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Samus (SSBM)

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This article is about Samus' appearance in Super Smash Bros. Melee. For the character in other contexts, see Samus Aran.
Samus
in Super Smash Bros. Melee
Samus Aran
MetroidSymbol(preBrawl).svg
Universe Metroid
Other playable appearances in SSB
in Brawl
in SSB4
in Ultimate
Availability Starter
Tier C (10) (North America)
D (9) (Europe)
SamusHeadSSBM.png
A space warrior with an arsenal of long-range projectile weapons.
—Melee's instruction manual

Samus Aran (サムス, Samus) is a starter character in Super Smash Bros. Melee. Returning as a veteran from the previous game, Samus, similarly to Link, reprises her role as a short-ranged fighter with numerous ranged options. In addition, she received some powerful buffs, causing her to improve from a bottom-tiered character in Super Smash Bros. to a high-mid tiered character in Melee.

Samus is ranked 10th on the current tier list, placing her in high-mid tier, a significant improvement from her 8th (out of 12) position in Super Smash Bros. and her best placement in the series. This is mainly due to her numerous and effective projectiles, which adds to her KOing power and her approach on the ground. She also has a good air game, complimented with a powerful back aerial. Samus' recovery is among the best in the game; her bomb jumps, ability to wall jump, grappling beam, and heavy weight all contribute to making her among the toughest characters to KO horizontally. She also possesses techniques exclusive to her, such as the Super Wavedash and Extended Grapple, that aid her approach on opponents. However, she is floaty, allowing her to be easily juggled and KO'd vertically. She is also highly susceptible to combos in general, due to being floaty, heavy, and tall in stature. Her primary combo starter, her grab, is also very laggy if it misses, though it can be extended in the NTSC version. Regardless, Samus has a large amount of advantageous matchups, two of which are close to un-loseable (against Roy and Pichu).

Attributes

Samus is a unique character. Although a tall heavyweight, she is unusually floaty, uncharacteristic of characters in her weight class. Her slow falling speed (the second slowest in the game, tied with Zelda) allows her recovery to travel more distance and gives her better potential combo game. However, it also makes her more susceptible to vertical KOs, even with her high weight, and it also gives her a poor SHFFL.

Arguably Samus's most valuable asset is her high range. While lacking a disjointed hitbox, Samus has a variety of long-reaching attacks and long-ranged projectiles that can assist with her ground-based approach. Charge Shot can quickly become one of her most powerful attacks, while her Missiles can act as both an approach option when non-tapped and as a powerful finisher when tapped. Samus's average traction and low falling speed also grant her a long wavedash that can mesh well with her long-ranged smash attacks, as well as her modestly-ranged tilts; assuming the player has particularly good timing, Samus also has access to the longest wavedash in the game, the Super Wavedash, which can also potentially surprise enemies due to its speed. While laggy, Samus is also owner of the longest grab in the game, and a technique unique to the NTSC release of the game can allow her to extend its reach by three, in addition to allowing it to home in on enemies.

Samus's recovery is also among the longest and most flexible in all the game. While Screw Attack grants relatively little horizontal and vertical distance, its multiple hitboxes can potentially frustrate edgeguarders, especially due to its final blow. Samus, however, owns arguably more options for her recovery than any other character in the game. Her average air speed and low falling speed aid her approach toward ledges, while her natural ability to wall-jump can aid her recovery on stages with walls underneath the ledge, such as Fountain of Dreams or Dream Land. Samus's down special, her bombs, can allow her to bomb-jump onto the stage without the loss of jumps, and her grab air can allow her to enter "safe zones" underneath the stage, as well as acting another long recovery technique. Owing to these variety of options, edgeguarding against Samus can be extremely difficult, especially for characters with poor recoveries. For Samus herself, this long recovery also grants her a powerful edgeguarding game of her own, aided by her fast and powerful neutral and back aerial attacks.

