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As in ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]'', Nobuyuki Hiyama's portrayal of Link from ''{{s|zeldawiki|The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time}}'' was re-purposed in ''Melee'', with the ones used in the previous ''Smash'' title returning alongside new ones. | As in ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]'', Nobuyuki Hiyama's portrayal of Link from ''{{s|zeldawiki|The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time}}'' was re-purposed in ''Melee'', with the ones used in the previous ''Smash'' title returning alongside new ones. | ||
Link is ranked 18th in the tier list, in the C- tier, which is much higher than his second to last current rank in the ''Smash 64'' [[tier list]] (11th out of 12), and one place below his clone, {{SSBM|Young Link}}. Link's placement is due to his low lag aerials (with his neutral and forward air), a good variety of projectiles, several kill confirms, multiple strong tech-chasing options and a very high air speed. His disjointed hitbox also gives him a slight advantage against others, as well as a [[Passive shield|fully functional shield]] that can block a wide variety of projectiles. Link is also a potent edgeguarder in the NTSC versions of the game; his Spin Attack is possibly the best semi-spike in the game, though he still has many other options like his notoriously active neutral air. Link, however, suffers from a rather high falling speed and a high weight, making him an easy target for chain grabbing and combos. Although his recovery can be extended, he is still vulnerable to being edgeguarded due to | Link is ranked 18th in the tier list, in the C- tier, which is much higher than his second to last current rank in the ''Smash 64'' [[tier list]] (11th out of 12), and one place below his clone, {{SSBM|Young Link}}. Link's placement is due to his low lag aerials (with his neutral and forward air), a good variety of projectiles, several kill confirms, multiple strong tech-chasing options and a very high air speed. His disjointed hitbox also gives him a slight advantage against others, as well as a [[Passive shield|fully functional shield]] that can block a wide variety of projectiles. Link is also a potent edgeguarder in the NTSC versions of the game; his Spin Attack is possibly the best semi-spike in the game, though he still has many other options like his notoriously active neutral air. Finally, similarly to {{SSBM|Samus}}, Link possesses a wide array of techniques specific to himself or shared between himself and his younger counterpart relating to his bombs, such as the Bomb Jump variants to extend his recovery and the Goron Roll enabling him to techroll on command. | ||
Link, however, suffers from a rather high falling speed and a high weight, making him an easy target for chain grabbing and combos. Although his recovery can be extended, he is still vulnerable to being edgeguarded due to his up-B being predictable, though his tether grapple and Bomb Jumps somewhat compensate for this. | |||
==Attributes== | ==Attributes== | ||
Link generally falls under the "slow, but powerful" archetype of fighter, though many of his attacks are fairly versatile and long reaching. Link has a rather high weight, as well as an above average falling speed and high air speed, an unusual combination of physics for someone of his [[weight]] class. | Link generally falls under the "slow, but powerful" archetype of fighter, though many of his attacks are fairly versatile and long reaching. Link has a rather high weight, as well as an above average falling speed and high air speed, an unusual combination of physics for someone of his [[weight]] class. | ||
Arguably Link's greatest asset is his range. His sword has a large, disjointed hitbox (though not as large and disjointed as {{SSBM|Marth}}'s sword), allowing him to attack safely from a distance; unlike the duo of Marth and {{SSBM|Roy}}, Link only has one hitbox on his sword, allowing his approach to be considerably less "specific" than either. Additionally, Link has a multitude of projectiles on his Special moves; while the Bow is decidedly situational due to its low range, speed, and power, Link's boomerang and bombs allow him to start combos, continue them, or simply deal damage; the latter also can extend Link's recovery if he slashes them with his [[Spin Attack]]. | Arguably Link's greatest asset is his range. His sword has a large, disjointed hitbox (though not as large and disjointed as {{SSBM|Marth}}'s sword), allowing him to attack safely from a distance; unlike the duo of Marth and {{SSBM|Roy}}, Link only has one hitbox on his sword, allowing his approach to be considerably less "specific" than either. Additionally, Link has a multitude of projectiles on his Special moves; while the Bow is decidedly situational due to its low range, speed, and power, Link's boomerang and bombs allow him to start combos, continue them, or simply deal damage; the latter also can extend Link's recovery if he slashes them with his [[Spin Attack]]. Bombs can also be combined with the various hits of the boomerang for a wide array of trapping options, as well as decent stage control. | ||
