Kirby (SSBM)/Neutral special

This article is about the hitbox visualization in Super Smash Bros. Melee. For the move itself, see Inhale (Kirby).

Hitbox visualization of Kirby's Inhale.

Overview[edit]

Kirby opens his mouth and begins to inhale. The attack comes out on frame 17, is active on frames 17-60, and ends on frame 79. If successful, opponents will be dragged into his mouth in the form of a command grab. Kirby can then either exhale them as a star to deal damage depending on the opponent’s weight, or copy their neutral special attack. Although the move is difficult to land on its own, Kirby has a number of ways to set up. Up tilt followed by Inhale is important against fastfallers, jab reset are alternative options to land against a wider portion of the cast, as well as tech chasing with prediction. Kirby can also try using the move on shielded opponents, though his grab is usually better for the job and more reliable due to its shorter lag.

Kirby does rather well at the ledge using the move, as ledgehopping forces opponents to tread more carefully when approaching him, as a mistimed advance can lead to Kirby successfully executing a Kirbycide. It should be noted that the grounded version has a bigger hitbox than the aerial variation, though it is harder to pull off the former in practice due to the aerial version being more flexible. Kirby will refresh all of his spent midair jumps completely upon a character being inhaled, whether they button mash out to escape, are swallowed, or a Star Spit is used afterwards.

Copy Abilities[edit]

A number of Kirby’s matchups generally favor Inhale over other copy abilities. For example, due to Marth's moderate size, Inhale is a more reliable way to tack on additional damage and have opportunities for Kirbycides. Fox's copy ability might appear to be necessary due to it giving Kirby an additional projectile; however, because it does not flinch opponents and with Fox being easily able to close the gap between him and his opponent, Inhale is once again preferred. On the other hand, Falco's Blaster is greatly appreciated due to its flinching properties, enabling Kirby to approach more easily on neutral stages such as Final Destination; Kirby can also fit two lasers into one short hop, unlike Falco, and his Blaster enables follow-ups such as hit confirms and jab resets. Star Spit is quite useful against the Ice Climbers, as this leaves them more vulnerable to being separated. A Samus Charge Shot, Donkey Kong Giant Punch and Sheik Needle Storm from copied abilities will lose its full charge or partial charge if Kirby is hit at all the first time he has them during a copied ability, even if no longer in the charging animation. However, this attribute is only a factor once; every time after this that a charge is safely obtained, it will not be lost on being hit. This can mean that deliberately being hit with a partial charge in order for subsequent charges to be safer - or more liberally spending full charges - can be more resourceful. Spending the charged move whether it hits an opponent or not will not nullify this attribute, Kirby must be hit once with it charged any amount for this attribute to be gone for all charges thereafter, during that copy ability. However, a copied Mewtwo Shadow Ball is an exception to this rule - it does not apply to fully charged Shadow Balls that are saved whatsoever. Shadow Ball's fully charged recoil recovery utility is also appreciated, due to Mewtwo's recovery being greater than Kirby's, while Jigglypuff's Rollout and Peach's Toad are the only other copy abilities that offer any noticeable boost to recovery distance, all of which only offering very slight, situational improvements to it.

Many of the faster copy abilities also offer additional back-air set ups with b-reversing, allowing for back-air approaches with greater momentum than is otherwise possible, as well as faster ledge grabs.

Techniques[edit]

SECRAH (Shorthop edge canceled reverse aerial Hammer) with Inhale[edit]

Shorthop edge canceled reverse aerial Hammer, or SECRAH, is one of Kirby’s fastest options for grabbing ledge from a dash, taking a total of 59 frames from the center of Final Destination to arrive there with optimal controls. However, Kirby can reach there even faster after he inhales one of the following characters:

From the ledge, if Kirby initiates a short hop with an ability in hand, he can quickly use his neutral special once if he has copied Fox, Falco, Yoshi, Young Link, DK, or Mewtwo's ability. However, Kirby would typically wavedash repeatedly to arrive there, taking a mere total of 42 frames in contrast to SECRAH.