Luigi (SSBM)/Neutral attack/Hit 1

Hitbox visualization showing Luigi's first jab.

Overview[edit]

Luigi rapidly lunges forward, his fist seemingly teleporting from his side to in front of him. It is Luigi's fastest move, as well as being tied with eight other characters for the fastest jab in the game, coming out on frame 2, and usually dealing either 13 or 14 frames of hitstun thanks to the move's fixed knockback, with the exceptions being Pichu, DK, and Bowser.

At first glance, this move seems terrible. At best, it'll be either -1 or 0 on hit. This is before taking into account the possibility of the opponent crouch canceling the hit or performing ASDI-down, negating even more hitstun frames. The move is even worse on shield, dealing a pitiful 3 frames of shieldstun. However, this fails to tell the whole story.

The move will commonly see use at least a few times in a competitive match. This is because the hit is unreactable, with most players' reaction speeds being 16 frames or higher. A common approach seen is wavedash -> jab -> grab, interspersed with his other approaches. It's important not to spam this, though, as opponents can begin reading that Luigi will go for it, and punish the Luigi upon being hit.

To make this move truly safe on hit, however, the player can cancel it into Luigi's jab 2 as soon as frame 7, which can then be cancelled into his jab 3, which has higher damage and knockback scaling, being able to cause Fox to tumble at 88%.