Jump

Captain Falcon jumping in Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Sora jumping in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

A jump is an action that moves a character from the ground into the air. All characters can also jump a second time in midair, providing they are not attacking, air dodging, helpless, in hitstun, or have used it already. It is performed by pressing up on the control stick (D-pad on a horizontal Wii Remote), which can be toggled with the Tap jump option in the controls menu in Brawl onward, or by pressing a certain button, which is by default:

• the C buttons on the Nintendo 64 controller or Wii Remote with Nunchuk
• the X or Y button with the GameCube controller, Classic Controller, 3DS, Wii U Pro Controller/GamePad, Switch Pro Controller, and dual Joy-Cons
• the top and left buttons on a horizontal Joy-Con, which are the positions of Y and B on the right Joy-Con.

A few characters can jump more than once in the air:

• Kirby, Meta Knight, and Jigglypuff can do a midair jump five times.
• King Dedede can do a midair jump four times.
• Pit and Dark Pit can do a midair jump three times.
• Charizard, Ridley, and Banjo & Kazooie can do a midair jump twice.
• Sephiroth can do a midair jump twice when Winged Form is active.
• In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, equipping a spirit with the "Additional Midair Jump" effect allows any character to do a midair jump an additional time.

There is a short delay between the jump button being pressed and the on-screen character actually jumping, during which the onscreen character will enter a crouching portion of their jumping animation. If the control stick or jump button is released during this time, then the character short hops. If the control stick is tilted backwards during this time, the character will jump backwards with a different animation than a regular jump. If the standard attack button is pressed during this time, then the character uses their up smash (but only if the jump was executed with the Control Stick). Because characters can jump while shielding (excluding Yoshi in Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, due to his unique shield), this allows usage of up smashes (and up special moves as well) without having to drop the shield. This also makes it difficult for a player using the Wii Remote-only control scheme to perform up tilts. Inputting an aerial on the first frame that a character is airborne will cause the jump to be slightly lower, because gravity applies to the first frame of an aerial but not to the first frame of a jump.

Brawl added a jumping mechanic known as footstools. This allows characters to jump off the heads of other characters. This can be done even when all midair jumps have already been used.

In Ultimate, a character will emit a subtle wispy trail if they have no extra jumps available.

Types of jumps

All characters can perform several different types of jumps. The most basic type is a standing jump, which is a jump without any other inputs. There are also more complicated jumps that involve other inputs. One of these is the walk jump, which involves jumping while walking or dashing. Another one is the backward jump, which involves the player turning around, but jumping before the fighter can. All jumps have 2 performable variants. The first and most common type is the full hop, which involves the player holding the jump command so the fighter can jump to maximum height. The second type is the short hop, which involves the player quickly tapping the jump command so the fighter will only perform a slight jump. There are also 2 different methods of performing these jumps. The first way is by pressing the jump button. The second way is to press up on the control stick/D-pad. This totals to 12 different ways to jump, with all possible combinations of each having different heights.

Softhop

Softhopping is a technique introduced in Brawl in which a character can perform their grounded full hop within a few frames of running off any platform's edges. With this, the initial jump squat frames of a jump can be bypassed by inputting a jump within 4 frames of running off of an edge.

In Brawl and Smash 4, aside from removing the additional lag from a jump squat, softhops have no special properties when compared to full hops, however they allow the player to initiate the jump from slightly beyond the platform. The potential benefits of performing the technique depends on the fighter, as prior to Ultimate the duration of jump squats vary depending on the fighter.

In Ultimate, softhopping has an additional effect on full hops. Ultimate introduced a mechanic in which the first few frames of a fighter's full hop are sped up, causing them to reach their maximum jump height sooner. Performing a softhop disables this mechanic, causing full hops to behave the same way as midair jumps and full hops prior to Ultimate. This results in fighters taking longer to reach their maximum jump height, but allows them to cover more horizontal distance before beginning to fall, and potentially allows aerials to hit which the user would have otherwise been too high up to connect with by the time the first hitbox comes out, similarly to instant double jumping. Forcing the user to perform a full hop when performing the technique also removes the risk of accidentally performing a short hop, guaranteeing the full damage output of aerials rather than the reduced 0.85× damage from short hops.

