Bomb (Bomberman)

Bomb is 's neutral special move in Super Smash Flash 2.

Overview
By pressing the special key, Bomberman pulls out a bomb which can be thrown and placed anywhere onstage. If the key is held he will charge the bomb and be able to carry it around freely, albeit with reduced mobility: his walk is slower and he loses the ability to dash and double jump. Charging increases the damage, hitstun, and range of the bombs.

Inputting different directions before releasing the special key lets Bomberman set the bombs in three different ways. Thrown bombs do not do damage by themselves.
 * Side/No direction: Bomberman throws the bomb forwards in an arc.
 * Up: Bomberman throws the bomb directly upwards, which can be useful for placing bombs in higher platforms or intercepting airbone opponents.
 * Down: Bomberman drops the bomb at his feet. In the air, it will fall straight down. This variation has the quickest animation.

Each Bomberman can only set up to five bombs on the stage and if a sixth one is thrown the oldest one will disappear. Bombs remain in place and can only be manipulated by the Bomberman player that planted them, either by kicking them with side special or detonating them using down special.

Walk Spreading
Walk spreading consists on quickly gaining control of a portion of the stage by placing bombs close to each other. Discovered by SSF2 player Huey, it is performed by walking from the edge to the center of the stage while laying down bombs in a rhythmic sequence. If done properly, about half of the main body will be covered with bombs.

This technique effectively reduces the space where opponents can safely move around and must play carefully should they decide to get near the bombs, as a single mistake can be heavily punished. Since bombs are placed in a relatively small area, an opponent caught in their explosion will be usually get hit by up to three of them and get damaged for about 20%.

Dash Spreading
Similar to the aforementioned technique, Dash spreading is used to gain stage control in a rapid manner. It is done by fox-trotting from one edge of the stage to the other while planting down bombs between each dash. Most stages will be covered after placing four bombs, while bigger ones like require the use of all five.

Bombs being widespread across the stage helps pressure the opponent as a single mistake or opening can be punished from any distance with a detonation. Unlike walk spreading, this technique centers on getting follow ups from a single bomb explosion.

Bomb Substitution
Bomb substitution is the act of luring an opponent to commit with a bad approach and punishing said approach with a quick detonation. It is performed by charging a bomb at a close but safe distance from the opponent, wait for them to rush in to try to get a punish or stop the bomb from reaching higher charge levels, and rapidly react by placing the bomb downards, moving out of the way and detonating.

Origin
Bombs are Bomberman's main tool in his home games, using them to defeat enemies, destroy blocks to find power ups and level exits and reaching new areas, among other things, usually having an iconic cross shaped explosion pattern. They're a staple of the series and the main focus of much of the gameplay since the first game.

At the beginning of  for the NES, Bomberman could only lay down one bomb at a time which would blow up after a set time and could not be walked through. Three power ups made Bomberman's and the bombs mechanics more akin to SSF2: Bomb Up, which allowed him to place an extra bomb, up to 10; Bomb Pass, which granted the ability to walk through bombs; and Bomb Detonate, which would stop bombs from blowing up automatically and instead could be detonated by pressing a button. All these would become recurring abilities in subsequent games.

The ability to pick up, carry and throw bombs was first introduced in , which was granted by getting the Power Glove power up. Power Bombs also made their first appearance in this game as a power up that made the next bomb laid by the player have a distinguishable "P" and maximum range when exploding.

In , a unique feature was introduced named "bomb pumping"; a Pumped Bomb would get bigger and have a more powerful explosion the longer it was charged. Bombs also made a spherical explosion rather than the traditional cross-shaped ones, making the overall bomb mechanics of the game very similar to how the move works.

Trivia

 * Bombs will fall off moving platforms (such as the one in Smashville) if placed near the edges.
 * Oddly, the bombs have a fuse, despite not exploding over time.
 * This move was one of the hardest attacks to code in the game for the devs, where they needed to account for where the bomb is, if it is still on the stage or if it has blown up already.
 * The way Kirby uses this move is similar to how he uses Olimar's in the official games, combining both the neutral special and another special to intiate the move.
 * This makes it similar to the Bomb ability from his home series.
 * The Normal Bomb cameos on Bomb Factory, exploding in its iconic cross shaped pattern, when hazards are on.