Charge-cancel

Samus' Charge Shot being charge-canceled in Brawl.

Charge-canceling is the act of halting the charging of an auto-chargeable special move, such as Samus' Charge Shot. This allows the user to store a partial charge and resume charging the move later.

While charging such an attack on the ground, players can cancel the charge and (usually) store it by pressing a shield or grab button, or tapping sideways on the Control stick or D-pad to roll out of the charge. If they are in the air while in their charging state, canceling it with a shield or grab button will make them cancel it with an air dodge instead.

If a character is hit while charging one of these moves (other than Bonus Fruit and Limit Charge), they will lose the charge completely and have to start over, regardless of whether they had stored a charge before.

Due to its buffer system, charge-canceling Giant Punch in Brawl will result in Donkey Kong performing an air dodge if the input is entered late into the charge animation.

List of moves that can be charge-canceled

Samus and Mii Gunner are the only characters who cannot charge cancel in midair, since Charge Shot and Charge Blast cannot be charged in midair. Additionally, Mewtwo's and Lucario's auto-charge specials will continue charging even at max charge unless canceled or fired during that period, as opposed to automatically stopping like everyone else.

Also prior to Melee, characters could use a normal attack button to unleash the charged attack mid-charge as well.

• Bayonetta: Bullet Climax (charge cannot be stored)
• Cloud: Limit Charge
• Donkey Kong: Giant Punch
• Kirby: can copy all moves listed here except Limit Charge, F.L.U.D.D., Ultimate Uppercut and Gyro.
• Lucario: Aura Sphere
• Mario: F.L.U.D.D.
• Mewtwo: Shadow Ball
• Mii Brawler: Ultimate Uppercut
• Mii Gunner: Charge Blast
• Pac-Man: Bonus Fruit
• R.O.B.: Gyro
• Robin: Thunder
• Samus: Charge Shot
• Sheik: Needle Storm (In Melee, the button must be held to charge, and rolling is not possible without pressing a shield button)
• Squirtle: Water Gun
• Wii Fit Trainer: Sun Salutation

In Super Smash Bros. 4, fully completing the charge of any of these specials will briefly display glowing stars on the character's eyes in their battle portrait. In the case of Miis, the glowing stars will appear on their arms.

Instant charge-canceling

Instant charge-canceling is a technique exclusive to Cloud, R.O.B., and (to a lesser extent) Sheik. These three characters, with a series of inputs, can almost immediately attack out of their chargeable special moves with their neutral attack, tilt attacks, or smash attacks without having to cancel them with their shield (or additionally in Cloud's case, by pressing B again). This is done by initiating the charge of Gyro, Limit Charge, or Needle Storm, inputting any mentioned attack desired, and, after waiting a few frames, pressing the shield button. For Cloud and R.O.B., this completely bypasses the charge cancel animation and immediately starts up the attack that was inputted, but this is not the case for Sheik (although Needle Storm's charge cancel animation is still rather short, and the buffer mechanic allows the attack to come out as soon as the animation ends). Using Attack + Special Move for smash attacks makes it possible to perform forward smashes out of the special move if the second stick or C-Stick is set to Attack (as tapping the control stick left or right generates a roll), and if the C-Stick is not being used at all to input the attack desired, the grab button can also be used to instant charge-cancel.

Due to special moves being able to be performed out of running animations, this allows the three characters to approach with more options than just their dash attack, grab, or aerials. The only disadvantage to instant charge-canceling is its marginal amount of startup, due to requiring a few frames before the attack can come out, and as only side specials can be performed out of the initial dash, using instant charge-canceling for a different option requires some prior distance travelled with the character's dash, though for all three characters, instant charge-canceling is faster than allowing the skidding animation of their dash to play out. Its somewhat complicated inputs could also lead to a mistake and input another action instead of the attack desired.