Kirby (SSBM)

Kirby in Super Smash Bros. Melee
Universe	Kirby
Other playable appearances	in SSB in Brawl in SSB4
Availability	Starter
Tier	F (26)

“	A puff ball that floats through the sky and boasts a variety of moves.	”
—Melee's instruction manual

Announced at E3 2001, Kirby (カービィ, Kirby) is a starter character in Super Smash Bros. Melee. Although tier-wise, he was the second-to-top character in Super Smash Bros. topped only by Pikachu, in Super Smash Bros. Melee, he has been severely nerfed.

Currently, Kirby is ranked 26th in the F tier at the very bottom, a huge drop from his 2nd position in Smash 64. While he has some interesting throw options and a decent edgeguarding game, Kirby's approach and KO ability are among the worst in the game; slow attacks, a low air speed, an ineffective projectile, and numerous other flaws both on the ground and in the air prevent Kirby from easily approaching enemies, and he struggles against almost all characters as a result of this. Kirby currently has terrible overall matchups, with seven matchups that are near unwinnable, and only two positive matchups (against Bowser and Roy), and even these can be disputed at length.

Attributes

Kirby acts as a light, weak character that is intended to outmanuver opponents. While having an average dashing speed but terrible air speed (being tied with Ganondorf as the 3rd worst in Melee), Kirby's small size is intended to act as his primary way to approach. Owing to his low falling speed and high short hop, Kirby has a poor SHFFL, while his high traction gives him a short wavedash.

Despite his poor airspeed, Kirby has an above average edgeguarding game. With no one to edgeguard him, Kirby can easily recover due to his multiple midair jumps, while Kirby's back air can be used as a rather powerful edgeguarding technique, the Fence of Pain. Assuming Kirby can knock opponents off the edge, he should theoretically have little trouble keeping them from recovering.

Owing to his small size, Kirby also has an above-average defensive game. His small hitboxes can potentially allow him to avoid attacks, while his small size also lends itself to a large shield, making Kirby relatively safe from shield stabbing. A low crouch also makes his hitboxes even smaller, and it can be compounded with his down tilt as a potential camping and spacing tactic, as crouching makes him able to avoid most jabs.

Kirby also has above average tilt attacks as well, as Kirby's three tilts, while short-ranged, have a variety of practical applications; his forward tilt and aforementioned down tilt can act as spacing tools, while his up tilt can potentially be used as a combo starter. Kirby also has an above average grab range, allowing him to potentially use his powerful and unusual throws to his advantage; a notable application of his up, back, and forward throws involves Kirbycide, a specific type of Sacrificial KO that forces both Kirby and his opponent to lose a stock. This technique is able to KO opponents at any percentage.

Despite these benefits, Kirby is dragged down by numerous faults. His most fatal flaw, which is often cited as the reason for his bottom tier placement, is his nearly nonexistent approach. With a poor SHFFL, short wavedash, awful air speed, short range, a laggy, predictable dash attack, and no viable projectiles, Kirby has extreme difficulty in approaching almost all of the cast; this is especially prevalent against characters with disjointed hitboxes or powerful pressure games, such as Marth and Falco. The lack of a projectile can uniquely be rectified if Kirby uses Inhale on an opponent; doing so, however, is risky, due to the attack's start-up and cool-down lag, and some characters will either fail to give him a useful projectile (such as Link) or a projectile in the first place (such as Captain Falcon). Kirby's small size can also make some attacks inferior to the original character; Fireball from Mario, for instance, has the Fireballs disappear more quickly than Mario's, as Kirby's lower height causes them to reach the ground faster and to have less kinetic energy when they finally hit the ground.

Assuming he can approach opponents, however, Kirby's various attributes also give him very poor combo ability; a low air speed prevents him from easily pursuing enemies in the air, and all of his aerials either have long startup and cooldown periods (down and neutral air), high knockback (up and back air), or poor hitbox placement (forward air). Kirby's only noteworthy combo is his Fence of Pain as mentioned earlier, and even this combo is not foolproof; Kirby's slow air speed negatively impacts him again by making the edgeguard much slower and less safe than Jigglypuff's Wall of Pain. Kirby's wild card is his aforementioned Kirbycide technique, and even this is unreliable; his up throw requires proper placement at the edge of a stage, and Kirby always loses when performed in a last stock situation. While his forward and back throws are much easier to perform and Kirby always wins when performed in a last stock situation, they are the only throws in the entire Smash series that can be potentially broken out of. As a result, if the opponent can button mash out of the grab and throw quick enough, they will remain unharmed while Kirby loses a stock.

