Straight Lunge
| Straight Lunge | |
|---|---|
 Little Mac lunging forward with a fully charged Straight Lunge. | |
| User | Little Mac |
| Universe | Punch-Out!! |
| “ | A devastating punch. Press  to charge and again to release.
|
” |
| —Smash for 3DS's foldout | ||
Straight Lunge (気合いストレート, Vigorous Straight) is Little Mac's neutral special move in Super Smash Bros. 4.
Overview
When used, Little Mac steps back and starts charging up a straight, and during this time, he gains slight knockback resistance which can shrug off light attacks. Upon release, Little Mac lunges forward, damaging all enemies he passes through with a devastating punch. Uncharged, the lunge barely sends Little Mac anywhere and has slight ending lag, while charging the move gives the lunge considerably more distance the longer it is charged. When fully charged, Little Mac's fist bursts into flames and the lunge sends him almost half the distance of Final Destination. A fully charged Straight Lunge takes about three seconds to charge and deals 25% damage with ridiculously high knockback, able to KO opponents at 60% even from the middle of Final Destination, although the charge time makes it almost impossible to accomplish in 1v1 matches. At point blank, a fully charged lunge can break a full shield. The move also gains significant endlag when fully charged, as Little Mac will flex his burning fist.
Despite its incredible power, a fully charged Straight Lunge has low knockback scaling, meaning it doesn't send opponents considerably further when they are at high percentages. This makes its knockback inferior in Home-Run Contest when compared to the Home Run Bat, as the Sandbag will barely be sent far enough even at high percentages; regardless, the incredibly high base knockback of the move is guaranteed to KO opponents at moderate percentages in normal matches, making it incredibly useful when used to finish off an opponent with a broken shield.
Although a chargeable move, Little Mac cannot store charges like other chargeable moves such as Charge Shot, making it function similarly to moves like Paralyzer. He is also unable to unleash the attack until around a second has passed. Additionally, Straight Lunge does not gain any power or damage unless fully charged; only the distance gained by the move is increased while charging. Regardless, an uncharged Straight Lunge has surprising kill potential for an uncharged attack, able to take stocks at 100%. The aerial version of this move is significantly weaker, unable to KO until 205%. All stages of the move hit the hardest in the first few frames; an uncharged lunge does little knockback in the final frames, while a fully charged lunge loses some of its knockback potential at the end, although it still deals potent knockback. The move's knockback resistance can be abused against edge attack spamming opponents, as Little Mac will plow through their attacks and hit them. It can also be used as a unique way to stand his ground against weak projectiles such as Mega Man's Metal Blade or jab infinites from characters like Fox.
Due to Little Mac's low jump height and high falling speed, this move cannot be fully charged in the air under regular circumstances. An uncharged and even semi-charged aerial Straight Lunge sends Little Mac nowhere, making it impractical as a recovery move. However, if the move does fully charge itself in the air, Little Mac lunges forward without falling, which can be useful for gaining horizontal distance if Little Mac is sent flying way offstage in an upward diagonal direction; however, the move still ends with considerable lag, and Little Mac begins falling the moment the move's initial "lunging forward" animation finishes. He also can't grab ledges until his fist stops burning.
KO Uppercut
- Main article: Power Meter
When Little Mac's Power Meter is full, his Straight Lunge is replaced with a single-use uppercut of unrivaled power named the KO Uppercut, intended to be a one-hit KO. It is by far the strongest standard special in the game for its speed, surpassed only by Ganondorf's Reverse Warlock Punch and a fully charged Flare Blade, though both have a lengthy charging time compared to KO Uppercut's almost negligible startup. Contrary to its name, however, its base knockback is not quite high enough to be an OHKO at 0%, instead KOing the lightest character at 12% when used on the ground (percentage depends on the character's weight), meaning an opponent will be in prime KO position after a few landed attacks and not after freshly respawning. After the bar is full, Little Mac only has a short amount of time before he is vulnerable to having the meter reset from being sent flying by any attack dealing 80 units of knockback or more. A KO Uppercut can miss due to intangibility but is completely unblockable (with the exception of Witch Time), and Little Mac gains super armor if the move hits; however, opponents can grab or attack Little Mac out of a delay on KO Punch's start up, causing the animation to be canceled. The move itself starts almost immediately and is very difficult to expect, but a whiffed KO Uppercut has considerable ending lag, enough for the opponent to punish Little Mac. This makes the move a high risk, high reward attack.
