(If you already know the basic mechanics of Smash please check In Depth or Neutral page for more useful information.)

In Smash your objective is to knock the opponent off the stage, scoring you a KO. Unlike traditional fightning games Smash doesn't actually have a health meter. Your "health" is represented a percentage at the bottom of the screen. By attacking your opponent you inflict damage and their percentage will go up. The higher the percentage the farther they'll go when being attacked.

You have to try to make sure they can't get back on stage with their recovery move.

These are the basic mechanics that seperate Smash from the rest. Here are a couple of things you should know.

Running & Walking

By moving the analog stick gently you can make your charater walk. By double tapping the analog stick you can make your character run. Some characters are faster or slower than others.

Jumping & Fastfalling

By pressing Y you can jump! Not very exciting, but every character can jump twice in the air, some even more than that. By tapping the analog stick down during a jump you can fastfall, which makes your character fall faster than normal. This allows for faster gameplay and mind games. By tapping it quickly, you can perform a short hop which is good to use with aerials or faking out an approach.

Shielding

By pressing L or R you can shield. Your shield only has a specific amount of damage it can take so watch out, if it breaks your character is left vunerable for a very long time. The shield regenerates overtime.

Rolling & Air Dodging

Rolling makes your character invincible for a short period of time. You can roll fowards, backwards, or just spotdodge in place. It is done by pressing right, left, or down respectively while being in shield.

Grabs

You can grab your opponent by pressing Z. When an opponent is grab you can choose to do a up,down,back, or foward throw. Each throw can give you specific advantages, or set up for combos, some even kill at higher percentages.

Attacking

There are many ways to attack. By pressing A you can do a basic jab, by tilting and pressing A you can perform tilts; weak directional attacks. Tilts are good for spacing and playing around your opponent. When you mash a direction and press A you get a smash attack. Smash attacks are good for knocking out your opponent at higher percents. Lastly there are aerials done by pressing a direction and A in the air. Aerials are extremely important, they are important for spacing, & virtually everything else depending on the move.