Editing Donkey Kong (SSBM)/Forward smash

Donkey Kong pulls his elbows behind him, before slamming his hands forward and bringing them together in a cymbal crash. The move, sometimes known as the '''Hammer Head''', is DK's strongest smash attack, able to kill [[Fox (SSBM)|Fox]] at 100% [[charge|uncharged]] from the center of [[Battlefield (SSBM)|Battlefield]] if he hits with the [[Sweet spot (hitbox)|sweet spot]], which is located on his elbows. This comes at a cost, however, as the move has incredibly laggy [[start-up]], having more than double the start-up of his [[Donkey Kong (SSBM)/Down smash|down smash]] and a little over 1.5x the start-up of his [[Donkey Kong (SSBM)/Up smash|up smash]], as well as the least amount of active frames, although it takes roughly the same amount of time for the entire animation to complete.

Among DK's powerful moves, it's a rare sight in competitive play. This is mainly due to the 20+ [[frame]]s of start-up, making it well within a human's reaction time and hindering its combo potential significantly. In addition, there's no reliable [[kill confirm]] that leads into it. Using it in [[Neutral game|neutral]] is also not recommended, as the opponent will have enough time to dodge it or run-up [[shield]], before counter-attacking with their [[punish]] of choice. This makes his other kill moves, which includes his down smash, up smash, the strong hit of [[Donkey Kong (SSBM)/Up special|up special]], charged [[Donkey Kong (SSBM)/Neutral special|Giant Punch]], and [[Donkey Kong (SSBM)/Forward aerial|forward air]], much more appealing options, as they either 1) have much less start-up and subsequent risk in neutral, 2) can be comboed into from his [[cargo throw]], [[Donkey Kong (SSBM)/Down aerial|down air]] or juggles, or 3) both. Even if one of the aforementioned moves doesn't kill, it will, in the majority of cases, knock the opponent off-stage, which, given DK's really potent [[edgeguarding]] capabilities, is a really favorable position for the DK player.

Despite its massive start-up, there are ways to land the move in a match. It can be done against an opponent that has been [[jab reset]], had their [[shield break|shield broken]], or, against [[Jigglypuff (SSBM)|Jigglypuff]] specifically, missed their [[Rest]]; using this instead of Giant Punch will let the DK keep the Giant Punch charged, as well as avoid [[Stale-move negation|staling]] it any. If the DK player is feeling confident in their predictions, they can go for a [[hard read]], whiff-punishing a committal attack or hitting the defending player out of a [[roll]] or [[techroll]]. It also sees niche use in edgeguarding, as it can often hit opponents who are not attempting to [[sweet spot (ledge)|sweet spot]] the ledge or opponents who land on stage with laggy [[Up special move|up-B's]], such as Falcon or Marth.