Jigglypuff (SSBM)

Jigglypuff (, Purin) is an unlockable character in Super Smash Bros. Melee from the series, making a return from the first Super Smash Bros game. Jigglypuff retains most of its moves from Smash 64, though with some modifications.

and reprise their roles in the English and Japanese versions of the game. Rachael Lillis' voice clips are reused from Smash 64 while most of Mika Kanai's are from Smash 64 and the Pokémon anime (mainly episodes 45 and 62). Guilaine Gilbert and Mara Winzer reprise their roles in the French and German versions of the game, with new voice clips.

Jigglypuff currently ranks 3rd in the Melee tier list, placing it in the S tier, this is a large improvement from its 6th place ranking in Smash 64, making it its best placement in the series to date. Jigglypuff possesses an incredible recovery, an extremely dangerous edgeguarding technique in the wall of pain, an array of moves that can combo into Rest, a powerful KO move, and an overall great aerial game and developed metagame. Its floatiness also makes it the only character in the top tier who cannot be easily comboed or chaingrabbed, which is also aided by its small size, which allows Jigglypuff to avoid most KO setups that most other characters would fall vulnerable to. However, Jigglypuff still has problems. It is light and floaty, making it easier to KO with stray moves or certain low percentage setups than other characters. Jigglypuff's options on the ground are also limited due to its poor range and lack of a projectile. It also has a slow walking speed and dashing speed, making ineffective at fighting at a grounded state, which is compounded with a poor dash dance. Jigglypuff's neutral game is also largely committal, as it is less consistent than that of other top-tiered characters; instead, it relies on its lethal punishes, edgeguards, and aerial mobility to succeed. Recent developments in the Melee metagame have also worsened Jigglypuff's matchups against other top-tier characters, such as, , and. Despite this, Jigglypuff still possesses a vast number of winning matchups, with Fox being the only character in the game it loses to, along with even matchups with only three other characters.

How to unlock
To unlock Jigglypuff, the player must complete Classic Mode or Adventure Mode on any difficulty.

Jigglypuff can also be unlocked by playing 50 Versus mode matches (this method will simultaneously unlock Brinstar Depths).

Jigglypuff is fought on Pokémon Stadium, with the titular track playing.

Attributes
Jigglypuff is, in general, a character of extremes. It has the slowest run speed (tied with ), the second lightest weight (along with ) and the slowest fall speed, but has the fastest air speed and the highest air acceleration, granting it the best air mobility in the game; in combination with its five midair jumps, Jigglypuff has a tremendous offstage presence. All of these properties gives Jigglypuff among the most unusual, but versatile, approaches in the game.

Owing to its unusual properties, Jigglypuff is among the hardest characters to combo in the cast. Jigglypuff's light weight and floatiness make it insusceptible to the majority of extended combos, such as zero-to-death combos and chaingrabs; after only a few hits, Jigglypuff will already be sent too far to chase down before the hitstun wears off, without the gravity needed to pull it back down to continue the combo. Despite Jigglypuff's weight and floatiness theoretically making it easier to KO than most of the cast, especially off the top of the stage, the great difficulty most characters have with comboing Jigglypuff allows it to survive disproportionately longer than other members of its weight class. Players who have good DI and SDI skills, and the awareness to apply them to stray hits, can stretch out its stocks to extremely high percentages. This forces opponents to find KOs at very specific percentage ranges as soon as the opportunity arises to actually be able to take advantage of Jigglypuff's weight.

However, such KO setups can be very difficult to find, as Jigglypuff's small frame and short crouch allow it to duck under many hitboxes that would usually be reliable combo starters on other characters, including several characters' standing grabs. Its fast air speed and floatiness allow it to weave away from improperly spaced attacks, and its powerful aerials, particularly its disjointed back aerial, can stuff out most characters' approaches. These properties make it difficult for characters such as, , and to get the KO setups that allow them to succeed in other matchups. Top-level analytics show that Jigglypuff tends to sustain twice as much damage against other characters over the course of a set despite its light weight and floatiness, and rarely gets gimped at very low percentages, unlike most other top-tiered characters.

