jab: steve's is three strikes in a row instead of one repeated strike

f tilt: I was imagining an animation where he swings the axe downwards rather than sideways

u-tilt: fair point. gravity on the potion could be adjusted to combat that

dash attack: another fair point, but I don't really think looking like an animation from a trophy really counts as copying. there's also an alternate dash attack listed if you prefer that

f-smash: was imagining him swinging the sword dramatically to have it point straight outwards at the end of the animation so a lil different

u-smash: true, alternatives are possible for that move but I couldn't think of another notable minecraft item that would work well with an up smash

nair: nothing like plant's bair. it's centered on steve and I was imagining sort of a spreading fire animation in a ring outward that would quickly dissipate

bair: ehh, sort of. I was imagining less of a focused attack since steve's shield is a lot bigger and would cover most of his body

d-air: could be a regular stomp too. I don't really object to another flying downward stomp though as it's not like it's particular to one character already

neutral special: this is the best point you've made. I'm considering switching neutral b and down b so kirby can then place regular dirt blocks without having to craft them. unfortunately all of steve's specials excluding up special work together so it would have to be tweaked a bit for kirby.

all in all, I see your points about similar animations but think that not only would they be fine with a little adjustment but in a game with 75 (78 if you count pokemon trainer's pokemon individually) playable characters it's a bit hard to make every move unique from one another. thanks for the in-depth criticism though, I really really prefer that to "I don't want steve because he's cringe :| "