Editing Lightning Kick

{{ArticleIcons|melee=y|brawl=y|ssb4=y|ultimate=y}}

[[File:Princess Zelda Trophy 2 (Smash).png|thumb|The move in ''Super Smash Bros. Melee'', as shown by the trophy that named it.]]

'''Lightning Kick''' ({{ja|稲妻キック|Inazuma Kikku}}, ''Lightning Flash Kick'') is the name for [[Zelda]]'s [[forward aerial]] and [[back aerial]] attacks, as confirmed by one of her trophies in ''[[Super Smash Bros. Melee]]''. When {{b|sweet spot|hitbox}}ted, the Lightning Kick [[freeze frame|pauses the opponent in place]] for a second dramatically (except in ''Melee''), before dealing heavy [[electric]] damage and launching them away with very powerful horizontal [[knockback]]. A [[sourspot]]ted hit on the other hand, delivers very low horizontal knockback with no special effects and much less damage.

==Overview==

In all games, a sweetspotted Lightning Kick is the strongest forward and back aerial, being among the few aerial attacks that can reliably [[KO]] under 100%. Along with this great power, both forward and back aerial Lightning Kicks are fairly fast in start-up lag, while having good reach. However, in ''Melee'', both Lightning Kicks can be difficult to sweetspot with Zelda's low mobility along with the spacing requirement to avoid the flub hitboxes, which limits the usefulness of the aerials. In ''Brawl'', the much smaller window of opportunity to land the sweetspots leads to even more difficulty in landing them.

The forward and back aerial versions are very similar appearance wise and statistically. In ''Melee'', the back aerial Lightning Kick is slightly better due to slightly faster start-up lag and slightly stronger knockback. From ''Brawl'' onwards, the properties of Lightning Kick were also applied to her [[down aerial]], making it a "Lightning Stomp" of sorts.

===In ''[[Super Smash Bros. Melee]]''===

The Lightning Kick is very similar to [[Captain Falcon]]'s forward aerial, the [[Knee Smash]], as both are effective aerials that deal very powerful horizontal knockback with electric damage when sweetspotted, while being exceedingly weak with no special effects when sourspotted. However, the Lightning Kick hasn't reached the same level of notoriety as the Knee Smash, where the latter was more effective and prolific in competitive play for ''Melee''. The main reason for this was that the knee was notably easier to sweetspot, as sweetspotting it only required landing the initial hitbox as opposed to landing a specifically spaced hitbox in the attack, and combined with Falcon's high mobility and great combo ability, it has seen much more utilization. Zelda's poor tournament viability and general lack of Internet notoriety compared to Captain Falcon also hindered the Lightning Kick from receiving as much attention as the Knee Smash.

===In ''[[Super Smash Bros. Brawl]]''===

[[File:LKick Fair SSBB.png|thumb|Zelda's forward aerial Lightning Kick in ''Super Smash Bros. Brawl'']]

Between ''Melee'' and ''Brawl'', the attack was buffed in terms of knockback when sweetspotted, along with having the aforementioned freeze frames added (despite this, the sweetspot also became impossible to [[SDI]] with the addition of a 0x SDI multiplier), though the sourspotted kick was weakened further, to where it deals less than half the damage it did in ''Melee'', with 4% compared to 10% (which does make it a much better tool to [[lock]] opponents on the positive side). The sweetspot in ''Brawl'' is significantly more difficult to land, only lasting for 1 frame as opposed to 4 in ''Melee'', and being about a third of the size. Both kicks also have slightly more ending lag making it impossible to perform two forward Lightning Kicks in a short hop.

===In ''[[Super Smash Bros. 4]]''===

[[File:Lightning_Kick_SSB4.jpeg|thumb|Zelda's forward aerial Lightning Kick in ''Super Smash Bros. for Wii U'']]

In ''Smash 4'', however, Zelda has different animations for both which also very slightly delay their startup; for the forward version, Zelda recovers in a full body spin just after kicking, while with the backwards version Zelda twists her body somewhat then thrust-kicks behind her; both versions also involve her arms being positioned differently as well as her hands being clenched more into fists and also have her both lean and face away from her kicking-directions more. Also due to the change in hitbox placements, the attacks are also easier to connect with; though the new animations also somewhat alter her hurtboxes but give them slightly less start-up.

===In ''[[Super Smash Bros. Ultimate]]''===

Forward Lightning Kick now comes out as fast as the back version and the back version is marginally stronger. Both versions also have less ending lag, less landing lag and auto-cancel earlier although they still cannot auto-cancel in a short hop. Aesthetically, Zelda now makes a verbal "shh"-sound akin to [[Fox Illusion]], [[Falco Phantasm]], [[Palutena Bow]] and [[Silver Bow]] during both versions of the move.

==Gallery==

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ZeldaUltimateBackAir.jpg|Zelda's back aerial Lightning Kick in ''Super Smash Bros. Ultimate''.

ZeldaUltimateForwardAir.jpg|Zelda's forward aerial Lightning Kick against Lucario in ''Super Smash Bros. Ultimate''.

[[Category:Zelda (SSB4)]]

[[Category:Zelda (SSBU)]]