Time will tell if aerials are "too safe" in the long run. Games could go on for longer periods of time as players figure out when to throw aerials out defensively while in neutral. Should this happen, it will likely be because of the overall safeness of many of the game's premium aerials. As a Smash title's meta becomes more defensive, tournament organizers tend to favor less stock per match. Ultimate events start using two stock instead of three if matches end up going too long. In the future, we may see a scenario where Super Smash Bros. For reference, Smash 4 used two stocks while Melee still uses four stocks. Some characters are a little difficult to approach as a result.Īs of right now, tournaments have been incorporating three stock rulesets. Ultimate does lend itself fairly well to offensive plays, these safe aerials have also created highly defensive scenarios too. It has also given the game a more "simple" feeling. Whiff punishing or even punishing on block has become significantly more difficult at high level. Exceptionally good aerials like Ike's neutral aerial can lead into combos and kill confirms very easily.Ī potentially big problem (depending on how you see it) has arisen due to the safety of these type of aerials. Ultimate so far has been about "spamming" safe aerials in neutral. Given though, I can understand that not everyone has been a fan of this. Has this been good for the health of the game? Personally, I do like that more characters feel viable and have strong options. Ike's neutral aerial has a way better hitbox than Sheik's forward aerial. Sheik's forward aerial recovering in five frames is very nice, but problems arise when you have to compare this to Ike's neutral aerial which only needs eight frames to recover. Unfortunately, this makes Sheik a little less unique. Aerials that recover with frame data in the single digits are much more common compared to Smash 4. Her frame data was exceptionally good.Īlthough Sheik did benefit from having recovery frames shaved off of her aerials in similar ways, it was probably less so compared to others. This was part of the reason why Sheik's neutral felt so oppressive in Smash 4 (among other reasons). Any aerial that that suffered 12 or less frames of end lag were particularly good and exceptionally rare. Of course, there were - and still are - a number of attacks that required more than 20 or 30 frames of recovery. Similar to Bowser, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong. He was revealed as a newcomer alongside Inkling and Daisy from Nintendo's 2018 E3 press conference, on June 12th, 2018, with an animated trailer. 4, these tended to range between about 10 to 20 frames on average. Ridley is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Upon touching the ground while using an aerial, a character will undergo a recovery animation.