Outside of his abysmal approach, Kirby also heavily struggles with KOing other characters. A majority of Kirby's finishers suffer from poor range (such as his down smash) or have small sweetspots that make them unreliable (such as his Hammer and up smash). Arguably Kirby's only effective finisher is his up aerial, which itself requires a proper read and correct timing from the player in order to be a low-risk attack.

As a final disadvantage working against Kirby, he has major survivability issues, with his endurance being on par with Mr. Game & Watch and Pichu for the worst in Melee. Having among the lowest weights in the game alongside a low falling speed causes Kirby to be easily KOed from both the upper and horizontal blast lines (Fox is especially notorious in the former category). Outside of this, Kirby's recovery is also slow, linear, and predictable, despite granting decent distance as a result of his multiple midair jumps; once again, Kirby is negatively impacted by his poor air speed, and Final Cutter grants almost no horizontal distance, coupled with being very easy to edgeguard against.

Changes from Smash 64 to Melee

Kirby was overwhelmingly nerfed in his transition from Smash 64 to Melee. He is unarguably the most severely downgraded character from Smash 64 to Melee, and possibly the most severely nerfed character in all of the series. Kirby's nerfs primarily damaged his excellent finishers and good approach, with his various buffs failing to address his lack of reliable combos or significant survivability issues from the previous game; on the contrary, his nerfs downgraded his combo potential and made him easier to KO in Melee.

Attributes

• Kirby generally is slower, weaker, and easier to combo, while he also has largely reduced combo ability and less range.
• His already low air speed has been decreased even more, making his recovery much easier to gimp.

Ground attacks

• New dash attack is much more laggy and easier to punish, and no longer does extra shield damage.
• Forward tilt deals 1% more damage.
• Up tilt is slower, has less range (though still slightly disjointed), is a less reliable juggling and combo move, and can no longer be used for shield break combos.
• Up smash is a more reliable KO move.
• Forward smash has much more startup and ending lag, no longer being the fastest in the game, and is drastically weaker, going from the strongest forward smash in Smash 64 to among the weakest in Melee. It also no longer deals extra shield damage.
• Sweetspotted up smash has a slash effect.

Aerial attacks

• New up aerial is much more powerful.
• Back aerial has a slightly different animation, removing the hitbox in front of Kirby.
• Down aerial lands differently and gives a small hit, even when L-cancelled, making it more difficult to combo with. The move's drill is slower, making the meteor smash less reliable for edgeguarding, and the first few hits also no longer have high power, meaning the last hit must be landed to properly utilize the meteor smash.
• New forward aerial has less damage potential if all hits connect.
• Up aerial from Smash 64 moved to neutral aerial.

Grab and throws

• Back and forward throws can Kirbycide.
• New forward throw and back throw can be escaped.
• New forward throw (his old forward throw is now his up throw).

Special attacks

• Kirby can now walk after Inhaling an opponent.
• Final Cutter can now grab edges while Kirby is facing the opposite direction.
• Final Cutter gains a shorter distance, which along with Kirby's lower air speed, further hampers Kirby's recovery. Both the hitbox while dropping and the wave are also weaker, and the wave no longer does extra shield damage.
• Stone can change Kirby into five objects, as opposed to one.

PAL differences

Like other characters, Kirby received some changes in the PAL version of Melee, which slightly buffed him overall, but are not enough to heavily affect his tournament results.

• Weight increased from 70 to 74.
• Dashing speed increased from 1.4 to 1.5.
• Dash attack deals 1% more damage.
• Forward aerial has 2 frames less of landing lag (1 frame less of L-cancelled landing lag).
• Dash attack knockback growth decreased from 66 to 50.

Moveset

For a gallery of Kirby's hitboxes, see here.

