Platform Fighter Basics, Attacks, and Movement

Platform Fighters

This guide is a basic guide that teaches the basics of platform fighters, especially for players that are coming from traditional fighters. It is primarily about the neutral game and how to approach it. There are a lot of advanced techniques in these games, but I don't explain them if they're too specific to a game. This guide is for all platform fighters, not just Super Smash Bros and I try not to make it too Smash-centric.

What defines platform fighters is movement both on the ground and in the air. Running is fast and the momentum of it carries into some actions like running into a jump makes the jump travel farther or faster. Jumping is very versatile as players have control over the jump's trajectory and falling speed. Your movement is not tied to your opponent so you can turn around and move wherever you like on the stage. And of course there are platforms that you can stand on, go through, and jump off of.

The goal of every match is to deplete all of your opponent's stocks and a stock is depleted by knocking your opponent into a blast line. Blast lines are the invisible boundaries of the stage. The ceiling is the upper blast line, the bottom is the lower blast line, and the left and right ends of the stage are the side blast lines.

To knock your opponent into the upper or side blast lines, you need to damage them to a high enough damage percentage then send them flying into to a blast line. To knock your opponent into the lower blast line, knock your opponent off the stage and make sure they aren't able to return to the stage.

The amount of stocks that have to be depleted to win a match differs by game and is decided by the community. The stock number is based on how many times a player has to lose neutral to die. Super Smash Bros Melee requires 4 stocks to win a match because players only have to lose neutral a few times to die. Super Smash Bros 4 requires 2 stocks to win a match because players can lose neutral many more times before dying.

In platform fighters, invincibility means the character can get hit but the attack does no damage and the character doesn't enter hitstun. Intangibility means the character cannot get hit and attacks will pass through them like a ghost.

After a player loses a stock, the character revives onto a platform above the stage. The character is intangible for a short amount of time and this intangibility lasts even after they leave the platform. The other player can run away until the intangibility ends. If there are platforms, they can hide under a platform to stall.

Stage position is very important. Establishing stage control by occupying center stage before your opponent gives you an advantage in neutral as you have better options. The farther away a player is from center stage and the closer they are to the edge, the less options they have. The closer you are to the edge of the stage, the less hits it takes to knock you off the stage and put you in a disadvantageous position.

Attacking

The left analog stick is used for movement and I'll call it the directional stick. I'll refer to the second analog stick on the right as the C-Stick. The C-Stick can be tilted in 4 directions to perform different attacks. In old games, the C-Stick performed only heavy normal attacks but in newer games it can be set to perform other attacks. It allows you to do things like jump backwards and attack with a forward aerial. Or pivot in one direction and cancel the pivot into an attack in the other direction.

Jab is your fastest normal attack and it's performed by pressing the attack button while holding no directions. It's used for interrupting and pressuring your opponent. It has little knockback so it can be used to start combos at many damage percentages.
Continue jabbing to perform the auto combo. It's one of the few combos you have that is guaranteed at all damage percentages.

Hold a direction and press (but don't hold) an attack button to perform a light attack, also called a tilt attack. Light attacks are your most used and most versatile attacks. Light attacks are basically normal attacks in traditional fighting games.

Hold a direction and hold an attack button to perform a heavy attack, also called a smash attack. Heavy attacks have more range and inflict more damage and knockback than light attacks. Heavy attacks are much slower than light attacks so they can be interrupted and whiff punished much easier.

Heavy attacks can be charged to increase damage and knockback. Charged normal attacks are usually a character's most damaging attacks, even more than special attacks, and can reliably kill even at lower damage percentages. Charged heavy attacks are used to deplete shield, to punish characters recovering from a knockdown, and to hit characters recovering back on stage.

Special attacks are performed with the special button and a direction. Every character has at least 3 special attacks. Special attacks can be used in the air to turn around to help with recovering back on stage. Up special attack is primarily used for recovering after being knocked off stage. To turn around with a neutral special attack, press the special button then immediately press the opposite direction.