Despite having a good approach on the ground, Samus's aerial approach suffers due to her strange variety of attributes. Her below average falling speed and high jumps give her a poor SHFFL, despite the presence of low ending lag for her aerials when L-canceled. Her low falling speed also can prevent her from quickly pursuing enemies that have been knocked into the ground; as such, Samus can have particular difficulty in comboing fast-fallers, even with her variety of throws. Tying into this, Samus's grab is extremely laggy and can easily be punished if she fails to grab an opponent with it;

Samus also has a very poor defensive game; Samus's shield cannot easily cover her body and thus invites shield stabbing. While boasting an average sidestep dodge, Samus's rolling dodge is among the worst in the game, due to its low speed. While Screw Attack can potentially act as a decent out of shield option, Samus's other options are slow and laggy, such as her up smash and grab.

Changes from Smash 64 to Melee

Samus has been significantly buffed from Smash 64 to Melee. She is often considered the most buffed character from Smash 64 to Melee along with Jigglypuff, due to increased power, attack speed, range, combo ability, and recovery, and by going from a low tier to a semi-viable tournament contender.

Attributes

  • Buff Samus has faster air speed (28 → 0.89), improving her recovery.
  • Nerf Samus dashes slower (54 → 1.4), hindering her already poor grounded mobility.
  • Nerf Samus walks slower (0.34 → 1).
  • Change Samus is significantly lighter (117 → 110), which hinders her endurance, but makes her harder to combo.
  • Change Samus is floatier (42 → 1.4), which when combined with her already worsened endurance, worsens her vertical endurance even further, but makes her still harder to combo.
  • Nerf Samus' jumps are lower.
  • Nerf The removal of teleporting slightly hinders Samus' grounded approach.
  • Buff The introduction of air dodging greatly benefits Samus as it improves her recovery and it allows her to wavedash improving her grounded mobility and making up for her slower ground speed.

Ground Attacks

  • Neutral attack:
    • Buff Neutral attack has less startup lag (frame 4 (hit 1)/7 (hit 2) → 3/5), the first hit has less ending lag (frame 22 → 18) and the second hit has higher base knockback (10 → 15).
      • Nerf The second hit of neutral attack has a shorter duration (frames 7-11 → 5-7) and slightly more ending lag (frame 30 → 31).
  • Forward tilt:
    • Buff Forward tilt has less startup (frame 7 → 6) and ending lag due to being interruptible (frame 32 → 30).
    • Nerf Forward tilt has a shorter duration (frames 7-11 → 6-8) and up-angled forward tilt deals slightly less damage (12% → 11%).
  • Up tilt:
    • Buff Up tilt now meteor smashes grounded opponents (361° → 270°), making it much more useful for combos. It also has less ending lag (frame 44 → 35) and higher base knockback (5 → 40).
    • Nerf Up tilt no longer has a weak hit behind Samus giving the move more startup lag (frame 8 → 14) and reducing its maximum damage output (21% → 13%). It also deals less damage against aerial opponents (13% → 12%).
  • Down tilt:
    • Buff Samus has a new down tilt: a quick downwards cannon strike that fires a small explosion at the opponent's feet. It has less startup lag (frame 8 → 6) and is much more powerful than her old down tilt dealing more damage (13% → 14%) and knockback (10 (base), 100 (scaling) → 80/60), being able to KO under 150%.
    • Nerf Down tilt has smaller hitboxes, less range, a shorter duration (frames 8-12 → 6-8), and much less combo and edegeguarding ability.
    • Change Down tilt launches opponents vertically instead of horizontally (40° → 100°).
  • Dash attack:
    • Buff Dash attack has increased knockback (0 (base), 100 (scaling) → 22/105) and less ending lag (frame 41 → 38), improving its KO potential and safety.
    • Change Dash attack deals more damage on the clean hit, but less on the late hit (12%/10% → 13%/9%).
    • Nerf Dash attack no longer deals extra shield damage and has a shorter duration (frames 7-26 → 7-16).
  • Forward smash:
    • Buff Forward smash has less startup lag (frame 12 → 10).
    • Nerf Forward Smash deals much less damage (20%/18%/16% → 15%/14%/13%) and its knockback wasn't compensated enough (15 (base), 100 (scaling) → 30/104). It also has more ending lag (frame 42 → 44).
  • Up smash:
    • Buff Up smash has less startup (frame 17 → 12) and ending lag (frame 60 → 58).
    • Nerf Up smash has a significantly lower maximum damage potential (50% → 29%), and the individual hits no longer deal extra shield damage. The final hit deals less damage (10% → 6%) although its knockback was compensated (22 (base), 100 (scaling) → 50/120).
  • Down smash:
    • Change Samus' old down tilt has been repurposed into her down smash.
    • Buff Down smash has less startup (frame 8 → 6) and ending lag (frame 50 → 45) and deals more knockback (35 (base), 80 (scaling) → 110/50 (front), 90/40 (back), the back hit also deals slightly more damage (14% → 15%).

