Link (SSBM)/Neutral aerial

Hitbox visualization showing Link's neutral aerial.

Overview

Link does a sex kick and then returns his legs to falling positioning towards the end of the attack. Being Link's fastest aerial, it is a common out of shield, approach or escape option. It also plays a role in Link's combo game, with the strong hit being a combo starter at mid-percents and the late hit leading into finishers like Spin Attack at high percents. Additionally, due to a coding error, neutral aerial's hitbox stays out for the entire animation after frame 3, granting Link one of the best neutral aerials for edgeguarding in the game.

Hitboxes

ID	Part	Damage	SD	BK	KS	FKV	Radius	Bone	Offset			Sound
Clean hit
0	0	9%	0	15	100	0	3.991932	13	0.33201	0.0	0.0	Kick
1	0	11%	0	15	100	0	4.323942	7	3.5154	0.0	0.0	Kick
2	0	8%	0	15	100	0	4.323942	4	0.0	0.0	0.0	Kick
Late hit
0	0	7%	0	10	100	0	3.5154	13	0.33201	0.0	0.0	Kick
1	0	7%	0	10	100	0	3.5154	7	3.5154	0.0	0.0	Kick
2	0	7%	0	10	100	0	4.323942	4	0.0	0.0	0.0	Kick

Timing

Attack

Initial autocancel	1-3
Clean hit	4-5
Late hit	6-39
Ending auto-cancel	32-
Interruptible	36
Animation length	39

Hitbox

Lag

Auto-cancel

Landing lag

Animation length	15
L-cancelled animation length	7

Normal

L-cancelled

Legend (1 square = 1 frame)
Lag time	Hitbox	Hitbox change	Autocancel	Interruptible

Similar moves

Young Link (SSBM)/Neutral aerial

Trivia

Given that Young Link's neutral aerial does not have the same coding error as Link's, it is likely that the late hit was intended to only be active until frame 28 like Young Link's.
- The same type of coding error can be found with Kirby's up aerial in Smash 64.