Editing Kirby (SSBM)

|tier = G

|ranking = 26

Makiko Ōmoto once again voices Kirby in ''Melee'', with some voice clips recycled from ''SSB'', but more higher pitched, along with some new additional voice clips.

Currently, Kirby is ranked 26th in the G tier at the very bottom, an extreme drop from his 2nd position in ''Smash 64'' and his worst placement in the series. While he has several throw options into [[Kirbycide]], a good ground game, a solid defensive game thanks to his crouch and small size and a decent [[edgeguarding]] game, Kirby's [[approach]] and KO ability are among the worst in the game; slow attacks, a low [[air speed]], an ineffective [[projectile]] in [[Final Cutter]], and numerous other flaws both on the ground and in the air prevent Kirby from easily approaching enemies, and he struggles against almost all characters as a result of this. Kirby currently has terrible overall matchups, with seven matchups that are near unwinnable, and only two positive matchups (against {{SSBM|Bowser}} and {{SSBM|Roy}}), and even these can be disputed at length.

Kirby acts as a light, weak character that is intended to outmaneuver opponents. While having an average dashing speed, he has a terrible air speed (being tied with {{SSBM|Ganondorf}} as the 3rd worst in ''Melee''), so his small size is intended to act as his primary way to approach. Owing to his low falling speed and high short hop, Kirby has a poor [[SHFFL]], while his high traction gives him a short [[wavedash]].

Despite his poor air speed, Kirby has a great edgeguarding game. With no one to edgeguard him, Kirby can easily recover due to his multiple midair jumps, while Kirby's back air can be used as a rather powerful edgeguarding technique, the [[Fence of Pain]]. Assuming Kirby can knock opponents off the edge, he should theoretically have little trouble keeping them from recovering.

Owing to his small size, Kirby also has an above-average defensive game. His small [[hurtbox]]es can potentially allow him to avoid attacks, while his small size also lends itself to a large [[shield]], making Kirby relatively safe from [[shield stabbing]]. A low crouch also makes his hurtboxes even smaller, and it can be compounded with his down tilt as a potential camping and spacing tactic, as crouching makes him able to avoid most [[jab]]s.

Kirby also has above average tilt attacks as well, as Kirby's three tilts, while short-ranged, have a variety of practical applications; his forward tilt and aforementioned down tilt can act as spacing tools, while his up tilt can potentially be used as a combo starter. Kirby also has an above average grab range, allowing him to potentially use his powerful and unusual throws to his advantage; a notable application of his up, back, and forward throws involves [[Kirbycide]], a specific type of [[Sacrificial KO]] that forces both Kirby and his opponent to lose a stock. This technique is able to KO opponents at any percentage.

Despite these benefits, Kirby's most fatal flaw, which is often cited as the reason for his bottom tier placement, is his nearly nonexistent approach. With a poor SHFFL, short wavedash, terrible air speed, short range, a laggy, predictable dash attack, and no viable projectiles, Kirby has extreme difficulty in approaching almost all of the cast; this is especially prevalent against characters with disjointed hitboxes (such as {{SSBM|Marth}}) or powerful pressure games (such as {{SSBM|Falco}}). The lack of a projectile can uniquely be rectified if Kirby uses {{b|Inhale|Kirby}} on an opponent; doing so, however, is risky, due to the attack's start-up and cool-down lag, and some characters will either fail to give him a useful projectile (such as {{SSBM|Ness}}) or a projectile in the first place (such as {{SSBM|Captain Falcon}}). Kirby's small size can also make some attacks inferior to the original character; [[Fireball]] from {{SSBM|Mario}}, for instance, has the Fireballs disappear more quickly than Mario's, as Kirby's lower height causes them to reach the ground faster and to have less kinetic energy when they finally hit the ground.

