Slow motion

Characters caught in Shadow's Chaos Control.

Slow motion is a special condition that decreases the movement of characters and gameplay. When a character is in a state of slow movement, their animations, speed, attacks, and falling speed will be reduced drastically. When the slow movement condition is finished, their speed will return back to normal. There is also an option in training mode that allows the player to reduce the speed of the gameplay. Likewise, there is an option in Special Brawl that allows for slow gameplay, and the mode exists in Special Melee.

Causes of slow motion

• Dialga's Roar of Time – When Dialga uses its Roar of Time attack on the Spear Pillar stage, the speed of gameplay will be reduced. In Wi-Fi matches, this can actually help reduce lag. Since Dialga affects gameplay speed instead of individual characters, this effect can stack with other slow motion effects.
• Luigi's Negative Zone – Luigi's Final Smash, Negative Zone, will slow down the speed of the characters inside the Negative Zone area, with the exception of Luigi himself and any other characters teamed up with him (if there are any and only if team attack is on).
• Shadow's Chaos Control – Shadow will cast a dark vortex that slows down the movement of any character (excluding the summoner).
• Timer – An item introduced in Brawl; in most cases when a character picks up a Timer, the movement of the opposing characters will decrease. However, the Timer has a small chance of backfiring and causing the character who picked it up to be subjected to its effect, whether having him or her slow down along with their opponents, or just the user him/herself.
• Dying in stamina mode – When a character dies in stamina mode, slow motion is activated for about a second.
• At the start of some Final Smashes.
• Swirlix - All nearby characters other than its summoner will be slowed.
• Ashley - Ashley's magic cloud will sometimes slow down everyone but the summoner.