History Main / LagCancel

*** The first is the ability to perform a Super Combo and then, provided the player has enough meter, Super Cancel it into ''another'' Super Combo, something no other ''Street Fighter'' entry has allowed by default. [[note]]''[[VideoGame/StreetFighterIII Third Strike]]'' had unlockable dip switches in certain ports that allowed players to use all three of a character's Super Arts at once and be able to cancel Super Arts into other Super Arts.[[/note]] In the rare event a character is given infinite meter or the ability to hold more than three bars of super meter, they can even Super Cancel into a [[LimitBreak Meteor Combo]] [[ForMassiveDamage to lethal effect]].

* Similar to the ''[[VideoGame/GundamVsSeries Gundam VS]]'' games (see the Fighting Games tab above), everything except SP attacks is cancellable in ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriorsGundam'' by dashing in any direction. It does however cost more on the heat gauge than regular dashing. On mobility-focused machines, however, this makes them more than able to stand their ground against tougher ones. What ''isn't'' cancellable is, as stated above, [[LimitBreak SP attacks]] and [[CycleOfHurting stumbling due to being hit]].

* Most speed runners can tell you that ''Mega Man'' games that include [[VideoGameDashing dash commands]] are notorious for Dash Canceling, where you can maintain the fastest part of the dash command way longer than the dev team intended you to by constantly performing some other button press.

** From ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'', five out of the nine available characters can start casting a spell and quickly cancel it to more or less break the game by pulling off infinite {{combo}}s.
** Later on someone discovered Auto Spell Cancelling, allowing [[TheMedic Raine]] to join in the [[CrossesTheLineTwice sadism]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgeMp2Zz-EE like this.]]
** ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss'' had overlimit cancelling, which worked similarly to X-Factor cancelling above, it was a super mode but the biggest advantage it gave was that it can be done out of any other action, and even counts as a hit as it blows an enemy sky high.
** ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'' builds off ''Symphonia'' and ''Abyss'' so it has spell cancelling and overlimit cancelling as well... but the UpdatedRerelease for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 and the later Definitive Edition added Free Run Cancels, or Manual Cancels as they are only possible in Manual Mode. (Sorry, semi-auto players!) To put it simply, ''any'' action in the game can be cancelled by free running forward so long as you're in Manual Mode, which not only greatly increases combo options, it also makes every attack safer to pull off. Essentially, you should be ending any action that you don't plan to chain into another action with a free run.
** ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheRays'' lets you chain all attacks into other attacks and any of those into (and out of) a backstep. While the obvious use of this is to backstep at the end of a combo to act faster or else to quickly dodge an attack, this mechanic also leads to Rays' own version of spell cancelling, which is to start a spell and then backstep during the casting animation, which is the fastest way to advance a chain and reach requirements for master artes. Notably, the developers eventually added a feature that let you resume casting where you left off if you successfully dodge an enemy attack using this cancel.

* Some classes in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' can obtain a kind of passive cancel. One example is the Elemental-spec Shaman's Lava Surge talent. The damage ticks of Flame Shock, a damage-over-time spell, have a 10% or 20% chance (depending on the rank of the talent) to immediately end the cooldown on your Lava Burst spell. Since Lava Burst is guaranteed to land a nasty CriticalHit on a target suffering Flame Shock damage, this talent will provide huge boosts to your damage output when it's feeling generous.

* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'' has a variation, in that one of [[TheMedic Sharla]]'s Aura-type moves resets her other moves' cooldown timers, letting her use a healing or attack move that much faster.
* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'' uses this rather extensively for an RPG. Auto attacks can be canceled by Artes, and Artes can be canceled by Blade Specials. Properly timing the cancel makes the following attack significantly more powerful.
* In ''VideoGame/ValkyrieProfile2Silmeria'', you can cancel your R1 dash into your attack. Attacks themselves can be canceled into the next attack in your sequence. Then there's Break Mode, which encourages canceling completely.
* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', a number of powerful weapons, such as the Widow and the Claymore, can fire only one shot before overheating, and the reloading animation can be longer than one can afford in the middle of a heated battle. However, the actual reloading happens in the middle of the animation, so a player with good timing can perform a melee attack when the weapon reloads, which happens quicker than the rest of the animation. This trick is essential to getting the most out of the Claymore, as it almost doubles the DPS one can get out of it.
** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' this is extremely useful in multiplayer with the same single shot weapons. Additionally, performing one of several actions (dodge, light melee, using a power) will interrupt the reload sequence.
*** Done deliberately with the [[MightyGlacier Geth Juggernaut]] multiplayer character, which is completely unable to run or use [[TakeCover cover]]. Instead, the controller button that normally governs these mechanics can ''only'' be used to cancel reloads.
** This is also very useful for Nova Guards as they can cancel their Nova ability into either a roll or a punch to abuse the invincibility frames this move grants. It's incredibly useful when the class is relegated to the pizza delivery objectives and for holding control points; both being objectives that completely negate the class's greatest strength: mobility.
* ''VideoGame/{{BioShock|1}}'' allows you to cancel the cycle time of your slow-but-powerful crossbow by switching to your plasmid and then back to the crossbow, allowing you to effectively machinegun your bolts until a reload is necessary, oftentimes killing a Big Daddy before it can even properly react and attack you. Defied in an annoying manner with all other weapons, however - cancel e.g. a machine gun's or chemical thrower's lengthy reload animation a fraction of a second before it completes, and you have to start the whole process over.
* ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2'' has a [[GoodBadBugs glitch]] that allows you to cancel the delay between Yoshi's flutterjumps by immediately ducking before the flutter's almost finished, allowing you to reach places with Yoshi that's normally impossible (like fighting Bowser while still riding him, reaching Tall Trunk Slide from the mission involving him ([[GameBreakingBug although jumping on the slide freezes the game]]) or even beating [[spoiler:Grandmaster Galaxy's The Perfect Run]] with him).
* ''VideoGame/KillingFloor'' lets you cancel most of the animation for injecting yourself with the medical syringe by swapping to a different weapon/tool.[[note]] It doesn't allow using the syringe again afterwards because it has a separate recharge counter, but allows continuing to shoot again quicker. You can cancel as soon as the syringe comes into view - it doesn't have to actually make contact.[[/note]]
** ''VideoGame/KillingFloor2'' embraces this as part of an effort to ease several issues that plagued the first game - whereas ''[=KF1=]'' reloads had specific frames in their animation they had to reach [[AllOrNothingReloads before the game would acknowledge your attempts to switch weapons]], ''[=KF2=]'' has an "active reload" exploit, where you can melee or switch to a different weapon/gear at any point during any reloading animation, making it good for both cancelling a reload once the ammo counter updates and cancelling out of an inconveniently-timed reload if you still have ammo left. Reload cancels might not always save that much time, but you can throw a punch in the middle of your reload, which is great when fleeing while trying to reload and you get grabbed by a clot. And then, for good measure, once you've cancelled the reloading animation by a punch, that punch can itself be cancelled by shooting. A patch made this significantly less effective with dual pistols, as your ammo counter only goes up when ''both'' magazines are loaded, not just one, but most of the rest of the guns still benefit from the technique.
* In the modern ''VideoGame/NinjaGaiden'' series, you can throw a single shuriken to cancel the basic attacks' rather long recoveries (it doesn't work for strong attacks, though); especially useful when using the sword or the scythe in in the second and third games. In ''Razor's Edge'', the [[NoIAmBehindYou Cicada Surge]] also allows you to escape attacks or grabs that enemies frequently attempt during recoveries, although using it effectively requires very good reflexes.
