Kirby (Super Smash Bros. Melee)


 * This article is about Kirby's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Melee. For other uses, see Kirby.

Announced at E3 2001, Kirby (カービィ, Kābī) is a character in all three games of the Super Smash Bros. series. Although tier-wise he was the second-to-top character in the original, beaten only by Pikachu and Fox, in Super Smash Bros. Melee, he was severely nerfed.

Currently, Kirby is ranked in the G tier in America due to his very large nerf in attack power, speed, range, and combo ability from the original, which have all-in-all resulted in abysmal overall stats and match-ups (none are in his favor).

Attributes
Kirby's signature move is Swallow, which allows him to use his opponents' Neutral Special Moves. Kirby is also known for having five midair jumps (although the last couple of jumps barely give any height) and floaty descent, which gives him good recovery distance. However, his recovery is still slow and predictable. His multiple jumps also allow for good edgeguarding abilities and good midair evasion, due to slow falling speed when normal and fast falling speed when using Stone, especially with mid-air transformation.

Kirby's small size, quick dodges, and low crouch (one of the lowest in the game) enable him to have good evasion. He also has a large shield in relation to body size, which makes him difficult to shield stab. Kirby is arguably most famous for his sacrificial KOs, the Kirbycides. These are extremely useful in certain scenarios, but his Back and Forward Throws can be intercepted. When Kirby is in Stone form, he does not take damage, but he can be grabbed out of it.

However, Kirby has several significant problems. Many of his moves are slow, weak (almost all of his moves have tiny sweetspots), and short-ranged. He is easily KOd due to being light and floaty, and he can't escape most combos despite this due to having a high amount of hitstun when hit. He has poor combo ability, his SHFFL'd aerials are slow, and his Up Special Move, Final Cutter, does not have good horizontal range. Also, his grab game is very limited because, as aforementioned, his Back and Forward Throws can easily be intercepted, due to them being easily shaken out of and leave Kirby to die, and only his Down Throw can be used to land another move. Kirby has a very small wavedash, making Wavesmashing hard. Lastly, Kirby's hammer is extremely weak and punishable if not sweetspotted, which is hard to do as the sourspot is much larger.

To win as Kirby, one will need to be very careful with most of his attacks which, like stated above, almost all of them have sweetspots, making those attacks unreliable. Kirby's Throws, Side Smash and Up Smash are his reliable KOing attacks, but warning with Throws, as sometimes Kirby will let go of the opponent and KO only himself. In tournaments, Kirby won very few, if any.

Ground Attacks

 * Neutral Attack - Vulcan Jab attack from the Fighter ability. Kirby jabs forwards with his hand, followed by a short series of fast punches. Each punch does around 1%-2%.
 * Dash Attack - Burning Attack. Kirby runs forwards, on fire. Based on his Burning ability in his games, though unlike in the games Kirby will not fly straight forward if used near the ledge.
 * Down Tilt - Kirby kicks forwards while crouching. Fast, decent ranged.
 * Forward Tilt - Kirby does a quick roundhouse kick forwards. Decent range.
 * Up Tilt - Kirby thrusts his back leg upwards. Infamous for its shield damage.

Smash Attacks

 * Forward Smash - Kirby jumps forwards in a turn, kicking. Has high knockback. Resembles the Leg Sweep move from the Fighter ability.
 * Up Smash - Kirby does a backflip, kicking upwards. Has high knockback.
 * Down Smash - Kirby spins as he does the splits, hitting on both of his sides. Has decent knockback.

Aerial Attacks

 * Neutral Aerial - Spins around, hitting with his limbs. Long lasting hitbox.
 * Forward Aerial - Kirby kicks forward three times, similar to the Spin Kick move from the Fighter ability. Last hit has medium knockback.
 * Back Aerial - Kirby does a no-look kick backwards. Can be used in a Fence of Pain. Good knockback.
 * Up Aerial - Kirby flips in midair, kicking upwards. Great knockback, possibly Kirby's best KO move.
 * Down Aerial - Kirby spins around, drilling downwards with his feet. Can Spike.

