Samus (SSB)/Up tilt

Hitbox visualization showing Samus's up tilt.

Overview[edit]

Samus raises her leg high and drops it like an axe, with the attack consisting of two hits; the first deals 8% and very low knockback, and the second deals 13% and higher horizontal knockback. This attack hits above Samus at the beginning and in front of her at the end. It has decent range both above and in front of Samus and it even has some range behind Samus.

The move in general is very slow, however, with high startup lag and a long total duration. The early hit comes out on frame 8 which is not too slow but the late hit does not come out until frame 25, which is incredibly slow for a tilt attack. Its very high startup lag means that the move can easily be avoided on reaction and the opponent can punish Samus during its startup. To make matters worse, the move has a clean hit and a late hit rather than two different sets of hitboxes so if the Samus player connects the first hit, they cannot land the second hit at all. The early hit is unsafe on shield and it is even punishable on hit until high percents, making it detrimental to hit. This also means that while the move can be used as an anti-air, it is completely useless for this purpose, as Samus can be punished for landing it. The second hit is stronger and more rewarding but its knockback isn't even that strong for an up tilt, especially considering is abysmal speed. The move does not have a lot of ending lag after the second hit and the second hit does give Samus a decent amount of frame advantage on shield but it isn't quite extreme enough to lead into Samus' strong shield pressure and its slow speed means that the opponent can avoid shielding it in the first place.

Its only potential use is for edgeguarding. The move launches opponents horizontally and it can hit characters hanging on the edge, due to its hitbox extending below the platform, so it can be used for this purpose. However, its slow speed makes it difficult to land even in this situation and Samus has much faster options which do the same thing but more effectively such as down tilt and down aerial. It can also lead into followups if the opponent hits a wall due to its fairly low ending lag but in a tournament setting, the chances of Samus hitting the opponent with the move and the opponent ledge DIing the move on Dream Land into a potential followup are extremely low.

Overall, Samus' up tilt is not only one of Samus' worst moves but also one of the worst moves in the game. The move does not work properly, it is way too slow and the reward for landing it is too low at best and downright punishing at worst. As a result, the move is almost never used in competitive play. Interestingly, Captain Falcon possesses a near identical up tilt although his is superior in almost every way being faster, stronger and it actually has two sets of hitboxes, giving his up tilt some use.