* ''VideoGame/WarCraft III'': Some units (notably the Archmage) have spellcasting animations that last longer than the spell's effect. Here, it's a simple matter of telling the unit to cast, making sure the spell ''gets'' cast, then issuing a stop/hold position/attack order so it gets back to fighting instead of waving a magic stick.
* In ''VideoGame/TheWarriors'' video game, you can do sweeping attacks with a weapon. Normally you can only do one at a time, but if you hold down the block button and then rapidly hit the sweep attack button, you'll be able to do several attacks in succession.
* ''VideoGame/TronDeadlyDiscs'' for the UsefulNotes/{{Atari 2600}} and the UsefulNotes/{{Intellivision}} lets you recall the disc you use to defeat the MCP's warriors after it's thrown in case it misses its target and you don't want to wait for it to return.
* Magic attacks in ''VideoGame/SecretOfMana'' normally requires the caster to recover before being able to cast magic again. However, due to possibly a glitch, if you can pull up the menu just before the recovery animation, you can cast another spell. Also, since spell animations are at least long enough as the spell casting animation, you can use this to stunlock an enemy to death.
** Running allows you to run straight in one direction but puts you in recovery just like regular attacks and charge attacks, making it risky to move around with it usually. However, if you attack while running you cancel the run animation and do an attack, making that the only recovery period you have to deal with. This makes running much more useful as you can dash out of range of an enemy attack and then do a running attack once you find an opening- especially useful for the main character who does not have access to spells.
* ''VideoGame/HyruleWarriors'' allows you to cancel out of some attack/recovery animations by dodging, which is helpful for the characters that are either vulnerable during their long charge-up periods, or just take a moment to get readjusted afterwards. This also breaks Light Arrows significantly since you're only supposed to shoot them once every 3 or so seconds, whereas dodge cancelling pretty much reduces them to pure MacrossMissileMassacre levels.
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFight'', players could cancel their characters' combos by quickly tapping away from an opponent; this could be used to perform an infinite combo if you repeated the process. Cody's Final Destruction super combo in ''VideoGame/StreetFighterAlpha 3'' acknowledges this trick, with him performing this trick four times before launching into the end of the combo.
* 3D BeatEmUp ''VideoGame/UrbanReign'' allows players to cancel virtually any of their normal attacks by performing a meter-dependent special art.
* Completely useless in everyway, this was nonetheless in VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld. You can spinjump out of a fireball throwing animation to throw a second fireball almost immediately in the same direction. Carried over to the ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros'' series, still basically useless.
* In the ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' series, you are usually able to Dodge Roll out of your basic attacks, which is a big help when an enemy breaks out of your combo. You're also usually able to guard, but not in ''II'' where the button is used for extra attacks. Which may be why the ''Final Mix+'' exclusive Limit form has the ability to guard during a combo as an ability.
** You're also usually able to take advantage of the low landing lag in the series by jumping before attacking even grounded enemies, as you can get right to the next combo faster, until it was nerfed in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep''.
** Taken to new heights in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'' where any action can be cancelled with a dodge or a guard unless it slows time (such as situation commands or transformations), at any time, regardless of whether you're on the ground or in the air. The recovery on dodges can also be cancelled right back into attacks unlike in previous games, making extended combos easier and also letting you travel great distances airborn. You can also aim your shotlocks at any point during attack animations, and anything you can cancel with a guard or dodge can also be cancelled by airstepping or releasing a shotlock. On top of that, you can use Situation Commands to cancel all the same actions as well, making it a cinch to set up extended combos in the game, much further than any other game in the series. Finally, you can jump cancel out of the animation you normally get when you guard an attack if the game lets you counter attack off that guard, which both provides a viable alternate option if you think it's not worth going for a counter attack, and can punish players trying to riskdodge the wrong attack (as it uses the same input as a jump).
* Lilac from ''VideoGame/FreedomPlanet'' can cancel out of her Dragon Cycle move with a Hair Whip (or a Dive Kick while mid-air), which not only gets her out of her recovery animation, but also kickstarts her energy meter's recovery.