Assuming he can approach opponents, however, Kirby's various attributes also give him a lack of combo ability; a low air speed prevents him from easily pursuing enemies in the air, and almost all of his aerials (except for back air) either have long startup and cooldown periods (down and neutral air), high knockback (up air), or poor hitbox placement (forward air). Kirby's only noteworthy combos are his up tilt juggles and his Fence of Pain as mentioned earlier, and even the latter combo is inferior to Jigglypuff's [[Wall of Pain]] due to Kirby's significantly slower air speed, making it risky to use. Kirby's wild card is his aforementioned Kirbycide technique, and even this is unreliable; his up throw requires proper placement at the edge of a stage, and Kirby always loses when performed in a last stock situation. While his forward and back throws are much easier to perform and Kirby always wins when performed in a last stock situation, they are the only throws in the entire ''Smash'' series that can be potentially broken out of. As a result, if the opponent can button mash out of the grab and throw quick enough, they will remain unharmed while Kirby loses a stock. To make things worse, after Kirby uses his forward or up throw, he will lose all his midair jumps.

Outside of his abysmal approach, Kirby also has trouble KOing other characters. A majority of Kirby's finishers suffer from poor range, slow start-up (such as his Hammer), weak knockback (such as his forward smash) or have small sweetspots that make them unreliable (such as his [[Hammer_(move)|Hammer]] and up smash). Arguably Kirby's only effective finishers are his down smash and his up and back aerials, which themselves require a proper read and correct timing from the player in order for them to be a low-risk attack.

==Changes from ''[[Super Smash Bros.|Smash 64]]'' to ''[[Super Smash Bros. Melee|Melee]]''==

Kirby was known as one of the most dominant characters in ''Smash 64'', in part to his amazing power, attack speed, range and priority on his attacks, as well as the majority of them dealing very high [[shield damage]]. In stark contrast to this, Kirby was overwhelmingly nerfed in his transition to ''Melee'': Kirby's nerfs primarily damaged his excellent finishers and good approach, courtesy of the previously fast attack speed he previously had, which was also slowed down, to the point of having some of the slowest moves in the game. Also, as a result of his slower attack speed, his already limited combo potential was also downgraded, and it is further compounded by the changes of [[L-cancel]]ing combined with the worse [[auto-cancel]] windows on his aerials. His attacks, while still pretty damaging, also deal less damage, and even though this nerf is shared between most veterans, it arguably hurts Kirby the most due to his aforementioned limited combo potential, despite his fast attack speed in the previous game. Several of Kirby's attacks have been also changed to reflect the series of games, though the majority of them was for the worse, prime examples being his dash attack, which has slower startup and can now make him fall off ledges and platforms, and his new forward throw, which alongside his back throw, can now be escaped during its animation (these are the only standard throws not just in the game but also the entire series where this is possible). Lastly, Kirby also suffers from a significantly worse survivability, as due to the faster falling speeds than in ''Smash 64'', his recovery is worse than in the previous game when coupled with his slower air speed and Final Cutter gaining less recovery distance, making him easier to gimp and KO than in the previous game.

Kirby has got some other small, various buffs, such as the fact that he has greater access to his [[Kirbycide]] as he can move around when swallowing his opponents and his new forward and back throws are more reliable tools to Kirbycide with (although this is nullified by the fact that those throws can now be escaped from). A few of his moves are also either slightly faster or stronger, such as his new up aerial, which is much stronger and faster.  

However, the buffs fail to address his lack of reliable combos and KO moves or significant survivability issues from the previous game, which makes Kirby not only the most severely nerfed character from ''Smash 64'' to ''Melee'' but quite possibly the most nerfed character in all of the series. As a result, he is arguably the worst character in the entire game and he is non-viable in competitive play with Kirby players rarely making it into top 64 in major [[tournament]]s, let alone top 32.

*{{nerf|Kirby [[walk]]s slower (0.35 → 0.85).}}

*{{nerf|Kirby [[dash]]es slower (48 → 1.4).}}

*{{nerf|Kirby's already low [[air speed]] has been decreased even more (28 → 0.78), hindering his [[recovery]], edgeguarding and ability to escape aerial pressure.}}

*{{buff|Kirby is slightly heavier (68 → 70) improving his endurance.}}

*{{change|Kirby's [[falling speed]] is higher (48 → 1.6).}}

*{{change|Kirby's [[gravity]] is higher (2.4 → 0.08).}}

*{{nerf|Kirby's [[fast fall]]ing speed is lower (76 → 2).}}

*{{change|Kirby's traction is higher (1.4 → 0.08) going from the third lowest out of 12 characters to the 7th highest out of 26.}}

