Meta Knight (SSBB)

Meta Knight in Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Universe	Kirby
Other playable appearance	in SSB4
Availability	Starter
Final Smash	Galaxia Darkness
Tier	SS (1)

“	A rival to Kirby who boasts mach-speed sword attacks that overwhelm opponents.	”
—Brawl manual description

Unveiled at E3 2006, Meta Knight (メタナイト, Meta Knight), commonly abbreviated as MK, is a character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Originally from the Kirby universe, Meta Knight joins the brawl as a starter character who wields a sword, Galaxia, as his primary weapon.

Meta Knight is notable for being at the top of the Super Smash Bros. Brawl tier list due to numerous advantages. His attacks generally have extremely high speed in terms of both startup and ending lag, and nearly all of his standard attacks have transcendent priority. He is in almost no trouble offstage due to a large amount of recovery options that grant him a long, relatively safe and unpredictable recovery, along with extremely effective edgeguarding options including moves that can wall of pain, two semi-spikes, and easy stage spikes against certain characters. Meta Knight's edge play is unarguably the best in the game, as is his ability to gimp opponents. He also has many great combo setups, with a very strong combo game due to easily being able to string many of his attacks together, as well as some of his moves being able to break opponent combos. His KO moves are quick, powerful, and reliable. Meta Knight can easily play very aggressively due to the speed and power of his attacks, but he can also play defensively without much trouble, with his aerials being able to space well and his great ability to air camp, along with his very fast roll and air dodge (though his spot dodge is only average). The former also gives him access to a huge glide toss that is fast and covers a very long distance. Meta Knight has incredible matchups; he has no overall disadvantageous matchups along with three other characters from the Smash series (Pikachu in Smash 64 and Fox and Falco in Melee), and currently only Pikachu is considered to have an even matchup against him, but even this is heavily disputable with mixed to negative reactions among the competitive community and many believed the matchup to be in Meta Knight's favour.

This does not mean he has no disadvantages, however. Meta Knight is a lightweight character, meaning he is knocked out fairly easily, especially against characters with many high-power attacks such as Snake. He also has a small shield which makes him somewhat vulnerable to shield stabbing from certain characters. His poor air speed and slow grab release animation also make him suspectible to grab release combos from many characters, most notably Marth, who can combo Meta Knight into a variety of moves, including forward aerial, dash attack, Dancing Blade, short hop Dolphin Slash, buffered down aerial, buffered up aerial, or buffered neutral aerial from his air release. Meta Knight additionally may have trouble KO'ing against good DI and/or momentum cancelling, particularly if his best finishers are getting stale. He also has many multi-hit moves that are easily SDIable, limiting his ability to rack up damage easily, along with his moves generally dealing average damage.

Due to his incredible fighting prowess, general unpopularity in the Super Smash Bros. community (he was and is considered "broken" among many), negligible weaknesses and over-centralisation of the metagame, Meta Knight was banned for a time between January 9th, 2012 and April 16, 2012 from the Unity Ruleset, which was being pushed as the only valid ruleset. This makes Meta Knight the only character in the Super Smash Bros. series who has been banned from a standardized tournament ruleset. Even prior to his banning, he has been placed in his own tier at the very top of the tier list. Since the Unity Ruleset committee has been disbanded, it is once again up to each tournament's organizer whether Meta Knight should be banned or not.

Attributes

Meta Knight, as seen in the first trailer for Brawl at E3 2006.

Meta Knight is a small character, roughly the same size and shape as Kirby (although he has a cape that transforms into a pair of bat-like wings) and with the same weight as Pikachu. With proper DI and partial momentum canceling, he can be hard to KO, despite his light weight. Meta Knight's small size and low weight mean that he is difficult to chaingrab and combo, but due to his poor, short-distanced air release, many characters can grab-release-chaingrab him or grab-release-combo him into an aerial attack, such as Marth being able to combo him into a variety of moves including down aerial meteor smash, and Zero Suit Samus and Captain Falcon being able to combo him into an up aerial. Meta Knight's dashing speed and rolls are quite swift (sixth fastest dashing speed and the fastest roll in the game), but his air speed outside of a glide or any special move is very poor, being the third worst out of the entire cast, tied with Ivysaur.