On the other hand, Jigglypuff possesses outstanding combo ability itself. With high hitstun, low knockback aerials, decent tilts, and strong throws, Jigglypuff has plenty of ways to start and continue combos against almost any other character in the game, regardless of the opponent's characteristics. Jigglypuff also possesses KO setups of its own, including the space animal slayer, which almost guarantees a KO against some fast fallers in the game. Jigglypuff also has incredible power in some of its attacks; its smash attacks, particularly its forward smash, can KO at realistic percentages. Jigglypuff's most powerful attack, however, is Rest. Among the most feared attacks in the game, Rest is an attack of extremes, with no starting lag (hitting on the very first frame), extreme ending lag, and incredible power, easily KOing characters at percentages as low as 25%. All of these powerful moves can be comboed into or used in tech chasing, giving them significant utility.

Due to its characteristics and recovery prowess, Jigglypuff is also among the most dangerous edgeguarders in the game. It possesses several ways to set up an edgeguard, including its down smash and back throw; once offstage, Jigglypuff can finish the opponent with its quick and powerful aerials that are easily able to disrupt most recoveries off-stage, and the aforementioned high-power moves such as Rest that heavily punish improper recoveries done onto the stage. Jigglypuff's Wall of Pain is a particularly lethal method of edgeguarding, as it is an off-stage combo that can guarantee KOs on characters with poor recoveries, such as and, if done properly. Jigglypuff's edgeguarding is also much more flexible compared to other characters', due to its superior aerial drift, as it can easily cover both on- and off-stage options while other strong edgeguarding characters cannot. These strengths make Jigglypuff arguably the strongest edgeguarder in the game. On the flip side, Jigglypuff's own recovery is also considered to be the best in the game; with five midair jumps, the lowest falling speed, and the highest air speed, Jigglypuff can recover from nearly any situation, as Pound, with its Rising Pound capabilities, gives Jigglypuff almost infinite vertical and horizontal distance. Its ability to weave in and out of enemy aerials, as well as its nearly unmatched number of jumps, make Jigglypuff extremely difficult to edgeguard.

However, for all of its significant strengths, Jigglypuff's ground approach is among the worst of the top-tiered characters'. It has a short wavedash, the slowest dash in the game (alongside ), and an average grab range, forcing Jigglypuff to stay in the air to attack and combo well. Additionally, Jigglypuff's shield delivers 300 points of vertical knockback to Jigglypuff when broken (by comparison, the typical smash attack at roughly 100% percentage deals about 165 to 195 points of knockback) and instantaneously KOs it on all tournament-legal stages, giving it another defensive disadvantage when grounded. Despite having almost unparalleled approach in the air, being in the air can be an inherent defensive disadvantage, as Jigglypuff lacks access to grounded defensive options such as shielding and dodging, forcing Jigglypuff to play patiently and wait for opponents to overextend most of the time.

Because of this, Jigglypuff's neutral game is considered to be lackluster among the top tiers. Not only is it forced to play an aerial spacing game, but it also lacks effective lingering hitboxes. Jigglypuff's neutral and forward aerials lose power quickly, and can be crouch canceled up to medium percentages. The weak hitboxes are thus only useful for interrupting recoveries, and can be easily punished if improperly spaced. To mitigate this weakness, Jigglypuff must make use of its unmatched aerial drift to create openings and space perfectly around its opponents, which, while not impossible to do at high-level play, nonetheless requires developing a very unique skillset not shared by other characters, including a strong mental game. Jigglypuff also lacks a projectile of any type; unlike other characters, such as, Jigglypuff also cannot negate projectiles easily, though its short crouch can mitigate this slightly. This makes Jigglypuff susceptible to being locked down or zoned out by projectile users, such as Falco and.

Overall, Jigglypuff has polarizing strengths and weaknesses. Jigglypuff has one of the most potent punish games out of all characters, yet is immune to most other characters' punishes; additionally, it cannot easily be edgeguarded, but is an extremely strong edgeguarder itself. On the other hand, Jigglypuff is KOed easily from stray hits unlike other characters, and struggles to approach enemies due to its decidedly below-average neutral game, making it difficult to get openings in competitive play. Skilled players should take into account these weaknesses, using Jigglypuff's unrivaled air camping abilities to find openings and capitalizing on opponents' mistakes to attain superior positions where Jigglypuff can disrupt the opponent's plan and secure KOs that cannot easily be escaped from.