Another benefit are his variety of useful attacks in his arsenal; a majority of his grounded attacks have good KO potential, including his tilts, with his up tilt having rather decent speed and acting as an excellent combo starter that takes advantage of his above-average air game. Link's air game is solid; his fast, low-lag back, forward, and neutral aerials coupled with his low short hop and high falling and air speeds give Link among the best SHFFLs in the game. Link's boomerangs and bombs also give him excellent zoning abilities, with the former's modifiable trajectories potentially making it a good approach tool as well. In addition, Link has a variety of powerful finishers. All of his smashes have decent power with acceptable start-up and cool-down lag. His forward smash can be extended should the first hit fail to connect, and both his up and down aerials can be potent finishers, especially when combined with his aforementioned SHFFL. In the NTSC regions, Link's Spin Attack is also a deadly edgeguarding technique when used on the ground; its later hitboxes sharply semi-spike the opponent, and if Link can land this attack on recovering opponents, he can quickly and safely [[gimp]] opponents. While the attack lost its semi-spike properties in PAL regions, the attack's long range and high power still make it a decent edgeguarding technique. | Another benefit are his variety of useful attacks in his arsenal; a majority of his grounded attacks have good KO potential, including his tilts, with his up tilt having rather decent speed and acting as an excellent combo starter that takes advantage of his above-average air game. Link's air game is solid; his fast, low-lag back, forward, and neutral aerials coupled with his low short hop and high falling and air speeds give Link among the best SHFFLs in the game. Link's boomerangs and bombs also give him excellent zoning abilities, with the former's modifiable trajectories potentially making it a good approach tool as well. In addition, Link has a variety of powerful finishers. All of his smashes have decent power with acceptable start-up and cool-down lag. His forward smash can be extended should the first hit fail to connect, and both his up and down aerials can be potent finishers, especially when combined with his aforementioned SHFFL. In the NTSC regions, Link's Spin Attack is also a deadly edgeguarding technique when used on the ground; its later hitboxes sharply semi-spike the opponent, and if Link can land this attack on recovering opponents, he can quickly and safely [[gimp]] opponents. While the attack lost its semi-spike properties in PAL regions, the attack's long range and high power still make it a decent edgeguarding technique. | ||
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Link's grab game has a variety of positive and negative attributes; while his grab has a long range, it also has high ending lag. Link's grab also cannot grab opponents in the air, limiting his chaingrab potential. Link's throws, however, have low knockback and relatively high hitstun, as well as low ending lag, allowing Link to potentially string in a few hits against his opponent. Common options include using his down-throw into his spin attack, giving Link a reliable kill confirm vs mid-fallers and fast fallers. His up throw is also useful in several matchups, allowing him to combo into up-tilt and sometimes down-smash vs fast-fallers, and into several aerials vs other characters and high percent fast-fallers. In general, Link's grab has reliably high reward, but is extremely committal and somewhat hard to hit with. | Link's grab game has a variety of positive and negative attributes; while his grab has a long range, it also has high ending lag. Link's grab also cannot grab opponents in the air, limiting his chaingrab potential. Link's throws, however, have low knockback and relatively high hitstun, as well as low ending lag, allowing Link to potentially string in a few hits against his opponent. Common options include using his down-throw into his spin attack, giving Link a reliable kill confirm vs mid-fallers and fast fallers. His up throw is also useful in several matchups, allowing him to combo into up-tilt and sometimes down-smash vs fast-fallers, and into several aerials vs other characters and high percent fast-fallers. In general, Link's grab has reliably high reward, but is extremely committal and somewhat hard to hit with. | ||
Link's recovery is also considered to be above-average. Link by himself is difficult to edgeguard, as his recovery has a wide variety of options; his wall-grapple can allow him to enter "safe-zones" underneath the ledge, and his spin attack covers the top of him, with his bombs also potentially allowing for some form of recovery if he slashes them with his spin attack. In addition, Link's high weight and falling speed make him rather resilient to the upper blast line, though these attributes impact his horizontal survivability. | Link's recovery is also considered to be above-average. Link by himself is difficult to edgeguard, as his recovery has a wide variety of options; his wall-grapple can allow him to enter "safe-zones" underneath the ledge, and his spin attack covers the top of him, with his bombs also potentially allowing for some form of recovery if he slashes them with his spin attack or hits them with his back-air to gain additional horizontal distance. In addition, Link's high weight and falling speed make him rather resilient to the upper blast line, though these attributes impact his horizontal survivability. | ||