Meta Knight's wings provide him with five midair jumps and the ability to glide twice (by pressing and holding the jump button and then using his up special). His moveset is mostly comprised of fast, short-to-long-ranged moves with his sword Galaxia, which deal relatively low damage and knockback, but can combo effectively at low percentages. The low power is compensated for by the fast speed and minimal lag of most of the attacks, allowing Meta Knight to easily set up combos and rack up damage, not to mention that only his dash attack, glide attack, Drill Rush, and Mach Tornado lack transcendent priority (though this actually makes Mach Tornado more difficult to interrupt). Meta Knight has among the best KO abilities in the game, in part due to his amazing edgeguarding and gimping abilities that can finish off almost any character that gets knocked offstage, along with his aerial Shuttle Loop being able to KO at as low as 75% near the edge. Meta Knight also has several moves that can reliably KO under 150% - including forward smash, down smash, up tilt, neutral aerial, glide attack, and grounded Shuttle Loop. However, his forward smash, his most powerful finisher, has rather high startup lag, and his up tilt requires a sweetspot on the tip of his sword that is difficult to land. Most of his finishers don't deliver the strongest knockback and DI is particularly effective against them. Meta Knight can also score situational vertical KOs from up aerial, Mach Tornado, and up throw.

An example can be seen in his up aerial, which when combined with his multiple jumps can combo into itself to 30% or more damage and/or other moves because of its speed and low base knockback. Some of his attacks, such as his down Smash and up tilt, have a sweetspot at the tip of sword (resembling Marth´s sweetspot on most of his attacks) that does more damage and knockback. Many of Meta Knight's multi-hit attacks (such as his forward and back aerials, forward tilt, up smash and Mach Tornado) are useful in racking up damage, but can all be escaped with proper SDI. Meta Knight's most reliable KO moves are his down and side smashes, glide attack, neutral aerial and Shuttle Loop. Meta Knight is one of only two characters (the other being Sonic) possessing multiple special moves that may be used to recover, giving him an unpredictable recovery as well as enhancing his edgeguarding game. In particular, his Shuttle Loop makes him very dangerous to edgeguarders because of its high base knockback and transcendent priority, which by the same token, can be used to edgeguard Meta Knight's opponents as well. A common mistake many beginners tend to make is using Meta Knight's specials and accidentally veering off stage, helpless, resulting in a self destruct.

Meta Knight lacks a projectile, but his Mach Tornado can neutralize opponent's projectiles provided they don't do 10% or more of damage and are not transcendent. His small hurtbox also allows him to evade many of them, though his poor air speed makes him vulnerable to attacks like Thunder. Other abilities include his ability to use his Dimensional Cape for mind games, Wing Dashing (an ability shared but more effectively used by Pit and Charizard) which involves canceling the attack and the landing lag while sliding forward, leaving him completely free to use another attack (such as a down smash or Shuttle Loop to catch the opponent offguard) or defend himself, and having two excellent approach attacks: Mach Tornado and Drill Rush, giving him a very unpredictable approach game. Meta Knight's Final Smash, Galaxia Darkness, can be difficult to land and does little damage and knockback compared to other characters' Final Smashes. It can, however, hit numerous enemies. Final Smashes are banned in the vast majority of tournaments, and as such have little impact on his metagame.

