Ganondorf (SSBM)

Ganondorf in Super Smash Bros. Melee
Universe	The Legend of Zelda
Other playable appearances	in Brawl in SSB4 in Ultimate
Availability	Unlockable
Tier	C+ (14) (North America) E (14) (Europe)

Ganondorf (ガノンドロフ, Ganondorf) appears as an unlockable playable character in Super Smash Bros. Melee. A clone of Captain Falcon, he fights in a slower, heavier brawler style than his base, with attacks partially infused with dark magic. He is voiced by Takashi Nagasako, with most voice clips being reused from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

As with the game's other clones, Ganondorf was added to Melee late in development; he was chosen for his popularity, and having a reusable pre-existing model that matched Captain Falcon's body type. Unlike other characters who sport bespoke models, Ganondorf's was directly taken and modified from his appearance in the SpaceWorld 2000 GameCube Tech Demo, itself derived from his appearance in his original Gerudo form from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

Ganondorf currently ranks 14th out of 26 in the C+ tier on the Melee tier list, which is his best placement in the series, and the only time he has not been a bottom-tier character. Ganondorf boasts extreme power, good reach, decent chaingrabbing ability, and very useful aerials, including the strongest meteor smash in the game in his down aerial. He also has several effective edgeguarding options including the aforementioned down aerial. His endurance is also quite good, with high weight and a far-reaching recovery.

Nonetheless, Ganondorf has great flaws to counteract these great strengths as well. He has a bad neutral game due to his poor dash dance and lack of non-committal approach options, forcing Ganondorf players to rely more on reads and a bait-and-punish playstyle. Ganondorf is also very susceptible to punishes himself, as he is easily comboed and chaingrabbed due to his size and weight, and is very easily edgeguarded due to his very predictable (albeit long-distance) recovery. His speed and size also mean he is vulnerable to projectiles and has few ways to deal with characters that outrange him or rush him down. While Ganondorf has notably good matchups against all characters historically tiered lower than him, and also on a few high-tiers reliant on wavedashing for movement, he struggles to maintain ground against top-tier characters, such as Fox and Sheik.

Like many Melee mid-tiers, Ganondorf falls victim to the metagame's most common fighters. Although he is often considered to be a nonviable pick at the highest level of play, a handful of players, such as Bizzarro Flame and Kage, have shown Ganondorf can get close to the final rounds of major tournaments.

How to unlock

Ganondorf must be defeated in battle before he can be unlocked. There are two ways the player can encounter Ganondorf:

• One way is to complete Event 29: Triforce Gathering. If the player fails to defeat Ganondorf, they can re-fight him by completing the event again.
• Another way is to play 600 VS. matches. If the player fails to defeat Ganondorf, they can re-fight him by playing another VS. match to completion. If this method is used, fighters with lower VS. match quotas must be unlocked before Ganondorf can be fought.

Upon meeting either requirement, Ganondorf is fought on Final Destination, with the track "Great Bay" playing.

Attributes

As a slower, larger clone of Captain Falcon, Ganondorf sacrifices speed for power and range. He is often considered to be the most powerful character in the game, boasting as many as sixteen KO options. This is counteracted by his poor mobility, as he has the 6th slowest dashing speed, the 3rd slowest air speed, and a rather short and slow wavedash. However, he possesses techniques that can partially circumvent his low speed, such as the moonwalk, a great platform-dashing game, and one of the fastest and longest rolls, which surprisingly rivals his running speed, as well as positions him backwards.

One of Ganondorf's most notable strengths is his extreme power and damage output. His up smash, though laggy, is the strongest in the game if fully charged and both hits connect. His neutral special, Warlock Punch, and his notorious up tilt are two of the slowest moves in the game (the latter is the slowest), but can KO as low as 30%. His down aerial is both the strongest aerial attack and meteor smash in the game; it is notoriously difficult to meteor cancel regardless of damage percentage and is nearly impossible to recover from, even at low percentages, and can reliably star KO some grounded characters under ~100%. Ganondorf's powerful attacks are counterbalanced by their slowness, but although most of his aerial attacks have long periods of landing lag, Ganondorf is perhaps the character that benefits the most from L-canceling, as it allows him to effectively combo other characters.

