Super Smash Bros. Melee/Samus

Basic Techniques

Standard Attacks

Button(s)	Attack	Description/notes
A	Jab	A weak jab. Very unremarkable.
A A	One-Two Punch	A jab to punch combo. Also not very good.
Forward + A	Roundhouse Kick	A fairly quick kick.
Dash + A	Shoulder Check	Samus hits you with her shoulder
Down + A	Ground Flame	Samus hits the ground with her power beam and causes a small explosion. Fairly good as an intercept or to launch the enemy upwards.
Up + A	Axe Kick	Samus raises her leg, holds it there for a moment, then brings it crashing down. Can counter some air attacks if timed properly.
Smash Forward + A	Smash Punch	Samus punches you really hard with her gun. Too laggy to be a good move.
Smash Down + A	Sweep Kick	Samus kicks 360 degrees around her entire body, hitting anything standing near her. This move is extremely useful because of it's disjointed hitbox. It does good damage and has good knockback as well.
Smash Up + A	Flame Thrower	Samus shoots flames into the air, catching an enemy who is attacking from above. Would be useful, but Samus is left very vulnerable after using it.

Aerial Attacks

Button(s)	Attack	Description/notes
A	Sex Kick	A kick that stays deployed for about 2 seconds. Gets quite decent priority and is very useful for attacking enemies from above. An optimal strategy is to deploy the kick as you fast-fall onto the opponent.
Forward + A	Flame Thrower	Samus shoots some flames in front of her. No knockback, but fairly decent damage.
Back + A	Back Kick	Samus swings her foot behind her. Roughly equivalent to her sex kick, only behind her instead of in front.
Down + A	Meteor Smash	This is Samus' meteor smash. She hits the opponent with her gun, and he skyrockets downwards into oblivion. This move does damage about a second after you start it, so you want to start it as you're still moving upwards.
Up + A	Drill Kick	Samus contorts herself into what can best be described as a screw shape, and kicks the opponent by spinning around quickly.

Special Attacks

Button(s)	Attack	Description/notes
B	Power Beam	Press once to charge up. Press B again to fire. Does most damage when fully charged, which takes a few seconds. Tap left or right to roll if you anticipate that you will be unable to finish the charge. Can be fired in the air, but not charged.
Up + B	Screw Attack	Samus curls up into a ball and shoots upwards as she spins very quickly, doing moderate damage to anyone she hits. Can be used to reach a ledge that is too high after bomb jumping fails you.
Down + B	Morph Bomb	Samus morphs into her famous Maru Mari/morph ball form and lays a bomb. These bombs explode after about a second, and do a low amount of damage. They can be used as a dodge to make Samus "slippery", but are best used as a recovery move. See bomb jump in the advanced techniques.
Forward + B	Homing Missile	Samus fires a homing missile which does moderate damage and slows down the further it goes. Generally not as good as the Power Missile below.
Smash Forward + B	Power Missile	Samus fires a missile which sacrifices the homing capabilities in favour of a stronger and faster missile. For effective use tactics, see missile cancel in the advanced techniques.

Throws

Due to the very slow nature of Samus's grab, grabbing should be done infrequently and when you know you'll connect.

Button(s)	Attack	Description/notes
Down	Ground Smash	Samus whips the opponent into the ground. This is Samus' best throw because it allows her to combo out of it, with a smash attack or a charge shot for example.
Forward	Whip Throw	Samus flings the opponent forwards. Not very remarkable.
Up	Upward Throw	Not surprisingly, Samus throws the opponent upwards. This could be used as an aerial setup.
Back	Backward Throw	Samus throws the opponent backwards.

Advanced Techniques

Bomb jump

A must for Samus players, the bomb jump is one of Samus' best assets. She can use it to get back onto a ledge from extremely long horizontal distances. The technique is executed by repeatedly laying bombs (down + B button) and guiding oneself so that one lands on them and bounces into the air towards the ledge. This is repeated over and over until the player reaches the ledge. A Samus player who has mastered the bomb jump can recover from just about any hit except for a meteor smash or a hit that sends her off the screen instantly.

Missile cancel

The missile cancel is the fastest way to fire missiles. It is performed by firing a power missile just before Samus hits the ground. This cancels out the lag of the missile and allows the player to perform another action (including firing another missile) immediately afterwards.

Super wavedash

This is more of a novelty than a useful technique. It causes Samus to shoot across the screen at a distance almost equivalent to the width of the Final Destination stage. It would be very useful as a form of evasion, but it is very difficult to execute consistently. It is performed by laying a bomb, then, just as Samus hits the ground, smashing the control stick as quickly as possible in the opposite direction the player wants to travel, and then in the direction the player wants to travel. The timing for this technique is extremely precise - it can only be executed in the window of 2 frames.

Extended Grab

Press left and right on the d-pad while tapping Z. You can only grab by pressing Z again and home to the other players by holding R. It may take many tries to get right.