The Technique That Defined A Genre - History of Wavedashing

[Music] you're at a party there's a gamecube setup in the corner four players three of whom are various shades of kirby are duking it out on hyrule temple a crowd begins to form and one guy at the back of the room issues a statement that would have any person over the age of 11 frothing at the mouth i bet i can beat anyone here at smash an argument breaks out stakes are being raised trash talk is being spewed suddenly a voice breaks the cacophony man i bet you can't even wave dash for competitive smash melee players it's a rite of passage a litmus test a question that separates the filthy casuals from the casually filthy today we're going to be talking about a technique that built the foundation for one of the fastest fighting games of all time and has shaped the platform fighting genre into what it is today this is the history of the wave dash [Music] for those of you who don't know a wave dash is an advanced technique found primarily in fighting games it's basically a little slide that lets a player move forwards or backwards without having to turn around it can be used to play mind games reposition or follow up on attacks the term was originally coined for tekken tag tournament a 3d fighter that was released in arcades in 1999. using certain characters players could scoot along the ground with a crouching slide allowing them to pursue opponents who have been knocked away while simultaneously parrying low attacks a similar movement option was also discovered in marvel vs capcom 2 which released a year later where players could use consecutive dashes to cover ground in front of them while in both of these games the wave dash was more of a novelty than anything else something similar would be discovered the next year in another fighting game and it would be an absolute game changer super smash bros melee is a platform fighter unlike 2d fighting games which are typically a box with a single floor that characters stand on platform fighters have dynamic stages with terrain hazards items and of course platforms traversing a more dynamic space means more movement options than a traditional fighting game whether it's jumping onto and falling through platforms grabbing ledges or tethering to walls up being to recover or wall jumping to continue combos melee's movement is satisfying endlessly deep and often cited as one of the reasons people love the game when developing melee sakurai wanted players to have more defensive options than in the previous title the more ways a character can escape a combo the more versatile the combat will feel things like rolling and sdi were present in smash 64 and melee introduced new options like spot dodging in place affecting launch trajectory by holding the stick in different directions and taking on surfaces like walls and ceilings but one option that was added which would have unintended side effects down the road was the air dodge originally intended to be a last-ditch escape option the air dodge interacted with melee's physics system in a curious way and once players figured out how to utilize it properly melee's gameplay started speeding up at an exponential rate which brings us to the subject of today's video the wave dash the earliest recorded post about wave dashing came from a user named ultimate melee who posted about it on smashboards and game facts on january 3rd 2002. in the post he referred to the technique as a mad dash and explained that it could be used to slide forward or backwards quickly and smash attack right away using a regular dash and trying to smash attack would normally result in a dash attack so being able to move quickly and immediately smash attack was an interesting prospect for most people wave dashing isn't that appealing it seems kind of stupid the first question for many people was whether the technique was legitimate to use in a competitive setting is it fair often cited as a glitch or an exploit or by your friend at school as goddamn wave dashing in melee was actually a known thing during the game's development cycle in an open questionnaire one middle schooler named rocketman talks about air dodging into the ground with luigi and sliding the nintendo employee who responded to rocketman was none other than masahiro sakurai the creator of smash and he talks about how he is actually aware of this sliding technique and that he personally uses it as a sort of back dash he also talks about how luigi's low traction allows him to slide further than other characters giving some insight into the mechanics governing the technique a few years later in the may 2008 issue of nintendo power sakurai said quote we noticed that you could do wave dashing during the development period so while wave dashing was by no means intentionally programmed into the game it wasn't some exploit of the game's code used to gain a competitive advantage either it was just a byproduct of melee's physics engine but don't take my word for it here to deliver the definitive treaties on the legitimacy morality and efficacy of the wave dash is our good friend practical tas a wave dash is a technique in super smash bros melee in which the player jumps then immediately interrupts their jump with an air dodge that causes them to land back on the