Despite Ganondorf's extreme power, he does not suffer from poor combo extensions, due to the knockback in his attacks, as he manages to retain some of the excellent combo ability from his clone. His aerials flow very well into each other, and when L-canceled, he can chase his opponents and land a follow-up despite his poor air speed. Due to his benefit from L-canceling, a low short hop, and decent falling speed, Ganondorf has a good SHFFL. The core of Ganondorf's combos lie in his grab game; despite a rather poor grab range, his throws have immense versatility, and his up and down throws are excellent launchers, as well as effective chain-grabs. His forward and back throws can also set up edgeguards.

Ganondorf's greatest strength, however, is his superb edge-guarding game. Despite his poor air speed, he is one of the best edge-guarders, with more aerial guarding options than many other characters in the game; all of his aerials deal high damage and knockback and are guaranteed to knock foes offstage; his down air is an extremely powerful meteor smash, and Wizard's Foot is a non-recoverable spike. In particular, his sourspotted reversed up aerial (performed while facing away from the edge) is one of the best gimping moves in the game because of its long duration, range, semi-spiking knockback (hard to tech out of) at a 20° (rear hitbox) or 0° (rear bottom hitbox) trajectory with gravity following suit, extremely high hitstun, and cannot be DI'd due to its low knockback.

Ganondorf's major weakness is his poor approach and neutral game. Although his weight and quick falling speed enables him to live longer, they also make him highly susceptible to combos and chaingrabs. His mobility and approach are ultimately crippled by his short, relatively slow wavedash and poor dashing and air speeds. A lack of a projectile also makes it difficult for him to break opposing camping. He also has a very poor dash-dance, as it is among the shortest in the game and leaves him vulnerable to being camped or rushed down. Additionally, he lacks safe moves that allow him to approach noncommittally. As a result, Ganondorf is dependent on punishing opponents through reads and baits.

Ganondorf is also regarded as one of the most easily edge-guarded and edge-hogged characters in the game. On paper, he has a long, extendable horizontal recovery, thanks to his down special, Wizard's Foot, which is one of the only two specials that allow the character to regain their midair jump (the other being Falcon Kick, but is considered inferior to Wizard's Foot because of how much farther downward it travels and Captain Falcon's higher falling speed). Ganondorf's aforementioned abysmal air speed prevents him from efficiently moving off-stage, and his mid-air jumps fail to give enough height to reliably recover offstage. This makes edgehogging very threatening if Ganondorf is positioned poorly offstage.

Overall, Ganondorf is a powerhouse; with some of the strongest moves in the game, he can easily KO the entire Melee cast at very lower percents with his powerful moves. All that's holding him back are his unimpressive mobility and prediction-reliant neutral game, requiring players to play a bait-and punish style to try and land his powerful moves while being careful not to get attacked himself.

Differences from Captain Falcon

Ganondorf struggles more often than Captain Falcon due to his slower mobility and a weaker combo game, causing Ganondorf to be more prediction-reliant when approaching and having more difficulty in competing with faster characters like Fox or Sheik. However, Ganondorf boasts noticeably stronger attacks, a more dangerous edgeguarding game, and greater reach. He also has no sourspots on his attacks barring his forward tilt, and still retains a few of Captain Falcon's good combo starters, enabling him to still have a serviceable combo game. Despite being designed as a "slower" Captain Falcon, almost all of Ganondorf's moves have the exact same frame data in terms of start-up and ending lag, although all his aerials do have much higher landing lag. A few of Ganondorf's moves also have different knockback angles, usually toward vertically rather than horizontally angled. Finally, Ganondorf has more electric effects in addition to darkness on his attacks, with only one move (up tilt) using flame.

