Taunt
A taunt, previously referred to as a finishing pose and as appeal internally, is a move designed to provoke, annoy, or mock opponents, or to just celebrate a successfully executed move or combo. Up until Super Smash Bros. Brawl, there was a limit of one taunt per character (with the exception of Pichu and Captain Falcon in Melee); in Brawl and SSB4, however, each character has at least three different taunts. To use a taunt, in Super Smash Bros. one must press the L button, and in Super Smash Bros. Melee up on the Directional pad (or "D-pad"). In Brawl and SSB4, the direction one pressed on the D-Pad (or the buttons on the Wii remote for Brawl) influences which taunt is used.
While predominantly only for show, nine taunts in the series can affect gameplay outside moving the character's hurtboxes: all of Snake's taunts (which equip him with a weak projectile), Luigi's down taunt (which can meteor smash opponents), all of Kirby's taunts (which make him lose his copy ability), Samus's up taunt (during which if the player repeatedly presses the taunt buttons will change her into Zero Suit Samus) and Greninja's down taunt (which damages targets for 2% while inflicting some knockback). Some characters also have a Smash Taunt; a more specific and character-involving taunt that can be done on specific stages.
In Smash 64, there was only one taunt animation, so characters that taunted would either face the screen or face away from the screen depending on whether they were facing left or right. This was changed in Melee so characters that turn towards the screen have slightly different animations, making sure they never face away (unless they are Caped). Using this functionality, Pichu and Captain Falcon had taunts in Melee that had two distinctly different animations depending on what direction they were facing. Also, Wario has an extra taunt when he is riding his bike (used by pressing any of the taunt buttons).
Each taunt is different between every character. However, taunts will always have the character doing a motion (such as dancing), and the character may also speak or yell out a battle cry. Some people take advantage of taunts where characters talk within taunt matches. Taunts can all be done on the ground only, and they also cancel if the character goes airborne or slides close to an edge, which is known as taunt canceling.
Marth is the only character in non-Japanese versions of the series that still speaks Japanese in his taunt. However, some "speaking" taunts change between languages. A notable example is Jigglypuff, whose dialogue changes to reflect its name in other languages, such as its Japanese name, "Purin" or Fox in Melee, when he says "kakatte koi" ("come on").
In Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, CPUs usually taunt after KOing a character. In Melee they taunt regardless of what is around them, which leaves them vulnerable to traps such as wandering Bob-ombs, stage hazards, hostile Pokémon, or even when there are other characters if they don't interrupt the CPU. In Brawl, they instead taunt only when they are on a safe spot, and if there are no foes on-stage, and on a Team Battle, other teammates may also taunt in this situation. However, CPUs in this game may taunt even if the foe self-destructs, such as by a badly timed recovery or attack, or by being KO'd by an item or stage hazard. An interesting fact is that, if a human player self-destructs on a battle against only CPUs, or is KO'd by them, they may stop and taunt all together even if they aren't teamed, instead of attacking each other, something that is frowned by most players. In the original Super Smash Bros., CPUs also taunt, but instead of when KOing an opponent, they do when launching an enemy a high distance. Depending on the attack and character, this may be harmful for them, also because they taunt carelessly like in Melee, which makes them easy to KO in free-for-alls or team battles. However, while CPUs can taunt at any AI level in Brawl, they only do at high levels in Smash 64 and Melee. They use taunts for these purposes only, resulting not only on CPU Luigis and Snakes never using their taunts as attacks, but on CPU Kirbys not removing their abilities intentionally other than after KOing an opponent.
Lists of taunts
Taunt messages
One feature of Super Smash Bros. Brawl's With Friends mode when playing on Wi-Fi Connection is that it allows a player to assign four different taunt messages to all four taunt button combinations. If the player were to perform an up taunt on the With Friends mode, their character will display a personalised taunt message written by the player that they have assigned to the up taunt. This feature is disabled in the With Anyone for security and censorship reasons.
The function returns for Super Smash Bros. 4's online over the Nintendo Network.
Custom taunts
A custom taunt is an action that is intended to taunt opponents without using one of the taunts already available in the game. Custom taunts often involve actions that look similar to an ordinary taunt; a well-known example is King Dedede's crouch, though others include Ness's up and down smashes, where he performs yo-yo tricks, Bowser Jr.'s down tilt where the Koopa Clown Car licks the foe with its tongue and Mr. Game & Watch's up tilt, where he waves a "#1" flag. Within taunt matches, actions that produce loud, irritating, or otherwise repetitive sounds can become custom taunts; examples include crouching as Samus and Kirby, Ganondorf's up smash, Captain Falcon's Falcon Punch, and Captain Olimar's Pikmin Order. Others also involve showing off advanced techniques, such as DACUSing or dash dancing.
Trivia
- One of the effects of Luigi's Negative Zone is suddenly doing a random taunt.
- Snake, Luigi, and Greninja are the only characters to have a taunt that can damage other characters.
- Bowser, Wario, R.O.B (in Brawl), Little Mac, and Lucario (in SSB4) are the only characters with 'Transformation' Final Smashes that can taunt while using them.
- Some taunts have become internet memes, for both the character's motion or phrase spoken, and the mocking purpose they are used for. Some infamous examples are Captain Falcon's "Show me your moves!", Sonic's "You're too slow!", or Shulk's "I'm really feeling it!". Taunt matches often involve irritating serious players with these type of taunts, and other annoying or provocative taunts have also been used frequently, such as Kirby's "Hi!" taunt or Fox's "Here I come!".
- In Smash 64, it can be seen that members of the Kirby Team won't lose their copied abilities even if they taunt. In Melee, however, the Kirbys with copied abilities in Adventure Mode never taunt, even though other CPU Kirbys do, so it is unknown whether if they lose their abilities or not.
- In Smash 64, it can also be seen that non-playable characters (except for Master Hand) have taunts identical to their original character. For example, Metal Mario grows and shrinks just as Mario does.
- The phrase "Come on" is the most common phrase in taunts, being used by five characters: Pit, Sonic (Both in Smash 4), Captain Falcon, Fox, and Ryu. Variations of "Come on" are also used by other characters, such as Lucina ("Come at me!"), Sonic in Brawl ("Come on, step it up!"), and Meta Knight ("Come").
- In Melee, after a CPU KOs an opponent, if it gets KO'd, and the opponent is away just as the CPU comes out of the revival platform, it will walk a distance and apparently taunt for no reason. This can be exploited with characters that have long taunts, notably Young Link.
