Summary
From Vanilla to Super, this character has recieved nothing but quality of life improvements to his setplay style. With the help of his dog 
Akamaru, you can now pull off some nasty crossups into long, meterless combos using both characters and good spacing. The best example of his improvement was the increased window in pulling off the now-developer-celebrated "Dog Glitch", where Kiba puts Akamaru in a state where he is both charging and left alone, allowing for insane pressure from all sides. Kiba has also received improved frame data across the board and has a new move that commands Akamaru to perform a sand-kick.
Character Traits
- He's got that Dog Glitch with him. Can have a projectile primed and ready to launch for a long while whenever he has the chance to set up.
- When timed right, this allows Kiba to get some extra unsubbable damage from throws if he gets the restand
- Plenty of ability to set up into mix-ups such as crossups/unblockables with Akamaru placed well (via Dog Glitch or 2A).
- Hands down the best high crushes in the game with fast startup and great comboability.
- Akamaru whiff strings give Kiba plus frames for strike/throw on block and also let him punish counterpoke attempts.
- 5BBBAA string is an almost fully guaranteed combo on backturned hit. Only has one step point at 5B(B) and it's a 1~2 frame window.
Notes
Akamaru
Akamaru is Kiba's small, but ferocious pet ninja dog and fighting partner in this game. Some attacks that Kiba performs additionally have Akamaru follow up as a part of the string.
- Akamaru slowly follows behind Kiba wherever he walks or runs to in the play area. Normally he will just walk, but the further the two are from one another, the faster Akamaru will run back to Kiba's side.
- Akamaru only tracks the opponent the moment a standalone or string command to him starts. He does not track or autocorrect while already in motion for an attack.
- The opponent cannot hit Akamaru at all, neither while he's moving on the ground, nor during his attacks. While Akamaru does possess a collision box, his very short size often prevents him from body-blocking the opponent.
- Making Kiba block or even hitting Kiba will not stop Akamaru's attack if he's already on his way either, similar to
Kankuro & 
Crow's ability to trade.
- While Akamaru is attacking and for a short time after Akamaru finishes an attack, Kiba cannot command Akamaru, instead throwing shurikens.
The Dog Glitch
Normally, when Kiba holds down 
, he is supposed to be forced to kneel where he is while readying Akamaru for his bite attack. However, if the command is pressed, released, and held again on with precise timing (a 2-frame window), Kiba will do the animation to command Akamaru to attack but Akamaru will remain sitting in place. More specifically, after first pressing , you must press and hold down on frame 9 or 10. Once Kiba's animation is done, he will then be freed to do whatever he wants (walk, jump, attack, etc) while he still has Akamaru primed to attack for as long as the player holds . This is called the Dog Glitch, and it allows Kiba to use Akamaru's high-priority lunge both immediately and at almost any time, including while performing other solo attacks, in the middle of his ground and air throw animations, and while he is blocking the opponent's attacks. This bolster's Kiba's offense greatly as he is able to make himself safe or plus on block and whiff at almost any time the opponent is in range of Akamaru, and also has access to an extra attack at times when he normally wouldn't, which is amazing for combos.
The fun part is that this glitch is not only possible off of . Kiba can also set up the Dog Glitch off of 
and 
, making the opponent have to guess against delayed strings vs whether or not Kiba will set up a Dog Glitch for the next interaction. The press and hold timing is the same for each string.
01
Cancellable at 
)
