Smashing!
You've spent hundreds of hours Brawling and Meleeing with your friends, and you've seen and done everything there is to do in the Nintendo mascot brawler... or have you? It doesn't matter how good you think you are; if you're not taking advantage of every trick in the book you're simply not playing to your full potential. And believe us, there are some tricks you haven't heard about.
Sure, you might know about one or two of these, but weave all of these secrets together and you'll be able to improve your Smash game tremendously. Want to find out how to master the "Wave Dash" or "SHFFL" like a pro? You've come to the right place--it's time to learn how to Smash the right way. And part of that means that you learn how to...
Move like crazy with wavedashing/waveshining
Ever wonder how pro players are able to zip around the stage as fast as lightning in Super Smash Bros Melee? Its due to wavedashing, which allows a character to slide along the ground at length without any walking or running. Its performed by jumping, then immediately using the air dodge toward the ground, causing the slide. Oh, and it takes some pretty precise timing, so dont be surprised if it takes you a while to learn how to do it.
Fox and Falco have their own variant called waveshining, which uses the Reflector move, or shine, in the process. The Reflector can be cancelled by a short jump, the first step in the wavedash formula, so the move fits naturally into the execution. This technique jettisoned Fox and Falco to the top of the tier lists in Melee, and one need only look at EVO 2013s Smash tournament footage to see why.
Chain Throw (most) foes with King Dedede
King Dedede, that big oaf. The penguin king made his Smash debut in Brawl, lugging that giant hammer in tow and throwing his minions around the stage like Pokeballs. Hes a slower character with some power behind his punches, but the beauty of Dededes Smashing ability lies in his grappling, or what he can do with a certain grab.
See, Dedede has this crazy ability to chain his Down throw ad infinitum to the majority of the roster (exceptions being the lightweight characters... and Luigi, for some reason). This puts up some major damage and makes players vulnerable to a big ol hammer whack right out of the match. Be wary when facing an opponent that picks Dedede; you could be chain thrown into oblivion before you know whats happening.
Land the perfect Falcon knee
Yes, yes, we know. The mere mention of Captain Falcon makes you immediately start screaming FALCON PAAAUUNCH! or FALCON KEECK!! or even Show me your moves! Falcon is no slouch on the battlefield, and iconic moves aside his abilities make him incredibly dangerous. However, theres one move that might be the most powerful of all, deadlier than any paunch or keeck.
Falcons air Forward+A attack is a jumping knee, pretty ordinary looking to those unaware of its divine justice-filled power. If the good Captain lands his knee right when he attacks (the initial hitbox to fighting aficionados), the sorry sap on the receiving earns an instant 20% damage, electrocution, and in some cases a shortcut to the side of the screen for a knockout. Theres nothing sweeter than see the Knee of Justice in actionunless of course you're the one getting kneed.
Reach across the level with Samus's Extended Grapple
Samus Aran is one of the few characters to have a ranged throw attack, allowing her to grab her foes without having to be right next to them. This ability has obvious benefits, but in Samus case the advantage just wasnt enough. In Super Smash Bros Melee, Samus is able to further extend that throw to almost three times its normal size; all the player needs to do is have insanely fast fingers. Easy.
After initiating the throw, the player must quickly enter Up, Down, Up on the control pad, then press the throw button again just as the grapple beam is becoming visible. Success means a longer grapple beam, but be warned: youll have to press Z again as the beam makes contact to actually grab the foe. Otherwise itll just float there harmlessly, and thats just weird.
Tumble around with the Glide Toss
Items are normally banned in competitive, professional Smash Bros tournaments, which is a damn shame considering how helpful this next weird technique can be. This weird move allows a character to slide across the ground while throwing an item, covering more ground faster than dashing or some other method. All it takes is a dodge roll immediately followed by throwing a held item and youll be Glide Tossing around the arena.
With items banned at competitive tournaments, do you know who benefits from this technique more than any other character? Diddy Kong! The smaller simian can generate banana peels via his Down+B special move, which leaves the peel on the stage waiting to be picked up and used in a Glide Toss. This has made Diddy Kong a viable and fun-to-watch character on the pro scene; his Glide Tosses are bananas.
