Samus (Super Smash Flash 2)

This article is about Samus's appearance in Super Smash Flash 2. For general information about the character, see Samus Aran.

Samus Aranin Super Smash Flash 2
Samus' official artwork.
Universe	Metroid
Stock icon
Availability	Starter
Final Smash	Zero Laser
Tier	B+ (13)

Samus is a veteran starter character in Super Smash Flash 2. Her sprites are custom-made and based on her appearance in Super Metroid and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Her moveset and sound clips are directly from Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Samus ranks 13th place in the B+ tier. Samus has a great projectile game, fast startup on her attacks, great air speed and finishers in her down smash, down tilt, fully charged Charge Shots, and Super Missiles. She can rack up damage quickly with her up smash, forward aerial, and up aerial. She has one of the best recoveries in the game due to her low falling speed, ability to use bombs to gain extra height, great air speed, and hard-to-gimp recovery in her Screw Attack. She has a vast arsenal of projectiles with her charge shot, bombs, and missiles. Samus has great horizontal endurance thanks to her weight. She is also the only character in the game to possess a reliable instant-KO projectile via charge stacking, in the tournaments that allow the glitch to be performed.

However, Samus is a large, floaty character with one of the slowest accelerated falling speeds in the game, which makes her easy to KO vertically despite her weight. She has a high gravity and is heavy, which means that the combos that do work on her will continue to do so even at higher percents. Her projectile game is easily gimped, as most of her projectiles can be destroyed by even the slightest of disjointed hitboxes, and all of them can be reflected or otherwise nullified by perfect shields, reflectors, and thrown items. Her close-range game is not much better as she possesses, on average, fewer disjoints and more endlag on her attacks than the other fighters. Her high jump height and low aerial acceleration also greatly hinders her air game, despite her high air speed. Together, these attributes significantly limit her approach options. Most of Samus' finishers are easily telegraphed and relatively weak, requiring approximately 120-160% damage to KO, even on lighter characters like Jigglypuff.

For these reasons, Samus has some very difficult matchups against the higher-tiered characters.

Samus has a somewhat small player base and has average representation in online tournaments.

Attributes

See also: Samus (Super Smash Flash 2)/Hard data

Samus has a unique blend of attributes that makes her feel largely different from the rest of the cast. She is a tall heavyweight, but is also very floaty due to having one of the slowest falling speeds in the game. Her gravity is above average, yet she also has very high jumps. She has a fast aerial speed, yet she has a very slow aerial acceleration. These attributes help her out by giving her a strong recovery, high survivability, good range, and strong resistance to being juggled. However, she also has trouble maneuvering in the air, a vulnerability to vertical KOs, and is susceptible to juggles that specifically work only on herself.

She is largely considered to be a zoning character with a large arsenal of projectiles, including her Charge Shot, Missiles (Homing and Super), and bombs. Her Charge Shot has transcendent priority when uncharged, allowing her to pierce most attempts at walling her out. Her fully charged Charge Shot is her strongest KO move, and she has a guaranteed setup involving her down throw on most characters. Her Super Missiles move very fast and have decent knockback, making them her primary means of edgeguarding offstage opponents. She can also cancel her aerial missile animation immediately by landing, allowing her to fire off two missiles in quick succession. Her homing missile moves slower, yet lasts longer and does not reverse direction when reflected, making it a safe option for creating stage control and extending combos. Her Morph Ball Bombs also provide a good stage controlling tool, which can also be used to break out of combos or edgeguard her opponents if they try to go for the edge. With these tools, she can projectile camp her opponents and control their approach, giving her one of the best zoning games in the current demo. However, due to the way that powershielding and priority function in the current demo, her zoning game is restricted somewhat. Most of her projectiles can be destroyed without actually setting them off, which prevents them from trading with their target's attacks even at close range. All of her projectiles can be reflected by powershielding, which would not be too big of a problem if the timing for the technique was not so lenient. This in turn makes her projectiles very risky to use at mid to close range, where she does not have enough time to properly react to avoid them if they get reflected.

Samus has a relatively weak grab game overall, but it is not without its strengths. Her standing grab and dashing grab both have the longest range of their respective types. She can combo into her dashing grab by hitting the opponent with a fast-fall zair. Her dashing grab has a relatively fast startup and endlag, making it superior to most other tether grabs despite the reduced range. Her down throw can be used to start combos, and is capable of effectively chain grabbing Fox. However, her other throws are only average at best. Samus' standing grab is almost completely useless, as its long startup and endlag guarantees her opponent a free punish on a whiff. Even with her dashing grab, Samus must commit herself more than most characters, making it difficult for her to successfully pull off a grab in neutral.

Due to a combination of low gravity and good air speed, this helps her recover with her bombs giving her height when they explode near her, Screw Attack being a hard to gimp recovery and her tether recovery which has little start up lag and long range, which can also be used immediately out of an air dodge. She has a strong meteor smash in her down aerial which can be used to get rid of her opponents faster and when combined with her bombs makes it easy to set up KOs. Her floaty nature and low accelerated falling speed makes her less susceptible to combos and chain grabs then other heavyweights.

