Sakurai angle

A graph of how the knockback of a Sakurai angle-attack affects its launch angle. Click for full-size version.

The Sakurai angle (sometimes displayed as * or in moveset lists) is a special knockback angle that many attacks use. While it reads in the game data as an angle of 361 degrees, the actual resulting angle is dependent on whether the victim is on the ground or in the air, as well as the strength of the knockback.

The exact characteristics of the Sakurai angle have changed slightly in every game, but all share the same basic idea: at low knockback the opponent is not lifted off the ground, while at high knockback they are launched diagonally; the purpose seems to be to allow grounded battles between fresh opponents without allowing attacks to be deadly semi-spikes at KO percentages. The amount of knockback dealt determines the launch angle of grounded opponents; aerial opponents use the same angle regardless of knockback, which is typically very slightly higher than any grounded version. Starting in Melee, if the knockback is between the low-knockback value and high-knockback value, the resulting angle will be linearly scaled between its two extremes.

Game	Low-knockback angle	High-knockback angle	Aerial angle		Low-knockback value	High-knockback value
SSB64	0	42.5	43		< 32	≥32
Melee	0	44	45		32	32.1
Brawl	0	37	45		60	88

The Sakurai angle does not correctly tilt the impending angle indicator; it will remain at a flat angle.

While a low-knockback grounded hit of a Sakurai angle-attack is technically a semi-spike, it can never be used as one due to edge slipping.

Name origin

Early in Brawl's lifetime, it was noticed that many attacks with the "generic horizontal launch angle" have a low chance of tripping. Once decoding of moveset data progressed enough, it was then discovered that most of said attacks have a technical trip chance of 0% and an angle of 361. As Masahiro Sakurai is somewhat infamous for being commonly thought to have made tripping existent in Brawl, the angle was named after him. This is technically a misnomer, however: while it is true that the angle has an extra 11% chance of tripping, this applies to all attacks with horizontal angles and not just the Sakurai angle.

The characteristics of the Sakurai angle are mentioned by the official Super Smash Bros. website; it mentions that when an attack's angle is 361, low knockback hits the opponent sideways while high knockback hits them diagonally. The angle is not given any special name.