Spike

A spike is an an attack that sends the opponent downward until the hitlag wears off. A spike is not to be confused with a Meteor Smash, which also sends the opponent downwards, but can be Meteor Canceled before the hitlag depletes. Few characters have spikes; currently there are 5 characters who have a known spike, and are as follows:

• 1) Falco's Dair.
• 2) Marth's Dair. (NTSC only)
• 3) Ganondorf's Aerial Down+B.
• 4) Captain Falcon's Nipple Spike (Hitting with the upper half of his body during the dair)
• 5) Roy's Up Smash (Must be hit against an airborne Character with the tip of the sword)

Note also that Spikes don't necessarily kill the opponent each time: at low damages the downwards thrust wears off and the spiked opponent can recover. Regardless of this, recovery tends to be impossible at percentages near or above 40%. The spike is almost always devastating to the opponent; because of this, many Falco and Marth players try to integrate it into play as often as possible.

• SSB) Since there is no meteor cancelling in the original SSB64, all "meteors" are spikes.
• Falcon's down air (Both feet straight down)
• Dk's forward (Arms extended, double fist) and down ai (Both feet going down)
• Fox's down air (drill somewhat)
• Yoshi's forward (Headbut) and down air (Flutter/Drill Kick)
• JigglyPuff's Down Air (drill kick similar to fox, somewhat)
• Samus's Down Air (Downward Screw attack Motion)
• Ness's Down Air (Downward Kick
• Mario/Metal Mario and Luigi's Down Air (Both downward kicks)
• Masterhand's Flame Spike
• Pikachu's U-air is a spike if it hits at a certain angle (Tail Spike)
• Link does not have spikes or meteors

See also

• Meteor smash – a spike that can be recovered from through a meteor cancel.
• Semi spike – a move that hits the opponent at a very low angle, minimizing recovery opportunities.
• Shine spike – a Fox technique that utilizes the down-b reflector to spike an opponent.