Smash attack

Smash attack inputs with the four different control schemes in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Mario's forward smash in Brawl, in which he sends out a powerful explosion from his hand, which does heavy damage and knockback.

The namesake of the Super Smash Bros. series, a smash attack (スマッシュ攻撃) is a grounded move which is used to deal "finishing blows" to an opponent.

It is performed by "tapping" the control stick and pressing the attack button at the same time. It can also be done by tapping the C-stick in the multi-player modes of Melee, or any mode in Brawl and SSB4. SSB4 also added the ability to charge a smash attack by holding a direction on the control stick and pressing the A and B buttons simultaneously. The three types of smashes are the forward smash, up smash and down smash. Despite the name, smash attacks are not related to Final Smashes.

Description

Smash attacks generally have higher knockback compared to other attacks in a character's arsenal. Uncharged smash attacks typically do around 13% to 24% damage varying on the character used. In every game since Melee, they can be charged by holding the buttons down, giving them more damage and knockback. A smash attack may be charged for up to 60 frames, or 1 second, although charging begins at different times depending on the move. A fully-charged smash attack does 1.3671× damage in Melee and 1.4× damage in Brawl, Smash 4, and Ultimate. For example, a smash attack that normally does 16% damage will do 21.8736% damage when fully charged in Melee, while it will do 22.4% fully charged in Brawl, Smash 4, and Ultimate.

A character receives 1.2× additional knockback when hit while charging a smash attack prior to Ultimate (akin to the counter hit mechanic in other fighting games).

Some forward smashes can be angled in the same way forward tilts can - depending on the angle and the attack, a different amount of damage may be dealt. Usually, smash attacks deal extra damage when angled up and less when angled down (usually a 1% or 2% difference), with the only trade-off being the difficulty in hitting shorter targets when angled up, making an upward angled forward smash better for hitting opponents jumping near the player. Angled smash attacks can have other properties as well, such as Luigi's forward smash gaining extra IASA frames when angled up in Brawl, or Little Mac's forward smash being totally different depending on where it is angled.

Smash attacks are often powerful finishing moves and/or large attacks, however, they sometimes tend to be laggy: they usually come out slower than a neutral or tilted attacks, and have longer endlag, a prominent example being Palutena's smash attacks, which have notable startup lag and among the highest cooldown. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule, with notable examples being Pikachu's forward smash, Mario's up smash (except in SSB) and Mr. Game & Watch's smash attacks, all of which have low cooldown while only his up smash has noticeably high startup. A character who spams smash attacks is easy to counter in most scenarios and all skill levels of play. As with any attack, the smash attack's power will also be affected with stale-move negation when it is overused. At the same time, frequently spamming via charging them at inappropriate times can also warrant increased knockback as aforementioned, which foes can easily use as an amplified and deadly punish.

Battering items such as the Fan, Lip's Stick, or the Beam Sword have their own forward smash, and can also be charged (except for the Home-Run Bat). Using a smash attack to throw an item often deals more damage than simply tilt-throwing it.

In the games

Super Smash Bros.

While smash attacks were introduced in the first game, they could not be charged. As such they were slightly less powerful overall than in subsequent games, where they can be charged to KO at lower percentages.

Super Smash Bros. Melee

Smash attacks can now be charged, dealing 1.3671× more damage when fully charged. In Versus mode, smashes can also be performed by pressing the C-stick in any direction (in single-player mode the C-stick controls the camera). Holding the Z button or A button while pressing the C-stick results in charging the smash.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Since Brawl, smash attacks' damage multiplier have been rounded from 1.3671× to 1.4x, making them stronger. One can play the game with 4 different controller setups. While the Wii Remote, the Wii Remote and the Nunchuk, GameCube Controller, and the Classic Controller all have control sticks to perform Smash attacks the standard way, when using the Wii Controller on its side, one can also press the direction they are attacking and press both the 1 and 2 buttons at the same time. However, though it is stated in the photo, the 1 button is not required to perform a smash attack. When attacks are charged in Brawl, characters now move while flashing as opposed to just freezing then unleashing the attack since smash attacks now have a separate animation while charging as opposed to looping a single frame from the main smash attack animation. Smash attacks also have a separate start up animation which will then either transition into the main attack animation or the charging animation. Like in Melee, a small sound can be heard when charging a smash attack. For most characters, it's the same cracking sound from Melee except much less dull, but certain characters such as Yoshi, Kirby, and Pikachu now make a squeaking noise instead.

