Wall clinging is a technique introduced in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. As the name suggests, it allows the player to cling on walls. The wall cling is performed similar to a wall jump, except the control stick or d-pad is held towards the wall instead of being moved in the opposing direction. Only certain characters have the ability to wall cling. While clinging to a wall, characters can jump, allowing it to function like a wall jump. This can be achieved by pressing away from the wall or by pressing up or the jump button. If the control stick is pressed away from the wall, the character will wall jump off the wall. If it is pressed up, the character will instead double jump. Wall clings will not restore a character's double jump.
Additional wall clings and subsequent jumps can be performed without having to land. If used correctly in combination of wall jumps, one can get a huge vertical distance if there is a wall, allowing characters that can wall cling have a huge chance to survive sudden death if used properly.
The time that the character can cling to the wall for decreases each time the they perform a wall cling without touching the ground. For the first two wall clings, the character can stick for up to 3 seconds, and on consecutive clings the time is divided in half. So it is not recommended to continuously wall cling without touching the ground in between to get the most out of the wall cling.
Characters who can wall cling
| Character | 
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|
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Bayonetta | N/A | 
| |
| Diddy Kong | 
|
| |
| Greninja | N/A | 
| |
| Lucario | 
|
| |
| Sheik | 
|
| |
| Squirtle | 
|
N/A |
Additionally, if Extreme Speed is aimed in a wall, Lucario will cling to said wall.
Origin
Various Smash characters have used wall clinging in their source games. In Kirby Super Star, when Kirby had the Ninja copy ability, he had the ability to wall cling. Diddy Kong could situationally wall cling in Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, as he could stick to honey-covered walls in Hornet Hole and he has the same animation in Brawl for wall jumping from that game.
In other games, such as Super Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Mario and Samus could stick to walls temporarily if they were in the process of wall jumping; however, this would only last for a second or two before they slid downwards.
Bayonetta's ability to wall cling is likely based on the Witch Walk ability from her home series, which allows Umbra Witches to walk on walls in moonlight.
Gallery
Diddy Kong wall clinging in Brawl.
Squirtle wall clinging in Brawl.
Sheik wall clinging in Brawl.
Greninja wall clinging in SSB4.
Diddy Kong wall clinging in SSB4.
Sheik wall clinging in SSB4.
Bayonetta wall clinging in SSB4.
Trivia
- With the exception of Bayonetta, all characters who can wall cling can also crawl.
- In the Distant Planet stage, characters that wall cling on the top part of the Bulborb's mouth will get stuck inside its mouth and it will walk off the screen, causing a self-destruct.
Related techniques
- Wall jump
- Dragon Lunge (as the move makes Corrin stick to a surface)