Kirby (SSBB)

Kirby (, Kirby) returns as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. He was confirmed for Brawl in the first preview shown at May 2006's E3 show. Of all the characters shown, Kirby appears to be almost completely unchanged graphically. He is once again voiced by Makiko Ōmoto, using some recycled voice clips from Melee, while providing some new, slightly lower-pitched voice clips akin to his appearances in the Kirby: Right Back At Ya! anime.

He ranks 20th on the tier list at the top of mid tier, which is a drastic improvement over his lower place ranking in Super Smash Bros. Melee. Kirby has one of the strongest combo abilities in Brawl, as he has many great setup moves, and attacks that string together well. Additionally, Kirby possesses a strong grab game, with an above average grab range, two great setup throws, and a throw that can even KO (which is rare among characters in Brawl). Kirby also has a far reaching and generally safe recovery, disproportionately far disjointed reach in his attacks, fast and solid tilts, an all-purpose attack in his back aerial, solid edge guarding capabilities, and both fast and very powerful finishers (with his forward smash being especially effective). However, Kirby suffers from slow movement speed, which when combined with his lack of a solid projectile, creates difficulty approaching and dealing with opposing camping. Additionally, with his very light weight and poor momentum cancelling abilities, Kirby has one of the worst endurances. Kirby also has his power taper off greatly outside his finishers (giving opponents very high survival potential if Kirby can't land his finishers), and poor to mediocre aerials outside his back aerial. Overall, Kirby has above average matchups (with generally poor matchups against top/high tier characters, most notably, being countered by three of the four best characters), and has achieved average tournament results.

Attributes
Kirby is a small, lightweight character. His small size allows him to avoid many attacks (his initial dashing animation can go underneath 's Palutena's Arrow when not aimed). He is also able to crouch underneath attacks, which can be used to his advantage against tall characters such as and. His light weight is both advantageous and disadvantageous; he is less vulnerable to chain throws (including 's down throw), but he also gets launched farther when hit, making him easier to KO. He also has poor momentum canceling abilities, with slow falling speeds, and his fastest aerial attack, his up aerial, is only slightly shorter than his air dodge. His momentum canceling abilities, combined with his light weight, give him one of the worst survivabilities in the game. However, he makes up for this with a safe and one of the longest-reaching recoveries, with five midair jumps and Final Cutter to help him return to the stage. This has made Kirby a popular choice for beginners to learn with. His multiple jumps also give him good edgeguarding potential. Kirby has above average reach in his attacks for a character of his size, with many disjointed hitboxes, and a strong combo ability, with his forward throw, forward tilt, up tilt, and up aerial all being great damage rackers and setups. He also has high KO power with good finishers, with his smash attacks, back aerial,, and Stone all being able to KO opponents (although his back aerial stales quickly and his Hammer and Stone are laggy and generally require good reads to land). Kirby lacks a solid projectile, and his only projectile, the wave produced from Final Cutter, is slow and predictable. This complicates matchups against campy characters with solid projectiles, such as and Pit. Kirby's biggest problem is his poor mobility. He has only the 25th fastest walking speed, the 28th fastest dashing speed, the second lowest jumping height, a slow air speed, and a slow falling speed. His poor air speed prevents him from being able to maneuver in the air well despite being an air-based character (his back aerial is his most used attack and all of his throws send his opponent upward), limiting his edgeguarding ability, and combined with his poor dashing speed and lack of a solid projectile, creates difficulty approaching and dealing with opposing camping.

One of Kirby's strong aspects is his ground game. His ground attacks have good range, start quickly, and end quickly as well. His forward tilt is a versatile ground attack that is good for spacing. His up tilt is one of the fastest up tilts in the game, has disproportionately long range, and is a good juggler and setup move at low percents. His down tilt has a chance to trip opponents, creating additional setups. His forward smash delivers high knockback and has low startup lag for such a powerful attack. It is considered his best KO move, along with his back aerial. His up smash is also a powerful finisher. However, it has a sourspot behind Kirby that cannot reliably KO. His down smash covers both sides, and delivers powerful vertical knockback. It also delivers horizontal knockback at the tips of his feet, making it good for edgeguarding.

