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Glide toss

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Diddy Kong glide tossing Banana Peels
Diddy Kong performing a chain of glide tosses with his bananas on Zero Suit Samus.

Glide tossing is a technique in Super Smash Bros. Brawl that allows a character to throw an item while sliding forward. As with other techniques that cause characters to slide, the technique allows characters to move across the stage while being able to use any attack or action. Glide tossing is also possible in Melee, although it is not as prominent or effective as in Brawl. Glide tossing also exists in Smash 64, albeit in an extremely primitive form, as Link is the only character who can generate items, and Samus is the only character who can cover any distance with a glide toss; even then, Samus covers a very short distance. In Smash 4, throwing an item out of a roll does not grant any extra distance, much like characters in Brawl who gained no distance from a glide toss, effectively removing glide tossing. In Ultimate, it is no longer possible to throw items out of a roll, further removing the chance of glide tossing.

Performing the technique

To perform a glide toss, the player must grab a throwable item. They must then perform a roll and almost immediately (about 6 frames) after, throw the item in any direction. The character will then cancel the roll and throw the item, but as the player's momentum is kept from the roll, the character will slide along the ground.

The traveled distance depends on the character's traction, the direction of roll, and the direction and moment the item was thrown. In general, the later the item is thrown, the bigger the glide, as characters have more momentum further into their rolls.

Applications

Some characters can benefit greatly from the speed boost gained with a glide toss, allowing them to cover large distances in short time. Given the throwing animation's short duration, a glide toss is usually safer than other approach methods.

Uses in competitive play

Due to the fact that items are turned off by default in competitive play, glide tossing is limited in application. However, there are some characters that can produce their own items. For these characters, glide tossing serves as an excellent means of approach. Glide tossing is faster and less punishable than dash tossing an item, and it leaves the character standing at the end, ready to segue into any of their moves. It moves the character forward with the advantages of a forward roll, but without the disadvantages. It also allows the character to throw as fast as their standing item throw, but while moving forward to help advance.

A few characters have truly outstanding glide tosses that allow them to slide much further than others, particularly Pit (highest average distance), Meta Knight (second highest average) and Zero Suit Samus, the latter of which can throw her powerful items out of a glide toss during the beginning of a match, immediately attack with her down smash should the opponent be at very low percents, and then regrab her item once the opponent has been knocked away. Peach also makes an excellent glide tosser, though not quite as powerful; she can combine her floating approach with her long-ranged glide toss at any time to frustrate opponents. Peach can also glide toss immediately out of plucking a vegetable, which can reduce the lag time between plucking and throwing further, all the while approaching. R.O.B.'s glide toss covers a very large distance, and combined with his Gyro and low-lag ground game, his glide toss is one of the most dangerous.

While glide tossing is nearly limited to characters that can produce items, most characters can glide toss in competitive play if they manage to catch said items. Some characters gain no distance by glide tossing, and Yoshi, due to his unique shield physics, cannot glide toss at all (although he could throw items out of his roll in Smash 64 and Melee). There is a difference between a character's glide toss not gaining any distance and not being able to perform this technique; a character that has a distance of 0 for their glide toss will still be able to cancel the initial roll.

Characters who can glide toss with self-generated items

The following characters have the ability to create items that they can use to perform a glide toss:

Throw distances

The user BurningCrusader777 from SmashBoards performed a study on the distance each character can achieve with this technique. There are 4 ways to glide toss, given that throwing up and down is normally the same as a forward throw, except it gives less distance. Forward roll with a forward throw, backward roll with forward throw, forward roll with reverse throw, and backward roll with reverse throw.

