Special Zoom

Ridley attacking with Skewer. Note the sweetspot causing the Special Zoom effect.

Special Zoom is an aesthetic effect introduced in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, designed to add drama during a match. The term was coined by Masahiro Sakurai and his development team.

Overview

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A Burrowing Snagret hits Duck Hunt and triggers a Finish Zoom at the end of the match.

Special Zoom activates when a fighter is hit by certain attacks: for a short moment, the background flashes blue with dramatic "spark" effects pointing towards the impact, time will substantially slow down, and the camera zooms in on the impact. In games with more than two players, the slowdown and camera zoom effects will be nearly non-existent, although there are some exceptions (a few moves will always zoom even outside of 1v1 matches). A Special Zoom is accompanied by the sound effect previously exclusive to Little Mac's KO Uppercut in Super Smash Bros. 4. During some Special Zoom events, camera control is disabled, though this is not consistently enforced.

A few moves in Smash 4 which also had zoom-and-slowdown effects, such as KO Uppercut and Cloud's Finishing Touch and Limit Break Cross Slash, now use the standard Special Zoom effect.

In general, the attacks that trigger Special Zoom are slow and hard to hit with (such as Warlock Punch or Falcon Punch). Most other attacks that trigger Special Zoom have conditions that need to be met, such as Ridley's Skewer needing to be sweetspotted, or Little Mac's smash attacks requiring his armor to be triggered during the start-up. Certain items and stage hazards may also trigger Special Zoom, also requiring special conditions in some cases.

Special Zoom occurs even if the attack's knockback is negated by armor. However, Special Zoom will not trigger if the opponent is hit while invincible, during the last five seconds in a time match, when Nightmare is active, when hitting the AI-controlled character of the Ice Climbers, or when a Final Smash is active.

Similar to Special Zoom is Finish Zoom or Final Zoom, terms also coined by Sakurai and his team. Finish Zoom is used when an attack will likely result in a game-winning KO. Like the Deadly Blow mechanic introduced in Super Smash Bros. 4, this effect does not factor in obstructions or DI being used to make an otherwise-deadly blow survivable. Like Special Zoom, Finish Zoom zooms in on the point of impact and briefly slows down time. However, Finish Zoom uses a red background instead of a blue one, and the sound is always the same. The sound used is also different again, being akin to a ping hit combined with the sound of slashing swords. Screen KOs rarely occur when a Finish Zoom sends an opponent into the upper blast line, while Star KOs are very rare.

List of moves that trigger Special Zoom

By character

Character	Move(s)	Conditions	Always zooms
Byleth	Aymr	Clean hit.
Captain Falcon	Falcon Punch
Chrom	Flare Blade	Charged for at least 2.5 seconds.
Cloud	Cross Slash	Limit Break.
	Climhazzard
	Finishing Touch
Donkey Kong	Giant Punch	Fully charged.
Ganondorf	Volcano Kick	Clean hit.
	Warlock Punch
Hero	All smash attacks	Random critical hit.
	Metal Slash	Connecting with a metal opponent, including another Hero using Kaclang.
	Hatchet Man
	Whack	When it Instant KOs.
	Thwack
Ike	Eruption	Fully charged.
Incineroar	All smash attacks	When Revenge is active.
	Alolan Whip	When Revenge is active and the move is sweetspotted.
	Cross Chop	Explosion hitbox while Revenge is active.
Jigglypuff	Rest
Kazuya	Rage Drive	Occurs on final hit of the grab.
	Glorious Demon God Fist	When hitting at the tip of Kazuya's fist.
King Dedede	Jet Hammer	Fully charged.
King K. Rool	Belly Super Armor	If broken by an attack.
Kirby	Hammer Flip	Fully charged.
	Any neutral special from other characters that triggers Special Zoom	If Kirby copies an opponent whose neutral special can trigger Special Zoom, Kirby will also experience it under the same conditions. The only exceptions are Little Mac's KO Uppercut, as Kirby can only copy Straight Lunge and does not have access to the KO Meter, and the Mii Brawler's Exploding Side Kick, since Kirby can only copy Shot Put.	*
Little Mac	All smash attacks	When attacked during startup armor.
	KO Uppercut
Lucario	Force Palm	On grab attack when at high aura.
Lucas	PK Thunder	On last hit of PK Thunder 2.
Lucina	Shield Breaker	When breaking a shield.
Luigi	Super Jump Punch	Grounded sweetspot only.
Marth	Shield Breaker	When breaking a shield.
Mii Brawler	Exploding Side Kick
Mr. Game & Watch	Judge	Judge 9.
	Oil Panic	On release.
Ness	PK Thunder	On contact during PK Thunder 2.
Ridley	Skewer	Sweetspot.
Roy	Flare Blade	If charged for at least 2.5 seconds.
Steve	TNT	Explosion hitbox on anyone not triggering the pressure plate.
Wario	Wario Waft	Fully charged.

