Mach Tornado
- This article is about Meta Knight's neutral special move. For Luigi's custom down special, seeMach Cyclone.
| Mach Tornado | |
|---|---|
 Mach Tornado inUltimate. | |
| User | Meta Knight |
| Universe | Kirby |
Mach Tornado (マッハトルネイド,Mach Tornado) isMeta Knight'sneutral special move. It involves Meta Knight spinning in a controllable tornado, which traps opponents andslashes them for consistentdamage.
Overview[edit]
InSuper Smash Bros. Brawl[edit]
- Main article:Meta Knight (SSBB)/Neutral special
When activated,Meta Knight spins at high speed, surrounding himself in a dense yellow tornado that covers a majority of him for a set period of time, which can be extended by mashing the special button; mashing also causes Meta Knight to rise up vertically. More vertical distance is gained if the player simultaneously jumps and performs the move. Mach Tornado can be controlled by pressing left or right to move in that direction. Once the move ends, Meta Knight fallshelpless.
The tornado causes a slightpull on nearby opponents. Enemies that touch the tornado are trapped, slashed multiple times, and then sent flying with a final hit that deals moderateknockback. The move is hard to escape viadirectional influence, and the final hit's knockback makes it an effectiveKO finisher if enemies are near the topblast line.
Brawl's version of Mach Tornado grants a significant amount of aerial mobility, making it one of the bestrecovery moves in the game; in addition to granting high horizontal distance, it travels a good distance vertically and can be made to change directions quickly. Furthermore, the move possesses near instantaneous start-up lag, and has multiple large hitboxes that canclash with ground and aerial hitboxes (includingprojectiles, so long as they deal 9% or less and/or do not possesstranscendent priority). With all these considered, Mach Tornado is often considered an extremely safe and effective move when regarding its overall recovery and offensive potential.
The move is not completely infallible, however; Meta Knight will bounce offedges rather thangrab them during the move, and is additionally unable to grab edges during the first fewframes of his helpless animation. This can potentially cause aself-destruct if the move is mistimed. Additionally, missing and ending the move near the top of the screen ispunishable, and Meta Knight receives an additional 20% knockback if he is hit out of Mach Tornado.
The mobility and damage potential granted by Mach Tornado makes it one of the staple finishing moves of theRufio combo, especially against fastfallers.
InSuper Smash Bros. 4[edit]
- Main article:Meta Knight (SSB4)/Neutral special
Mach Tornado returns asMeta Knight's neutral special move inSmash 4. Unlike inBrawl, Meta Knight simply cloaks himself in yellow winds instead of a solid tornado.
With the reduced effectiveness of Directional Influence on multi-hitting attacks, Mach Tornado retains its effectiveness at trapping opponents and dealing high damage (compared to the majority of Meta Knight's attacks), in addition to having higher base knockback on the final hit. However, the move's duration and mobility have been nerfed considerably; it lasts a much shorter amount of time unless the player button mashes, and its reduced horizontal and vertical mobility give it more limited use as a recovery (vertical movement is especially affected). This is further burdened by the move being unable to edge sweetspot for its duration until Meta Knight becomes helpless.
Offensively, Mach Tornado's hitbox placements are arguably worse; when including its higherending lag and the removal of transcendent priority throughout Meta Knight's moveset, this prevents the move from being a solid invincibility option and makes it easier to punish. The aforementioned reductions to the move's mobility also prevents Mach Tornado from functioning as an effective finisher for the Rufio combo.
Overall, Mach Tornado now functions mainly as anout of shield move, typically used as apunishment option to rack up significant damage, due to it dealing much more damage compared to the rest of his attacks.
InSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate[edit]
- Main article:Meta Knight (SSBU)/Neutral special
Mach Tornado returns asMeta Knight's neutral special move inSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate. Unlike in the previous games, Mach Tornado hits only once, instead of being a multi-hit attack. It also travels at a faster pace, giving it much better horizontal movement compared to previous games. It has considerably more knockback than before, being a potent kill combo finisher.
