EVERY Smash Ultimate Character's Best Move

what is every smash character's best move a seemingly simple question but the answer ended up being a bit harder than I first expected it turned out that I had to settle a few smaller questions in pursuit of the larger one how much use does a certain move get compared to other moves on a character's kit is it used for comboing killing is it best used in neutral Advantage state disadvantaged state and which of these traits does the character value most highly is it more important that a move contributes to the existing strengths of a character in a major way or Shores up what would otherwise be a sizeable weakness does it have Advanced Techniques or use cases attached to it beyond what first meets the eye and if so are they impractical gimmicks or do they totally redefine how the move needs to be thought about does a move perform well because of its inherent strengths or because some other move enables it or maybe it's a property of the character and if any of these are the case should this kind of synergy be considered a point in favor of the move or against it the selection for any character took all of these and more into account and while many of them can't be applied universally for every case I did settle on a few standards everything is B being judged in the context of a character's kit not in a vacuum I'm also somewhat de-emphasizing just pure usage amount because otherwise essentially every character would have some kind of aerial chosen by default the nature of platform fighters in general and ultimates design philosophy in particular heavily favors using loom for the most part this also applies to recovery moves sure most carriers need to use them a lot and would be gutted if they had a bad one but that's not really in the spirit of what we're looking for it's a bit of a messy question but I did my best to keep things somewhat consistent and make my thought process clear for every character also heads up this idea straight up comes from P Jiggles who covered every character's worst move several years ago in a video series on his channel which I did a reaction and update video for over on my second Channel Mock Rock talk I've gotten a lot of comments since then asking me to cover this idea which I was hesitant about because I didn't want to tread on his toes but I checked in and he's not planning to make a video like this anytime soon and if he ever does it'll actually be formatted pretty differently since he sourced his list from various character discords I'm not going to be doing that this list is entirely my own so looks like I'm in the clear oh hey look what showed up in my sub box today yeah so while I was deep into editing this way past the point of no return another Channel called vars 3 uploaded the first part of a video covering the same concept I've actually talked to bars before and I messaged him when I saw this he runs a great smash channel that he said take some inspiration from mine so I guess it was only a matter of time before we ran into some inconveniently timed parallel thinking his video is actually very different both in terms of format and content so if you like this topic please go check his out too he makes great stuff that you honestly likely will enjoy if you're a Mock Rock fan as for my video I always do my research ahead of time but of course that's no guarantee that you're going to agree with every pick so feel free to make your case in the comments on the one hand I obviously don't play every character equally but on the other hand I'm also not gonna try and convince you that Kirby's down air is worse than his hammer hey Kirby Discord what are you taking and how do I get in on it let's go [Music] [Applause] [Music] getting hit by any of the moves in this video is scary what's scarier security threats luckily you can do something about that thanks to today's sponsor nordvpn who are offering an exclusive deal for Mock Rock viewers who check out my link their threat protection feature is a fantastic way to Shield yourself from trackers and malware while you're surfing the web and their dark web monitor gives you an automatic notification if any of your credentials get leaked online are your passwords too simple and okay you know that and you know you should be doing better but secure ones are just too hard to keep track of easy just let their Nord pass password manager do it for you nordvpn is more than just a VPN but of course it's also a VPN which means that you can use its privacy oriented non-tracking app or browser extension to enhance your online experience in all sorts of ways my favorite is for streaming services I am Canadian so if I were to say go to Netflix and type in one of my favorite Sci-Fi movies oh well that sucks just enable nordvpn and connect to a UK server though and hey no more region locking you can try it for yourself with a risk-free 30-day money-back guarantee plus a free month by using my link in the description and pinned comment of this video a big thanks to nordvpn for supporting the channel Mario may have a lot of strong fundamental based tools but in Ultimate he's still most famous for his cheesy ladder combos which are enabled almost entirely thanks to up air with a great hitbox that comes out in a measly four frames and has absolutely minuscule Landing lag this move can also be used in a myriad of other ways both on the way up and down as well is one of the safest attacks in the entire game to land on Shield so the risk reward is very much in your favor and if you get past that Shield it sets up perfectly into a ladder combo or just directly into his monstrous spiking Forward Air thanks to popping opponents almost straight up and at earlier percents you don't even need to bother trying to set up for the landing version it's so stupidly quick that rising up air still initiates the spiking combo what a ridiculous move to give to what was formerly a beginner friendly tutorial style character Donkey Kong's back air was a strong candidate for this video and extremely versatile move on a character whose kit can sometimes feel clunky but I ultimately need to go with his unique forward throw ultimate has very few true Grapplers and the reward that DK gives off this cargo throw very much earns him the title at early he gets simple and highly effective damage racking after winning one or two exchanges he's already set to start hunting for platform assisted kill confirms which have a fairly generous positional component and aren't too difficult to perform technically and then later on things get even simpler as DK simply walks off stage and Chucks his opponent into the void forward throw has been one of Donkey Kong's defining moves in Smash for a very long time and it's in great form here I think the first two entries are likely going to be pretty popular but the choice for link is the first one that feels a bit more contentious and I'm going with this down special the remote bomb the mountain of ways that Lancaster interact with the bomb gives an absurd utility it does everything from ledge trapping which can be accomplished in many different ways to recovery duties through self-detonation for which there are also multiple techniques that he can utilize to much fancier stuff and this fancy stuff is a good chunk of the reason that I'm giving the nod to it link is in kind of a funny spot because his statistically best player T from Japan usually stuck to a very simple game plan while he was really active based around staple tools like neutral air Forward Air and boomerang fancy bomb stuff is still often seen as kind of a cute gimmick chucked on top of that right now and it may stay that way forever but it's also hard to overstate just how much influence a single prominent player can have on the perception of a character's meta game fundamentals are always going to come first and if a player ever comes through the consistently puts Link in the international Spotlight they will absolutely have strong fundamentals but I also think they'll likely need a firm grasp of the most broken stuff that link is capable of to let him keep Pace with ultimates faster and more powerful characters I also don't think this is unrealistic link isn't a popular character right now and this is partially because of just how much effort he requires compared to simpler and probably still stronger characters but I've been following smash for long enough to see this kind of scenario play out many times and it would only take one or two major tournament runs for people to once again start talking about how stupid that bomb is the technical side of difficult characters like this usually does get solved eventually the bigger question is how viable the setups that lead into the fingerbreaking stuff are if you're still trying to play a fundamentally sound game and for link you know they're actually not bad if I wasn't trying to hedge for the future I'd probably say his best move is new neutral air but bomb is already one of Link's better moves certainly good enough to be in the discussion regardless and hey I'm an optimist for both Samus and Dark Samus their best move is definitely charge shot this thing has been around in every smash game and been good in every smash game but in Ultimate it's better than ever the amount of use cases here are just ridiculous it grants free pressure in the neutral game thanks to being cancelable at any time making the Samus is a total nightmare to face at mid-range it can be be reversed and gets to keep its charge in the air a new feature in Ultimate allowing it to be used for tricky Mix-Ups both offensively and defensively it's one of the best ledge trapping tools in the entire game especially when you've also got morph ball bombs to force your opponent to get off the ledge with a specific timing if you miss who cares it's a projectile you're probably safe anyways but if it lands the reward is incredible at minimum a hefty amount of damage we're talking 30 plus on a full charge and at best a kill at very generous percents you want combos sure why not combo into an aerial combo into their long range tether grab which itself starts longer combos or leads into multiple kill throws later on combo and a Dash attack for a simple but effective confirm at this point after this many improvements I'm willing to call it one of the best moves in Ultimate period you can make a solid case for calling basically any of Yoshi's Aerials as best move they're all good and they get a further Boost from his incredible air speed but personally I'm going with back air while Yoshi has an excellent spacing Forward Air that a lot of characters would kill for the very best Yoshi players are often seen approaching with reverse aerial Rush backhares instead thanks to his increased speed much more persistent hitbox and potentially higher reward Yoshi's back air works as a combo starter in the traditional sense earlier on but it can also create combos at any percent by interrupting its multi-hits this is some really nice multi-hit work as well comboing falling back air into forward smash is kind of silly these traits all come together to give Yoshi an excellent tool and one very much worth giving up the traditional killing role that back air is usually fill oh sorry never mind back here is also a great kill move on top of everything else and it can do so off the top or the side and again Yoshi's absurd air physics make it really easy to chase opponents up high now you can also Chase opponents above you with up air and this fight was neck and neck between them about as close as you're ever going to see in this video back air is better in the neutral and for raw kills but Yoshi's up air is a vital combo tool when used in tandem with his double jump enabling some very long chains while also working as a much better pure kill move compared to something like Mario's I'm giving a slight nod to back air because as you start ascending the ranks of Yoshi players one thing that becomes really apparent is that they start using back air a lot more and a lot more effectively at its full potential it does pretty much everything whereas up air is slightly more specific albeit what it specifically does is phenomenally good my choice for Kirby will go to Forward Air which feels like a bit of a funny choice this is why I said the question was harder than I expected when people discuss good Kirby moves the discussion usually turns to up tilt which is definitely one of the better up tilts in the game whereas I think there are plenty of better forward errors than Kirby's in a vacuum in the context of Kirby's particular kit though he's a close range brawler character whose game plan heavily revolves around getting in his opponent's face and throwing out quick moves with Forward Air and downtail doing a lot of the heavy lifting downtill would be a good candidate as well it's done out of his Crouch which allows Kirby to avoid a lot of powerful stuff and it can potentially lead into big combos I say potentially though because downtown's ability to trip opponents is random he doesn't get it every time because of this inconsistency even in a lot of cases where Kirby players do land the downtown trip you'll still see them combo it into Forward Air because downtailed into Forward Air is a decent sequence on trip no trip or even on Shield which takes a lot of pressure off the Kirby player since they don't need to react to the situation quite as stringently outside of its use with downtelled Forward Air is also one of Kirby's few lingering attacks and also one of his longest ranged giving it an indispensable array of use cases from tossing it out in the neutral to pressuring the ledge to using it both as a combo Ender at early percents and a combo starter at any percent as well the move is actually reminiscent of Yoshi's back hair in a lot of ways including its ability to drag down to kill confirms it's also more natural to use because it faces forwards and while Kirby doesn't have Yoshi's air Mobility it's still a good enough hitbox to make retreating Forward Air a fantastic spacing tool something that Kirby is in so much short supply of now his up tilt has some spacing capabilities as well and is an overall very strong button with some situationally busted use thanks to being loopable with Dan or under certain scenarios but in a broader sense Kirby doesn't really have the toolkit to take full advantage of his own up tilt's potential his jump is so stubby that vertical combos start getting cut off pretty early and the up air that he eventually has to end on isn't strong enough to accomplish too much up tilt up air will kill some characters sometimes if they're on a platform specifically but otherwise it just starts a jungle and Kirby's poor mobility and small hitboxes don't make him a natural juggler if Forward Air connects on the other hand it always pushes opponents off stage for Edge guarding and ledge strapping areas that Kirby performs better and also partially thanks to forward air and it provides him with more concrete rewards at a broader range of percents Fox comes in with his simple but exceptionally effective up smash at frame 7 this is one of the fastest up Smashes in the game period and when you combine that with Fox's extreme Mobility he's excellent at confirming into it in fact that's usually the main thing he's trying to do given how powerful it is as well his combination of speed and a good hitbox also makes it a very solid out of Shield option and even lets him end a lot of combos with a good chunk of extra damage over what he'd normally get it's obviously still mostly a pure kill move though and you won't see a ton of those today there's definitely going to be a slant towards moves with more use cases overall but up smash is so incredibly important to Fox's game plan I did consider an aerial particularly neutral air because it's how Fox starts a lot of his confirms into up Smash and is also an overall great move that works at any stage of the game before that as a combo and pressure tool that being said neutral air isn't the only thing he uses that can lead into up smash confirms even if it's probably the most common one he goes for and his pressure exists in conjunction with other moves like up tilt jab and dash attack a move that I was also considering so it's a bit difficult to single it out specifically back air also becomes one of his most important moves later on in an opponent's stock and up air is another of his most important moves that creates the infamous Fox Vortex where he puts you up into the air and simply does not let you land again I'll choose the attack the fox regularly can and does base his entire strategy around it's telling that the best Fox player in the world light is also the best at creating up smash opportunities Pikachu has been in at least talks for the best character and ultimate since launch day so it's not a surprise that he has a lot of good moves but I think thunderjolt his projectile neutral special is what really puts him over the top Pikachu has an excellent neutral game and a ridiculously big part of this comes from just how incredible and approaching to a thunderjolt is forcing opponents to dance around the massive amount of space it controls and leading into combos if it does connect without thunderjolt Pikachu would still be a quick character but a very stubby one who would likely have a lot of difficulty actually getting in range should take full advantage of his Close Quarters tools with thunderjolt this concern still exists and is certainly one of Pikachu's weaknesses but it is mitigated heavily my decision was made even easier by the fact that Pikachu has a lot of busted close range tools that frequently get employed in multiples for any given combo but them in heavy competition with each other whereas there's really nothing else on his kit that even vaguely replicates what thunderjolt can do if Donkey Kong is one of smash's few true Grapplers then Luigi weirdly needs to be in there as well where I gave praise to the big Apes forward throw Luigi likewise gets down throw for his best move Choice did you get grabbed at zero then there's a very realistic chance that you're simply losing that stock he's one of only a few characters in Ultimate with a true zero to death combo even if you manage to get out of that first grab alive taking less than 50 or 60 percent would be considered a very good day which is right around the time his next grab starts leading into aerial super jump punch and after that you get Luigi Cyclone or back air just in case you ever had any kind of misconception about being able to escape this all gets stated enormously by the unusually safe tether grab that Luigi was given for ultimate far safer than usual as well as the removal of his previously very slippery physics which moved him from fishing for down throw to fishing for down throw Ness has a lot of good buttons he's notorious for a playstyle