You know what would be crazy? Aerial grabs!!!!!!!!?

[ImaClubYou]

Since we have Samus, Link, and friends already pressing Z to throw out some grapples of doom, what if we gave everyone else aerial grabs?

Press Z in the air to grab flying opponents and we'll have them do more aerial looking versions of their grabs like Bowser's down throw doing a spin and slamming you down with his elbow or his up throw starts spinning on his side rather than the top. Note that some air grabs may change significantly while others have may change little like just having their legs dangle in the air.

Thoughts?!?!!

 

[TheRealHeroOfWinds]

If they make it do barely any damage I would be alright with it.

 

[Vital Tundra]

I have been thinking about the idea of aerial grabs as well. But instead just one character that has access to it, like how Little Mac has his unique thing, etc. And if that were the case, I could imagine Ridley being said character.

 

[Empyrean]

Yeah, I could only really imagine this being a character-specific thing on characters that make sense. Alternatively, they could do something à la SF like PM Lucario does with his command grab, but obviously much more underpowered.

 

[ImaClubYou]

I don't think aerial grabs are so OP that they would have to underpowered.

The grab box is tighter, you have to be in front of them, and following up with an aerial in Smash 4 is already not easy to do.

I also can't imagine a grab sending you any farther than say... a Falcon Knee? Unless it's meant to be a kill move of course.

 

[CommanderRin]

I can't imagine Aerial Grabs having multiple directional inputs.

I can see something like Blazblue/Persona4A where you grab the opponent and throw them to the ground.

It'd be interesting at the least

 

[ImaClubYou]

I can't imagine Aerial Grabs having multiple directional inputs.

I can see something like Blazblue/Persona4A where you grab the opponent and throw them to the ground.

It'd be interesting at the least

Would giving them no pummel opportunities and having to instantly input a direction otherwise you'll throw forward make it more imaginable?

 

[CommanderRin]

Would giving them no pummel opportunities and having to instantly input a direction otherwise you'll throw forward make it more imaginable?

I feel like throwing backwards and upwards would be rather awkward.

Though when I think about it, I start warming up to the idea a bit more.

Imagine edge guarding, and you jump off the stage and grab you opponent in the air so that you can throw him plummeting down to his "death"

 

[Trigger123]

It could work with Charizard​

 

[Dr. James Rustles]

If they make it do barely any damage I would be alright with it.

It's not about the damage they do, it's about repositioning the enemy mid air. It could function as a grabspike to compliment the meteors and footstools and be an okay mix-up. In most cases you don't want to just throw the enemy up unless it's a fast faller or heavy, if you have a kill move, or they're ~220%. Diddy Kong has the closest equivalent. Mashing out of an air grab should be a little bit more hard at lower percents (than usual) to make at least make it more gimp.

The problem with air grabs really is they couldn't benefit from the trade offs that pivots and dash grabs have. As a result they'd need to have a short range all the time and you couldn't adjust for it with mobility options. Besides, they are designed to counter defenses and lead to a setup (you can grab Kirby out of his rock form or FE Characters out of their counters, for example). You can't really benefit from that in the air because there aren't a lot of aerial defensive maneuvers (no shields, no rolls, risky counter uses, etc.)

I don't think every cast member should be able to do it. This kind of grab game would heavily favor characters with multiple jumps. It should be unique to single character, and the perfect character for that would be Marina Liteyears.

 

[Shiliski]

I can't imagine Aerial Grabs having multiple directional inputs.

I can see something like Blazblue/Persona4A where you grab the opponent and throw them to the ground.

It'd be interesting at the least

So functionally the same as a meteor, except maybe you can use it through a dodge?

 

[PLATINUM7]

Wasn't this in PSASBR?

 

[Zebkeet]

That's a good idea, but it has to be balanced, because do you know how easy it would be to edge guard? I'm all for the idea, as long as it's not too overpowered.

 

[Shaya]

Air grabs is literally a specific character niche that only a few characters have, they are EXTREMELY GOOD (especially in Brawl). Like, very very very very good. If every character had one, the game would be crazy scary and potentially obnoxious, but could still be really cool in a floaty-ish game like Brawl. However, in terms of what's available/execution, characters with good/solid frame traps (especially aerials) already have the feint ability to fast fall into grab faster than reaction (Marth, Wario, lots of bairs), and becomes one of those 50/50's that exist in Brawl with very solid buffering (and what ended up proliferating roll away strategies, MK rolling in a lot [], and spot dodgers to spot dodge), it's still strong due to how important power shielding is in the game for achieving punishes. Triangle jumping and the general frame advantage of L cancelling in Melee has similar impact.

Wario, Kirby, Lucario, Dedede, Bowser, Ganondorf.
Bowser's Koopa Klaw (sp?) is legitimately one of the best moves in the game, but happens to be on a really ass character without any other solid option (even if that one option is super solid, characters need more for viability).

Wario's bite leads into combos, is fast, low cooldown, beat's spot dodges, has grab armor. It's better than Bowser's.

Lucario has a weird one, pretty sure you can't grab out of the air (it's just a projectile in the air I'm pretty sure). However it has the unique ability to immediately have your grab come out if you land on the ground immediately after starting side-b. It's so hard to use, but a potentially 1 frame grab from the air? @Trela wrecked me with this for weeks (it never stopped ), it's so awesome.

Kirby/Dedede/Ganondorf all soso, especially ganondorf. However they have their uses, primarily beating shields. Dedede's is solid enough to use the move in the Ice Climbers match up, and @Vex Kasrani makes that match up look close to even with having such a solid landing option that beats shields/grab/dash dancing (3 of IC's four best options). I could be wrong/not up to date with anything super recent, but Vex has beaten every ICs he's fought this year I think.

In other words,
maybe good if everyone had one (kinda like kill throws in smash 64)
But mother of god.
Probably not a good idea. Trust me.

If you're concerned with some multi directional air to air combat stuff, they're called aerials and can be executed by tilting the C-stick in all 4 directions while in the air, the general free movement (vertical/horizontal) allow you to do all that you would want. If it didn't beat shields it would be superfluous, and there are no "shields" in the air so it could either beat air dodges (why?) or you should just be more on point with your aerial execution and spacing.