Kirby's aerial attacks

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack			3%	Kirby jabs forwards with both hands, followed by a short series of fast punches. Based on the Vulcan Jab move he can perform with the Fighter ability in his main games.
			4%
			1% (loop)
Forward tilt			11%	Kirby does a quick roundhouse kick forward. Decent range. Can be angled.
Up tilt			8% (clean), 6% (late)	Kirby thrusts his back leg upwards. Most useful if the opponent is behind Kirby.
Down tilt			10%	Kirby kicks forwards while crouching. Fast with decent range.
Dash attack			8% (NTSC clean), 9% (PAL clean), 5% (late)	Kirby dashes forward with a fiery spiraling headbutt. Based on the Burning ability in his games. Uniquely, it can fall off ledges and platforms. This attack has transcendent priority.
Forward smash			15% (clean), 13% (late)	Kirby slides forwards, delivering a very large jump kick. Has below average knockback. Can be angled up or down. Based on the Spin Kick from the Fighter ability.
Up smash			15%/13% (clean), 14%/12% (mid), 13%/12% (late)	Kirby does a back-flip, kicking upwards. Deals more damage and knockback if the opponent is closer to Kirby's foot.
Down smash			14% (clean), 10% (late)	Kirby does a split kick, hitting on both of his sides. Has decent knockback. Both of Kirby's feet are intangible during the early part of the animation.
Neutral aerial			10% (clean), 8% (mid), 6% (late)	Stretches out and spins rapidly in a somersaulting spin. Has a long lasting hitbox.
Forward aerial			5% (hits 1-2), 8% (hit 3) (≈16.83% total), 3% (landing)	Kirby kicks forwards three times. Last hit has medium knockback. If not L-cancelled, it also has a landing hitbox that can stack up with the three kicks if timed perfectly.
Back aerial			14% (clean), 10% (late)	Quickly crouches in midair then kicks bith his legs behind him. Can be used in the fence of pain. Good knockback.
Up aerial			15%	Kirby flips in midair, kicking upwards. Great knockback, possibly Kirby's best KO move.
Down aerial			3% (hits 1-6), 2% (landing) (≈18.47% total)	Kirby spins around, drilling downwards with both his feet. Has a somewhat long start-up, but acts as a weak meteor smash. It also has a landing hitbox that has horizontal knockback, and can stack up with the six hits.
Grab			—
Pummel			3%	A quick jab to the opponent, but contains more ending lag than most pummels.
Forward throw			8%	Kirby does a suplex, hitting the opponent on the ground. Can be used to Kirbycide. Escapable during the throw. Based on the Piledriver from the Suplex ability in Kirby Super Star.
Back throw			8%	Kirby flips backwards, hitting the opponent on the ground. Can be used to Kirbycide. Escapable during the throw. Based on the Backdrop ability from Kirby's Adventure.
Up throw			10%	Kirby jumps high up into the air, and comes back down, ramming the opponent to the ground by doing a suplex. Can be used to Kirbycide on certain stages. During the fall, it can also pass through soft platforms. Based on the Air Drop from the Ninja ability.
Down throw			1% (hit 1), 7% (throw)	Kirby throws the opponent on the ground, then stands on the opponent, hitting the enemy with his feet. Only the final hit does damage. Send enemies vertically afterwards. Based on the Fury Stomp from the Suplex ability.
Forward roll Back roll Spot dodge Air dodge		—	—
Techs		—	—
Floor attack (front) Floor getups (front)			6%	Gets up and does a spin kick.
Floor attack (back) Floor getups (back)			6%	Gets up, quickly kicking on one side, then the other.
Edge attack (fast) Edge getups (fast)			6%	Kirby does a flip kick onto the stage.
Edge attack (slow) Edge getups (slow)			6%	Kirby does a spinning split kick onto the stage.
Neutral special		Swallow	8% (copy), 10% (spit), 8-19% (star collision)	Kirby sucks up his opponent. He can exhale them as a star to deal damage, or copy their neutral special move. The star Kirby spits out acts as a projectile and hurts nearby foes. Damage of the star depends on the character's weight.
Side special		Hammer	Ground: 23% (sweetspot), 16% (sourspot) Air: 4% (loop early), 2% (loop late)	Kirby swings his hammer. The sweetspot is located on the head of the hammer, while the sourspot is on the handle. In the air, Kirby does a vertical spinning attack that hits multiple times.
Up special		Final Cutter	8% (rise), 2% (drop), 6% (wave)	Kirby uses his Final Cutter attack. Kirby rises with a hitbox, then plunges down to the ground until a platform is hit. This move cannot be cancelled. Upon impact with the ground, the beam fires forward as a projectile.
Down special		Stone	18%	Kirby uses his Stone ability to turn into a heavy object and plunges to the ground, sliding on non-flat surfaces. While in this form, only grabs will affect Kirby. The attack will time out after a short period of time, and it can also be cancelled with another use of the move.

