Toon Link (SSB4)

Toon Link in Super Smash Bros. 4
Universe	The Legend of Zelda
Other playable appearance	in Brawl
Availability	Starter
Final Smash	Triforce Slash

Toon Link (トゥーンリンク, Toon Link) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. 4. He was announced on the official website on September 26th, 2013, the release date of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD in Japan. He retains equipment from The Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass, such as the Wind Waker, along with the designs of the Master Sword, Hero's Shield, Hero's Bow, Bombs, Boomerang and Hookshot from those games.

Toon Link is overall much brighter in this game compared to Brawl, with more emphasis on primary colors. In addition, his proportions are matched more closely to his most recent appearance in The Wind Waker HD.

Changes from Brawl

Toon Link has some important buffs from Brawl to SSB4, to his speed and hookshot. However, some big nerfs have been made, mostly to his power, recovery and combo ability. Despite this, he still remains to be a very powerful and formidable opponent.

Aesthetics

• Side taunt now shows Toon Link watching a Wind Waker-styled fairy as it flies around him.
• In the 3DS version, Toon Link does not have his various iconic facial expressions from Brawl and The Wind Waker, instead having a single expression that varies slightly (Ex. Mouth changing slightly). This is presumably to avoid any unnecessary hardware strain on the 3DS.
• In the Wii U version, Toon Link retains his generally expressive faces from Brawl, including many more, possibly inspired from his facial expressions available when taking selfies using the Pictobox in The Wind Waker HD.

Attributes

• Toon Link dashes faster.
• Toon Link rolls much faster.
• Toon Link now flinches when a projectile or bomb explosion hits his Hylian Shield, making his Hylian Shield more reliable when attempting to block multiple projectiles.
• (Matchup Nerf) It should be noted that in Brawl, Toon Link could stand still and block multilpe lasers in a row from Fox or Falco. However, this no longer occurs. Whether this is because Toon Link holds his shield at a different altitude, or because Fox and Falco fire their lasers at a different height has yet to be researched.
• Toon Link is slightly heavier than in Brawl.
• Toon Link's falling speed has increased.
• Toon Link now swings more realistically when hanging off the edge on his Hookshot, now being able to swing under the stage, as opposed to halting all momentum just below the edge.
• Toon Link's air speed has been reduced.

Ground attacks

• Jab (third hit), dash attack (base), up tilt, down tilt, up smash (uncharged), forward smash (second hit), and down smash deals less damage.
• Forward tilt now has a new sourspot at the base of the blade. The semi-spike sweetspot is now solely located at the centre of the blade.
• Up tilt lost most of its KO power.
• Up tilt has been sped up, and works better as a combo and damage-racking attack.
• At low percents, the chance of tripping an opponent with a Down tilt has been raised from 40% to 100%.
• Dash attack can no longer trip opponents, only resulting in knocking them in the air.
• Forward smash has been sped up, and has more vertical reach.
• The window of time that the A button can be pressed after the first hit of forward smash in able to activate the second hit has been significantly tightened, leading to less accidental activations of the second hit, but making it so that one cannot use the delay as much in order to hit with the second hit.
• Down smash's first hit has higher knockback growth, limiting the move's damage racking utility but enhancing its knockback power.

Aerial attacks

• Neutral, up (late), and down aerial (late, non-meteor) deals less damage.
• Back aerial does 11% damage as opposed to 10%.
• Back aerial has much more ending lag, to the point where only one can be fit in a single short hop, as opposed to two. It's landing lag has also been increased.
• Down aerial now goes through opponents, as opposed to bouncing on them, making it more risky to be used as an edgeguard. Its's windbox size and power appear to have been reduced.
• His grab aerial comes out much faster.
• Aerial Hookshot now has very minor knockback growth, becoming more apparent at percents above 100%.