Changes from Super Smash Bros.
When transitioning from Smash 64 to Melee, Jigglypuff received multiple buffs, primarily in regards to its power, speed, range, combo ability, and recovery. Jigglypuff's aerial mobility is far superior with faster air speed and higher mid-air jumps which heavily improve Jigglypuff's recovery, edgeguarding and aerial approach. This is further complimented by its aerials (most notoriously back aerial) receiving larger hitboxes making them more effective at walling out opponents. Rest has also seen a huge buff to its already impressive KO power making it an incredibly deadly attack if it lands. The changes to Melee's mechanics greatly aid Jigglypuff. The faster falling speeds allow Jigglypuff to maintain its powerful combo game despite the reduction of hitstun and the nerfs to some of its moves and air dodging further aids Jigglypuff's recovery and movement options. The changes to Melee's ledge mechanics also greatly benefit Jigglypuff as ledge invincibility no longer cancels if Jigglypuff lets go of the ledge and Sing can now be ledge-cancelled making stalling at the ledge an extremely strong option for Jigglypuff.

Despite these significant buffs, Jigglypuff has also received some nerfs. Jigglypuff's already poor grounded mobility was made even worse and some of its previous KO moves such as down smash, back throw, down tilt, and especially up smash have been significantly weakened while some of its other moves have had their damage output reduced (with down aerial being the most prominent example). Jigglypuff's grab game much like the rest of the cast was also toned down. As with all returning veterans without a tether grab, Jigglypuff's grabs are much slower and as mentioned before, its back throw was drastically weakened dealing less damage and no longer being a viable kill option. Up throw deals less damage than its old forward throw and has much higher base knockback hindering its combo potential although it is still a potent combo throw especially when combined with the increase in Rest's power.

Overall, Jigglypuff fares significantly better in Melee than in Smash 64 with Tournament results to back this up. Jigglypuff went from the 6th best out of 12 on the Smash 64 tier list to 3rd best out of 26 on the Melee tier list. As a result of these improvements in both tournament and tier placings, Jigglypuff is widely considered one of the most buffed characters in the game, alongside.

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:
 * Dash attack:
 * Forward smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Forward smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Up smash:
 * Down smash:
 * Down 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:
 * Back aerial:
 * Up aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Up aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Up aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Up aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Down aerial:
 * Down aerial:

Grab and throws

 * Grabs:
 * Forward throw:
 * Back throw:
 * Up throw:
 * Back throw:
 * Up throw:
 * Up throw:
 * Up throw:
 * Up throw:
 * Up throw:

Special moves

 * Rollout:
 * Pound:
 * Sing:
 * Rest:
 * Sing:
 * Rest:
 * Sing:
 * Rest:
 * Sing:
 * Rest:
 * Sing:
 * Rest:
 * Rest:
 * Rest:
 * Rest:
 * Rest:

Version history
Compared to the other top tiers, Jigglypuff remained unchanged when transitioning to the PAL version of Melee (outside of receiving new voice clips for the French and German language options, due to Jigglypuff's name change in said languages) although it did receive one practically negligible indirect nerf (with Jigglypuff now taking damage from ). This change however does not affect its matchups against the other top tiers. Because of this, Jigglypuff is even more effective in the PAL version (due to the nerfs to the other top tiers giving it a better matchup spread), currently being ranked 4th on the latest PAL tier list. Some would even argue that Jigglypuff is the best character in the PAL version.



Moveset
For a gallery of Jigglypuff's hitboxes, see here.

Most historically significant players
See also: Category:Jigglypuff players (SSBM)


 * - Currently the second best Jigglypuff player in the world. Placed 7th at ; 13th at, , and ; and 17th at with wins over players such as , , and . Ranked as high as 35th on the 2019 MPGR.
 * - One of the Five Gods and the best Jigglypuff player of all time, having been ranked 1st on multiple SSBMRank/MPGR rankings.
 * - Placed 4th at, 7th at , 9th at , and 17th at both and  with wins over players such as , , and . Ranked as high as 41st on the 2018 MPGR.
 * - Formerly considered the second best Jigglypuff player in the world. Placed 4th at, 7th at , and 9th at , , and with wins over players such as , , and . Ranked as high as 38th on the 2017 SSBMRank.
 * - Formerly the best Jigglypuff player in Europe. Placed 4th at both and, 5th at , and 13th at both  and  wins over players such as ,  and . Ranked 42rd on the 2015 SSBMRank.
 * - One of the first top Jigglypuff players, placing 7th at both and, 9th at , and 13th at both  and . Ranked as high as 45th on the 2013 SSBMRank. He is currently on hiatus from tournaments.
 * - The best Jigglypuff player in Melee's early years. Placed 2nd at, 3rd at , 9th at , and 13th at both and . He has since retired from competitive play.
 * - One of the first top Jigglypuff players, placing 5th at both and, 9th at both  and , and 13th at . He has since retired from competitive play.
 * - One of the Five Gods, having started out with Jigglypuff after being inspired by The King. He was considered the best player in the world in 2009 when using Jigglypuff.

