Super Smash Bros./Items

Items are some of the main things that make this game so additively fun. However, they can also make play very frustrating and/or annoying. They certainly add an element of chance to the game. Essentially, items act to balance out character and player differences, making for a fun casual game, but in serious play they don’t allow for the skilled players to always defeat the less skilled ones. There is quite the list of available items, and some are more fun than others.

Containers
Put simply, these are items that contain other items, as many as three at a time. To open these containers, you can either pick them up and throw them or you can simply attack them. Beware though, as some a random number of containers are explosive, which means you go BOOM when you kick them, though people tend to do so anyway in an attempt to get an item. and throws the item in either direction. Remember though, when taking long shots at an opponent, it’s better to break the container and throw one of the items inside then to throw the container itself, because you’re either wasting or giving your opponent items if you miss.


 *  Crate : The crate is just that, a great big wooden box. Picked up and thrown, the crate flies a short distance and then breaks when it hits the ground and/or an opponent.  Donkey Kong, due to his massive strength, can pick up and carry crates, though he can only perform a single jump at a time while holding one.  Also, you can attack it, at your own risk, but it is most times a better option in the heat of battle, because it takes a little while to pick up a crate, as it is rather heavy.

All containers can explode if they are empty, so it's helpful to throw them quite a distance!
 *  Barrel : This is a barrel, shaped quite like those from the Donkey Kong series, but really, how different do barrels get? You can pick this up and throw it (or attack it), but when it hits a surface, it rolls until it runs into a wall or a character and breaks.  Donkey Kong, just like when he threw them at Mario in the original Donkey Kong game, can pick barrels up and be exactly as mobile as he is with the crate. For other characters, it takes a while to pick up, so it might be a better idea to just smack it and hope for the best.


 *  Canister : This is a white and pink canister that looks like a Dr. Mario pill. Anybody can pick this up, carry it and throw it at stuff.  Because this one can be picked up instantaneously, it’s a better idea to grab it, jump, and throw it at the ground or an opponent, and then take the items, to avoid getting blown up.


 *  Chansey Egg : The eggs tossed around by the cute little pink Chansey contain items as well.  Chancey drops four eggs, and one of them is usually explosive.  Treat them like canisters, and try not to wonder too much why her eggs contain large explosive devices. These are also dropped in the Saffron City stage.

Hand-to-Hand Weapons
These weapons are held by a character and swung at them to inflict damage and death. Because they are an additional weapon, they provide a longer-range attack with a disjointed hitbox (attacking part is not part of the attacker, so you can't hit the weapon to stop it), as well as adding on additional damage. Each one of these weapons has a different attack for: These items are not used for any other attacks, which means that when you execute other attacks, you'll just do them while holding the item, without actively using it. Also, each character has a different version of each of the above movements, so learn your characters’. All of these weapons, when thrown, are action-blockable.
 * 1) Forward tilt
 * 2) Forward smash
 * 1) Forward smash
 * 1) Forward smash


 *  Home-Run Bat : This weapon is good, old-fashioned fun. Though not as long range or as quick as the beam sword, the baseball bat’s draw lies in the smash, wherein your character winds up and lets loose, and if it connects, it kills 99% of the time. Usually your character will have a bit of a backswing, which means that opponents just slightly behind you will get launched as well.  Remember, though, that this attack has a long warm-up and cool-down time, so be careful using it (make sure you have good position and timing) and take advantage fighting it (roll, jump, or dash-dance out of the way, and then pounce on them, after their swing is done). The thing is; you need to get perfect timing to do the Whoosh move. You need to press  or  in synchronization with the  button. This move works without an item as well. The closer they are; the more damage they'll do. You'll know if you've done it correctly because there will be a blue star at the time of impact. It is a good way to unexpectedly kill someone.


 *  Beam Sword : The game's "lightsaber", this pink, glowing rod of doom is a hated weapon for those who must fight against its skilled users. Its relative speed and long range (as well as its knockback) make it a great juggling weapon, and its length makes for a large projectile when it’s spinning through the air at an opponent. This large projectile has impressive knockback, so watch out.  A common strategy is to run-juggle your opponent, as the dash attack stays out for a good while and this defeats techs and rolls.  You can take them all the way across the stage by repeating this attack.  It's also a great defensive weapon - one tap of  at the right time and you can slap them away from you with a quick neutral swing of the sword.


