Special Zoom
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Special Zoom is an aesthetic effect introduced inSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate, designed to add drama during a match. The term was coined byMasahiro Sakurai and his development team[1] (referred to asDecisive Impact in the initial design document[2]).
Overview[edit]
Special Zoom activates when a fighter is hit by certain attacks: for a short moment, the background flashes blue with dramatic "spark" effects pointing towards the impact, time will substantially slow down, and the camera zooms in on the impact. In games with more than two players, the slowdown and camera zoom effects will be nearly non-existent, although there are some exceptions (a few moves will always zoom even outside of 1v1 matches). A Special Zoom is usually accompanied by the sound effect previously exclusive toLittle Mac'sKO Uppercut inSuper Smash Bros. 4. During some Special Zoom events, camera control is disabled, though this is not consistently enforced.
A few moves inSmash 4 which also had zoom-and-slowdown effects, such as KO Uppercut andCloud'sFinishing Touch andLimit BreakCross Slash, now use the standard Special Zoom effect.
In general, the attacks that trigger Special Zoom are slow and hard to connect (such asWarlock Punch orFalcon Punch). Most other attacks that trigger Special Zoom have conditions that need to be met, such asRidley'sSkewer needing to besweetspotted, or Little Mac's smash attacks requiring hisarmor to be triggered during the start-up. Certainitems andstage hazards may also trigger Special Zoom, also requiring special conditions in some cases.
Special Zoom occurs even if the attack's knockback is negated byarmor. However, Special Zoom will not trigger if the opponent is hit whileinvincible, during thelast five seconds in atime match, whenNightmare is active, when hitting the AI-controlled character of theIce Climbers, or when aFinal Smash is active.
Finish Zoom[edit]
Similar to Special Zoom isFinish Zoom orFinal Zoom, terms also coined by Sakurai and his team.[1] Finish Zoom is used when the game calculates an attack will likely result in a game-winningKO. Like theDeadly Blow mechanic introduced inSuper Smash Bros. 4, this effect only factors in knockback and launch angle, and does not account for obstructions orDI being used to make an otherwise deadly blow survivable. Like Special Zoom, Finish Zoom zooms in on the point of impact and briefly slows down time. However, Finish Zoom uses a red background instead of a blue one, and the sound is always the same. The sound used is also different again, being akin to aping hit combined with the sound of slashing swords. With the exception ofGiga Bowser Punch'sinstant KO,Screen KOs rarely occur when a Finish Zoom sends an opponent into the upperblast line, whileStar KOs are very rare.
List of moves that trigger Special Zoom[edit]
By character[edit]
| Character | Move(s) | Conditions | Always zooms |
|---|---|---|---|
| Byleth | Aymr | Clean hit. |  |
| Captain Falcon | Falcon Punch | | |
| Chrom | Flare Blade | Charged for at least 2.5 seconds. | |
| Cloud | Cross Slash | Limit Break. | |
| Climhazzard | |||
| Finishing Touch | |||
| Donkey Kong | Giant Punch | Fully charged. | |
| Ganondorf | Volcano Kick | Clean hit. | |
| Warlock Punch | | ||
| Hero | All smash attacks | Random critical hit. | |
| Metal Slash | Connecting with ametal opponent, including another Hero usingKaclang. |  | |
| Hatchet Man | | ||
| Whack | When itInstant KOs. | | |
| Thwack | |||
| Ike | Eruption | Fully charged. | |
| Incineroar | All smash attacks | WhenRevenge is active. | |
| Alolan Whip | When Revenge is active and the move is sweetspotted. | ||
| Cross Chop | Explosion hitbox while Revenge is active. | ||
| Jigglypuff | Rest | | |
| Kazuya | Rage Drive | Occurs on final hit of the grab. | |
| Glorious Demon God Fist | When hitting at the tip of Kazuya's fist. | | |
| King Dedede | Jet Hammer | Fully charged. | |
| King K. Rool | Belly Super Armor | If broken by an attack. | |
| Kirby | Hammer Flip | Fully charged. | |
| Any neutral special from other characters that triggers Special Zoom | If Kirby copies an opponent whose neutral special can trigger Special Zoom, Kirby will also experience it under the same conditions. The only exceptions are Little Mac's KO Uppercut, as Kirby can only copy Straight Lunge and does not have access to the KO Meter, and the Mii Brawler's Exploding Side Kick, since Kirby can only copy Shot Put. | * | |
| Little Mac | All smash attacks | When attacked during startup armor. | |
| KO Uppercut | |||
| Lucario | Force Palm | On grab attack when at roughlyhighaura. | |
| Lucas | PK Thunder | On last hit of PK Thunder 2. | |
| Lucina | Shield Breaker | When breaking ashield. | |
| Luigi | Super Jump Punch | Grounded sweetspot only. | |
| Marth | Shield Breaker | When breaking a shield. | |
| Mii Brawler | Exploding Side Kick | | |
| Mr. Game & Watch | Judge | Judge 9. | |
| Oil Panic | On release. | | |
| Ness | PK Thunder | On contact during PK Thunder 2. | |
| Ridley | Skewer | Sweetspot. | |
| Roy | Flare Blade | If charged for at least 2.5 seconds. | |
| Steve | TNT | Explosion hitbox on anyone not triggering the pressure plate. | |
| Wario | Wario Waft | Fully charged. | |
* None of the attacks that Kirby can copy have the 'Always zoom' effect.