ground the most recognizable part of the wave dash is the movement that comes with it the horizontal momentum of your air dodge if any is conserved upon landing and transformed into a quick grounded movement closely related to the wave dash is the wave land in which you end a jump arc by air dodging into the ground which triggers that same grounded movement it's not a bug rather it's a logical consequence of melee's physics system in which any airborne horizontal momentum is converted to grounded movement upon landing the length of a wave dash is primarily dependent on two things one each character's traction with lower traction characters like luigi and ice climbers having longer wave dashes and two the angle you're holding your control stick at while air dodging melee is an analog game and players have access to literally hundreds of angles just on the rim of their control stick gate so they can adjust their wave dash to cover the exact amount of space they want obviously most players don't consciously choose one specific angle to use box controller player is not withstanding but the fact is that even if you predict that your opponent will wave dash that still doesn't tell you where they're going to be when the wave dash ends wave dashing was first documented in 2002 but despite its age it's still a fundamental movement tool used in competitive melee today thanks to its versatility it can be used as a general movement option as a feint and during combos among many other situations part of the versatility comes from the variety of angles it can be performed at as mentioned another is the fact that it can be triggered from any grounded jump which can be done almost any time you're on the ground lastly wave dashes have very low end lag in most cases the player is still moving when they become actionable which provides players with easy access to grounded options like smash attacks while moving all of these add up to make a versatile powerful option that's a staple in any competitive smashers tool kit he's off again he's off again he gets the grab he's gonna down throw not able to get much [Music] got all that good let's go over some of the principal uses of the wave dash for example one of the techniques primary uses especially at low levels is to wave dash backwards to avoid an attack and punish immediately with a forward smash second as practical tasks mentioned the wave land as a player is landing they can perform a waveland to change the direction of their momentum and slide along the ground it can be performed as a mix up in neutral but it also opens up several options near ledges and on platforms for example near a ledge a player can face center stage wave dash back and fast fall to grab the ledge the same can be done in reverse where they let go of the ledge jump and waveland on the stage to perform what is called a ledge dash for platforms players can jump through waveland down and immediately perform an action similarly a player on a platform can waveland off the edge of the platform to quickly return to the ground or mix up their movement in a number of ways third wave dashing can be used to alter existing moves for example fox and falco's downbeat shine can be jump cancelled meaning that as soon as they use the move they're able to jump out of it and cancel the animation this means that a fox and falco are able to link a shine into a jump into an air dodge creating what is known as a wave shine this combination of moves is meta defining much of fox and falco's punish game revolve around shine as a combo starter and the ability to immediately reposition to continue a punish has led to these two being absolutely dominant for as long as the game has had a competitive scene he gets oh shoot oh my god oh my god oh no what is that but as the years went on and melee's sequel was slated to come out the community thought it was time to move to a new game when super smash brothers brawl was released in 2008 many fans lamented the slower clunkier gameplay being offered while a large competitive scene did spring up around brawl it became apparent that much of what appealed to the competitive fan base of melee was more or less omitted from its successor recovery was made easier as characters could snap to ledge from further away so edge guarding became less rewarding the game was severely imbalanced with characters like meta knight being overpowered and ice climbers being completely broken to top it all off characters would randomly trip when dashing around the stage just fall over for no damn reason sakurai meant among these regressive design choices was that characters could no longer move in a direction when air dodging instead they'd just become intangible for a moment and then continue to fall no directional air dodging means you guessed it no wave dashing and this was an intentional design choice from sakurai and his team who wanted to narrow the gap between casual and competitive players referring back to the nintendo power interview we talked about earlier sakurai said quote with super smash bros brawl it wasn't a matter of okay do we leave it in or do we take it out we really just wanted this game to appeal to and be played by gamers of all different levels we felt that there was a growing gap between beginners and advanced