Super Smash Bros Melee – What Is Shine in Super Smash Bros Melee

Judgement (as it's known in Melee) is a nine-in-one attack that randomly picks from nine possible variations upon use.

• 1: Does 2% damage with zero knockback or flinching and causes 12% recoil damage to G&W whether it hits or not.
• 2: Does 4% damage with weak knockback and no special characteristics.
• 3: Does 6% damage and acts like a Fan's f-tilt: it makes a paper sound, hits the enemy backwards, and does 20 shield damage. Still has weak knockback.
• 4: Does 8% damage and has lowish diagonal knockback. Deals slash damage (not that this matters in Melee to my knowledge).
• 5: Does 3%x4 damage (for a total of 12%). Electric, so the hits have extra freeze frames. Not all hits are guaranteed to connect.
• 6: Does 12% damage, burns the target, and has an angle of 20 (a semi-spike). While it deals less damage than a 7, it has more knockback scaling and so is generally more powerful - landing it offstage is often a KO.
• 7: Does 14% damage with okay knockback and produces a random food item (unless you're in All-Star Mode).
• 8: Does 4% damage and freezes the opponent, hitting them slightly upwards. Has fixed knockback, so the distance sent and freeze length are independent of damage.
• 9: Does 32% damage and makes the ping noise on contact. Strongest attack by far, often KO'ing below 20%. Often compared to a Home-Run Bat, though it differs by quite a bit - the Home-Run Bat's knockback is mainly based on having high base knockback, while Judgement 9's is based on dealing high damage. Annoyingly, while the animation is the same as the other numbers, the hitboxes are almost half the radius, making it harder to hit with once it does come up.

The chance of getting any particular number is exactly 1/7. This is because you cannot get the last two numbers that you used - if you got a 4 previously and just got a 9, it's a certainty that the next use will not be a 4 or a 9, and the next one after that will not be a 9. At the start of a match the first two uses are set to be 2 and 1 (in that order), so you can't get a 2 on your first swing or a 1 on the first two swings. The number obtained is determined once the animation begins, so if you get interrupted before it comes out it still counts. The move acts exactly the same whether aerial or grounded.

(Given the tagging, this is a Melee-specific answer. Brawl's Judge has slightly different damages but overall the move acts the same.)

Rest hits on frame 1 and only frame 1, which I believe is the same as the shine. Jigglypuff is intangible for the first 26 frames of the move. (source)

Competitive players like to hit during a short hop because characters do not push away from each other when in the air, which makes the hitbox easier to nail (given it's in the center of Jigglypuff's body and only about the size of its eye).

When moves hit things, they go through an amount of freeze frames. This causes both the attacker and the target to freeze in their current state for an amount of frames based on the damage of the hit, which can cause hitboxes to last longer. In the case of Rest this could possibly make it easier to hit, but given the size of the hitbox I don't think people seriously try to do it unless the Guy is in the same place as the opponent.