Aerial Attacks

  • Nerf All of Samus' aerials auto-cancel later (frame 27 → 35 (neutral), frame 27 → 47 (forward), frame 16 → 31 (back), frame 19 → 34 (up), frame 12 → 34 (down)) although despite this, she is one of the few returning veterans who can still auto-cancel all of her aerials in a short hop. When combined with the weakening of L-canceling, this hinders her aerial to ground transition.
    • Buff Samus' forward, back and down aerials have less landing lag when not L-canceled.
  • Neutral aerial:
    • Nerf Neutral aerial has more startup lag (frame 4 → 5) and deals less damage (16%/13% → 14%/10%) hindering its KO potential.
    • Buff Neutral aerial has less ending lag (frame 50 → 40) and has a longer duration (frames 4-27 → 5-29).
  • Forward aerial:
    • Buff Forward aerial has less startup (frame 5 → 4) and ending lag (frame 52 → 50) and it hits one more time making it deal more damage (20% → ≈23.2%).
    • Nerf Samus can no longer perform two forward aerials in a short hop and it has increased base knockback (0 → 20) making it connect less reliably.
  • Back aerial:
    • Nerf Samus has a new back aerial, she kicks behind her. Compared to the previous back aerial, it has more startup lag, a shorter duration (frames 5-17 → 9-12), less range, and knockback (0 (base), 145 (scaling) → 30/100 (sour), 42/100 (clean)) (though it is still quite powerful when sweetspotted).
    • Buff Back aerial has less ending lag (frame 41 → 37).
  • Buff Up aerial has less startup (frame 6 → 5) and ending lag (frame 40 → 39) and it now has a proper final hit (which existed in Smash 64 but was not coded in correctly), greatly improving it safety.
  • Down aerial:
    • Buff Down aerial deals much more damage (14% → 16%) and has higher base knockback (0 → 30), being the fifth strongest meteor smash in Melee.
    • Nerf As with almost every meteor smash from Smash 64 to Melee, down aerial has drastically increased startup lag, a shorter duration (frames 4-13 → 18-22) and it has more ending lag (frame 41 → 49). These changes prevent Samus from performing two down aerials in a short hop (which also means that she can't auto-cancel a second down-aerial in a short hop or even a full hop). The introduction of meteor canceling also significantly hinders its reliability.
  • Buff Samus now has a grab aerial giving her an extra attack and recovery option.

Grabs and Throws

  • Buff Grabs have less startup (frame 20 → 18) and ending lag (frame 101 → 95 (standing), 75 (dash).
  • Nerf Forward throw and back throw are drastically weaker (16% (forward)/18% (back) → 9%/8%) (90 (base), 60 (scaling) → 60/55).
  • Buff Samus has been given an pummel, up, and down throw, giving her more options out of a grab and combo potential.
  • Buff Samus can perform the Extended grapple technique, allowing her to greatly increase the range of her Grapple Beam.