that looks like he's fighting ghosts but only one button works as a Mobility option an anti-projectile tool and an extremely large and useful hitbox this hitbox was a new addition for ultimate and it turned out to be a total Game Changer this isn't just any ordinary hitbox it comes out in pulses and those pulses combo into each other meaning that with proper technique you can carry your opponent all the way across the stage in a truly inescapable sequence these are still a bit on the gimmick side of things at the moment similar to what I brought up for Link's bomb but they're not nearly as handbraking have even simpler setups to lead into them and similarly have the potential to do a ton forness in The Meta if ever truly mastered this involves a lot more than just the one infinite by the way Advanced PSI magnet stuff is yeah a bit more of a rabbit hole than I can fully go down for this video even without the gimmick stuff there is still a ton of great setups which take considerably less effort and the mobility options it provides alone from Air stalling to B reversals to canceling nessa's unique double jump are absolutely indispensable and hey who knows once in a blue moon you might even use it for its original purpose and absorb a projectile fine in some matchups that's actually a pretty big deal Captain Falcon is most famous for high speed and exciting Combos and in Ultimate those combos are mostly facilitated through two moves neutral air and not there I'm choosing neutral air for the title because it's got a wider range of use cases than not bear with the final hit going from a strong combo starter and Ender early on to a good kill move later and the first hit also working as a potent combo starter in its own right it's a shame that the move has some consistency issues in the air a common theme among multi-hit Aerials but it's not the worst in the game by any stretch his single hit up air obviously doesn't have this problem and as mentioned was a strong Contender a lot of what he looks for leads into extended up air Combos and juggles but I'm still going with the trickier and overall more versatile kick Jigglypuff was actually really hard to decide on she's the most aerial focused character in a very air heavy game so the choice was definitely between one of her Aerials or her honorary aerial pound but she uses several of them so much that China's single one out was fairly tricky at the end of the day though I think I'm opting for down air on most characters move says this show kick would be solid if unremarkable but Puff's phenomenal air movement allows it to be used as a legitimate approach option or combo extender and connecting it can lead into or continue really nasty combos including the ability to Loop down air into itself multiple times before going for something else usually another aerial this makes Dan Aaron enabler for her other moves and using it as a drag down into rest can be legitimate albeit somewhat unreliable Hail Mary option to steal a stock away it's honestly really close here though Jigglypuff's whole thing is floating around and then throwing something out in the air and I'd completely accept an argument in favor of a neutral air or Forward Air for their better General usage or pound's mobility and strong combo potential of its own but Danner opens up a lot of the more degenerate things that Jigglypuff can perform short of extremely committal options like risky rest combos even though it does those as well in several different ways a character this fragile needs a bit of degeneracy in their kit preferably without putting them at too much risk to use it and Danner fits the bill Peach and Daisy both get something a bit different and I'm saying their best move is the floating ability that peach takes from Super Mario Brothers 2 and which Daisy takes from Echo Fighters being a bitter disappointment I know that not everybody watching this is going to consider float to be a move but listen she already has a double jump so this is something separate we're past the point where all special moves need to be mapped to a traditional input and if this was her up special nobody would bat an eye I say it counts and I say that if you agree it counts there's no competition oh and just to head off some comments I know I'm gonna get from repeat viewers I know I didn't put this in the non-traditional moves category of the best of every smash move video I did a while ago and yes if I were to do that video nowadays I would include it I've changed my mind float would already be very good even if it was limited to a simple Mobility option and Peach and Daisy certainly do put that aspect of it to plenty of views but the fact that it can be halted instantly and then canceled into an aerial makes it one of the most incredibly powerful tools that any smash character has ever had access to float less what would otherwise be a relatively humble moves that output some of the highest damage among the entire roster especially combined with a low knockback high hits ton turnips that they Paul and this gets enhanced even further by the fact that while Ariel's done out of a short hop suffer a universal damage penalty and ultimate this penalty gets bypassed if an aerial is done out of afloat instead no matter how close to the ground it was yeah you know that actually seems like kind of an oversight but hey patches are over they're safe now on top of giving Peach and Daisy incredible damage potential float canceling also gives them an unprecedented neutral tool thanks to being able to perform uniquely tricky movement Mix-Ups and fire off any aerial at a moment's notice this comes with a pretty heavy execution barrier to consistently pull off the powerful stuff and makes Peach and Daisy some of the more technical characters in the game but it's a skill undeniably worth mastering Bowser has a lot of really scary moves at his disposal ranging from a near unpunishable persistent projectile to one of the biggest and nastiest Aerials in the game but I think the one that really puts him over the top is flying slam his side special with a measly six frames of wind up this would be a blistering fast command grab by any standard it's actually as fast as normal grabs are allowed to be an ultimate but on a heavyweight it's unheard of this gives Bowser a completely unreactable attack that connects whether his opponent is on the ground they're in the air trying to land or launch an attack of their own or they're stuck up on a platform and as a command grab it doesn't care whether someone is shielding or not this speed also allows for some true confirms into it not that going for flying slam raw is particularly a problem and on connection it does an easy 20 plus damage and gives Bowser fantastic positioning that is before it starts simply killing opponents even earlier when he's got a platform to land on and just as a bonus he can also dive off stage for a Kamikaze stock these Bowser sides as they're known aren't the most reliable things in the world since opponents also get some say in how Bowser carries them through the air Bowser dies first and some characters can even survive the attempt but you do still see them pop up in high level play from time to time most of Bowser's moveset is scary but it's scary in a relatively predictable way when you throw flying slam into the mix though it makes trying to call out bazer's next move immensely more difficult That's The Power of command grabs particularly unreactable ones and for my money this may well be the best command grab in the game especially especially when paired with Bowser's surprising speed and ability to scare opponents into Shield two special moves were pitted head to head for the Ice Climbers Squall Hammer their side special and blizzard they're down special both moves are Staples of the icy's fancy decent combos that they're best known for in Ultimate extended multi-hit attacks are the perfect tool to lock an opponent in place with one climber so that the other one can set up for the next step of the combo both of them are also great in the neutral with Squall Hammer being one of the best and safest burst movement options in the game which can potentially lead to huge damage if it connects and blizzard being able to create distinct walls of ice that are rough for a lot of characters to get around both moves can also be used to create true unblockable setups a rare trade for any attack to have an ultimate by using one climber to lock an opponent into Shield while the other one is still free to act they're both extremely good in a lot of different scenarios but in a very general sense I'd say that Squall Hammer is the more powerful and spammable neutral tool and blizzard is responsible for more of the advanced setups that you're going to see show up in highlight reels at the end of the day neutral is always going to be king even for a character this set up heavy so I'd give a small Edge to squall Hammer it's a also a much better tool for escaping disadvantage than blizzard is and it helps just a bit that it's still a pretty decent move even with the solo ice climber Sheik's best move was a difficult call between two very different options her historically consistent Forward Air and the extremely versatile bouncing fish I think bouncing fish would be the less replaceable move though it's a tremendously important part of Sheik's combo game it's the reason her recovery and disadvantage states are so fantastic and is probably also her most important kill move she can already famously struggle to finish stocks off in Ultimate but this would be much much worse if she didn't have her series of staple confirms into bouncing fish and it's also regularly used to kill opponents in disadvantaged state which is a situation that she does excel at setting up now part of the reason she's so good at winning neutral to set this up is admittedly because of how safe and efficient forward areas I said it was a tough choice but bouncing fish just provides her with so many different benefits Sheik may have been a tough call but get her out of the Ninja disguise and Things become a lot easier Zelda's best move is Phantom and it's not close Zelda has struggled heavily in the neutral game throughout the Smash series as that was is always intended to be Sheik's role and smash 4's decision to take her transformation away replaced with nothing but yet another mediocre projectile without making any other substantial changes to her game plan left her feeling totally stranded in Ultimate on the other hand that formerly mediocre projectile now offers some of the best space control in the business allowing Zelda to set it up ahead of time and then move freely before it comes out pair that with an absolutely enormous hitbox at full charge large enough to both work as an anti-air and cover the ledge at the same time and Zella can now generate a degree of pressure she's never even come close to matching before the delayed nature of the Phantom alsolets abuse in all sorts of combo applications and it can even be used defensively to make Zelda's own return to the stage much easier by providing pressure while she's in the middle of the recovery process the one substantial downgrade that Phantom received between Smash 4 and ultimate is that it now spawns behind her leaving Zelda vulnerable but even this can be solved with an advanced technique called Phantom displacement now Phantom's already great and this isn't essential Tech by any means but hey can't complain about taking a gray great move and making it even greater in another display of the importance of controlling space Dr Mario's best move in my eyes is the slow-moving Mega vitamin pill as one of the game's slower and stubbier characters this move is a godsend which vastly improves Doc's approach game similar to Pikachu's Thunder jolt but on top of that the reward for connecting it is also considerably higher and more reliable pills trap opponents in quite a bit of hit stun which means that as long as doc approaches alongside the pill he can pretty much just combo it into imagination pick an Ariel pick a special they're all gonna work and they're all gonna work well because for all the things doc may be lacking power is not one of them this power can be found in a lot of solid close range moves including his excellent back air which I did consider but it's another case of a character who massively benefits from being able to force his way in so he can actually use it Pichu basically has two types of attacks ones that do stupid damage and start killing immediately and once the combo until the end of time I think that the combo tools tend to be more important overall and out of all of them up air probably puts the most work in this tail flip is pretty reminiscent of Mario's up there are even coming out on the same frame although it functionally tends to be slightly slower on average as it starts behind Pichu that's still plenty quick though and unlike Mario's kick pichu's up there essentially never scales into a kill move which is not a downside the thing has some insanely low knockback growth that it basically never stops comboing confirming into literally any aerial in pichu's Arsenal even when the opponent is brushing off on Triple digit damage and then when that stops connecting it starts confirming into aerial Thunder as well a great way to reliably take stocks later on or even not so later on P2 can actually score some pretty cheesy kills with falling up air into Thunder between its high fall speed a bearish trajectory and the Thunder's High hitbox all the stars just align perfectly as a bonus because that bear doesn't use electricity it's one of the moves the peach you can toss out as much as it wants without taking any self-damage the same can't be said for thunderjolt for the record which is part of the reason that Pichu doesn't get the same move Choice as his evolved form although Pikachu's thunderjeweled also covers noticeably more space than P juice does Falco's subpar Mobility is balanced out with a combo oriented moveset that's strung across the board but it should was no surprise that his notorious up tilt gets the spotlight here up till this huge long-lasting spammable thanks to its low end lag and black which also makes it bizarrely safe on shield for this category of move and if it connects that's when the fun starts up tilt reliably leads into every single one of Falco's Aerials and several of them see very consistent used to carry his opponent all over the stage up tilt-to-back air is an absolutely vital kill confirmed that Falco leans on heavily up till 2 up there creates fantastic juggling combos which are a total staple of Falco's punish game sometimes also allowing for a vertical kill confirm a bit later into the stock or if they're on a platform and upheld into Forward Air works as a drag down option to create different types of platform extensions and you'd better believe the Falco is good at extending off a platform uphold into neutral air or down air are a bit more Niche but they work and you do see them Falco's got no shortage of options out of up tilt and different players often opt for different combo routes in the same scenario it's an attack that synergizes perfectly both with the rest of his moveset and his uniquely High double jump so despite all the other very solid buttons available to him this one was a pretty easy choice to make Marth and especially Lucina are ultimates no-nonsense sword fighters and Forward Air is the Ultimate no-nonsense Sword move it's huge it's disjointed it covers above and below them it's quick and it's safe apart from not having the world's absolute greatest kill power it does pretty much everything you'd ever ask a sword aerial to do now if I had to choose which one is the better of the two I think I'd give the edge to Marth with his Tipper Sweet Spot it's one of his easier tippers to land in my experience and pulling this off offers more damage makes it safer alongside doing a bit more Shield damage and kills earlier than lucina's more straightforward Arc that still doesn't make Forward Air One of either of their best kill moves outside of edge guarding scenarios but in that context even marth's sour spots often do the job just fine you're really just looking to knock an opponent away with anything you can that sour spot is sometimes an advantage anyways as it lets Marth get some simple combos for a bit longer than Lucina can thanks to its lower knockback the extremes versus consistency tug of war is pretty close on this particular move to be honest though Martin Lucine are both characters that just want to point their sword at the other guy and that's usually going to mean in front of them the closest Contender was probably neutral air but that's a move that has some pretty severe consistency problems young Link appeared in a single smash game before disappearing for almost two decades and when he returned his fire arrows turned out to be one of the most buffed moves in the series history this projectile is lightning fast travels amazingly far even if not charged and is another of these combo into imagination tools that young Link takes full advantage of its speed and range also allow it to be used as a combo follow-up off of other projectiles a relatively distinct part of young Link's gameplay which has become a major part of his optimization over the years if there's one big knock against the arrows is that they actually travel so fast that the most impressive true combos don't really start emerging until the opponent is at pretty high percent because there needs to be a good amount of hits done to give link time to follow up behind them on the other hand though once those combos do come online they're pretty much just gonna stay online and the speed of the fire arrows makes them incredibly annoying to deal with at all stages of the game which is just how young Link Mains like it I should give a shout out to neutral air as well it's a fantastic example of the ubiquitous flying sidekick that both combos early on and then kills later but it's the kind of stubby move on a stubby character that can really benefit from Gap closers and they're so quick that the constant threat of them changes how opponents have to play at mid-range making it easier for young Link to connect his most rewarding Close Quarters tools Ganondorf may be the embodiment of the Triforce of power but it's actually neutral air one of his moves has less based around pure power that he's most associated with an ultimate now make no mistake the move is still plenty strong dealing impressive damage and killing reasonably early but it's overall a bit on the modest side for a character that routinely looks for kills early in the double digits the real strengths of neutral air come from its utility being one of ganondorf's fastest longest ranged and longest lasting moves with impressively low end lag meaning that spamming neutral air is often