Meteor smash
- "Meteor" redirects here. For the SoCal smasher, seeSmasher:Meteor.
Ameteor smash (メテオスマッシュ) is a type of attack in theSuper Smash Bros. series that strikes opponents downwards, as opposed to horizontally or upwards like most attacks. Meteor smashes are primarily designed toKO orgimprecovering opponents at an especially low damage. With their potential to take a stock earlier than usual, most conventional meteor smashes are somewhat slow to execute or requiresweetspotting.
Some meteor smashes are not meant foredge-guarding and are done only to knock opponents into other hits of the attack. Other meteor smashes can damage only opponents that are on the ground, making them impossible to send targets downwards. These are known asunconventional meteor smashes.
InSuper Smash Bros. Brawl, if a meteor smash on a grounded opponent does not induce enough knockback to knock the opponent off the ground, it has a chance oftripping them.
InSuper Smash Bros. 4, characters that are meteor smashed onto afloor will bounce back up even from a midair hit. While this allows certainFinal Smashes to incorporate downwards finishers and still result in KOs when used on stage, it also allows players totech even if they were standing on the ground (unless it is an attack with a very high amount ofhitlag, such asGanondorf's down aerial). In addition, stronger meteor smashes are now denoted by a unique sound effect upon connection. Meteor smashes also gained the ability tolock opponents if they don't induce enough knockback to knock the opponent off the ground.
InSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate, meteor smashes done on grounded-standing characters can no longer be teched. In addition, if a character is meteor smashed with their total launch speed being 3 units per frame (half the speed of whenteching becomes impossible) or higher when they reach about 25 units below the camera boundary, they will be KO'd before reaching the lower blast line.[1] This makes most meteor smashsacrificial KOs reliable ways of securing a win when both players are on their last stock. Additionally, characters getting meteor smashed when their damage is over 100% now have a unique knockback animation, similar to reeling (this is known as DamageFlyMeteor in the game's files).
General characteristics[edit]
As they hit opponents downwards, meteor smashes cause targets that are not in the air to immediately bounce off the ground they're standing on (as long as they deal enough knockback to put the opponent intotumble), reducing the knockback received by 20%
/15%
/5%
and thus making such attacks weaker and less reliable KO moves on grounded targets. If the intended knockback does not put the opponent into tumble due to the knockback being too low, it will not even deliver any vertical knockback at all, and instead merely cause hitstun and perhapstripping starting fromBrawl. As a result, only the strongest meteor smashes (such as Ganondorf's down aerial) are viable KO moves in on-stage situations.
In games beforeSuper Smash Bros. 4, if a meteor smash connects on a midair target and they fall towards any surface, the victim does not suffer any sort of bounce effect and will stop their fall, no matter how close to the ground/floor they are on said surface that can block their fall. Because of this, they are essentially completely unviable KO moves if the opponent lands on the ground. In addition to this, the opponent able totech in this situation with solid timing, which will completely guarantee the victim's survival. InSuper Smash Bros. 4, even if the victim is in midair, they will now bounce off the ground regardless if they have sustained a notable amount of damage for the proper amount of knockback power, which is needed for some meteor smashes for programmed reasons (such as mostFinal Smashes). This means that strong enough meteor smashes can now be viable KO moves against aerial opponents, although teching can still be utilised to survive, at least inSmash 4.
Despite their reduced power on grounded opponents, the amount ofhitstun delivered by a meteor smash is not affected by the knockback reduction, meaning such moves will cause more hitstun than non-meteor smashes with equal knockback. Combined with their vertical trajectory, this results in meteor smashes being excellentcombo starters on grounded opponents. Meteor smashes on airborne foes however, depending on positioning and damage ranges, can also set-up tech chases or getup punishes.
With a handful of exceptions, almost all characters can meteor smash with their down aerial move; this, however, is a risky maneuver if used on opponents attempting recovery, since these attacks cause the character to travel a short distance downward, making the user's own recovery more difficult in certain cases. Some even, like Zero Suit Samus, outrightmake the user shoot downward, leading to a certainSelf-Destruct in most cases.
InMelee specifically, meteor smashes are a notable way to dealing withcrouch canceling, mainly because crouch canceling is less effective against meteor smashes than moves with horizontal or vertical launch angles. The reason for this is that when a move with an upwards launch angle connects against a crouching opponent and it does not deal enough knockback to put them into tumble, it will lift them off the ground and then immediately put them in their landing animation once hitlag ends. This essentially results in the opponent suffering from a minimal amount of lag after getting hit as they suffer from no hitstun and the only lag they get is the landing lag from landing (which is only 4 frames in most cases), causing crouch canceled moves to usually have a much weaker effect than they otherwise should have on a crouching opponent. As meteor smashes do not lift the opponent off the ground however, the opponent is put into their full hitstun animation. The opponent still suffers from 0.67x the amount of hitlag and knockback compared to if they were not crouch canceling but this still results in the crouching opponent going through a lot more lag than they would against an upwards launching move with an identical amount of knockback. This allows aerial meteor smashes in particular to still be viable combo tools against crouch cancelling opponents as the reduced knockback may not be enough to prevent a combo, which is never the case with upwards launching moves.