Special Moves

  • Charge Shot:
    • Buff Fully charged Charge Shot now deals extra shield damage.
    • Nerf Charge Shot now dissipates after traveling a certain amount of distance, rather than continuing on forever until it hits something. It also deals less damage when fully charged (26% → 25%) and knockback (0 (base), 100 (scaling) → 32/70).
  • Missile:
    • Change Like all characters, Samus now has a side special. In her case, Missile. Holding the button releases a Homing Missile, which slowly follows the opponent for a short while and then explodes when it either makes contact or when it reaches it maximum duration. Tapping the button releases a Super Missile, which flies in a straight line and is much faster and stronger than the Homing Missile. This missile flies in a straight line and is much faster and stronger than the Homing Missile.
    • Buff Missile greatly improves her projectile arsenal and projectile camping abilities.
  • Screw Attack:
    • Buff Screw Attack travels more distance and has more invicibility (frames 1-3 (NTSC/PAL) → 1-5).
    • Nerf Screw Attack is unable to "trap" opponents within the multi hits as easily. It also deals less damage (15% → 10%).
  • Bomb:
    • Buff Bomb no longer disables Samus's midair jump before landing when used in midair. It also deals extra shield damage, and is a better gimping move on recovering opponents near the edge, due to the generally faster falling speeds in Melee. She can now also utilize a bomb jump to further aid her recovery and it now gives her access to Super wavedashing.
    • Nerf Bombs deal less damage (9% → 7%).

PAL differences

Like some other characters, Samus has received some changes in the PAL version of Melee, which nerfed her overall, as she can no longer use the Extended grapple or bomb out of a grapple.

  • Nerf Extended grapple is no longer possible.
  • Nerf Can no longer bomb out of a grapple.