the name of the game for ganondorf's neutral and disadvantage state and Advantage State the combination of range Power and Longevity team up to create an exceptionally potent Edge guarding tool that can cover a lot of options at the same time it can even straight up beat a lot of recoveries outright thanks to being way more disjointed than it looks it's a shame that the two hits can have some reliability issues but at least even the first hit also comes with a bit of combo potential when done Landing kind of a diet version of its Captain Falcon inspiration metoo has a lot of powerful long-ranged moves between his tail and his psychic abilities but his longest ranged move is also what I'd call his best Shadow ball is in many ways reminiscent of samus's charge shot from earlier but this one travels slower and follows a unique bobbing trajectory and these traits offer it some distinct advantages Mewtwo can easily approach from behind even an uncharged Shadow Ball helped greatly by his fast ground speed and the move surprisingly low end lag a buff that it was given in a balance patch it forces opponents to dance like crazy to avoid it but still in all honesty isn't that hard to connect and while the hit stunt it creates isn't especially impressive it still leads into a wide array of combos depending on an opponent's percentage the charge level of the ball and the position that Mewtwo was in when he threw it with proper spacing its bopping trajectory can also hit opponents hanging on the ledge which takes a style of move which was already fantastic for ledge trapping to even greater Heights and while we're talking about height Mewtwo's double jump Works similarly to nesses and likeness he can cancel his momentum with special moves giving Shadow Ball some additional unique functionality I'm not personally a huge fan of the move losing some of its most interesting aspects over the years first the charge hitbox and then his exaggerated Mobility options but this may still be the best iteration it's seen in any smash game and is definitely one of ultimate's better projectiles another Fire Emblem Duo Roy and krom are some of the more distinct clones in the game operating on a sweet spot versus consistency principle that separates their playstyles even more than Martin Lucina while coming with a few additional changes on top of that Chrome is the more consistent and range oriented of the two which makes the incredible Frame data of his up air in particular a major asset it's so fast and Chrome's air movement is so abrupt that even connecting a rising up there can take opponents for an extended ride which of course just means the falling out bears become even more insane in addition to getting some of the highest reward off an up hair of any character Krum also has one of the easiest times fishing for it between his excellent overall mobility and the sword art coming with a hitbox that lives up to the high bar that it speed sets crime can weave in and out with up air up and down with it without too much concern all in pursuit of that consistently fantastic payoff for connecting just one all of this of course also applies to Roy minus the hitbox comments as his up air comes with the customary Hilt Sweet Spot found on most of his moods this makes Roy's upper a bit better of a kill move than croms but still not a great one and it means that while his early vertical combos can do additional damage they're also going to start falling off a lot earlier because of the sweet spot's higher knockback now the tipper's sour spot on Roy's sword isn't bad by any stretch it actually means that he gets to combo for a lot longer than crom does but in practice I'd say there's slightly finicky to line up sometimes and don't quite match up to kron's ability to just Chuck it out there in that case I'd call Roy's best move his unusual jab a single hit uppercut that starts comboing immediately and then by about 50 or so he's already able to start hunting for kill confirms out of it staple combos that both characters share like jab to back air probably their most important overall kill confirm or jab to forward smash a bit earlier on also tend to kill quite a bit earlier with Roy's sweet spot in the mix that sweet spot starts comboing from literally zero percent as well whereas crumbs takes a little while to start coming online the crazy thing is that even with all these points in Roy's favor crumbs still might have the better jab because once it does start true comboing its threat range is substantially better Roy doesn't exactly struggle to get into an opponent's face and connect the sweet spot but not having to do this is still undeniably a major benefit krom May often be relying on an opponent not diing properly to convert off the tip of his jab but even against the good players this does happen regularly human reaction time is only so fast that all said I think the better jab is much more contestable compared to their up errors and regardless of what side you land on looking at the entirety of each character's kit Roy seems much better set up to abuse jab as much as possible even if The Sweet Spot does take a bit more work to connect it was very close this time around though on both moves for both characters you're watching what I think is the fifth draft of this segment I said earlier in the video that I was going to avoid picking too many up specials but going with anything besides fire for Mr Game and Watch just feels disingenuous this upwards launch comes out on frame three making it literally as fast as any outer Shield option is allowed to be an ultimate and even for the very small handful of moves that is not capable of punishing you're still probably okay thanks to his high trajectory and the lack of free fall it puts you in afterwards Mr Game and Watch is somewhat vulnerable if he whiffs against them or other moves that are spaced very well I've talked about that before and you do see this pop up more and more often as ultimates meta marches on but their risk reward is still very much in his favor overall not every character can punish fire a lot of players still don't try it the ones that do need to be very quick plus you can just head off even the safest move ahead of time anyways there are invincibility frames on this thing he needs it the lack of Free Fall that I just mentioned also makes it an exceptionally multi-faceted recovery tool which pairs well with his forward and Danner to help mix up his descent even further and allows the move to be integrated anywhere into a combo whether we're talking about using it as a combo starter an Ender something that works for a very long time because of how high fire goes or even harnessing all of its properties together to use it as a link in the middle of a longer combo I'd consider it to easily be the best up special in the game and one of ultimate's best moves period a lot of characters get shut down by this almost single-handedly modern Meta Knight is a combo character which means that we're back in the realm of Sword Art Bears although this one isn't a utility machine in the same manner as Roy and krom meta Knight's quick slash does one thing and it does it well team up with his multi-jumps to carry opponents either beside or above the stage and then close things out with one of his several potent finishers it's a relatively simple game plan but not an easy one it actually takes a lot of match-up knowledge and situational awareness to execute consistently and sometimes requires mixing in down airs or extending off of a platform to make sure that the combo stays rolling the consistency of these combos does get helped a bit by the fact that up air doesn't put opponents into a tumbling animation at early percents which they have to be indeed's proper di but they're still able to do smash di by wiggling the stick in the direction they want to go to make things as hard for Meta Knight as they can regardless of the specifics though his game plan is always going to involve abusing up air as much as possible and he's also got a handful of Moves Like down throw and dash attack to help start things off although going for it raw is a totally viable option between its speed and his air control if you've watched this channel for a while you may know that a I mean dark pit and B that I love to complain about this character is stupid weirdly programmed neutral air its hitboxes are way smaller than the animation for no reason its drag down combos are way worse than what other characters get for no reason characters constantly pop out of it for no reason oh come on what the all right look the move's got problems but even so it's still incredibly important to both pits game plans and I'm still calling it their best move a frame 4 lingering disjoint however small it may be which can start combo low percents even if done Rising is an incredibly powerful tool and the harsh horizontal angle that it sends at makes it a genuinely nasty Edge guarding move when it does connect cleanly that angle also makes it a good option for starting Tech chases and putting opponents onto platforms situations that the pits are pretty good at covering partially also thanks to the Persistence of neutral error this persistence comes in collection the neutral as a great spot Dodge Buster too it's fast enough out of Shield to catch a lot of stuff anyways but for moves that it can't aerial on shield into spot Dodge is a common sequence in Ultimate that neutral air largely takes away the pits have a lot of ways to combo into neutral air as well and while its role as a traditional combo starter in its own right doesn't stick around for all that long there are some true drag down setups to go for although again they really do tend to be a lot more finicky and unreliable than the moves appears if the Pit's neutral air wasn't programmed by an intern and had hitboxes that lined up with the animation connected properly and had reasonable hits done on the multi-hits it would be great and likely a top 5 neutral air in the game at a minimum as is it's still the Pit's best move and at the very least narrants are going to be helping me Pat Out video run times for however long it takes us to get Smash 6. I swear to God if smash 6 comes around and it still looks like this I'm just chucking these characters in the dumpster like I'm not even unlocking them zero suits Samus has a bit of a weird ambiguous play style but one thing she's unambiguously great at is running away and flip jump is the main factor behind that this third long-ranged arcing jump which she gets on top of her two already great standard jumps doesn't put Samus into free fall and has invincibility on Startup for some reason making it arguably the single best move in the entire game for getting out of disadvantage State that's not even including the fact that trying to challenge it and guessing wrong can get you buried in the ground we're just talking about his defensive use here though the flip jump also comes with an optional kick that hits very hard especially on its Sweet Spot delivering a powerful Spike that enables kill confirms even at extremely early percents it's pretty easy to just land at Raw too thanks to being attached to such a potent Mobility tool and while getting The Sweet Spot can feel a bit specific the SAR spot reward is still solid and you can't really complain that much about such a fantastic movement option coming with an upside the jump alone would still probably be enough to call it the best tool in Zero Suit samus's Arsenal getting stuck in disadvantage stated as a death knell for many characters and is an entire phase of the game that she gets to borderline skip entirely on offense meanwhile the mobility aspect allows her to go as deep as she wants for an edge guard generally still making it back first and retaining stage control even if she whiffs or decides to pull the plug on the idea Wario has some scary moves but let's be real it's waft that makes him terrifying it's got a long charge time sure even if chomping on something or someone does bring it down by a second but the weight is well worth it at full charge waft is a massive armored hitbox that kills famously early already a great feature but what puts it over the top is that it can be comboed into by many of Wario's best moves his long lasting weirdly disjointed up tilt yep that'll do it what about following up there one of the safest moves on shield in the entire game and my runner-up choice for the title that works too his bike yeah sure why not situational but it does the job just fine neutral air and of course we don't just have to talk about these one two sequences one of Wario's big strengths and ultimate is the way his Aerials chain into each other potentially letting him drag opponents across the entire stage and if he has waft charged you can bet that's how his combo is wrapping up waft is so strong and so reliable that against the Wario who's good with the confirms an opponent is playing more of a two and a half stock or two and a quarter stock game to Wario's three two and an eighth maybe or potentially even less because the waft doesn't need to be at full charge to be potent games decided by multiple wafts aren't the standard but you'll certainly see them pop up waft has always been an amazing move that's been held back a bit by a lot of the rest of Wario's kit being unremarkable but in Ultimate where he actually has a lot of really strong duels to go alongside it Yates snake's best move is the one that completely dictates the pace of every game he plays his grenades at a glance this projectile seems relatively innocuous snake can't dictate when it goes off its damage and knockback are pretty modest and it damages him too then you start thinking about how it spawns on frame 1 faster than any air Dodge in the game and attacking it sets it off even if snake is still holding it giving him a combo breaker that few characters can match up with or the fact that on top of having three different trajectories that can be thrown in and being able to walk back and forth while holding an active grenade out snake can also drop it with shield and even pick it back up afterwards meaning that its placement is actually incredibly fluid try to attack him or his shield while he was holding a grenade well that was probably a mistake especially when considering that the grenades relatively low knockback actually makes it great for setting up into his devastating Aerials you can't attack snake like any other character and learning to space around the grenades is a big part of learning the match-up god brawl players were smug about this in the early ultimate days you can't even Pummel him if he's holding a grenade just grab him throw be careful not to get grabbed by him if he's approaching with a grenade in hand though remember anything that cancels into Shield cancels in the grab and then to top things off grenades are also be reversible giving snake a mix-up and disadvantage that he sorely needs it's true that snake will usually take a fair amount of grenade damage himself over the course of a match but he's a heavy character with a particularly lethal Arsenal so both players being hit simultaneously Works in his favor more often than not the magic number is 160 percent because after opponents reach that he has a universal kill confirmed with down throw into up tilt but moves like raw up tilt or Nikita and disadvantage stage also heavily incentivize building opponents damage up at any cost an area that grenades excel in pre-patch icon ultimate was unanimously understood to be neutral air the character and even though neutral air received a Nerf to its combo potential later on in the game's life it still likes best move a lot of its combo potential remains intact from simple early percent bread and butters two ladder combos at Mid percent to some kill confirms later on that did survive the Nerf up American firms actually start killing earlier now because neutral air pops opponents higher up although this does make the windows a lot tighter than they used to be or you can just use the back hit its knockback was never touched or go for ether the same patch that toned down neutral air also turned that thing into a beast of a kill move assuming you're not in position to just go for any other side that's always been a thing and it's always been funny neutral air is obviously great because of the reward at Grand psych but also because it provides an all-encompassing disjoint with massive range and very little Landing lag a tool that not many characters have access to now as a disclaimer this is largely a landing area only not entirely but still dealing with more of a limitation than most neutral errors its slow speed makes it close to useless out of shield and while it has some reward when done Rising it becomes much more limited it's also a move that can be parried more reliably than a lot of Aerials which has become more and more of a serious concern as The Meta has evolved are these legitimate weaknesses of the move that iplayers need to account for sure do they make Ike's neutral air anything less than excellent no Pokemon his best move is they're down special Pokemon change which enables the character's fundamental game plan but that's a lame answer so let's do the Pokemon individually instead I'd give Squirtles forward till the title a fast and very safe combo tool that pairs well with his ground speed its most important role by far is leading into grab because his throws start all of his best low percent Combos and that's the main thing that Squirtle does for the trio this made me seriously consider one of squirtle's two combo throws or one of the several moves they lead into for the title as well but ultimately they're a bit interchangeable and squirrel needs some kind of way to pressure Shield if he's gonna land grabs to begin with and forward tilt is custom built for that purpose it's only six frames negative on shield and that's a number almost unheard of for Grounded moves it's safer than a lot of very good Aerials forward tilt also enables Tech chases later on and fishing for these tends to be one of the main ways that squirrel tries to close out stocks although this wasn't a major consideration given that the other Pokemon tend to cover this area much more Ivysaur does get a stock taking move for my choice though her absolutely colossal and absurdly Powerful up there the strength of this move is obvious just by looking at its hitbox seriously what the hell is that but the danward's momentum that it gives ivy can also be very useful because it makes ladder combos exceptionally reliable essentially performing the fast fall for her while she's still in the animation a lot more leads into up air than simply another up air though which helps turn Ivy into a very lethal character and not even the area she's necessarily supposed to specialize in Ivysaur is set up as the zoner of the trio and I did consider razorly