Up tilt

An up tilt (abbreviated "u-tilt"), officially called a strong up (上強攻撃, Up/above/upper strong attack) before Ultimate, is a tilt attack that can be performed by any character by holding the control stick lightly upward and pressing the attack button while on the ground. It can be difficult to pull off an up tilt quickly, as if the player tilts too fast, they'll either jump or do an up smash instead. Turning off tap jump can help avoid the former problem, or the player can do some other action and hold up on the control stick before it ends.

Up tilts typically fall into two categories: quick strikes with a narrow range directly above the character's head, or slower attacks that hit a wide arc above the character. More often than not, up tilts are used for juggling, as they usually lack the knockback to disturb low damage combos outside of a few exceptions such as Ganondorf and Captain Falcon.

Since the Wii Remote-only control scheme in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U lacks both a control stick and any other way to jump, up tilts become unusable without first holding up during a prior action, making them the only normal attack which a player may not be able to use for no in-game reason.

List of up tilts[edit]

Notable up tilts[edit]

• Kirby's up tilt in Smash 64 is considered overall one of the best moves in any Smash game, due to its extremely quick speed (coming out on frame 4 and lasting only 17 frames), high damage output, extreme safety on shield and hugely disjointed hitbox. It is notable for its ability to easily and quickly rack up damage and break shields, as well as being able to outspace some characters' reliable approach options entirely on its own (such as Yoshi's). Its ending lag, power and range have been toned down in later installments, but it still remains a strong combo tool in every game.
• Ganondorf's up tilt, known as the Volcano Kick, has the slowest startup of any up tilt, but it deals high damage and extreme knockback. From Brawl onwards, it also creates a vacuum that draws other characters towards him, and is notable from Smash 4 onwards for instantly breaking full shields with its sweetspot (and in Ultimate, breaking shields in its entire range, whether sweetspotted or not). Despite its strengths, it is often regarded as one of the worst up tilts in a competitive setting, as its incredibly high startup lag makes it extremely situational compared to other up tilts.
  • It is also the only tilt in Ultimate to cause Special Zoom.
• Marth's up tilt in Melee covers a large area around him, has long-range, and relatively low ending lag, making it one of the best anti-air options in the game, and allowing it to combo into subsequent up tilts, aerial attacks, and even a grab or forward smash against fast fallers, while it can KO floaty characters at mid-high percentages.
• From Smash 4 onward, Captain Falcon's up tilt meteor smashes opponents who are struck with his heel, making it the only up tilt in the series that is a conventional meteor smash. Conversely, from Melee onward, Samus and Dark Samus's shared up tilt is an unconventional meteor smash.
• Snake's up tilt in Brawl is often considered the best in the game due to its high knockback, fast startup, and huge disjointed hitbox. In Ultimate, its hitboxes have become smaller, but it still sports a frightening combination of speed and power, causing it to retain its status as one of the best up tilts in the game.
• In Brawl, King Dedede's up tilt has more knockback than his uncharged up smash (being the third strongest up tilt after those of Ganondorf and Snake) along with being not particularly slow and consisting of only a sweespot, making it one of the best up tilts in the game. It also notably grants full intangibility to his body during its first two active frames, which is very rare for a tilt attack. In Smash 4, its intangibility only affects his head and left arm, and its knockback was reduced to the point of being weaker than his up smash; in Ultimate, it was buffed to be only slightly weaker than its Brawl iteration without rage.
• Mario's up tilt in Smash 4 is infamous for several reasons: its speed and wide hitbox (which covers the entirety of Mario's front) makes it easy to both land and initiate combos with, even on grounded foes. More notably, it is extremely effective after a down throw at low-mid percents, which can be followed by multiple up aerials and ending with Super Jump Punch; with rage, this can be abused to net absurdly early kills due to Super Jump Punch's first hit having set knockback. Ultimate reduced the effectiveness of up tilt by making its hitboxes start higher, removing its ability to hit most grounded opponents; while its combo ability remains, it is no longer as easily accessible, while the changes to rage remove its unintended interactions with Super Jump Punch.
• Mega Man's up tilt is very fast to start up and incredibly powerful, with among the highest knockback of any tilt (KOing at around 85%, earlier than even some uncharged up smashes), but has extremely high ending lag. Additionally, it is one of only two tilts in the series, along with Simon and Richter's shared down tilt, that causes the user to functionally leave the ground.
• Steve's up tilt in Ultimate can be repeated by holding down the attack button. Steve can also walk and jump while performing the move. It is also overall very fast and combos into itself and aerials.
• Sephiroth's up tilt has the longest vertical range of any up tilt in the series, being able to hit characters standing on Battlefield's top platform.
• Kazuya's up tilt is the only one in the series to be a natural combo.