Kirby (SSB)/Up aerial

Overview

The hitbox of Kirby's uair.

The landing hitboxes when not Z-cancelled.

Kirby spins around repeatedly in midair, dealing 10%-6% damage depending on when it hits and somewhat high set knockback. This move is commonly referred to as Twinkle Star, and would later become his neutral aerial from Melee onwards. The hitbox, while small, has a very long duration; lasting the entire animation once it activates, somewhat counteracting the move's relative sluggishness. If Kirby lands during the move without Z-cancelling it, there will be an extra landing hitbox. However, due to the lag, it is still recommended to Z-cancel the move. Due to its low utility in combos as well as inability to KO and its slow startup and ending lag, the move is rare to be seen, though it occasionally sees use on platforms for shield pressure. The Kirby main Alpha(CL) from Chile was well known for his use with this move.

In the Japanese version, the move is slightly better due to its clean hit dealing 12% damage and its mid hit dealing 9% damage although since the move has set knockback, this does not have a significant impact.

This article or section may require additional technical data.
The editor who added this tag elaborates:
NTSC-J hitbox tables. Landing hit may not be correct
You can discuss this issue on the talk page or edit this page to improve it.

Hitboxes

ID	Part	Damage	SD	BK	KS	FKV	Radius	Bone	Offset			Sound
Early*
0	0	12%	0	10	100	100	105	5	0	60	0	Punch
Clean
0	0	10%	0	10	100	100	105	5	0	60	0	Punch
Mid
0	0	8%	0	10	100	100	105	5	0	60	0	Punch
Late
0	0	6%	0	10	100	100	105	5	0	60	0	Punch
Landing
0	0	3%	0	0	100	80	130	0	0	0	0	Punch

Timing

Attack

Initial auto-cancel	1-9
Early hit*
Clean hit	10-17
Mid hit	18-29
Late hit	30-79
Ending auto-cancel	46-
Animation length	79

* Due to what is presumably a programming error, the 10% hitbox is listed to start on frame 8 even though the hitboxes do not activate until frame 10. Because of this, the script immediately skips to the 10% hitbox and so the early 12% hit never occurs. It's likely that the early hit was meant to be active from frames 10-17 but due to a timing error (with a frame timer being used instead of a wait timer), it never comes out. Even stranger, the same error exists for the move in Melee where it became his neutral aerial, suggesting the code was copied and the error was never caught despite the altered hitbox properties/durations.