for the spotlight it's a great projectile which leads into a lot of powerful combos but come on seriously look at this thing there's not even a sour spot on there either unlike Charizard's back air which has a relatively tame sour spot everywhere but at the Flaming tip of his tail let me tell you though that flame that's a hell of a flame and it's perched on the end of a very long sword-like disjoint Charizard tends to be the most Niche Pokemon of the three so this was the toughest choice on the list part of what he's used for is Rock kill power and that's a base that back here covers incredibly well that said you don't just switch to Charizard because you want an early kill sometimes it's for his survivability because he's the heaviest of the three sometimes you need to switch to him to make it back to the stage or to avoid a combo sometimes you just get stuck with him on your rotation back to Squirtle Charizard isn't always fishing for super early kills and some very good Pokemon trainer players rarely use them unless they're forced to in which case it may be more suitable to give the title to his up smash one of the fastest in the game but still serves as a decent kill move when it comes down to brass tacks though I think squeezing the most out of Pokemon trainer means squeezing the most out of every Pokemon and the players that do make more frequent use of Charizard often do it by abusing back air still not the most multifaceted move on this list but it does what it needs to do Diddy Kong has been one of the most consistently threatening characters throughout the history of Smash and a lot of this comes down to the fundamentally oppressive nature of his banana peel the exact Logistics of how it works may have fluctuated over the years but the core concept of an item that causes opponents to slip and can therefore combo into his entire move set has remained sound every time ultimate's iteration has some particularly interesting quirks though because the banana no longer clanks with other hitboxes a property called Transcendent priority it deals with a lot of moves in a way that other item projectiles don't they're relatively weak Shield game in Ultimate means that access to both Diddy's Snappy Auto Shield toss speed or his jump into zedrop are extremely valuable assets its most notable trait though is that it now lingers even after the first time hitting an opponent making even the aerial version of the PLS staple combo extender that leads into some of Diddy's best damage the double toss enables some interesting extensions on platforms as well particularly by incorporating the pulling animation although thankfully the infinite that did he used to to be able to do aka the pyramid scheme was patched out not long after it was discovered I heard a lot of people downplay its power for a while like to a weird degree but yeah I don't think that needed to stick around even so the banana peel has a level of sheer versatility all its own which helps make it one of the best item projectiles in the game once again a move category that's already very stacked Lucas has an impressive moveset I say he's got one of the most underrated kits in the game and one move that goes seriously above and beyond is his rope snake aerial tether or is there it's a very solid tether that goes much farther than it looks like it should a great tool for a character with an otherwise exploitable recovery while also having low enough knockback to make it a phenomenal combo starter The X Factor of this attack though is the way that it interacts with his double jump zare can be used to perform a double jump cancel to keep Lucas very low to the ground which allows him to carry opponents fully across the stage from any position before adding it off with a conferment of something else Lucas has some of the better Edge guarding in the game between special moves like PK Thunder and PK freeze or very low hitting normals like forward tilt and dance Mash to cover the ledge so the ability to put opponents into that position from anywhere off a low risk option is fantastic and I really do mean low risk the snake is somehow only negative 2 1 Shield which also makes it one of the better reversal moves if Lucas finds himself on the ledge the risk reward for using it is extremely favorable double jump canceling also opens up some other more General Mobility options for Lucas and there's something called The Snake Dash on top of that a frame perfect technique that pushes an already technical move even further but wasn't necessary for the choice you'd think the character with the fastest ground speed would have a playstyle dominated by grounded normals but it's actually two special moves Sonic side special the spin dash and dance special the spin charge that he's most known for in Ultimate both of these are absurdly useful quick versatile burst movement options both of them start combos that lead to a lot of Sonic's more rewarding plays and there's more to both of them than first meets the eye spin dash has an advanced technique that can be done off stage but consumes Sonic's double spin charges Advanced technique has to be done from the ground but doesn't consume a double jump spin charge is also the less committal move if Sonic changes his mind about rushing forward it positions opponents more reliably since it drags them along with him the uncharged one is quicker and more direct to initiate it's got a lot going in its favor spin dash meanwhile is more committal but is also really really really good for camping because it gets invincibility on Startup unlike spin charge and the Hop it does makes it harder to pin down Sonic already camps when the occasion calls for it he's the character in Ultimate best known for playing to the clock but I think if we're talking purely about optimization then Sonic players should actually be doing it even more so even though spin charge maybe tends to be used a bit more often in practice I guess I'll give it to spin dash look just pick the one you want we all know they're copy paste jobs anyways choosing a best move for Kane DDD turned out to be kind of weird he's got an unusual playstyle centered around multi-jump Mix-Ups but very slow bobbing multi-jumps on a fast Faller and then ledge trapping afterwards a lot of his moves are a bit on the situational side and fit comfortably into one of those situations whereas his inhale on the other hand does the job in both phases very comfortably when mixing up his movement in the air it means that opponents can't just freely close in on him to catch his Landing not in the face of a be reversible command grab with a persistent hitbox to catch Shields and spot Dodges in the ledge strapping phase it likewise removes an opponent's ability to safely Shield which can be a big problem against gordos and the persistent hitbox can catch the vast majority of ledge options an opponent can choose from they probably won't be super happy to get caught in one closer to the ledge no matter what though it is an inhale move and those have been choosing Smash games up for a very long time a more recent addition is the move's ability to catch and send back projectiles in previous Smash games King DDD struggled enormously against the projectile camping and this new functionality of inhale that ultimate introduced made that far less of a concern it even works with his own gordos whether he opts to just catch them himself or defend against an opponent swatting them back at him quarters were a very close Contender for the choice here by the way they're a big part of why ddd's ledge game is so scary but this ability to send them back is a major liability and using inhale smartly is a big part of managing that if we're being literal olimar's best move has to be his neutral special Pikmin pluck because he literally wouldn't function as a character without it and after that his Pikmin whistle dance special which is how he organizes them you know those are kind of meh even if the whistle does have armor on it so I guess I'll talk about a runner-up that'd have to be side special the Pikmin toss it shares a lot of Duties with his forward smash with both moves being about bombarding your opponent with Pikmin from a distance but the much higher range of Pitman toss makes it safer to use even if unlike his smash attack it doesn't cause Flinch with anything besides a purple Pikmin the damage from latching Pikmin onto his opponent starts racking up very quickly and they can be beaten Away by some characters much better than others but doing this is disruptive by nature and is even worse because hitting the Pikmin induces hit lag which slows moves down and messes with timings on top of being a staple pressure tool Pegman tosses range speed and aerial usage also make it a very good way to voluntarily sacrifice Pikmin to make room to build a better lineup something that good all of our players are very Adept at Lucario's best move in my eyes is undoubtedly Aura Sphere the heartbeat of his kit as far as these big chargeable ball projectiles go it's pretty tame at a glance but as Lucario starts taking damage and his Aura mechanic starts kicking in the projectile grows and becomes stronger at high Aura it's extremely powerful and large enough to easily hit the ledge making it one of the scarier projectiles in the game that's all well and good but it's the unique charge hitbox which makes aura's fear distinct from similar attacks a hitbox which also grows and becomes more dangerous with aura this can be extremely disruptive and has a lot of creative combo routes out of it many of which end in his opponent's stock evaporating or a sphere would be a great asset on any character but because Lucario in particular has some of the best air physics in the game it gets all the stronger as be reversing and jump canceling become fantastic movement tools this is all after Aura Sphere was nerfed in a patch to bring its hit stun down which did hurt there's no sugar coating that but it's still not a move that you can underestimate Rob has kind of an insane tool kit and a lot of his best plays involve stringing multiple potent tools together in interesting ways but neutral air is so good in so many scenarios that I just had to go with it while slow to Startup and vulnerable to parrying compared to many of its peers if it's not parried it's rare for it to ever be punished with its ludicrously low end lag and great range and for that matter sometimes even if it is parried the range of the flame combined with the flip that Rob performs gives it fantastic coverage which makes it useful in everything from neutral to ledge trapping juggling to getting juggled and connecting it allows robbed combo into a lot of simple stuff notably including his highly damaging and potentially even lethal rotor arm too much more complicated extended kill confirms that incorporate zedrop Gyro in various ways these types of combos may look like one of those fancy maybe in the future things I've been bringing up throughout the video but a lot of them actually aren't that hard to do and you already see them pop up quite frequently in high level play this is not theoretical Tech the main issue here is actually with the gyro itself Rob's gonna be holding it less often than most item projectiles because their setup time involved I do think that just blatantly fishing for neutral air combos like Rob tends to do is probably going to keep getting less viable over time as people continue to work parrying into their game plan more which means you could argue in favor of something like his notoriously safe and rewarding downtill which I think is Rob's highest quality Standalone move or the gyro which is fantastic even with that setup requirement take a look at any Rob match though and you're going to see neutral air being used as the answer for a dumb amount of situations including killing it also kills he needs it tuning is the quickest of the Three Links that we now have an ultimate which he abuses to great effect with his bomb he has no trouble creating openings to pull one before throwing it and rushing in behind it and it's set up to be one of the best straightforward combo projectiles in the game with its low knockback growth and great launch angle at low percents it leads into a pretty solid combo game and this only gets better as an opponent's percentage climbs later on bomb into Forward Air in particular is something of a signature kill confirm bombs can also be planted on the ground or are thrown into the air stillaid traps for some added utility and you can do a bit of fancy stuff with them thanks to how floaty they are allowing for some recap sequences and the like that's all good stuff but just the fundamental nature of a safe projectile that's rewarding on hit is enough to give this lot to bombs this really applies to his bow and Boomerang as well as the fastest link with the slowest floatiest most persistent projectiles he's by far the best of the three at putting up that traditional zoner's sludge for an opponent to Wade through that said if bombs Do It Best and are usually the scariest to misstep against Wolf's an interesting character clearly meant to be a brawler but also pulling in bits and pieces from The Sword fighter book and Forward Air showcases the swell it's an arcing claw slash with a sword-like disjoint that starts combos in the same vein as something like Sheiks a hard mix to complain about it's amazing just how many things this combo is into from simple Forward Air chains across the stage to a delayed up pair if you see an opportunity to start a ladder combo to down air for a kill opportunity off stage or just to kill some characters outright to back air for one of Wolf's most ubiquitous kill confirms a lot of these work because wolf is another character with Incredible air physics a trait which also makes the threat bubble of this move a lot bigger everything I've listed would be considered bread and butter for any solid wolf player but at just the right percent you can opt for Wilder stuff like Forward Air into wolf flash kamikazes or even Forward Air into back air into wolf flash you know just in case you were feeling flashy shut up man shut up Forward Air is an indispensable part of both Wolf's simplest fundamentals and his most degenerate nonsense sounds like a good move to me while we're on forward areas a villager has an unusual projectile on his which does a great job keeping opponents away it's got a bit of combo used to boost it in the rankings and its close range Sweet Spot will also kill eventually but really its primary goal is mid-range harassment and it's good at its job villagers got a bit of an approach game if he wants it but he's a zoner when all said and done what better way to show that off than by letting him shoot you even while he's in the air well actually maybe by letting him shoot you while he's in the air and his back is facing you this slingshot concept gets shared with his back air and they each have their own nuances backyard has a bit more damage than Forward Air can manage which adds up over a match and kills more effectively with its close range sweet spot but is also slightly slower to come out and less safe on Shield although with projectile Aerials that's a bit less of a concern than usual they still do essentially the same thing so you can make an argument for choosing a more distinct move as if they lost access to one they could just kind of keep on trucking with the other I damn played the Lloyd rocket earlier it's actually kind of an insane approach tool that a lot of characters would kill for and that villager does make good use of but a lot of what he's doing with it is supporting his slingshot that mid-range strategy is just so fundamental to his playstyle you can honestly think of both slingshot moves as a package deal I'm just choosing what I think is the slightly better one to fit the format of the video and forward our speed and extra bit of utility and combos gives it the edge even if back air might be slightly higher quality Standalone both of them are pretty much equally annoying and at the end of the day that's their ultimate purpose while we're on annoying things Mega Man once again excels in the mid-range game this time thanks to a Non-Stop barrage from his Mega Buster a move that he splits between jab forward tilt and neutral air neutral air is the best of the three it's inherently got better coverage with less commitment and has a separate launcher hitbox closer to Mega Man that the grounded moves lack this is another projectile that primarily excels at harassment without too much additional utility to worry about on top of that the lemons never let an opponent feel like they've got room to breathe and a lot of his other moves are great at punishing attempts to try and get around them a close honorable mention Metal Blade here it has way more utility and I certainly did consider it but the Mega Buster is just way too integral to Mega Man's game plan Wii Fit trainer's header is a move with a simple concept throw a ball at your opponent throwing stuff at your opponent is usually a good idea in Smash and this does it well but take a closer look and it starts getting deeper than that it grants her quite a bit of aristol which works for off-stage situations like Edge guarding recovering or chucking balls at your opponent from the ledge but on top of that it also enables combos if you hit your opponent without a close range which there are setups into or if you hit the close range Sweet Spot the header itself can also Spike and that's just if you opt for the full move Wii Fit trainer can also cancel the launch early which leads the ball free to be manipulated in all sorts of interesting ways by her unorthodox yoga pose attacks this isn't nearly as big a staple for Wii Fit trainer as it is for some other characters with manipulable projectiles but there's still plenty of opportunity for tricky plays add all these up and whether we're talking the most out there setups or straightforward plays that we fit trainer wants to make hitter consistently appears as a centerpiece I know a lot of people will argue in favor of deep breathing which was upgraded in Ultimate to give her what is yes some undeniably strong damage and kill power while the buff is active that while its active part is the catch though we fit trainer is ultimately only going to have the buff for a small portion of the match and she's not well equipped to force a lot of interactions while she does she's not that quick even with the speed boost that it provides and her hitboxes aren't that big in practice its biggest role is less the dramatic combo stuff and a more turning we fit trainer from a character who can really struggle to kill into a character with pretty reasonable kill power that's certainly good and it's obviously a good move but it doesn't magically solve all of her problems and I'd still say that header is more impactful on average