Throws/other attacks

• Up throw has less base knockback, allowing for better follow-ups.
• Back throw's knockback has been dramatically increased, being able to KO reliably at higher percents.
• Down throw has higher knockback growth, limiting its use at higher percentages.
• Hookshot on the ground has significantly less ending lag. It can now grab onto aerial foes. It can also latch on to ledges from a much greater distance, up to three times the distance it used to in the air.
• Hookshot can only be used to grab the edge of the stage twice, as opposed to three. In order to be able to grab it again, Toon Link must land or get hit.
• Toon Link's new permanent ledge attack attack does 7%, as opposed to 8% or 10% from his Brawl ledge attacks. It also has the reduced vertical range of his old ledge attack above 100%.
• Toon Link's new ledge attack is much faster then both of his old ledge attacks.
• If Toon Link hits Grab in the air while holding a bomb, instead of just dropping his bomb, he now drops his bomb and uses his hookshot at the same time. This makes it impossible to use any of his bomb advanced techniques, like the ZAC, iZAC, etc. However, the ability to use these attacks at the same time open up possibilities for new advanced techniques.

Special moves

• Hero's Bow charges faster and travels further charged.
• Arrows can no longer be Quickdrawn.
• Boomerang travels a longer distance.
• Spin Attack covers less vertical and horizontal distance
• It easier for all hits of Aerial Spin Attack to connect, making this a more powerful finisher.
• Spin Attack now has a green sword trail, which resembles that seen from the move in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.
• If a Bomb connects with the opponent or their shield, the blast radius will not affect the user.
• If the opponents grab a bomb and throws it back, the explosion won't harm them either.
• Triforce Slash's damage has been reduced from 78 to 60.

Version exclusives

• In the 3DS version, the hookshot follows a straight path like Link's hookshot in Super Smash Bros.. However, in the Wii U version, the hookshot limps once fully extended, like it did in Brawl, and most other Link's hookshot. They both seem to behave the exact same regardless.
• In the Wii U version, Bombs appear to be larger. It is unknown if this affects gameplay.

Moveset

Ground attacks

Normal

• Neutral attack: Two sword swings, concluding with a thrust forward. Does 3%, 2%, then 4%.
• Dash attack: Slashes directly in front of him, dealing diagonal knock back. 8% damage.
• Forward tilt: Toon Link raises his sword and swings it to the floor, similar to Link's, but with less KO power. Sweetspot located at the centre of the blade, which deals strong horizontal knockback. 9% damage.
• Up tilt: Quickly does a swipe overhead. Can hit on the left or right side of Toon Link. Can combo into itself at low percents, and then an aerial at higher percents. 5% damage.
• Down tilt: A sword swipe near the floor. 7% damage. Can be used for edge guarding.

Smash

• Forward smash: Toon Link pulls back and swings his sword in front of him for 10% damage uncharged, 14% fully charged, and when "A" is pressed again, he does another slash for 11% uncharged, 15% fully charged. The first slash leads directly into the second, with good horizontal knock back.
• Up smash: A slightly delayed swipe above Toon Link, with very similar appearance and range of his up tilt, but with much more knock back and damage. 13% uncharged, 18% fully charged.
• Down smash: Slashes twice on the floor on both sides, slashing the direction he's facing first. The first attack combos into the second. 6% damage then 7% damage uncharged, 8% then 10% fully charged.

Other

• Ledge attack: A swipe in front of him as he gets up. 7% damage.
• Floor attack: Swipes both sides. 6% damage each.

Aerial attacks

Toon Link's Down Air spike.

• Neutral aerial: Slashes on both sides mid-air. 8% front, 7% back.
• Forward aerial: Slashes forward with strong knock back. 13% damage.
• Back aerial: Slashes behind with strong knock back. 11% damage.
• Up aerial: Raises his sword above him. 14% damage early, 11% damage late. A great move for juggling at mid percents, and a good KO move at later percents.
• Down aerial: Stabs directly downward and falls; a Stall-then-fall. Pierces through opponents, unlike Brawl. 16% damage. The initial hitbox is a strong Meteor smash. The move will have some ending lag when the sword hits the ground, because Toon Link has to remove it from the ground. In the air, the move goes down for a long time if there is no platform to land on, but does end and Toon Link can possibly recover, although it's nearly impossible.

