Editing Meteor smash

{{redirect|Meteor|the SoCal smasher|Smasher:Meteor}}

[[File:Donkey Kong Forward Aerial Meteor Smash Brawl.jpg|thumb|Donkey Kong's [[forward aerial]] meteor smash in ''Brawl''.]]

A '''meteor smash''' ({{ja|メテオスマッシュ|Meteo sumasshu}}) is a type of attack in the {{uv|Super Smash Bros.}} series that strikes opponents downwards, as opposed to horizontally or upwards like most attacks. Meteor smashes are primarily designed to [[KO]] or [[gimp]] [[recover]]ing opponents at an especially low damage. With their potential to take a stock earlier than usual, most conventional meteor smashes are somewhat slow to execute or require {{b|sweetspot|hitbox}}ting.

In ''[[Super Smash Bros. 4]]'', characters that are meteor smashed onto a [[floor]] will bounce back up even from a midair hit. While this allows certain [[Final Smash]]es to incorporate downwards finishers and still result in KOs when used on stage, it also allows players to [[tech]] even if they were standing on the ground (unless it is an attack with a very high amount of [[hitlag]], such as {{SSB4|Ganondorf}}'s down aerial). In addition, stronger meteor smashes are now denoted by a unique sound effect upon connection. Meteor smashes also gained the ability to [[lock]] opponents if they don't induce enough knockback to knock the opponent off the ground.

In ''[[Super Smash Bros. Ultimate]]'', meteor smashes done on grounded-standing characters can no longer be teched. In addition, if a character is meteor smashed with their total launch speed being 3 units per frame (half the speed of when [[tech]]ing becomes impossible) or higher when they reach about 25 units below the camera boundary, they will be KO'd before reaching the lower blast line.<ref>https://twitter.com/Ruben_dal/status/1221151119172345858</ref> This makes most meteor smash [[sacrificial KO]]s reliable ways of securing a win when both players are on last stock. Additionally, characters getting meteor smashed when their damage is over 100% now causes a unique knockback animation to play, similar to reeling (this is known as DamageFlyMeteor in the game's files).

[[File:MeteorSmashRange.png|thumb|200px|The angles considered to be meteor smashes - blue range is for ''Melee'', red range is for ''Brawl''. Any and only angles within this range count as meteor smashes.]]

As they hit opponents downwards, meteor smashes cause targets that are not in the air to immediately bounce off the ground they're standing on (as long as they deal enough knockback to put the opponent into [[tumble]]), reducing the knockback received by 20%{{GameIcon|SSBM}}{{GameIcon|SSB4}}/15%{{GameIcon|SSBB}}/5%{{GameIcon|SSBU}} and thus making such attacks weaker and less reliable KO moves on grounded targets. If the intended knockback does not put the opponent into tumble due to the knockback being too low, it will not even deliver any vertical knockback at all, and instead merely cause hitstun and perhaps [[trip]]ping starting from ''Brawl''. As a result, only the strongest meteor smashes (such as Ganondorf's down aerial) are viable KO moves in on-stage situations.

In games before ''[[Super Smash Bros. 4]]'', if a meteor smash connects on a midair target and they fall towards any surface, the victim does not suffer any sort of bounce effect and will stop their fall, no matter how close to the ground/floor they are on said surface that can block their fall. Because of this, they are essentially completely unviable KO moves if the opponent lands on the ground. In addition to this, the opponent able to [[tech]] in this situation with solid timing, which will completely guarantee the victim's survival. In ''Super Smash Bros. 4'', even if the victim is in midair, they will now bounce off the ground regardless if they have sustained a notable amount of damage for the proper amount of knockback power, which is needed for some meteor smashes for programmed reasons (such as most [[Final Smash]]es). This means that strong enough meteor smashes can now be viable KO moves against aerial opponents, although teching can still be utilised to survive, at least in ''Smash 4''.

Despite their reduced power on grounded opponents, the amount of [[hitstun]] delivered by a meteor smash is not affected by the knockback reduction, meaning such moves will cause more hitstun than non-meteor smashes with equal knockback. Combined with their vertical trajectory, this results in meteor smashes being excellent [[combo]] starters on grounded opponents. Meteor smashes on airborne foes however, depending on positioning and damage ranges, can also set-up tech chases or getup punishes.

With a handful of exceptions, almost all characters can meteor smash with their down aerial move; this, however, is a risky maneuver if used on opponents attempting recovery, since these attacks cause the character to travel a short distance downward, making the user's own recovery more difficult in certain cases. Some even, like Zero Suit Samus, outright [[stall-then-fall|make the user shoot downward]], leading to a certain [[Self-Destruct]] in most cases.

 

In ''Melee'' specifically, meteor smashes are a notable way to dealing with [[crouch cancel]]ing, mainly because crouch canceling is less effective against meteor smashes than moves with horizontal or vertical launch angles. The reason for this is that when a move with an upwards launch angle connects against a crouching opponent and it does not deal enough knockback to put them into tumble, it will lift them off the ground and then immediately put them in their landing animation once hitlag ends. This essentially results in the opponent suffering from a minimal amount of lag after getting hit as they suffer from no hitstun and the only lag they get is the landing lag from landing (which is only 4 frames in most cases), causing crouch canceled moves to usually have a much weaker effect than they otherwise should have on a crouching opponent. As meteor smashes do not lift the opponent off the ground however, the opponent is put into their full hitstun animation. The opponent still suffers from 0.67x the amount of hitlag and knockback compared to if they were not crouch canceling but this still results in the crouching opponent going through a lot more lag than they would against an upwards launching move with an identical amount of knockback. This allows aerial meteor smashes in particular to still be viable combo tools against crouch cancelling opponents as the reduced knockback may not be enough to prevent a combo, which is never the case with upwards launching moves.

Additionally, any time a jump input is made, even before the character is meteor smashed, a penalty period of 40 frames follows the jump input frame, during which they cannot meteor cancel with double jump. Likewise, an up special input starts a 40 frame penalty on meteor cancelling with up special. These meteor cancel penalties are independent: a character can meteor cancel with up special even during double jump penalty and vice versa.  

 

 

Meteor canceling only exists in ''Melee'' and ''Brawl'', making meteor smashes in other games functionally equivalent to [[spike]]s (although in ''Smash 4'', grounded opponents can tech meteor smashes but not spikes). However, games after ''Brawl'' check the same angle range to play a unique sound effect for meteor smashes.

In ''Brawl'', while most characters can meteor cancel after 25 frames, there are a handful of characters who have different timings on their meteor cancel window:

There is overall a pattern for the characters with different meteor cancel windows. Characters who possess tether up specials have a shorter meteor cancel window while characters with multiple jumps and a glide have longer meteor cancel windows. Yoshi also has a shorter meteor cancel window, likely to compensate for his up special, which grants a rather low amount of height. The one outlier to these patterns however is Wolf, who has an extremely long meteor cancel window compared to the rest of the cast, which was likely an oversight caused by his late and rushed addition into the game.