Moveset

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

Samus's aerial attacks
  Name Damage Description
Neutral attack Straight and Cannon Hammer 3% A quick jab followed by an axe-like jab with her arm cannon. The second hit can be easily shielded or shield grabbed, making it difficult to connect both hits.
7%
Forward tilt   11% Does a spinning horizontal kick forward. Excellent in stopping close-up foes, useful spacing move.
10%
9%
Up tilt   13% (grounded), 12% (aerial) Raises her leg and brings it down. Very similar animation to Captain Falcon's up tilt. It is a meteor smash according to the game, but it only works on grounded opponents, making it an unconventional meteor smash. The meteor can KO grounded opponents at high percentages, and can combo into a back aerial at moderate percentages. Hits aerial opponents horizontally.
Down tilt   14% Brings her arm cannon down and fires a small explosion. Powerful, excellent option out of a crouch cancel. Can KO under 150%.
Dash attack   13% (clean), 9% (late) Does a shoulder tackle. This is the most powerful dash attack in Melee, being able to KO under 150%. It is also suitable for combos at low percentages, especially if the sourspot connects.
Forward smash   15% Thrusts her arm cannon in forward. Somewhat fast (fastest forward smash in Melee, hitting on frame 10, along with Marth, but Samus's f-smash has much lower ending lag), great knockback for a low damaging attack (30 base knockback, 108 knockback growth).
14%
13%
Up smash Cover Fire 4% (hits 1-3), 5% (hit 4), 6% (hit 5) (≈21.29% total) Fires five bursts in an arc above herself. Below-average knockback.
Down smash   16% (front), 15% (back) Does a low 360° sweep kick. Fast and has good knockback, hitting opponents up and behind Samus (110 base knockback, 50 knockback growth).
Neutral aerial   14% (clean), 10% (late) Does a sex kick. Good horizontal knockback and useful for edgeguarding.
Forward aerial   5% (hits 1-5) (≈23.2% total) Fires several explosions in front of her with her arm cannon.
Back aerial   14% (foot), 10% (leg) Kicks her foot behind her. The sweetspot is at her foot, which deals more damage and knockback. A useful move for edgeguarding. This is the third most powerful back aerial in the game, beaten by Zelda and Ganondorf.
Up aerial   3% (hit 1), 1% (hits 2-5), 4% (hit 6) (≈10.28% total) Brings her legs above her body and does a drill kick spin. Leads into a Missile well.
Down aerial   16% Swings her arm cannon in an arc below her. It is the fifth most powerful meteor smash in Melee and has a wide hitbox. A commonly used attack due to its strong power, ease of landing, and low risk. The meteor can KO grounded opponents at 115%.
Grab aerial Grapple Beam 4% Shoots out a long energy beam. This attack has transcendent priority.
Grab Grapple Beam Sends out her Grapple Beam to catch the opponent. It is the longest grab in the game.
Pummel   3% Chops the opponent with her free hand. Somewhat fast.
Forward throw   9% Brings her opponent up with her Grapple Beam and launches them forward.
Back throw   8% Launches opponent behind herself.
Up throw   7% Holds opponent above herself with her Grapple Beam, then launches them upward.
Down throw   6% Violently picks the foe up with her Grapple Beam and slams them to the ground. With its very low knockback scaling, it can combo into a jab reset, up tilt, dash attack, or Charge Shot at virtually any percentage (though the latter doesn't work against Young Link, due to his high rebound height after being thrown down). This makes it a useful combo setup move at low percentages and KO setup at high percentages.
Floor attack (front)   6% Gets up and kicks on both sides.
Floor attack (back)   6% Gets up and kicks on both sides.
Edge attack (fast)   10% Climbs onto the stage and kicks.
Edge attack (slow)   10% Climbs onto the stage and punches with her arm cannon.
Neutral special Charge Shot 3-25% When the B button is pressed, Samus will start charging a ball of energy that gets larger, stronger, and faster the more charged it is. Pressing the B button during the charge will cancel the charge and fire the shot, while pressing the L or R button will cancel the charge and allow Samus to store her current charge. This can be resumed by pressing B again. When fully charged, it has KO potential. If used in the air, Samus will immediately fire the shot, regardless of its charge level and how long B is held for.
Side special Missile 5% (homing missile), 12% (Super Missile) Fires a missile that travels forward. The missile can either be a homing missile (when B is pressed while tilting the control stick) or a Super Missile (when B is pressed while smashing the control stick forward). Super Missiles travel straight forward instead of homing in the opponent, and are faster and stronger than homing missiles. Super Missiles produce decent knockback.
Up special Screw Attack Ground: 2% (hit 1), 1% (hits 2-12) (≈12.01% total)
Air: 1% (hits 1-12) (≈11.01% total)
Shoots up into the air while spinning around rapidly via the "Screw Attack" ability from the Metroid series. It consists of multiple hits, though it does very little knockback, with its primary use being a recovery move, giving decent vertical distance. As with most multi-hit moves that operate similarly, it can be SDI'd out of rather easily. In the PAL version of the game, if Samus is hit during Screw Attack's animation, any charging of her Charge Shot will be cancelled.
Down special Bomb 4% (contact & explosion) Goes into Morph Ball mode and drops a timed bomb that explodes in a few seconds. It produces little damage and knockback, though it can be used as a bomb jump to improve Samus's recovery distance horizontally. It also produces a weak semi-spike, though the hitstun allows it to gimp characters with poor recoveries.

Taunt

  • Holds her arm cannon upright.
Samus-Taunt-SSBM.gif

Idle pose

  • Puts up arm cannon.
Samus Idle Pose Melee.gif

Crowd cheer

English Japanese
Cheer
Description Sa-mus Sa-mus! Sa-mu-s!
Pitch Group chant Group chant

Victory poses

An orchestrated flourish originating from Metroid that played whenever Samus got a new power-up, obtained a Power Suit upgrade, or defeated Ridley and Kraid.
  • Side kick flexes and readies her Arm Cannon.
  • Punches twice, then fires from her Arm Cannon.
  • Shoots multiple shots while kneeling, and finishes with a pose.
Samus-Victory1-SSBM.gif Samus-Victory2-SSBM.gif Samus-Victory3-SSBM.gif

