Meta Knight (SSBB)/Neutral special

Overview
Known as Mach Tornado, it consists of spinning around very quickly, creating a yellow-orange tornado around himself. This attack consists of many hits. Anyone nearby will be slashed multiple times and get trapped in the tornado, while being damaged continuously. The maximum damage the move can do is around 21%. The move can be extended by repeatedly pressing the B button; this also allows to rise while using the move, and apparently increases the move's priority, with it becoming weak again towards the end. The final hit does moderate vertical knockback, and it can also Star KO if the opponent is very close to the upper blast line. The move lacks transcendent priority, unlike most of Meta Knight's other moves, though this actually makes it harder to punish him and grab him out of it. The move still grants a lot of protection, and he can use it to go through non-transcendent projectiles. It can even be used as a "followup" to air camping.

Mach Tornado can also be used as a recovery move while rising. It gains decent vertical distance and great horizontal distance, while being difficult to attack out of it, due to its large hitboxes being able to clash with ground and aerial attacks alike. However, cannot grab the edge while using the move - he will simply bounce off instead. He also cannot grab the edge during the first few helpless frames after using the move.

A well-known way to use Mach Tornado for a Star KO is to use multiple s while rising and then using Mach Tornado. This is easier to do against floaty characters. However, the move leaves helpless after it is used.

Overall, Mach Tornado is known as one of the best moves in all of Brawl, being an extremely effective damage racker and a very useful recovery option due to not only giving a large amount of horizontal distance and some vertical distance, but also because of the protection it gives. There are ways to stop the move, including transcendent projectiles such as 's, and moves such as and. Even then, however, the move is considered difficult to counter at close range.

Hitboxes
The amount of time the loop hits of Mach Tornado hits depends on various factors. Meta Knight has to spin a full 360° in order for the hitboxes to hit again. Meta Knight's spin speed starts at 80° per frame and it decreases by 1.5° every frame. The loop hits end once Meta Knight's spin speed reaches 10° per frame. For the first 70 frames of the spin, pressing the special button increases Meta Knight's spin speed by 16° although his spin speed maxes out at 80° and button inputs are only read for every 10 frames. After the first 70 frames, button inputs are no longer read and Meta Knight's spin speed reduces by 2° every frame.

This ultimately means that the gap between loop hits can be as low as four frames and as high as 12+ frames depending on when Meta Knight lands the move and depending on if he is mashing or not.

Loop hits

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Final hit

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Timing
The frame strips only represent the move if the special button is not pressed to extend its duration. The move's duration can be increased up to an extra 70 frames by mashing. Additionally, if Meta Knight is in the ending animation on the ground for the first three frames of the animation and he ends up in the air on the fourth frame, the hitbox will remain active until the animation ends.


 * Hitboxes (grounded)
 * Hitboxes (aerial)
 * Lag
 * Lag
 * Lag