Metaknight (SSS)

:This article is strictly about how Metaknight appears in Super Smash Stadium. For information about him in general, see his article on the Kirby Wiki.
One of the most controversial characters ever, both on Super Smash Stadium and in the actual Smash Bros. games, Metaknight is an active character. He debuted on the Season 28 premiere, alongside his ship.
==In his own universe==
Probably the closest thing the Kirby franchise has to a villain, Metaknight, who is the leader of a group called the "Metaknights", appears to be the exact same species as Kirby, but comes at him in a far different way, fighting Kirby using a sword. He is quite good at using that sword, and his cape also allows him to fly to a limited extent.
==Attributes==
...Yes.
Put simply, Metaknight was practically made for SSS. He's a very fast character, and his moves come out very fast as well. While his moves are generally weak, his high speed means he'll rack up damage very quickly. He also has five jumps, and all four of his specials can be used as a recovery in some way (most notably, he's the only character with a down special that leaves him helpless).
He's also quite good at evading opponents. Yes, because he's a lightweight, he dies at low percents, but that doesn't mean a thing if opponents can't get him to those percents.
===Changes===
*Season 36: Actually gets its own section! -_-;
*Season 39: ...Yes, he was mercifully nerfed, the biggest changes being to all of his specials. Gliding was also removed as a game mechanic for all characters that had it, including him.
*Season 47: Yes.
===Moveset===
Entrance: Spins onto the stage with his Dimensional Cape.
Move Name	Description
Neutral Special:
Mach Tornado	Metaknight spins like a top for five seconds. Mash to make him gain a little height.
Before Season 39, the move hit multiple times and sucked opponents in, likely breaking their shield in the process if they had it up. Currently, the move only hits a maximum of three times, but has higher knockback to compensate. The current version of the move also fixes a few bugs that were present in the original version.
Kirby Variant: Strangely, Metaknight's mask gives Kirby green eyes. This may be a nod to older Kirby games where Metaknight had white eyes without his mask, but Metaknight currently has yellow eyes whether he's wearing his mask or not.
Cannot kill.
Side Special:
Drill Rush	Metaknight charges sideways with his sword out, spinning like a drill. Anyone hit gets drilled into up to 10 times, with the last hit doing the most damage and knockback. Use to steer, although it's a bit hard to control.
Kills at 135%.
Up Special:
Shuttle Loop	Metaknight flies in a loop with his sword out. He hits twice, and has Super Armor in between the hits. Before Season 39, the move instead put him in a glide. The first hit does more damage and knockback than the second.
Kills at 110%.
Down Special:
Dimensional Cape	Metaknight turns invisible for a second, then pops out somewhere else in the direction you push . Acts as a crude counter: he reflects any projectiles that hit him while he warps, and if you hold , he does an extra slash.
Kills at 125%.
Final Smash:
Galaxia Darkness	While screaming "BEHOLD!!!" or "KNOW MY POWER!!!", Metaknight swings out his cape; anyone caught inside is trapped for three seconds while the screen turns dark, and is then sliced for 40% and severe knockback. Anyone outside the cape takes 20% and weaker knockback, though they can still die from the move.
Kills at 50%.
===Taunts===
*Up Taunt: Spins his Dimensional Cape.
*Side Taunt: Slashes his sword while saying "Fight me!"
*Down Taunt: Spreads out his cape and says "Come!"
===Victory===
*Pose: Slashes twice, then twirls his sword, saying "Victory...is my destiny!"
*Theme: Team Kirby's win theme.
**Since Season 31: A "hard rock" remix of the win theme.
*"No Contest"/Loss Theme: Team Kirby's loss theme.
===Controversies===
The Metaknight that was seen during the show's "Brawl Era", Seasons 36, 37, and 38, is by far the single most broken character to ever exist in any era of Super Smash Stadium, just as he was in the actual Super Smash Bros. Brawl game. Not even Smash 64 Kirby, Mêlée Fox, Smash 4 Bayonetta (who debuted the exact instant the "Smash 4 Era" began on SSS, mind you), or Ultimate Hero (who isn't yet a character on SSS...) come close to this little guy's raw power. Among his major problems:
*All four of his specials could be used as recoveries. They all left him helpless if he used them in the air, but this balanced him little. He also had his five jumps, and he could glide. Combined with the broken recovery mechanics of the era, long story short, if you got him offstage but didn't kill him, he was coming back. Thought you could Meteor Smash him? With the nerfs to hitstun and the priority of his moves, good luck.