 *  Fan : The fan is seen by many as a weapon purely usable for annoyance. A fast neutral swing with low recovery time coupled with medium-high knockback makes a weapon that can lock an opponent in place for whole chunks of time, doing 1 damage per hit.  If they try to run away, they are stunned - if they put up their shield, the fan does it massive damage (shield breaks in 2-3 hits).  The tilt is a bit slower, but has more knockback, and the smash even more so.  The thing with the fan is that it knocks them toward you when you hit them, so if you smash or  them with it, they will fly over your character to the other side.  So, the best way to get through a fan if you are stuck in the middle of it is to push  or  toward your opponent, and you will end up running past them.  If they turn around in time, they can trap you again, but if you're quick enough, you can avoid it and hit them with a real attack.  Thrown, the fan causes very large upward launching action, making it easy to kill light characters off of the top with it.  However, this makes it a nearly useless edge-guarding weapon, because it simply gives them altitude.  Have fun playing with this weapon.

Hand-Held

 *  Star Rod : This weapon is hard to place in a certain genre, because it is a hand-held weapon with both a melee attack and a projectile attack. A neutral swing of the wand gives simply a melee swish, but tilts and smashes both shoot a star out of the end of the wand in the direction of the attack. This star has decent knockback, but travels relatively slowly and has a maximum range, so it should not be used at long distances. The best use of the wand is to throw it, as (if it hits them, of course) it will send your enemy away and down with decent knockback. This means that if you hit them with it while they are near or off of the edge, they will be spiked down at an angle, making recovery much more difficult, or even impossible.


 *  Fire Flower : Unlike one would expect, picking this item up and using it does not change your character's colors and allow him/her to throw fireballs, but instead it shoots out a continuous stream of fire. This fire stuns your opponent and has little knockback, allowing you to keep your opponent trapped in the fire for a few seconds, accumulating free damage. It does knock them back a bit with every hit, allowing them to escape the fire after a couple of seconds of damage. Adding this to the relatively slow speed of the fire makes this weapon less useful when simply triggered from a stationary position. However, you can trap someone with it easily by either falling from above them while holding or by putting their back to the wall and burning the living daylights out of them. The latter method can rack up significant damage, and your opponent can't really do anything until your flower runs out of charge. When this happens, the flower will simply emit puffs of useless smoke. Thrown, the flower has acceptable knockback and does fire damage, stunning them for a bit longer than a normal item would.


 *  Ray Gun : This weapon shoots out a very fast laser projectile which zaps the opponent. The shots send your opponent into the air and slightly back, stunning them for a short duration. Because it can be fired quickly, and stuns for a short duration, you can juggle your opponent for a long time. This is not possible to do against opponents with high damage, as they will get knocked higher into the air and will have a chance to recover from the attack. Small, quick characters like Fox can escape the barrage, but big, slow characters like Donkey Kong are easy pickings for this weapon. Individual shots don't do much damage, but ten shots in a row followed by throwing the gun at your opponent will deal significant damage. At long range, and against highly damaged opponents it is sometimes necessary to time the shots and/or jump up when shooting so that you can continue hitting them without them being able to recover. Because it keeps opponents in the air and pushes them back, it is possible to push players rather far off the edge, and then throw the gun to send them flying way out over the abyss.

Thrown
This category covers the items that are meant to be thrown at an opponent. Pressing while holding these items throws the item (as that is its whole purpose). However, one must remember that every item in the game (save the Hammer, Heart, Tomato, and Star) can be thrown by pressing. Neutral attacks, tilts, and smashes all work as well when throwing items, for different pressure on while throwing causes different throwing distance. Some items work very well when thrown (melee weapons especially), so that should be a very viable option when using an item. However, do not throw away items unnecessarily, because you are just giving them to your opponent if you miss. Also, though items will bounce if thrown with some sideways momentum, when thrown straight up or down they do not, unless they bounce off of another character.


 *  Motion-Sensor Bomb (Mine) : Once thrown, this little gray disk lands on the ground with a "click", and after about a half-second, activates. Anyone or anything that touches the mine now will cause it to explode, causing very good damage.  It doesn't have quite the knockback of a Bob-Omb, but it is good enough.  If you can distract your opponent enough so that he/she doesn't see/hear that you planted a mine, so much the better.  However, even if they know where it is, you can still direct them towards it, though it's harder.  Throwing your opponents into mines is also a lot quicker than simply smashing them off of the stage.  If they hit that mine, they're gone; if not dead then certainly off of the stage.  Play with these, but be careful that you remember where your mine (and your opponents') landed, because they are very hard to see once planted.


