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The Dodge Cancel

Inking2003

Smash Cadet
Joined
Sep 16, 2018
Messages
31
So I was peacefully messing around in melee today, and discovered a glitch that has not been covered by anyone and can be used at a pro level to cancel a dodge and make it so a character has no landing lag after a jump. I have decided to call it a Dodge Cancel, or a more comedic name would be the Slip and Slide. This was discovered during a vs match, but it is best to get a hang of the technique in training mode where one can slow down the match.

To preform the Dodge Cancel, all you have to do is air dodge right before your fighter touches any solid surface that they can stand on. The timing can be tricky, and it has different results depending on when the air dodge is triggered.

Now, there are many methods to cancel your momentum in this game. From taunt cancels to jump cancels, all of these are methods of stopping your momentum. This, on the other hand, keeps the character’s momentum going by canceling their landing animation and keeping them moving as they land.

For all the characters except Yoshi, this causes the character to slide across the battlefield. During this time of sliding, the fighter can perform normal attacks, smash attacks, tilts, and even grab. Specials can not be used while sliding, though.

I did testing on all of the characters except for Game n’ Watch due to the fact that I have not unlocked him. If you wish to see other interesting things about this glitch, then scroll to the bottom for additional notes. Anyway, here is what I found out involving how the characters react:

Dr. Mario: minimal sliding

Mario: slight sliding

Luigi: Luigi is the character I discover this with, and has the best applications with it. Because he is so slidy, he is able to shoot across the stage at crazy speeds.

Bowser: no sliding. Practically useless

Peach: same as Bowser

Yoshi: this guy was interesting. When performed correctly, he stopped dead on the spot and performs a mix between his up-b animation and his end of side-b animation. Cool, but still useless

DK: no to minimal sliding

Captain Falcon: no to minimal sliding

Ganondorf: no to slight sliding

Falco: minimal to slight sliding

Fox: minimal sliding

Ness: minimal sliding

Ice Climbers: This is where things got interesting. Popo slides fast and far like Luigi, while Nana barely slides, if at all. This is because Popo dodges slightly before Nana does, which means that this is an excellent way to Dwayne the two of them.

Kirby: no to minimal sliding

Samus: minimal to slight sliding

Zelda: no to minimal sliding

Sheik: no to marginal sliding

Link: minimal to slight sliding. Cannot throw bombs while sliding

Young Link: minimal to slight sliding. Cannot throw bombs while sliding. Sometimes, his air dodge sound plays, but more on that later.

Pichu: no to minimal sliding. WARNING! This is very hard to pull of with Pichu! I tried over 100 times, and got maybe 5 of them.

Pikachu: no to minimal sliding. Not as hard to do as it is with Pichu, but still difficult.

Jigglypuff: no to minimal sliding

Mewtwo: minimal to marginal sliding. Animation can vary, but more on that later as well. Thanks for sticking with me!

Game n’ Watch: No Data, as I have yet to unlock him. Would like feedback on how he reacts.

Marth: minimal to far and fast sliding

And finally...

Roy, our blue boy: minimal to marginal sliding

Yay you’re still here! Thanks for enduring that, unless you just skipped to the end, which isn’t a nice thing to do because I spent my valuable Sunday night typing this up.

Anyway, I was unsure of why this was happening at first, but certain characters gave me clues. First, the slidy-ness of the character definitely affected how far they would travel on the ground. Also, the distance they were able to air dodge and directional ground dodge also mattered. How far they went on a particular instance of using the Dodge Cancel was determined on how close the fighter was to the ground or platform when the Dodge Cancel was activated.

This glitch appears to have a high point and a low point. If a character falls within the high point when they initiate the Dodge Cancel, the fighter will perform their air dodge sound if they have one and will not slide as far. If the fighter is within the low point when they initiate the Dodge Cancel, the character will not perform their air dodge sound and slide further. I was able to determine this with characters like Young Link and Mewtwo, who either make a sound when they air dodge or, in the case of Mewtwo, have drastically different air and ground dodge animations.

What I believe is happening is that the game tries to make the character perform an air dodge and a directional ground dodge at the same time. Since the game doesn’t understand what is going on, it freaks out and just makes the character slide along the stage, hence the comical name of the Slip and Slide Technique.

Since I first discovered this in a vs match, that means that the Dodge Cancel is able to be performed at a tournament level of gameplay, and since this doesn’t break the game, it should be tournement legal.

I thank you for bearing with me and reading all this, if you did, that is. Anyway I thank you for your time! Please provide me with feedback on if this makes it anywhere besides this forum post. Feel free to comment on other discoveries made with this technique, and please give me info on how it works with Game n Watch. Thanks.

Your fellow Smash Player, because saying I’m a smasher just sounds dirty,
Inkling2003
 

Pauer

The Pauerful
Moderator
Joined
Dec 25, 2013
Messages
592
Location
Linz, Austria
You discovered what the community calls "wavelanding". It's been well known for a long time (video) and it's one of the most commonly used techniques in melee because you can land on platforms much more quickly by wavelanding onto them.

There's also the technique called "triangle jumping" which is a waveland that is initiated a bit earlier so that you take advantage of the invincibility of the airdodge to evade an attack and land on the stage at the same time. (video)
 

Inking2003

Smash Cadet
Joined
Sep 16, 2018
Messages
31
Oh... I didn’t realize that. Darn, I thought I was onto something big. I still don’t know why Yoshi reacts so differently then all the other characters do, though
 

Pauer

The Pauerful
Moderator
Joined
Dec 25, 2013
Messages
592
Location
Linz, Austria
Oh... I didn’t realize that. Darn, I thought I was onto something big. I still don’t know why Yoshi reacts so differently then all the other characters do, though
I think what happened is that you had not completely let go of the R/L so yoshi shielded and then immediately went out of shield. With yoshi it looks like he's hatching out of an egg. Try just tapping R/L very lightly - is that the animation you saw?
 

Inking2003

Smash Cadet
Joined
Sep 16, 2018
Messages
31
When I tested it out, it did not make the sound of engaging the shield, and it even showed the dodge invisiblility animation. I think what happen was that Yoshi somehow dodge rolled on the spot.
 
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