Stance mirroring
Stance mirroring (officially referred to by Masahiro Sakurai asFlipped animation[1]) is a mechanic in which most or all of a character's animations and moves are mirrored if they turn around, mimicking the sprite mirroring of older fighting games. This mechanic results in the characters' front side being visible more often. When mirrored, all hitboxes are also mirrored - for example, a punch that is animated with a character's right arm, when mirrored, will instead use the character's left arm.
In general, a character must have a symmetrical body shape and not wield a weapon in order to be eligible for stance mirroring, though inUltimate characters who put away weapons when not in use (e.g.Villager's various tools) are generally not affected by this rule. Minor asymmetry such asPikachu's tail andKing K. Rool's eye tic can be acceptable, depending on their exact animations and hurtboxes. Compared toSmash 4, characters with stance mirroring inUltimate are generally animated in a way that better accommodates the feature.
Stance mirroring also affects which hand characters use to hold, swing, and throwitems. Turning around will cause a held item to simply teleport to the other hand (there is no animation for it). A fighter with stance mirroring that isreversed (for example, by Mario'sCape) ordouble jumps in the opposite direction (if they possess multiple double jumps, with the exceptions ofKirby andJigglypuff) can be seen in a non-mirrored position for a short time, before suddenly snapping into the proper mirrored position.
As some characters mirror while others do not, it is possible for interactions to differ based on whether the characters are facing each other left-to-right versus right-to-left. For example, a mirroring character's thin attack may hitMarth's extended sword arm from one direction, but not the other, asthe third dimension alters whether the two collide or pass by. AsCloud is not mirrored, his side special moveCross Slash notably has two different animations depending on Cloud's facing direction in order to properly write its kanji symbol, which have subtle gameplay differences.
Stance mirroring is not present in games beforeSmash 4, though somespecial moves and manytaunts inMelee andBrawl have a different animation for each direction to accomplish a similar effect.
In allSmash games, including those before mirroring was introduced, the default facing direction is to the right of the screen; this means that fighters without stance mirroring generally face the screen when facing right. The exceptions - those who instead face the screen when facing left - are Marth,Roy,Young Link,Toon Link,Pit,Lucina,Robin,Dark Pit,Chrom,Simon,Richter, andSephiroth, as well asLink beforeUltimate. Several of these are for consistency with the characters' home series; for example, Marth faces left in the battle scenes ofFire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light and other games, while Simon's right-facing sprites fromCastlevania are posed such that his torso faces away from the screen.
Characters with stance mirroring[edit]
- ^The Ice Climbers are the only characters who hold a weapon at all times to have stance mirroring. They are animated to pass the hammer to their other hand when turning around.
- ^The squid form utilizes stance mirroring for all animations except refilling ink.
- ^Arsène has stance mirroring.
- ^Kirby will mirror Copy Abilities even if they belong to non-mirrored characters (e.g. he can hold Marth's sword with either hand).
- ^Luigi has different animations when using the Poltergust G-00 that don't face the screen when facing left.
- ^Pikmin have stance mirroring when not being used in an attack.
- ^Luma has stance mirroring.
Trivia[edit]
- Mr. Game & Watch appears mirrored in most cases due to his flat and monochrome nature, but some of his props (such as the helmet in his up smash) show that he is not.