*{{change|Kirby's [[short hop]] is lower.}}

*{{nerf|Kirby's full hop is lower.}}

*{{nerf|All of Kirby's mid-air jumps grant less height.}}

**{{buff|The first two hits of neutral attack have less ending lag (FAF 18 → 16 (hit 1), FAF 20 → 17 (hit 2).}}

**{{buff|The second hit launches opponents vertically (361° → 70°) improving its ability to lead into the rapid jab.}}

**{{nerf|The second hit of neutral attack has a shorter duration (frames 3-5 → 3-4).}}

**{{buff|Forward tilt now deals consistent damage (11% (up)/10% (non-angled)/9% (down) → 11%) improving the non angled and angled down versions' KO potential.}}

***{{buff|However, this improves its combo potential at higher percents.}}  

**{{nerf|Up tilt's infamously [[disjointed]] hitboxes have been made much smaller with the move now only being slightly disjointed.}}

**{{buff|Down tilt has increased base knockback (0 → 40) making it safer on hit at lower percents.}}

***{{nerf|However, its knockback scaling is much lower (110 → 30) greatly hindering its KO potential.}}

**{{change|Kirby has a new dash attack: he lunges forward in a fiery spiraling headbutt.}}  

**{{buff|Dash attack has much larger hitboxes.}}

**{{nerf|Forward smash has more ending lag (FAF 40 → 50).}}  

***{{nerf|When combined with its higher ending lag and the changes to shields, this significantly hinders the move's safety on shield going from giving Kirby frame advantage on shield to leaving him at a huge frame disadvantage on shield making the move easily punishable and naturally removing its use in shield break combos.}}  

**{{nerf|The clean hit deals less damage and has received a sourspot (16% → 15%/13%) without full compensation on its knockback (20 (base), 120 (scaling) → 30/(118/110)).}}

**{{nerf|The clean hit sends opponents at a less favourable angle (90° → 75°) which along with its lower damage slightly hinders the sweetspot's KO potential despite its compensated knockback.}}

**{{nerf|The late hit has much less knockback scaling (100 → 50) and sends opponents at a less favourable angle (361° → 50°).}}

**{{nerf|Clean down smash deals less damage (18% → 14%) although its sweetspot's knockback scaling was mostly compensated (75 → 100).}}

***{{buff|However, the move's increased knockback scaling makes the late hit much stronger.}}  

*{{nerf|All aerials except up aerial [[auto-cancel]] later (frame 31 → 38 (neutral), frame 29 → 38 (forward), frame 26 → 28 (back), frame 33 → 48 (down)). When combined with Kirby's lower short hop, this prevents him from auto-canceling neutral, forward and down aerials out of a short hop which is further exacerbated with the weakening of [[L-canceling]].}}

***{{nerf|Because of this, neutral aerial's animation is significantly longer (49 frames → 79) increasing the amount of time Kirby cannot grab the ledge or use an [[airdodge]]/special after performing the move.}}  

**{{nerf|Neutral aerial has much less horizontal range.}}  

**{{buff|Neutral aerial's hitbox has better coverage around Kirby, allowing it to hit opponents above him more reliably.}}

**{{change|Kirby has a new forward aerial: he kicks three times in front of him, instead of drilling in front of him.}}

**{{nerf|Forward aerial's new animation is longer (39 frames → 49) increasing the amount of time Kirby cannot grab the ledge or use an [[airdodge]]/special after performing the move.}}  

**{{nerf|Forward aerial has less range.}}  

**{{nerf|The knockback (0 (base), 100 (scaling) → 30/70) and angles (361° → 60°) for the first two hits have been altered which along with their higher damage, the wider gap between them/the final hit and the introduction of DI; makes forward aerial connect less reliably.}}

***{{nerf|Altogether, these changes combined with the weakening of L-canceling have hindered forward aerial's combo potential.}}