Moveset

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack			1-2% (loop)	When held, Meta Knight yells and executes a lightning-fast series of slashes that can also hit enemies behind him. Can set-up a d-smash if buffered correctly.
Forward tilt			4%	Slashes twice in front of him (inward then outward), then once upwards. Last hit deals vertical knockback. Only pressing the attack button once will cause Meta Knight to perform only the first hit; press it twice more to slash the second and third times. At higher percentages, it's difficult (if not impossible) to connect all three hits since the first hit has enough knockback scaling to prevent the other hits from connecting.
			3%
			5% (base), 4% (tip)
Up tilt			6-8%	Stabs upward in a turn. Meta Knight's famous upward stab during his boss battles. Decent vertical knockback, and in some cases at higher percentages, makes up for his up smash's weak vertical knockback, although it must sweetspotted to KO under 150%. Sweetspot is at the tip of the sword (similar to Marth's tipper sweetspots).
Down tilt			4-7%	Thrusts his sword across the ground at a low profile. Good for tripping (which sets up a grab or other follow-up), deceptive range (has more range then Marth's down tilt, though only by a few pixels), very fast and it can be used to pseudo-crawl. Deals more damage if the opponent is closer to Meta Knight's body.
Dash attack			6-8%	Does a forward thrust kick into a braking stop with vertical knockback. His only attack (other than all of his throws, excluding the b-throw) that does not use his sword. Lacks transcendent priority due to this move involving his foot. Deals more damage if the opponent is closer to Meta Knight's body, similar to his down tilt.
Forward smash			14%	Pulls his sword back for a second, then slashes in front of him outward. Has below average knockback, but it's his strongest move in terms of knockback. This is Meta Knight's only smash attack with a slow startup but it has a very fast charge release and very little ending lag. When fully charged, it can KO at 87%.
Up smash			3% (hit 1), 2% (hit 2), 4% (hit 3)	Slashes above him three times. Like Link's up smash, but much faster, less range and less damage/knockback. Does 4% each slash. Low knockback, but can KO at very high percentages.
Down smash			11% (front), 13% (back)	Slashes in front of him, then behind. Arguably his best KO move due to its extremely fast speed.
Neutral aerial			12% (hit 1), 5-7% (hit 2)	Slashes while spinning in a circle, with a similar animation to Pikachu's neutral aerial and the Sword Spin from the Sword ability in his home series. Surprisingly powerful, decent KO option. Good OoS option because of its speed and power.
Forward aerial			3% (hits 1-2), 4% (hit 3)	Slashes in front of him three times. Can perform a wall of pain variation, though Meta Knight's poor air speed hampers the effectiveness of it so it is not as effective as Jigglypuff's wall of pain.
Back aerial			3% (hits 1-2), 4% (hit 3)	Like his fair, but behind him and more slowly. To compensate for the slower slashes, this move has slightly more knockback. However, it still has almost no start-up lag and the first two hits while landing set-ups a down smash on many characters, along with wall of pain potential like his forward aerial.
Up aerial			6%	Slashes above him very quickly, has decent knockback. Shortest ending lag aerial in the game and one of the fastest moves in the game. Great for juggling opponents into the upper blast line. If tap jump is set to "on", Meta Knight will rise up with each slash. The distance varies depending on how many of Meta Knight's jumps remain. It can chain into itself at low percentages. It can be performed three times in one short hop.
Down aerial			7 (center), 9% (sides)	Slashes below him very quickly. Sends the opponent on a semi-spike trajectory and is quite deadly offstage, especially against opponents with poor horizontal recovery.
Glide attack			12%	Slashes in front of himself. A fairly powerful move with great vertical knockback. The only sword-based move of his to lack transcendent priority.
Grab			—
Pummel			3%	Jabs opponents with his wings' claws. A slow pummel.
Forward throw			6% (hit), 3% (throw)	Boots the opponent away and upward with a back-somersaulting kick. A very fast throw.
Back throw			7% (hit), 3% (throw)	Warps behind the opponent and slashes at them with an outward strike. Good knockback. Good for putting opponents off-stage. Can KO at very high percentages.
Up throw			12%	Like Kirby's u-throw: jumps into the air holding his foe, and then crashes down. The differences are that this throw doesn't create an explosion, like Kirby's, and has less launch power. Can still KO at very high percentages.
Down throw			1% (hits 1-10), 1% (throw)	Like Kirby's d-throw: stomps on opponent with his toes multiple times, then ends by stomping down on them with his foot's underside. Compared to Kirby's d-throw, it's slower and produces horizontal knockback. Depending on the opponent's DI, it can be followed by other attacks, and even another grab at low percentages on fastfallers.
Forward roll Back roll Spot dodge Air dodge		—	—
Techs		—	—
Floor attack (front) Floor getups (front)			6%	Slashes on either side of himself.