Kirby also has a strong grab and throw game as well. He has a fast grab with above average range. His pummel is very quick and can deal some extra damage before a throw. His forward throw can lead to combos that can deal over 40%, depending on the weight and falling speed of the character. His back throw is useful for getting opponents off of the stage, and his up throw can even KO at high percents. Kirby's down throw is a good damage-racker, and is able to chain throw fastfallers at low percents. However, its ending lag hinders its combo and setup potential, though it is still decent.

Kirby's special moves have varying degrees of usefulness. His neutral special move,, gives him the unique ability to copy the neutral special moves of his opponents. He can use this to cover some of his weak areas, such as a lack of a solid projectile. However, the Copy Ability can be lost rather easily if he is hit hard enough. Kirby can also perform Kirbycide by walking off the stage with the opponent in his mouth. He can also spit out characters with poor recoveries below the stage, where the opponent is unlikely to recover, and Kirby, with his good recovery, can easily get back onto the stage. His side special move,, is a powerful attack and good finisher, but it has high startup lag. When used in the air, the first hit has less startup lag, and the second hit is a powerful semi-spike, making it a good edgeguarding tool. His up special move, Final Cutter, is his primary recovery move, and produces a shockwave upon landing, creating his only normal projectile. However, it can be edgehogged rather easily, it is too slow to be used effectively for camping, and experienced players will be able to shield the wave without much difficulty. When Kirby descends from Final Cutter, a meteor smash hitbox is produced, making it useful for edge-guarding from above. Kirby can also perform "Cuttercide" by using Final Cutter in midair and bringing down an opponent, where both players will usually die. His down special move, Stone, is powerful and can KO at high percents and leaves him invulnerable to attacks, but it has high ending lag, is predictable, and an opponent can punish him with a grab. It is useful as a surprise KO move, and on stages with water, where he can easily land a hit on swimming opponents.

Kirby's best aerial attack by far is his back aerial, one of his most versatile and useful attacks and is a staple part of his metagame. It has low startup and ending lag, almost no landing lag, is a good edgeguarding tool, can be used for Wall of Pain techniques, and can KO at high percents. Kirby players commonly approach by jumping while facing away from the opponent, getting closer, and using a back aerial when the opponent comes in range. Unfortunately, a wary opponent will be able to shield and punish rather easily. However, despite his strong back aerial and air-based play, the rest of his aerial attacks are poor. Outside of his back aerial, his aerial attacks suffer from a combination of high startup and ending lag, poor knockback, and poor range. His forward aerial is not particularly useful; all three hits will sometimes not lead into each other, depending on the opponent's position, and can be SDI'ed out of. It also has poor knockback, and the back aerial is considered superior for most uses. His up aerial is a decent juggler and has good combo potential, but its power was nerfed from Melee; it can no longer KO reliably under 150% unless near the upper blast line. It also has noticeable, albeit small, startup lag. His down aerial is a meteor smash, and is useful for "dragging down" opponents recovering vertically, and Kirby can easily recover. However, it has high startup lag, and is weak for a meteor smash, so it's not very effective if Kirby does not land many hits. His neutral aerial is his worst aerial and is often considered one of the worst aerial attacks in Brawl. It has incredibly high ending lag, mediocre knockback, and poor range. The ending lag makes it impractical for offstage use. However, it is not completely useless; it has no landing lag, and can be used as a air-to-ground transition, and can potentially be used as a setup for tilt attacks. Kirby can also use his side special move, Hammer, as an aerial attack, since it has powerful knockback, and the second hit is a semi-spike, making it useful for edgeguarding. However, the small hitbox is difficult to land and it leaves Kirby vulnerable if he misses. Kirby's poor air attacks outside of his back aerial, combined with his slow falling speed, make him prone to aerial juggling, and complicates matchups against characters who can fight well in the air, such as, and characters with good juggling abilities, such as.