Taunt

• Waves and says his signature elongated "Hi!". The taunt's animation differs slightly, depending on what direction Kirby is facing.

Idle pose

• Hops a bit to look back, then hops again returning to normal position.

Crowd cheer

	English	Japanese
Cheer	File:KirbyChantNTSC.ogg	File:Kirby JP Crowd chant.ogg
Description	Kir-by Kir-by!	Kiiirrr-by!
Pitch	Group chant	Group chant

Victory poses

The "Level Complete" music that originated in Kirby's Dream Land.

• Skids to each side, then holds his hand up.
• Does some dances, then holds his hand up.
• Spins, then holds his hand up.

In Competitive play

Matchups

Super Smash Bros. Melee Character Matchups

Avg.

Kirby has one of the worst matchups spreads in the game. He currently has only two positive matchups (against Bowser and Roy), has two even matchups (against Link and Pichu) is soft countered by four characters, countered by ten (the 2nd most out of any character, behind Roy), and hard countered by seven (2nd most behind Pichu). Even in the early metagame of Melee, Kirby suffered from his terrible approach, lack of KO ability, slow overall speed, and severe vulnerability to KOs. Overall, Kirby suffers from terrible matchups.

Notable players

See also: Category:Kirby professionals (SSBM)

Active

•  Triple R
•  Cereal Rabbit

Inactive

•  Hack
•  KirbyRage
•  Omnigamer
•  KrazyKirbyKid
•  t1mmy

Tier placement and history

Kirby has historically always ranked very low on Melee tier lists; compared to Pikachu, Kirby's nerf from Super Smash Bros. was much more significant, removing almost all of the aspects that made him dominant in the original Smash Bros. and leaving him with considerably fewer options in both offense and defense. Players immediately noticed that Kirby was left with poor KOing power, a poor approach, and a severe vulnerability to edgeguarding and premature falls due to his light weight, low air speed and predictable, telegraphed recovery. Owing to Kirby's significant drawbacks, there have been only a few professional smashers that have developed his metagame for serious play, with a large number of them failing to place notably in large tournaments. While more prolific Kirby mains were active in the past, such as t1mmy and Omnigamer, there exist few such professionals in present-day professional Melee, causing Kirby's metagame to remain highly stagnant. Additionally, even prior to the stagnation of his metagame, Kirby was seen as a fighter who relied too heavily on gimmicks and the opponent's severe lack of matchup experience to win matches.

As a result of this stagnancy and Kirby's numerous flaws, Kirby has consistently ranked as one of Melee's worst fighters, with some smashers even claiming that Kirby's potential is worse than that of Pichu, a fighter that injures itself with almost all of its attacks. This argument reflects in Kirby's current tier placement; he is currently ranked last at 26th place on the current tier list, making him the least viable character in the current Melee metagame.

In 1-P Mode

Classic Mode

In Classic Mode, Kirby can appear as an ordinary opponent, as an ally or opponent in the team battles, alongside Pikachu, Jigglypuff, Pichu, or the Ice Climbers, as a member of a multi-character battle, or as a metal opponent. In Kirby's appearances, he appears either on Fountain of Dreams or Green Greens, and on a team with the Ice Climbers, he appears on Icicle Mountain.

Adventure Mode

Kirby's sole appearance is on Stage 5: Green Greens. He first appears in a one-on-one fight then 15 Kirbys appear each possessing a Copy Ability. If the single Kirby and the Kirby team are KO'd in less than 31 seconds, the player must also fight a giant Kirby.

All-Star Mode

Kirby and his allies are fought on Green Greens.

