Dash-dance

Fox performing a frame-perfect dash-dance in Melee.

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The dash-dance is an advanced technique in the Super Smash Bros. games. Performed by rapidly tapping the analog stick left and right while on the ground, it cancels out the character's initial dashing animation with another animation in the opposite direction, causing the character to quickly and repeatedly dash to the right and left in a short distance.

The maximum time a character can dash in one direction and still change direction by dash dancing is the same as the number of frames in their initial dash animation. After this animation is over, the character will enter their regular dashing animation; at this point, tapping the analog stick in the opposite direction will cause the character to enter their turnaround animation, during which no attacks can be performed.

in Super Smash Bros

in the original, Super Smash Bros. game dash dancing takes longer to do because no matter how fast you do it (except for Captain Falcon (SSB) )there is a small turnaround animation making the maneuver a bit less useful than in melee although this makes it a lot easier to Pivot than in melee, so it has it's ups and downs

In Super Smash Bros. Melee

An application of dash-dancing in competitive Melee; S2J, as Captain Falcon, constantly uses dash-dances in order to quickly pursue Fox out of Falcon's throws, allowing for tech-chasing.

While dash-dancing can be performed in all four games, it derives most of its use in Melee. In Melee, dash dancing is used primarily to play spacing mindgames with the opponent. By continuously switching directions, the player can confuse opponents in regards to their approach, as they can potentially either backtrack or approach while dash-dancing; in addition, it can also cause opponents to attempt an attack in the dash-forward animation, only for the player to dash backwards and quickly punish the end lag of such attacks by doubling-back. As players can also jump out of a dash-dance, it can allow players to quickly use SHFFLs and wavedashes. Dash-dancing can also be used in conjunction with low-knockback throws to perform tech-chases, as the action allows players to quickly run in either direction, allowing for quick pursuit of rolling opponents. Characters with fast dashing animations, such as Fox, Marth, and Captain Falcon, make the most use of the technique, and proper use of dash-dancing is important in all of their respective metagames.

In Brawl, dash-dancing is more difficult to perform, as the initial dash animation for characters is much shorter than in Melee. In addition, many throws have increased knockback, which, coupled with Brawl's lowered hitstun, makes tech-chasing more difficult. Tripping can also interrupt dash-dancing at a complete random, leaving the player vulnerable should it occur. As a result of these changes, dash-dancing is considerably less useful than it was in Melee and therefore sees little use in competitive play. The technique, however, is important in Sonic's metagame, as it heavily relies on mindgames and punishment to garner KOs.

In Super Smash Bros. 4, the removal of tripping allows safer dash-dances than in Brawl. However, all initial dash animations still remain short in relation to Melee, thus making the technique relatively useless and more difficult to pull off in the competitive metagame.

See also

• Pivoting
• Fox-trot