players and taking wave dashing out helps to level the playing field it wasn't a big priority or anything but when we were building the game around the idea of making it fair for everybody it just made sense to take it out obviously this was upsetting to the melee die hards everything that made melee great the combo system with hit stop the various movement options it had all been lost in translation some stayed with brawl and helped build a competitive community others returned to melee certain that their game would never die but a third group decided to take matters into their own hands in the years after its release several mods were developed for super smash brothers brawl balanced brawl sought to make all characters viable and remove infinite brawl plus and brawl minus were aimed at making the gameplay more like melee by adjusting the game's physics and hit lag but the mod that rose above the rest and eclipsed even the base game from which it's sprang forth is one of the most controversial titles in smash history project m project m is arguably one of the most ambitious modding projects ever undertaken for a console exclusive game project m revamped the entire cast to make everyone viable it altered the physics to more closely resemble melee it added characters like roy and mutu who were built from the ground up and it reintroduced advanced techniques like l-canceling and wave dashing so much of melee's charm is the freedom afforded by its physics engine everything feels like it has weight to it wave dashing is a huge part of that as it allows players to exercise control over a pretty significant portion of their movement you don't have to wait for your character to finish their dash animation or drift to the ground before you're able to start moving again you can choose when and where you want to go at pretty much any point in time although development for project m would eventually be shut down under some pretty unfortunate circumstances the mod was nothing short of a sensation from dorm rooms to game stores to hotel ballrooms and convention centers pm was a testament to the community's desire to play a fast-paced competitive game it's games like project m which have inspired game developers to this day [Applause] in the wake of the release of super smash brothers brawl and other aaa publishers who tried to develop their own platform fighting games the creation of real down-to-earth competitive platform fighters was left to indie developers after project m was shut down and the pmdt was disbanded members of that mod team stuck together and founded their own company wave dash studios their first game was called icons arena and it drew heavy inspiration from smash though it didn't reach huge commercial success it's just one example of games that have been pushing the platform fighting genre forward oh and icons arena also had wave dashing obviously one of the biggest spiritual successors to melee and one of the first to emulate without straight up copying the game was rivals of aether the brainchild of dan fornacey the guy responsible for super smash land rivals of aether was heavily influenced by the movement and mechanics of super smash brothers melee so when starting rivals i knew i wanted to have mechanics but i also wanted to simplify and just make the controls you know more modern like more what you would expect you know coming from a game from 2015 instead of you know 2001 and then the second thing is i wanted wave bashing but i didn't want it to be hard i wanted it to be as intuitive as possible um so what i did is i took melee's weight dashing and i said as soon as you hit jump you can start a weight bash you don't even have to wait for the jump squat to end basically you get like an instant wave dash as long as you kind of hit the buttons at the same time wave dashing was incorporated into the game as a conscious design choice it can be executed fairly easily but has some drawbacks as it leaves the character vulnerable this trade-off between quick versatile movement and leaving yourself open to attacks is a conscious effort to incorporate wave dashing into the design philosophy of the game so the way dash and rivals is super actionable compared to melee like you can be wave dashing into attacks which is like kind of critical in rivals is um to be able to move during your tilt a lot of players but basically wave dashing like during combos and that's just something because i was like oh wow i didn't know that worked until you know four years after i implemented it and people are used to it so i'm like i guess we're just gonna leave it how it is and nowadays pretty much every platform fighting game worth at salt is incorporating wave dashing in some capacity brawlhalla and brawl out and slap city all have wave dashing and slap city's developer ludosity just released a new game nickelodeon all-stars brawl during their ad campaign they made a point of telling fans that they were intentionally catering to hardcore competitors games have even been built around the wave dash as a core concept waveland is a platformer that incorporates movement inspired by melee even the names of the moves in the game come straight from smash short hop ledge dash fastball shine stall and of course wave dash in general it seems like almost