Floor attack (back) Floor getups (back)			6%	Slashes on either side of himself.
Floor attack (trip) Floor getups (trip)			5%	Slashes on either side of himself.
Edge attack (fast) Edge getups (fast)			8%	Quickly slashes with his blade.
Edge attack (slow) Edge getups (slow)			10%	Gets up slowly, then slashes with his blade.
Neutral special		Mach Tornado	1% (multiple hits), 3% (last hit)	Spins at a very high speed, attacking in a tornado. He slashes them multiple times and traps them. This makes escape via directional influence difficult. When the Tornado is finished, the last hit dealt causes slightly more than moderate knockback, but can be very dangerous if used near the top of the screen as Meta Knight could suicide himself if he cannot touch stage edges in his helpless state when off stage or with the addition of being put helpless, can be punished. Mach Tornado can be controlled by pressing left or right to move in that direction, and going upwards is done by pressing the special move button rapidly, which also extends the amount of time Meta Knight spins. It is also a great recovery move, it gains great horizontal distance on top of some vertical distance, especially if Meta Knight jumps before using the move. It also has near instantaneous start-up lag, and with multiple large hitboxes that can clash with ground and aerial hitboxes, it provides great protection to Meta Knight. However, something to note is that Meta Knight will bounce off of edges rather than grabbing them if he hits them while he is in the tornado. He also cannot grab edges during the first few frames of his helpless animation out of the tornado. Lacks transcendent priority, unlike most of his attacks (though this actually makes it more difficult to interrupt).
Side special		Drill Rush	1% (hits 1-9), 2-3% (hit 10)	Leaps sideways with his blade outstretched. If he hits an enemy, he performs a combination lasting up to a good 2 seconds, knocking Meta Knight's opponent upward. Also, when finished, he pulls back a bit. Meta Knight can also change the course of the attack, as he is shown using the same attack upward, allowing it to be used as a recovery. After using the attack, Meta Knight becomes helpless. It is possible to cancel the ending lag of the attack by making the end hit the edge, allowing it to be virtually lag free, and allowing it to be used to rush opponents in such stages as Battlefield - this is known as Drill Rush Canceling. Of all of Meta Knight's recovery moves, this move gives the most vertical distance.
Up special		Shuttle Loop	9% (clean), 5% (late)	Jumps into the air with his sword pointed upwards, goes into a loop and glides forward with his blade extended. The Shuttle Loop itself has good knockback, making it one of Meta Knight's most powerful KO moves. The ground Shuttle Loop has vertical knockback and invincibility frames at the beginning of the move and the air version has strong horizontal knockback, being a solid edge-guarding move due its high base knockback. The initial upswing of the Shuttle Loop is mostly used at the end of Meta Knight's combos. It should also be noted that the end of the Shuttle Loop attack automatically initiates a glide, which can be used in addition to the vertical recovery to add good horizontal recovery. In addition, because Meta Knight can do a quick attack to conclude a glide, the Shuttle Loop can be timed to do two consecutive attacks — the initial upswing, and the quick swing from the glide. The glide from this attack is slower than his regular glide, and allows better control. However, the move makes him helpless if the glide ends/is canceled, or if he does the glide attack.
Down special		Dimensional Cape	14%	Teleports in a direction, controllable with the Control Stick. If the attack button is pressed or the special button is held, he will perform a slash. It can be used to disappear from projectiles, and even attacks. Many players disregard the cape, but it is very useful for surprising opponents, making recovery less predictable and for edgeguarding. This is an extremely "flashy" move, and is often used for showing off. Meta Knight can use this as a recovery move, but afterwards, he will enter helpless state, even if the attack connects.
Final Smash		Galaxia Darkness	40% to trapped opponents, 18% for others	Swings his cape out directly in front of him while shouting "Know my power!" or "Behold....". If he misses with his cape, Meta Knight pauses for a brief time, and the Final Smash fails. When it connects (the trapping hitbox is a bit longer than the edge of the cape), characters nearby become trapped, the screen then darkens to black, and after a few seconds, a large, single slash appears near Meta Knight, as he then slices the trapped opponents with one, powerful strike. Characters who are trapped by Meta Knight's cape always receive high, upwards knockback that can KO above 50%, with super armor ignored. Any opponents who are not trapped are also attacked, but instead take about half damage and weak, upwards knockback. These slashes can also damage and even KO allies, without regarding Friendly Fire being disabled or not. The weaker slash part of Galaxia Darkness can be avoided by dodging with correct timing.

