Gravity: Difference between revisions

From ''[[Super Smash Bros. Brawl]]'' onward, the vertical [[knockback]] suffered by characters is based on both their [[weight]] and their gravity (once they enter [[tumble]]), with higher-gravity characters taking more knockback; horizontal knockback is unaffected. This reduces the natural effect of gravity on launch distance, keeping characters with low weight but high gravity (most notably [[Fox]]) from having disproportionally high vertical endurance, and in fact results in their endurance being slightly worse than a fighter with lower gravity. Despite horizontal knockback being unaffected, fighters with higher gravity tend to have poorer horizontal endurance, due to most moves with horizontal knockback having some degree of vertical knockback. Since a character's air friction only takes effect after the hitstun ends, this results in it taking slightly longer for fighters with higher gravity to be slowed down by their air friction, thus getting KOed earlier. It also affects how difficult the character is to [[combo]] - gravity does not take effect on knockback if a character is not put into tumble. By applying slightly more knockback to characters that more quickly fall into the next attack, it slightly normalizes the effect of setup and multi-hit moves on the cast. This also makes characters with higher gravity considerably more vulnerable to [[chain grab]]s in ''Brawl'' and in ''Brawl'' onward, it makes moves with low knockback chain into them-self and other moves more reliably on characters with higher gravity when combined with ''Brawl'' removing [[DI]] against moves which do not put opponents into tumble (such as with {{SSBB|Sheik}}'s forward tilt).

 

Gravity also affects how high a character is able to [[jump]]; two characters with the same jump force will not jump the same height if they have different gravity. Naturally, a character with higher gravity would jump lower than a character with lower gravity (assuming they have the same jump force).

 

In ''Melee'' and ''Brawl'', gravity also affects how high a character will travel if they are aerial [[grab release]]d. A character with high gravity will gain little height and will land quickly while a character with low gravity will gain a lot more height. Characters with very high gravity are at an advantage especially in ''Brawl'' as they will land before their grab release animation will end (although this puts them in a bad position if they end up off stage). Characters with very low gravity are also at an advantage as they will be released much higher into the air making it harder for characters to chase them and followup (in ''Brawl'').  

*Sheik is the only character to debut in ''Melee'' whose gravity has been increased in ''Brawl'' and ''Smash 4''.