Shantae (Smash Plus)

Shantae is a playable character in Super Smash Brothers Plus for the Nintendo Switch Plus. Representing the Shantae universe, she is listed as Fighter #97 in Smash's modified numbering system and is listed as a Lightweight Fighter. She is hidden at the start of the game, but can be unlocked through random encounters in Versus Mode or by clearing Classic Mode with Shovel Knight.
Shantae is a well-rounded fighter with a variety of different moves at her disposal. Able to press the advantage with her surprisingly powerful physical attacks as well as attack from afar with various projectile attacks at her disposal as well. Her main drawback is her light frame, as she is easily knocked away by most powerful attacks. Her relatively slow fall speed also leaves her vulnerable to midair juggles and combos from skilled fighters. While her forward tilt and neutral special can be good at creating space, she has problems with fighters who get up close and personal, particularly those who can outspace her hair attacks. Her primary gimmick move, her Genie Dance Special, is also handicapped somewhat by its random nature, making it unreliable as a comeback move. Still, Shantae lacks any real major flaw in her game, and is suited to multiple different playstyles to the player's desire. Shantae has two normal jumps and can crawl. She turns into her monkey form to wall cling and wall jump, uniquely reducing her hurtbox size when performing these moves, but giving her slight endlag when she lands back on the stage.
==Moveset==
===Basic Attacks===
*Neutral Jab- Shantae executes her Hair Whip attack. She simply whips her hair straight forward in a quick, spammable attack that doesn't do much damage or knockback.
*Side Tilt- Shantae performs a slightly more powerful version of her Neutral Jab. While it can't be spammed as quickly, it does have slightly longer range and does a surprising amount of knockback, making it a good spacing tool. This attack can also be angled slightly up or down, though doing so will increase its endlag.
*Up Tilt- Shantae swings her arm over her head with a small fireball inside of it, leaving a lingering trail to damage foes as an anti-air attack briefly.
*Down Tilt- Shantae crouches down and whips her hair straight forward at a low angle. Spammable like the neutral jab, but does very little damage.
*Dash Attack- Shantae performs a lunging elbow attack that has slow startup but a high amount of knockback power.
*Grab & Pummel- Shantae grabs with both arms and pummels with a knee lift to the midsection.
*Forward Throw- Shantae transforms into her Jet Octo form briefly and blasts the opponent away with a shot of ink.
*Back Throw- Similar to the forward throw, only Shantae shoots the enemy behind herself.
*Up Throw- Shantae transforms into her Gastro Drill form as she tosses the enemy up, hitting them multiple times with a spinning drill attack and then launching them on the final hit.
*Down Throw- Shantae transforms into her Bonker Turtle form as she slams the opponent onto the ground and then jumps on them with her turtle shell, knocking them forwards and away.
*Neutral Air- Shantae spins in midair with a scimitar drawn, attacking first in front and then behind herself and launching foes on contact.
*Forward Air- Shantae performs an aerial version of her neutral jab, whipping her hair straight forward in a quick motion.
*Up Air- Shantae rises in the air a small amount and twirls her hair around in a circle above her head, hitting opponents multiple times and launching on the final hit.
*Down Air- Shantae executes a downward drill kick at an angle, hitting opponents multiple times on the way down.
===Smash Attacks===
*Side Smash- Shantae performs a midrange roundhouse kick straight in front of herself. It has a surprising amount of power, but a bit of startup lag and lacks range compared to her more useful Side Tilt.
*Up Smash- Shantae performs a standing bicycle kick that knocks opponents straight up into the air, similar to Fox's up smash. It has better start time than her side smash, but even less range and less power.
*Down Smash- Shantae swings her scimitar on either side of herself to knock foes away. Has the most utility of any of Shantae's Smash attacks, both due to its quick frame data and the strength of the forward swing.
===Special Moves===
*Neutral Special: Genie Fireball- Shantae fires a single fireball projectile forward. The fireball travels a decent amount of distance, but does very little damage. It has more utility in its basic form as a spacing projectile, due to its good knockback scaling. Players can also hold the special button for around two seconds, which causes Shantae to start glowing. Releasing the attack in this form will fire three fireballs in a spread pattern, stacked vertically on top of each other. This gives the attack much greater coverage at the expense of startup lag.
*Side Special: Pikeballs- Shantae forms a shield of three pikeballs around herself that linger for roughly 3 seconds. The Pikeballs deal damage to any opponent hit by them, but deliver no discernable knockback. They do however nullify weak projectiles. Pressing the Special Button while the Pikeballs are out will launch them forward as projectiles, though this will stop all forward ground momentum that Shantae has (ie, she has to be at a complete stop to launch the Pikeballs). This attack also has a 2 second cooldown period before it can be used again.
*Up Special: Harpy Form- Shantae transforms into her Harpy Form and flies up into the air for roughly three seconds. Players have limited horizontal control while Shantae flies upward, similar to Duck Hunt's Up Special. At the apex of her jump, Shantae will attack with a powerful talon swipe attack that will launch any foe hit by it before she transforms back to normal and enters freefall.