Taunts

Both his side and down taunts provoke battle. This is because he would always challenge Kirby to an honorable fight.

• Up Wraps himself in his cape, as if teleporting via his down special, while scoffing.
• Side: Says "Fight me!", while examining his sword, slashing twice, and finally pointing his sword in front of him.
• Down: Spreads his wings while shouting "Come!".

On-screen appearance

• Warps in with his cape.

Idle poses

• Quickly and subtly swings the Galaxia.
• Puts his cape around him and back.

Cheer

Meta Knight's NTSC and PAL cheer

Me-ta Knight!

Wii Remote selection sound

Meta Knight's Wii Remote selection sound

Meta Knight says "Fight me!" in a slightly different tone than his side taunt.

Victory theme

A metal remix of the Kirby victory theme, which originated from Kirby's Dream Land.

Victory poses

• Disappears while saying, "Come back when you can put up a fight!"
• Turns and spins his sword while saying "Victory... is my destiny", then hits it against the ground.
• Flings out his cape and says "You have much yet to learn."

In competitive play

Matchups

Super Smash Bros. Brawl Character Matchups

Avg.

Meta Knight has by far the most favourable matchup spread in Brawl, with a weighted total of 252 (more than twice the amount of Ice Climbers, the character with the second highest weighted total) on the current SWF matchup chart. He has one even matchup, soft counters nine characters, counters thirteen, hard counters eleven, and has two close to unloseable matchups. Against other top and high-tiered characters, he has one even matchup, soft counters seven matchups, and counters one matchup. Even his one even matchup (against Pikachu) is highly disputed and even proven to be wrong, and many players, even Pikachu professional ESAM, believe it to be in Meta Knight's favour. The other closest to even matchups against Meta Knight include Falco and Ice Climbers, the former due to his ability to projectile camp against Meta Knight, and the latter of course due to their 0-death chaingrabs, but even then, they're heavily stage dependent, only coming close on neutral stages. Meta Knight is considered the hardest matchup for many characters, with certain characters, such as R.O.B. and Luigi's positions on the tier list significantly dropping in large part due to their poor matchups against Meta Knight.

Notable players

See also: Category:Meta Knight professionals (SSBB)

•  Aki
•  Ally
•  Anti
•  Atomsk
•  Bloodcross
•  DieSuperFly
•  Dojo
•  Edge
•  Havok
•  Judge
•  Kakera
•  Ksizzle
•  Lee Martin
•  Maguro
•  Mew2King
•  Nairo
•  Orion
•  Otori
•  RAIN
•  Seibrik
•  Shadow
•  Tearbear
•  Tyrant
•  ZeRo
•  Shogun
•  Yanky