Moving away from your opponent in platform fighters is as fast as moving towards them because you can turn away from your opponent and run away from them. This affects footsies because pokes are easy to avoid with movement. Whiffing pokes is called undershooting.
To increase the chances of your poke hitting, you'll need to start overshooting them. Instead of poking your opponent where they are, you poke where they will be. This is done by moving forward more or using a longer ranged poke. This is called overshooting.
Overshooting is slower than regular poking and riskier because it moves the attacker closer to their opponent. If the opponent predicts overshooting, they can interrupt it with a fast attack.

Grabs work differently from traditional throws. The attacker grabs the defender and holds them without damaging them. The more damaged the defender is, the longer they can be held. At lower damage percentages, the defender may break free from the hold before taking any damage. During the hold, the attacker can attack with pummels or throw the defender and end the hold. Pummels are better at higher damage percentages because characters are in the hold state longer.

After the grab, the attacker can throw the defender in multiple directions. Forward and back throw the defender to the side. Up throw launches the defender into the air. Down throw bounces the defender off the ground.

A good grab is important because it affects the character's punish game and mixup game. Shield grab is the most common punish tool and run into grab is a very common mixup.

Movement

Quickly tap a direction to dash and continue holding the direction to transition into running. Running is used for stage positioning. Walking is more precise than running as it doesn't have startup lag or endlag. Running has endlag in the form of a skidding animation. In most games, the only options available out of the skidding animation are jumping, running in the opposite direction, and shielding.

Characters with low traction skid farther. For these characters it may be better to cancel running into shield to skid less.

Turning around is called pivoting. In Super Smash Bros, pivoting before an attack adds extra range to it. There are many pivot techniques. For example, a pivot grab is grabbing immediately after turning around. It adds more range to the grab and you will see players face away from their opponent for a fraction of a second then immediately turn around for a pivot grab.

There is either a skidding animation or pivoting animation when turning around while running. This makes spacing more committal as there is endlag to turning around.

The pivoting animation can be canceled by immediately running in the opposite direction. Doing this repeatedly is called dash dancing. The longer the character's dash is, which is the longer they can dash before it becomes running, the farther they can dash dance in a direction.

Sometimes the intial rush of movement from the dash is faster than sustained running. Fox-trotting is dashing, stopping before it turns into running, then dashing again.

Dash attack is an attack that can only be performed while the character is dashing/running. It is a slow attack that has a lot of endlag and is unsafe on whiff and when shielded. Despite its risks, dash attack is a useful tool for approaching your opponent and chasing rolls. Just be cautious while using it.

Jumping

You have a lot of freedom of movement in the air because of how flexible jumps are. The height, speed, and trajectory of jumps can be controlled. Unlike traditional fighters, you are able to steer every part of your jump. Pre-jump frames are called jumpsquat frames in platform fighters. Jumps have landing frames which is called landing lag in platform fighters.

Full jumps are great for movement as you can freely manuever yourself around the stage. But full jumps are slow enough that the other player can react to them. Short hops travel less distance but the attacker can attack out of them quicker as they're lower to the ground so they're better for attacking and the opponent has less time to react to them.

Jumping attacks are called aerials. Most games have Up aerial (uair), Neutral aerial (nair), and Down aerial (dair). In games where characters don't turn around in the air, there is Forward aerial (fair) and Back aerial (bair), otherwise there's Side aerial (sair). Up aerial usually hits above the character's head and Down aerial usually hits below the character.

Back aerial is typically a character's best aerial in terms of damage, speed, and reach. The obvious drawback is the character must be facing away from the opponent to hit a back aerial and they can't change directions once they've left the ground. Reverse Aerial Rush (RAR) is performed by pivoting to face away from the opponent then immediately jumping and performing a Back aerial towards the opponent.

You are able to steer your jump even after your attack connects. That means if your aerial is shielded you can drift away from your opponent and if your aerial connects you can drift towards them.

