Neutral game
The neutral game, or just neutral, is a phase during gameplay when no player has a situational advantage over the other. In this phase, either player's objective is to "win the neutral game", i.e. land a hit with possible follow-ups, or punish the enemy for a failed attempt to do so.
Some characters have an advantage during the neutral game, depending on the matchup. For example, a projectile may be used to pressure the enemy into making a move. Other possible advantages include attack range and mobility.
The neutral game can be looked at as a triangle of sorts, like Rock, Paper, Scissors, where each vertex overrides another. Grabbing goes through shielding. Shields can block attacks and leave opportunities to punish afterward. Regular attacks can outprioritize grabs due to their generally superior range and speed. This triangle mindgame adds a new layer of strategy. Players must anticipate what course of action in the triangle their opponent will take during the neutral game. Click here to see the triangle.
This way of looking at the neutral game does not encompass the entire picture, however; players generally have more than 3 options available to them (such as moving out of the way if they feel they are too close to the opponent, or using different attacks at a time). In addition, although shields do block attacks, many high level players will often space their attacks so as to make them as difficult to punish as possible, either by placing it as far away as possible while still connecting with the move, or by overshooting behind them to limit the opponent's out-of-shield options in the case of aerials. In fact, the attacks they use in this situation could be safe even if not spaced properly, thus baiting players to preemptively use their out-of-shield options to punish the opponent (if they recognize this, they can opt to escape or continue shielding instead). Stage position also greatly affects which options are viable for either player; the player who takes the center of the stage has much better options than the player who is closer to the ledge. Thus, a player that successfully pressures the opponent into limiting their own movement by forcing them to use more defensive options or move to the ledges of the stage generally wins the neutral game, since they will know exactly how to counter these options and punish them.
A character's effectiveness in the neutral game comes down to three main factors: mobility, attack speed, and range. Good mobility grants easier movement and repositioning, and can allow a character to respond quickly when they find an opening, or retreat to escape pressure. Fast attack speed makes a character unpredictable, and can be used to force reactions and create openings. Characters with long reach in their attacks can fight at a safe distance, and range also encompasses projectiles, which are essential for applying pressure and limiting the opponent's options. While a character who is proficient in all three areas will have a powerful neutral game, some characters are dominant in the neutral despite lacking in one aspect. Falco in Melee and Brawl has below-average mobility, but his Blaster is a potent projectile, and he boasts fast attack speed as well, and his strong neutral is a large reason behind his top-tier placement in both games.
A common mistake made by beginners is to always approach the opponent with the exact same option, such as dash attack or dash grab, without putting much thought into how the opponent might also want to approach. This can create bad habits in the neutral game, as well as a huge stock deficit if players do not catch on quickly and change up their option selection.
Notable examples
Smash 64
- Fox: Blaster is an effective projectile, as the lasers cover a long distance and stun opponents.
- Kirby: Back aerial and especially up tilt are both fast and have large, disjointed hitboxes.
- Pikachu: up tilt is quick and has a large hitbox, making it good for pressuring.
Melee
- Falco: Blaster auto-cancels upon landing, and the shots are quick and cause flinching, making it potent at shutting down almost any approach.
- Fox: Blaster has rapid-fire abilities, and auto-cancels upon landing. Fox has unparalleled mobility and attack speed, allowing him to easily pressure other characters.
- Marth: Marth has excellent mobility options in his dash-dance and wavedash, and his down tilt's speed and range are excellent for poking, pressuring, and disrupting opponent's approach options.
Brawl
- Diddy Kong: his Banana Peel is effective at creating stage-control and setting up other moves.
- Falco: Blaster shots are fast, long-ranged, transcendent, and auto-cancel upon landing, making it great for disrupting approaches and pressuring.
- King Dedede: his back aerial is quick, long-ranged, has a lingering hitbox, and can be done twice in a short-hop. Waddle Dee Toss can be used to block opponents' projectiles.
- Marth: forward aerial can be done twice in a short-hop. Its speed and range make it an excellent spacing tool and approach option.
- Meta Knight: Mach Tornado grants excellent protection and long horizontal distance. Forward aerial is quick, long-ranged, and auto-cancels in a short-hop. Lastly, he has a fast and hugely disjointed down aerial, which, combined with his jumps, can be used to pressure and air camp.
- Snake: he has the most projectiles in the game, including his Hand Grenade, and his up smash gives him the longest DACUS in the game. All of these can be used to approach, create stage control, and disrupt opposing approaches.
Smash 4
- Captain Falcon: He has the longest dash grab in the game. Back aerial auto-cancels in a short-hop, allowing it to be used for approaching and pressuring.
- Cloud: Cloud's Buster Sword gives him a very long attack range. His neutral aerial, up aerial, and back aerial all auto-cancel in a short-hop without Limit Break status (only back aerial fails to auto-cancel in Limit Break), and down aerial auto-cancels in a full hop, which, combined with its amount of active frames, effectively zones out most characters and can also lead to devastating KO confirms if it hits extremely late. To top everything off, he has favorable mobility traits, possessing one of the faster running speeds in the game and good air speed, both of which are bolstered in Limit Break status.
- Diddy Kong: Banana Peel is useful for stage-control and setting up combos. Down tilt is a perfect move for comboing into KO moves and pressuring the opponent in their shield.
- Fox: Though Blaster no longer auto-cancels, it is still effective at pressuring from afar and disrupting approaches. He also still has his great mobility.
- Link: Bombs are very spammable (by virtue of Link having the overall fastest item throw animations) and can also be used to boost Link's otherwise lackluster mobility with DACUS inputs. His other projectiles, Hero's Bow and Gale Boomerang, can cut off several angles of attack, making it difficult to approach Link.
- Luigi: Fireball is useful for approaching and pressuring. Forward aerial is quick, has good range, and auto-cancels in a short-hop.
- Mario: Many of Mario's attacks come out quickly and have relatively low cooldown, making it difficult to challenge him despite his below-average range and merely average mobility, complimenting his punish game, particularly with grabs. Like Luigi, Mario's Fireball is also useful for pressuring, though it has more ending lag.
- Pikachu: Quick Attack helps Pikachu approach opponents. Thunder Jolt is also a useful projectile.
- Sheik: Needle Storm's speed, range, and transcendent priority make it effective at harassing opponents from afar. Forward aerial is quick, long ranged, and auto-cancels in a short-hop, being an all-around useful move for approaching, pressuring, and starting combos. Almost all of Sheik's attacks are extremely fast and hard to punish, making Sheik one of the safest characters in the neutral game, especially when considering her excellent mobility.
- Sonic: Spin Dash, Spin Charge and grabbing are effective for racking up damage. Up aerial is good for combos and auto-cancels in a short-hop.
Demonstration video
<youtube>OYWXCTKKDV0</youtube>