for Rosalina I'd probably have to give the title to neutral special Luma shot and Luma recall but as with Olimar or Pokemon trainer I'm gonna try and avoid this kind of basic functionality move instead let's go with her neutral air Rosalina's neutral air is a bit as straightforward as it comes it's an all-encompassing circle with her disjointed wand and its knockback is low enough to create combos at a wide range of percents those traits are already very good but of course we also need to add Luma into the mix which comes with a different neutral air of its own this adds a lot more damage to the attack and luma's gentle hit can reliably chain into rosalinas to make the most of it then we start getting into the more complicated stuff like the fact that Rosalina can initiate a dash attack and then cancel hers with a jump but Luma will continue its own Dash attack there's a lot of cool stuff you can do with this it's called an attack cancel and Rosalina makes the best use of it of anyone in the game but neutral air is a fantastic one for all-purpose coverage just look at how much space this takes up and how many options it can pin down both during the attack and in the scenario it sets up and neutral air is also one of the best tools for something called a lunar Landing another way to desync the two characters by initiating a neutral air just before Rosalina touches the ground her attack won't come out but Lumas will and you can even desync them while she's stuck in free fall to get some protection on the way down again these things can be and are done with other Aerials as well but neutral Air's combination of coverage and follow-up potential makes it a go-to Rosalina is a Walling character and it's a wall that Loom has build and both of their neutral layers put in a lot of work in different ways Little Mac has some pretty notorious moves in Smash including his incredibly dangerous forward smash which comes equipped with traits like armor and Shield breaking potential and of course his Infamous KO punch one of the most polarizing moves in Smash history those are great moves and probably the first ones to pop into people's heads when they think of him but I think his best move is something a bit more subdued the jolt Haymaker as great as little Max forward smash may be in my opinion is the best one in the game if looked at in a vacuum in practice Max still tends to lean on his tilts much more often and jolt Haymaker is a big part of what he's trying to earn from this for a long time it's great vertical coverage is what enables this and that makes it a fast powerful burst movement tool with anti-air properties on top a potent combination it beats basically any movement option other than running directly away from it and it also beats a lot more attacks than it looks like it should due to a very generous disjoint on the hitbox oh and invincibility on the first few frames that doesn't hurt either it can easily cover an entire platform as well a position Little Mac is good at putting opponents in and one that they'll often voluntarily Retreat to themselves in the match-up having what's functioning a surrogate Ariel quite often and a really good one at that is a powerful tool for a character who famously has the worst traditional Aerials in the series history and of course it's also a recovery option and a pretty solid one because it doesn't put Mac into Free Fall giving him recovery Mix-Ups that are trickier to cover than they may first appear now he doesn't get jolt Haymaker back even if he's hit out of it until he touches the ground which is a major weakness most recovery moves don't have that essentially turns it into a death sentence if exploited but it's still pretty good for Recovery duties in a video that doesn't take recovery into heavy consideration that's not to say that Little Mac has one of the game's best recoveries clearly he doesn't but jolt haynaker is the last thing to blame there from just starting to get his gloves dirty to when he's starting to look for kills to when his opponent is trying to kill him jolt Haymaker is frequently the Saving Grace at all stages of little Max game which in my eyes gives it the edge over more exciting moves that come up more often in conversations about him Greninja was an interesting one because his mom ability is probably his greatest asset he has some very good moves with high reward but they tend to be fairly specific requiring him to abuse his movement to get into just the right spot first grinding just Dash attack is one of his more forgiving moves though while still providing great reward and allowing him to take advantage of his movement it's one of the fastest and safest Dash attacks in the game and a phenomenal whiff Punisher as a result at early percent it starts a lot of his most important combos most notably leading into up air which can result in a very long chain and potentially even death it's a very good move in its own right though likewise pairs well with greninja's great movement in this case his jump height later on dash attack's true combo potential admittedly does start fading but even without a guaranteed kill it still works well to create 50 50s and various other setups that he can take advantage of neutral Air True combos for much longer and was a good contender in its own right but it requires very tight spacing and isn't effective at all as a rising tool contributing to greninja's weak options if he's pinned down and forced a shield it's a great pressure tool if his opponent is the one shielding but Dash attack's long burst range and quick Frame data can make it surprisingly slippery in this role as well smash ultimate is full of this kind of flying sidekick neutral air and they're basically all very good I'm actually surprised it's taken this long to elect one properly the drought ends here though me Brawler's neutral air is absurd even among its peers its frame data is amazing coming out in a measly three frames and its sweet spot is only negative two on Shield so literally nothing in the entire game can punish it if it's spaced properly its sour spot isn't far behind at only negative three either that sour spot is the Real Money Maker here it's got so little knockback that me brawler can combo out of it for an exceptionally long time into everything from his burst options special moves to his potent smash attacks pair that with a blistering fastball speed that makes them more than primed to mix up Aerials with unreactable timing and you've got a golden example of this ubiquitous move anytime brawler is in your face he feels incredibly oppressive not to write off The Sweet Spot mind you it's even got some kill power to go without exceptional safety I looked at a variety of his other great up close attacks which there are a fair amount of as well as the faint jump his Zero Suit Samus knock off but me brawler came to brawl and neutral air does the job like nothing else me sword fighter was a tricky one because out of all the me's I think he's the one where moves power levels vary the most depending on what other moves he's running it's also a bit of a weird case because despite literally having sword fighter in the name this character frequently plays more like a zoner than anything else and yet trying to choose a zoning tool is hard Gale strike is one of his more common specials that you see pop up a slow-moving combo projectile but it's also not very safe kind of hard to land sometimes and is competing with the shuriken of light for the neutral special slot and the more time goes on the more I think that opting for the shuriken is a totally valid option and potentially even the better one and yet if you choose to go with that then suddenly shock rum a move I was also considering starts to become a bit redundant even if it's soft throw combo ability still lets it do something totally unique then when it comes to actual sword moves you've got down tilt which has genuinely excellent Frame data and some reward but that reward just starts falling off way too quickly it's safe but it spends the majority of the game doing a few percent and putting opponents into a mediocre disadvantaged state that sword fighter isn't the best at capitalizing on not quite cutting it then there's his odd link inspired Forward Air which has some pretty good drag down stuff but this isn't that safe to go for and in more general terms the move's not too exciting a bit slow and stubby without incredible reward I think I've got to go with up air here in a vacuum this is an excellent aerial it kills fairly early with its Sweet Spot then has a lingering sour spot that enables combos on the sword fighters kit specifically it's not put to its best use unless he specifically chosen Gale strike where it then becomes a stable confirm because otherwise sword fighters limited Mobility can make it rough to get the narrow hitbox underneath an opponent it's still something he does though rough doesn't mean impossible so it's at least reasonable as a standalone move outside of moveset Synergy oh and for anyone who wants to bring the down throw up Eric he'll confirm into play yeah sorry that's not really a thing it'll catch people off guard who don't know the matchup which to be fair is a good chunk of them but simply diying away kills it completely and sword fighter doesn't have a powerful forward throw that would punish the eyeing away and force 50 50s in the same way that say the pits can near the ledge provided you know this and can react to the entire sequence of being grabbed and thrown you'll be fine that's not to say it's never gonna work so not only is it a rare matchup but the damn throw animation is also pretty quick reactable in a lab consistently but not always under the cognitive load of a stressful tournament set second choice here is actually one of me sword fighters up specials the Skyward slash Dash a move that I was seriously considering to the point where it showed up in one draft of the script between its fast startup great travel distance freely selectable angle and coverage in front from The Sword I think I'd actually call it one of the best pure recovery moves in the game it's a solid burst option on top of that and you see this pop up pretty frequently and its multi-hit nature can also be abused to score some chanky kills that said recovery isn't my biggest concern and while this is probably the least contestant of any of his special move slots you still do occasionally see a sword fighter player pull out something else and do work with it even if the Skyward slash Dash is relatively ubiquitous at this point he's always going to have up there and it's always going to have weight behind it so it's the choice but I've got to say this one was closer than I expected Forward Air encapsulates what me Gunner is all about shooting stuff and running away the shooting stuff comes from its exceptional range which believe it or not is actually a Nerf from its previous appearance but still plenty enough to provide pressure at a distance the Running Away part comes from The Recoil it creates which can be used to provide Mobility options that are pretty much unique among this category of move Gunner has some very good projectile specials as well like you'd expect from a pure zoner but it's a bit hard to single just one of them out there are multiple very valid choices in each move slot and some of them work very well alongside Forward Air it's a signature move for the character no matter what moves that she's rocking a mid-range harassment tool like we've already looked at with additional utility pelotana has a famously forgiving and rewarding neutral air that creates unreasonable damage output early on allowing for a single move to easily lead into 50 or more after that initial burst of damage though I think that back area is actually the more impactful move for more of the game this does pretty much everything you could ever ask scenario to do it's fast it's safe it's a combo starter at earlier presents a convo Ender for longer than that and then a kill move later on and of course it's another aerial with a unique trait in this case the invinced ability that the shield provides meaning that palatina is essentially unchallengeable from positions that no other character can replicate in the air and on the ground it'd be exaggerating to say that the invincibility constantly comes into play directly but part of this is because it fundamentally changes how her opponents have to interact with her when you're facing palatina's back you're not just free to attack her if you do and you guess wrong on the timing she wins that exchange simple as that and her opponent knows this and she knows that her opponent knows this which she can then exploit yeah that's pretty good and it's just one more good thing getting stacked on top of the move's already great properties for winning exchanges in neutral its frame data its disjoint neutral air was obviously still a heavy Contender despite everything that Baker brings to the table and not just because of its early Loops although those don't hurt there's no stage of the game where it becomes a bad or even average move there aren't many frame five persistent disjoints you'd be able to say that about and it's even got dragged down setups alongside that and a universal kill confirm into up tilt back here is a Workhorse Juggernaut and one of the best Walling Aerials in ultimate though especially when paired with palutena's high air acceleration allowing her to weave in and out and threaten a huge amount of space with little commitment Pac-Man is a character that takes a lot of brain power to master and this largely comes from the ridiculous amount of options and setups that bonus fruit provides he gets to choose the one he wants he gets to store it for later and they all have a place the first several fruits provide straightforward no-nonsense pressure with a variety of very useful travel arcs the melon provides a persistent lethal trap galaxian provides silly combos that a zoner has no right to be doing at any time for any reason Belle is possibly the scariest of all of them a simple stun tool with great coverage the Pac-Man can take fantastic advantage of and key is an even simpler fast and extra extremely dangerous item toss it's when they start interacting with his other moves like the hydrant with its Collision physics or power pellet to enable scarier kill confirms that can be extended to places he normally couldn't reach when you start to really appreciate just how insane bonus fruit actually is this gets exaggerated even further by Pac-Man's floaty physics great recovery and an ability to hide behind this hydrant making it easy to find time to snag just the fruit that he wants Pac-Man is kind of a strange design in Ultimate he's a zoner who also has amazing Close Quarters tools and arguably the best grab in the game but he's still considered to be a zoner first and foremost bonus fruit is just that good Robin's another character with some great melee duels when the 11 sword is up and running but is again a zoner at heart and arcfire is a hell of a zoning tool its persistent large hitbox makes it one of ultimate's better ledge trapping options and that persistence also pressures opponents into shield and makes it one of Robin's better combo starters the high starting point of the move is a good part of what makes it so strong is it creates a diagonal angle which covers a lot of air space this also allows Robin to chain one Arc fire into another high into the air before finishing things off with that aforementioned 11 sword Levin sword attacks are undoubtedly a big part of what Robin's looking to land but with such poor movement using projectiles either to facilitate approaches or Force more predictable approaches from an opponent can make this go a lot smoother as a result the other competitor for the title was unsurprisingly Robin's Thunder Tome but I think arcfire does the job a bit better both tomes have a resource management component like the majority of Robin's moves which is undeniably a negative balancing Factor overall but it does at the very least create a book that can be thrown at people the fire Tome has a reasonably generous limit on it and it's only shared with Robin's fiery jab a solid move in its own right but hardly a staple of the character yeah shulk's best move is monot Awards I think most ultimate players know the drill here Buster art creates exceptionally oppressive combos with shulk's reduced knockback and increased damage output speed art makes him a menace on the ground jump art a menace in the air smash art gives him some of the best kill power in the entire game and even turns his throws into kill throws huge deal for a character who can force opponents to Shield so easily and as for shield art that's right we're gonna cheat yeah monado Arts can be activated even when shulk isn't hit stun a bizarre trait that he puts to Great use with Shield art in particular to break out of Combos and kill confirms that literally any other character would be stuck in and then the really crazy stuff starts coming out like milk which cancels the lag he'd normally suffer when Landing an aerial into the animation of a monado art activating this animation is fully interruptible which makes his already safe Aerials even safer or buffer deactivation where you start canceling out of a monado art during another animation and cueing you up to get say the reduced knockback of Buster art on one hit to let it combo into another attack and then let the attack it combos into rip at full power or dial storage where shell can open the monado wheel part way cancel the animation and then for some reason the time he spent doing that is credited to him the next time he goes to open the wheel and because opening the wheel cancels all Landing lag being able to do it quickly create some pretty nutty stuff like Melee ask wave dashes there's way more to it than I'm gonna try and cover here Smash 4 shock was better known for abusing Advanced monado attack as the bus to shulk's Frame data and the Arts themselves and ultimate made it less necessary but there is definitely a lot to dig your teeth into as a shulk Mane if you do want to go for it not that any of this really makes that much of a difference anyways even at the most Bare Bones fundamental level monado Arts is still easily one of the most broken moves in Smash history Bowser Jr's game plan is largely centered around his side special the clown card Dash It's a crucial Mobility tool between its speed and ability to be canceled into a jump a jump that notably doesn't take up Junior's double jump if done in the air the mobility of the clown car does a solid job compensating for what would otherwise be an extremely sluggish character and this jump cancel ability also allows it to be used as a good combo tool if it's lingering hitbox connects the card can additionally be canceled with a skid maneuver that comes