Unconventional meteor smash

An unconventional meteor smash is an attack that has a downwards knockback angle but is not intended to KO opponents by meteor smashing them. While it is possible to gain meteor KOs with these attacks, they are implausible at best, and exist for an alternate purpose.

There are three general types of unconventional meteor smashes:

• A meteor smash that can only hit grounded opponents, intended to keep opponents in place or force targets to bounce upwards. These attacks can Star KO if strong enough.
• A meteor smash that is cancelled out by later hitboxes of the attack, and cannot hit on their own in most circumstances. Several attacks use such hitboxes to trap opponents during multi-hit moves.
• An attack that uses the autolink angle will always hit opponents in the direction the user is moving, whatever that direction may be, but it may be implausible for the user to move downwards during the attack.

List of unconventional meteor smashes

In Super Smash Bros.

Kirby

• Forward aerial - the linking hits of Kirby's forward aerial are meteor smashes, though the move's final hit is not and is guaranteed to override them. By using this downward hit, it is possible to connect the earlier hits of forward air into an forward smash, up tilt, or even an up smash depending percent.

Samus

• Screw Attack - The top hitboxes use downwards angles in order to keep opponents trapped in the attack. It is believed to be impossible to avoid being struck by the final non-meteor hitbox.

In Super Smash Bros. Melee

Jigglypuff

• Down aerial - The hitboxes of this move have meteor smash properties, but they only work on grounded opponents, keeping them in place for the rest of the move to hit. If the move is landed on an aerial opponent, it sends them sideways.

Kirby

• Down throw - The no-damage hits dealt as Kirby repeatedly kicks the opponent are weak, fixed-knockback meteor smashes.

Mario

• Mario Tornado - When in the air, the center of the move uses a meteor smash to aid in trapping opponents. It is very difficult to avoid connecting with the final two, non-meteor hits.

Peach

• Down throw - The first, no-damage hit is a weak meteor smash if any bystanders are nearby.

Samus

• Up tilt - The attack meteor smashes grounded opponents.

Items

• Super Scope - Uncharged shots act as meteor smashes to keep opponents trapped unless they are off stage. It has very low knockback growth, so at very high percentage, it causes opponents to bounce back up.
• Mr. Saturn - Thrown Mr. Saturns produce weak fixed-knockback meteor smashes on grounded opponents, intended to keep them in place while still forcing them to flinch.
• Poké Ball Pokémon:
  • Suicune - The top center of the blizzard acts as a trapping meteor smash.
  • Togepi - Powder Snow acts as a meteor smash, meaning that unlike most other freezing attacks, targets do not fly into the sky.

Enemies and bosses

• Fighting Wire Frames - Unlike Zelda, the Female Wire Frame's down throw is a meteor smash.
• Master Hand - The Finger Drill, while falling down before drilling, acts as a meteor smash to knock targets into the base of the attack.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Diddy Kong

• Dash attack - Parts of the attack hit the opponent downwards.

Ike

• Eruption - This move meteor smashes if the opponent is underneath Ike and gets hit only by the tip without the fire effect. However, the meteor smash hitbox can only be landed on grounded opponents as airborne opponents are hit by the usual hitbox.
• Great Aether - When Ike slams his opponent to the ground at the end of the Final Smash, the game recognizes it as a meteor smash. However, it is impossible to actually meteor smash opponents with this without hacking.

Jigglypuff

• Down aerial - Like in Melee, the attack only hits downwards on grounded opponents, and instead hits horizontally on aerial ones.

King Dedede

• Down aerial - The first few hits are extremely weak meteor smashes that are usually cancelled by the last hits of the down aerial that do not meteor smash. As such, it is generally impractical to use as a meteor smash.

Olimar

• Up tilt - Jumps and spins around. The looping hitbox near his helmet and antenna aims downwards, though it has the lowest knockback.
• Neutral aerial - Just like his up tilt, the helmet hitbox has minimal downwards knockback.

Peach

• Down throw - The first, no-damage hit is a weak meteor smash if any bystanders are nearby.

Pit

• Up smash - The first swipe contains a weak meteor smash to set up for the second and third hit, which launch upwards. This move is difficult to use unless the opponent only connects with the first hit.