Attributes

• Ganondorf is physically larger and taller than Captain Falcon, giving his attacks more reach. However, this increased size also increases his hurtbox, thus making him easier to hit.
• Ganondorf is heavier than Captain Falcon (104 → 109).
• Ganondorf's ledge jump is higher than Captain Falcon's, being the highest in the game.
• Ganondorf's rolls cover more distance than Captain Falcon's.
• Ganondorf's wavedash is longer than Captain Falcon's.
• Ganondorf's spot dodge has 1 less frame of startup (3-20 → 2-20).
  • Spot dodge has a altered animation.
• Ganondorf's walk speed (0.85 → 0.73), dash speed (2.3 → 1.35), air speed (1.12 → 0.78), and jump and midair jump height are all lower than Captain Falcon's.
• Ganondorf's jumpsquat is slower (4 → 6) than Captain Falcon's, slowing his ability to be airborne and perform aerials and wavedashes.
• Ganondorf cannot wall jump.
• Ganondorf's falling speed is much slower than Falcon's (2.9 → 2), improving his ability to recover in a vacuum, but also making him easier to chaingrab and combo, as well as nerfing his ability to chase down fast fallers such as Fox.
• Captain Falcon's attacks that deal flame damage, such as forward smash, Falcon Punch, Raptor Boost, and Falcon Kick, are replaced by darkness for Ganondorf's counterparts.

Ground attacks

• Neutral attack:
  • Neutral attack is changed to be only a single palm strike.
    • The single hit deals only 7% (palm)/8% (body), it makes it deal more than the first two hits (2% (hit 1)/3% (hit 2)) and the roughly the same damage as the Gentleman (8% (clean)/6% (late) individually, but does less damage than Captain Falcon's if all hits of his jab were to connect.
    • It has a larger hitbox on the palm than Falcon's Jab 1 (3.5154u → 3.906u).
    • It has higher base knockback than the Gentleman (20 → 30).
    • It does not have a rapid jab.
  • It has an electric effect.
• Forward tilt:
  • It deals more damage overall (11% (unangled)/12%/11% (angled up)/10%/11% (angled down) → 13%/12%/11% (unangled)/14%/13%/12% (angled up)/12%/11%/10% (angled down))
  • It has more base knockback (10 → 20), being the third strongest forward tilt in the game.
  • It has a larger hitbox at the foot (4.2966u → 5.0778u).
  • Its sweetspot hitboxes are positioned at the foot rather than up close when angled down, making it better for spacing.
• Up tilt:
  • Up tilt deals significantly more damage (13% → 27%) with drastically higher base knockback (50 → 110), able to KO from center under 25% and at 0% near ledges and is thus the strongest tilt in the game.
  • Up tilt has drastically more startup (17 frames → 81) and catastrophically higher ending lag (38 frames → 115), making it impossible to land in almost any circumstance outside of rest or shield break punishes, edgeguarding, or deceptive mindgames. It also lacks a hitbox as Ganondorf brings his foot down, giving the move less vertical range.
  • Up tilt has a wind effect while the leg is lifted up and an explosive effect that deals flame damage when the leg strikes the ground.
• Down tilt:
  • Down tilt has significantly higher knockback (25 base/75 growth → 30 base/100 growth), being the fourth most powerful down tilt in Melee, while still being a useful combo starter at lower percentages.
  • Down tilt has a shorter duration (10-15 → 10-12).
• Dash attack:
  • Dash attack deals more damage (10%/7% → 14%/10%) and knockback (22 base/90 growth → 40 base/80 growth), improving its KO potential, making it safe on hit at 0%, and still being a useful combo starter.
  • Dash attack's hitboxes are placed a little further out, increasing the move's range. They are also positioned higher.
  • Dash attack has a different launch angle (361° → 115° (clean)/110° (late)).
• Forward smash:
  • Forward smash deals more damage (21% (up)/20% (neutral)/19% (down) → 24%/22%/20%), and has higher base knockback (24 → 40). Ganondorf also slides further forward, increasing the move's range.
  • Forward smash has more startup lag (18 frames → 20).
  • Forward smash launches opponents at a higher angle (361° (all) → 80° (up)/70° (forward)/60° (down)), and has less knockback scaling (100 → 85 (up)/83 (neutral)/80 (down)), and as such it usually KOs later than Falcon's unless angled up.
• Up smash:
  • Up smash deals consistent and increased more damage (8%/14% (hit 1)/13%/12% (hit 2) → 22%/19%) and knockback (base 30/growth 128 → 50 base/40 (hit 1), 80 (hit 2) growth), being the most damaging up smash in the game if both hits connect.
  • Both hits have more active frames (21-22 → 21-23 (hit 1), 27-28 → 26-29 (hit 2)), which also shrinks the frame gap between the 2 hits.
  • Both hits have a bigger hitbox on the foot, increasing the move's vertical range. However, the first hit of Ganondorf's version lacks the hitbox on the ground in front of him, reducing the move's horizontal range and worsening its ability to hit grounded opponents.
  • Up smash is less useful as a combo move and the hits do not link as reliably above very low percentages.
• Down smash:
  • Down smash's hits naturally combo into each other as opposed to strong hitting once.
    • This allows it to deal more damage than Captain Falcon's if both hits connect (18%/16% → 22%/20%).
    • Due to being a multi-hit, it naturally makes it less reliable due to risk of the opponent falling out and being more vulnerable to SDI.
  • Both hits deal less damage on their own with the second kick also having a sourspot (18% (hit 1)/16% (hit 2) → 8%/14%/12%). The second hit also launches at a much less optimal vertical angle (361˚ → 120˚). As a result, the second kick of Ganondorf's down smash generally KOs later despite increased knockback values (30 (base)/100 (scaling) → 60/110), especially if sourspotted.
  • Both hits deal less damage on their own with the second kick having a sourspot (18% (hit 1)/16% (hit 2) → 8%/14%/12%).
  • The first hit's hitboxes are slightly smaller (3.906u/3.906u → 3.5154u/3.5154u), though it's Z-offset was compensated (5.0778u → 5.859u).
    • The second hit's hitboxes are bigger with it having an extra hitbox inside of Ganondorf (3.5154u/3.5154u → 4.2966u/4.2966u/4.2966u).
  • It also has slightly more ending lag (IASA 45 → 47).