Overall, a competent Kirby player can utilize his strengths, such as his great combo ability, which, when combined with moves such as his solid tilts and back aerial, make him a competent force. Despite this, Kirby has weaknesses, in particular his poor mobility and approach options, that bring him down as a character.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. Melee
Possibly due to being considered by many the worst character in Melee, Kirby has been significantly buffed in the transition to Brawl, and many of the flaws that severely crippled him have been addressed. Kirby has seen significant improvements to his aerial game, his recovery, his grab, and his hitboxes/range. The changes in mechanics also helped out Kirby as he still maintains a strong combo game despite the introduction of hitstun canceling, and the introduction of tripping benefits some of his moves such as his down tilt. The changes to locks also benefits him as he can use his jab and down tilt to lock his opponents and build up a lot of damage. Lastly, the overall slower pace of the game combined with his improved range makes it a lot harder for his opponents to zone him out.

Despite his buffs, he also received a few nerfs, mainly to his damage output as well as the frame data on some of his moves. Kirbycide can also no longer kill his victim first, making sacrificial KOs a much larger risk.

Nevertheless, Kirby has been significantly buffed overall, resulting in him going from arguably the worst character in Melee to an average character in Brawl.

Ground attacks

 * Neutral attack:
 * Forward tilt:
 * Up tilt:
 * Down tilt:
 * Dash attack:
 * Forward smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Down tilt:
 * Dash attack:
 * Forward smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Dash attack:
 * Forward smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Forward smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Forward smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Down smash:

Aerial attacks

 * Neutral aerial:
 * Forward aerial:
 * Back aerial:
 * Up aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Forward aerial:
 * Back aerial:
 * Up aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Back aerial:
 * Up aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Up aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Up aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Down aerial:

Throws/other attacks

 * Grabs:
 * Pummel:
 * Forward throw:
 * Back throw:
 * Up throw:
 * Down throw:
 * Forward throw:
 * Back throw:
 * Up throw:
 * Down throw:
 * Back throw:
 * Up throw:
 * Down throw:
 * Down throw:
 * Down throw:
 * Down throw:
 * Down throw:

Special moves

 * Copy Abilities
 * Grounded:
 * Aerial:
 * Final Cutter:
 * Stone:
 * Cook Kirby:
 * Grounded:
 * Aerial:
 * Final Cutter:
 * Stone:
 * Cook Kirby:
 * Aerial:
 * Final Cutter:
 * Stone:
 * Cook Kirby:
 * Final Cutter:
 * Stone:
 * Cook Kirby:
 * Final Cutter:
 * Stone:
 * Cook Kirby:
 * Stone:
 * Cook Kirby:
 * Stone:
 * Cook Kirby:
 * Cook Kirby:
 * Cook Kirby:
 * Cook Kirby:

Taunts
When Kirby does a taunt, his Copy Ability gets discarded.

Victory poses
All of Kirby's animations are variations of the Kirby Dance, performed when he completes a level in his games.

Most historically significant players

 * See also: Category:Kirby players (SSBB)


 * - Although more famed for his accomplishments in Melee, he actively played Brawl throughout its competitive lifetime, and was considered the best Kirby main in the world. Placed 1st at, , 7th at , and 13th at . Has wins over players such as.
 * - Considered one of the best Kirby players in the United States, with strong regional presence in SoCal. Has wins over and . Placed 5th at, 9th at , and 33rd at.
 * - A Kirby main from Texas, known as one of the best Kirby players during his prime. Placed 17th at and, as well as 33rd at.

