Ridley (SSBU)/Forward smash

Hitbox visualization showing Ridley's forward smash.

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Overview

Ridley rears back, before expelling a fiery blast from his mouth. While it has slow start-up and shorter range compared to other moves on Ridley's moveset, forward smash boasts very high power for a smash attack, dealing enough damage and knockback to begin killing foes below 80%, potentially even earlier depending on the stage, Ridley's positioning relative to the ledge and the time spent charging it. Additionally, the size of the hitbox allows it to 2-frame punish the recoveries of certain characters, although timing this is very difficult and of much higher risk compared to utilising downward-angled forward tilt.

Another noteworthy property of this move is its start-up animation - due to him physically rearing back, this shifts Ridley's hurtbox to evade certain moves in front of him, although this only really applies to short ranged moves.