Jump squat

A jump squat or windup refers to the length of time between the input of the jump and the moment the character leaves the ground. Each character has a different window of time where they crouch before they jump. Characters with faster jump squats will leave the ground earlier, and can transition between their air and ground games easier; however, depending on the control scheme, the player may find it more technically demanding to perform short hops or up smashes. In Melee, characters with faster jump squats can also perform wavedashes quicker.

Jump squats in Super Smash Bros.

Rank	Character	Frames
1-7	Fox	3
	Kirby
	Luigi
	Mario
	Ness
	Pikachu
	Samus
8	Captain Falcon	4
9	Yoshi	5
10-11	Donkey Kong	6
	Jigglypuff
12	Link	7
N/A	Giant Donkey Kong	8
	Metal Mario

Jump squats in Super Smash Bros. Melee

Rank	Character	Frames
1-7	Fox	3
	Ice Climbers
	Kirby
	Pichu
	Pikachu
	Samus
	Sheik
8-15	Captain Falcon	4
	Dr. Mario
	Luigi
	Mario
	Marth
	Mr. Game & Watch
	Ness
	Young Link
16-22	Donkey Kong	5
	Falco
	Jigglypuff
	Mewtwo
	Peach
	Roy
	Yoshi
23-25	Ganondorf	6
	Link
	Zelda
N/A	Giga Bowser	6
	Fighting Wire Frames	7
26	Bowser	8

Jump squats in Super Smash Bros. Brawl

The below values apply only to regular brawls; in The Subspace Emissary, all characters jump two frames faster.

Rank	Character	Frames
1-10	Diddy Kong	4
	Fox
	Ice Climbers
	Kirby
	Meta Knight
	Pikachu
	Samus
	Sheik
	Squirtle
	Zero Suit Samus
11-26	Captain Falcon	5
	Ivysaur
	Lucario
	Lucas
	Luigi
	Mario
	Marth
	Mr. Game & Watch
	Ness
	Olimar
	Peach
	Pit
	R.O.B.
	Sonic
	Toon Link
	Wolf
N/A	Fighting Alloys	5
27-35	Charizard	6
	Donkey Kong
	Falco
	Ike
	Jigglypuff
	King Dedede
	Wario
	Yoshi
	Zelda
N/A	Wario-Man	6
36-37	Ganondorf	7
	Link
N/A	Giga Bowser	7
38	Bowser	8
39	Snake	9

Jump squats in Super Smash Bros. 4

Rank	Character	Frames
1-13	Bayonetta	4
	Cloud
	Diddy Kong
	Duck Hunt
	Fox
	Greninja
	Kirby
	Mega Man
	Meta Knight
	Pikachu
	Samus
	Sheik
	Zero Suit Samus
14-41	Captain Falcon	5
	Dark Pit
	Dr. Mario
	Little Mac
	Lucario
	Lucas
	Lucina
	Luigi
	Mario
	Marth
	Mewtwo
	Mii Brawler
	Mr. Game & Watch
	Ness
	Olimar
	Pac-Man
	Palutena
	Peach
	Pit
	R.O.B.
	Rosalina & Luma
	Roy
	Ryu
	Shulk
	Sonic
	Toon Link
	Villager
	Wii Fit Trainer
N/A	Giga Mac	5
	Mega Lucario
42-51	Bowser Jr.	6
	Corrin
	Donkey Kong
	Falco
	Jigglypuff
	King Dedede
	Mii Gunner
	Wario
	Yoshi
	Zelda
N/A	Wario-Man	6
52-57	Charizard	7*
	Robin
	Ganondorf	7
	Ike
	Link
	Mii Swordfighter
N/A	Giga Bowser	7
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