Crouch cancel

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Crouch cancel (or CC) is a technique in the Super Smash Bros. series which reduces the effect of an attack on the user if they are crouching. If a character is crouching when they get hit by an attack, they will suffer from less hitlag, as well as knockback in all games except Brawl.

In Super Smash Bros.

In the original Super Smash Bros., crouch canceling reduces the amount of knockback and hitlag dealt to the opponent to 0.67x its normal amount. While the opponent suffers from 0.67x hitlag, the attacker still goes through their normal amount of hitlag, resulting in the opponent going into hitstun while the attacker is still in hitlag.

One of the main applications crouch canceling has is to survive stronger attacks. As crouch canceling reduces knockback, it can allow the opponent to survive attacks for much longer than they otherwise would be able to normally. For example, Mario's forward smash normally KOes another Mario at 102% from the middle of Dream Land however, if the victim Mario is crouching, the forward smash will not KO him until 178%. Crouch canceling also puts opponents into tumble at later percents due to the lower knockback the victim receives, which can be utilised to avoid tech chasing setups.

Another use crouch canceling has is to use the lower hitlag and knockback against the opponent. As the opponent has less hitlag and knockback, they recover noticeably sooner, which can allow them to avoid potential combos/multi hits which would normally work and they can even potentially punish the opponent after getting hit. This does overall depend on the strength of the attacker's attack however. If combo oriented moves are crouch cancelled, they can actually gain combo potential in scenarios where they otherwise would not combo. For example, Donkey Kong's Hand Slap usually has no followups against Jigglypuff, as Jigglypuff is sent too high. If Jigglypuff crouch cancels the move however, it gets knocked back a much shorter distance, which allows Donkey Kong to get a guaranteed forward aerial against Jigglypuff. In addition to this, as crouch canceling gives the opponent less hitlag, this gives the opponent less time to SDI the attack they crouch canceled, making it considerably harder and less effective to SDI to potentially avoid followups (especially since the player is holding down when they get hit, making it more difficult to set up appropriate SDI).

While crouch canceling can be useful in certain situations, it is not an incredibly potent technique overall. While it does allow characters to live longer, characters may have better solutions in certain situations, such as shielding or counter attacking. As mentioned before, crouch canceling can be detrimental against certain moves allowing otherwise impossible combos and KO confirms to work against crouch canceling. Crouch canceling can also be beaten by grabs, as grabs get the opponent out of their crouching state, making it impossible to crouch cancel throws. Kirby and Jigglypuff can crouch under some grabs although this is separate from crouch canceling. Multi hits are also effective at being crouch canceling as while the first hit of a multi hit will be crouch canceled, any following hits will function normally, making crouch canceling ineffective against multi hits.

Crouch canceling overall can be useful in the right situations but it is not uncommon for opponents to have better options in situations where crouch canceling can be utilised and crouch canceling can be a hinderance when used in the wrong situations.

In Super Smash Bros. Melee

In Super Smash Bros. Melee, Crouch canceling functions in the same way as the previous game on paper, with crouching reducing the amount of knockback and hitlag dealt to the opponent to 0.67x its normal value. However, there are multiple universal changes in Melee which make Crouch Canceling a far more potent tool than in the previous game.

When a play lands while in non-tumble hitstun in Melee, the player will go into their normal animation, regardless of how long they have been in hitstun. This means that a move which would normally have 30 frames of hitstun can have as little as 4 frames of effective lag (for most characters, depending on the length of their landing animation). Melee also introduced traditional DI and when the player crouch cancels, they naturally DI moves downwards (as long as they are still holding down after hitlag ends). Both of these factors combined result in crouch canceling being incredibly potent. When the player crouch cancels a move which does not put them into tumble (and lifts them off the ground), they land as soon as they are no longer in hitlag, as long as they are still holding down after hitlag ends, even for moves with a 90° launch angle. Even with weaker tumble knockback, the opponent will still immediately land on the ground. Because of this (at least for non-tumble knockback), most characters will only have 4 frames of lag from the attack rather than however much hitstun the opponent. This also works in tandem with the game's higher tumble threshold, going up from 60 units to 80 units of knockback. In the context of crouch canceling, this means that the opponent can crouch cancel moves and stay out of tumble for considerably longer. In the most extreme examples, moves which can have 46 frames of hitstun with no crouch canceling and 30 frames with crouch canceling will have as little as 4 frames of lag when crouch canceled and DIed down. This is naturally extremely potent.