Meteor canceling[edit]
Meteor canceling is the act of instantly negating the downwards knockback of a meteor smash by jumping or using anup special after being hit. InSuper Smash Bros. Melee, a meteor cancel can be done 8 frames after the hit lag ends, producing a distinctive wind-cutting sound and a sparkle (the character will also briefly glow white); inBrawl, meteor cancels are not indicated and can only be done after 25 frames for most characters, though some characters have their own windows. Additionally inBrawl, meteor canceling can only be performed if the meteor smash puts the opponent intotumble (inMelee, it can be performed regardless of the knockback animation the opponent is put in).
Additionally, any time a jump input is made, even before the character is meteor smashed, a penalty period of 40 frames follows the jump input frame, during which they cannot meteor cancel with double jump. Likewise, an up special input starts a 40 frame penalty on meteor cancelling with up special. These meteor cancel penalties are independent: a character can meteor cancel with up special even during double jump penalty and vice versa.
Though, oftentimes an up special input is also a jump input with the control stick and starts both penalties simultaneously, but not always. In a similar vein to thetech penalty, these penalties prevent players from simplymashing said inputs to easily pull off a meteor cancel. Characters can meteor cancel even if they were hit while grounded, though they must have bounced off a ceiling and still be taking the now-downwards knockback to do so. While the player generally needs perfect timing to meteor cancel as soon as possible inMelee, one exception to this is with Kirby and Jigglypuff. If Kirby or Jigglypuff has used at least one of their mid-air jumps, they can easily meteor cancel perfectly by holding the jump button after getting hit by a meteor smash. By doing this, they willbuffer a jump as soon as the meteor cancel window begins (as long as they are holding the jump button when the meteor cancel window begins).
InBrawl, the penalty is still present although the penalty no longer applies during the buffer window for the jump/up special. This means that the player can input a jump or up special up to 10 frames before they can meteor cancel and they will perform the jump/up special as soon as the meteor cancel window begins. Additionally,tap jump completely ignores the penalty inBrawl, so the player can perform a tap jump during the penalty period and they can still meteor cancel with a jump. Likewise, if the player inputs a regular jump during the penalty period, they can bypass the penalty with tap jump.
Meteor canceling only exists inMelee andBrawl, making meteor smashes in other games functionally equivalent tospikes (although inSmash 4, grounded opponents can tech meteor smashes but not spikes). However, games afterBrawl check the same angle range to play a unique sound effect for meteor smashes.
Characters with unusual meteor cancel windows inBrawl[edit]
InBrawl, while most characters can meteor cancel after 25 frames, there are a handful of characters who have different timings on their meteor cancel window:
- Charizard: 30 frames
- Ivysaur,Olimar andZero Suit Samus: 15 frames
- Meta Knight andPit: 32 frames
- Wolf: 60 frames
- Yoshi: 20 frames
- Fighting Alloys: 60 frames
There is overall a pattern for the characters with different meteor cancel windows. Characters who possess tether up specials have a shorter meteor cancel window while characters with multiple jumps and a glide have longer meteor cancel windows. Yoshi also has a shorter meteor cancel window, likely to compensate for his up special, which grants a rather low amount of height. The one outlier to these patterns however is Wolf, who has an extremely long meteor cancel window compared to the rest of the cast, which was likely an oversight caused by his late and rushed addition into the game.
Similar techniques[edit]
A meteor smash is not to be confused with aspike; while spikes also have downwards knockback angles, they are diagonal enough to not be recognized by the game as a meteor smash, and thus cannot be meteor canceled. Despite this, many smashers use the term "spike" to refer to meteor smashes, with the term "true spike" referring to spikes. Meteor smashes are also not to be confused with astage spike, where attacks with standard knockback angles can cause opponents to bounce off the underside of a stage and fly downwards, unable to meteor cancel.
Lists of meteor smashes[edit]
Not all characters have access to a meteor smash (e.g.Pikachu in the first three games). The characters that can meteor smash and their respective meteor smashes are listed and described here. Some items, such asMoltres and the streams of aSuper Scope, as well as the attacks of some bosses, also have meteor smash hitboxes, and are also listed here.Spikes andsemi-spikes, due to their differing properties, are not listed here. This list does not includeunconventional meteor smashes.
Gallery[edit]
Wolf meteor smashing Falco withWolf Flash inBrawl.
Link's down tilt, one of the few meteor smashes that can only be done on the ground.
Mario's meteor smash inSmash 3DS.
Cloud meteor smashing Mario withClimhazzard inSmash Wii U.
Mr. Game & Watch's down aerial being used as a meteor smash.
Trivia[edit]
- When not counting custom special moves separately,Mii Brawler has the most meteor smashes in the franchise, with a total of 5.
See also[edit]
- Spike – an attack that sends the opponent downwards yet cannot be canceled.
- Semi-spike – an attack that hits the opponent at a very low horizontal angle, minimizing recovery opportunities.
- Footstool jump – a technique fromBrawl onward which makes a character jump on their opponent's head. If done on an aerial opponent, it causes them to fall downward.