Event Matches

Kirby is featured in the following event matches:

• Event 6: Kirbys on Parade: The player chooses any character and must defeat three tiny Kirbys on Fountain of Dreams.
• Event 16: Kirby's Air-raid: As Kirby, the player must defeat 10 other yellow Kirbys in 38 seconds using only Warp Stars. The yellow Kirbys are immune to the player's attacks.
• Event 28: Puffballs Unite!: The player chooses any character and must defeat a total of 14 Kirbys, each possessing a Copy Ability, on Green Greens. Unlike Adventure mode, the Kirbys appear in groups of four instead of three.
• Event 30: All-Star Match 3: Kirby is the first opponent the player must fight in this series of staged battles. Their character battles him on Fountain of Dreams, which will transition to the next stage if Kirby gets defeated. With a timer of four minutes, the player must defeat him along with Pikachu, Ness, and the Ice Climbers.
• Event 36: Space Travelers: The player uses Ness must defeat Samus, Kirby, Fox, Captain Falcon and Falco. The player battles the first three characters on Fourside and battles the last two on Battlefield.

Ending Images

• Kirbyclassic.jpg

  Classic Mode

• Kirbyadventure.jpg

  Adventure Mode

• Kirbyallstar.jpg

  All-Star Mode

Trophy descriptions

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

Kirby

A denizen of the far-off, peaceful planet Pop Star, Kirby became a citizen of Dream Land after defeating King Dedede. Even though he's only about eight inches tall, Kirby is an extremely skilled technician. He has the ability to absorb the powers of his enemies, and his elastic body makes him a versatile adventurer.

• Kirby's Dream Land 08/92

Kirby [Smash]

Kirby's small size lets him dodge many attacks, but his light weight makes him fly far when struck. Using his ability to inflate, he can jump five times. His Swallow attack creates wild combos; not only can he copy foes' moves, but he'll also put on special hats and mimic their voices. His Hammer is unwieldy but powerful.

• B: Swallow
• Smash B: Hammer

Kirby [Smash]

Because of his light weight, Kirby is always in danger of being sent flying, but his ability to puff up and fly allows him to come back from amazing distances. His Final Cutter strikes on the way up and on the way down, and it sends out a beam of force upon landing. Kirby transforms into various objects and crashes down when he uses his Stone technique.

• Up & B: Final Cutter
• Down & B: Stone

• 

  Classic

• 

  [Smash]

• 

  [Smash]

Kirby is also the subject of five trophies that can be considered its own trophy series: the Kirby Hat series, with information about the powers Kirby gains when he uses Swallow on each opponent. The first three are "normally collectible" trophies that can be found during normal play and in the Trophy Lottery, but the last two are awarded once the player has unlocked all the playable characters involved on those trophies.

• 

  Kirby Hat 1

• 

  Kirby Hat 2

• 

  Kirby Hat 3

• 

  Kirby Hat 4

• 

  Kirby Hat 5

Finally, the character Kirby himself is depicted on some other trophies not related to gameplay: Ball Kirby, Fighter Kirby and Fire Kirby.

Alternate costumes

Kirby's alternate costumes in SSBM

Trivia

• Kirby's special moves from Melee are used in the game Kirby & The Amazing Mirror, through the use of the ability called Smash. The moves he gets are Twinkle Star (neutral aerial from Melee, although in this game it has much more range), Hammer, Final Cutter, Stone, and Vulcan Jab. He does not, however, receive Burning, which is his dash attack. He gets the ability from Master Hand, who is a boss in the game.
• Kirby has the shortest taunt, followed by Mr. Game & Watch.
• Kirby is the only character in the entire Super Smash Bros. series that has had escapable throws.
• As the first nine hits of Kirby's down throw are meteor smashes, KO'ing an opponent with the move will earn the Meteor Smash bonus, even though neither the last hit nor the throw itself are meteor smashes.
• A glitch exists where Kirby can dash attack off an edge, land on a different platform, and immediately perform a dash grab. This requires the player to use the dash attack within one or two frames of leaving the edge and then hold down a shield button until Kirby lands. The glitch likely exists because the game allows a buffer between "attack" and "shield" inputs to count as a "grab" input while dashing, which is not properly reset when Kirby attacks off the edge.
  • There is another glitch where if Kirby swallows an opponent and falls off the stage, the opponent will be KO'd and Kirby will not lose a life. With proper timing, a good Kirby player can even recover from a successful KO of this manner. This glitch exists due to the foe's hitboxes reacting to the blast zone before Kirby's, thanks to his small size relative to the rest of the cast.
• Kirby is currently the only character ranked last on a tier list to have at least one advantageous match-up.
  • He is also the only character ranked last on a tier list to not have the worst matchup spread on his respective tier list (as this position goes to Pichu).

External links

• Kirby Video Archive
• The Competitive Kirby - t!mmy's Kirby Guide