Tier placement and history
Players almost immediately saw Kirby's improvements from Melee (which included a stronger aerial game, grabs, and a more reliable recovery) and combined with the slower pace of the game to which he can keep up with, he was ranked 14th on Brawl's first tier list, and then rose to 13th place on the second and third tier lists. However, due to characters of higher tiers having more prominent strengths, and the flaws of Kirby's poor endurance and susceptibility to getting camped, he dropped to 16th in the fourth one, 19th in the sixth edition, and to 20th in the seventh and eighth versions. Kirby’s merely average playerbase and poor matchups against top-tiers resulted in him seeing rare use in top-level play; however, Kirby’s traits were still a significant step up from Melee, which allowed him to finally allow his strengths to be put to full use and achieve decent success from Brawl’s competitive lifespan.

Role in The Subspace Emissary
Kirby is the deuteragonist in The Subspace Emissary. In the beginning, a trophy of and Kirby are thrown into an arena, come to life, and have a friendly match. The player chooses the one they want to play as. After the battle between the two, the victor revives the fallen loser, and the two fighters celebrate and wave to the crowd when suddenly, the Subspace Army attacks and, who were watching their match, and both come to their aid. After the brief battle, the Ancient Minister shows up with a giant Subspace Bomb that is quickly armed by two R.O.B.s. When Mario attempts to stop the bomb, he is ambushed by a giant cannonball and is blasted away from the stadium. Meanwhile, the two princesses are captured by Petey Piranha, and are thrown into separate cages. Kirby then faces off against Petey, but only one princess can be freed. After defeating Petey, appears carrying a giant gun called the Dark Cannon, turns the princess Kirby didn't save into a trophy, and runs off with her. As Kirby and the remaining princess begin to leave, Kirby, seeing that the Subspace Bomb is about to explode, flees the Midair Stadium via Warp Star. However, they are soon chased by the Halberd and are forced to land on it. Soon after, an Arwing gets shot down, blowing both Kirby and the princess off the Halberd and onto a series of ridges. After climbing down from the ridges, Kirby sees/hears something and runs ahead, leaving Peach/Zelda behind. She is then turned into a trophy from behind by 's Dark Cannon, and is copied by a Shadow Bug clone of Bowser. After a fight, Mario and / and are turned into trophies, and are captured by an arm from a cargo drove by, which also has Zelda/Peach, , and 's trophies. Suddenly, Kirby appears from behind and uses Final Cutter to sever the arm, and revives the pair's trophies in the process. When Dedede attempts to escape, Pit/Link fires an arrow at his cargo, slowing it down a little, and the five pursue Dedede to save their friends.

Eventually, they find a cave that Dedede's cargo is parked by, and after getting through, they find Dedede's hideout. Upon exploring his hideout they see a hole in the wall, and decide to enter it. They then see Bowser, who escapes to the Halberd after avoiding Mario and Pit's attacks. After the scuffle however, Kirby finds a mysterious badge that fell off Zelda/Peach's trophy.

Some time after that, Kirby and the others pursue the Ancient Minister in a desert, trying to stop him from detonating another Subspace Bomb. Despite their best efforts, the bomb still explodes, and they barely managed to escape it (Kirby flies on a Warp Star with Pit and Link on it while Mario rides on Yoshi). Kirby and the others then aided, , , the , and the in warding off the Subspace Army troops that had come to face them.

After defeating them, the Falcon Flyer, and the Halberd (now under 's control) land in front of them, and they all join forces to defeat the Subspace Army. The Subspace Gunship, commanded by Bowser and, appears out of a large sphere of Subspace where the Isle Of The Ancients used to be, and after destroying the Halberd, tries to attack 4 smaller ships emerging from its wreckage. Fortunately, Kirby manages to save them by destroying the Gunship with Dragoon (suggesting that the Halberd and smaller ships were a distraction so he could launch this surprise attack), and follows the others into Subspace.