with a much stronger hitbox a bit of a risky option but potentially a very rewarding one this kid has its place in Mobility as well because it doesn't prevent Junior from spawning another card afterwards meaning that if he pulls out all the stops on what the move is capable of he can cover some very impressive distances and moving around gets even easier thanks to a bit of armor on the cart this armor doesn't come into play that often it'll only block moves that deal around 10 percent and doesn't apply to Junior himself just the cart but it's a nice bonus thrown onto it's already a very good tool despite also having a fantastic disjointed combo oriented up air that frequently starts opponent stalks off at 60 plus damage or a projectile trap that doubles up as a traditional item pole Mobility makes everything else in your kit better and the clown car dash is the key to creating many opportunities for those other moves to shine duckon's trick shot is one of the more interesting and skill testing projectiles in the game spawning an explosive can that gets continuously shot by pressing the special button again and works even if duck gun is performing a different action this unique functionality and malleability makes it a staple of pretty much everything duck hunt wants to do their neutral is centered around manipulating the can most of their best combos are focused around knocking an opponent into the can they use the can when they're recovering to make challenging them difficult they use the can to intercept opponents who are trying to recover and because it spawns on frame 1 it can be used similarly to snakes grenades to mutually assured destruction themselves out of combos that most characters couldn't escape from how will you manipulate the can probably determines how good of a duck hunt player you are it's a move that starts off melting your brain but then does the same to your opponent once you start getting control over it Ryu and Ken are a bit of a difficult case do you opt for their insanely powerful pressure and combo tools or their exceptionally powerful kill options let's split things down the middle Ken is typically considered to be the more aggressive of the two and also tends to have a bit more of a focused goal Orlando shoryuken he's got a lot of very solid ways to confirm into it and unlike Ryu the multi-hit nature of the fiery Shore you can mix it natural to throw out as an invincible anti-air even against very high opponents as the rising hits always lead into the potent finisher well that's the theory anyways the move is very good but yeah it does have consistency issues this multi-hit nature also sets it up well to take advantage of Ken's ladder combos that he can perform with his upwards kick which Ryu can kind of replicate but not nearly as routinely or impressively and finally is obviously a recovery move and while his trajectory is pretty limited it does offer some protection with its high hitbox even if that's not necessarily always the absolute best thing to have Ryu meanwhile has a bit more of a diverse and the goal than Ken for the most part he can and frequently does you sure you can but a lot of the time he'll also end up opting for tatsumaki so instead I'll choose a move that routinely leads into both of these down tilt with the ability to cancel it into special moves a trait unique to the traditional fighting game characters and ultimate this would already be one of the best grounded moves in the game let alone coming with a hard and soft variant to choose from the latter of which having some of ultimate's absolute best Frame data on any attack period oh that's right he also cheats thanks to the auto turnaround mechanic that both you and can get in Solo fights Ryu is more of a neutral-focused character than Ken and a lot of that comes from the great pressure that is neutral special hadoken and Shaka netsu provides but I definitely think downtilled is the more impactful move overall if I were gonna make any change to this segment it'd actually be to also give Ken the downtell nod it's not like he doesn't abuse the hell out of it too but it's close so let's diversify things a little cloud has an impressive set of Aerials overall as with many sword fighters in Ultimate it's a keystone of the archetype but even among this crowd his back air is close to being in a league of its own it's huge it basically just doesn't have Landing lag which makes it negative three on shield and gives it nasty combo potential at earlier percents and then it also starts killing quite early despite how good a combo tool it starts out as not much more needs to be said here there's very little downside to spamming back air as much as humanly possible and Spargo the best cloud player in the world is famous for how much and how effectively he abuses it even among sword fighters with their Suite of great Aerials Corin is especially guilty of throwing them out constantly and up there is extra noteworthy for this purpose Corn's moves that is largely built around popping opponents upwards and this means that whether we're talking about true combos or stray hits up there frequently comes into play both as a combo enabler and as a juggling duel with its mix of great speed outrageous coverage and shockingly high power power that defies both the lackadaisical animation of the move and all of the other great attributes that already brought to the table it's suited for these purposes in a way that few attacks would be it's amazing hitbox also notably makes it particularly good at being used on the way down don't get me wrong most sword Arts are used in this way but a lot of the time they can feel a bit more awkward and specific to land than they intuitively should whereas this up air feels extremely generous and has great reward for a long time this includes comboing into one of the strongest and safest back airs in the game a move I was also considering but up airplanes decor and strengths a little bit better and has more use cases overall neutral air and Forward Air are part of what provide that strength both being great launchers with massive hitboxes and are certainly high quality moves but I think up air is a little higher quality and again the main thing that are looking to set up into with those is up air and then ideally more up airs Bayonetta is a very combo-centric character and there are two moves most responsible for this witch twist her up special and afterburner kick her side special realistically she absolutely needs both so there's not too much points settling on just one but since I have to I'll say afterburner kick it's the biggest single boost of Mobility that she gets which also means it's a bit more useful as a standalone combo extender alongside other moves especially because it's less susceptible to SDI and breaking your analog stick is an infamously crucial aspect of fighting her on the other hand wish twist is a six frame out of Shield option that she can use multiple times in the air so really we're splitting hairs here I originally planned to give the title to which twist solely because afterburner kick becomes heel slide if done on the ground and out of the three this is by far the weakest of them so it comes down to whether you count afterburner kick and heel slide as two separate moves which yeah I'm willing to inkling can be a very slippery character to try and get your hands on and some of this comes from her uniquely evasive movement but it also comes from how amazingly safe back air is with a great disjoint and minuscule Landing leg that makes it negative two on Shield it joins The elusive nothing in the game can punish me club and connecting it leads into combos for an impressively long time because of how low the knockback on the sour spot in particular is now this knockback is definitely a weakness as well inkling can have a hard time taking stocks and having a combo oriented back air is a big part of that the vast majority of them are kill moves having a heck of a Time killing is barking frog it does at least start Tech chases for a long time no substitute for direct killing but it's something and it's also a solid Edge guarding move which inkling can do very comfortably really took some time to think about but I ended up going with this funny looking forward tilt the animation may not look like much but if you take a look at the hitbox you can see that it's far bigger and more disjointed than you might expect and the Tipper sweet spot is very forgiving it's also pretty fast by Ridley standards at frame 10 and negative 10 on Shield is quite good for a grounded move a lot of characters would have trouble punishing it even without that exceptional range this makes forward tilt spammable in the neutral but one of his greatest strengths is using it to intercept opponents who are trying to recover the downward variant sticks well past and below the ledge for multiple frames making it a nasty two-frame tool Ripley's unusual neutral air was a contender here as well despite all the size comments made about him over the years a lot of his kit doesn't actually cover nearly as much space as you might expect and as neutral air is a prominent exception that sees a lot of use forward till gets plenty of use of its own though and the thing is a good amount of what neutral air does is just knock opponents off stage which Ridley routinely covers with both neutral air and forward tilt but neutral air simply resets the situation again while forward tilt is what actually closes out the stock neutral light does have some modest combo potential a nice application that forward till lacks entirely although its knocked back as horizontal and moderate and there's Limitless scenario is that it can combo in especially with a Tipper sweet spot that Ridley doesn't always want and can be a bit hard to control it doesn't help that the move is just barely safer on Shield than forward tilt you generally expect to see much more of a discrepancy between Aerials and grounded moves it's still a good staple tool and the decision was close in a case like this say the better of these two really fluctuates depending on the match up but I think forward tilt's quality is a bit higher Standalone so it takes the lead Simon and Richter's cross may not be the first Boomerang style move that we've seen in Smash but it's got some of the most interesting applications what really sets the cross apart is that it perfectly maintains this trajectory pretty much at all times it doesn't track where the Belmonts are at all on its return Journey it just continues in a straight line which makes the returning cross a highly consistent threat that opponents constantly have to be wary of and one that Belmont Mains are constantly prepared to capitalize on with some of the most elaborate and interesting setups that any zoner character has access to even if the cross hits their opponent reverse cross remains in the picture because it just keeps on chugging along and in fact once the reverse motion starts it gets even more resilient and starts eating through moves that would have blocked it on its way out thus not to downplay the crosses used as a typical projectile which it also does well but the sheer space coverage is what gives it the edge and it's extra useful on characters like the Belmonts who struggle to approach but Thrive once they've cornered their opponents both of which are scenarios that the cross helps cover the Bell months have attacks that cover a lot of scenarios better their long whip strikes for the space of their sides holy water to keep opponents stuck on the ledge but cross can touch all those bases and then some and using it in tandem with the more specific tools is a key part of generating their fantastic pressure or avoiding pressure you regularly see the Belmonts using the reverse cross to help themselves out of sticky situations as well King K rool actually has a boomerang of his own one that comes with a hefty dose of Armor and some interesting Tech behind it although I'm gonna go with another armored move neutral air as a super heavyweight fast follower King K rule should get absolutely torn to shreds in disadvantaged state and while I'm not saying he's the best character at landing on the roster neutral air is an invaluable move for evening this out the armor of course has its weaknesses it's only active on his belly and if it takes too much abuse it'll break and leave him wide open traits that are shared among the majority of his many armor moves but in practice neither of these tend to be major issues outside of the disadvantage help neutral Air's armor also makes it a strong Edge guarding move that can beat out a lot of recovery attempts and if connected on the ground it's a surprise really good combo tool this comes from a patch that significantly reduced its Landing lag giving him more time to act and also making it far safer on shield now being only negative four with The Sweet Spot Isabelle yeah sorry for the Bland option but I think I've just got to go with forward error again for all the same reasons as villager I think that Isabelle's frame 3 combo enabling jab is by far the most powerful move in her kit when judged Standalone but she's forced to lean on ledge trapping and some admittedly nice platform setups to make the most of it because she has nothing and I mean literally nothing to force her way in not even a Lloyd rocket to run behind like villager gets instead her Lloyd rocket gets planted in the ground as a trip mine and I did consider it she always wants to have one up and connecting it provides a lot of reward because of how long opponents are stuck for it's just a bit too exploitable with its delayed detonation though along with how easy it is to destroy it provides good stage control but nothing outrageously oppressive and even then a big part of what she wants to do is Camp behind it and fire off the slingshot her fishing rod was in the picture as well it's a good backup recovery move and she she gets a lot of reward off Landing it although she's not the best at setting up situations where it will land in the first place and at early percents the reward is Forward Air if it went through Shields it'd be your best move hands down but it doesn't and if we're being honest that's probably pretty good for the game's Health yeah for whatever it is Isabelle has even more of an incentive to play From a Distance than villager does and her slingshot is a massive part of why that strategy Works incinero's kit is fantastic so much so that even a character with the worst mobility in the entire game can go on some strong tournament runs an impressive accomplishment considering how crucial movement is in Smash my choice here was split between two moves the one that really punishes opponents for trying to keep him out and the one that really rewards him for getting in I'm opting for the latter and saying that incinero's best move is a LOL and whip his flying command grabs side special that kills outrageously early off the side Blast Zone can also set up juggles and kills off the top or it can be used to force an opponent further off stage depending on which timing incinerar chooses for his follow-up after the initial grab getting the option that you want means getting consistent with timing you want but for an experienced incident or player this should happen the vast majority of the time the window for The Sweet Spot back it is generous enough even if the timing does change by character a bit and the others are no-brainers now alolan Whip's best reward comes from first buffing incineroar with revenge and as a frame 3 counter that punishes opponents for trying to zone or juggle the slowest character in Ultimate not calling it his best move definitely took some thought it's part of why incinerar is able to get in and line up so many alolan whips to begin with exactly how good it is tends to vary a lot by match-up though it is a counter move and comes with the inherent risks of any counter if it's used against melee attacks and a lot of the time its practical payoffs can feel a bit fair with alolan whip being a massive exception the way that it scales with revenge is intentionally over the top and provides incineroar with among the highest single hit damage any character in the game can muster andalol and whip is a recovery move too it's not a great one barely goes anywhere but at least it doesn't put him into free fall and incinero takes what he can get piranha plan is a character that's often inspired mixed opinions regarding its viability over the years but whether you're a Believer or a doubter I've never heard anyone try and argue that patui isn't nuts it's an arcing projectile with physics which allows it to cover a lot of space with a huge amount of control over its trajectory and the reward for connecting it under even this most basic circumstance is very substantial connecting at a closer range pleases the plant even more because its massive hit stun makes it a great combo starter and extender not bad for a completely disjointed anti-air that does 17 piranha plant is generally less known for extended Combos and more for tricky setups and traps though and again this largely comes down to the versatility of patui used in tandem with moves like poison breath to force opponents to pick an option or use it to get back onto the stage yourself it's one of multiple special moves plant has that comes with an air stall and the trajectory is great for covering off stage angles regardless of which side plant is on this was one of the easiest choices in the video and that's before we start getting into weird Tech with multiple frame perfect inputs like the drop shot or the much funnier sounding follow which makes the attack recover much faster these are genuinely useful particularly the spallow but God are they hard to actually do this took a shameful amount of time to capture Joker for his neutral special he wields a gun that gun is Joker's best move it's a gun that's disruptive in neutral and racks up free damage a gun that trivializes the consequences of being in disadvantaged state a gun that edge guards for him without any risk from way above the stage a gun that provides multiple different ways to augment what was already some of the better Mobility that you could find in Ultimate and in the future potentially more regular use of the gun Loops he can perform that reliably lead into high damage chains or even stock losses although for the moment this remains a bit more in theoretical gimmick territory more conservative footstool out of Shield options have made their way into the meta in a larger way though back air was the other big Contender here primarily because back air with arsenode is one of the craziest Aerials ever put into a smash game and even if we're talking about Joker's base form it's still definitely one of his best moves it's an all-rounder that does most things very well Gunn does get a boost from our