Charge Shot
The Charge Shot is Samus's Neutral B move.
Pressing the special move button will cause Samus to start charging energy in her arm cannon, which can be fired by pressing the button again. When the attack has reached maximum strength, Samus will stop charging and resume her neutral standing position, but her arm cannon will start to flash. Pressing the special move button in this state will let her fire the fully charged shot. Alternatively, the player can press grab, shield, or the control stick left or right to cancel the charge and/or dodge, and pressing the special move button again will resume her charge. If Samus is hit while she's charging, she will not retain the stored charge. When used in the air, Samus will automatically fire either a non-charged blast, or however big a shot was charged previously. A fully charged shot does 26% damage. The attack does great knockback at higher percents and is a deadly projectile for edgeguarding. A fully charged shot can also break smash balls in one hit, allowing her to get them from far away.
Origin
If she didn't start out with it, the Charge Beam (as it is called outside of Smash Bros.) was one of the first Power-ups Samus would get in the Metroid games, starting with Super Metroid. A fully charged shot would become Samus' only way of damaging certain bosses, should she run out of Missiles. In Metroid Prime a Charge Shot is used to clear debris blocking Samus' path.
Gallery
Samus's arm cannon flashes at the end, a sign that her power beam is fully charged
Charge shot in Melee