Of note is that KO Uppercut gives incredibly high freeze frames to anything it hits, even to Little Mac; this can catch opponents in the move if they walk towards Little Mac while he is stuck in the freeze frames when hitting an item like Pac-Man's Fire Hydrant, for example. The move's high freeze frames are shown in this video, where it is abused to KO Pac-Man on a tower of crates. Additionally, the Uppercut creates a small windbox when unleashed, which can in rare cases cause the attack to miss or push opponents away too far.
Consistent with Little Mac's depiction as a very strong fighter on the ground and very weak in the air, the aerial version of KO Uppercut is drastically weaker, not KOing until 151%. Ironically however, if Little Mac happens to have a KO Uppercut when sent offstage, the move can tremendously aid his recovery, as using the KO Uppercut while having any sort of forward momentum sends him flying forward with decent horizontal distance. However, if Little Mac does not reach the stage, he is extremely likely to get KO'd anyway due to the move's high ending lag. This tactic can give Little Mac quite a good recovery on certain stages, notably ones with walls that allow him to wall jump.
Kirby can use the Straight Lunge via copying Little Mac, but does not gain a Power Meter and thus can only use the standard version of the move.
Combos into KO Uppercut
Due to the KO Uppercut's sheer ability to turn a game around, it can be difficult to catch opponents in the move as they expect Little Mac to use it extremely soon. Despite this, Little Mac possesses a few combos he can use to give himself a better guarantee to land the Uppercut, which gives him potentially one of the most potent combos-to-KOs in the game along with more mixups to play mindgames with the opponent.
- Little Mac's first and second hits of his jab can be jab cancelled into a KO Uppercut due to its one frame of activation. It is the easiest way to land a KO Uppercut (especially if the opponent shields the jabs, as the Uppercut bypasses shields). Success isn't guaranteed, however, as a quick player will be able to act out of hitstun right before Little Mac unleashes the Uppercut, allowing them to simply jump away, and it takes some skill to land a single jab on the opponent without it transitioning into Little Mac's jab infinite.
- Depending on the opponent's percentage, weight and falling speed, Little Mac's down tilt can position his opponent for a KO Uppercut, especially if they are conditioned to airdodge during the game (which will make them suffer from landing lag and guarantee success). It is the most reliable way to combo the Uppercut against fastfallers such as Fox and heavier fighters like Bowser at middle percentages, but middleweights and light characters such as Jigglypuff will be sent too high for the Uppercut to hit once they pass a certain percentage.
- If an opponent bounces off the ground, Little Mac can use his incredibly fast down aerial to jab reset an opponent into getting up, then unleash a KO Uppercut. This can work as a combo starter for any of Little Mac's other moves, but the jab reset itself requires pinpoint timing as Little Mac's down aerial has an incredibly small hitbox.
- A situational and risky, yet flashy technique relies on Smash 4's new jab knockback mechanic, which makes multi-hitting jabs push the user backwards after a few seconds. It allows Little Mac to seemingly end his jab infinite with a KO Uppercut. If an opponent is caught in Little Mac's jab infinite while Mac's back is touching the ledge, the player can press the special button once Little Mac gets pushed off the ledge after a few seconds, making him instantly unleash the KO Uppercut and allowing him to true combo a jab to KO Uppercut. This technique has to be used at low to medium percentages, as extremely damaged opponents can be sent out of the jab. The timing for this makes it incredibly risky, as inputting either too early or too late will make Little Mac end his jab with a finisher, swing the Uppercut too late, or send him offstage while trapped in the Uppercut's high ending lag, causing an SD. Additionally, the player has to have the KO Uppercut ready while both Little Mac and his opponent have to be extremely close to the ledge to even attempt the move, making this technique highly situational.