Aerial attacks

• All aerials have more landing lag (15 frames → 25 (neutral), 19 frames → 25 (forward), 18 frames → 25 (back), 15 frames → 25 (up), 24 frames → 35 (down)).
• Neutral aerial:
  • The first hit does not have fixed knockback (0 (base)/100 (growth)/40 (fixed) → 30/100/0). This allows the first hit to KO on it's own, but significantly hinders it's ability to connect into the second hit.
  • The first hit has an altered launch angle (82°/78°/74° → 55°/60°/65°).
  • It deals more damage on both kicks (5%/6% (hit 1)/7% (hit 2) → 12% (both)).
  • The second hit has higher base knockback (40 → 50). Combined with the higher base damage, it KOs much earlier.
  • It autocancels earlier (frame 34 → 26).
  • Both hits have shorter durations (7-12 → 7-8 (hit 1), 20-29 → 20-21 (hit 2)).
  • Both hits have smaller hitboxes overall (4.2966u/5.4684u/4.2966u → 3.5154u/4.6872u/5.0778u (hit 1), 4.2966u/4.2966u/4.2966u → 3.5154u/4.6872u/5.0778u (hit 2)
  • Both hits have shorter durations (7-12 → 7-8 (hit 1), 20-29 → 20-21 (hit 2)).
  • Both hits are much harder to combo into due to their increased power and shorter durations.
• Forward aerial:
  • Forward aerial has a different animation: an arcing downward punch.
  • It does not have a sourspot, this makes it more reliable for KO'ing, but removes the sourspot combos from Captain Falcon's Knee Smash.
  • It does not have an electric effect.
  • It has altered knockback (24 base/100 growth → 60/80).
  • It has greater range due to it's different animation.
  • It autocancels slightly earlier (frame 34 → 33).
  • It is able to be interrupted earlier (IASA 36 → 35).
    • However, it has more ending lag overall due to move's fewer active frames.
  • It has much less active frames (frames 14-30 → 14-19).
  • It deals slightly less damage than the sweetspot of Captain Falcon's (18% → 17%).
  • It does not semi-spike (32° → 361°).
• Back aerial
  • It deals more damage (14% → 16%).
  • It has increased base knockback (20/0 → 30/10).
  • It has a larger hitbox on the fist (4.6872u → 5.4684u).
  • It does not have a weaker late hit.
  • It autocancels slightly earlier (frame 20 → 18).
  • It has fewer total active frames (10-17 → 10-15).
• Up aerial
  • It has higher base knockback (10 (clean)/8 (late) → 35 (clean)/30 (middle)/20 (late)).
  • It has a late hit that is active from frames 14-16 that deals 8% (body)/6% (foot) and sends at an angle of 0°.
    • This makes the move significantly better for Edgeguarding due to it's low angle.
    • The late hit gives the move a longer duration (6-13 → 6-16) and allows it to hit below Ganondorf.
• Back and up aerials are less effective combo tools thanks to their increased power and Ganondorf's slower mobility.
• Down aerial:
  • Down aerial deals 6% more damage (16% → 22%) with higher base knockback (40 → 50), being the strongest meteor smash in Melee, able to KO grounded opponents under 100% while being notoriously difficult to meteor cancel. It also has larger hitboxes.
  • Down aerial's top hitbox lacks the ability to nipple spike, meaning it is always meteor cancellable regardless of which hitbox is landed. It also has transcendent priority, preventing it from cancelling out projectiles.
  • Down aerial has an electric effect.