Character Forward Backward Forward reverse Backward reverse Average
Bowser 0 0 0 0 0
Captain Falcon 1.357 2.6426 1.357 2.6426 1.9998
Charizard 0.2856 0 0.2856 0 0.1428
Diddy Kong 1.5355 1.8568 1.7854 1.8568 1.7586
Donkey Kong 4.2142 0 4.2142 0 2.071
Falco 4 0 4 0 2
Fox 0.714 0.7854 0.714 0.714 0.7319
Ganondorf 1.3927 1.1785 1.2142 1.2142 1.2499
Ice Climbers 0.6426 0 0.6426 0 0.3213
Ike 0 1.0714 0 1.0714 0.0357
Ivysaur 1.6783 1.2142 1.4641 1.3213 1.4195
Jigglypuff 0 0 0 0 0
King Dedede 0 0 0 0 0
Kirby 0 0 0 0 0
Link 0 0 0 0 0
Lucario 0.714 1.6426 0.714 1.7497 1.2051
Lucas 0.357 0.5712 0.357 0.5712 0.4641
Luigi 0.1785 0.357 1.4284 6.0714 2.0088
Mario 0.4284 1.357 0.4284 1.3213 0.8838
Marth 1.357 5.357 1.357 5.357 3.357
Meta Knight 4.5712 4.4284 4.5712 4.4284 4.4998
Mr. Game & Watch 4.1428 4.2142 4.1428 4.2142 4.1785
Ness 0.357 0.5712 0.357 0.5712 0.4641
Olimar 0.9282 0.6426 0.9282 0.6426 0.7854
Peach 2.1071 0.4641 2.0714 1 1.4107
Pikachu 1.0714 1.0714 0.4284 0.5 0.7678
Pit 5.0714 4.8925 5.0714 5 5.0088
R.O.B. 2.2142 2.5355 2.2142 2.6783 2.4106
Samus 0.9639 1.714 0.9639 1.714 1.339
Sheik 0 0 0 0 0
Snake 1.0357 1.4641 1.0357 1.5 1.2589
Sonic 4.1785 4.0714 4.1428 4.1071 4.125
Squirtle 2.1428 1.7854 2.1428 1.7854 1.9641
Toon Link 0 0 0 0 0
Wario 1 1 1 1 1
Wolf 0.8568 0.9282 0.8568 0.9282 0.8925
Yoshi N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Zelda 1.4284 1.6069 1.5 1.714 1.5623
Zero Suit Samus 2 0 2.1428 0 1.0357

Dash item throw cancel item throw (DITCIT)

In Smash 4, a similar tossing technique is used to replace the glide toss that was removed from Brawl. The technique itself was introduced in Brawl and could also be done in that game, although it was less useful due to regular glide tossing being an option; however, some characters, most notably Link, benefited from it. A DITCIT (alternately known as a super glide toss) is performed by initiating a dash item throw and immediately performing another item throw with an up smash. This can be done using the Attack + Special Move smash attack configuration to initiate both item throws, DACUS inputs, or pressing the Z button before inputting the item throw with either C-Stick smash attack or Attack + Special Move, which is recommended when throwing battering items. Depending on the character, it will result in the character throwing the item upward while sliding forward. Throwing the item in other directions is also possible, although it can only be done with the setting for Attack + Special Move to smash attack turned on, and every direction other than up requires frame precision. Throwing the item forward requires the control stick to be forward and slightly upwards before the smash attack is inputted, backwards requires the control stick to be slightly diagonal in the other direction and then immediately upward, and downward requires the control stick to be held down and then up immediately afterward. If delayed slightly for certain characters (Ganondorf, Link, Palutena, R.O.B., and Toon Link), the item will only be thrown forward, but another item throw animation will follow the first animation, with this second "fake-out" animation corresponding to the direction the control stick was in before the slide was triggered. However, with the fake-out animation, the DITCIT does not slide as far.

DITCIT is most practical with a character that can spawn an item, and easiest to perform with a character that can also use fake-out their item throws; thus, with Link and his Bombs, the technique is called "bombsliding". Otherwise, different characters require more precise inputs for their DITCIT to go full distance, such as Mega Man. DITCIT is not possible in Ultimate.

Characters that can gain distance with DITCIT

* Has an effective DITCIT in Brawl.

Pivot cancel item toss

In Smash 4 and Ultimate, it is possible to throw items out of a dash turnaround. The player must dash and then perform a turnaround and then they can throw the item. In Smash 4, the technique is not very useful due to jump cancel throws being more effective and it is only possible to throw items forward, but in Ultimate, the technique is significantly more useful as jump cancel throws are more difficult due to decreased jumpsquats and it is possible to throw an item in any direction out of a pivot in Ultimate.

Glide tossing in Brawl

Glide tossing in Melee

In Melee, only a few characters can slide while throwing an item on the ground, and the effect of the technique is not nearly as noticeable as it is in Brawl. Performing a directional air dodge and then throwing an item can be considered an "aerial glide toss". Captain Falcon, Mewtwo and Marth seem to benefit from the grounded glide toss, and Peach and Captain Falcon seem to benefit from the aerial glide toss, though out of those characters, the only one who can generate items is Peach.

Grounded glide tossing

Aerial glide tossing

See also

External links