Tier placement and history

Meta Knight has been ranked 1st on the tier list since a few months after the game's release, although some players believed Snake was the best character. However, as Brawl's metagame evolved, his advantages in combat became more prominent, and Meta Knight mains such as Mew2King began dominating tournaments; as a result, Meta Knight was (and still is by the overwhelming majority) considered the undisputed best character, and has consistently held the top spot, commonly in his own tier above the rest of the cast. Due to his strengths as a fighter, more competitive Brawl players use Meta Knight over any other character. This reflects in his tournament results, where it is not rare to see almost half of any given top eight in Meta Knight legal tournaments using Meta Knight, and Meta Knight has won almost three times the amount of money in tournaments than the second-most successful character, Snake. These factors have cemented Meta Knight's placement at the top of the tier list for the entirety of the Brawl metagame up until the present day. However, with recent innovations in the Ice Climbers' metagame, especially their chain grab setups capable of annihilating any player given a single opportunity, Meta Knight is finally being challenged by some professional smashers as not being the undisputed best character in practice. Despite this, Meta Knight still remains first place, with the Ice Climbers currently being a spot below him.

Ban from competitive play

It had been intensely debated whether Meta Knight should be banned from tournaments, due to his perceived "brokenness" and over-centralization. This started with a well-known rumor in the Smash community that Meta Knight was banned in Italian tournaments. It was later proven false, though the Italian Smashboards had asked Smashers if they believed that Meta Knight should be banned. This rumor, however, eventually caused another surge of players who wanted to ban Meta Knight in other regions. The controversy reached the point where the Smash Back Room held a poll to see if Smashers wanted to completely ban the character. "Pro-Ban" won the poll, but did not win a super-majority of at least 66%, and Meta Knight ended up not being banned on a large scale.

However, talks about banning Meta Knight later surged, which was contributed to the increasing trend of players using Meta Knight and taking a large majority of the top results. Such an example is KTAR 6, where five of the top eight placers used Meta Knight. Later, data compiled by John Numbers showed that Meta Knight had won over 50% of total tournament earnings in tournaments that had more than thirty entrants . Meta Knight in total won $42,394.32 in 2011 U.S. tournaments when money is split in character usage (and $59,490.07 when not split), while the next most successful character, Snake, had only won $12,125.33 when split (and $20,860.29 with no split). The overall increasing centralization of Meta Knight was also said to have caused Brawl's metagame to shift too radically; with some characters, as mentioned above, significantly dropping down the tier list in large part due to their poor matchups against Meta Knight.

In response to this, the Unity Ruleset Committee introduced experimental rules in a recent ruleset update; one of the new suggested rules is a ban on Meta Knight. Despite this experimental ruleset, another poll was conducted in the start of September of 2011; "Pro-ban" again won the poll, but this time, with a super-majority of 75%. Although the poll itself did not directly cause a banning of Meta Knight, the results eventually caused the Unity Ruleset Committee to announce its official ban of Meta Knight from both singles and doubles play on September 30th, 2011. The ban itself started on January 9th, 2012.

The Meta Knight banning controversy ended up being made fun of on the Back Room for Melee; in a newer ruleset update, they sarcastically added that Meta Knight was banned from all Melee tournaments.

The Unity Ruleset Committee later disbanded on April 16, 2012; while the Unity Ruleset never had a proper successor, Marc stated "it is up to individual TOs to decide what is best for their events." As a result, Meta Knight's ban is not considered universal, and tournament organizers may choose whether or not to ban the character.

In doubles, two Meta Knights on the same team, commonly known as "double Meta Knight", is frequently banned these days and is banned at almost all tournaments. During the early years of Brawl, double Meta Knight teams consistently dominated major tournaments, and after the ban became widespread, doubles tournaments began to see more character diversity (although one Meta Knight on a team is generally legal outside of MK-banned tournaments). The double Meta Knight ban has been looked upon more favorably than the ban from singles, as the double Meta Knight team is frequently seen as more extreme than Meta Knight in singles.