Throws/other attacks

• Dash grab is active for one extra frame (11-12 → 11-13).
• Up throw launches opponents at a different angle (85° → 90°).
• Down throw
  • Down throw launches opponents at a different angle (65° → 100°), making it more reliable for combos and chain-grabs.
  • Down throw has marginally more knockback scaling (34 → 36).

Special moves

• Warlock Punch:
  • Warlock Punch deals much more damage (23%/25%/27% → 30%/32%/34%) than Falcon Punch, with its knockback not being fully compensated (scaling 102 → 100).
  • It has smaller hitboxes (3.906u/3.5154u/4.8825u (ground)/5.2731u/4.6872u/4.8825u (air)) → 2.3436u/3.906u/3.5154u (both)).
  • Warlock Punch has much more startup lag and a shorter duration than the Falcon Punch (52-56 frames → 70-72), and Ganondorf is unable to perform an equivalent to Captain Falcon's Sacred Combo due to his lower air speed, slower run speed, slower jumpsquat and Warlock Punch's higher startup.
  • Warlock Punch has significantly different aesthetics from the Falcon Punch; even discounting the darkness effect, it lacks the falcon-shaped fiery aura and falcon screech during the punch.
• Gerudo Dragon:
  • Gerudo Dragon deals much more damage (7% → 17% (ground)/16% (aerial)) and some extra shield damage (0 → 10 (grounded)) compared to Raptor Boost.
  • Gerudo Dragon has a different angle on the ground (90° → 105°).
  • Gerudo Dragon has lower knockback values (78 base/80 growth (grounded) → 60/69, 60 base/70 growth (aerial) → 50/65), dealing less knockback at lower percents, though it still deals more knockback at higher percents due to the increased damage.
  • Gerudo Dragon covers less distance than Raptor Boost and the aerial version cannot meteor smash (270° → 70°).
  • Gerudo Dragon's detection hitboxes during the dash are positioned further back, giving the move a large negative disjoint.
  • When Ganondorf falls after whiffing Gerudo Dragon, the screen shakes more than when Captain Falcon whiffs Raptor Boost.
• Dark Dive:
  • Dark Dive travels slightly more vertical distance than Falcon Dive due to Ganondorf's taller stature.
  • Its grabboxes are larger (≈2.73u/≈4.3u → ≈3.33u/≈5u).
  • Dark Dive's grab deals four weak electric hits, which can hit opponents who attempt to intercept Ganondorf.
  • Dark Dive's throw deals 3% more damage than Falcon Dive (12% → 15%), giving it more knockback which can KO reliably under 150%.
  • It covers slightly less horizontal momentum (1.1 → 0.85).
• Wizard's Foot:
  • Grounded Wizard's Foot has higher and consistent knockback than Falcon Kick (50 base/70, 60, and 50 growth → 60/85) that does not get weaker over time.
  • Grounded Wizard's Foot has consistent damage output that does not get weaker over time (15% clean/12% mid/9% late → 15%).
  • Grounded Wizard's Foot always launches horizontally (361° clean/80° mid/90° late → 361°), whereas the mid and late hits of grounded Falcon Kick have vertical knockback.
  • Grounded Wizard's Foot has a longer duration (14-32 → 14-34).
  • Aerial Wizard's Foot is also a powerful spike instead of dealing horizontal knockback like Falcon Kick (361° → 290°).
  • Aerial Wizard's Foot's landing hitbox deals more damage (9% → 12%).
  • Aerial Wizard's Foot is safer to use to restore Ganondorf's midair jump thanks to his lower falling speed compared to Captain Falcon.
  • Both grounded and aerial Wizard's Foot have slightly more ending lag.
  • Aerial Wizard's Foot deals 1% less damage (15% → 14%).