 *  Bob-Omb : This is the most potent explosive in the entire game, by far. It's also a very impatient bomb, for after being left alone for a while, it begins to wander back and forth across whatever platform it's on (it won't fall onto any others), starting in the direction of the nearest character.  After a while it bores of even this and stops walking, gets all red and glowy, and then detonates.  To avoid getting rocked by Bob-Ombs, if you don't see it appear, don't go get it.  Once picked up, the bomb is happy, and will explode on contact with anything.  Avoid being too near an enemy when you throw it, especially if they shield, because then you'll just get launched to your death.  This explosion knows no allegiance, so don't throw it at yourself or your teammates.


 *  Bumper : You can achieve some really funny, unexpected results with this weapon. The most effective way to use it is to throw it slightly above players trying to jump back to edge of the platform - this sends the shooting downward to their death. Alternatively, a bumper thrown just right can send an opponent into a mine or into someone else's fist. A bumper thrown at an opponent standing right in front of you will bounce back and hit you in the face. A bumper on the floor restricts the movement of players, and can also be used as a tool to help you combo your attacks (e.g., a punch sends them flying into a bumper, which bounces them back into a kick).


 * [[Image:Pokeball.png|25px]] Poké Ball : These are very useful items. First of all, hitting your opponent with them does good damage and has good knockback.  Secondly, and most importantly, when the ball comes to a stop, out pops a Pokémon. With any Pokémon, the act of popping out of the ball hurts the opponent. There are 12 different types of Pokémon, each doing different things, which hurt everyone but the owner of the Poké Ball (and his teammates):


 *  Green Shells : As seen in various Mario games, Koopa shells can be used as potent projectiles when kicked or simply picked up and thrown. The same is true in Super Smash Brothers.  If attacked, a shell will simply cruise off in the direction that it was hit.  Throwing a shell can make it go further, though shells will also respond to very light tosses and taps, making them creep along the ground.  They move only if given momentum, and will disappear after a random number of tosses.  This weapon has very good knockback, but watch out when throwing it, as once it bounces off of a surface, it can hit and damage you.


 *  Red Shells : Unlike the green shell, this shell, when thrown, immediately begins following the character nearest it in an attempt to hit him or her and do damage. Jumping over or rolling through the shell works to avoid it, and remember that you can use the shell to your advantage by drawing it over to your opponent and causing it to hit them.  The knockback isn't nearly as great as the green shell, but the red shell is good enough to be very annoying.  It hits everyone, no matter who threw it originally, so take care. The red shells, unlike the green, will not fall off a ledge, but rather bounce off of it and then head back to the other ledge, until eventually disappearing.

Healing Items
There are two types of healing items. These items normally don't drop as frequently as others do, so be sure to quickly make your way to them if they do drop.


 *  Maxim Tomato : When picked up, your damage is reduced by 100%, and your percentage cannot be increased while you are being healed.


 *  Heart : This does the same thing as the tomato, except it heals you of all your damage. It also defies the laws of physics by dropping very slowly.

Because they can give an unfair advantage to one player or another that does not depend very much on skill - essentially, it either levels or immensely steepens the playing field - these two items are usually banned from serious competition.

Hammer
The hammer is most likely the best weapon to tilt the odds of winning in your favor. It drives your character into a smashing spree (your character takes his/her hammer and whacks it back and forth). With 30% damage per hit, the hammer will send most enemies flying sky-high in a couple of hits. However, double (or triple) jumping is impossible. Also, if for some reason, you get knocked off the stage, the only way to make it back on with the hammer is to "float" back with the tilted fall. Also, remember that you cannot throw away the hammer. You hold on to it for the duration that it lasts, which you may regret as you plummet to your death.

For fighting a hammer, many people run away, but if you do it right, you can use your opponent's hammer as a handicap. Kirby's Stone and Link's bomb will hit right through the hammer and maybe even knock it out of their hands, and if they hit while the hammer is back, boomerangs, fireballs, and other projectiles will connect. Also, the hammer's blocking radius does not extend very far behind your opponent, so you can smash them in the back if you can get behind them. Essentially, you're trying to either knock the hammer out of their hands or knock them off of the edge where they will fall helplessly into the pit.

However, once again, as this item is rather cheap, it is often banned from tournaments as well.

Star
The star is another powerful item. It grants you limited invincibility, so you will not be hit or damaged from any attack. While you have the star, the invincibility music from the Mario games plays, but be careful, as the invincibility dies a few moments before the music does. Also, this invincibility does not save you from flying through a KO barrier. An interesting twist is if you are invincible and you fall off of the edge of Zebes, you will fall right through the lava to your death, as it will not hurt you and launch you back up. This is also regarded as a "cheap" item, and is also usually banned from tournaments.