Samus (SSBM)

Samus (, Samus) is a starter character in Super Smash Bros. Melee. Returning as a veteran from the previous game, Samus, similarly to , reprises her role as a short-ranged fighter with numerous ranged options.
Samus is ranked 11th on the current tier list, placing her in the B+ tier, a significant improvement from her 8th (out of 12) position in Super Smash Bros. This is mainly due to her effective projectiles, supplementing her KOing power and her approaches. She also has a good air game that is complemented by a versatile back aerial. Samus' recovery is among the best in the game; her bomb jumps, ability to wall jump, her wall grappling beam, and heavy weight all contribute to making her among the toughest characters to KO horizontally. She also possesses advanced techniques exclusive to her, such as the super wavedash and extended grapple, that aid her approach on opponents. However, she is floaty, allowing her to be easily juggled and KO'd vertically. She is also highly susceptible to combos in general, due to being floaty, heavy, and tall in stature. Her primary combo starter, her grab, is also very laggy if it misses, though it can be extended in the NTSC version. Regardless, Samus has decent matchups all-around in the current metagame.
==Attributes==
Samus is a unique character. Although a tall heavyweight, she is unusually floaty, uncharacteristic of characters in her weight class. Her high weight (only being lighter than and ) lets her have amazing horizontal survivability. Her slow falling speed (the second slowest in the game, tied with ) allows her recovery to travel more distance and gives her better potential combo game. However, it also makes her more susceptible to vertical KOs, even with her high weight, and it also gives her a poor SHFFL.
Arguably Samus's most valuable asset is her high range. While lacking a disjointed hitbox, Samus has a variety of long-reaching attacks and long-ranged projectiles that can assist with her ground-based approach. Charge Shot can quickly become one of her most powerful attacks, while her Missiles can act as both an approach option when non-tapped and as a powerful finisher when tapped. Samus's average traction and low falling speed also grant her a long wavedash that can mesh well with her long-ranged smash attacks, as well as her modestly-ranged tilts; assuming the player has particularly good timing, Samus also has access to the longest wavedash in the game, the Super Wavedash, which can also potentially surprise enemies due to its speed. While laggy, Samus sports one of the longest grabs in the game, and a technique that is unique to the NTSC release of the game can allow her to extend its reach by three, in addition to allowing it to home in on enemies.
Samus's recovery is also among the longest and most flexible in all the game. While Screw Attack grants relatively little horizontal and vertical distance, its multiple hitboxes can potentially frustrate edgeguarders. Samus, however, owns arguably more options for her recovery than any other character in the game. Her average air speed and low falling speed aid her approach toward ledges, while her natural ability to wall-jump can aid her recovery on stages with walls underneath the ledge, such as Fountain of Dreams or . Samus's down special, her bombs, can allow her to bomb-jump onto the stage without the loss of jumps, and her grab air can allow her to enter "safe zones" underneath the stage, as well as acting another long recovery technique. Owing to these variety of options, edgeguarding against Samus can be extremely difficult, especially for characters with poor recoveries. For Samus herself, this long recovery also grants her a powerful edgeguarding game of her own, aided by her fast and powerful neutral and back aerial attacks.
Samus also has a very good defensive game; despite her shield leaving her legs exposed, which can leave her vulnerable to shield stabbing, and having a poor roll due to its low speed, she still has very strong defensive options. For one, she has one of the best Crouch cancels in the game, due to her high weight, and having very good options out of it, such has her down smash which can set up lethal edgeguarding scenarios and her down tilt. Her screw attack also offers a quick and difficult-to-punish out of shield option, due to being invincible for the first couple frames of the move which helps her when getting pressured. It can also work as a combo breaker, but this can be risky if missed. Her nair is also a good combo breaking tool, due to being decently quick (frame 5) and being powerful. Her defensive game is also complimented by her amazing horizontal survivability and great recovery, which allow Samus to frequently live to very high percents against characters without strong vertical finishers (and sometimes characters with them).
Despite having a good approach on the ground, Samus's aerial approach suffers due to her strange variety of attributes. Her below average falling speed and high jumps give her a poor SHFFL, despite the presence of low ending lag for her aerials when L-canceled. Her low falling speed also can prevent her from quickly pursuing enemies that have been knocked into the ground; as such, Samus can have particular difficulty in comboing fast-fallers, even with her variety of throws. Tying into this, Samus's grab is extremely laggy and can easily be punished if she fails to grab an opponent with it.