* None of the attacks that Kirby can copy have the 'Always zoom' effect.

By item

Item	Conditions	Always zooms
Assist Trophy	Upon defeat. Only possible for defeatable summons.
Daybreak	When a fighter has collected all three parts.
Death's Scythe	Sweetspotted tilt or smash attack at ≥80% damage.
Home-Run Bat	Smash attack.
Motion-Sensor Bomb	When detonated by touch.
Staff	Any hit at maximum range.

By assist trophy

Character	Conditions	Always zooms
Black Knight	Triggers for all attacks except a backhanded slash. Will not cause camera zoom.
Lyn

By stage hazard

Hazard	Stage(s)	Conditions	Always zooms
Invisible walls	King of Fighters Stadium	When hit with enough knockback to KO, shatters with the special zoom effect.
Walls and ceiling	Mishima Dojo	When hit with enough knockback to break, shatters with the special zoom effect. No camera zoom occurs.
Klaptrap	Jungle Japes	On contact, causing a one-hit KO. Camera zooms in slightly.
Mimic	Yggdrasil's Altar	When it bites a fighter upon being attacked for the first time.
Red Bulborb	Distant Planet	Chomps down on any fighter that enters its mouth, which causes an instant KO.
Train	Mementos	When hit in front. Camera zooms in slightly.

Trivia

A comparison of Mario's expression when hit by the sweetspot
of Ganondorf's up tilt during a Special Zoom (left) and a Finish Zoom (right).

• Should a character be hit by an attack that triggers a Finish Zoom, they will react with a shocked expression that overrides the expression normally displayed.
• If a non-cinematic Final Smash causes Finish Zoom, the background will change to the stage's normal background, rather than the background for the Final Smash.
• In-game parameters reveal that Captain Falcon's Knee Smash was planned to have the Special Zoom effect, although it is not active in the final game.
• Hero has 7 moves which can trigger Special Zoom, the most out of all characters.
• Collecting all three parts of the Dragoon and getting hit by Odin's slashing attack will cause the camera to zoom in, but they don't cause the "Special Zoom" blue background to appear.
• In Home-Run Contest, Special Zoom does not occur on moves that trigger the effect; presumably to prevent such moves from costing the player time due to the timer not slowing down while Special Zoom is in effect.
  • However, using a Special Zoom move in place of the Home-Run Bat swing will not result in an angled view of Sandbag flying, and will instead feature a normal Special Zoom.
• Certain moves are given a hidden multiplier that increases the amount of knockback needed to trigger Finish Zoom, usually for moves that are clearly telegraphed and/or heavily affected by DI, which the opponent would feasibly always react to and DI against accordingly. Star KOs will be more common if the match is finished this way than with the actual Finish Zoom effect.
  • These multipliers are set manually, independent from the move's actual knockback calculations, and may not always accurately reflect the practical KO potential of the move. For example, Mario's back throw can KO at around 140% at the ledge with no DI and 160% with optimal DI for a roughly 1.15x increase in survivability, but it is set with an arbitrarily high multiplier of 1.5x, causing the Finish Zoom to begin occuring well beyond its minimum KO percent.
• A glitch involving Min Min and Finish Zoom was introduced in the Version 8.0.0; if the opponent didn't get KO'd (e.g. due to directional influence) after Min Min's attack triggered Finish Zoom, her last used ARM will be visually stuck in being stretched.
• If Finish Zoom occurs to a character getting hit from behind, the reverse knockback animation does not play, although they will briefly assume the pose.
• If Hero uses Thwack on Squirtle performing Withdraw, Squirtle will be Instant KO'ed, but it will not trigger the Special Zoom.