A tomahawk is another name for an empty jump. A tomahawk grab is an empty jump into a grab. Tomahawk grabs are very common in platform fighters. In traditional fighters, jumping attacks are advantageous on block but in platform fighters they are usually disadvantageous, so players are more likely to shield aerials instead of trying to anti-air them.

SHFFL

Lightly tap the jump button to short hop.

You can descend faster during a jump by holding the Down direction. This is called fast falling.

Aerials have endlag even after the character has landed on the ground. In some games, this endlag can be canceled by shielding. You want to shield just as the character touches the ground and let go of shield immediately after the aerial's endlag is canceled. This is called lag cancel.

All these techniques can be combined into a technique called Short Hop Fast Fall Lag Cancel (SHFFL). SHFFL reduces the startup lag and endlag of aerials. You can use SHFFL in neutral and combos. It's commonly used to combo multiple aerials together.

Wavedash

Air dodge is a defensive dodge in the air. Like Spot Dodge, it is intangible but not immediately so it can't be used as a combo breaker except against combos with large gaps between hits. Air dodge is very vulnerable if it fails so sometimes taking the combo is better than trying to escape it and getting punished even harder.

Air dodge has endlag which is separate from landing lag. An air dodge with a lot of endlag and little landing lag is more punishable when used high above the ground and off-stage but safer to land with.

A wavedash is a movement technique performed by air dodging or air dashing towards the ground at an angle. The momentum in the air carries as they land and the character slides on the ground. Typically you want to air dodge as soon as you're airborne when you're lowest to the ground to get the longest wavedash.

Wavedash is preferred over running in many (but not all) situations. During the running state, your options are limited. During a wavedash, the character slides on the ground but is still considered standing so all standing actions are available to them while they're moving so you have many more options. Another advantage of wavedashing is that you can move backwards while still facing your opponent so you can create distance while attacking.

Wavedashing is useful as it can be performed any time the character can jump. There are situations where jumping is the only option available. For example, after shielding an attack your character cannot attack but they can jump. You can shield, cancel the shield into jumping, wavedash out of the jump, and attack during the wavedash.

Wavelanding is wavedashing onto a platform. As platforms are higher, players are able to waveland/wavedash at the top of a jump instead of the bottom of a jump. Wavelanding is not an important tool but it has a few uses. You can use wavelanding to make your movement less predictable while moving around the stage and to land earlier during a jump to avoid anti-airs.

A jump's jumpsquat frames can be canceled into Up special attack and certain Up normal attacks. This exists to prevent a player from accidentally jumping while performing these attacks in games where you press Up to jump.

There are a couple of uses for this. A common use is for performing a running Up normal attack. In some games, dash attack is the only normal attack option available out of a run. With this technique you can run, cancel the run into a jump, then cancel the jumpsquat frames into an Up normal attack. Another common use is out of a shield. Shield to block an attack, jump to immediately drop the shield, then cancel the jumpsquat into an Up normal attack.

Platforms

Platform fighters are platform fighters because of the presence of platforms, obviously. The stage the characters stand on is considered the main platform and additional platforms may appear. Once characters get knocked off the stage they are airborne and have to recover back onto the stage to survive or they lose a stock.

Soft platforms are platforms you can go through by pressing the Down direction. You can go through soft platforms while helpess but not during tumbling or hitstun. Soft platforms that can be jumped onto with a single jump are called lower platforms and platforms that are higher than that are called top platforms.

The player above their opponent on a platform is considered to be at a disadvantage. There are few attacks that hit at a downward angle while it's much easier to hit a character above you.

Here are some uses for platforms:
-Platforms help the defender recovering after a combo or knockback as they land earlier and spend less time vulnerable in the air.
-Platforms can be used to extend combos. You can jump onto a platform then jump off it to vertically extend a combo. You can jump onto a platform then run on it to horizontally extend a combo.
-Approaching in the air is safer with platforms as you can land earlier. This makes it easier to return to center stage as you can approach it from different angles.
-If you're playing against a character with bad air speed you can move onto the top platform, force your opponent to chase you, then punish their chase.