Auto-canceling

Comparison of Marth Auto-canceling (left) and L-canceling (right) his neutral aerial. Observe how L-Cancelling allows Marth to act (in this case, raising his shield) more quickly after landing than is possible with Auto-cancelling

Zero Suit Samus failing to Auto-cancel; she has landed during the middle of her aerial attack, and has thus incurred significant landing lag, thereby leaving her open to punishment.

Auto-canceling is the act of landing during the beginning or ending frames of an aerial attack, thereby circumventing the landing lag that would have occurred had the character instead landed during the middle of that attack's animation.

Auto-canceling an attack produces no more landing lag than a regular landing from an ordinary jump, whereas landing during the middle of an aerial attack almost always results in a significant delay before the character can act (raise a shield, jump, dodge, etc.) again. Most aerial attacks can be Auto-cancelled during both the first few frames and the last few frames of the attack's animation; however, other attacks cannot be Auto-cancelled at the start, at the end, or even at all. Each aerial attack has a specific Auto-cancelling window (or lack thereof) that must be memorized and practiced, and the window is also distinct between characters (i.e., Mario's forward air has totally different Auto-cancelling conditions than Sonic's forward air, and is also different from the Auto-cancelling conditions for Mario's downward air).

Auto-canceling can be very beneficial to players using characters with laggy aerial attacks, as this can reduce the amount of landing lag produced, and create more time for the character to act, potentially avoiding being punished during the move's landing lag. Precise Auto-canceling of aerials is also frequently needed for performing followups and combos, so as to leave no time for the opponent to react and escape. Learning and practicing the timing required to Auto-cancel all of a fighter's aerial attacks is especially important in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and Super Smash Bros. 4, due to the lack of L-cancelling in those games.

Trivia

• The forward airs of Donkey Kong in Melee, and of Donkey Kong and Ganondorf in Brawl, cannot be Auto-cancelled during their ending frames. By exploring the code of the games and looking at the underlying properties of the moves, it has been discovered that the developers had intended for Auto-cancelling those moves to be possible; however, due to a minor error (the accidental use of the wrong type of timing function), it is not possible to auto-cancel those moves.

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This article is in need of additional images. The editor who added this tag suggests: Additional comparison images (.gifs): Specifically, one that expands the 'Melee' comparison .gif to include an non-cancelled aerial; and a new gif comparing an Auto-cancelled aerial to the same non-cancelled aerial in SSB4 If you have a good image for this article, upload it here.