Role in The Subspace Emissary

Meta Knight in SSE

It is revealed that before the events of the Subspace Emissary, Meta Knight was attacked by the Subspace Army, who had the intent of taking the Halberd. He was able to hold them off until King Dedede attacked him, causing him to lose his ship.

When Meta Knight is first featured in the Subspace Emissary, he attacks a lone Marth outside of a large castle. He quickly learns that Marth is not his enemy when they are both surrounded by Primids. After a successful battle, both warriors chase the Ancient Minister, who is carrying a Subspace bomb. Both are unsuccessful in their attempts in destroying the bomb (Meta Knight's left wing was shot by the Ancient Minister's laser, forcing him to land and change to his cape to extinguish the flame); luckily, Ike appears and uses his Aether to catch the Minister off guard and destroy the bomb. With the bomb destroyed, all three head back to the castle to clear out any remaining Primids.

Later, they are all seen traveling the wastelands together and battling Galleom. Meta Knight then saves Lucas and an unconscious Pokémon Trainer from a giant free-fall after they defeat the same boss. Meta Knight then begins to ascend a large cliff face, followed by the Ice Climbers (who see his ascent as a racing challenge), in order to reach the Battleship Halberd. At the summit, Lucario challenges Meta Knight to a sparring duel. To the relief of the Ice Climbers, the winner revives the loser, having no hostile feelings. The Halberd then crashes into the side of the mountain in an attempt to destroy the defeated Great Fox, which is being held by the arm of the Combo Cannon. Meta Knight and Lucario quickly board the Halberd, while the Ice climbers fall off the summit, into the canyon.

The pair run into Snake while on board and join forces with him to take back the Halberd. After rescuing Peach and Zelda, the trio continues on to the control deck. There they discover that the ship is being piloted by a gang of Shadow Bug Mr. Game & Watches. Snake runs towards them and throws them all out of the window and onto the bridge, who fuse together to form a gigantic metallic monster called Duon. Once Duon is defeated, Mr. Game & Watch joins the group, along with Peach, Zelda, Fox, and Falco. (Meta Knight remains in the Halberd's control center and does not take part in the battle.)

Meta Knight takes back control of the Halberd and reunites with the members from other groups. The aircraft of the other heroes is placed inside the Halberd, which heads towards the Subspace Gunship with all of the Super Smash Bros. heroes on board (except for Sonic, Ness, King Dedede and Luigi). After using the Subspace Battleship's main cannon to create another Subspace portal, Ganondorf spots the Halberd on the horizon and orders the battleship to open fire. The Halberd is struck down, but the heroes are able to escape on board Samus's Gunship, Captain Falcon's Falcon Flyer, Olimar's Hocotate ship, and Fox's Arwing. Kirby destroys the Subspace Battleship by slicing through it with the Dragoon air ride machine and the heroes enter Subspace to pursue Ganondorf and Bowser.

Meta Knight is turned into a trophy by Tabuu along with the rest of the Super Smash Bros. heroes upon their entrance into Subspace. He is later revived by Kirby. He rejoins the others in the fight against Tabuu.

Playable appearances

• The Battlefield Fortress
• The Wilds (Part I)
• The Glacial Peak
• Battleship Halberd Interior
• Entrance to Subspace
• The Great Maze (if rescued in Subspace (Part II))

Exclusive stickers

The following stickers can be used only by Meta Knight or by a select few including him:

• Bonkers: [Weapon] Attack +16
• Cell Phone: [Slash] Resistance +4
• Dyna Blade: Launch Resistance +46
• Gordo: [Throwing] Attack +5
• Hot Head: [Flame] Attack +10
• King Dedede & Kirby: [Specials: Direct] Attack +21
• King Dedede (Kirby Super Star): [Leg] Attack +28
• Kirby (Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards): [Body, Spin] Attack +22
• Kirby (Kirby Air Ride): [Arm, Leg] Attack +17
• Maxim Tomato: Maxim Tomato Effect +50
• Meta Knight: [Slash] Attack +32
• Meta Knight Ball: Launch Power +8
• Nruff: [Body, Spin] Attack +5
• Starman (Kirby: Squeak Squad): Launch Power +33
• Whispy Woods: [Weapon] Attack +4