**{{nerf|Back aerial has a shorter duration (frames 6-9 (clean)/10-25 → 6-8/9-20) slightly increasing its ending lag.}}  

**{{nerf|Back aerial deals less damage (16% (clean)/12% (late) → 14/10%), hindering its KO potential.}}

**{{nerf|Back aerial has a new animation which is longer than the previous animation (39 frames → 43).}}  

**{{nerf|Back aerial's hitboxes are smaller which makes the move cover less of Kirby's body (especially the late hit).}}

***{{nerf|However, this hinders the edgeguarding potential at lower percents.}}

**{{buff|Up aerial has more vertical range.}}  

**{{buff|Up aerial has drastically lower ending lag (FAF 80 → 36).}}  

**{{nerf|Up aerial has more startup lag with a much shorter duration (frames 10-79 → 11-13) with its hitboxes no longer lasting the entire animation once they have been activated.}}  

**{{nerf|Up aerial has a smaller hitbox which along with its shorter duration, makes it much harder to land unless Kirby's opponent is above him.}}

**{{nerf|Up aerial can no longer hit opponents below Kirby.}}

***{{nerf|As a result of these changes, up aerial is significantly less safe.}}

**{{change|The landing hit has reduced set knockback (80 → 60).}}  

**{{nerf|The changes to shields combined with the weakening of L-canceling has significantly hindered down aerial's shield pressuring potential no longer being able to led into shield break combos.}}

*{{buff|As with all returning veterans, Kirby has gained an up throw, down throw and a pummel.}}

*{{nerf|As with all returning veterans without a tether grab, Kirby's grabs have more startup lag (frame 6 → 7 (standing), 11 (dash)) and ending lag (FAF 16 → 31 (standing), 41 (dash)).}}

*{{nerf|Kirby's new forward throw and back throw can now be escaped at any time before the animation ends, leaving Kirby vulnerable and wide open to a punish. This can also result in Kirby Sacrificing himself while his opponents easily survive.}}

**{{nerf|As a result, this makes Kirby's forward and back throws completely useless; being easy contenders for the worst throws in the entire series.}}

**{{change|Back throw has been altered: Kirby now jumps up and moves slightly backwards.}}  

***{{nerf|In the process, it deals damage (13% → 10%) and base knockback (100 → 70) considerably hindering its KO potential despite it sending opponents at a higher angle (70° → 90°).}}

**{{nerf|Up throw deals less damage to bystanders (7% → 6%).}}

**{{buff|Under 100% edge attack has slightly reduced ending lag (FAF 57 → 56).}}

**{{nerf|Under 100% edge attack has more startup lag with a shorter duration (frames 15-24 → 19-23).}}  

**{{buff|Inhale has less startup lag (frame 20 → 17).}}

**{{nerf|A spat opponent now deals damage typically based on their weight rather than consistent damage independent of the opponent (17% → 8-19%), making it less reliable in doubles or free-for-alls.}}

**{{change|As with all returning veterans, Kirby has gained a side special move: Hammer. Kirby takes out a hammer and swings it. It has a powerful sweetspot and can be used in the air also to quickly rack up damage although the grounded version is slow while the aerial version can be escaped very easily.}}

**{{nerf|Final Cutter travels less horizontal and vertical distance, hindering its recovery potential.}}

**{{nerf|The wave deals much less knockback (70 (base), 50 (scaling) → 60/30).}}  

**{{change|Stone's angle has been altered (50° → 70°).}}

**{{nerf|Stone has more startup lag in the air (frame 23 → 29).}}  

===PAL differences===

|neutralname=Vulcan Jab

|ftiltname= 

|utiltname= 

|dtiltname= 

|dtiltdesc=Kirby kicks forwards while crouching. Fast with decent range. Very useful since Kirby can crouch under most attacks.  

|dashname=Burn

|fsmashname=Smash Kick

|usmashname= 

|dsmashname= 

|nairname=Twinkle Star

|fairname= 

|bairname= 

|uairname= 

|uairdesc=Kirby flips in midair, kicking upwards. Great knockback, possibly Kirby's best KO move and the sixth strongest up aerial in '' Melee''. Sends opponents sideways and can set up an edgeguard.

|dairname= 

|dairdesc=Kirby spins around, drilling downwards with both his feet. Has a somewhat long start-up, but acts as a weak [[meteor smash]]. It also has a landing hitbox that has horizontal knockback, and can stack up with the six hits. Good move to stop recoveries, it even stops Fox's Firefox.

|grabname= 

|pummelname= 

|fthrowname= 

|fthrowdesc=Kirby does a suplex, hitting the opponent on the ground. Can be used to Kirbycide. Escapable during the throw. Based on the Pile Driver from the Suplex ability in ''Kirby Super Star''.

|bthrowname= 

|uthrowname=Air Drop

|dthrowname= 

|desc-us=Kir-by Kir-by!

|desc-jp=Kiiirrr-by!

|desc-2=Skids right while looking up twice, bounces across the screen, shakes away from the camera, bounces to the center, then holds his hand up.  