==Changes from Super Smash Bros.==
Samus has been significantly buffed from Smash 64 to Melee, as she was considered to fare poorly in Smash 64 due to her poor approach and lack of reliable combos. She is often considered the most buffed character from Smash 64 to Melee along with . Most of her attacks have received significantly better frame data, such as a faster neutral attack and forward tilt.
===Aesthetics===
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===Attributes===
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===Ground Attacks===
*Neutral attack:
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*Forward tilt:
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*Up tilt:
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*Down tilt:
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*Dash attack:
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*Forward smash:
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*Up smash:
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*Down smash:
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===Aerial Attacks===
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*Neutral aerial:
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*Forward aerial:
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*Back aerial:
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*Up aerial:
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*Down aerial:
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===Throws/other attacks===
*Grabs:
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*Forward throw:
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*Back throw:
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===Special Moves===
*Charge Shot:
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*Missile:
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*Screw Attack:
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*Bomb:
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==Version history==
Like some other characters, Samus has received some changes in the PAL version of Melee, which nerfed her overall, as she can no longer use the Extended grapple or bomb out of a grapple.
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==Moveset==
For a gallery of Samus's hitboxes, see here.
===Stats===
NTSC
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===Announcer call===
File: Samus Announcer SSBM.wav
===Taunt===
===Idle pose===
===Crowd cheer===
 	Cheer (International)	Cheer (Japanese)
Cheer 	 	
Description	Sa - mus! Sa - mus! 	Sam - us!
===Victory poses===
==In competitive play==
===Most historically significant players===
:See also: :Category:Samus players (SSBM)
* - One of the best players in France, and was known as the best Samus in Europe prior to his inactivity, placing 3rd at , 5th at , and 17th at . He notably took 's Peach to last stock.
* - One of the best Samus players in the early 2010s. He was primarily active in his local area of NorCal and around the West Coast, peaking at 61st on the SSBMRank 2014. He is best known for placing 9th at taking a set over , as well as his win over at , where he ultimately placed 4th.
* - The best Samus player in Europe following Cyr's inactivity, having been able to match Cyr's results at many events, placing 5th at defeating , 13th at , and 17th at defeating . At his peak, he was ranked among the top 10 best players in Europe.
* - One of the greatest Samus players of all time. He is best known for his performance at , where he eliminated , among other top players, before ultimately placing 5th. He has since placed top 8 at many other majors, including placing 2nd at , becoming the closest Samus player to winning a major since the golden age of Melee, and was a mainstay in the top 20 for several years, peaking at 14th on the MPGR 2018. He eventually dropped Samus for in 2019, his absence leading to a decline in Samus' representation in top-level competitive Melee that lasted until the post-Project Slippi era.
* - One of the greatest Samus players of all time, and one of the most recognizable due to his long tenure in competitive play. He was first known for his performances during the golden age of Melee, where he notably placed 2nd at , the best placement from a Samus player and the closest one has come to winning a supermajor. He remained one of the best Samus players past the Golden Age and into the era of the Five Gods, placing 7th at and 9th at , and peaking at 20th on the SSBMRank 2015.
* - Better known for playing in Project M, but has also been active in Melee. Though first ranked in 2018, he is better known for his performances in the post-Slippi era, particularly in 2023, when he defeated at , one of the biggest bracket upsets of the year, and at to place 9th. As such, he was ranked 18th on the SSBMRank 2023, the best solo-Samus placement since Duck in 2018.
* - The best Samus in Japan prior to his inactivity, previously ranked 8th on the Japan SSBM Rank 2018. In his country, he has notably taken sets over , won multiple locals, and placed 3rd at . Internationally, he has made top 32 at a few notable majors such as 17th at and 25th at .
* - Though he is by far better known for his performances with and , he was considered one of the best Samus players in the world when he actively played her. He primarily played Samus in his early years, placing 5th at both and , before he switched to Sheik in early-2015. He has since returned to using Samus on a few occasions, notably placing 4th at , 5th at , and 9th at using only or mostly Samus at all three events. Plup is also known for his set against at , which is considered one of the most iconic Samus sets in Melee history.
* - Though active prior, he is considered one of the best Samus players in the post-Slippi era, and peaked at 33rd on the SSBMRank 2022. He holds some of the best wins with Samus in the post-Slippi era, having defeated and at , and several noteworthy placements at majors, including 9th at , the best Samus performance since at .
* - Considered the "Father of Samus", becoming the first notable Samus player and innovating her metagame. He was formerly the best Samus player alongside HugS in the Golden Age of Melee; he still competes occasionally in New York. Some of his best results during his peak were 5th at and 7th at .
