Nivose

Nivose (Snow) is one of Ash Crimson's Special Moves from The King of Fighters series.

Description
Ash does a somersault up into the air in a dragon punch like fashion with green flames coming out near his feet. The version is fairly fast and can recover quickly. The version hits twice and goes higher, but can be punished easily if whiffed. Although it is powerful, it requires a charge input, meaning one must be prepared before firing.

While Sans-Culotte is active, Ash can use Nivose without the need for charging.

Starting with The King of Fighters XIII, Nivose gains an EX Special Move variant, which allows it to deal more damage and gives it much more invincibility frames.

Evil Ash's take on the move boasts slightly faster recovery times, especially noticeable in the EX variant, which travels more horizontally than vertically, shortening the window to punish any whiffs.

Strategy
Another straightforward move in Ash's arsenal, this works in tandem with Ash's neutral game. Like peanut butter and jelly (or Chang and Choi), this goes hand in hand with Ventose as it lets Ash punish any jump-in attempts with a well-placed anti-air. And given its input, it can very easily be used on reaction or on a read.

However, the price Ash pays for such a solid anti-air is, of course, the charge time. Unlike a conventional anti-air like Kyo's and Iori's Oniyaki or Athena's Psycho Sword (both of which have the more conventional + input), you don't always have this available on demand. As such, you'd best be holding a charge (ideally with, which allows Ash to crouch and block incoming attacks at once) at all times if you want to punish an opponent's poor jump-in attempt accordingly.

One notable benefit that Sans-Culotte provides for this move in addition to the removed charge time is nigh-unlimited combo potential. Due to the ability to cancel into any variant of Ash's Floreal command normal (and vice-versa), this can pretty much be used to juggle the opponent around the entire stage like a pinball racking up a billion points... that is if you have the execution for it, since it's not for the faint of heart in XV. And in XIII, even less so due to the Drive System.

Similar Moves

 * Hanetsurube-no-Nata - Saiki's variant.

Trivia

 * Just like Ventose, this is Ash's answer to Guile's (and also Charlie Nash's) Somersault Kick, also known as the Flash Kick. By extension, it's also similar to Remy's Rising Rage Flash, resembling the latter more than the former since Ash uses the base of his heels to kick the opponent.
 * Nivose was the name of the fourth month of the French Republican calendar in 1793-1805, running from December 21st to January 22nd.