Grabs and throws

• Pummel: Bashes the foe in the head with the hilt of his sword. 2% per hit.
• Forward throw: Kicks the foe forward, dealing horizontal knock back. The direction the foe is thrown is too low for an aerial followup most of the time, but decent for comboing into a dash attack at lower percents. Two hits; 3% then 4%.
• Back throw: Rolls on his back with the foe and kicks the foe backward. A great KO option. 7% damage.
• Up throw: Brings the foe up and slashes. Great combo tool. Two hits, dealing 5% damage then 2%.
• Down throw: Brings the foe down and shoulder tackles them on the floor. 7% damage. Its vertical knock back allows it to be followed with a back aerial, but only at low percents for a reliable combo.

Special Moves

In Super Smash Bros. 4, special moves can be swapped out for different variants. He retains his original special moves. These are Toon Link's special moves:

Special Move	Basic	Custom 1	Custom 2
Neutral Special	Hero's Bow	Fire Bow	Piercing Bow
Side Special	Boomerang	Floating Boomerang	High-Speed Boomerang
Up Special	Spin Attack	Sliding Spin Attack	Flying Spin Attack
Down Special	Bomb	Time Bomb	Short-Fused Bomb
Final Smash	Triforce Slash

Trophies

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS trophy descriptions

Toon Link

NA: This cartoonish version of Link is how he appeared in The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker and a few other titles. In Smash Bros., he uses moves much like his older, taller counterpart. His small size gives him extra speed, though, so take advantage of that to send your foes flying.

PAL: This cartoonish version of young Link is how he appears in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and a few other titles. While he shares some moves with his older counterpart, he's a very different fighter. Take advantage of his size and speed to whirl past enemies and bombard them with long-range attacks.

Toon Link (Alt.)

Toon Link's Bomb move doesn't deal much damage, but the blast radius is pretty big. His bombs can be thrown in all directions, damaging or distracting your foes. Also, his up special Spin Attack keeps him airborne longer than Link's version. For some launching power, use the side smash attack.

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  Classic

• ToonLinkAllStarTrophy3DS.png

  Alt.

Update history

1.0.4

• Removed a bug where he can cancel the aerial lag with the Bomb.
• The spiking portions of his Down Aerial does 16% as opposed to 14%.

Alternate costumes

Gallery

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  Toon Link in the Nintendo Direct from April 8th, 2014.

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  Toon Link's amiibo.

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  The pic of the day shown during Toon Link's reveal.

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  His Spin Attack.

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  His up taunt.

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  His forward tilt.

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  Toon Link with Peach.

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  Toon Link with Kirby and Pikachu.

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  Toon Link lying down on the stage platform of Wily Castle

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  Toon Link caught in a Bomb explosion with Mario and Peach.

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  Toon Link beginning to use his forward smash.

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  His Hero's Bow.

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  His appearance in the 3DS version, posing with Link.

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  Toon Link reeling, about to get KO'd.

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  Toon Link and Link use their Spin Attack on the ground.

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  Toon Link's Spin Attack colliding with Link's.

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  Donkey Kong holding Toon Link's bomb.

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  Toon Link throwing a Bomb at Link.

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  Toon Link appearing as a background character on the Spirit Train stage.

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  Toon Link and Link taunting.

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  An upward sword attack, presumably his up tilt or up smash.

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  His neutral aerial.

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  The third hit of his neutral attack.

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  Down aerial in the air.

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  His down aerial getting stuck.

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  Throwing a Bomb in the air.

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  Toon Link and Pikachu staring.

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  Fighting Mario, Kirby and Samus.

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  Toon Link being attacked by Zelda's Din's Fire in SSB4.

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  Toon Link using the Gust Bellows item on Samus

Trivia

• Unlike his recent appearance artworks, his Smash Bros. 4 artwork doesn't have Toon Link wielding the Wind Waker baton.