Fighters in Super Smash Bros. tend to change over the course of new installments. That being said, fighters that make up the original 12 from the first installment don’t get altered that much in terms of their moveset. That includes Samus, the galactic bounty hunter from Metroid.
Samus is definitely one of the more popular characters, especially in online play. The range of playstyles she offers makes her a very welcoming character in that regard, but that also makes it hard for people to get a grasp on her, in terms of playing and defeating her. Here’s what Samus is all about, including her weaknesses and how she can be beaten, in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. (The provided information for Samus will also apply to her Echo Fighter, Dark Samus.)
Samus’ Strengths
As previously mentioned, a strength of Samus is her range of playstyles. She has a variety of projectiles that she can use to keep opponents away, as well as different ways to use them. Her Neutral-B, for example, can make a good combo tool or a kill option, depending on how strong you charge it. The same can be said for her Side-B, considering it has two firing modes. She also has great inside tools, like her FAir or Up-Air that works really well in combos. Her Up-B, on the other hand, is a great out-of-shield option to get opponents off of her. Her toolkit allows her to be played as either a projectile zoner, a brawler, or anything in-between.
She also has great aerial game. The previously mentioned Up-Air is great for ladder combos and catching opponents jumping above her. Alternatively, the FAir also works in this regard, although it’s better for calling out opponents jumping as she approaches thanks to its active frames. She also has her Down-B; this is another move on the list of projectiles with utility, one of them being assisting Samus with mobility and landing mix-ups since she can use it multiple times. This move also helps her with recovery for the same reasons, which makes it great when you pair it with her tether grab.
Samus’ Weaknesses
Samus is a very solid character, so she doesn’t have many major weaknesses. A weakness she definitely has is that her ground game isn’t the best. A lot of her moves aren’t very quick or safe, and the ones that are safe aren’t very powerful. Her jab, for instance, doesn’t even combo into the second hit. She has her long-ranged grab and Up-Throw as a KO option, but its best reserved for mix-ups out of the jab or the Neutral-B charge. Pair all of this with her unremarkable running speed, and you have a character that’ll spend more time in the air than on the ground.
Her recovery, while still great, does have issues with it as well. For starters, the tether grab is pretty inconsistent in terms of connecting to the ledge because of how it works when opponents are close to it. Samus will almost definitely lose her stock if it fails — and she doesn’t have a jump on standby. Speaking of her jump, it’s a bit floaty and doesn’t help her Down-B’s being high in endlag or her Up-B’s average range. All of this doesn’t make Samus’ recovery bad, but it means that it happens very slowly, and it’ll be an issue against fighters that can catch her far offstage.
Strategy & Counterplay
Samus’ range of effectiveness means that you’ll need to know what to do against her at a distance and up-close. You’ll definitely want to smother her with pressure at first, so she won’t have much time to charge up her Neutral-B. When trying to jump in, and she happens to be shielding, make sure to properly space your attacks to have a better chance of her out-of-shield Up-B missing. At a distance, she may send Side-B and Neutral-B attacks at you. Your best bet is to be patient and watchful of how she does this and act accordingly, doing a mix of dodging, shielding, and jumping to throw her off.
If Samus happens to get you offstage, she’ll almost always try to trap you at a ledge by using her Down-B. Samus needs to set the bomb up at a sort of specific time for this to be a threatening ledgetrap. That being said, you’re better off getting hit with it on the ledge. You’ll gain your ledge invincibility back, and Samus can only do it so many times before she eventually makes a mistake in her ledgetrapping, and you can make it back.
Good & Bad Matchups
Samus performs best against characters that she can force to approach. These are characters with either no reliable means of dealing with her projectiles or those that have to come close to execute their gameplan. This includes characters like Kazuya, Luigi, Little Mac, and Kirby. Thanks to her aerial game, she can beat characters that have bad recoveries as well. This includes characters like Chrom, Incineroar, Ice Climbers, Robin, and Mii Swordfighter.
Samus has a harder time against characters that can send her projectiles back at her. This requires her to be more careful with them and discourages the zoner playstyle. Consider using characters like Fox, Mr. Game & Watch, Palutena, Joker, and Villager (this can include Mii Swordfighter as well if they have the reflector Down-B). That being said, she has an even harder time against characters that have their own share of projectiles to hit her with, which achieves the same result as the previous list of characters. This includes R.O.B., Olimar, Duck Hunt, Young Link, and Zelda.