son as well though even if it's not as significant and because Joker is going to be spending more of his time without our sin I'd say the better move in his base form is the more impactful one overall is anyone surprised to hear that Hero's command menu is easily his best move it's got the obvious flaw of not always giving him what he wants when he wants it because of its random nature but a lot of the individual spells offered are blatantly overpowered and it's clearly tuned so that good ones are offered regularly there are 21 spells available in total and I'm not going to run down the fullest but for some highlights on the projectile front you've got Kaboom a fast explosive with a huge radius that kills very early and snooze a spell that uniquely puts opponents to sleep even if they're in the air he's got some of the game's better Buffs in psychup which gives his next attack much more power both on hit and on Shield oomph which just makes his moves crazy overall accelerattle which I mean look at this it opens up all sorts of combos that he's balanced around not being able to do and bounce which completely shuts down all projectiles of any kind Zoom lets him recover from literally anywhere flame slash grants a monster of a sword swing that can be difficult to dodge because of how ambiguous it is buried in the menu whack and thwack outright steal stocks sometimes and even if not they still get here of some good hitboxes to work with and then magic bursts steals stocks in a totally different way this is all balanced out by a manometer that Hiro depletes by using the Spells which he shares with other moves and that's a real weakness but not enough to stop the command menu from being the focus of what he does it notably makes hero inherently solid against a lot of defensive characters between being able to compete in zoning wars being able to stack up Buffs if left uninterrupted and of course bounce doing the job for him he's not easy to play passively against characters that can overwhelm him up close tend to be the ones he struggles with more but with the power of RNG on his side any matchup can be a winning match up Banjo-Kazooie came down to a duel between their two Good projectiles Rear egg and the bregel Blaster both of them are among the Duo's better combo enablers although the combos that they create are each very different both of them take a bit of time to set up but are oppressive obstacles to try and get past once they are I think that rear egg has more use cases though it's one of their best ledge trapping tools with its persistence manipulability and gentle bouncing travel Arc and the fact that it's easy to catch directly out of the launch means the Banjo-Kazooie can arm themselves with a very solid item every time they sent Airborne a feat that the Regal Blaster doesn't really match they can even use it for Recovery Duty the launch gives them an Aristotle so that they can catch it and letting it explode in their hand boost them up and resets their special moves in their Dodge it takes a bit of practice to do consistently but it's not bad at all one of the easier Advanced Techniques to pop up in this video rear egg is also one of the main enablers for their limited use Wonder Wing which for the record was never on the shortlist for their best move a big part of this comes from the fact that despite its invincibility and its high speed and long travel distance wondering still just isn't that safe to use if the opponent simply Shields then they'll have plenty of time to muster punish up let's say you put a bomb right in front of them first though well now that's a different story or you can perform a cool setup where you catch the rear egg then go into Wonder wing and time it so that the explosion happens while you're invincible and you're Crossing up your opponent's Shield actually timing it with any kind of invincibility tends to work out really well like with a lot of item moves there's tons of creative potential behind rear egg it provides a much needed level of Versatility that Banjo-Kazooie frequently lean on Terry's moveset is something else what am I choosing here the Invincible dive bomb that he combos into is a key part of his game plan what about the comeback mechanic that covers half the stage and obliterates stocks one of ultimate's best burst movement tools that anti-airs provides a massive recovery boost is one of his staple combo extenders and does almost 20 damage yeah okay that sounds pretty good crack shoot is far from the most stylish or dramatic attack in Terry's stylish dramatic Arsenal but it's hard to overstate just how many situations it's good in it comes out lightning quick and covers the perfect amount of space to catch everything from jump-ins to platforms Terry's in the exclusive special cancel Club alongside Ryu and Ken and you know what you're canceling into a lot of the time crack shoot you know what you're using to get out of disadvantage crack shoot neutral crack shoot recovery crack shoot it's little maxjolt Haymaker except for that hole only getting to use it once per air time thing crack shoot is refreshed every time Terry gets hit like a normal recovery move okay fine to be fair unlike jolt Haymaker crack shoot doesn't kill very well and that's basically the only knock against that I could find jab jab power dunk is Terry's most famous combo but in practice it's not insanely reliable especially with SDI involved you need to mix things up between that combo and Jab jab Rising tackle I'd say the more impressive kill combos are actually the ones that end with burning knuckle but that move has way less utility than either crack shoot or power dunk as for his go meter attacks power geyser and Buster wolf they're fantastic but he only gets them when he's taken 100 damage so they're not impactful enough Terry has no shortage of good kill moves but nothing quite compares to the utility of the crack shoot offers power dunk isn't too far off and again has good kill power that crack shoot whacks but it's way more reactable and not as flexible biles was dubbed a distance demon upon reveal and admittedly does have a lot of very good long-ranged moves but for this video I've actually got to go with one of the stubbiest attacks in his Arsenal his bow twirling neutral air falling Aerials that lead into kill setups aren't that uncommon but ones that can be done rising and still confirm reliably are decidedly more rare and all that it takes here is some good fast fall timing and the ability to track which side your opponent is going to pop out of neutral air into Dash attack is by far the most important of these confirms and it works for a long time although earlier on it can lead into itself and other moves as well and in situations where there isn't enough space for the dash attack neutral air into Forward Air is also a solid kill setup convenient considering that a lingering disjointed hitbox is exactly what you're looking to use for ledge trapping duties anyway it's pretty good as an edge guarding move as well it doesn't kill directly but it's very easy to connect while it may be visually similar to the pits it actually has an appropriate hitbox I hate this game robbing an opponent of resources makes it easy to line up moves like one of by lists several spikes when they make their final attempts to return to the stage while neutral air isn't technically the safest move on Shield it's way more oppressive than it first appears thanks to how long it lasts giving bileth a lot of leeway to mix up fastball timings and drift as well as having a landing hitbox on the ground all of these are punishable if you're really prepared but get your own timing wrong from inside the shield and suddenly things start going very badly for you there are some matchups that neutral air alone can lock down shockingly well I also considered up special for this slot sort of the Creator easily by lists most eye-catching attack and one of his most notorious it's an incredible recovery tool and insta kill Edge guard with a generous hitbox a planking option that makes it dangerous to try and ledge trap bileth too closely and leads into a lot of really nasty combos although those combos can be very susceptible to Di and they never reach the sheer Suffocation of neutral air Min gets the longest forward Smash in the game then she makes it even longer then she gets another one right behind it that can either cover even more space including space face way below the ledge or cover less space but also packs brutal kill power the fact that the entirety of the arms are also disjointed is broken to Helen Back And while abusing this disjoint is obviously the bulk of what mim-mim does overall forward smash puts its power on clear display the best of these in order in my eyes would probably go ram ram for its coverage than the dragon and then finally the megawatt is the least versatile option but who am I kidding they're all amazing the extra laser from the dragon is just fish cake on the ramen and if mid-min lands a grab first it even powers that laser up she needs it I'll keep this as simple as possible Steve's neutral special is the best move in the game I'm just referring to his ability to place blocks here so we're clear the other contextual use cases are more functionality things and block placing is more than enough in the neutral Steve can use blocks to totally while his opponent out of the game breaking the blocks becomes a necessity before they can even interact with Steve and there are all sorts of ways that Steve can either set up to try and punish this or just stay in the corner and mine for his best resources like diamonds and iron blocks also help enable one of the strongest and most complex combo games that ultimate has to offer regardless if you're a master of the character turns out that even basic platform ladders are pretty good if you're the one who gets to make the platforms if you are strong with Steve though it only goes up from here with Advanced Techniques like no impact Landings that allow him to act near instantly out of a block placement he can post up underneath or even above the stage and continuously mine resources which some characters have a lot of trouble dealing with he can use blocks and disadvantage alongside moves like his Minecart and down air to make him incredibly hard to track despite his poor base movement stats he can place blocks off stage to Simply wall with a lot of recoveries on top of all sorts of additional Oddball interactions with Steve's other unusually complex tools there are so many of these that try to give something even resembling a comprehensive overview in this video just isn't gonna work the seemingly mundane Act of just placing a simple piece of terrain leads to more room for exploration than basically anything else in Ultimate maybe in Smash oh and then just as this video is getting ready to go up new Block tech has discovered that means you can just cancel out of a bunch of hits done stuff so yay now the band Steve calls are starting up again we'll see how that ages sephiroth had been a popular fan request for years before he finally made it into the series but I've also heard many arguments that he'd feel out of place because of how comically over the top his sword is and that it would just be too unwieldy for smash welp ultimate through that concerned out the window a long time ago he's here so is his sword and it does exactly what you'd expect giving separats them outrageous hitboxes even by the standards of a game that ditched any kind of range constraints and his best move doesn't even use it neutral air is another attack that's simple but deceptively powerful with a solid disjointed hitbox and knock back low enough to make it a staple combo starter at early percents it chains into itself which can be extended very far if sephiroth is in the One Wing form that grants him another jump and works in tandem with his sword for a long time after that notably creating a kill confirm into back air sephiroth does play a spacing game as expected but platform Fighters like smash are full of mobile characters you can't keep them out forever especially considering that many of his longest moves are also pretty skinny neutral air is by far his biggest Saving Grace up close and the reward is strong enough that it's what he's actively looking for a lot of the time part of the strength of his larger hitbox is his coaxing opponents into patterns that he can exploit it's true that neutral Air's reward disappears at hypersense and it just starts popping opponents in a disadvantaged state but that's a scenario that sephiroth is very well set up to capitalize on he's another character where I'd love to choose one of his more distinctive and interesting moves which he's got a fair amount of but the next in line was another very simple one back error is the most prom dominantly used attack at the longer range you'd expect of him the sephiroth gameplay frequently turns into fishing for backup kills later on and there's no point in the game where you won't see him using it a lot when pitting the two Aerials Head to Head though I'd say that back here comes with a bit more flaws while both moves require some Precision back air is slow and precise enough that lining it up can be tricky even among the best and most experienced sephiroth players in the world and it has multiple hitboxes with varying strengths the best of which is on the middle of the sword which means that you have to sacrifice some safety to get the most out of it back air still probably comes into play more overall but this is also because sephiroth is a character who's forced into a lot of anticipating and picking his positioning extremely carefully the move is good in this role but retreating back here alone is not a game plan and it plays into his inability to scrap which also applies to moves like Forward Air and forward tilt that can partially replace what backhare is trying to do neutral air in comparison plugs a key weakness of Sephiroth's up and there's nothing else on his kit that really does the same thing both Aerials are obviously strong tools don't get me wrong I think whether we're evaluating the individual quality of the moves or how they fit in that Sephiroth's game plan though neutral air pulls ahead pyra and Mithra continue on the legacy of Sheikh and Zelda with their specialized Duo design except elevated to even higher extremes where pyra exists almost entirely for the sake of taking stocks she's really good at this across the board but down air has to be singled out it's big by any standard but for a down air it's outrageous so much so that it's one of the few in its moose slot that sees regular uses a neutral tool and the majority of that giant hitbox is also a spike this means that whether she's covering an opponent trying to get back to the stage or she's using it on stage to convert into one of her numerous devastating finishers it provides some of the highest rewards she has access to which is saying a lot while also being an easy move to line up as for Mithra she's certainly the more combo Centric of the duo and long chains into the air are her bread and butter at early percents but I'd say her actual most important role is winning neutral even at hyper sense when an opponent is ready to lose their stock you'll still regularly see Mithra stay out to put opponents in a disadvantaged state then pyra comes down after that's been achieved winning neutral isn't that hard with a lot of mithra's moves but if I've got to pick one what's in the most work it'd probably be neutral air frame Aid is a generous startup time for how much space this covers and it's in the same camp as bilas where the safety on Shield is technically not that great but gets helped by timing Mix-Ups and a landing hitbox and if it connects it reliably pays off initiating the ubiquitous early damage that opponents basically just have to accept eating at the start of their stock because she's gonna pull it off somehow and then later on still eating into good stuff like lightning Buster whether you're looking for moves that easily win neutral moves that lead to good combos or both Mithra has a lot of excellent options to pull from but neutral air is definitely one of the attacks that she leans on most [Music] just takes you for a ride across the stage and there's theoretically not much that you can do about it you can't deny them because you're not put into tumble and you can't really STI them either because of how little time you're in hit leg for just a whole lot of hits done and a whole lot more praying now in practice Sora isn't always getting these massive chains being able to do this relies on hitting the nuke box a single small hitbox among many that's active for exactly one frame and grants a boatload of extra hits done compared to anything else for some reason what's much more common to see are shorter combos that either end in neutral Air's natural finisher or some other move fortunately that's still very very good it helps that neutral air is also easy to land as a massive sword area that covers sora's entire body a body that can stay in the air for a long time thanks to his hydratedly floaty physics these physics also make it really easy to control his drift and mix up all three of the hits on shield for a degree of safety beyond what you'd expect of The move's Frame data even the basic version of neutral air is amazing and if that was all he had then fishing for it would still be a major part of sora's game plan but when connecting it can just straight up end stocks yeah good move speaking of good moves that's everyone's best move done so what did we end up with here at least according to me a character's best move is most likely to be their neutral air or their neutral special both of which come in with a whopping count of 14 given that neutral airs are often among the fastest and most versatile of what's already a strong category of move no big surprises there the same applies to neutral specials and the way they're typically designed 11 out of the 14 of these are many of ultimate's best projectiles another inherently powerful type of move and two of the remaining three are major centerpieces of their character's kiss that I'd possibly consider to be the best two moves in Ultimate period Peach's float being the other contender in my eyes as I did count it and finally if we put everything together the trend continues and we get a chart that looks like this who was the grappler player that beat Sakurai in 2018 fess up thanks for watching everyone and let me know what you thought of the list likes and comments play a big part in whether YouTube recommends videos to larger audiences so if you think it's deserved much appreciated you can check out another full roster video Here video on my second Channel Mock Rock talk here and patrons YouTube members and twitch subscript perks like early videos and Discord access later people

