Knee Assault (ニーアッソルト) is one of K''s Command Moves in the King of Fighters series, first appearing in The King of Fighters '99.
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Description
K' jumps forward with a high knee strike that hits overhead when used standalone.
Strategy
Usually as a low-crushing tool, it normally serves as a way for K' to prod at his opponent while closing in on them. While a bit unsafe on whiff, it's safe on block when spaced properly.
Even then, upon connecting on hit or block, K' can cancel into any airborne specials, with a common BnB being a Knee Assault (standalone or chained into alike) into a midair Minute Spike or if he has it in his moveset, the Air Trigger.
However, the move is rather notorious in games where it acts as an overhead on its standalone version, being one of the fastest command move/unique normal-based ones across the series as whole due to being difficult for most defenders to react to. As a result, K''s high-low mixup game (especially in 2002 UM) is infamously powerful in games that have the Knee Assault in his moveset, as it can even confirm into the aforementioned midair Minute Spike and/or Air Trigger even if not chained into from a prior normal.
Even then, the fact that it can only chain into a midair Minute Spike and/or Air Trigger (the latter likely not always being available) is the biggest issue with the Knee Assault, on top of its rather short range. Because of how linear this move can be, K''s high-low mixup game while sneaky, lacks variation off of this particular move added with how Ein Trigger's followups lead to him being predictable and over-specializing in it.
While it works similarly as before, the Knee Assault has an extra input in the Maximum Impact games that can also be freely cancelled into an airborne Minute Spike or Air Trigger, making it a more potent combo confirm than in the 2D games.
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