Customization
Special Move customization was added in Super Smash Bros. 4. These are the variations:
| 1. Straight Lunge | 2. Flaming Straight Lunge | 3. Stunning Straight Lunge |
|---|---|---|
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| "Blast forward with a powerful punch. Press once to charge and again to strike." | "Blast forward with a flaming punch that hits multiple times before launching opponents." | "Blast through opponents at high speed. Will stun and launch at full charge." |
- Straight Lunge: Default.
- Flaming Straight Lunge: Adds a Flame effect, hits multiple times, and has a much faster charge time of about one second, allowing it to be used as a horizontal recovery albeit with high endlag, along with extreme risk as Little Mac cannot sweetspot the ledge until the move is complete. It travels a shorter distance and deals less damage, and its multiple hits do not chain well against opponents at high percentages, making it possible for them to DI out after the first few hits.
- Stunning Straight Lunge: Adds an Paralyze effect and at full charge will paralyze enemies before launching them. The lunge is also faster and covers a much greater distance, sending Little Mac the entirety of Final Destination's length at full charge. However, it deals less damage and lacks knockback resistance. If partly charged, this move shoots Little Mac forward with decent horizontal distance, which can be used in the same way as a fully charged Flaming Straight Lunge to get back to the stage, albeit without high ending lag, making it a better recovery move overall.
*All custom variants of Straight Lunge do not alter KO Uppercut in any way.
Origin
The uppercut is a reference to Little Mac's signature move in the Punch-Out!! series, the Star Uppercut. This move deals considerable damage and has a higher chance of leaving Mac's opponents down for the full ten-count.
The power meter originates from the 1984 arcade Punch-Out!! If Little Mac keeps attacking the opponent, the power meter will fill, but taking damage will cause the meter to fall, unlike in Smash Bros. When the power meter is fully charged (indicated by a glowing "KO" similar to the meter in Super Smash Bros.), the player can perform one of two knock out punches, an uppercut or a body-blow, by pressing a button on the arcade cabinet depending on the position of the gloves. The only Punch-Out!! game to retain this system outside of the arcades was Super Punch-Out!! on SNES.
Trivia
- As an interesting note, Little Mac has a specific animation when he uses a fully charged Straight Lunge in the air: spinning around and doing an awkward flex. Due to Little Mac's attributes (specifically his poor jumps and fast falling speed), however, this animation is difficult to spot, as he has to be either close to the top blast line or using customs to finish charging up a Straight Lunge in midair.
- Although Little Mac's fist gets engulfed in flames when fully charged, a fully charged Straight Lunge does not do Flame damage.
- Straight Lunge is one of the only chargeable moves that does not increase damage or knockback with charging until fully charged; charging and releasing Straight Lunge before then only has increasing traveled distance. The other is Ultimate Uppercut, which, like Straight Lunge, does not possess increased damage or knockback unless fully charged.
- A successful hit with the KO uppercut will cause the game to go in slow motion, as the camera zooms in on Little Mac for about a second. It is possible, however, that the camera won't focus on Mac, though the game still slows down. This only seems to happen if Little Mac is hit out of the Uppercut animation after it lands.
- If equipped with 3 attack-boosting or critical-hit capacity equipment, Little Mac's defense will be so low that surviving only a few attacks will completely fill up his Power Meter. Conversely, his KO Uppercut will gain so much power that a critical-hit boosted version can destroy any of Master Core's forms in a single hit.
- This move has a unique 8-bit sound while Little Mac is in his Wireframe costume. If Kirby copies him while in that costume, he uses the 8-bit sound along with his own voice.
- Grabbing Little Mac while he's performing KO Uppercut will not only stop the move, but also cause the grabber and Little Mac to slide back a large distance, as seen here.
