Punishing hitlag and lack thereof.

[Rango the Mercenary]

Has anyone noticed how many characters get off scot-free for moves that would otherwise end them with a punished Smash? Mario is a prime example of this. USmash is almost impossible to punish unless you're right up on him. But Rosalina, Sheik, Sonic...anyone who isn't Ike or Bowser. Maybe this wasn't a Brawl thing and I could just be having a difficult time, but I swear it feels like characters got much less cooldown time from moves that would otherwise punish them.

 

[HeroMystic]

The majority of Smash Attacks have start-up lag and isn't fast enough to punish. The only real time when you're punishing with Smash Attacks is if you're doing a hard read. Otherwise, you should be trying to deal more damage through jabs, grabbing, or OOS options.

 

[ParanoidDrone]

The majority of Smash Attacks have start-up lag and isn't fast enough to punish. The only real time when you're punishing with Smash Attacks is if you're doing a hard read. Otherwise, you should be trying to deal more damage through jabs, grabbing, or OOS options.

And I manage to keep forgetting that, although some smashes are fast enough to work as punishes anyway. They're the minority though.

 

[Cornstalk]

I've noticed that too. Most smashes actually have a pretty low end lag, allowing shield or escape before a punish can be delivered. At first this was frustrating to deal with, but I'm actually glad they set it up this way in the long run.

Think about it this way:
If missing a smash meant it was super easy to punish you, then smashes would never be a safe option. The result of this would mean many characters would almost never use 3 moves out of their arsenal. For some characters means their attack options just got stupid tiny when combine with other crappy move options.

Instead, you get a nice risk vs reward payoff for many of the smashes. Do it right, and the chances of you getting hit for missing the smash are pretty low. There is still risk, but at least the odds of you getting wrecked for it aren't high. Yet the reward could end up being totally worth it. Matches with announcers commonly call it a 'hard read' when you go for a risky smash, but man the hype when it works!

 

[LightLV]

Mario has had safe smash attacks for as long as I can remember, really. At least, in Melee nearly all of them were safe on wiff unless you were approaching from the air.

I feel like characters in Smash 4 with well-framed downsmashes to catch rolls (Mario, Samus, ect) should most definitely have unsafe on wiff. That is such a commodity in this game.