Because of this, crouch canceling can not only be used to survive attacks for longer but it can also be exploited to make numerous moves unsafe on hit, allowing for many moves to be punished on hit. While this could be done in the previous game, this is far more effective and can be done for far longer in Melee. With opponents not being lifted off the ground until much higher percents, along with the game's generally lower hitstun, crouch canceling does not open up new combo opportunities nearly as frequently (although it can still occur). In numerous cases, it can even allow the player to act earlier than if they shielded the move, with the player also having the benefit of having access to their entire moveset, rather than being restricted to their actions Out of Shield. One character who can notably take advantage of this is Peach, who can easily use her down smash after a crouch cancel to punish opponents before they recover.

Crouch canceling does have similar drawbacks to their previous game but they are overall nowhere near as exploitable. While DIing downwards after crouch canceling does mitigate some of the reduced knockback from horizontal attacks, players can hold up after crouch canceling to DI upwards to allow them to live for much longer. This can be tight due to the player quickly having to change their stick angle, especially with the lower hitlag but if done correctly, it can allows characters to survive strong attacks for an extremely long time.

There are still certain ways to counter crouch canceling. Grabs still reliably beat crouch canceling but with most grabs being considerably laggier than in the previous game, this does make going for grabs riskier against smaller characters. Another way to beat crouch canceling is with multi hitting moves, particularly ones which do not lift opponents off the ground. If a move is crouch canceled and the move does not lift the opponent off the ground, the opponent will stay in hitstun as normal, just with the 0.67x hitstun/hitlag like in the previous game. This can come from purely horizontal launching attacks (0° moves, including Sakurai Angle moves with < 32 units of knockback) or moves which launch opponents downwards (meteor smashes and spikes). This overall reduces the affect on crouch canceling against these attacks and with multi hits with non-upwards knockback (such as Fox's down aerial), if the first hit is crouch canceled, the next hit should hit the opponent before they can crouch cancel again (unless the move has too little hitstun to do so), making the move function normally and nullifying the lower hitstun the crouch cancel had on the move.

Strong hitting multi hitting moves can also punish opponents carelessly trying to crouch cancel. For example, Peach's down smash typically only hits once or twice but if the opponent tries to crouch cancel every hit, all five hits can connect, which can deal up to 64.96%. This is technically avoidable as if the player crouch cancels Peach's down smash, they can act before the next hit comes out, which can allow them to shield or spot dodge the move and some characters can even interrupt or trade with the down smash if they have a fast enough option (assuming they are not in tumble percents, where they can then tech the move after getting hit). However, Peach's down smash is still known for being an effective move at dealing with crouch canceling, as the opponent has to act very quickly to avoid getting punished by consecutive hits and if they don't, they can eat a ton of damage.

Crouch canceling overall is a highly useful and exploitable technique in Melee as it not only allows players to live longer but it can also allow players to punish many moves they otherwise would not be able to. It is overall a very useful technique in competitive play and knowing how to counter it is equally as important.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Crouch cancelling does not affect knockback, and instead only reduces the amount of freeze frames suffered by the user by 33%; the attacker's freeze frames are unaffected. This gives the target a small window of time in which to counterattack; for example an Olimar can crouch cancel the first hit of Falco's neutral attack in order to powershield the second hit and gain a free up smash.

Crouch cancelling is mentioned (though not by name) in the Brawl manual, stating that crouching "...stabilizes you, reducing the chances an attack will knock you back." This is more in line with the technique's behaviour in other installments than in Brawl, however.

In Super Smash Bros. 4

Crouch cancelling functions similarly to Melee, albeit toned down. Under normal circumstances, the amount of knockback suffered by the user is reduced to 0.85× its initial value, and the amount of freeze frames suffered by the user is reduced to 0.67× its initial value. However, size changing items seem to reduce the knockback taken multiplier even further.

Although the technique's usefulness at low percents is limited, it is still fairly useful for survival at higher percents, especially with the more polarized knockback of smash attacks and other KO moves. Bowser can uniquely take advantage of crouch cancelling with Tough Guy, his unique form of passive knockback-based armor; he will not flinch for a wider range of percentages from weak attacks while crouching.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Crouch cancelling is equal to in SSB4, with a knockback reduction of 0.85x and a freeze frame reduction of 0.67x. However, the attacker's freeze frames are now also reduced by the same amount.

In addition, attacks in Ultimate (as well as SSB4) generally have much higher base knockback than in older games; this means that, even at very low percents, crouch cancelling usually cannot reduce launch distance enough to allow a punish afterwards. For these reasons, it has very little usefulness in competitive play. It can, however, allow players to avoid tumble until higher percentages, most notably with super heavyweight characters such as Bowser and King K. Rool. Additionally, Bowser retains Tough Guy from Super Smash Bros. 4, and newcomer Kazuya possesses an almost identical mechanic, dubbed Tough Body. As Kazuya has also access to a variety of attacks that can only be used while crouching, he can make use of crouch cancelling, with or without the effect of Tough Body, more often than most other characters.