Neutral special move
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. In Smash 64, which does not have Side Special Moves, these will also execute if the stick is tilted to the left or right. 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
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
Trivia
- Neutral special moves tend to be a character's weakest or strongest special move; they are rarely in between.
| Attacks in the Super Smash Bros. series | |
|---|---|
| Standard ground attacks | Neutral attack · Dash attack |
| Tilt attacks | Forward tilt · Up tilt · Down tilt · Crouching attack |
| Smash attacks | Forward smash · Up smash · Down smash |
| Aerial attacks | Neutral aerial · Forward aerial · Back aerial · Up aerial · Down aerial · Grab aerial · Glide attack |
| Throws | Grab · Pummel · Forward throw · Back throw · Up throw · Down throw |
| Get-up attacks | Floor attack · Edge attack |
| Special moves | Neutral special move · Side special move · Up special move · Down special move · Command-input move · Final Smash |
