Heel Slide / After Burner Kick

Heel Slide (, Heel Slide) and After Burner Kick (, After Burner Kick) are two variations of Bayonetta's side special move in Super Smash Bros. 4 and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Overview
Heel Slide is Bayonetta's side special when used on the ground, where she will attack with a sliding kick. Like most of her attacks, if the button is held, she will fire her guns to deal extra damage, but if the button is held longer, she will finish with a flip kick that knocks her opponent into the air, allowing her to follow up with one of her various aerial moves. If she only attacks with a sliding kick, she can bait and punish air dodge opponents with a timed, charged smash attack. The attack also features aesthetic variations: the trails emitted are blue if Bayonetta's default costume is used, or red if her "A Witch With No Memories" alternate costume is used.

When using her side special in the air, Bayonetta will perform After Burner Kick. She will fly diagonally upwards with a kick, and can be performed twice in the air if the first attack hits an opponent. If down is pressed before performing the move, Bayonetta does a diagonal diving kick instead that bounces off opponents. Using a Hadoken-style input often makes this easier. Both variants can be comboed into each other, and various other combos can be done, such as forward aerial out of the After Burner Kick. Getting hit in the air recovers an After Burner Kick, allowing Bayonetta to add it to her recovery again along with another Witch Twist. When the first After Burner Kick connects, the second one can only be activated within a window of 60 frames (one second) after the first one ends, encouraging quick usage of it for combos. In Ultimate, the second After Burner Kick also cannot be used if the first one is shielded.

Customization
Special Move customization was added in Super Smash Bros. 4. These are the variations:

Like the other DLC characters, Bayonetta lacks custom move variations.
 * 1) Heel Slide / After Burner Kick: Default.

Origin
Both Heel Slide and After Burner Kick are separate techniques purchasable from Rodin at the Gates of Hell for 20,000 halos each. Heel Slide functions the same way, and if done in the air, a diagonal After Burner Kick is performed if it was already purchased. Heel Slide resembles the Slide attack from PlatinumGames' predecessor Clover Studio's game, . After Burner Kick also has two variants depending on whether Bayonetta is ascending or descending from her jump. The attack is named after the Sega game . The downward variant resembles Red Hot Kick, another attack from Viewtiful Joe.

Trivia

 * This is the first special move to change its name when used in the air, followed by Min Min's ARMS Jump / ARM Hook.
 * Strangely, in Smash 4, if Bayonetta uses After Burner Kick immediately after being released from Confusion, she can immediately use it again, even if it doesn't hit an opponent or if Bayonetta herself gets hit.