However, Samus floaty nature makes her vulnerable to vertical KO's. Due to Samus being tall and her shield not covering her body properly, she is susceptible to shield poking. Also due to her height and weight; it makes her easy to hit while also making her susceptible to horizontal combos and chain grabs.

Samus' only problem when it comes to recovery is her tether recovery. The move has a very small grab box that only lasts for a brief moment before vanishing, even though the tether appears stays out for much longer. This means that Samus can only reliably grab the edge from a very specific location offstage. If she is too high, the grab box will disappear before grabbing the edge; if she is too far or too low, the grab box will not reach; and if she is too close, the grab box will appear behind the edge's hitboxes and miss completely. If she misses the edge, the move's long end lag guarantees that Samus will SD unless she still has her second jump. The move is not very good for recovering in competitive play; it becomes very predictable due to the highly restrictive spacing required, leaving Samus vulnerable to edgeguards.

Her best KO moves are projectiles, which makes her more reliant on them, because of this them being reflected can be trouble for Samus. Her non-projectile KO moves have short range, such as down smash. Her offensive game is below average which requires her to play defensively. With this in mind she has trouble being rushed down, this makes small stages horrible for her due to having little space to camp and being rushed down by her opponent more easily. Even though she is a good camper; she has trouble breaking through opposing camping abilities her self especially opponents who can counter her own camping abilities such as characters with reflectors like Fox and Mega Man.

Moveset

Ground attacks

Attack	Description	Damage
Standard attack	Samus does a quick punch, followed by an overhead strike with her arm cannon.	3%
		7%
Forward tilt	Samus does a quick side kick. Good speed and range makes it ideal for many close-range situations.	8%
Up tilt	Samus does a powerful axe kick. It has a slow startup, but will spike grounded opponents, allowing for strong followups. This move works differently based on whether the opponent is on the ground or in the air.	13%
Down tilt	Samus reaches forwards and releases a small blast from her arm cannon on the ground. One of Samus' primary KO moves.	14%
Forward smash	Thrusts her arm cannon outwards in a punching motion with a small explosion at the end. Two hitboxes, the cannon and the explosion. The first hitbox automatically links into the second, which possesses much higher knockback and damage.	5%
		11%
Up smash	Swings her arm cannon over her head in a wide arc, creating a series of small explosions. This move cannot be DI'd out of, but the attacks are not guaranteed to link together properly if the opponent is too high. Hits up to six times.	4%
		5%
		6%
Down smash	Samus does a quick 360° sweep kick. This is Samus' most potent KO option when timed properly. The front hitbox sends opponents behind Samus, and vice versa.	16%
		15%
Dash attack	Jumps forwards and tackles the opponent with her shoulder. This move will eat non-transcendent projectiles and gives Samus a quick boost of speed. One of Samus' best options in the neutral game. The move is very unsafe on shields unless spaced properly. Based on the Shinespark ability.	9%

Aerial attacks

Attack	Description	Damage
Neutral aerial	Does a sex kick. Comes out very quickly and lingers for a long time.	14%
		10%
Forward aerial	Holds her arm cannon forwards, creating a series of small explosions. Hits up to five times.	4%
		6%
Back aerial	Kicks behind her. The tip of her foot is a sweet spot that deals extra knockback, making this another strong KO option.	10%
		14%
Up aerial	Samus does an upwards drill kick, hitting up to six times. A good anti-air attack that can be used to extend combos.	3%
		1%
		6%
Down aerial	Swings her arm cannon below her in an arc. A strong meteor, though it is difficult to hit with due to its long startup time.	15%

Grab and throws

Attack	Description	Damage
Grab	Samus uses her Grappling Beam to grab her opponent. Is the slowest grab in the game, but lasts a long time and has the longest range. Samus is also the only character who has a unique dashing grab, which is shorter and faster.	N/A
Pummel	Samus smacks the opponent with her hand.	1%
Forward throw	Throws her opponent forward with the Grappling Beam.	9%
Back throw	Throws her opponent behind her with the Grappling Beam.	12%
Up throw	Throws her opponent above her with the Grappling Beam, hitting multiple times.	1%
		4%
Down throw	Slams her opponent into the ground with the Grappling Beam. Samus' main combo starter, and can chain-grab big characters and fast-fallers.	10%

Other attacks

Attack	Description	Damage
Floor attack	Does a 360° sweep kick.	8%
		6%
Ledge attack	Samus rolls onto the stage and swipes downwards with her arm cannon. Very slow, very long duration, and very little intangibility, with no benefits.	7%
Tether grab	Samus fires her Grappling Beam straight forwards. She can use it to grab ledges from a moderate distance away. It is a very strong option for Samus in close range, due to its frame 1 hitbox, long range, and low endlag.	9%

