Transform
| Transform | |
|---|---|
 Zelda transforms into Sheik in Brawl. | |
| User | Zelda Sheik |
| Universe | The Legend of Zelda |
| Article on Zelda Wiki | Sheik |
Transform (シークチェンジ, Sheik Change and ゼルダチェンジ, Zelda Change) is Zelda and Sheik's down special move in Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
Overview
It allows Zelda to turn into Sheik, and vice versa.
Origin
The move is based on The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time where Sheik reveals to have been Zelda in disguise all along. Using the power of the Triforce of Wisdom, she is able to physically change her appearance, allowing her to disguise herself by changing her clothing, hair, eye, and skin color. The sound that plays when Zelda/Sheik transform is the traditional "secret revealed" and "puzzle solved" jingle from The Legend of Zelda series. When Sheik reveals herself as Zelda, she crosses her hands, while the final Triforce piece appears on her hand, and then spins toward the screen, revealing her to be Zelda.
In Smash
In Melee, both Zelda and Sheik are loaded in the game's memory at all times, allowing the transformation to occur instantly with no loading required. In Brawl, however, the new character must be loaded from the disc mid-transformation, which forces it to take much longer; because this is true, if two Zeldas/Sheiks are using the same palette swap through glitch or team battle, transforming into the other player's active character will be essentially instant as the data is already loaded. While the intangibility during the loading can be useful for dodging Final Smashes and boss attacks, it has an unpredictable duration and makes the move much easier to punish on completion. The delay can be shortened in terms of game time by pausing or through a slow motion effect such as the Timer; if replay data containing either of these happening is saved, the game will pause in-replay to finish the loading. Forcing the game to load the next character through an SD card via hacking will result in a transformation time comparable to Melee's, due to SD cards naturally being faster to access than the game disc.
Transform was replaced by Phantom Slash for Zelda and Bouncing Fish for Sheik in Smash 4 and Ultimate.
Gallery
Zelda begins to transform in Brawl.
In Brawl, as the form is changing, the disc must load in order for the process to be complete.
Zelda is finally transformed into Sheik, her alter ego.
Trivia
- Transform was originally planned to return in SSB4 as Zelda and Sheik's down special. But due to Nintendo 3DS hardware limitations, they were instead split into two independent playable characters with new down special moves.
- This remains the case in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate even in the absence of such technical constraints, following from the statement by Masahiro Sakurai that Zelda and Sheik (as well as Samus and Zero Suit Samus) are more fresh and less limited as individual characters.
- However, Pokemon Trainer for Ultimate kept the Pokémon Change move. Charizard, Ivysaur, and Squirtle are part of the shared character Pokémon Trainer. Because of this, Charizard from Smash 4 in Ultimate is no longer a standalone character. It was regrouped back to Pokémon Trainer.
- Transform, Agility, PSI Magnet and Teleport are the only attacks in Melee to have no direct effect on opponents.
- In Brawl, only one character can be loaded at once, so if multiple Transforms or Pokémon Changes occur at the same time, they must each wait for the previous one to complete.
- In Brawl, if Zelda/Sheik is shrunk or enlarged by someone else picking up a Lightning Bolt, and then, while small or big, transforms, she will not naturally return to her normal size until she is KO'ed, even if she transforms a second time.
- The ending animation for when Zelda transforms into Sheik was also used for Sheik's entrance animation in Brawl.
- Due to the difference in tier list positions between Sheik and Zelda in Melee, Zelda's version of Transform is jokingly considered one of the best moves in the game, as it, quite literally, transforms her into a top tier character or in the earlier tier lists the best character in the game.