*Down Special: Genie Dance- Holding the Special Button will cause Shantae to dance in place and bring up a selection menu of four boxes. Each one of these boxes contains either a transformation or a magic spell that Shantae can use. The contents of the boxes are chosen at random, but will always consist of two spells and two transformations. Shantae is vulnerable while dancing, and if attacked that will cancel the move. Players can also cancel themselves by shielding. If used in midair, Shantae will use one of the spells or transformations at random, with no way of choosing, limiting its utility in aerial combat. The choices that can appear are.
**Elephant Transformation- Signified by the elephant on the selection box, Shantae transforms into her Elephant form. She then jumps in the air a short distance and crashes back down onto the ground, creating a shockwave around herself that can damage foes. Opponents hit directly by the stomp are buried.
**Spider Transformation- Signified by the spider on the selection box, Shantae transforms into her Spider form. She then shoots a stream of webs in front of her, blanketing the terrain. Any opponent who touches the webs (or is hit by them as they are launched) will have reduced speed for approximately 5 seconds. These webs can damage foes hit by them as well. The web remains on the ground for five seconds before disappearing.
**Bat Transformation- Signified by the bat on the selection box, Shantae transforms into her Bat form. She then fires a short range beam of sonar directly in front of her. Any opponent hit by the sonar will be momentarily dazed and left staggering for followup attack. If it hits a shielded opponent, it will do massive shield damage, and can break shields that are already damaged relatively easily. Shantae's hurtbox is significantly reduced during this transformation as well, but it also has the most transformation endlag to return to normal.
**Mermaid Transformation- Signified by the mermaid on the selection box, Shantae transforms into her Mermaid form. She then flicks her tail forward with a powerful attack that will launch foes hit by the tail. It also creates a small wave of water that acts as a disjointed hitbox from Shantae. The water doesn't deal near as much damage though.
**Bubble Shield- Signified by the bubble on the selection box, Shantae will cast a bubble-like shield around herself. This shield lasts for 9 seconds, and during that time any projectile that hits the shield will be reflected back at 1.3x damage. However, no other Genie Dance spells can be used while the shield is in effect, and if Shantae transforms into any form, she will lose the shield completely.
**Thunder Attack- Signified by the storm cloud on the selection box, Shantae will fire a powerful blast of electricity straight ahead that hits enemies multiple times and launches on the final hit. It has a good amount of power, but also has some endlag and limited range.
**Revive- Signified by the heart on the selection box, Shantae will cast revive on herself. She will then regain 10% of health instantaneously. This spell will only appear twice for selection before Shantae either is KO'ed or has to KO an enemy to reset the counter.
**Obliterate- Signified by the explosion graphic on the selection box, Shantae gathers all her magical energy and then detonates a powerful magical blast around herself. The attack does great damage and has good launch power, but only affects the immediate area around Shantae. It will also render her unable to use her Down Special for a period of 5 seconds after using the Obliterate spell, unless she is KO'ed.
*Final Smash: Half-Genie Fusion Dance- Shantae will teleport herself to center stage, regardless of where she is when the Final Smash is activated. She is then joined by the other Half-Genies she knows (Harmony, Zapple, Vera & Plink) as all five of them begin to dance. As they do so, the ground will shake, tripping any foe who is standing on it, and random blasts of vines and electricity will appear on the stage to damage foes. After 6 seconds the dance concludes and a powerful blast of psychic energy explodes from the stage, knocking all foes away as the FS ends.
===Miscellaneous===
*Entry Animation- Shantae flies in on the back of Wrench with her friend Sky by her side. The bird and friend fly off as Shantae lands on the stage ready for action.
*Idle Animation 1- Shantae twirls her ponytail with her finger briefly.
*Idle Animation 2- Shantae looks behind herself and then returns to normal stance.
*Side Taunt- Shantae performs a short dance move, similar to her Genie Dance, before winking at the camera.
*Up Taunt- Shantae assumes a defensive posture and has a small explosion of magic around herself.
*Down Taunt- Shantae turns into a blobfish briefly and flops around. Any opponent hit by the blobfish will take small flinching damage.
*Victory Animation 1- Shantae performs a quick dance before spinning around and ending on her trademark victory animation from Half-Genie Hero.
*Victory Animation 2- Shantae appears in her Pirate Gear and dorkily says "Get ready to walk the plank!" while Risky Boots appears in the background, shaking her head in disbelief.
*Victory Animation 3- Shantae flies into frame and spins around in the air, eventually floating in mid air in a sitting position and holding her finger up, a small fireball on the end of it.
==How to Unlock==
Shantae can be unlocked any of the following ways:
*Playing Versus Matches until she randomly appears as a "Challenger Approaching" fight. Defeat her to unlock her.
*Clear Classic Mode with Shovel Knight on starting difficulty 3.0 or higher.
*Unlock her in the Finale of World of Light by defeating her.
*Pay 1,000 gold in a shop, where she can randomly appear (though rarely.)
Category:Super Smash Bros. Characters
Category:Super Smash Bros. (series)
Category:Smash Plus Characters