A high falling speed and being a rather large target, however, reveals Link's primary flaw: Link is a particularly easy target for chain throwing and combos. Against fast characters, such as {{SSBM|Fox}} or {{SSBM|Sheik}}, Link players must read opponents very well as to avoid such techniques; unlike most others, however, Link's only fast move that can potentially break combos is his neutral air, causing him to be rather predictable in these cases. In addition, he is arguably the easiest character for Fox to waveshine, for Falco, shine to down air, as well as one of the easiest characters for Sheik to chaingrab. These major setbacks with three very common characters in tournaments is the main problem. In addition, Link boasts among the worst out of shield options in the game; Spin Attack is relatively slow compared to other up-b's out of shield like {{SSBM|Bowser}}'s or {{SSBM|Samus}}'s, neutral-air is large and fairly fast but limited by Link's long jump-squat animation, and whilst Link's up-smash out of shield is very fast, it is easy for opponents to SDI out of and only covers above him. Combined with his grab not being able to hit airborne opponents, Link has some of the worst tools for dealing with shield pressure in the game, especially against Fox and Falco. | A high falling speed and being a rather large target, however, reveals Link's primary flaw: Link is a particularly easy target for chain throwing and combos. Against fast characters, such as {{SSBM|Fox}} or {{SSBM|Sheik}}, Link players must read opponents very well as to avoid such techniques; unlike most others, however, Link's only fast move that can potentially break combos is his neutral air, causing him to be rather predictable in these cases. In addition, he is arguably the easiest character for Fox to waveshine, for Falco, shine to down air, as well as one of the easiest characters for Sheik to chaingrab. These major setbacks with three very common characters in tournaments is the main problem. In addition, Link boasts among the worst out of shield options in the game; Spin Attack is relatively slow compared to other up-b's out of shield like {{SSBM|Bowser}}'s or {{SSBM|Samus}}'s, neutral-air is large and fairly fast but limited by Link's long jump-squat animation, and whilst Link's up-smash out of shield is very fast, it is easy for opponents to SDI out of and only covers above him. Combined with his grab not being able to hit airborne opponents, Link has some of the worst tools for dealing with shield pressure in the game, especially against Fox and Falco. | ||
Exacerbating Link's ease to be comboed is his poor overall mobility. While still rather fast for a character of his strength, weight and range, Link still has a rather slow, inflexible approach on the ground, due to his slow dash speed, poor dashdance, and short wavedash. Additionally, Link has multiple high-lag attacks, notably his down and up aerial attacks; while this can be alleviated with L-cancelling, they can still be punished, requiring Link players to carefully set up combos and KO moves. Link also struggles to quickly cover space immediately in front of him on the ground, as his grab and down-tilt are both very laggy and his short hop aerials are a little too slow to come out. He also can struggle against crouch-cancelling and ASDI down, as his fastest aerials like back air and neutral air are easily beaten by crouch-cancelling and counterattacking, and some of his strongest combo starters are poor against grounded opponents SDI'ing down, such as his otherwise very good dash attack. | Exacerbating Link's ease to be comboed is his poor overall mobility. While still rather fast for a character of his strength, weight and range, Link still has a rather slow, inflexible approach on the ground, due to his slow dash speed, poor dashdance, and short wavedash. While this can be somewhat mitigated through Link's Goron Roll, which enables him to techroll on command, it is only usable at high percents. Additionally, Link has multiple high-lag attacks, notably his down and up aerial attacks; while this can be alleviated with L-cancelling, they can still be punished, requiring Link players to carefully set up combos and KO moves. Link also struggles to quickly cover space immediately in front of him on the ground, as his grab and down-tilt are both very laggy and his short hop aerials are a little too slow to come out. He also can struggle against crouch-cancelling and ASDI down, as his fastest aerials like back air and neutral air are easily beaten by crouch-cancelling and counterattacking, and some of his strongest combo starters are poor against grounded opponents SDI'ing down, such as his otherwise very good dash attack. | ||
==Changes from ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]''== | ==Changes from ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]''== | ||
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*{{nerf|Link [[dash]]es slower (1.4 (42) → 1.3).}} | *{{nerf|Link [[dash]]es slower (1.4 (42) → 1.3).}} | ||
**{{nerf|Link's initial dash is drastically slower (2.267 (68) → 1.3) and covers a fraction of the distance. This hinders Link's ability to run away and keep up with opponents despite his higher maximum dashing speed.}} | **{{nerf|Link's initial dash is drastically slower (2.267 (68) → 1.3) and covers a fraction of the distance. This hinders Link's ability to run away and keep up with opponents despite his higher maximum dashing speed.}} | ||
*{{buff|Link's [[traction]] is much higher (0.0667 (2) → 0.1), | *{{buff|Link's [[traction]] is much higher (0.0667 (2) → 0.1), making it easier for him to punish [[out of shield]].}} | ||