* In ''VideoGame/LufiaCurseOfTheSinistrals'', all characters' charged special attacks will cancel out of most other attacks.
* In ''Videogame/RabiRibi''[='=]s Erina's fifth Hammer Combo attack has her do a "drill" attack that does multiple hits, but renders her unable to move for its duration. The Frame Cancel badge allows her to get around this by pressing down to cancel the attack immediately.
* In ''VideoGame/NierAutomata'', any attack you use with your standard weapons can be canceled into your Self-Destruct command, which can be immediately stopped and allow you to follow up with another quick attack. This inevitably became an exploit that people who make combo videos use to juggle enemies indefinitely, but when used in tandem with some aerial attacks it allows you to do things like continually rise in the air, making it a useful technique to reach otherwise unreachable areas for [[SpeedRun speedrunning]].
* ''VideoGame/TheEndTimesVermintide'' allowed long guns to be reloaded by canceling part of their recoil animation when firing from the hip. This was eventually patched out because the long guns started being used for DPS and wave-clear, especially with the correct weapon traits. Those were not at all their intended usage.
* ''VideoGame/HyperdimensionNeptuniaUActionUnleashed'' has the dash cancel where the game only allows players to dash and then dash attack, then pressing the dash button again to allow players to move farther than what characters should. By repeatedly alternating the buttons, players can go miles from one area to another.
* In ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot2CortexStrikesBack'' and ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot3Warped'' (as well as those same games in the ''[[VideoGame/CrashBandicootNSaneTrilogy N. Sane Trilogy]]''), sliding normally has about a second of endlag where Crash/Coco comes to a standstill, but this can be eschewed by doing a spin or jump out of the slide, which allows you to keep moving and skips the ending. Naturally, this is invaluable for getting great times on Time Trials.
* An [[GoodBadBugs old bug]] in ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'' allowed you to use your regular melee attacks at [[RapidFireFisticuffs insane speeds]] by way of this. [[PistolWhipping Shoving]] has a cooldown before you can shove again, but you're not prevented from switching to another weapon during that cooldown. The bug came in where switching to another weapon or piece of equipment also reset that cooldown, so the actual speed you could repeatedly shove at was only determined by how quickly you could alternate switching weapons and shoving. A patch later eliminated this, where you're still able to switch weapons at any point during a shove, but the cooldown between shoves is universal so you can only do so as fast as you're supposed to be able to.
* In ''VideoGame/DirtyBomb'', your gun is fully loaded once the magazine is inserted, and sprinting cancels the rest of the animation. This is enough to ''halve'' the reload time of most guns, and is also why the "Double Time" perk is disliked on cards without a shotgun because it nullifies this.
* ''VideoGame/SailorMoonArcade'' allows Sailor Jupiter to cancel her second attack by turning backwards. Professional players can use this to hit twice, turn around, then turn back to hit twice again to rinse and repeat. While very difficult due to her faster recovery and dangerous due to her highly damaging Necksnap this trick even works against [[FinalBoss Queen Beryl]].
* ''VideoGame/GranblueFantasy'' is a rare (and rather bizarre) RPG example. The game has relatively standard [[TurnBasedCombat turn-based]] RPG combat, but there are real-time elements such as many debuffs having durations in minutes rather than turns, and the need to race against other players in raids to secure MVP and blue chest rewards. As soon as you press the "Attack" button, all of the damage of your party and the enemy is calculated immediately server-side, and then you watch the animations play out. You can outright cancel the entire turn's worth of animations by...simply pressing the refresh button on your browser[[note]]or pressing the refresh hotkey, F5[[/note]]. Upon reload, you will be at the beginning of the next turn immediately (though some actions like [[LimitBreak Charge Attacks]] will enforce a waiting period before you can act again). High-level Granblue play generally involves you hammering the hell out of the Attack and Refresh buttons like a madman to rack up your Honors score in a raid, up until a certain point where you have the highest reward chance. Rinse and repeat for the next raid.