Tier placement and history
Since the beginning of the Melee metagame, Jigglypuff has had among the biggest improvements, going from an average contender to one of the definitive characters in the competitive scene. In the first tier list (October 2002), Jigglypuff was ranked 17-18th place (tied with ). This was due to most players not fully recognizing its aerial capabilities. With new metagame developments, it jumped to 10-11th in the second tier list (December 2002). Jigglypuff hovered around the 8th-11th spots before rising to 6th-7th place (tied with ) in the ninth tier list (October 2008), largely due to showing how dominant Jigglypuff was in the air, and how powerful its pressure game and combo abilities were. With Mango continuously dominating more Melee tournaments using Jigglypuff, and the rise of another nationally dominant Jigglypuff player in, Jigglypuff jumped up to top tier in the original 10th tier list (September 2010), tied with and  for the top position. In the tenth tier list (December 2010), Jigglypuff was ranked third under Fox and Falco. Jigglypuff is ranked 5th place in the twelfth tier list. Despite this, Jigglypuff has a smaller playerbase than the rest of the top tier characters, with only four representatives on the 2015 SSBM Player Rankings, although it has since seen an increase in representation.

Since 2015, Jigglypuff's presence in the Melee metagame has continued to grow, largely to Hungrybox's continued rise to dominance as the best player in the world. After winning huge events such as, and achieving Rank #1 on SSBMRank from 2017 to 2019, Hungrybox became the player to beat at every Melee tournament, and many players began developing a secondary in an attempt to counterpick him. Following Hungrybox's dominance, most players began to recognize Jigglypuff as a top three character, with some believing that it is the best character in the game; this has been reflected in the thirteenth and latest tier list, where Jigglypuff is ranked 3rd. However, following Hungrybox’s slump in tournament results post-COVID, and the advancement of other characters in the Jigglypuff matchup, most players no longer consider Jigglypuff to be a candidate for the best character in the game, and that Sheik and Peach are the only other top tiers that Jigglypuff has a clear matchup advantage against.

Brokenness controversy
Within the Melee community, there has been a small group of players who believe that "Puff is broken" and that the character should be banned from Melee tournaments. They argue that its near-inability to be comboed and its exceptional recovery take away the punishing and edgeguarding game, two of the most important aspects of Melee, giving it an unfair advantage over the rest of the cast. Players such as have argued that due to its "brokenness," other top Melee players could easily pick up Jigglypuff and do just as well as Hungrybox, as suggested by 's dominance from 2008 to 2010 and 's immediate success in 2018 when he picked up Jigglypuff, but refuse to play Jigglypuff because they prefer to play faster, aggressive characters, which keeps the game popular with spectators.

Another camp of players, albeit one closely related to the above, instead argue that Jigglypuff is bad for the competitive scene as a whole. These players believe that fighting against Jigglypuff is physically and emotionally draining for top players, where one small mistake can lead to a stock loss due to a Rest or wall of pain. They cite the fact that numerous top players, such as and, have taken a break or retired from the game due to their dislike of Jigglypuff. They also argue that Jigglypuff's defensive and "boring" playstyle hurts Melee as a spectator sport, fearing that repeated victories by Jigglypuff will discourage viewers from watching streamed tournaments.

However, most members of the Melee community do not support a Jigglypuff ban. They argue that Hungrybox's success in tournaments is due to his skill as a player, rather than Jigglypuff being a broken character. They also cite the relative lack of top Jigglypuff players as evidence of Hungrybox's exceptional success with the character, and that if Jigglypuff was truly broken, competitive Melee players would still play it regardless if it was "boring," as evidenced by the numerous who used wobbling in tournaments, despite vocally being against the technique from a game design standpoint. They argue that Jigglypuff does not hurt the scene or turn off spectators from watching tournaments, pointing to the fact that Melee tournaments have seen an increase in both attendance and viewership since 2015, and that Hungrybox's dominance with Jigglypuff is no worse than the historical dominance of other players' characters, such as Armada's. Opponents of a ban argue that removing Jigglypuff from tournaments would unfairly target Hungrybox, and that other top players should adopt a more patient playstyle in order to beat him.

