Freeze frame

Freeze frames (also known as impact stall) are a phenomenon that appear in all three Super Smash Bros. games. Upon a successful attack, both the attacker and the target are frozen in time for a few frames. This causes the attack to get "stuck" out a bit longer than if it had not hit anything, while the target has a short time to react before the knockback occurs. This is most easily noticed with multi-hit attacks such as Yoshi's d-air; the attack takes less time to finish if it does not hit anything.

The amount of freeze frames depends on the attack - attacks such as Mario's neutral punch have minimal freeze frames, but strong, electric, and sweetspotted attacks can have as much as half a second. Freeze frames are also exaggerated if two attacks clash, or the attack is Perfect Shielded (in this case, the defender gets no freeze frames at all).

Freeze frames only affect the attack and the target; all other game elements are uninterrupted. For example, both Captain Falcon and his target will be frozen for half a second upon a sweetspotted Knee Smash, while Samus is unaffected by any freeze frames incurred by one of her Charge Shots. Freeze frames are applied to the attacker even if the attack deals no damage, such as attacking an invincible character. Freeze frames also do not apply to graphical effects, such as the electricity surrounding the recipient of an electrical attack.

A target can Smash DI during freeze frames in an attempt to move around and alter the imminent knockback.

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