Pokémon Trainer

• Ivysaur
  • Neutral aerial - Ivysaur spins in the air, producing a hitbox that meteor smashes on the bottom of its body. It is very weak and difficult to meteor smash with because of the small hitbox.
• Charizard
  • Back aerial - Charizard sweeps its tail behind it. It consists of two hits, with the first hit being a meteor smash. However, it is extremely weak with fixed knockback, and is meant to hit opponents into the second, much stronger hitbox that sends opponents on a horizontal trajectory.

Samus

• Up tilt - Samus lifts her leg up, and slams it downwards. It has a meteor smash hitbox, however it can only be landed on grounded opponents.
• Screw Attack - Some hitboxes have downwards hitboxes, but they are always canceled out by the rest of the attack. The hitboxes have an angle of 240, the most diagonal meteor smash known in Brawl.

Snake

• Forward tilt - The first hit of Snake's forward tilt contains a weak meteor smash with set knockback. As such, it produces no knockback on grounded opponents and is only meant to lead the first hit into the second hit of Snake's forward tilt. It is impossible to land this meteor smash on airborne opponents as the first hit produces a different hitbox on them that sends airborne opponents on a horizontal trajectory.
• Neutral aerial - Snake does 4 consecutive kicks. The third hit has a meteor smash, but is very weak; it exists to sweetspot the last hit and has set knockback.
• Down aerial - Consists of four stomps, with the first three containing ground-only, fixed-knockback meteor smashes.

Sonic

• Up tilt - Part of the first kick of Sonic's up tilt can meteor smash, but like the rest of the first kick it has set knockback.
• Up smash - All hits but the first and the last of Sonic's up smash can meteor smash if the opponent is in a precise position. Actually meteor smashing an opponent this way is difficult since the opponent must DI out of the attack before the last hit connects, which is made even more difficult since the hits have reduced SDI capacity and give only 1 frame of leeway.

Wario

• Down aerial - The looping hitboxes of the move's upper half are meteor smashes, while the final one is not.

Zelda

• Up smash - All hits but the last can meteor smash if the opponent is in a precise position. Actually meteor smashing an opponent this way is difficult since the opponent must DI out of the attack before the last hit connects, which is made even more difficult since the hits have almost no SDI capacity and give only 1 frame of leeway.

Items

• Mr. Saturn - Just like in Melee, Mr. Saturns have weak downwards knockback on grounded opponents.

Enemies and bosses

• Duon - Duon's spinning attack traps opponents with a downwards diagonal angle.
• Glunder - Part of the electrical burst sends targets downwards.
• Master Hand/Crazy Hand - Parts of the Finger Drill keep opponents trapped with meteor smashes, while the launch of Crazy Hand's Jetstream is also a meteor.

In Super Smash Bros. 4

Bowser Jr.

• Down aerial - The looping hits of the attack contain a meteor hitbox.

Charizard

• Up smash - Has a trapping meteor.

Dark Pit

• Up aerial - Has a trapping meteor.

Falco

• Up tilt - The first hit has a meteor smash to try and stop high opponents from getting away from the second hit.

Fox

• Down aerial - The looping hits of the attack contain a meteor hitbox.

Ganondorf

• Beast Ganon - The burying hit is a meteor smash, but only on grounded opponents (which are buried instead). The paralyzing hit is also a meteor smash, though it is impractical to receive downwards knockback from it before the main attack comes through.

Ike

• Eruption - Meteor smashes at the tip of the blade on grounded opponents.

Jigglypuff

• Down aerial - The loop hit has a trapping meteor.
• Spinphony - The non-reversing hits are meteor smashes of incredibly weak fixed knockback.

King Dedede

• Forward tilt - A meteor smash is used during the loop hits to keep opponents trapped.
• Dedede Storm - Uses meteor smash hitboxes to drag opponents inwards.
• Dedede Burst - The 1% hitbox of the move contains a meteor smash.

Kirby

• Down throw - All but the last of the looping hits are meteor smashes.

Meta Knight

• Down throw - All but the last of the looping hits are meteor smashes.

