Knee Lock

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The Knee Lock is a technique performable by Snake in Brawl. It involves repeatedly hitting the opponent with his forward tilt, which is a knee thrust. Because of the properties of the first hit of his forward tilt, this technique is difficult to escape.

[edit] Performing the Knee Lock

To perform the Knee Lock, Snake must connect with the first hit of his Forward Tilt. Then, no attack button should be pressed until the window for the second hit has passed. After it has passed, a second Forward Tilt must be performed. This can be done several times in succession. However, the timing is difficult. If Snake tries to perform the second Forward Tilt too soon, he will simply perform the second hit of his forward tilt, which will break the lock. If he tries to perform the second forward tilt too late, it will provide an opportunity for the opponent to powershield, which will also allow the lock to be escaped.

If performed perfectly, however, it is very difficult to escape. This is because the first hit of the Forward Tilt is designed to set up its second hit. It has no knockback, and a fairly large hit-stun.

After the Knee-Locking player has racked up enough damage, they can simply perform the second hit of the forward tilt, which has fairly high knockback.

[edit] Escaping the Knee Lock

If performed with perfect timing, the Knee Lock is very difficult to escape, even with holding the D-pad/control stick away from Snake for the entire time, and attempting to powershield every hit. However, Smash DI has been found to break the Lock, allowing the locked player to escape after only a few hits.