Snake (SSBU)

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Snake in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Universe	Metal Gear
Other playable appearance	in Brawl
Availability	Unlockable
Final Smash	Covering Fire

“	Back by popular demand, Snake brings a ranged fighting style unlike any other fighter in the game. His Final Smash locks onto an opponent and fires five homing missiles.	”
—Super Smash Blog, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Official Site

Snake (スネーク, Snake) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Snake is classified as fighter #31.

Rather than Kiefer Sutherland, who voiced his predecessor in the Metal Gear Solid V series, David Hayter confirmed on Twitter that he would be reprising his role as Snake, albeit with recycled voice clips from Brawl. Akio Otsuka also reprises his role in the Japanese version.

How to unlock

Complete one of the following:

• Play VS. matches, with Snake being the 39th character to be unlocked.
• Clear Classic Mode with Link, being the fifth character in his unlock tree after Meta Knight.
• Have Snake join the player's party in World of Light.

With the exception of the third method, Snake must then be defeated on Shadow Moses Island.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Aesthetics

• Snake retains his design from Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. However, his body suit appears less form-fitting than before, and his overall appearance appears to be more detailed, particularly his hair and bandana.
• Snake has refined animations for many of his moves.
• Snake's series symbol has changed from the FOX logo to the "!" Alert symbol seen in Metal Gear Solid games.
• Snake has two additional alternate costumes, increasing his total to 8. One is a somewhat shiny, pure black costume resembling the Metal camouflage from Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. The other is a lighter green costume resembling the leaf camouflage from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.
• Snake has a new victory animation. He does a spin kick, a side kick, and then finishes with a pose. The pose is a reference to the end of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots when Old Snake fights Liquid Ocelot. It replaces the cardboard box victory pose from Brawl. [1]

Attributes

• Like all characters, Snake's jumpsquat animation now takes three frames to complete, the biggest difference out of everyone (down from 9).
• Snake walks faster (0.84 → 0.882).
• Snake dashes much faster (1.35 → 1.595).
• Snake's initial dash is much faster (1.1 → 1.76).
• Snake has faster air speed (0.94 → 0.987).
• Snake's fast falling speed is higher (2.422 → 2.768).
• Snake is much lighter (113 → 106), going from third heaviest in Brawl to tied for 16th in Ultimate, worsening his endurance.
• The removal of chain grabbing noticeably improves Snake's endurance against certain characters.
• The changes made to air dodging benefit Snake's recovery, improving his horizontal range and versatility.

Ground attacks

• Neutral attack:
  • Neutral attack hits connect much better and the final hit has less startup lag (frame 10 → 8).
  • Neutral attack deals less damage (14% → 11%).
• Forward tilt:
  • Forward tilt's range has been reduced.
  • Forward tilt does less damage (8% → 4% (hit 1), 9%/10%/12% → 9% (hit 2)).
  • The second hit has more startup lag and a shorter duration (frames 6-11 → 8). It also has more ending lag (frame 31 → 40).
• Up tilt:
  • Up tilt deals more damage (13% → 14.5% (clean), 12% → 13.5% (late)).
  • Up tilt's knockback has been slightly reduced.
  • Up tilt's deceptively large horizontal range has been reduced.
  • Up tilt has a shorter duration (frames 6-13 → 6-7 (clean), frames 14-19 → 8-13 (late).
• Down tilt:
  • Down tilt now sends Snake forward then back to where he started.
    • This makes the move slightly more safe in terms of positioning.
    • This means down tilt can no longer make him pseudo-crawl.
  • Down tilt has a shorter duration (frames 6-9 → 6-7).
  • Down tilt has less ending lag (frame 35 → 31).
  • Down tilt deals more damage (10% → 12%).
• Dash attack:
  • Dash attack's sweetspot has a shorter duration (frames 5-12 → 5-8).
  • If Snake connects dash attack, he can no longer cancel it into up smash removing the Gatling Combo.
• Forward smash:
  • Snake now vocalizes his forward smash after the move has been performed. It additionally has a new "clicking" sound effect.
  • Forward smash has a longer duration (frames 41-42 → 41-43) and has less ending lag (frame 81 → 74).
• Up smash:
  • Up smash's mortar shells now only land in front of Snake making its trajectory more reliable.
  • Snake now vocalizes his up smash after the move has been performed.
  • Up smash's mortar shell deals more damage (10% → 14%).
  • Up smash has less ending lag (frame 53 → 51).
  • The removal of DACUS significantly hinders Snake's up smash's approach potential.
  • The mortar shell has more startup lag (frame 29 → 36).
• Down smash:
  • Snake has a new down smash: a double-sided kick that is slightly similar to Zelda's. This increases its range and makes it more consistent and reliable at KO'ing, though it removes Snake's landmine combos and ability to stage control.
  • New down smash has much less startup (frame 55 → 8) and ending lag (frame 78 → 45).