Super Smash Bros. 4

Mechanically, smash attacks seem virtually unchanged from the previous game; only aesthetic and control differences. One change to Smash attacks is that like in Melee, they have one animation with the move's script calling for a command on a certain frame to determine whether the attack will be charged or not as opposed to having a separate startup animation which then transitions into either the main animation or the charging animation. Smash attacks still have separate charging animations however. This mostly has no impact on gameplay although it does benefit Meta Knight's down smash as since it only has one animation instead of two, the move can be performed one frame faster if buffered. Update 1.0.6 added the ability to charge smash attacks with the A + B buttons.

The cracking charge sound effect has been replaced by a short drumbeat while the squeaking sound has been changed to a twittering sound effect. Additionally, two new charging sound effects have been added, with one of them being a swishing sound effect that's used by female characters such as Peach, Zelda, and Rosalina and the other one being a sharpening sound effect that's used by weapon-wielding characters such as Link and Marth. Using smash attacks with battering items will change the charging sound effect for certain characters. For example, Peach's changes to the drumbeat, Wii Fit Trainer's changes to the swish, and Villager's changes to the twittering.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

In Ultimate, smash attacks can still be charged for 1 second. However, they can also be held for an additional 2 seconds after that, not increasing their power any further, but allowing the attack to be held for a more controllable amount of time.

In addition, the game allows the 1.4x full charge damage, the 1 second of charging, and 2 seconds of holding to be set individually per smash per character. Currently, these attributes are only used to weaken certain smashes to having a full charge damage of 1.2x and a hold time of 1 second. These exceptions are:

• Bayonetta - all smashes
• Mega Man - forward smash
• Ness - up and down smashes (only 30 frames after version 3.0.0)
• Olimar - all smashes
• Villager - forward smash

Additionally, as of version 11.0.0, Min Min can hold her forward smash for only 30 frames, or half a second, a far shorter duration than any other character. However, unlike the aforementioned characters, she does not incur in any charge damage penalty.

It is clear from these exceptions that smashes that use projectiles or long-disjoint props are being balanced with lesser attributes.

Charging Sounds

• Cracking/Drumbeat: The crackling/drumbeat sound effect plays charging a smash attack. Generically used with many characters.
• Squeaking/Twittering: A squeaking/twittering sound effect plays when charging a smash attack. Used mostly by cartoony or lightweight characters.
• Swishing: A swishing sound effect along with a small drumbeat sound plays when charging a smash attack. Used by most female characters.
• Sharpening: A sharpening sound effect plays when charging a smash attack. Used mostly by sword-wielding characters.
• Unique: A unique sound effect plays when charging a smash attack.