all modern platform fighters understand the desire to move around the stage with precision and freedom and wave dashing is a core component of giving players that freedom it's literally the idea of two separate systems combining in a unique way and the two systems are a directional air dodge or an air dash and landing on the ground so something has to happen if you're dashing with speed into the ground and retaining some of it is like the most obvious use case which brings us to how wave dashing has moved outside of the platform fighting genre and into some unexpected places so let's talk about rocket league rocket league is a title which thrives on its movement freedom of expression and incredibly high skill ceiling the game has a lot of tech and one of the most commonly used mechanics at higher levels is the wave dash now i know what you're probably thinking mr action how can a car wave dash if we use fernace's definition of what a wave dash is a directional air dodge or dash into the ground which results in maintaining some speed then wave dashing in rocket league checks all of those boxes to perform a wave dash one must jump and point the nose of their car up as the back tires touch the ground or right before they touch the ground a forward flip is performed normally a forward flip would put you into a full animation while airborne but because the car's momentum carries you into the ground the animation is cancelled while the momentum is maintained allowing you to quickly perform another action for example you can wave dash into an immediate forward flip gaining the speed of two forward flips in a much shorter time you can also wave dash off walls wave dash sideways into a drift and even wave dash into wave dash unlocking a chaotic technique called chain dashing there's also horse dashing which is cool i guess much like in platform fighters wave dashing allows players to quickly gain momentum and cover options that would otherwise be out of reach and once again wave dashing wasn't intentionally programmed into the game it's just a byproduct of the game's physics engine while we're at it let's also look at celeste a platformer which is a favorite among speedrunners celeste uses a technique called you guessed it the wave dash a short but long hop that allows the player to retain their dash after a jump while also keeping their momentum in the air the wave dash is an essential part of the game it also gives way to other techniques like bubble wave dashes and backwards wave dashes and a bunch of other things that makes this game an absolute pleasure to watch seriously if you haven't watched the celeste speedrun go watch one now one of the coolest uses for the wave dash in celeste is the chapter 9 gate skip which allows you to bypass a wall that normally requires you to gather a bunch of hidden collectibles to access the bonus final courses alright so that's a brief history of how wave dashing has influenced gaming as we know it now let's return to where we started second since tekken tag tournament future iterations of the game and even soul calibur have included wave dashing and crouch dashing in various forms the most notable instance is in tekken 7 where mishima fighters like heihachi and kazuya are able to dash forward to create 50 50s or close the distance on their opponents in japan it's sometimes referred to as wind god step but most simply call it by its traditional name the wave dash and when kazuya was added to the smash ultimate roster on june 29th 2021 he brought with him just about his entire move set and that included a wave dash by inputting a z on the control stick kazuya can quickly dash forward while his upper body remains invincible this move can be linked into follow-ups like dragon uppercut and win god fist and it's just really cool to see kazia and his wave dash being faithfully represented in smash ultimate what more can we say about this technique the wave dash is an example of one of the things that makes video games so appealing it gives players a sense of control of fluidity over their character so much so that it's hard to put into words there's so much more to this story than we could fit into one video and each game has a different spin on the wave dash but one thing is for certain the wave dash has a very special place in video game history this video is made possible thanks to our wonderful patrons massive thank you to everyone on this list and shout out to jason b brendan qb foxy mauve patanus sierra shampoo weeaboo spartacus and yashichi for being platinum supporters and an extra special shout out to steven noodles and marco for being diamond supporters i'd like to personally wish you guys a very happy holidays check us out on instagram link in the description if you want to support our channel and get info on unreleased videos check out our patreon if you want to help us out in a different way leaving a like subscribing and hitting the bell to stay up to date is also appreciated my name is jonah thanks for watching

Channel: Akshon Esports

Views: 185,170

Keywords: akshon, akshon esports, esports, Wavedashing, Wavedash, Smash bros, Fighting games, Brawlhalla, Rivals of Aether, Fgc, Gaming

Id: bMGQ64RR2B4

Length: 20min 19sec (1219 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 01 2022