Supercharging Samus's Super Wavedash
Samus again? Indeed, the brave bounty hunter has another interesting property unique only to her, this time taking the Melee Wavedash technique we spoke of before and supercharging it. However, this move isnt as commonly used due to its insane timing--like, things needs to be done on specific frames or else it wont work kind of timing. Youll never see any of us pulling it off, thats for sure.
The super-duper dash is done by performing Samus Down+B Special move to drop a bomb, then just as Samus is hitting the ground, the player must press the opposite direction of the way he or she wants Samus to go, immediately followed by the wanted directions, both in only two frames (41st and 42nd respectively for those who can count frames well). Youll know youve done it correctly when Samus becomes a human/Chozo rocket ship for the length of the stage. Look for that.
Learn how to do the SHFFL
Whats the Smash Bros SHFFL? Formally known as a short hop fast fall L-cancel, the SHFFL technique gives those with incredibly fast fingers (see: anyone whos at the top of the Melee pro list) the ability to jump, perform an aerial attack, and land on the ground in the least amount of time possible. Think of a rabbit hopping along your front yard, but every time the animal hops it throws a Captain Falcon knee before landing. Thats what SHFFL is, and its power can be insane in the right hands.
The idea behind this is the ability to incorporate a characters aerial moves in a way that better incorporates them into combos. Combining a small jump (short hop), the ability to quickly drop after a jump (fast fall), and the ability to cancel into an attack using the shields (L-cancel), the SHFFL has only been mastered by those who eat, drink, and sleep Melee, leaving the rest of us to just jump and attack like un-learned PEONS. Oh, to have fast fingers like the prosho hum.
Teach Ganon how to fly
Wait, Ganon can FLY now? Well, not exactly, but this weird glitch shoots Ganondorf high into the air, much higher than he could normally jump on his own. However, like the Samus superdash, getting Ganon to fly requires some pretty insane timing, so you wont be seeing this unless youre goofing off with some friends and one of you wants to see it.
To achieve the power of Ganon-flight, the player must position Ganondorf at the very edge of a platform, but facing away from it toward the middle of the platform--then perform a Down+B special, the Wizards Foot (Down+B is a theme in this article all of a sudden). Because of the edge positioning, the game will think that Ganon attacked in the air, so hell roll instead of coming to one knee. When this rolls happens, press jump and execute another Wizards foot at the same exact time. If done right, Ganon will then shoot up to the sky like an evil rocket, not far enough to be KOd, but enough to plan some aerial strategy. Fly, Ganondorf, FLY!!!
Drop your bat in the Home Run Derby
Not every tip were handing out today applies to the battlefield, as every Smash Brothers game has some non-battle modes to explore. One of them, the Home Run Derby, lets us beat the crap out of a sandbag before launching it as far as we can with the Home Run Bats smash attack. The bat may be the most crucial part, but that doesnt mean we have to hold on to it.
It might not be an actual battle, but the characters in Home Run Derby control the same way. By picking up the bat, dropping it on the bag, attacking, then picking it up and repeating the process, you can tally some crazy damage on the bag before sending it flying. This sounds like something every Smasher should know, but youd be surprised how many people think that bat is glued to the characters hand once its picked up. Its not. Smash away, fellow players, Smash away.
Learn the art of "Wobbling"
No, this isnt the lost art of teetering off of the edge of a platform in a new way, this refers to the devastating technique for the Ice Climbers discovered and named after EVO 2013 runner-up Wobbles. There are two Ice Climbers and only one of them is actively controlled (we all know that), but Wobbles uses that knowledge to create an insanely powerful trick.
Wobbling requires the active Ice Climber to grab an opponent while the other one performs Smash attacks for as long as the player wants, no time limit, no stopping it. This means that if Wobbles can grab you with his Ice Climber, youre going off the stage very shortly, so just watch yourself get pummeled then kiss your butt goodbye. Who knew those cute little eskimo were so powerful?
