Mr. Game & Watch (SSBU)/Down aerial

Hitbox visualization showing Mr. Game & Watch's down aerial.

Hitbox visualization showing Mr. Game & Watch's down aerial, when landing.

Overview

Mr. Game & Watch takes out the giant key from the Game & Watch version of Donkey Kong Jr., and then performs a downward-diving thrust while holding it beneath himself, making the move a stall-then-fall aerial. Similar to Bowser, Mr. Game & Watch can influence his descent while using down aerial.

This move is surprisingly disjointed and descends quite quickly, making it difficult to challenge directly from below. It also has decently strong KO potential, with a meteor smash on the early hit and a strong late hit. Running off with down aerial to try and meteor smash is also a valid strategy, as Mr. Game & Watch will survive even without a jump. This makes it a decent landing option in disadvantage, especially when considering the strong autocancel. If one full hops and then uses Fire, it can also autocancel. It can also work from a side platform on Battlefield. This can make the move significantly safer than most stall-and-fall aerials, though he still remains vulnerable during the move's animation.

However, like many stall-and-fall aerials, down aerial has its drawbacks. It has very high landing lag which can make it punishable upon landing, although its landing hitbox can mitigate this to a degree against careless opponents. The move also leaves Mr. Game & Watch completely vulnerable from the sides and above, making it among the most punishable moves in his kit. It is also still possible to challenge down aerial from below with moves such as King K. Rool's strong, intangible up aerial. In addition, it only deals 4 frames of shieldstun with both the aerial and landing hitboxes, making it extremely unsafe on shield (-17 with the landing hitbox). Due to how the shield is hit in-context, this usually allows opponents to jump out of shield and avoid the landing hitbox, making it even less safe.

Update History

2.0.0

• Down aerial auto-cancels earlier (frame 51 → 49), matching the move's interruptibility and allowing the move to auto-cancel after a full hop + Fire.

4.0.0

• Down aerial no longer has its downward movement disabled when used out of hitstun.

Hitboxes

ID	Part	Rehit rate	Damage	SD	Angle	Angle type	BK	KS	FKV	Set weight	Radius	Bone	Offset			H×	SDI×	T%	Clang	Rebound	Effect	Type	G	A	Sound	Direct	Hit bits	Hit part	Blockable	Reflectable	Absorbable	Flinchless	No GFX	Heedless
Clean hit
0	0	0	11.0%	0		Standard	20	106	0		4.0	top	0.0	-6.5	0.8	1.0×	1.0×	0%							Kick		All	All
Late hit
0	0	0	11.0%	0		Standard	22	117	0		4.0	top	0.0	-8.0	-0.6 to 2.2	1.0×	1.0×	0%							Kick		All	All
Landing
0	0	0	3.5%	0		Standard	60	50	0		5.5	top	0.0	2.0	5.0 to -2.2	1.0×	1.0×	0%							Kick		All	All

Timing

Attack

The move first sets Mr. Game & Watch's vertical momentum to 1 on frames 1-11, then to -3.1 from frame 12 onward.

Initial autocancel	1-5
Clean hit	12-13
Late hit	14-38
Ending autocancel	50-
Interruptible	50
Animation length	51

Landing lag

Hitboxes	1-2
Interruptible	23
Animation length	35

Legend (1 square = 1 frame)

Lag time

Hitbox

Hitbox change

Autocancel

Interruptible

Trivia

• The clean hit is coded as an extended hitbox despite not actually being extended. This prevents it from interpolating.

Mr. Game & Watch's moveset

Neutral attack (1 · inf) · Forward tilt · Up tilt · Down tilt · Dash attack · Forward smash · Up smash · Down smash
Neutral aerial · Forward aerial · Back aerial · Up aerial · Down aerial
Grab · Pummel · Forward throw · Back throw · Up throw · Down throw
Forward roll · Back roll · Spot dodge · Air dodge · Techs
Floor attack (front) · Floor getups (front) · Floor attack (back) · Floor getups (back) · Floor attack (trip) · Floor getups (trip)
Edge attack · Edge getups
Neutral special · Side special · Up special · Down special · Final Smash