consistently lock the character onto the Frisbee to retrieve it. The goal is to find the ideal position to follow the wall or not using its wide angle (←↖) or its bell effect (↖↑). It is also possible to use a dash on the fall of the tossed disc to perform an offset reception, but this greatly reduces the power of the shot and is therefore only useful when the situation is really favorable.
His explosive dash allows you to put yourself at the net while having the possibility of reacting to opposing shots.
From the bottom of the course, the use of the march rather than the toss or the dash to return the disc in a dynamic and powerful way can surprise the opponent if the effect used is well chosen.
Defense[]
It is often not necessary to hold the A button when performing a dash. The unmaintained dash already covers half of a large field, and lasts less than a quarter of a second: it is therefore better to perform two consecutive dashes. Miller then becomes the fastest character to traverse the full width of a large piece of land.
If your opponent decides to use a super lob while you are at the net, it is always possible to chain two dashes to recover the disc, and if necessary to use a toss to enlarge Miller's hitbox by a few pixels the separating from the disk.
Miller has the best toss in the game, so much so that you have to learn to master the moving toss (A button then direction) as soon as possible. If he stands in the center on Beach or Tiled, he can potentially stop any shot via an up or down toss, even when the frisbee is stuck to the wall (by a Miller super or Biaggi super sticky for example) . On a small field, this movement then becomes the defensive action that requires the least reaction in the whole game. Also, the character can no longer be pushed back into his cages, making the toss a very wise choice against supers.
Miller has no counterpart on his hitbox: if your opponent is too close to the net, close the angle. The toss even makes him gain in range so much that his hitbox can go beyond the net and encroach on the opposing court. In addition to closing the angle even more effectively, it can stop otherwise unrecoverable discs like Wes's supersalt netted, slapping the record just as his hitbox popped up. To do this, just glue the net and hammer button A.
Shots[]
Effects[]
Wide Angle Effect[]
(↙)←↖ or (↖)←↙ - This is the "trademark" effect of light weights on small pitches. It is performed starting from the back and blocking the high rear diagonal or low (depending on where you want to send the Frisbee). The main purpose of the effect is, from the top of the court, to throw the Frisbee into the low corner (or vice versa). With Miller, it will be necessary to get close to the wall so that the disc does not bounce on the opposite wall and goes well to lodge in the skylight. Otherwise, the disc will end up in the center. It is possible to play ambiguously so that the opponent does not know whether the disc will bounce or not.
Small bell effect[]
(←)↖↑ or (←)↙↓ – A half ellipse shot. Close to the net, it is very useful for uncrossing and aiming for the corners of opposing cages. Just like the wide angle effect, it is desirable to play on the ambiguity of the trajectory, suggesting or not the rebound. It will be necessary to move away slightly from the center and to achieve the effect towards the nearest wall the disc grazes and aims for the corner or that it bounces to reach the middle of the cages and thus obtain a counter-foot if the opponent dashes .
Performed at the back of the court and close to the wall, the effect will cause the disc to bounce off the wall so that it points directly towards the opposite goal.
The sticky effect[]
(↖)↑↗ or (↙)↓↘ – Not the most useful, it will start straight before finishing its race by turning. It is useful for making a slightly deformed diagonal shot, and will therefore be used mainly to reach 5 points rather than 3.
It has a strong utility for reaching the bumpers, it will rarely be effective enough to score out of this context.
Carried out against the wall, it will tend to stick to it, then detach slightly.
V-Bounce Effect[]
(↘)→↗ or (↗)→↘ – This shot will go straight to the wall. If performed stuck to the wall in the opposite direction of the latter, it will make the disc go diagonally and often even bounce a second time on small ground.
Wide bounce effect[]
(↑)↗→ or (↓)↘→ – On small pitches and from the baseline, this shot will bounce off the wall after going half the length. Another way to perform a cross shot, all in all quite effective.
Great[]
Super custom[]
The disc goes up or down before hitting the wall and going forward.
At the net and close to a wall, this super makes it possible to force an opponent too close to Miller to have to guess whether the custom will go up or down, being impossible for him to react in reaction. The exceptions are Mita and Miller who can follow the custom in reaction to the net through dashes. If the opponent waits patiently from the baseline, there is no need to use it: it is always slow and visible and the opponent will be able to hit it or send it back without too many problems.
When used on Clay and Concrete, keep in mind to step slightly away from the net, as the super is stopped by the bumpers.
In the event of a points lead at the end of the clock, another utility is to charge it into a defensive position and wait for the clock to run out. Indeed, when fired at low power, the super takes a while to reach the opposing field (up to 8 seconds in the game).
In other circumstances, it can be dangerous to use it because it offers the opponent the reversal of his choice.
Great spin[]
Undoubtedly the super to use most often because of its versatility: the possibilities offered by the super spin really allow you to vary the super exchanges.
For more information on this super, see the Super shots page.
Great lob[]
Miller's super lob has no specificity. It's as always a good variation of the super game, which we can also favor at the net.
For more information on this super, see the Super shots page.
Land[]
Concrete[]
Services[]
The wide rebound effect performed downwards (↑)↗→ can reach the bottom bumper and then go straight, hitting the outer edge of the latter.
Clay[]
Services[]
The preferred effect is the (↖)↑↗ which can bounce multiple times between the two bumpers before exiting the bumpers with a slightly diagonal horizontal trajectory. Other interesting services exist but are more situational and depend on Miller's positioning.
Hitboxes[]
Basically, Miller's hitbox is consistent with his lightweight status: not very big. However, his dash is much more advantageous than Mita's and above all, he is the only character for whom the toss extends forward. betterx again, its mobile toss carried out vertically presents a hitbox such that its effectiveness on small grounds is formidable.
Attention, the change of hitbox between toss and charge can cause "the Miller bug" (see dedicated section).
Launch[]
Like Mita, Miller doesn't throw very hard but makes up for it with his ability to pull off supersonic shots. Its normal throw remains however much more effective than Mita even if it is difficult to surprise without using an effect.
Source : Gamest 199, July 1994
Bug[]
On a super charge after a toss, Miller can stand still to charge while the Frisbee is outside of his hitbox. The disc then falls to the ground and the opponent inevitably wins 2 points. This happens when the game causes Miller to enter a super charge after a hitbox toss, which then disappears once the charge animation is triggered. It is possible to reproduce this bug quite easily: after having knocked the disc, it is enough to move away then tosser towards the target to catch it. The bug should appear if Miller is far enough from the disc.