What does missile canceling mean?

[holyfire913]

I've been hearing this term used so much, but I don't know what it is exactly. Is it just like a SH laser/blaster but using a missile instead? (and if that's true, doesn't firing a missile actually halt vertical movement for a moment or two?)

[HugS]

Missle cancelling is....when you shoot a missle in the air right before you land, there will be zero lag, as if you jumped without doing an attack. These can lead to smashes, dashes, tilts, whatever....even another missle right after the air missle.

[Long1918]

so then what's L-cancelling

[Crash]

when i was at a n00b tournament this weekend, someone was like "hes L cancelling his missles!" i just thought that was really funny. yeah, when you're in any part of the missle animation, and you land. it will cancel the animation and go right to your ordinary landing animation. thus, if you land before the missle comes out, you'll get no missle. but if you land after the missle comes out, you do get a missle, and reduced lag afterward. L cancelling cuts air A attacks landing lag by half. there are special animations when you land while doing an air attack, and those take longer than your ordinary landing animation. when you hit L up to 6 frames before you land (1/10 second) or the very frame you land, the special animation will finish in half the time (except in special circumstances where it might be a bit longer).