==In [[Competitive play]]==

===[[Character matchups (SSBM)|Matchups]]===

{{SSBMMatchupTable|kirby=yes}}

Kirby has one of the worst matchups spreads in the game. According to the 2010 matchup chart, he has two positive matchups (against {{SSBM|Bowser}} and {{SSBM|Roy}}), has two even matchups (against {{SSBM|Link}} and {{SSBM|Pichu}}), but is soft countered by four characters, countered by ten (the 2nd most out of any character, behind Roy), and hard countered by seven (2nd most behind Pichu). Even in the early metagame of ''Melee'', Kirby suffered from his terrible approach, lack of KO ability, slow overall speed, and severe vulnerability to KOs. Although he still has useful tilts, a strong defensive game and a good edgeguarding game, he struggles in the neutral game and has inconsistent combos, and thus can rarely put his opponent into positions where they are susceptible to edgeguarding. Top- and high-tiered characters such as {{SSBM|Fox}}, {{SSBM|Samus}}, {{SSBM|Marth}}, and {{SSBM|Jigglypuff}} give Kirby the most trouble. Fox can KO Kirby vertically at very early percents in a multitude of ways and Kirby doesn't have many options to react; Jigglypuff, Samus and {{SSBM|Peach}} all have great recoveries, stronger aerials, can easily edgeguard him and cannot be comboed by Kirby at all due to their floatiness; Marth can exploit his very poor approach and vulnerability to edgeguards.

 

Of particular note is Kirby's matchup against Mewtwo, one of the few true counter matchups among the bottom tiers. Kirby's movement is too sluggish to challenge Mewtwo's rolls well, making the matchup difficult as long as Mewtwo keeps a certain distance away from Kirby and uses its zoning tools such as [[Shadow Ball]] appropriately. However, this weakness can be alleviated somewhat by fighting on smaller stages which allows Kirby to catch up.

Due to this matchup chart being outdated, some of Kirby's matchups have changed for the better. He does surprisingly well against characters who can struggle to hit his small frame or are vulnerable to edgeguarding, most notably {{SSBM|Sheik}}, {{SSBM|Captain Falcon}}, and {{SSBM|Ganondorf}}. These characters still win the matchup, and have the tools to defeat him should the opponent know the Kirby matchup well, but Kirby has many ways to aggravate them. Unlike other low-tiered characters, Kirby cannot be chaingrabbed by Sheik, and can crouch under many of these characters' attacks and almost all grabs in ''Melee'', which is very useful defensively against the cast when combined with his small size. He can also exploit the top tier characters's poor recoveries with his good edgeguarding game, as he can notably gimp characters like Captain Falcon, Ganondorf and even Fox and Falco at low percents with his down aerial due to their short or slow recovery. This is particularly notable because many other bottom-tiered characters have seen no success at all against the top- and high-tiers in the modern metagame, indicating that Kirby may be better than the characters around him and stronger than once thought.

 

:''There are currently no notable active Kirby players in high-level'' Melee.

*{{Sm|Cereal Rabbit|USA}} - Best Kirby in NorCal. Placed 33rd at [[HTC Throwdown]]. Took a set off {{Sm|Armada}} and {{Sm|TheCrimsonBlur}} (though both were intoxicated at the time).

*{{Sm|Hack|Sweden}} - Best Kirby in Sweden. Has taken some games off of {{Sm|Ice}}.

*{{Sm|KirbyRage|USA}}

*{{Sm|KrazyKirbyKid|USA}}

*{{Sm|Nitrocidal|Canada}} - Best Canadian Kirby main.

*{{Sm|Omnigamer|USA}}

*{{Sm|t1mmy|USA}}

*{{Sm|Triple R|USA}} - The best Kirby player in the world.