Aerial attacks

• All aerials have less landing lag (30 frames → 16 (neutral), 30 frames → 19 (forward/back), 22 frames → 15 (up), 30 frames → 20 (down)).
• Neutral aerial:
  • Neutral aerial's later kicks have less startup lag (frame 22/34/44 → 18/26/36 (hits 2/3/4) and neutral aerial can now finish in a short hop. It also has less ending lag (frame 68 → 60).
  • Hits of neutral aerial connect better due to their faster speed and the weakening of SDI.
  • All of neutral aerial's hits do considerably less damage (6% → 3% (hit 1), 5% → 3% (hit 2), 4% → 3% (hit 3), 13% → 12% (hit 4). All hits except the final hit have shorter durations (4 frames → 2).
• Up aerial:
  • Up aerial's strong hit has a much shorter duration (frames 10-23 → 10-12).
• Down aerial:
  • Snake halts his momentum in the air while performing down aerial, similar to Lucario's. This makes down aerial autocancel in a short hop.
  • Down aerial's later kicks have less startup lag (frame 14/25/36 → 10/17/25).
  • Hits of down aerial connect better due to the weakening of SDI and each kick comes out faster with smaller gaps between each hit.
  • All hits of down aerial do less damage (6% → 4% (hit 1), 5% → 3% (hits 2-3), 12% → 10% (hit 4)).

Throws/other attacks

• Grabs:
  • All grabs have more ending lag (frame 30 → 35 (standing), frame 40 → 43 (dash), frame 30 → 38 (pivot).
• Up throw:
  • Up throw deals more damage (10% → 11%).
  • Up throw has increased followup potential.
• Down throw:
  • Snake performs down throw slightly faster.
  • Down throw deals less damage (12% → 9%).
  • Due to the removal of chain grabbing, Snake can no longer use down throw repeatedly, reducing his potential damage output.

Special Moves

• Hand Grenade:
  • Hand Grenades are much larger, making them more likely to hit opponents but also more likely to hit Snake himself.
  • Hand Grenades now operate on a timer of 3 seconds as opposed to 4 seconds in Brawl.
  • Snake moves faster with a Hand Grenade in his hand.
  • When a second Hand Grenade is thrown, the first no longer falls straight down.
• Remote Missile:
  • Remote Missile has less startup lag (frame 43 → 41), travels faster and turns quicker.
  • Remote Missile uses a different sound when preparing to fire a missile.
  • Remote Missile no longer fully stops and drops down when shielding, instead falling in an arc.
• Cypher:
  • Cypher can now be destroyed, worsening Snake's recovery.
  • Grab release glitch on Cypher was fixed.
• C4:
  • C4 now emits a flashing red light for a few seconds after being placed, improving its visibility. This allows Snake to keep track of his C4 more easily, but also allows enemies to do the same.
  • Snake can now say "There!" in addition to "Now!" when detonating a C4.
  • C4 now sticks to opponents much more reliably than in Brawl.
  • C4 stuck to an opponent no longer falls off after they are launched by a high-knockback move.
  • Snake now remains crouched when detonating a C4 from a crouching position.
  • The explosions of Hand Grenades and C4 can now be absorbed.
• Final Smash:
  • Snake has a new Final Smash called Covering Fire. It involves him throwing a flare grenade to call an airstrike. A crosshair will first appear to mark opponents before five homing missiles are fired at the marked victims. This resembles the way flare grenades are used in Metal Gear Solid V, where a support helicopter could be called to provide backup, with homing missiles being one of the options. The UI for the missiles bears a resemblance to the one used for the FIM-92 Stinger homing missile launcher.

