Gameplay Mechanics – Shielding

Shielding is quite different from Smash in quite a bit of ways! Rolls are unable to be entered while you’re shielding – only being able to be used while lying on the ground as usual. Each character has a unique shielding animation that will be put into their movesets, designed to reflect their character. Outside that, shields will not break under any circumstances. However, this comes with the price of shields only protecting the front of the character, and taking a bit longer to bring down than the standard Brawl shield – easily meaning that you can be punished from behind. You can, however, move back and forth and grab while you’re shielding so you have some degree of defense against this. Pressing A in this shield state will cause them to enter a traditional dodge, entering the background before rentering the attacking plane (no longer shielding)

Shielding in midair will cause you to bring up your shield for the briefest of moments before it disappears again. No dodging here, I’m afraid. You can still DI while your shield is brought up, though.