PAL viability
Jigglypuff itself is unchanged from the NTSC version. It can now take damage from 's down throw due to the changes in the throw's properties, but this is not any sort of meaningful nerf, due to both Bowser being a rarity in competitive play and the throw not being any good in the first place. However, Jigglypuff benefits indirectly from the nerfs to other top-tiered characters, who either have weakened KO options, have decreased aerial drift or recovery distance, or a combination of the three. On the PAL tier list, last updated in 2015, Jigglypuff ranks 4th, a slight improvement over its ranking on NTSC tier list iterations from that time period, when it ranked 5th; however, metagame development in the NTSC versions since then have propelled Jigglypuff to 3rd place on its tier list, and it's a common opinion nowadays that Jigglypuff is actually the best character in the PAL version. Jigglypuff's tournament representation in PAL is roughly the same as in NTSC despite this, with only a handful of top Jigglypuff mains (notably and ) and a small pool of lower-leveled ones, though the few that play the character at the highest levels of play place well with it.

In
Once Jigglypuff is unlocked, it may appear in the game's Classic Mode as a one-on-one, team (alongside or ), giant, multi, or metal opponent, as well as an ally in team and giant fights.

In all of its appearances, Jigglypuff appears on Pokémon Stadium; when paired with Kirby in the team battle, it will appear on Green Greens.

In Adventure Mode
Jigglypuff can appear in Stage 7 of the Adventure Mode; in the Pokémon Battle, Jigglypuff can appear among the Pikachus the player has to fight against.

In All-Star Mode
In All-Star Mode, Jigglypuff and its allies are fought on Poké Floats.

In Event Matches
Jigglypuff appears in the following Event Matches:


 * Event 32: Target Acquired: As Falco, the player must KO Jigglypuff as many times as possible in one minute on Corneria. However, Arwings also fire frequently at the stage, and Falco must KO Jigglypuff more often than the Arwings to win the event.
 * Event 37: Legendary Pokémon: As any character, the player must fight against a team of four Wire Frames and Jigglypuff; everyone has two lives, and the only items that spawn are Pokéballs, all of which only produce legendary Pokémon. Jigglypuff will never directly attack the player, and will instead only pursue Pokéballs when they appear. Defeating all five opponents also gives the player the opportunity to unlock.
 * Event 39: Jigglypuff Live!: As Jigglypuff, the player must fight against a team of three other Jigglypuff. all fighters have three lives, and the damage ratio has been increased.
 * Event 40: All-Star Match 4: Jigglypuff is the third opponent fought in this series of staged battles. The selected character battles it on the Poké Floats stage with a stock of 2 while Jigglypuff has 1. With a timer of four minutes, the player must defeat it and the other four characters one-by-one with the overall time and damage: Marth, Luigi, Mewtwo, and Mr. Game & Watch.

Trophies
In addition to the normal trophy about Jigglypuff as a character, there are two trophies about it as a fighter, unlocked by completing the Adventure and All-Star modes respectively with Jigglypuff on any difficulty:

Trivia

 * Melee is the only game where Jigglypuff isn't mid-tier (Smash 64 and Ultimate) or bottom tier (Brawl and Smash Wii U/3DS).
 * Jigglypuff is one of the five hidden characters, along with, , , and , to be seen in the opening movie.
 * Jigglypuff is the only fighter in Melee who has a different voice actor when the language is switched to Japanese.
 * Jigglypuff's and 's stock icons show their entire body; they are the only characters in Melee to have this.
 * After picking up a Metal Box, Jigglypuff's eyes disappear. This is due to its eyes being simple textures on its body's model instead of being modelled separately. It shares this trait with several other fighters including, and the.
 * Jigglypuff and are the only unlockable veterans in Melee.
 * Jigglypuff,, , Luigi, and are the only fighters with English voice actors in Melee.
 * Jigglypuff is the only non-Mario fighter to have an English voice actor, as well as the only fighter in general (barring the characters in the Star Fox Smash Taunt) to have voice actors in multiple languages.
 * When a CPU Jigglypuff is knocked off the stage and its float isn't enough to bring it back, it will use Sing and fall off the stage, likely because most characters are coded to use their up special as a recovery jump.