Grab release

It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Chain grab. The reason given for the merge is: Similar enough, add a section?. (Discuss)

Grab releasing is a technique similar to chain grabbing, except the user releases the victim rather than throwing them. Grab releases are most abused in Brawl since the amount of time before a released character can act is usually too late for a follow-up attack to be prevented. In Brawl, characters will escape via ground release if they escape when pummeled or touches in the ground and air release if the opponent escapes while not getting pummeled or the opponent presses the jump botton in the case they are touching the ground. Some characters can force a ground release on their opponent based on the speed of their pummel. Smaller characters due to their size are unable to force jump breaks to large characters or some small characters even other small characters as they grab at too short height to have the opponent's feet in the air while large sized characters can usually force a jump break to smaller characters. For example, only Snake and Yoshi can force Donkey Kong to jump break as he is large enough to have his feet on the ground unless he is in the edge of a stage.

Brawl+ fixes character's grab releases such as Wario, Ness and Lucas to prevent grab release combos.

If a character escapes via a ground release, they experience 30 frames of lag and land close-by on the ground (excluding Donkey Kong, Ness, and Lucas). If it is an air release, the user experiences 30 frames of lag and the victim suffers 50 frames of lag (does not apply to Jigglypuff).

Grab release combos come into existence when a character has either a very short distanced air release (such as Wario and Meta Knight), or experiences additional lag from a ground release, such as Ness and Lucas. Others, like Fox and Falco, cannot do anything when released until they reach the ground.

Exceptions

When ground released, both Ness and Lucas suffer from 40 frames of lag rather than the normal 30. This gives the opponent 10 frames or 20 for Bowser to either regrab them if it's Marth, Charizard or Donkey Kong (this last by carry release) or if it's in a wall, or attack if anyone else or those three.

When ground released, Donkey Kong suffers from only 20 frames of lag, rather than the normal 30, so he has 10 extra frames to counterattack the opponent.

When Bowser grab release (both air and ground release) an opponent, Bowser only suffers from 20 frames of lag, allowing him to chaingrab or attack out of any grab release. When an opponent is released out of it, Bowser only suffers from 20 frames of lag, rather than 30, allowing to dash-grab the opponent when they ground release or attack.

When Jigglypuff is air released, it only suffers from 49 frames of lag, allowing it an extra 1 frame to attack out of an air release. This allows it to use Rest if the opponent gets close enough, though this is rather impractical during an actual match.

Some fast fallers like Fox or Sheik that have a normal ground release animation, when air released they reach the ground very early. This allows to reduce the grab release animation unless they are in the edge. But this can sometimes also be a problem.

Wario, who is known for having serious grab release issues, experiences the lag of most normal characters and has a normal ground release. His air release, however, does not send him any horizontal distance at all, leaving him extremely vulnerable for 20 frames in front of the opponent. This causes him to be the prime target for many grab release infinites for those who can force him to jump break.

Controversy

Many have argued about whether grab releases should be allowed in competitive play, since they usually much more potent than most chaingrabs, they usually end up as infinites or 0-deaths on the victim.

Well known grab releases are Marth's grab release 0-death on Ness and Lucas, Yoshi's 0-death on Meta Knight (Yoshi should react quickly with the forward aerial finisher, otherwise it can result in a counter-attack with Meta Knight's powerful up special and counter-KO Yoshi if Yoshi is at high percentages) and infinite on Wario.

It is unknown why Ness, Lucas, Jigglypuff, Donkey Kong, and Bowser all have different grab release times than the rest of the cast. Most people believe it was to "nerf" or "buff" them intentionally, but this can never be proven.