===Tier placement and history===
Samus’s large number of buffs from her transition from 64 to Melee was immediately noticed by players, and was reflected by her high rankings in initial tier lists, hovering around 6th and 9th. This was primarily due to her improved projectile game, additional combo options, and improved recovery. Although she has a smaller playerbase than most high-tier characters, her representation and performances from dedicated mains such as allowed her to remain in the higher tiers for many years. Unfortunately, innovations in other characters' metagames have been discovered, and professionals have adapted to Samus's defensive fighting style that rendered her zoning game less effective. This has resulted Samus dropping in placements through recent Melee tier lists. In the current metagame, rarely uses her in high-level tournaments, and has recently dropped her in favor of Sheik. As it stands, while her zoning game remains effective against the meta, her declining presence in tournaments and increasing competitive prospects towards other top-tiers has made her fare worse against the rest of the cast compared to the early metagame, and as a result, she currently sits at 11th place at the bottom of B+ tier.
==In 1-P Mode==
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In Classic Mode, Samus can appear as an ordinary opponent, as an ally or opponent in the team battles, alongside either or , as a giant opponent, or as a metal opponent. When alone she appears either on Brinstar or Brinstar Depths, while when on a team with Captain Falcon she appears on Big Blue.
===Adventure Mode===
Samus is once again fought on the Brinstar stage, after Samus is beaten, the planet will start to explode and the player must evacuate to Samus's ship before the planet explodes, if not they will lose a life.
===All-Star Mode===
Samus and her allies are fought on Brinstar.
===Event Matches===
Samus is featured in the following event matches:
*Event 3: Bomb-fest: The player chooses any character and must defeat and Samus on Princess Peach's Castle. Link and Samus will only use their bomb special moves, and only items that create explosions (such as the Motion-Sensor Bomb and the Bob-omb) will spawn on the stage.
*Event 8: Hot Date on Brinstar: The player chooses any character and must defeat Samus in a three-stock match on the Brinstar. The player starts and respawns with 102% damage, while Samus starts and respawns with 130%.
*Event 15: Girl Power: The player chooses any character and must defeat Samus, , and in a two-stock match on Fountain of Dreams. The character the player chooses is tiny, while the female combatants are normal sized.
*Event 17: Bounty Hunters: The player plays as Samus, “allied” with Captain Falcon and must defeat before Captain Falcon does on Jungle Japes. The event results in failure if Captain Falcon delivers the finishing blow, if Bowser self-destructs, or if Samus dies.
*Event 20: All-Star Match 2: Samus is the first opponent the player must fight in this series of staged battles. The player battles her on Brinstar, which will transition to the next stage if Samus gets defeated. With a timer of four minutes, the player must defeat her along with Link, Zelda, Captain Falcon, and .
*Event 27: Cold Armor: The player uses Samus must defeat three metal Samuses on the Brinstar Depths. The player-controlled Samus has one stock, while each metal Samus have two.
*Event 36: Space Travelers: The player uses must defeat Samus, , Fox, Captain Falcon and . The player battles the first three characters on Fourside and battles the last two on .
===Congratulations Screens===
File:SamusClassicMode.jpg|Classic Mode
File:SamusAdventureMode.jpg|Adventure Mode
File:SamusAllStarMode.jpg|All-Star Mode
==Trophies==
In addition to the normal trophy about Samus as a character unlocked by completing as Samus on any difficulty, there are two trophies about her as a fighter, unlocked by completing and All-Star Mode respectively as Samus on any difficulty. Each of the trophies can also be unlocked by playing 100, 200, and 300 versus matches respectively as Samus:
==Alternate costumes==
				
				
==Gallery==
SSBM Samus HQ.jpg|Official artwork of Samus.
SSBMWebsiteSamus1.jpg|Dashing on Mute City.
Samus'bforwardmove.jpg|Firing a missile on Princess Peach's Castle.
Samus'bmove.jpg|Firing a fully-charged Charge Shot on Pokémon Stadium.
Melee morph ball.jpg|Dropping s in mid-air on Princess Peach's Castle.
Samus'bupmove.jpg|Using her Screw Attack on Fountain of Dreams.
Melee Grapple Beam.jpg|Using her Grapple Beam on Brinstar.
DonkeyKongAdventureMode.jpg|Standing with three s on 
==Trivia==
*In the instruction booklet, the screenshots of Samus' special moves are on Corneria, as opposed to the other characters, whose special moves are shown on one of their home stages.
*Samus' render pose closely resembles the official artwork for her appearance in Smash 64.
==External links==
*Samus's page at Smabura-Ken
*Translation 
 
Category:Trophies (SSBM)
es:Samus (SSBM)