Grabs & Throws

 * Pummel - Kirby slaps the foe.
 * Down Throw - Kirby throws the opponent on the ground, then stomping-stands on the opponent with his toes, hitting the enemy with his feet. Kirby then finishes with one powerful stomp. Based on one of his Fury Stomp from the Suplex ability.
 * Back Throw - Kirby flips backwards, hitting the opponent on the ground. Can be used to Kirbycide. Escapable. Based on one of his moves from the Suplex/Backdrop ability.
 * Forward Throw - Kirby does a suplex, hitting the opponent on the ground. Can be used to Kirbycide. Escapable. Based on one of his moves from the Suplex/Backdrop ability.
 * Up Throw - Kirby jumps high up into the air, and comes back down, ramming the opponent to the ground. Can be used to Kirbycide on certain stages. Based on one of the Ninja abilities' moves, and is known as Air Drop in the games or Mizu no Otoshi (Drop of Water) in the anime.

Changes from N64 to Melee
Kirby was unarguably the most severely nerfed character from Super Smash Bros. Below are the changes:
 * Now has a Side Special: Hammer
 * New Dash Attack (Burning attack from Kirby's Adventure)
 * New Forward Throw (The old is now his Up Throw)
 * Stone can change Kirby into 5 objects, as opposed to one.
 * Can walk around after inhaling someone.
 * New Up Aerial.
 * His Old Up Aerial is now his Neutral Aerial.
 * Huge decrease in air speed makes recoveries now very easy to gimp. (In Super Smash Bros., he had the fastest air speed tied with Jigglypuff. Now, he has the fourth slowest air speed tied with Ganondorf.)
 * New Forward Aerial.
 * Forward Smash has much more starting and ending lag (no longer fastest in the game)
 * Up Tilt has had a decrease in speed.
 * Back Aerial has a slightly different animation, which means there is almost no hitbox on Kirby's front now.
 * Down Aerial lands differently and gives a small hit, even when L-cancelled. This makes it difficult to combo with.
 * Up B is shorter.
 * Slower, weaker, much worse combo ability, and worse priority overall.
 * Back Throw can Kirbycide.
 * His Side Tilt increased damage by 1%.

Trophy descriptions
Kirby is the single most represented character in trophy format in Super Smash Bros. Melee. Being a playable character, Kirby has his own set of "gameplay" trophies that are acquirable by completing any of the three Regular Match modes in the single-player modes with Kirby: Classic, Adventure, and All-Star.


 * Kirby
 * A denizen of the far-off, peaceful planet Pop Star, Kirby became a citizen of Dream Land after defeating King Dedede. Even though he's only about eight inches tall, Kirby is an extremely skilled technician. He has the ability to absorb the powers of his enemies, and his elastic body makes him a versatile adventurer.
 * Kirby's Dream Land, 08/92


 * Kirby (Smash Red)
 * Kirby's small size lets him dodge many attacks, but his light weight makes him fly far when struck. Using his ability to inflate, he can jump five times. His Swallow attack creates wild combos; not only can he copy foes' moves, but he'll also put on special hats and mimic their voices. His Hammer is unwieldy but powerful.
 * B: Swallow
 * Smash B: Hammer


 * Kirby (Smash Blue)
 * Because of his light weight, Kirby is always in danger of being sent flying, but his ability to puff up and fly allows him to come back from amazing distances. His Final Cutter strikes on the way up and on the way down, and it sends out a beam of force upon landing. Kirby transforms into various objects and crashes down when he uses his Stone technique.
 * Up & B: Final Cutter
 * Down & B: Stone

Kirby is also the subject of five trophies that can be considered its own trophy series: The Kirby Hat series, with information about the powers Kirby gains when he uses Swallow on each opponent. The first three are "normally collectible" trophies that can be found during normal play and in the Trophy Lottery, but the last two are awarded once all the playable characters involved on those trophies have been unlocked.

Finally, the character Kirby himself is depicted on some other trophies not related to gameplay: Ball Kirby, Fighter Kirby, and Fire Kirby.

Trivia

 * A compacted version of Kirby's moveset in Melee are used in the game Kirby & the Amazing Mirror, through the use of the ability called Smash. The moves he gets are Twinkle Star (Neutral Aerial from Melee, although in this game it has much more range), Hammer, Final Cutter, Stone, and Vulcan Jab. He gets the ability from Master Hand, who is a boss in the game.
 * Surprisingly, Kirby has the second highest matchups with Sheik despite being a bottom tier, along with Dr. Mario, Samus, and Peach. Only Fox, Falco, and Ice Climbers surpass this (all of them having 60:40).
 * If a CPU Kirby swallows Jigglypuff, it will never charge Rollout when using it.
 * Kirby has the shortest taunt, followed by Mr. Game & Watch.