Smash Ball and Final Smash (Super Smash Bros.)

The Smash Ball and Final Smash are an item and a type of Mechanic introduced in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, that allows the user to activate a powerful Final Smash attack when it breaks. Alongside with Assist Trophies, they are considered fan-favorite item/Mechanic for good reason.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) The idea/concepts of Smash Ball and Final Smash are incredibly clever.
 * 2) Once you break a Smash Ball, you can use your power attack to activate a Final Smash attack which will do major damage to other players.
 * 3) Smash orbs are a great way for finishing off troublesome opponents or ending stalemates. When an orb appears, it could change the outcome of a match depending on who gets it first and if they use it well.
 * 4) Each character has their own unique Final Smashes and have different ways to use them. For example: Sonic will transform to Super Sonic in which he zig-zags across the screen quickly, Ryu can preform a Shin Shoryuken if he is close to his opponent or a Shinku Hadouken if far, and Bowser Jr creates a cross that covers the screen which damages opponents who try to cross it, and he can even damage opponents in the process. These allow for much more tactical strats as a well timed Final Smash is guaranteed to reward players with victory.
 * 5) Many Final Smash are a fantastic spectacle to watch as your character does their signature finisher with magnificent visual effects and animations. They also stay true to the character and is a great way to tribute their series.
 * 6) Final Smashes can also feature many iconic/fan-favorite characters to assist playable characters.
 * 7) Beside Smash Ball, players must first either fill the Final Smash Meter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (although then the Final Smash will be weaker), be given the ability by Victini or fall sufficiently far behind in a match that they are given a "Pity Final Smash" upon re-spawning in order to performed a Final Smash.
 * 8) Before Ultimate, you can do in camera mode to look here what happens in Brawl and Sm4sh.
 * 9) Several Final Smashes have been changed for next game, with the new final smash or new variation, as it is entertaining and fun.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Some Final Smashes are particularly useless or poorly-made:
 * 2) *Jigglypuff's Final Smash "Puff Up" is pretty useless and uncreative as all it does is make Jigglypuff big and it is only effective on Walk-off stages and/or smaller stages.
 * 3) *Peach and Daisy's Final Smash "Peach/Daisy Blossom" is also pretty bad, it doesn't kill your opponents and instead it just makes them fall asleep while peaches/daisies spawn on the ground which you can eat, this is understandable as these final smashes can set up for a KO, the same thing happen to Luigi's Negative Zone.
 * 4) *Negative Zone is the worst final smash in the entire Smash Bros. history since it doesn't cause a KO and instead causes other fighters to suffer negative effects as well as the negative picture effect.
 * 5) *Some Final Smashes for some characters are heavily downgraded from the older final smash in previous games, the worst offenders are Sonic and Link.
 * 6) **Link's new final smash "Ancient Bow and Arrow" is lazy due to the fact it's just Zelda and Sheik's final smash from Brawl and Sm4sh. But instead of hitting multiple characters, it only hits one.
 * 7) **Sonic's new variation of "Super Sonic" is pretty bad as it doesn't kill opponents very well and it's ten times weaker than the variation of the final smash in Brawl and Sm4sh.
 * 8) *Zero Suit Samus' Final Smash "Power Suit Samus" in Brawl is arguably the worst final smash in any Super Smash Bros game, all it does is simply turn Zero Suit Samus into Samus and it barely does any damage to the opponents around you.
 * 9) *In addition, some can feel overpowered at times like Marth/Lucina's can KO in one hit.
 * 10) Some Final Smashes were given to the wrong characters (EX:Landmaster to Falco + Wolf in Brawl and Sm4sh, PK Starstorm to Lucas, and Dark Pit Staff to Dark Pit in Ultimate, the latter should have used Lightning Chariot like in Kid Icarus: Uprising).
 * 11) Other character Final Smashes can feel rehashed at times or wasted opportunities. Notably, Fire Emblem characters, Yoshi, Kirby, Cloud, Steve, King K. Rool, Joker, etc, just have the same final smash that directly applies tons of damage once they hit the target. Some of them could've had other finale ideas that would be much more unique than the current ones. It can forgiven that the sequences are incredibly well executed, however.

Trivia

 * Many Final Smash trophies credit their origin solely to Brawl in that game, or no credit at all is given in for Wii U, despite many Final Smashes (e.g. Light Arrow, Giga Mac, Wario-Man, Landmaster) being based on abilities from a character's respective series.
 * In fact, the only one not to do so is Super Sonic, which lists Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (the game in which the ability debuted in the Sonic universe) as its other game in Brawl, though it (like the rest of the Final Smash trophies) gives no game of origin in for Wii U.
 * In the Iwata Asks interview for Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Masahiro Sakurai stated that he had intended to add Final Smashes since the first game in the series; in the debug menu of the first game, unused sound bites of characters can be found that were likely meant for these attacks, such as Ness shouting PK Starstorm.
 * In SSB4's and Ultimate's Training mode, the Smash Ball is much weaker, taking around one hit before breaking. In Brawl, it acts as it would normally in a match.
 * Ryu and Ken are the only fighters with two distinct Final Smashes in a single installment. Cloud also received a new Final Smash for his Advent Children costumes in version 10.1.0 in Ultimate, but it is merely an aesthetic change to his default one.