Channel: MockRock

Views: 423,362

Keywords: Smash Ultimate, alpharad, Nintendo, little z, super smash bros ultimate, smash bros ultimate, tier list, esam, hungrybox, ssbu, alpharad deluxe, Nintendo Switch, nintendo memes, nintendo, smash ultimate tier list, smash ultimate tournament, smash ultimate best moves, super smash bros ultimate worst moves, smash bros, sora, steve, sephiroth, kazuya, kirby, little mac, lucario, terry, riddles, zeltik, dabuz, mrdanish buttercookie, pjiggles, pkbeats, tcnick3, whydo, tierzoo, speedrun, speedrunning

Id: y0T0AX4zLqA

Length: 105min 55sec (6355 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 28 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/DHMOProtectionAgency]

Sad it's downvoted. I know he doesn't struggle to get views but I mean this video has a lot of effort behind it and in typical MockRock fashion, well put together, professional and amazingly edited.

[u/CloudsInSomeStrife]

Mockrock's editing remains absolute best in his field. This shit is feature length and it's still jam-packed with visually pleasing flourishes like this transition into Ridley's side b or making sure there's a fair on screen when he says fair or needlessly informative displays like a yellow line illustrating Belmont's cross' path or more flashy stuff like a Street Fighter "VS" splash for the SF boys or this goofy ass Jigglypuff edit. I also love how he's not just content to use something like Ultimate Frame Data to show a hitbox but he also wants the image to not be static. There's no reason for him to go this hard, but he does anyway. If you're an aspiring video maker, take notes.

[u/postingandstuff]

fun thought experiment

would you rather have 'the best move' of a character or their upspecial? for example joker without his gun still functions fine but take away his recovery and the character drops a few tiers

[u/Chaddiction]

Best Kazuya move?

Gotta be the up/back tilt.

[u/Coolcat127]

Even with all the block tech shenanigans Monado might still be the best move in the game, it cheats and doesn’t get you banned