[Melee] L-Cancelling

[Flint]

L-Cancelling (an abbreviation of lag cancelling also called "smooth landing" on the official Super Smash Bros. website) is a technique in Super Smash Bros. Melee that allows characters to act faster than usual when landing in the middle of an aerial attack. L-Cancelling is done by pressing the shield button 7 frames or fewer before landing during an aerial attack in Melee. Doing so causes the aerial attack's landing animation to play at double speed, cutting the lag time in half (rounded down). Only regular aerial attacks can be L-Cancelled; special moves that have landing lag cannot. If an attack is auto-canceled then L-Cancelling has no effect.

Mr. Game & Watch Facts:

L-Cancelling is not present in Brawl. It was removed because, like wavedashing, Masahiro Sakurai felt it made the gap between beginner players and advanced players too large. The lack of L-Cancelling acts as an indirect nerf to characters that have aerial attacks with heavier landing lag and/or low jumps (most notably Ganondorf). L-Cancelling continues to be absent from Super Smash Bros. 4. However, equipment may have the Smooth Lander effect, which automatically provides a similar result. Depending on the number of times the effect is stacked, landing lag from aerials can be cut to 0.7x, 0.6x, or even in half as in Melee.

This mechanic speeds up follow-ups, combos and overall gameplay.