Mii Gunner

• Up smash - The third and fourth hits contain trapping meteors.

Olimar

• Neutral aerial - Has a trapping meteor.

Peach

• Down tilt - Meteor smashes grounded opponents.
• Down throw - The first hit now does damage, but it's still a weak bystanders-only meteor smash.

Pikachu

• Forward aerial - Has a trapping meteor.

Pit

• Up aerial - Has a trapping meteor.

R.O.B.

• Up throw - Meteors opponents if R.O.B. does not make contact on the ground but is nearly impossible to pull off unless in Doubles or playing on a stage with moving platforms.

Roy

• Up smash - Similar to Melee, Roy's up smash meteors during the first few hits, but the hitbox is small.

Samus

• Up tilt - Samus lifts her leg up, and slams it downwards. It has a meteor smash hitbox, however it can only be landed on grounded opponents.
• Forward aerial - The first hit of the move is a weak meteor smash of fixed knockback.

Wario

• Down aerial - The loop hits contain a meteor smash, but only for keeping opponents trapped, and most of the hitboxes are not meteors.

Yoshi

• Down aerial - The looping hits contain meteor smashes. Sometimes the last hit misses, causing a meteor smash.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Bowser

• Whirling Fortress - The grounded version uses a trapping meteor.

Bowser Jr.

• Down aerial - Uses a trapping meteor for aerial opponents.

Charizard

• Up smash - Has trapping meteors on the first hit

Cloud

• Cross Slash - The third hit has a trapping meteor.

Chrom

• Up smash - Multihits use a trapping meteor at the top of Chrom's sword.

Daisy

• Down tilt - Meteor smashes grounded opponents.
• Down throw - Toad's headbutt is a weak meteor smash.

Dark Samus

• Up tilt - Meteor smashes grounded opponents.

Duck Hunt

• Down aerial - The first hit meteor smashes weakly to lead into the second hit.

Falco

• Up tilt - The first hit uses a meteor smash at its tip to prevent the second hit from missing.

Jigglypuff

• Down aerial - The multihits use a trapping meteor.

King K. Rool

• Up smash - Has a meteor smash active for 1 frame just as he begins to "plank".

Kirby

• Down throw - all hitboxes except the last one are weak meteor smashes.

Lucas

• Back aerial - The move is able to meteor smash only grounded opponents on frame 19.
• Down aerial - Hits 1-3 use weak meteor smashes to make sure opponents don't fall out of the move.

Mewtwo

• Up smash - Hits 1-3 us a trapping meteor.

Mii Brawler

• Onslaught - The penultimate hit is a trapping meteor smash.

Olimar

• Neutral aerial - The hitbox on Olimar's head is a weak meteor smash used to trap people in the move.
• End of Day - Before taking off, the Hocotate Ship uses a meteor smash hitbox to bury grounded opponents.

Pac-Man

• Down aerial - The move meteor smashes aerial opponents close to Pac-Man's body to ensure the final hit lands.

Palutena

• Forward tilt - The middle part of the first hit is a trapping meteor on the tip of the staff.

Peach

• Down tilt - Meteor smashes grounded opponents.
• Down throw - Toad's headbutt is a weak meteor smash.

Pikachu

• Forward aerial - The multihits use meteor smashes above Pikachu to keep opponents in the move.

R.O.B.

• Up aerial - Hits 1-3 use a trapping meteor.

Roy

• Up smash - The multihits use a trapping meteor at the tip of Roy's sword.

Samus

• Up tilt - Meteor smashes grounded opponents.

Snake

• Down aerial - The first 3 hits meteor smash grounded opponents to prevent them from moving away from the last hit.
• Down throw - The throw uses an angle of 270° but is overriden by the downing effect

Wario

• Down aerial - The loop hits contain a meteor smash, but only for keeping opponents trapped, and most of the hitboxes are not meteors.

Zelda

• Neutral aerial - The first four hits use meteor smashes to keep aerial opponents in the move.

Zero Suit Samus

• Up smash - Hits 2-6 use a trapping meteor smash.
• Boost Kick - The penultimate hit uses a trapping meteor smash.

External links

• Wario can be hit by unconventional meteor smashes on his bike