Hammer (item)

A favourite of Mario's in his younger days, the Hammer enraptures any character that grabs it and sends them into a clobbering frenzy! The Hammer (, Hammer) is a close-range item that appears in all  games. Upon being grabbed by any player, it sends them into a unique state that inflicts significant damage and knockback.

Origin
The hammer comes from the arcade game . In Donkey Kong, when Mario obtains the hammer, he is unable to stop swinging until the hammer disappears. He also is unable to jump or climb s while swinging the hammer. The hammer can be used to destroy that are being rolled down towards Mario, and can be used against other enemies.

Contrary to its depiction in the Super Smash Bros. series, the Hammer's head cannot fall off in the game, nor can it otherwise malfunction.

Overview
Upon picking up the Hammer, characters enter a unique state for eight seconds; they will constantly swing the hammer back and forth, and will be unable to midair jump, use any other attacks, or defend. The Hammer also cannot be manually dropped unless the user has been sent into a state of tumbling. The Hammer deals about 22% per hit, and it also deals extremely high vertical knockback, potentially KOing opponents at low percentages; the effects of the Hammer are even more formidable in Super Smash Bros., where the Hammer instead does 30% damage with even more knockback. The Hammer can also "chain" into itself, doing 60% and likely KOing the opponent. The Hammer disappears after seven seconds.

The Hammer, however, limits the user's options, and particularly careful hitbox placement by other characters can potentially interrupt the wielder. Counters are especially powerful against Hammers since most of them deal more damage for any attack they counter. As the wielder of the hammer cannot use special moves or midair jump, sending an opponent off a ledge while they swing the Hammer can effectively KO them unless they can somehow drop the Hammer. In Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. 4, the Hammer also operates on a "timer"; if a character wielding the Hammer is constantly hit so that they cannot swing the item, the timer will still count down, potentially getting rid of the Hammer before they can properly use it.

The Hammer is also an item in Smash Tour: when its trophy is selected, the user starts the battle wielding a Hammer.

Headless Hammers
Starting in Melee, there is a 12.5% chance (one out of eight) of the head of the Hammer falling off as it is picked up, after which the item becomes functionally useless, though the wielder will continue to swing the handle for as long as they would with a normal hammer. The Hammer Head itself can be picked up and thrown as a powerful item.

If the Hammer Head falls off, then the player is rewarded with the Headless Hammer bonus, worth 2500 points. This bonus only appears in Melee.

Trivia

 * Certain characters have unusual Hammer-swinging animations:
 * King Dedede swings both the item and his own hammer in a back-and-forth fashion; his own hammer, however, does not actually do any damage, even if the Hammer's head falls off.
 * Pit swings the Hammer by pivoting his wrist in right angles; furthermore, his animations become much choppier, with his jumping and walking animations referencing Pit's sprite from the original Kid Icarus. This behaviour also carried over to Dark Pit in Smash 4.
 * Mewtwo telekinetically rotates the Hammer horizontally around itself, with the head always pointed forward. As a result, its effective range is severely reduced, as Mewtwo is significantly more vulnerable from attacks that harm it from above than other characters.
 * Wario swings the Hammer above his head while facing the screen, making it seem as if he "wobbles" from side to side. In Smash 4, he faces the screen regardless of which direction he swings, and simply tilts more strongly towards either direction (although the animation of him turning around still occurs before he snaps towards the screen again). This mirrors the "choppy" movements of WarioWare cutscenes.
 * In Melee only, 's model can be seen in 3D when turning around with a Hammer.
 * In Smash 4, if grabs a Hammer (or Golden Hammer) with her forward aerial and stops the attack in midair without performing all three hits, the hammer music will not play.
 * In Brawl and Smash 4, the Hammer's theme was changed to more closely resemble how it sounds in the NES version of Donkey Kong. In Ultimate, the Hammer's theme is a direct rip from the arcade version of Donkey Kong. This and the changes to 75m in Ultimate may be related to Nintendo finally settling a legal dispute that dated back to 1983.
 * Also in Ultimate, when the Hammer connects a hit, the corresponding visual effect and sound cue from the original arcade version of Donkey Kong are displayed. However, due to the action pausing when this occurs (and the pause counting towards the Hammer's timer), this acts as a nerf to the item.
 * The Hammer is one of three items that will change the music being played on the stage temporarily, the other two being the Golden Hammer and the Super Star. Incidentally, all three come from Mario and its sub-universes.