Meta Knight (Super Smash Flash 2)

Meta Knight is a playable veteran character in Super Smash Flash 2 and is now a completely independent character, not tied with Kirby as he was in the first game. Meta Knight also comes with a completely new moveset that is directly taken from Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. His sprites are custom made and based on his appearance in Brawl, as opposed to 's brawlified sprites from Kirby Super Star Ultra. He also uses voice clips from said game.

Meta Knight currently ranks 2nd on the tier list (the highest ranked Kirby character), a small drop from 1st in the previous tier list. Meta Knight has a good air and ground game, amazing recovery options, great reach on almost every attack due to having a disjointed hitbox, fast attack speed, very strong combo ability, and kill moves in his forward and down smashes, Dimensional Cape, and the initial hitboxes of neutral aerial and Shuttle Loop. His fast dashing speed results in a ridiculous dash dance, leading to some very strong mind games. Meta Knight has five midair jumps and can use all of his specials to recover, thus giving him one of the best (if not the best) recoveries in the current demo. He is also one of the best edge guarders, as he is amazing at gimping his opponents or straight-up comboing them into the side boundaries without giving them even a slight chance of recovery.

However, Meta Knight has some flaws, such as his light weight and below average accelerated falling speed, which makes him easy to KO vertically and horizontally. He has problems dealing with characters who can out range him such as and, as he is reduced to camping them out with his forwards and back aerials. He lacks a projectile and a way to deal with high-priority, giving him problems approaching. Also MK has problems KO'ing opponents at high percentages due to having limited kill set ups and only a few reliable kill moves.

However, his pros overshadow his cons, which is why he is ranked in 2nd. Even with the nerfs he received from last demo, Meta Knight is still a highly efficient character, though he has a small player base and poor representation in online tournaments.

Attributes
Meta Knight has good reach in the majority of his attacks while also possessing great frame data. Some of his attacks have strong priority in them. He has great dashing speed, the seventh fastest dasher, but he posses poor walking and air speed. He has a solid ground game with his fast tilts, smashes and grabs. He has reliable kill moves in his down smash (second hit), forward smash, sweet spotted neutral air, Dimensional Cape and Shuttle Loop (initial hitbox).

Meta Knight has great recovery options due to him having five midair jumps and all of his specials can be used as recovery moves. Meta Knight has a good air game, despite his poor air speed, possessing fast, long reaching and damage racking aerials that are great for comboing along with edge guarding.

He has an above average grab & throw game, possessing the sixth longest and fastest grab in the current demo. His forward throw can set up good combos and can chain grab, if the Meta Knight reacts fast enough. His down throw is his best throw for starting combos. His up throw does not kill until over 150%, but can help if is not able to kill with his more reliable options. Back throw is good for setting up edge guards.

Due to his small size he is less vulnerable to shield stabbing then other characters.

However, Meta Knight is a light weight and has below average accelerated falling speed which makes him easy to KO vertically and horizontally.

He lacks a projectile while at the same time having trouble dealing with ones that are high in priority or that are transcendent which gives him problems approaching. Meta Knight, despite himself possessing disjointed range, has trouble dealing with characters who out range him. He also has problems dealing with characters who posses attacks that are high in priority.

Meta Knight also does not have any true set ups into his kill moves, outside of neutral air, which gives him trouble killing outside of edge guarding.

Changes from v0.9a
Meta Knight has mainly received nerfs from last demo. The nerfs he received went to his recovery, safe options, damage output and his approach options. He has received few a buffs, but was nerfed overall. However, Meta Knight is one of only two characters from last demo, who were top five on the tier list, to not have their nerfs make them less effective.

Tier placement history
On the tier list for demo v0.9a, Meta Knight ranked 4th on the tier list, where he was seen as top tier character. He rose to 1st of S tier on the first tier list of demo v0.9b, still being seen as a top tier character. He kept the position on the second tier list of v0.9b.

Trivia

 * The game sometimes writes his name as "MetaKnight".
 * Like in Brawl, Meta Knight is the only character to have all his specials be used as a recovery and put him into a helpless state.
 * Meta Knight's first art is a pixel rendition of his artwork in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
 * As of v0.9b, Meta Knight can no longer glide when initiated from his jumps just like Sora. However, he can still glide when initiated from Shuttle Loop, But this does not allow him to go up.
 * Meta Knight is the second character to be 1st on a tier list twice. The first was.
 * He is also the first character to be 1st on two consecutive tier lists. In this case, both tier lists for v0.9b.