Knee Smash
| “ | The Knee Smash, used in midair on foes in front of you, is slow and has a short reach, but if it connects, it'll send foes flying a long way on a low trajectory. | ” |
| —Captain Falcon's "Smash Red" Trophy, Super Smash Bros. Melee | ||
The Knee Smash, also well known as The Knee or the Knee of Justice (and a variety of other nicknames involving the term "knee"), is Captain Falcon's forward aerial in Super Smash Bros. Melee, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and Super Smash Bros. 4 as confirmed by his "Red" Smash trophy description in Melee. It is an extremely powerful low-trajectory KO move often used at the end of Falcon's combos and for edge-guarding. It deals up to 18% damage in Melee and 19% in Brawl, and has electrical properties when sweetspotted.
Overview
In Super Smash Bros. Melee
The Knee Smash is considered among the best moves in the game due to its low start-up lag and very powerful horizontal knockback, where it can reliably KO under 100% in most stages. Many combos and strategies for Captain Falcon end with a Knee Smash. When the Knee Smash is at full power, it makes an excellent wall of pain, and can be accompanied by Captain Falcon's down aerial for a pseudo-Ken Combo.
The Knee Smash acts as a sex kick, with two main hitboxes. The initial hitbox (often called the "hard knee"), which lasts only a few frames, is Captain Falcon's primary KO move and is accompanied by an electrical effect. The second hitbox (nicknamed the "soft knee") lasts much longer, but lacks the damage and knockback of the initial hitbox. The attack, however, acts as a semi-spike, albeit a weak one.
Due to the Knee Smash's low ending lag, players can use it as a launcher into another aerial attack, often another Knee Smash. In addition, if a hard Knee Smash lands at 60% or so, players can occasionally follow it up with an aerial Falcon Punch in the deadly "Sacred Combo".
In the PAL version of Melee, the late hit of the attack is weakened, dealing less knockback and halved damage. This nerf prevents Captain Falcon from following up with another hard knee, forcing him to follow up with an up aerial instead.
In Super Smash Bros. Brawl
In Brawl, the Knee Smash was nerfed. The initial hitbox was nerfed such that it needs to actually sweet spot on the knee for the familiar electrical hit to occur, as the back hitbox simply has similar properties of NTSC Melee's late hit, while the late hit in Brawl acts like the PAL late hit in Melee, being even weaker than the clean hit's sourspot. In addition, the initial hitbox as a whole now only lasts one frame; as a result, it is much harder to land a hard Knee Smash. Its hitlag has also been significantly increased, allowing for more DI and SDI from the opponent. On the upside, it can autocancel from a short hop, though on smaller characters, this trait can only be taken full advantage of if they aren't on the ground. Nonetheless, the Knee Smash remains among Falcon's strongest finishers, sometimes used in an aerial combo in place of his up aerial.
A late Knee Smash can trip a grounded opponent often, and is still useful for gimping recoveries like falco's, albeit less so than in Melee. It can also be followed up with an up aerial or a sweet spotted Knee Smash if the opponent is read correctly.
It is notable that Captain Falcon has a true setup for a sweetspotted Knee Smash if he uses it after a grab air release on Wario, and a grab ground release on Ness.
In Super Smash Bros. 4
The Knee Smash has had a slew of changes, but is overall nerfed. While it has slightly less startup, Captain Falcon still has very few ways of reliably landing a hard knee, even with the removal of hitstun cancelling from Brawl. To further hamper its usefulness against grounded opponents, the Knee Smash has significantly more landing lag (is now 30 frames, or half a second) and can no longer auto cancel in a short hop. However, it does have much more base knockback with reduced scaling as a result, being safer to land a hard knee at lower percents and essentially acting as Ganondorf's forward aerial used to in previous installments.
Skull Crusher
Though Ganondorf was a clone of Captain Falcon in Melee, his forward aerial is not a knee strike, but is instead an arcing downward punch resembling a faster version of Mario's own forward aerial in both Melee, Brawl, and SSB4, nicknamed the "Skull Crusher". In Melee, it has the same number of start-up frames as the Knee Smash, but has less knockback and longer ending and landing lag, though it is still strong enough to reliably KO under 120%. Unlike the Knee Smash though, it has only one hitbox in Melee, with longer reach, allowing the move to be landed easier, and does not produce an electrical effect. Due to its rather fast speed for such a strong attack (that has no sour spot hitboxes), and its great reach, the Skull Crusher became a pivotal move in Ganondorf's metagame.
In Brawl, the Skull Crusher was nerfed like the Knee Smash, despite gaining a slight increase in its knockback dealt. It has drastically longer ending and landing lag (which is made worse by the removal of L-canceling, and the fact that it cannot auto-cancel from any height due to a glitch), covers less range, and received a sourspot hitbox that covers Ganondorf's arm, making the move require spacing to land properly. In comparison to the Knee Smash, there is much less difference in damage and knockback between its two hitboxes compared to the three hitboxes of Captain Falcon's knee (the Skull Crusher's sourspot can still KO under 150%, while the two sourspot hitboxes of the Knee Smash deal minimal damage and knockback).
In Super Smash Bros. 4, the Skull Crusher received a buff. The landing lag it possessed in Brawl was reverted to where it is now slightly less laggy than the Melee version. The move's sweetspot was also increased in size, making it slightly disjointed. Additionally, its high base knockback and moderate knockback scaling properties were swapped, making the move a bit less effective at KOing on ledges but more of a reliable KO from center and on heavier characters.
Trivia
- The Knee Smash is one of only five knee-based attacks in the Super Smash Bros. series that are not pummels. The other four are the third hit of Falcon's neutral combo, the first hit of Snake's forward tilt, the second hit of Wii Fit Trainer's neutral combo, and Zero Suit Samus' dash attack in Super Smash Bros. 4.
- In Melee and Brawl, the Knee Smash has a moderately low base knockback and a high knockback scaling, whereas the Skull Crusher has a high base knockback, but moderate knockback scaling. Such traits were reversed in Super Smash Bros. 4.
Gallery
Captain Falcon's Knee Smash in Melee.
The sweet spotted Knee Smash in Brawl.
A sour spotted Knee Smash in Brawl. Note the absence of electrical effects.
After executing the Knee Smash in Smash 4.