WithGiant Punch,PK Flash andPK Freeze no longer invokinghelplessness, Mach Tornado is now the only neutral special that still renders its user helpless, and consequently the only move that can renderKirby helpless (aside from sliding off an edge duringFinal Cutter or touching the red trampoline fromPac-Jump).
As a copy ability[edit]
Kirby's eyes while wearing the mask are light-green in Brawl and yellow in SSB4 and Ultimate. The green coloration in Brawl is due to the mask giving a yellow tint to Kirby's blue eyes and Meta Knight's silver eyes (though they are currently depicted as yellow even without the mask). Kirby's Mach Tornado only does half the damage of Meta Knight's, and unlike Meta Knight's version of the attack, the bottom-most hitbox does not cause aerial opponents to flinch. Functionally resembles Kirby's Tornado ability.
Instructional quotes[edit]
 instruction booklet |  | Attack by turning into a tornado. Move left and right while spinning. |
 case foldout |  | Spin and strike enemies. Press repeatedly to spin longer. |
 Move List |  | Twirls and hits enemies to launch them. Repeated button presses can change the direction or cause him to float. |
Customization[edit]
Special Move customization was added inSuper Smash Bros. 4. These are the variations:
| 1. Mach Tornado | 2. Entangling Tornado | 3. Dreadful Tornado |
|---|---|---|
 |  |  |
| "Twirl and hit enemies multiple times. Press repeatedly to increase spin." | "Pull enemies in, and then hit them straight up into the air." | "A more powerful Mach Tornado, but the amount of spins can't be increased." |
- Mach Tornado: Default.
- Entangling Tornado: Pulls in enemies and deals a more powerful single hit with a more vertical knockback angle, but it does only 9% damage and has less horizontal control in the air.Main article:Meta Knight (SSB4)/Neutral special/Custom 1
- Dreadful Tornado: More damage per hit, but it cannot be extended by mashing the button, giving it less overall damage potential (21% → 13%), and it has more ending lag. However, its knockback is significantly stronger and KOs from center stage around 135%.Main article:Meta Knight (SSB4)/Neutral special/Custom 2
Entangling Tornado being used inSuper Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS.
Dreadful Tornado used inSuper Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS.
Origin[edit]
Mach Tornado is one ofMeta Knight's attacks that first appeared inKirby Super Star. It is also similar toKirby’s Tornado ability from theKirby series.
InKirby Super Star Ultra, Meta Knight stars in his own mode,Meta Knightmare Ultra, which involves him replaying various levels from other sub-games. In said game mode, defeating enemies would allow him to gain points to perform various special techniques. The strongest technique is also named Mach Tornado, but is instead a screen-clearing attack similar to aFinal Smash, instead of a normal move. AsKirby Super Star Ultra was released afterSuper Smash Bros. Brawl, it's likely that the move was named after Meta Knight's neutral special move.
Kirby: Planet Robobot also names his variant of the airborne Twister Slash technique Mach Tornado, though his grounded version features the yellow trail commonly associated with the move.
Gallery[edit]
Mach Tornado inBrawl.
Mach Tornado inSuper Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS
Mach Tornado inSuper Smash Bros. for Wii U.
Mach Tornado as shown by theMove List inUltimate.
Names in other languages[edit]
| Language | Name |
|---|---|
 Japanese | マッハトルネイド,Mach Tornado |
 English | Mach Tornado |
 French | Tornade Mach |
 German | Mach-Tornado |
 Spanish | Supertornado |
 Italian | Tornado Mach |
 Chinese (Simplified) | 马赫龙卷风 |
 Chinese (Traditional) | 馬赫龍捲風 |
 Korean | 마하 토네이도,Mach Tornado |
 Dutch | Mach-tornado |
 Russian | Суперторнадо |