In Event Matches

Solo Events

• Event 2: Landmaster Ignition: As Fox with a Smash Ball, the player must survive against Meta Knight and Sheik. Fox must rely on his Landmaster as his opponents take less knockback from his regular attacks.
• Event 3: Pink Ball Repulsion: The player controls Meta Knight and must defeat Kirby before the platform reaches the Halberd portion of the stage.
• Event 20: All-Star Battle x1: Meta Knight is one of the eight opponents fought in this event along with Wario, Pit, Zero Suit Samus, Olimar, Lucas, Diddy Kong, and the Pokémon Trainer.

Co-op Events

• Co-Op Event 5: The Yoshi Team of 50: As Meta Knight and Pit, both players must KO all 50 Yoshis on Rainbow Cruise before completing one lap of the stage.
• Co-Op Event 13: Blades of the Quick and Mighty: Marth and Ike must defeat Link, Meta Knight, and Ganondorf on Temple.
• Co-Op Event 20: The Final Battle for Two: Both players select a character and must defeat Bowser, Wario, King Dedede, Wolf, Meta Knight, and Ganondorf on Final Destination.
• Co-Op Event 21: The True All-Star Battle: Both players select a character and take on the entire roster on Battlefield.

Trophies

Meta Knight's main and Final Smash trophies can be obtained by clearing Classic Mode and All-Star mode respectively with Meta Knight.

Trophy descriptions

Meta Knight

The head of the Meta-Knights, and something of a rival to Kirby. He's quite an accomplished swordsman. Following his code of knightly ethics, he once delivered a sword to Kirby and demanded single combat. His giant cape transforms into wings, giving him the power of flight. He's shown his face briefly before, but his relationship to Kirby is still a mystery.

: Kirby's Adventure

: Kirby Super Star (NTSC), Kirby's Fun Pak (PAL)

Galaxia Darkness

Meta Knight's Final Smash. He flips his cape, and the darkness within envelops his foes and plunges the world into shadow. He then unleashes a series of sword strikes that do terrible damage and launch his foes. In the darkness, Meta Knight can also reach and attack distant enemies. One can imagine Meta Knight zipping back and forth at high speed to accomplish this.

: Super Smash Bros. Brawl

• 

  Classic Mode trophy

• 

  Galaxia Darkness trophy

Alternate costumes

Meta Knight's alternate costumes in Brawl

Trivia

• Meta Knight is one of the few characters in Brawl to lack a meteor smash other than footstool jumps.
• Meta Knight is the only character that is able to glide twice.
• Meta Knight is the only character to be placed in his own tier above every other character on the tier list.
  • Pikachu from the original Super Smash Bros. has once had its own tier, but it now shares it with Kirby.
  • Fox from Melee has his own tier on the top, but this is only in the PAL version of the Melee tier list.
• Meta Knight is one of only three characters in Brawl able to perform three aerials in one short hop, the others being Lucario and Luigi.
• Out of all of the Kirby characters, Meta Knight is the only one to speak in complete sentences.
• Meta Knight's eyes never close, but they do change in size.
• Despite ranking at the top of the tier list, Prima Official Game Guides only rated Meta Knight a 6/10 in terms of fighting prowess.
  • Conversely, Ganondorf, the character with the lowest tier position, has the same score.
• Bowser, Meta Knight, and Marth can all perform the Floor glitch.
• Meta Knight's victory theme is an electric guitar variant of the Kirby victory theme shared by Kirby and King Dedede, making him the only Brawl character to have a victory theme different from other members from the same series.

External links

• Meta Knight's page at Smash Bros Dojo!!
• Moveset information at Smash Bros. Dojo!!
• Meta Knight character guide at SWF
• Meta Knight's frame data at SWF
• Video of Meta Knight's hitboxes