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Special Moves are moves in the Super Smash Bros. series executed with the Special button with a different move corresponding to the direction of the stick. This is opposed to the Standard Attacks corresponding to the attack button. Each character has 4 different moves (3 in the original Super Smash Bros.) with influences from the character's trademark abilities or the features of their main series.

General[]

The Standard Special move, also known as the Neutral Special, is the default move corresponding to no directional input while pressing the Special button. The move usually corresponds to the character's signature move such as Mario's Fireballs, Fox McCloud's Blaster, or Kirby's Swallow. For several characters, the move is a projectile. Several Standard Special can also be charged.

The Side Special Move is the Special Move corresponding to left or right inputs when pressing the Special button. This move was added in Super Smash Bros. Melee. These moves are usually less iconic but, are very useful. Most of the Side Specials are for advancing offensively, such as Captain Falcon's Raptor Boost. The second most common utility is for zoning using either a moderately strong move covering a wide area or a short range projectile that deals notable hitstun such as Ness's PK Fire.

The Up Special is the Special Move corresponding to up inputs when pressing the Special button. Almost all of these moves send the user up and are used for recovery and will send the player into freefall when the move finishes. These moves are treated like a final jump. For these moves, the ones that travel the farthest tend to deal little to no damage. The stronger up specials only go a short distance and often send the player falling fast if they do not grab the ledge or land on the stage. A couple of these Up Specials are considered Tether Recovery which do not propel the player up unless the attack's hitbox attaches to a ledge. There are only two Up Specials that cannot be used to recover upwards; Yoshi's Egg Throw (only in the first two games) and Jigglypuff's Sing.

The Down Special is the Special Move corresponding to down inputs when pressing the Special button. The Down Specials have the most varied applications. The most common effect is a Counter move, which the character takes little to no damage and then deals a powerful attack to whoever attacked while the Counter was active. The second main type is item creation where the character creates an item they use to interfere with the battle such as Link's Bomb or Villager's Timber. The third main kind is a powerful downward thrust such as Bowser Bomb though most of these kind only appear with characters from the original or Melee.

Final Smashes are a character's most powerful move enabled by grabbing a Smash Ball or filling the Smash Meter. They replace the Standard Special Moves.

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