Fighter
Banjo & Kazooie			Drumbeat
Bayonetta		Unique4	Unique4
Bowser	Cracking	Drumbeat	Drumbeat
Bowser Jr.		Drumbeat	Drumbeat
Byleth			Drumbeat6
Captain Falcon	Cracking	Drumbeat	Drumbeat
Charizard	Cracking	Drumbeat	Drumbeat
Chrom			Sharpening
Cloud		Sharpening	Sharpening
Corrin		Sharpening	Sharpening
Daisy			Swishing1
Dark Pit		Drumbeat	Drumbeat
Dark Samus			Drumbeat
Diddy Kong	Squeaking	Twittering	Twittering
Donkey Kong	Cracking	Drumbeat	Drumbeat
Dr. Mario		Drumbeat	Drumbeat
Duck Hunt		Drumbeat	Drumbeat
Falco	Cracking	Drumbeat	Drumbeat
Fox	Cracking	Drumbeat	Drumbeat
Ganondorf	Cracking	Drumbeat	Drumbeat
Giga Bowser	Cracking	Drumbeat
Giga Mac		Drumbeat
Greninja		Drumbeat	Drumbeat
Hero			Sharpening2
Ice Climbers	Squeaking		Twittering
Ike	Cracking	Sharpening1	Sharpening
Incineroar			Drumbeat
Inkling			Drumbeat
Isabelle			Drumbeat3
Ivysaur	Cracking		Drumbeat
Jigglypuff	Squeaking	Twittering	Twittering
Joker			Sharpening
Kazuya			Drumbeat5
Ken			Drumbeat
King Dedede	Cracking	Drumbeat	Drumbeat
King K. Rool			Drumbeat
Kirby	Squeaking	Twittering	Twittering
Link	Cracking	Sharpening1	Sharpening
Little Mac		Drumbeat	Drumbeat
Lucario	Cracking	Drumbeat	Drumbeat
Lucas	Squeaking	Twittering	Twittering
Lucina		Sharpening	Sharpening
Luigi	Cracking	Drumbeat	Drumbeat
Mario	Cracking	Drumbeat	Drumbeat
Marth	Cracking	Sharpening	Sharpening
Mega Lucario		Drumbeat
Mega Man		Drumbeat	Drumbeat
Meta Knight	Cracking	Drumbeat	Drumbeat
Mewtwo		Drumbeat	Drumbeat
Mii Brawler		Drumbeat	Drumbeat
Mii Gunner		Drumbeat	Drumbeat
Mii Swordfighter		Sharpening1	Sharpening
Min Min			Drumbeat
Mr. Game & Watch	Cracking	Unique	Unique
Mythra			Sharpening
Ness	Squeaking	Twittering	Twittering
Olimar	Squeaking	Twittering	Twittering
Pac-Man		Drumbeat	Drumbeat
Palutena		Swishing	Swishing
Peach	Cracking	Swishing1	Swishing1
Pichu			Twittering
Pikachu	Squeaking	Twittering	Twittering
Piranha Plant			Drumbeat
Pit	Cracking	Drumbeat	Drumbeat
Pyra			Sharpening
R.O.B.	Cracking	Drumbeat	Drumbeat
Richter			Drumbeat
Ridley			Drumbeat
Robin		Sharpening	Sharpening
Rosalina		Swishing1	Swishing1
Roy		Sharpening	Sharpening
Ryu		Drumbeat	Drumbeat
Samus	Cracking	Drumbeat	Drumbeat
Sephiroth			Sharpening
Sheik	Cracking	Drumbeat	Drumbeat
Shulk		Drumbeat	Drumbeat
Simon			Drumbeat
Snake	Cracking		Drumbeat
Sonic	Cracking	Drumbeat	Drumbeat
Sora			Drumbeat5
Squirtle	Squeaking		Drumbeat
Steve			Drumbeat5
Terry			Drumbeat
Toon Link	Cracking	Drumbeat	Drumbeat
Villager		Drumbeat3	Drumbeat3
Wario	Cracking	Drumbeat	Drumbeat
Wario-Man	Squeaking	Drumbeat
Wii Fit Trainer		Unique4	Unique4
Wolf	Cracking		Drumbeat
Yoshi	Squeaking	Twittering	Twittering
Young Link			Sharpening
Zelda	Cracking	Swishing1	Swishing1
Zero Suit Samus		Swishing	Swishing

1: Uses drumbeat sound effect when charging battering items.
2: Uses drumbeat sound effect when charging either a Killing Edge or Death's Scythe.
3: Uses twittering sound effect when charging battering items.
4: Uses swishing sound effect when charging battering items.
5: Uses sharpening sound effect when charging battering items.
6: Uses sharpening sound effect when charging all battering items except Death's Scythe, which uses no sound effect.

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U digital manual description

"Either tap and press at the same time or just tilt to deliver a smash attack and launch your enemy. The attack will change depending on the direction you flick /."