Spike
A Spike is a type of attack in Super Smash Bros. Melee that sends the opponent downward until the hitstun wears off. A spike is not to be confused with a meteor smash, which also sends the opponent downward, but can be meteor cancelled before the hitstun wears off.
When referring to SSB64 and Brawl, people often use the terms "spike" and "meteor smash" interchangeably, as all downwards-hitting attacks in both games are meteor smashes.
Spikes are not guaranteed KOs - if the opponent's damage is very low, the spike will be too weak to put them so far below the stage that they can't get back. However, they tend to be extremely effective KO moves - recovery from most spikes tends to be impossible at damages near or above 40%. Because of this, many smashers (particularly those who main characters with good spikes, like Falco, Ganondorf, and Marth) try to integrate spikes into play as often as possible.
List of spikes in Super Smash Bros. Melee
Only six characters are known to have true Spikes:
- Captain Falcon - Down aerial; the so-called Nipple spike only acts on the top hitbox of the three hitboxes of Falcon's down air.
- Falco - Down aerial; while the spike lasts for its entire duration in NTSC regions, only first half of attack spikes in PAL regions.
- Ganondorf - Down special, Wizard's Foot, when used in the air.
- Marth - Down aerial tip; acts as a Meteor Smash in PAL regions, though it still sends opponents at an angle.
- Roy - Up Smash; only works if an airborne opponent is hit with the tip of the sword.
- Fox - Down aerial; has weak, set knockback, making its usefulness questionable.
Trivia
- If the angle of a hitbox in Brawl is hacked to outside the standard 0-360 range of angles (for example, 630, which would equal a meteor smash angle of 270), the game will not recognize it as a meteor smash, and it will therefore act as a spike. No known hitboxes in the game naturally have such angles.
See also
- Meteor smash - an attack that deals downward knockback but that can be recovered from through meteor cancelling.
- Semi-spike - a move that hits the opponent at a very low angle, minimizing recovery opportunities.
- Shine spike - a Fox technique that uses his Reflector to spike opponents.
- Stage spike - a spike performed by bouncing an opponent off an angled part of a stage to send them downward.
