Banana Peel (move)

The Banana Peel (, Banana Peel) is Diddy Kong's down special move.

Overview
Using the move causes Diddy Kong to toss a Banana Peel over his shoulder behind him. This move can either be used with a tilt or smash input, with the latter causing the Banana Peel to be thrown at a faster speed and in a higher arc. Like the standard Banana Peel item, Diddy can pick up and throw it at opponents to deal a small amount of damage and cause them to trip, or leave it on the ground and cause them to trip if they make contact with it.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, it is common to slip on a banana peel, and then land on it once again. Since the Banana Peels are owned by Diddy, he cannot be tripped up by them unless someone else picks them up. Only two Banana Peels can be in play for each Diddy Kong; if he tries to use this move with two Banana Peels on the field already, he will perform the animation but another banana will not come out. Diddy can also glide toss his Banana Peels, among many other advanced techniques, such as glide-tossing them down to reposition them on the stage, often called "dribbling". The versatility of Diddy Kong's Banana Peels make them quite useful for both offensive and defensive means, as well as stage control, being one of the primary reasons for Diddy's top tier placement in Brawl.

In Super Smash Bros. 4, both the move and its associated item have been weakened. Diddy can only have one peel out at a time; trying to create a second results in a new animation where he shrugs after the throwing motion, which has more ending lag. The peels also disappear after they hit or slip an opponent once, or after they are thrown twice. While the move is still very effective for landing grabs and scoring KOs, this makes it much less central to Diddy's playstyle compared to Brawl. Additionally, after throwing a Banana Peel, there is a period of 12 frames before Diddy can generate another, even if the previous one already has disappeared. However, this interval is extremely short and thus practically never comes into play.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the move works similar to how it does in Smash 4, except the peel can hit opponents twice before disappearing, improving its utility. However, the aforementioned period between generating peels was significantly increased in updates, going from 12 to 61 frames in, then from 61 to 85 frames in. Prior to this, Diddy could perform an infinite named the "Pyramid Scheme", by repeatedly recatching the peel and throwing it through a soft platform onto the opponent. As of the updates, however, attempting to throw a new peel immediately to keep opponents trapped will fail, allowing them to escape.

Item toss specifics
Banana Peels are thrown by this move at an angle of 105°, with a speed of 2.2 for a tilt input, and 3.036 for a smash input, both multiplied by Diddy's item toss strength of 0.966667× (except in Brawl). Interestingly, the move can still be used if Diddy already has an item on his hands, unlike other item-generating special moves such as the Links' s. In Brawl, the item remains on his hands and he still throws a Banana Peel (or fails to do so if two already exist), while in Smash 4 and Ultimate, he throws both items at once, with the held item before the Banana Peel (or simply the held item if a peel cannot be generated). In this case, the thrown item follows the same speed and arc as if the Banana Peel was thrown, depending on whether a tilt or smash input is used.

Per the item throw damage formula, which considers the throw as dropping the item, the damage dealt by it is equal to, where the toss speeds are as defined prior. As an example, for a Capsule, the formula is, dealing approximately 9.98% with a tilt throw, and 12.4% with a smash throw. In the case of the Banana Peel, this formula can be simplified to.

Customization
Special Move customization was added in Super Smash Bros. 4. These are the variations:


 * 1) Banana Peel: Default.
 * 2) Shocking Banana Peel: Throws a banana at a more horizontal trajectory (making it harder for Diddy to catch it) and is less effective on throw, but shocks opponents, allowing Diddy to perform new setups.
 * 3) Battering Banana Peel: Throws the banana peel straight up, and will launch enemies straight up.

Origin
Bananas are collectibles from the  games. They functioned exactly the same as s from the Mario series, in that when a player collects 100, they will gain an extra life. Bananas can appear in bunches, which depending on the game can come in groups of five, ten, or twenty-five.  instead contains 500 bananas in each world, with each character needing to collect the matching 100 of them to access boss battles, in addition to s needed to unlock worlds.



While bananas themselves are common within the Donkey Kong Country games, the concept of slipping on peels is not, though in Lanky Kong's phase in the final boss fight of Donkey Kong 64, he must lay giant banana peels on the floor and lure King K. Rool to slip and fall on them. Slipping on banana peels also appears as an Easter egg in DK's treehouse in that game. Both Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong are, however, capable of utilizing Banana Peels in the Mario Kart games in which they appear; in , the two also utilized Giant Banana Peels as their special items.

The move itself may also be inspired by Koopa Troopa's trophy celebration cutscene in , where Diddy Kong himself drops a banana peel after eating the banana itself, and the Koopa Troopa falls over after stepping on the peel itself.

Trivia

 * This is the only special move in the series with smash input functionality to not be a side special.