* In ''VideoGame/DungeonFighterOnline'', moves can't be cancelled by default, but you can purchase the ability to cancel individual moves with skill points.

* Melee attacks in ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'', for both slow firing weapons (but not {{Sniper Rifle}}s since you need to aim) and reloading (as soon as the magazine/clip is inserted).

* ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'':
** The ''VideoGame/GundamVsSeries'' gained more of these as it went on and became more technically complex. In ''Gundam vs. Gundam'', the [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED Freedom]] had it as a unique special move (SEED Mode), which made it a GameBreaker. ''Gundam vs. Gundam Next'' made this part of the game engine under the name Next Dash, executed by double-tapping the Jump/Boost button. ''Gundam Extreme Vs.'' added in Extreme Action, performed with side-step (double-tapping in any direction). Boost Cancelling is typically used to string together ranged attacks while Extreme Action is used to string together melee combos. Additionally, there's Brake Cancelling, which is used with units whose "boost" involves running and is done to cancel the lag caused by the "skid to a halt" animation at the end of a run.
** Similarly, everything except SP attacks is cancellable in ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriorsGundam'' by dashing in any direction. It does however cost more on the heat gauge than regular dashing. On mobility-focused machines, however, this makes them more than able to stand their ground against tougher ones.
*** What ''isn't'' cancellable is, as stated above, [[LimitBreak SP attacks]] and [[CycleOfHurting stumbling due to being hit]].

* In {{Metroidvania}} ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'' games there are a few methods of canceling, the most universal being the back dash and landing. Many of the ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaChroniclesOfSorrow'' souls and ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaPortraitOfRuin'' subweapons are AMAZING when canceled (Killer Clown, Dart), key for {{Boss Rush}}es. ''Dawn of Sorrow'' also has the Succubus cancel, which, when combined with a special dagger that temporarily moves you forward, [[SequenceBreaking lets you teleport though walls]].
** This started in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight'', where your backdash move had no lag. The designers wised up and added lag or animation time to it in subsequent games, but often a backdash still gives you a net gain, and landing still lag cancels in every game.
** Even back in ''Symphony of the Night'' there were weapons that couldn't be cancelled, typically the slower ones or those designated as two-handed. This could mean the difference between something being a {{Gamebreaker}} (such as the Claimh Solais in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaAriaOfSorrow'') or being AwesomeButImpractical (such as the Pluto/Black Dog card combo in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaCircleOfTheMoon'').
** ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDissonance'' doesn't let you cancel an attack with a backdash twice. But you CAN cancel an attack that was cancelled out of a backdash with a forward dash, and cancel that into an attack, which you can then cancel into a backdash. Results predictable.
** A technique that works in any game with a backdash but gained prominence in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaHarmonyOfDespair'' due to greater importance for having a high DPS is canceling the backdash with a crouch. Since an attack that is done out of backdash can't be backdashed out of, cancel the backdash AND THEN attack, by crouching. So it goes Attack, backdash, crouch, stand, attack, backdash. Go online and no doubt you'll find people doing this so fast it simply looks like they're cancelling attacks into attacks and maybe SLIGHTLY moving backwards.
*** Another one in the same game, Jonathan can cancel any aerial attack into a guard. Guards don't have any lag upon releasing it. Again, go online and you can find people doing this fast enough you'd have no idea he was guarding in between each attack.
* ''VideoGame/GodHand'' is basically built around canceling out of your moves by dodging.
* There are quite a few cancels in the ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry'' series. Moving just a fraction while using the shotgun cancels its reloading time, and jumping or rolling cancels the (longer) reload time on the Grenade Launcher. In ''3'' and onwards, cancelling short hops and rolls into the guarding animation of the Royal Guard style is a very effective defensive tactic and makes the Difficult part of its DifficultButAwesome slightly less so. You can also cancel the after-shot lag of the Spiral rifle and Kalina Ann rocket launcher by either switching to Ebony & Ivory immediately afterwards or timing a use of Royal Guard properly.
** There's also jump cancelling, which is an unofficial technique (though ''VideoGame/DmCDevilMayCry'' made it official via some load screen combos that show the technique in action) wherein you execute an aerial move then perform an Enemy Hike (jumping off an enemy), which then resets your aerial state and you can repeat the same move and then jump off them again. Done right, you stay airborne until your enemy dies and rack up style very quickly.
* ''VideoGame/GunZ'': Cancel based techs have dominated the game after their discovery.
