Glide

Meta Knight, Charizard, and Pit gliding.

Gliding (滑空 Kakkū) is a technique available to Meta Knight, Charizard, and Pit, characters notable for having wings. It allows characters to glide in the direction they are facing and angle up or down, similar to the Cape item in Super Mario World. Once gliding, the character cannot turn around. There is no unlockable character with this ability.

Peach possesses a similar ability in Melee and Brawl called floating, though it is not identical. Differences include the fact that it has a time limit, it can be moved forward or back, and it cannot change elevation. The player can activate Peach's ability by holding onto the jump button after jumping.

Gliding after using one's final midair jump will put one's character into a helpless state. If a character glides into a floor, the character will enter a fallen position. This action is commonly known as glide tripping, though it is not the same as an actual trip.

It is known that Pit and Meta Knight won't be able to glide in Super Smash Bros. 4, but it is unknown whether the mechanic has been cut altogether or not.

How-to

To glide, characters must jump and perform a midair jump. If a player continues holding down the jump button, they will start gliding. Alternatively, at the peak of the jump, players can tilt the control stick/d-pad left and then right in quick succesion to start gliding. Meta Knight can also start gliding by using his Shuttle Loop, but this glide is slower, and will put Meta Knight in a helpless position no matter how many jumps he has remaining.

The glide can be controlled by tilting forward or down to angle downwards and backward or up to angle upwards. The user will go faster if he or she angles downward/forward and slower if he or she angles upward/backward. The glide can be ended by attacking or jumping out of it or by losing all momentum by going upward (stalling). Jumping out of a glide ends it more quickly than attacking out of it. If players do not cancel the glide and move into the stage's surface, they will crash into it and lay down, as if they had been knocked down. If Meta Knight lands during his glide attack, however, he will not take any ending lag and slide a short distance.

Since Shuttle Loop always starts a glide, Meta Knight can glide twice before having to touch the ground. This can be utilised to stall under the stage, which is known as scrooging. The use of scrooging is banned in most tournaments where Meta Knight is legal.

Glide attack

All three gliding characters have a unique aerial move when they attack out of gliding. Meta Knight does a single slash downward, Pit does one slash upward, and Charizard spins. All of these attacks do 12% damage, but have varying knockback. Meta Knight's glide attack specifically is one of his better KO moves and if cancelled properly, it is unpunishable without power shielding. When a glide attack is used just before landing, it cancels all of the glide's landing lag leaving the player free to perform any input while sliding forward.

Trivia

• Meta Knight is the only character that is able to glide twice before landing.

See also

• Meta Knight's glide attack in Brawl.
• Pit's glide attack in Brawl.
• Charizard's glide attack in Brawl.

Links

• For the Dojo update.