Kirby has historically always ranked very low on ''Melee'' tier lists; compared to {{SSBM|Pikachu}}, Kirby's [[nerf|nerfs]] from ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]'' was much more significant, removing almost all of the aspects that made him dominant in the original ''Smash Bros.'' and leaving him with considerably fewer options in both offense and defense. Players immediately noticed that Kirby was left with poor KOing power, a poor approach, and a severe vulnerability to edgeguarding and premature falls due to his light weight, low air speed and predictable, telegraphed recovery. Owing to Kirby's significant drawbacks, there have been only a few professional smashers that have developed his metagame for serious play, with a large number of them failing to place notably in large tournaments. While more prolific Kirby mains were active in the past, such as {{Sm|t1mmy}} and {{Sm|Omnigamer}}, there exist few such professionals in present-day competitive ''Melee'', causing Kirby's metagame to remain highly stagnant. Additionally, even prior to the stagnation of his metagame, Kirby was seen as a fighter who relied too heavily on gimmicks and the opponent's severe lack of matchup experience to win matches.

As a result of this stagnancy and Kirby's numerous flaws, Kirby has consistently ranked as one of ''Melee'''s worst fighters. He is currently ranked last at 26th place on the current tier list, at the very bottom of the tier list. However, some professional smashers, such as {{sm|Kira}}, believe that Kirby is underrated and that he is not the worst character in the game, as his tournament results and playerbase have been notably better than other characters around him, which include Bowser, Zelda, and Ness. {{Sm|Armada}} also disagrees that Kirby should be at the bottom of the tier list, placing him [https://youtu.be/17n7Tcjrifg?t=124 at 24th on his own], citing Kirby's crouch, tilts, and aerials as having mild utility and versatility.

==In [[Solo#1-P Mode|1-P Mode]]==

==Trophies==

:'''Kirby'''

:''A denizen of the far-off, peaceful planet Pop Star, Kirby became a citizen of Dream Land after defeating King Dedede. Even though he's only about eight inches tall, Kirby is an extremely skilled technician. He has the ability to absorb the powers of his enemies, and his elastic body makes him a versatile adventurer.''

:*Kirby's Dream Land 08/92

 

:'''Kirby''' [<span style="color:#FF0000">Smash</span>]

:'''Kirby''' [<span style="color:#0000FF">Smash</span>]

:''Because of his light weight, Kirby is always in danger of being sent flying, but his ability to puff up and fly allows him to come back from amazing distances. His Final Cutter strikes on the way up and on the way down, and it sends out a beam of force upon landing. Kirby transforms into various objects and crashes down when he uses his Stone technique.''

:*Up & B: Final Cutter

:*Down & B: Stone

Kirby Trophy Melee.png|Classic

Kirby Trophy (Smash).png|[<span style="color:#FF0000">Smash</span>]

Kirby Trophy (Smash 2).png|[<span style="color:#0000FF">Smash</span>]

SSBM Kirby HQ.jpg|Official artwork of Kirby

LuigiAdventureMode.jpg|Standing with {{SSBM|Donkey Kong}}, {{SSBM|Ness}}, and {{SSBM|Luigi}} on [[Great Bay]]

LinkAdventureMode.jpg|Posing with {{SSBM|Link}} on [[Green Greens]]

YoungLinkAdventureMode.jpg|Standing with {{SSBM|Young Link}} and {{SSBM|Pikachu}} on Green Greens

FoxAdventureMode.jpg|[[Taunt]]ing with Ness and Pikachu on Temple

*Kirby's special moves from ''Melee'' are used in the game ''{{s|wikirby|Kirby & The Amazing Mirror}}'', through the use of the ability called ''Smash''. The moves he gets are Twinkle Star (neutral aerial from ''Melee'', although in this game it has much more range), Hammer, Final Cutter, Stone, and Vulcan Jab. He does not, however, receive Burning, which is his dash attack. He gets the ability from [[Master Hand]], who is a boss in the game.  

*Similar to {{SSBM|Donkey Kong}}, {{SSBM|Ness}}, and {{SSBM|Samus}}, ''Melee'' is the final game where Kirby is the sole representative of the ''{{uv|Kirby}}'' universe.