In the code of the game, there is a character state called LandFallingSpecial that is assignedto a character when they hit the ground from a helpless state. If they wanted to, they could have had a counter to check how recently someone air dodged and made a conditional statement to cancel horizontal momentum if that number is lower than the amount of time someone is stuck in air dodge. That would take about 5-15 minutes for someone who is somewhat knowledgeable in coding. They could have removed it easily, but they didn't.
I would believe wavedashing was intentional if it at least looked natural.
The sliding animation is literally just the standing animation, but sliding across the floor, with Luigi's being the most obvious. It looks like an exploit rather than an intended move.
Had Sakurai said it could have easily been removed, I'd believe it, but someone from the dev team would have to be the one to say it. Considering that all that was said was "yes, we were aware" doesn't convince me otherwise. I don't know who you are or what your expertise in working with code it.
You say it could be easily removed in 5 to 15 minutes, yet they didn't even bother making it look like it was intended to be part of the game. Seeing Marth WD and slide as he's charging a Smash looks way too out of place. Like, you see his feet aren't moving and yet he's still moving forward in a pose that show his feet are firmly planted on the floor to charge up his sword swing.
Considering it looks to be linked to the games air dodging, landing, and jumping physics, I don't think it could easily be removed but rather that the whole air dodging, jumping, and landing physics would have to be reworked.
I always tell people this, I absolutely adore melee but people thinking they left things there for us to discover is just not the case! they left that there because they simply didn't think much about it or that people would go crazy with it like it ended up happening.
So yeah, was it left there? yep. Was it left there because nintendo/sakurai/Hal secretly knew it would be used as an advanced technique to further the depth of their game? I HIGHLY doubt it and I don't think that leaves them much credit aside from "Thank God they left it there" lol
I agree.
It just looks too out of place.
Seeing the character glide around isn't as unconvincing as seeing the characters do a second jump. Sure, both are unnatural actions, but at least with the second jump, it was outlined in the manual and has an animation assigned to it.
With WD, it looks like something from the Matrix that Neo would do.
Like, he's so aware of the world's physics that he can slide across the floor at will, punching while gliding.
Like I mentioned previously, seeing a character like Luigi, sliding and in a frozen pose while charging his up smash, feet planeted on the ground, I can't help but feel that it's just physics manipulation and not an intentional tech.
At least give them a sliding pose if it was intentional to not make it look so much like an exploit. It doesn't have to change the way it functions.