When they confront Tabuu, Tabuu unleashes his Off Waves that turn everyone, including Kirby, into trophies. However, Kirby is miraculously revived thanks to the badge he found at Dedede's hideout earlier, which he had swallowed prior to Tabuu's attack (when Bowser escapes with the Peach/Zelda trophy in his Clown Car). After going through Subspace alone and reviving some of the fighters along the way, Kirby finds Ganondorf's trophy. Before he can do anything, Bowser appears and attacks Ganondorf's trophy in revenge for turning him into a trophy earlier, before throwing it aside. King Dedede then runs over to Kirby and hugs him before pointing the staircase to Kirby, and dragging Kirby up it. Kirby then helps the others fight Tabuu.

Playable appearances

 * Midair Stadium
 * Sea of Clouds
 * The Lake Shore
 * The Cave
 * The Wilds (Part II)
 * The Canyon
 * Entrance to Subspace
 * Subspace (Part II)
 * The Great Maze

Exclusive stickers
These stickers can only be used by Kirby, or a select few including him:
 * Bonkers: [Weapon] Attack +16
 * Cell Phone: [Slash] Resistance +4
 * Dyna Blade: Launch Resistance +46
 * Gordo: [Throwing] Attack +5
 * Hot Head: [Flame] Attack +10
 * King Dedede & Kirby: [Specials: Direct] Attack +21
 * King Dedede (Kirby Super Star): [Leg] Attack +28
 * Kirby (Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards): [Body, Spin] Attack +22
 * Kirby (Kirby Air Ride): [Arm, Leg] Attack +17
 * Maxim Tomato: Maxim Tomato Effect +50
 * Meta Knight: [Slash] Attack +32
 * Meta Knight Ball: Launch Power +8
 * Nruff: [Body, Spin] Attack +5
 * Starman: Launch Power +33
 * Whispy Woods: [Weapon] Attack +4

In Classic Mode, Kirby can appear as an opponent or ally in Stage 5 along with and  on Halberd. Kirby can also appear as an opponent in Stage 11, but only if he hasn't appeared in Stage 5.

All-Star Mode
In All-Star Mode, Kirby is fought in Stage 15 alongside and  on Halberd.

Solo Events

 * Event 3: Pink Ball Repulsion: The player controls and must defeat Kirby before the platform reaches the Halberd portion of the stage.
 * Event 10: All-Star Battle Regulars: Kirby is one of the opponents fought in this event. All opponents are starters from the original Super Smash Bros. game.
 * Event 12: Sleeping in the Eggs: The player controls and must put both Kirby and  in eggs simultaneously.
 * Event 13: Dragoon Strike: The player controls Kirby, who must collect the three Dragoon parts and KO three Warios with the completed Dragoon. KOing them by any other means causes them to respawn.

Co-Op Events

 * Co-Op Event 1: Two Trouble Kings: and Kirby must defeat  and  on Delfino Plaza.
 * Co-Op Event 21: The True All-Star Battle: Both players select a character and take on the entire roster on Battlefield.

Trophies
Kirby's main and Final Smash trophies can be obtained by clearing and All-Star mode respectively with Kirby.

Trivia

 * When Kirby misses with a dash grab, he enters an animation similar to when he misses an enemy with the Suplex ability in Kirby Super Star.
 * Kirby's helpless animation is the same pose he takes when he falls a long distance in most Kirby games, and in the games this diving pose could damage enemies. Kirby uses this kind of helpless animation when copying and uses 's Mach Tornado, 's Giant Punch, 's PK Flash, ' PK Freeze, or using the Final Cutter and being moved off a platform while still in landing pose.
 * Kirby and are the only characters that fully change their body color on their palette swap.
 * Kirby's Wii remote selection voice clip is from his Melee taunt, instead of an original, new clip used in Brawl. This also applies to, and.
 * Kirby is tied with for being the most playable character in the Subspace Emissary, being playable in 9 levels.
 * In the game's 2006 E3 trailer, Kirby is seen using his aerial animation from Melee, which was eventually changed to two horizontal swings in the final version.
 * In Super Smash Bros Brawl, it is possible to cancel Samus's final smash by stone smashing her directly after she does her final smash.