In Competitive play

Matchups

Super Smash Bros. Melee Character Matchups
  FoxHeadSSBM.png MarthHeadSSBM.png JigglypuffHeadSSBM.png FalcoHeadSSBM.png SheikHeadSSBM.png CaptainFalconHeadSSBM.png PeachHeadSSBM.png IceClimbersHeadSSBM.png PikachuHeadSSBM.png YoshiHeadSSBM.png SamusHeadSSBM.png LuigiHeadSSBM.png DrMarioHeadSSBM.png GanondorfHeadSSBM.png MarioHeadSSBM.png DonkeyKongHeadSSBM.png YoungLinkHeadSSBM.png LinkHeadSSBM.png MrGame&WatchHeadSSBM.png MewtwoHeadSSBM.png RoyHeadSSBM.png PichuHeadSSBM.png NessHeadSSBM.png ZeldaHeadSSBM.png KirbyHeadSSBM.png BowserHeadSSBM.png Avg.
SamusHeadSSBM.png ±0 -1 -1 ±0 -1 -1 ±0 +1 ±0 +3 Mirror match +1 ±0 -1 +1 -1 +1 -1 +1 +1 +3 +3 +2 ±0 +2 +2 +1

Samus has a great matchup spread. She is soft countered by 7 characters, has 6 even matchups, soft counters 6 characters, counters 3, and hard counters 3. Her projectiles help her in many matchups, combined with her excellent horizontal endurance causes her to win the Ice Climbers matchup and making the Fox and Falco matchup even. She has a hard time against characters who are good at approaching and who can combo her, such as Sheik and Marth.

Notable players

Any number following the Smasher name indicates placement on the Summer 2019 MPGR, which recognizes the official top 50 players in the world in Super Smash Bros. Melee from February 1st, 2019 to July 7th, 2019.

Active

  • Sweden Daydee - The best Samus in Scandinavia.
  • USA Darrell - The best Samus in NorCal. He is currently ranked 17th on the NorCal Melee Power Rankings and was ranked 92nd on the 2016 SSBMRank.
  • USA Duck (#19) - Considered the best solo Samus main.
  • USA HugS (#50) - One of the best Samus players in the world. Placed 13th at GENESIS 6, 13th at Full Bloom 5, and 25th at CEO 2019. Has wins over Squid, Jakenshaken, and FatGoku.
  • USA Plup (#7)- Managed to reach 6th on the SSBMRank -- making him the top non-god at that time -- with Samus, and was formerly regarded as the world's best Samus player by many before he switched to Sheik in early 2015. While he has since switched mains to Sheik and Fox, he is still considered one of the best Samus players in the world, as he pulls out the character as a counterpick, notably placing 5th at Shine 2017 going solo Samus and 4th at Shine 2018 going mostly Samus.
  • USA ThePrime - Ranked high in Washington.
  • USA Wes - Formerly the best Samus with HugS, still to Samus in New York.
  • USA Morsecode762 -Ranked 99th on the 2018 MPGR

Inactive

  • USA Minty - Ranked in New York City.
  • USA ESAM - Samus in Florida/Carolina.
  • Japan Nanashi - Best Samus in Japan.
  • Germany quiKsilver - Best Samus in Germany.
  • USA Dark Mike - One of the best Samus mains in NorCal, died in 2014.
  • USA DJ Nintendo - Former Samus secondary, uses a lot of other characters.
  • USA Phanna - Known for innovating the Super Wavedash.
  • USA Taj - Used Samus as a counterpick.
  • France Cyr - Known as the best Samus in France.

Tier placement and history

Samus received a large amount of buffs from her transition from Smash Bros 64 to Melee, and was ranked quite high in initial tier lists, hovering around the 6th and 9th places. This was largely due to her improved projectile game, combo game, and improved recovery. Although with a much smaller player base than most high-tier mains, her representation and performances from dedicated mains such as HugS saw her remain in the higher tiers for many years to come. Innovations in other character's meta-games being discovered and adaptation to Samus's defensive fighting style has seen Samus fall in placings through recent Melee tier lists. However, she remains a very powerful fighter with dedicated mains such as Duck and split mains such as Plup continuing to make significant impacts with her. She currently sits at 10th place, in the High-mid tier alongside Pikachu.

