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Stance mirroring

Revision as of 13:27, August 24, 2021 by Ender R. Musk (talk | contribs) (Cleanup, re-wording, smashing all fighters together in one comprehensive table. Why have an entire separate section for fighters without mirroring? Someone will probably want to look over all the changes I've made here as I'm not well educated on this subject (and I don't own 3DS / Wii U haha))
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Mario and Greninja's mirrored stances in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.

Stance mirroring is a mechanic in which most or all of a character's animations and moves are mirrored if they turn around, mimicking the sprite mirroring of older fighting games. This mechanic results in the characters' front side being visible more often. When mirrored, all hitboxes are also mirrored - for example, a punch that is animated with a character's right arm, when mirrored, will instead use the character's right arm.

In general, a character must have a symmetrical body shape and not wield a weapon in order to be eligible for stance mirroring, though in Ultimate characters who put away weapons when not in use (e.g. Villager's various tools) are generally not affected by this rule. Minor minor asymmetry such as Pikachu's tail and King K. Rool's eye tic can be acceptable, depending on their exact animations and hurtboxes. Compared to Smash 4, characters with stance mirroring in Ultimate are generally animated in a way that better accommodates the feature.

Stance mirroring also affects which hand characters use to hold, swing, and throw items. Turning around will cause a held item to simply teleport to the other hand (there is no animation for it). A fighter with stance mirroring that is reversed (for example, by Mario's Cape) can be seen in a non-mirrored position until they move around or perform an attack.

As some characters mirror while others do not, it is possible for interactions to differ based on whether the characters are facing each other left-to-right versus right-to-left. For example, a mirroring character's thin attack may hit Marth's extended sword arm from one direction, but not the other, as the different directions may change how far his arm extends into the Z-axis.

Stance mirroring is not present in games before Smash 4, though certain special moves and taunts in Melee and Brawl have two different animations for each direction to accomplish a similar effect.

With the exceptions of Marth, Roy, Young Link, Toon Link, Pit, Lucina, Robin, Dark Pit, Chrom, Simon, Richter, and Sephiroth, as well as Link before Ultimate, all characters without stance mirroring face the screen when facing right.


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Support for stance mirroring

Character    
Banjo & Kazooie  
Bayonetta  
Bowser    
Bowser Jr.    
Byleth  
Captain Falcon    
Charizard    
Chrom  
Cloud    
Corrin    
Daisy  
Dark Pit  
Dark Samus  
Diddy Kong    
Donkey Kong    
Dr. Mario    
Duck Hunt    
Falco    
Fox    
Ganondorf    
Greninja    
Ice Climbers  
Ike    
Incineroar  
Inkling  
Isabelle  
Ivysaur  
Jigglypuff    
Joker  
Kazuya  
Ken  
King Dedede    
King K. Rool  
Kirby    
Link    
Little Mac    
Lucario    
Lucas    
Lucina    
Luigi    
Mario    
Mega Man    
Meta Knight    
Mewtwo    
Mii Brawler    
Mii Gunner    
Mii Swordfighter    
Min Min  
Mr. Game & Watch    
Mythra  
Ness    
Olimar    
Pac-Man    
Palutena    
Peach    
Pichu  
Pikachu    
Piranha Plant  
Pit    
Pyra  
R.O.B.    
Richter  
Ridley  
Robin    
Rosalina & Luma[1]    
Roy    
Ryu    
Samus    
Sephiroth    
Sheik    
Shulk    
Simon    
Snake    
Sonic    
Squirtle  
Steve  
Terry  
Toon Link    
Villager    
Wario    
Wii Fit Trainer    
Wolf  
Yoshi    
Young Link  
Zelda    
Zero Suit Samus    

Notes

  1. ^ Luma has stance mirroring.