Special moves

Attack	Name	Description	Damage
Standard special move	Charge Shot	Samus begins charging her charge shot. She can release the shot at any time, or cancel the charge animation with a shield or a roll. When fully charged, she fires a massive shot with a lot of KO power. She cannot charge the shot in the air. She can use the Charge Shot Glitch to drastically expand the move's power, to the point that she can instantly KO her opponent in one hit.	5+%
			25%
Side special move	Missile	Samus fires a missile from her arm cannon. Depending on whether the direction is tapped or held down, she will either fire a Super Missile or a Homing Missile. Super Missiles move faster, travel to the blast zone, deal more damage, and have more KO power. Homing Missiles pursue the closest opponent, do not reverse direction when reflected, pop the opponent up for a juggle, and can be used to set onstage traps for stage control or combo setups.	14%
			5%
Up special move	Screw Attack	Samus shoots up into the air with a spinning somersault, hitting the opponent multiple times. Very powerful out-of-shield option, due to its high priority and initial intangibility frames.	1%
			2%
Down special move	Bomb	Samus enters her Morph Ball and drops a bomb, which then explodes. Samus can Bomb slide by dropping a bomb just above the ground, which allows her to effectively roll along the ground at a fast speed, providing a decent movement option, especially on stages with a lot of platforms.	7%
Final Smash	Zero Laser	Samus fires a giant laser beam from her arm cannon. Can de steered slightly upwards and downwards.	1%

Misc.

Misc.	Description
On-screen appearance	Exits from a Super Metroid save point.
Taunts	Standard	Salutes vigorously with her left arm.
	Side	Faces the screen and demonstrates the Arm Cannon mechanics.
	Down/Up	Holding her arm cannon with her left hand, she aims behind her, then kneels and aims lower in front of her.
Idle poses	N/A
Victory theme	A remix of the flourish that plays whenever Samus acquires a new power-up or defeats Ridley and Kraid in Metroid.
Victory pose	Raises her leg and poses her arm cannon pointing towards the screen.

Changes from v0.9a

Main article: Samus (Super Smash Flash 2)/Changelog

Samus was buffed in the earlier patches for demo v0.9b, but she ended up losing KO power in the most recent patch which made her nerfed overall from last demo.

Aesthetics

• Updated special effects to some of her attacks and special moves.
• Samus has a different Screen KO animation.

Attributes

• Due to the increase of shield depletion, Samus is more susceptible to shield stabbing.

Ground attacks

• Down tilt is stronger and one of her more reliable KO moves.
• Forward smash is weaker.
• Up smash is harder to SDI out of.

Aerial attacks

• Forward air is harder to SDI out of.
• Back air is weaker.
• Grab aerial comes out faster, can be followed up after most aerials and after immediately after an air dodge.
  • Can no longer perform the sliding grab aerial.

Grab and throws

• Samus now posses a dash grab, that has less start up and ending lag compared to her standing grab.
• Up throw is weaker and does not KO most floaty's above 130% anymore.
• Down throw hardly chain grabs most characters now.

Special moves

• Screw Attack is harder to SDI out of.
• Has a bug to perform a double Charge Shot.
• Samus now drops before her bombs do, making the move less spammable. However, the move is still able to be used effectively.

In competitive play

Notable players

Active

• Strat2G

Gallery

Costumes

Artworks

Samus's line art in the DOJO!!!.

Samus's first artwork in the DOJO!!!.

Samus's second artwork, used from Beta 1.0.0 to Beta 1.2.0.2.

Screenshots

Samus using her forward aerial on Bowser on Bowser's Castle.

Samus uses Missile at Mega Man while he is using the uncharged Mega Buster at her on Crateria.

Samus and Pikachu dashing on Skull Fortress.

Samus about to use her up smash at Mario while he is about using his down aerial on Temple.

Samus using Bomb while Sonic using Homing Attack on Twilight Town.

Samus taunting next to Kirby on Phase 8.

Ball version.

Early designs

Samus's first considered design for SSF2.

Samus's second considered design for SSF2.

Samus' on-screen appearance.

Samus using Bomb at Goku on Hueco Mundo.

Samus right next to Lloyd while he uses his down smash on Jungle Hijinx.

Samus landing on Sector Z.

Samus using her up smash on Hylian Skies.

Samus dashing on Mushroom Kingdom III.

Samus using her neutral aerial on Mushroom Kingdom III.

Samus attacking Link with her forward tilt on Hylian Skies.

Misc.

Samus' congratulations screen on Classic mode.

Samus' congratulations screen on All-Star mode.

Trivia

• With authorization from McLeodGaming, Samus' sprites were used on a video for Screw Attack's One Minute Melee.
• Samus' early artwork is based on a victory pose that she makes in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

External link

• Samus' page at Smash Flash DOJO!!!