Version history

NTSC 1.01 addressed some oversights and bugs with Ganondorf, fixing glitches where he performs a second jab with a Bunnyhood equipped and no longer being considered grounded when using Dark Dive on the ground. The startup lag on the second hit of his neutral aerial was also increased to match the move's animation which had the side-effects of reducing it's ending lag and making it autocancel later.

The PAL version of Melee nerfed two of Ganondorf's aerials, with his forward aerial no longer being a reliable KO move (although it can combo into itself better), and his down aerial dealing less knockback and damage (while still remaining the strongest meteor smash in the game.)

NTSC 1.01

• Ganondorf can no longer perform the Bunnyhood double jab glitch.
• Ganondorf is no longer considered grounded when using grounded Dark Dive.
• The second hit of neutral aerial has more startup lag (frame 16 → 20), now matching its animation.
  • This decreases its ending lag as its total duration was unchanged.
  • However, this also makes it auto-cancel 4 frames later (frame 22 → 26).

PAL

• Forward aerial has decreased base knockback (60 → 40).
• Forward aerial has smaller hitboxes (3.125u/3.91u/5.08u → 2.734u/3.52u/4.3u).
• Down aerial deals 1% less damage (22% → 21%) with decreased base knockback (50 → 40).

Moveset

For a gallery of Ganondorf's hitboxes, see here.

Ganondorf's aerial attacks

Ganondorf performing his forward aerial after tech checking Captain Falcon's Falcon Dive. The move's base knockback is high enough to gimp characters with subpar recovery at any percentage.

