Waveshine
A waveshine is a Fox and Falco technique that involves wavedashing immediately out of their down special, Reflector or shine, in Super Smash Bros. Melee.
How to waveshine
A wavedash can be performed anytime a character is on the ground and can jump. The shine can be canceled by jumping shortly after it is initiated. Therefore, it is possible to jump out of the shine into a wavedash.
To waveshine, use the shine, then jump cancel into a wavedash out of it.
It is often easier to use the X/Y buttons instead of the control stick because it is considered harder to wavedash with only the control stick. The logic is that to jump with the control stick requires the stick to go up. To wavedash, the succeeding angle is angled towards the ground. This makes for more complicated manual motions, and should be avoided in order to achieve a speedy waveshine.
Users of the waveshine
Fox
The waveshine is generally used for combos with Fox. However, some characters fall over when shined. This presents a problem, and generally these characters are immune to waveshine combos. Note that if these characters crouch-cancel the shine, they will not fall over and can be treated as normal waveshine. Also, using an attack after the wavedash can cause a character who has fallen over to be "forced" to stand up (most noticeably a neutral attack). This is referred to as "Thunder's Combo."
A waveshine can be followed up by many attacks. The choice of attacks depends on how far the opponent is pushed away. For example, Peach is not pushed away very far at all, but Luigi is pushed very far away. As such, Fox's choice of move following a waveshine against Luigi is more limited.
Some of the most useful attacks used in conjunction are the up smash, grab, down aerial, or even another shine. Waveshining plays a vital part in Fox's infinite combo.
Falco
The waveshine is generally used to aid in Falco's vertical down aerial and shine combos. It gives Falco the added horizontal distance such that he can jump up and catch up with his opponent. This is especially useful against a DIing Fox. A waveshine followed by another wavedash makes Falco a combo machine.
Similar techniques
Waveshined Laser
The waveshined Laser is a very useful technique because it's a good defense and a good offense. To do this, use Reflector, Wavedash backwards without facing behind the player, and shoot as many Lasers that they want to shoot.
Waveshining is also a popular mixup when pillaring an opponent's shield. The waveshine allows the Falco player to move behind an opponent's shield to not get shieldgrabbed.
For both Fox and Falco, the waveshine can be used as a method of spacing and avoiding the lag after a Shine.
Dash shining
Dash shining is an advanced Brawl technique by Fox that greatly resembles waveshine. It is hard to pull off but is essential for advanced Fox play. To start off, the player must first have mastered the jump shine and foxtrot. To do a dash shine, the player first starts with a foxtrot. Out of foxtrot, the player must jump cancel their dash and immediately shine. If jump shined correctly, the player will instantly be able to dash again to start the whole attack over. Repeat if desired.
List of characters that cannot be waveshined
The following list refers to the characters that fall over when shined on the ground (lighter than 87 units):
- Falco
- Fox
- Jigglypuff
- Kirby
- Marth (PAL only)
- Mewtwo
- Mr. Game & Watch
- Pichu
- Pikachu
- Roy
- Young Link
