Zelda (Super Smash Flash 2)

Zelda is a starter character in Super Smash Flash 2. Hailing from The Legend of Zelda series, she is a slow but powerful magic centered fighter and has a unique mechanic that allows her to transform into. Her sprites in SSF2 are custom made, based on her appearance in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Her moveset and voice clips are taken directly from Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Zelda currently ranks 3rd of A+ tier on the current tier list, a jump from her 7th-place position of A+ tier on the last tier list. She has transcendent priority in a great number of her attacks, good reach and many strong kill moves such as her lightning kicks. Her combo game is above average, often enabling her to link into her strong attacks for early KOs. She has a good projectile game with Din's Fire and the ability to reflect projectiles with Nayru's Love. Her edgeguarding options are very strong and she herself is hard to edgeguard due to having one of the best recoveries in the game.

However, Zelda suffers from poor mobility, having the worst walking speed and one of the slowest dashes. Her tall frame makes her easy to hit and her slow accelerated falling speed combined with below average weight (though she is close to being a medium weight) makes her easy to KO both vertically and horizontally. Zelda has problems dealing with characters who can out-range her attacks and fast characters who can easily rush her down while evading her somewhat slow defensive options.

Her pros are considered to outweigh her cons, making her a top tier character in competitive play.

Attributes
Zelda is a very defensive character. She has good reach in a number of her attacks, along with many of them possessing high priority and high knockback. She has KO moves in all of her smash attacks, her forward, back and up aerial, and her back throw.

She has a controllable projectile in Din's Fire which she can use to force her opponents approach. She can use Naryu's Love to reflect projectiles and approach due to its disproportionately large hitboxes that pull opponents in. Farore's Wind is a great recovery move due to its unpredictability and intangibility frames, which make it hard to punish.

She has arguably one of the best punish games in the current demo, as she is able to make her opponents approach and use one of her many tools to punish them for it. This is due in part to her strong combo game, which allows her to zero-to-death certain characters due to being able to combo into her strong kill moves, most notoriously back aerial.

However, Zelda is brought down by her poor mobility and slow attacks which allows characters with great mobility to rush her down.

This also gives her poor approach options which gives her the need to force her opponents to approach, especially when it comes to characters with disjointed hitboxes.

Her height makes her somewhat easy to hit, while her slightly below average weight and low accelerated falling speed makes her easy to KO.

Ground attacks

 * Standard attack: Thrusts a hand in front of her, zapping opponent with magic. 4%
 * Down tilt: Thrusts her foot infront of her. 7% on the hitbox on Zelda's leg, 11% at her foot. Will always spike the opponent.
 * Down smash: Low spin kick. 15% if uncharged facing the opponent, 11% when uncharged facing away from the opponent. 20% if charged facing the opponent, 16% when uncharged facing away from the opponent.
 * Forward Tilt: Swipes her arm infront of herself. 15%
 * Forward Smash: Thrusts hands forward, blasting the opponent with magic. 13% uncharged. 27% fully charged
 * Up tilt: Waves hand in an overhead arc. 14%
 * Up smash: Sweeps her hand above her head multiple times, damaging the opponent with magic. Up to 9% uncharged. 21% fully charged
 * Dash attack: Thrusts hands forward at opponent. 11%

Aerial attacks

 * Neutral aerial: Spins horizontally, while releasing magic from her hands. 8% if all hits connect.
 * Forward aerial: Lightning Kick. 7% when sour spotted. 16% if sweetspotted.
 * Back aerial: Lightning Kick. 6%. 21% if sweetspotted. Does slightly more knockback than the forward aerial version.
 * Up aerial: Points finger upwards, as a ball of fire appears and explodes above her. 15%
 * Down aerial: Kicks downwards, has a sweetspot similar to forward/aerial. 5% sour, 16% sweet

Grabs and throws

 * Grab: A unique hand motion that holds her opponent with magic.
 * Pummel: Zaps the opponent with magic. 1%
 * Forward throw: Throws opponent forward with magic. 11%
 * Back throw: Turns herself and opponent 180 degrees around and throws them with magic. 12%
 * Up throw: Lifts opponent above her head and throws them upward with magic. 10%
 * Down throw: Throws opponent beneath her and repeatedly strikes them with magic. 9%

Other

 * Ledge attack: Zelda climbs onto the stage and kicks her opponent. 8%
 * 100% ledge attack: None.
 * Floor attack: Does a low kick. 6%. Risky because like Sonic's and Super Sonic's, it only attacks in front of her.

Misc.

 * Entrance: Concentrates a ball of fire.
 * Taunts:
 * Neutral: Creates a fireball between her hands.
 * Up: Same as neutral taunt.
 * Side: Same as neutral taunt.
 * Fanfare:
 * Wins: Looks to the side.
 * Loses: Claps for the winner.

Changes from v0.9a
Zelda has mainly received buffs compared to last demo. Her combo game was made better by reducing the knockback in her tilts and dash attack, while her KO moves were buffed. Her special attacks were also buffed.

In competitive play
Zelda is considered a high tier character in competitive play. She has a growing player base and good representation in online tournaments, having above average results and placements.