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack		Thunder Punch (雷打, Thunder Hit)	7% (hand), 8% (body)	A quick palm strike that shocks enemies on contact. Has KO potential at higher damages, but since he jabs directly in front of him, some smaller characters can easily duck under it. It hits on frame 3, making it Ganondorf's fastest attack. It is often used in combos with his other attacks, especially his down aerial.
Forward tilt	↗	Armor Crusher (甲冑割, Armor Helmet Splitter)	12-14%	Kicks his foot out forward. Has great speed and range for a powerful tilt (3rd most powerful forward tilt in the game), but is short in duration (3 frames). This attack is often used to space away opponents due to its speed, range, and power. The upward angled-variant is excellent at stuffing out jump-ins and is Ganon's most consistent anti-air option and fastest grounded kill move. The downward variant is helpful for sniping ledges, particularly against Fox Illusion and Falco Phantasm. Overall a very versatile and powerful spacing tool and one of the better forward tilts in the game.
	→		11-13%
	↘		10-12%
Up tilt		Volcano Kick (爆裂蹴, Exploding Kick)	27%	Lifts up and charges his leg for a while, then brings it down in a violent explosion. It has extremely long start-up, taking over a second to come out and nearly two seconds to finish. Though it is very powerful; it can OHKO from its extremely high base knockback if landed by an edge. It is by far the most powerful tilt in the game, and can KO even earlier than the Warlock Punch, but its abhorrent start-up combined with its deceptively poor reach limit it to only a niche ledge trap or shield break punish.
Down tilt		Sweeping Snake (掃脚, Brush Leg)	12%	Does a quick low sweep kick. Long reach, and is rewarding on hit; it can combo into most aerials for a KO. Rather slow when compared to other down tilts and extremely vulnerable to crouch cancelling. Can KO at very high percentages. Fourth most powerful down tilt in the game.
Dash attack		Iron Shoulder (剛肩, Strong Shoulder)	14% (clean), 10% (late)	A quick shoulder tackle. Generally poor combo potential, but a great burst option with decent damage output. Much more rewarding if reversed, setting up for combos if timed right. This is the second most powerful dash attack in the game, beaten only by Samus.
Forward smash	↗	Nightmare Lunge (紫炎肘, Violet Flame Elbow)	24%	Lunges forward, thrusting out his elbow. Great reach thanks to how far forward Ganon steps during the thrust; it can outrange other pokes and occasionally even Marth's forward smash, but its poor start-up and cooldown render it unsafe on block and easy to punish. Despite being hard to Dl, forward smash can at times be difficult to KO with, particularly on fastfallers, and is generally less opted for than his two other smash attacks. It is used to finish a zero-to-death chain grab on Sheik on Final Destination from center stage.
	→		22%
	↘		20%
Up smash		Tornado Kick (二連脚, Double Leg)	22% (hit 1), 19% (hit 2)	A 540 kick. It has three unique hitboxes; the first on his pelvis sends sideways with strong knockback, great for calling out high recoveries; the second is located on his thigh and is fairly rare to land, but links into the second hit to deal nearly 40%. The final hit covering his foot sends up with great knockback, consistently killing even fast-fallers below 100%. Up smash has great priority, making it a great anti-air and callout for shorthops and aerials from ledge, and is surprisingly safe on shield (-7). This move isn't without its flaws however; it loses to most ground attacks, has slow, reactable start-up and is extremely susceptible to low profiling. It is among the most powerful up smashes in the game, even if only the first kick connects.
Down smash		Leg Whip (連携蹴, Linkage Kick)	8% (hit 1), 14% (hit 2 leg), 12% (hit 2 foot)	Kicks on either side of him. One of Ganon's best launchers and his fastest smash attack in terms of startup. The first hit chains into the second, and the second hit sends upward, making down smash into an aerial a viable kill confirm on fastfallers. The first hit can rarely fail to link properly and send the opponent at a deep semi-spike angle, setting them up for an edgeguard. The move's biggest flaw is its noticeable blindspot below Ganon's leg, allowing characters that pancake their hurtboxes (e.g Marth) to dodge under the move and punish him. If only the second hit connects, this is the second farthest down smash knockback in the game, only beaten by Marth's (when sweetspotted).
Neutral aerial		Swooping Keese (旋風陣, Whirlwind Array)	12% (hits 1-2)	Two quick midair kicks. Both kicks have high knockback (especially the second kick, capable of KOing under 130%), and can deal very high damage when landed in succession. The first hit can be used as a niche poke and has limited KO power and combo ability on poor DI, but rarely links into the second kick even at low percents; it's completely impossible to do so past ~25%. It's possible to land the second kick without the first one, which is occasionally useful to deter reckless approaches, but requires correct timing. With both kicks, it is the second strongest neutral aerial in the game (exceeded by Mr. Game & Watch's).
Forward aerial		Skull Crusher (頭蓋割, Cranium Splitter)	17%	Ganondorf brings his fist down in an arc rather quickly, with impressive knockback and damage, though slightly weaker than Captain Falcon's Knee Smash. Unlike the Knee Smash, however, it always strikes with the same force, and is also just as fast as the Knee, with much more reach and a slightly faster FAF (36 → 35, though Ganondorf's forward aerial has more ending lag by comparison due to lacking a late hit, unlike the Knee Smash), though it has more landing lag. KO's Mario at 106% from the center of Final Destination. This is the fifth most powerful forward aerial in the game (Zelda, Dr. Mario, Captain Falcon, and Yoshi respectively surpass him in this regard). It is one of his best moves.
Back aerial		Hidden Gauntlet (裏拳, Backfist)