Classic Mode: Weapons and Equipment OSP

Snake's opponents all use projectile weapons.

Round	Opponent	Stage
1	Male and Female Inklings	Moray Towers
2	Diddy Kong	Kongo Falls
3	Pit	Shadow Moses Island (Battlefield form)
4	Link	Jungle Japes
5	2 Samuses and 2 R.O.B.s	Norfair
6	Snake (Green Costume)	Shadow Moses Island
Bonus Stage
Final	Galleom	?

Role in World of Light

Snake was among the fighters that were summoned to the cliffside to fight against the army of Master Hands.

During the opening cutscene Snake was present on the cliffside when Galeem absorbed the Master Hands and unleashed his beams of light. While the other fighters were attempting to deflect or dodge the beams, Snake hid in his cardboard box; this proved useless, as a beam of light vaporized him and his box, placing him under Galeem's imprisonment along with the rest of the fighters, except for Kirby.

Alternate costumes

Gallery

• 

  Image of Snake as posted on the official Japanese Metal Gear Twitter account.

• 

  Snake's fighter card.

• 

  Snake on Temple.

• 

  Snake using his neutral attack against Little Mac on Kalos Pokémon League.

• 

  Snake readying his Remote Missile on Coliseum.

• 

  About to detonate his C4 on Bowser Jr. on Tomodachi Life.

• 

  Taunting with a crouching R.O.B. on Magicant.

• 

  Snake crouching next to a Ramblin' Evil Mushroom on Gaur Plain.

• 

  Snake getting hooked by Isabelle on Great Bay.

• 

  Snake getting hit by King K. Rool's Gut Check on Magicant.

• 

  An aerial Snake hit by Lucario’s down tilt on Moray Towers.

• 

  Getting hit by Luigi’s neutral attack on Coliseum.

• 

  With Shulk on Shadow Moses Island.

• 

  Snake and Zero Suit Samus crawling on Shadow Moses Island.

• 

  Snake with Lucas's Rope Snake on Pokémon Stadium 2.

• 

  Snake and King K. Rool begin their battle at Kongo Falls.

Character Showcase Video

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Trivia

• Snake was announced to return in Ultimate on June 12th, 2018, which was also the 10 year anniversary of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.
• Snake is the only returning third-party character to have his Final Smash completely changed.
  • While Super Sonic and Super Pac-Man have different mechanics, they are otherwise the same Final Smash.
• The official Smash Bros. website lists Snake as being the 31st character to join the series, which is coincidentally the same amount of years from the first installment of the Metal Gear series was released, back in 1987, to Snake's return to Smash, in 2018.
• Snake is the only returning third-party character not to appear in Super Smash Bros. 4.
• Snake is the only character in Smash history whose series symbol has been entirely changed: the FOX logo was altered to the "!" Alert symbol from Metal Gear Solid.
  • This is possibly due to the FOX logo also being the logo for the former Kojima Productions, a studio within Konami responsible for developing Metal Gear games which have since dissolved and reformed as an independent developer.
• Ultimate is the third time Snake, Simon, and Bomberman appeared in a video game together, the first two being DreamMix TV World Fighters and Super Bomberman R.