By item[edit]
| Item | Conditions | Always zooms |
|---|---|---|
| Assist Trophy | Upon defeat. Only possible for defeatable summons. | |
| Daybreak | When a fighter has collected all three parts. | |
| Death's Scythe | Sweetspotted tilt or smash attack at ≥80% damage. | |
| Home-Run Bat | Smash attack. | |
| Motion-Sensor Bomb | When detonated by touch. | |
| Staff | Any hit at maximum range. | |
By assist trophy[edit]
| Character | Conditions | Always zooms |
|---|---|---|
| Black Knight | Triggers for all attacks except a backhanded slash. No camera zoom occurs. | |
| Lyn | |
By stage hazard[edit]
| Hazard | Stage(s) | Conditions | Always zooms |
|---|---|---|---|
| Invisible walls | King of Fighters Stadium | When hit with enoughknockback to KO, shatters with the special zoom effect. | |
| Walls and ceiling | Mishima Dojo | When hit with enough knockback to break, shatters with the special zoom effect. No camera zoom occurs. | |
| Klaptrap | Jungle Japes | On contact, causing aone-hit KO. Camera zooms in slightly. | |
| Shark | Tortimer's Island | When it bites a fighter at 100% or more. Camera zooms in slightly. | |
| Mimic | Yggdrasil's Altar | When it bites a fighter upon being attacked for the first time. | |
| Red Bulborb | Distant Planet | Chomps down on any fighter that enters its mouth, which causes aninstant KO. | |
| Train | Mementos | When hit in front. Camera zooms in slightly. | |
| Odin | Midgar | When his attack hits an opponent. | |
Trivia[edit]
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of Ganondorf's up tilt during a Special Zoom (left) and a Finish Zoom (right).
- Should a character be hit by an attack that triggers a Finish Zoom, they will react with a shocked expression that overrides the expression normally displayed.
- If a non-cinematicFinal Smash causes Finish Zoom, the background will change to the stage's normal background, rather than the background for the Final Smash.
- In-game parameters reveal that Captain Falcon'sKnee Smash was planned to have the Special Zoom effect, although it is not active in the final game.
- This would have made it the onlyforward aerial to trigger Special Zoom.
- Hero has the most moves which can trigger Special Zoom out of all characters, with 7.
- Collecting all three parts of theDragoon and getting hit byOdin's slashing attack will cause the camera to zoom in, but do not cause the Special Zoom background to appear.
- InHome-Run Contest, Special Zoom does not occur on moves that trigger the effect; presumably to prevent such moves from costing the player time due to the timer not slowing down while Special Zoom is in effect.
- However, using a Special Zoom move in place of the Home-Run Bat swing will not result in an angled view of Sandbag flying, and will instead feature a normal Special Zoom.
- Certain moves are given a hidden multiplier that increases the amount of knockback needed to trigger Finish Zoom, usually for moves that are clearly telegraphed and/or heavily affected by DI, which the opponent would feasibly always react to and DI against accordingly. Star KOs will be more common if the match is finished this way than with the actual Finish Zoom effect.
- These multipliers are set manually, independent from the move's actual knockback calculations, and may not always accurately reflect the practical KO potential of the move. For example,Mario'sback throw can KO at around 140% at the ledge with no DI and 160% with optimal DI for a roughly 1.15x increase in survivability, but it is set with an arbitrarily high multiplier of 1.5x, causing the Finish Zoom to begin occurring well beyond its minimum KO percent.
- A glitch involvingMin Min and Finish Zoom was introduced in Version 8.0.0: if the opponent doesn't get KO'd (e.g. due todirectional influence) after Min Min's attack triggered Finish Zoom, her last used ARM will be visually stuck in its stretched animation.
- If Finish Zoom occurs to a character getting hit from behind, the reverse knockback animation does not play, although they will briefly assume the pose.
- IfHero usesThwack onSquirtle performingWithdraw, Squirtle will beinstant KO'ed, but it will not trigger the Special Zoom.[3]
- If Ryu uses Shin Shoryuken or if Ken uses Shippu Jinraikyaku as his Final Smash, the move uses a mechanic similar to Finishing Zoom where if the final hit has enough knockback to KO, the backdrop is set to an orange color.
- Characters launched out of the bury status that trigger Finish Zoom have a notably increased chance of being Star KO'd after Finish Zoom.
- If a character is on their last stock in a Stamina Battle and is grabbed, becomes invincible from aSuper Star while being grabbed, and then thrown with low enough HP that the throw would KO, they will trigger a Finish Zoom as if they were KO'd, but won't take any damage or be KO'd. A similar effect occurs under certain circumstances inClassic Mode, such as in the fourth round ofSteve's classic mode route, where if the player defeats all thePits before theRobin spawns, it will likewise trigger a Finish Zoom.
- In both cases, the screen will remain darkened for the rest of the match.
- Finish Zoom has a bug whereknockback is applied during thefreeze frames, causing victims to start launching with less knockback and surviving otherwise guaranteed KOs.
- This bug oddly doesn't apply to attacks with theelectric effect, as those apply the full knockback properly.
- This causes a functional difference betweenSamus andDark Samus, particularly with theirforward smashes. Despite otherwise being identical, Dark Samus uses the electric effect while Samus uses theflame effect, causing Dark Samus to KO at a lower percent if Finish Zoom is triggered.
- This bug oddly doesn't apply to attacks with theelectric effect, as those apply the full knockback properly.