*{{buff|Link's [[jump|jumpsquat]] is shorter (7 frames → 6).}} | *{{buff|Link's [[jump|jumpsquat]] is shorter (7 frames → 6).}} | ||
*{{change|Link's [[air speed]] is faster than his Australian ''Smash 64'' counterpart, but slower than his European ''Smash 64'' counterpart (1.033 (31, JPN/NA) / 0.9 (27, AUS) / 1.233 (37, EUR) → 1).}} | *{{change|Link's [[air speed]] is faster than his Australian ''Smash 64'' counterpart, but slower than his European ''Smash 64'' counterpart (1.033 (31, JPN/NA) / 0.9 (27, AUS) / 1.233 (37, EUR) → 1).}} | ||
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*{{Sm|Aniki|Japan}} - One of the first notable Link players, and was the best Link in Japan. Placed 17th at {{Trn|Jack Garden Tournament}}, which still remains the best supermajor result seen for Link. | *{{Sm|Aniki|Japan}} - One of the first notable Link players, and was the best Link in Japan. Placed 17th at {{Trn|Jack Garden Tournament}}, which still remains the best supermajor result seen for Link. | ||
*{{Sm|Aklo|USA}} - The current best Link player in the world, although better known as a {{SSBM|Fox}} main and uses Link as occasional counterpick. His placement of 18th on the [[MPGR Summer 2022]] became the first time a Link player has been globally ranked since Lord HDL's rank in 2014. He notably won {{Trn|Redemption Rumble}} using Link to beat {{Sm|KoDoRiN}} and {{Sm|Swift}} in his bracket, becoming the best result and wins the character has seen in the post-Slippi era. | *{{Sm|Aklo|USA}} - The current best Link player in the world, although better known as a {{SSBM|Fox}} main and uses Link as occasional counterpick. His placement of 18th on the [[MPGR Summer 2022]] became the first time a Link player has been globally ranked since Lord HDL's rank in 2014. He notably won {{Trn|Redemption Rumble}} using Link to beat {{Sm|KoDoRiN}} and {{Sm|Swift}} in his bracket, becoming the best result and wins the character has seen in the post-Slippi era. Following ths, he became the first ever Link player to be ranked top 10, ranking at number 10 on [[SSBMRank 2023]]. | ||
*{{Sm|J666|USA}} - One of the best Link players in the world during the early 2010s, once peaking at 13th in SoCal during 2012. His placements of 33rd at {{Trn|EVO 2014}} and 49th at {{Trn|EVO 2016}} are some of the best solo Link results at ''Melee'' supermajors to this day. | *{{Sm|J666|USA}} - One of the best Link players in the world during the early 2010s, once peaking at 13th in SoCal during 2012. His placements of 33rd at {{Trn|EVO 2014}} and 49th at {{Trn|EVO 2016}} are some of the best solo Link results at ''Melee'' supermajors to this day. | ||
*{{Sm|Lord HDL|USA}} - One of the best Link players in the world during the early 2010s. While he commonly used {{SSBM|Marth}} as well and would eventually solo-main him, he used Link to place 17th at {{Trn|EVO East}} and 49th at {{Trn|Apex 2013}}. He became the first Link player to have been ranked on a global ''Melee'' top 100 power ranking list with 87th on the [[SSBMRank 2014]]. | *{{Sm|Lord HDL|USA}} - One of the best Link players in the world during the early 2010s. While he commonly used {{SSBM|Marth}} as well and would eventually solo-main him, he used Link to place 17th at {{Trn|EVO East}} and 49th at {{Trn|Apex 2013}}. He became the first Link player to have been ranked on a global ''Melee'' top 100 power ranking list with 87th on the [[SSBMRank 2014]]. | ||
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As part of an April Fools' joke, Link has once ranked sixth on the tier list; in the two days that this version of the tier list was declared official, the Melee Back Room claimed that Link's high-tiered ranking was due to having untapped aerial prowess. While another prediction on the tier list involving {{SSBM|Jigglypuff}} eventually came true in the post-''Brawl'' metagame, opinions of Link have consistently been that he is still in the low-mid tier range. | As part of an April Fools' joke, Link has once ranked sixth on the tier list; in the two days that this version of the tier list was declared official, the Melee Back Room claimed that Link's high-tiered ranking was due to having untapped aerial prowess. While another prediction on the tier list involving {{SSBM|Jigglypuff}} eventually came true in the post-''Brawl'' metagame, opinions of Link have consistently been that he is still in the low-mid tier range. | ||
The online Slippi era has notably reignited discussions about Link's viability. This has most notably been the case with {{Sm|Sixx}}'s resounding first place finish in doubles alongside {{Sm|Ice}} at multiple European tournaments and Aklo's | The online Slippi era has notably reignited discussions about Link's viability. This has most notably been the case with {{Sm|Sixx}}'s resounding first place finish in doubles alongside {{Sm|Ice}} at multiple European tournaments and Aklo's wins over numerous other top-level players as solo Link (in addition to his wins over players such as {{Sm|lloD}}, {{Sm|Logan}}, {{Sm|Swift}}, {{Sm|KoDoRiN}} and {{Sm|Eddy Mexico}} while using Link as a [[counterpick]]). Although Link is still considered to be a mid-tier character, it is more commonly agreed that his strong projectile game and kill confirms off of them give him a competitive edge against many of the higher-tier characters on {{SSBM|Final Destination}}. | ||
==In 1-P Mode== | ==In 1-P Mode== | ||