In 1-P Mode

Classic Mode

In Classic Mode, Samus can appear as an ordinary opponent, as an ally or opponent in the team battles, alongside either Captain Falcon or Fox, as a giant opponent, or as a metal opponent. When alone she appears either on Brinstar or Brinstar Depths, while when on a team with Captain Falcon she appears on Big Blue.

Adventure Mode

Samus is once again fought on the Brinstar stage, after Samus is beaten, the planet will start to explode and the player must evacuate to Samus's ship before the planet explodes, if not they will lose a life.

All-Star Mode

Samus and her allies are fought on Brinstar.

Event Matches

Samus is featured in the following event matches:

  • Event 3: Bomb-fest: The player chooses any character and must defeat Link and Samus on Princess Peach's Castle. Link and Samus will only use their bomb special moves, and only items that create explosions (such as the Motion-Sensor Bomb and the Bob-omb) will spawn on the stage.
  • Event 8: Hot Date on Brinstar: The player chooses any character and must defeat Samus in a three-stock match on the Brinstar. The player starts and respawns with 102% damage, while Samus starts and respawns with 130%.
  • Event 15: Girl Power: The player chooses any character and must defeat Samus, Peach, and Zelda in a two-stock match on Fountain of Dreams. The character the player chooses is tiny, while the female combatants are normal sized.
  • Event 17: Bounty Hunters: The player plays as Samus, teamed up with Captain Falcon (with Friendly Fire turned off), and must defeat Bowser before Captain Falcon does on Jungle Japes. The event results in failure if Captain Falcon delivers the finishing blow or if Bowser self-destructs.
  • Event 20: All-Star Match 2: Samus is the first opponent the player must fight in this series of staged battles. The player battles her on Brinstar, which will transition to the next stage if Samus gets defeated. With a timer of four minutes, the player must defeat her along with Link, Zelda, Captain Falcon, and Fox.
  • Event 27: Cold Armor: The player uses Samus must defeat three metal Samuses on the Brinstar Depths. The player-controlled Samus has one stock, while each metal Samus have two.
  • 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

Trophies

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

Samus Aran
This intergalactic bounty hunter's full name is Samus Aran. Clad in a Power Suit made by the Chozo race and infused with their enhanced blood, she cleared the planet Zebes of a Metroid infestation. Samus is an orphan, the sole survivor of a Space Pirate raid that destroyed an Earth colony named K-2L.
  • Metroid 08/89
Samus Aran [Smash]
Samus has an abundance of projectile weapons, making her a long-distance attack specialist. The most powerful weapon in her arsenal is her Charge Shot, but be warned: it can be reflected. Her missiles have homing capabilities, but when fired as Smash Attacks, they fly on a straight trajectory and have boosted power.
  • B: Charge Shot
  • Smash B: Missile
Samus Aran [Smash]
While Samus's arsenal of missile weapons is indeed formidable, her enemies are in for a rude awakening if they guard against nothing else. Her Grappling Beam captures foes and latches on to walls, and the Screw Attack drags foes upwards in a series of spins that doubles as a recovery move. Samus can also use her Bombs to perform Bomb Jumps.
  • Up & B: Screw Attack
  • Down & B: Bomb

Alternate costumes

Samus's palette swaps, with corresponding tournament mode colours.
SamusHeadSSBM.png SamusHeadPinkSSBM.png SamusHeadBlackSSBM.png SamusHeadGreenSSBM.png SamusHeadPurpleSSBM.png

Gallery

Trivia

  • This is the only game where Samus is not placed in the lower parts of the tier list.
  • In the instruction booklet, the screenshots of Samus' special moves are on Corneria, as opposed to the other characters, whose special moves are shown on one of their home stages.
  • Samus' render pose closely resembles the official artwork for her appearance in Smash 64.