Neutral special move

Captain Falcon's neutral special move, Falcon Punch in Brawl.

Charizard's Flamethrower.

The neutral special move (also commonly referred to as neutral B, standard B, or simply B, known officially as a standard special move) is a special attack performed by pressing the special move button without holding a direction on the control stick. Many of these moves are projectiles, which can be used repeatedly to rack up damage indirectly and/or hinder the enemy's approach.

With the introduction of the Side Special Move in Melee, several character's neutral special moves were changed to side specials (Jigglypuff, Link, and Ness). In Brawl, Kirby and Link had their moves renamed.

Reverse neutral special move

Mewtwo reversing his direction in mid air.

A reverse neutral special move allows a character in mid-air to use a neutral special in the opposite direction that they're facing. This requires a different method than simply holding backward and pressing 'B', as this would activate the side special move. Instead, one must tap the control stick in that direction and allow it to return to its neutral position before pressing 'B'.

In Melee and Brawl, the player can perform a reverse neutral special move by tapping the control stick in the opposite direction they are facing right after they press 'B'.

In Brawl, this can be done on the ground as well. The technique is also pulled off in the same way as the reverse Falcon/Warlock Punch. The technique has a smaller window in Melee, thus is a bit harder to perform consistently.

In Brawl, when performed in the air, some characters will get a bounce in the direction the player tapped the control stick in. Because of this, characters with neutral special moves that cancel their momentum will not get the bounce, but will turn around. Other characters will only get a small, almost unseeable bounce, in which the turn around-effect is also the only profit. This bounce is often called wavebouncing. It is, however, performed in a different way than regular wavebouncing, which requires the player to use the C-stick for specials. Reverse neutral special moves can also be reversed while running to attack behind the character without having to stop or turn around, most characters will also receive a small boost to whichever way the character ends up facing, some characters will also receive a notably bigger boost then other characters when turning around, these characters are Marth and Ike.

In Smash 64, while reverse neutral special moves don't exist, it is possible to turn around while performing a neutral special move by simply tilting the Control Stick left or right, as side specials don't exist in this game.

List of neutral special moves

Character	Neutral Special Move
Bowser	Fire Breath
Captain Falcon	Falcon Punch
Diddy Kong	Peanut Popgun
Donkey Kong	Giant Punch
Dr. Mario	Megavitamin
Falco	Blaster
Fox	Blaster
Ganondorf	Warlock Punch
Ice Climbers	Ice Shot
Ike	Eruption
Jigglypuff	Pound (SSB) Rollout (Melee, Brawl)
King Dedede	Inhale
Kirby	Inhale
Link	Boomerang (SSB) Hero's Bow (Melee, Brawl, SSB4)
Lucas	PK Freeze
Lucario	Aura Sphere
Luigi	Fireball
Mario	Fireball
Marth	Shield Breaker
Mega Man	N/A
Meta Knight	Mach Tornado
Mewtwo	Shadow Ball
Mr. Game & Watch	Chef
Ness	PK Fire (SSB), PK Flash (Melee, Brawl)
Peach	Toad
Pichu	Thunder Jolt
Pikachu	Thunder Jolt
Olimar	Pikmin Pluck
Pit	Palutena's Arrow
Pokémon Trainer	Charizard – Flamethrower Ivysaur – Bullet Seed Squirtle – Water Gun
R.O.B.	Robo Beam
Rosalina	N/A
Roy	Flare Blade
Samus	Charge Shot
Sheik	Needle Storm
Solid Snake	Hand Grenade
Sonic	Homing Attack
Toon Link	Bow
Villager	N/A
Wario	Chomp
Wii Fit Trainer	N/A
Wolf	Blaster
Yoshi	Egg Lay
Young Link	Fire Bow
Zelda	Nayru's Love
Zero Suit Samus	Paralyzer

Trivia

• Neutral special moves tend to be a character's weakest or strongest special move; they are rarely in between.