*Dimensional Cape had a glitch for those using the GameCube or Wii Classic Controller: mash / up hard enough, and he'd stay invisible!
*Shuttle Loop killed at 60% under the right conditions, granted him invincibility at start-up, came fast out-of-shield, had a long range, was auto-cancellable, and useful as a combo finisher. Also, the high priority and disjointed hitbox made it hard to edge guard against, AND it comboed into a glide.
*As noted above, Mach Tornado ate shields alive in the Brawl Era. It had higher priority than most other attacks, took him a LONG distance horizontally if you mashed hard enough, and despite leaving him helpless if the move ended while he was in the air, it was spammable, starting and ending fast.
*His Down Smash was ridiculously fast, coming out frame 5 (in a 60 FPS game) and ending fast (thus making it near unpunishable if he messed up). This was one of the precious few reliable kill options that the weak Metaknight had in his arsenal at the time. Many episodes of SSS that featured him had players spamming the move as a result.
*His down tilt came out frame 3 and caused tripping. It even out-ranged Marth's tilt despite Metaknight's sword being shorter.
*His up air may have been the second fastest move in the game after Fox's lasers, and only took two frames to use. You could get THREE of these in in a short hop!
*His down air had just four frames of start-up lag and put opponents in a semi-spike.
*On some stages, Metaknight could use a tactic called Scrooging, where he'd stall by jumping offstage, then gliding underneath it to the other side. This wasn't as prevalent on SSS as it was in real-life Smash Bros. tournaments due to the contestants having no control over which stages they'd play on and Alex taking a firm stance on not banning anything.
Unlike today, where tripping can only be induced by moves, the Brawl Era threw in a 1% chance of it happening randomly. This caused the metagame to turn defensive after 21 years of offense, offense, and more offense. Camping, which most of the show's staff hates, seeing it as a "degenerate strategy", became the best strategy as a result. Metaknight took this to extremes by being able to camp in the air with his DAir, minimizing the chance that he'd trip. Also, the vast majority of the cast couldn't challenge him in the air; he could even shut down another infamous broken character at the time, the Ice Climbers!
As a result, most matches involving Metaknight became ultra-campy affairs that often involved stalling out the clock, and Alex made a habit of making sure a Metaknight player didn't see an Unlimited Smash as a result.
The buffs to Metaknight from the Mêlée Era are arguably one reason why Seasons 36 to 38 are seen as a "dark period" for SSS. As word started getting around about how "awesome" Metaknight was, he became one of the most requested characters to play as on SSS. On Episode 3718-5, aired January 30, 2009, Alex actually went on a rant at one point, complaining that he had to reject "over 1,000" contestant applications a day because they all wanted to play as Metaknight, and SSS doesn't allow duplicate picks. Metaknight was seen on every episode from January 2008 until about April 29, 2011 (a likely show record), when people finally got the hint that he'd been nerfed by that point.
Calls to retire Metaknight became extremely loud among St. Clair Publications' fandom, and Alex indirectly acknowledged this on one episode where he'd said the staff had been considering retiring Halberd, Metaknight's home stage.
Like with the actual Smash Bros. games, a small group of dedicated SSS fans maintains a tier list for the show; it's not quite as complicated as what SmashBoards does AND it's done in public. They've made their tier lists every year starting the first Monday in January and ending on Martin Luther King Jr. day, and have done this since 2001, the first January that St. Clair Publications had working public forums. Their tier list for 2009, which Alex actually showed on-air during the aforementioned rant, was "shocking", in his words. It showed an "insane" skill gap between Metaknight and the worst character at the time, Ganondorf, and Alex claimed it was the most "polarizing" skill gap since tier lists began.
==Costumes==
*Default
*Gold
*Red
*Green
*Galactaknight
*Black: May be based on Dark Metaknight, first seen in Kirby and the Amazing Mirror.
*Pink: A "Kirby-colored Metaknight" to contrast Kirby's "Metaknight-colored Kirby" costume
*No Mask (nicknamed "Covid-19knight" in Season 49...)