Fake Smash Ball

This dangerous item looks like a Smash Ball, but it explodes when you break it. Take a closer look and you can see that the symbol is the exact opposite of a real Smash Ball, and the horizontal line is thicker... The Fake Smash Ball (, Smash Bomb) is an item in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It was revealed at E3 2018.

Overview
Like a true Smash Ball, the Fake Smash Ball slowly floats through the air, although it tends to drift towards fighters and action instead. Also unlike the Smash Ball, it will occasionally move very erratically, usually to interfere with an attack, making it quite devious to deal with. It can be distinguished from a true Smash Ball by carefully looking at its black lines, whose thickness is switched around. When broken, it slows down time slightly and yields a colorful X-shaped explosion. The explosion deals 36% damage and very strong knockback to nearby players, likely including the player who broke it, and 18% with weaker knockback as it dissipates.

The Fake Smash Ball is much less durable than a real one, likely to make the item more effective since if too much screen time is given to the item then players would likely just stop interacting with it after a few attacks, rendering it pointless. It becomes indestructible during a Final Smash, preventing the Final Smash, or any other attack, from breaking it and dealing extra damage to fighters caught in the Final Smash. In addition, the Fake Smash Ball can appear alongside a real one, and multiple Fake Smash Balls can appear at once.

Origin
Although the Fake Smash Ball is an original Smash Bros. universe item, the inspiration for the item can be traced back to the Mario Kart series, which features Fake Item Boxes. These items made their debut in Mario Kart 64. As with the Fake Smash Ball, Fake Item Boxes are obstacles designed to look like the real thing, distinguishable only by an upside-down question mark, lack of spinning, reddish sheen, or some other mark.

The explosion also resembles that of X Bombs.

Trivia

 * The Japanese name of the Fake Smash Ball, "Smash Bomb", is possibly also a pun on "Smash Ball" ( and, respectively), as they only differ by one syllable.
 * For some unknown reason, the blog post for the Fake Smash Ball on the official Super Smash Bros. website was removed shortly after it got posted. This appeared to only happen in American and European regions, as the blog post remained on the Japanese site. The post was eventually restored the next day, along with two other new blog posts.