* Most speed runners can tell you that ''Franchise/MegaMan'' games that include dash commands are notorious for Dash Canceling, where you can maintain the fastest part of the dash command way longer than the dev team intended you to by constantly performing some other button press.
** In ''VideoGame/MegaManX'', you can cancel Zero's Z-Saber with a dash, and a dash with the saber. With fast ButtonMashing, this becomes a GameBreaker because not only can you swing the saber much faster, but most bosses are designed only to activate their MercyInvincibility on the third swing of Zero's three-hit combo. By never using that third swing, bosses can be killed in mere seconds. Funnily enough, this ''actually'' got in as one of Zero's attacks in ''VideoGame/ProjectXZone''!
* In some ''VideoGame/{{Tetris}}'' games (such as the ''[[VideoGame/TetrisTheGrandMaster TGM]]'' series), there is a short delay between when you lock a piece into place and when the next piece appears. One ''Tetris'' fangame, ''DTET'', features this, but allows you to cancel it and immediately spawn the next piece by performing an input.
* ''VideoGame/{{Gorf}}'', like many other {{shmup}}s from the early 80's and late 70's, only lets you fire OneBulletAtATime, so if you fire a shot and miss, you have to wait a bit before firing the next shot. However, ''Gorf'' allows you to cancel your current shot and immediately fire your next one, simply by firing when you have a shot on the screen.
* ''VideoGame/BangaiO Spirits'' has EX canceling, performed by hitting a regular attack button while charing an EX attack. Different from most examples here in that it ''prevents'' an attack instead of interrupting it, but it's useful if you start up an EX attack but change your mind before you fire it.
* The entire gameplay premise of the four ''VideoGame/VirtualOn'' games are built upon knowing when to cancel moves. The most well-known and important move accepted by the players community is "jump-cancelling", which can do anything from reducing time spent frozen after landing from a full jump (and thus being a very tantalizing target) to avoiding melee attacks, and in later games, set up for other forms of attacks.
* The most notable advantage of ''VideoGame/LordOfArcana'''s [[{{BFS}} 2H Sword]] weapon type is that the second and third swings of its combo can be canceled into a block, allowing for much safer attacks.
* ''VideoGame/AsurasWrath'' has Jump canceling to follow up with a launcher attack to do an air combo and a homing cancel that's used to home in onto locked on opponents after an air combo knocks them out of the sky, allowing for more follow-ups and higher scores.
* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'' has some lengthy animations that lock your character in place, but some can be canceled by blocking, dodging, or re-sheathing your weapon. The [[{{BFS}} Great Sword]] has particularly excruciating animations where a hunter brings the weapon back to a ready position after a big attack, making this technique an absolute necessity.
** A more specific example comes from the [[DropTheHammer hammer]] weapon. The weakest level of charge attack can be chained into the weapon's basic attack combo. You can cancel the basic attack combo before the third hit into a charge attack. Put two and two together, and you have what's supposed to be a weapon that does more damage in fewer hits at a time having the hit rate, and much more DPS as a result, of some of the faster weapons. This was nerfed in ''3 Ultimate''.
* ''VideoGame/DragonsDogma'' has an actual cancel ability called Reset. It's available to Striders and cancels all animations except hit stun. Its upgraded version, Instant Reset, allows you to cancel out of hit stun.

* ''VideoGame/DungeonFighterOnline'' allows you to attain cancels for most of your skills, which lets you cancel straight into your skill from the middle of your basic attack combo.
** The female Sword master additionally has a passive skill (Blade Dance) which provides a regenerating resource expended to allow any of her attack skills to cancel into each other. (This does not [[SomeDexterityRequired mix well with button mashing]].)

* ''VideoGame/CapcomVs'':
** ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3'' has several noteworthy cancels, including:
*** [[ComebackMechanic X-Factor]], which will cancel ''anything'' that's not a straight cutscene. The catch is that it can only be used once per match (and becomes more potent and longer-lasting in proportion to the number of downed teammates you have.
*** [[VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}} Morrigan]] can use Flight to cancel a Soul Fist (L or M) and then cancel Flight with Soul Fist H, giving her some zoning possibilities. Adding [[DoppelgangerAttack Astral Vision]] and/or [[ComebackMechanic X-Factor]] (and ComicBook/DoctorDoom's Hidden Missiles Assist) into the mix, on the other hand, can turn the game into a BulletHell.
*** [[VideoGame/StreetFighterIV C. Viper]] can cancel three of her four (five in ''[[CapcomSequelStagnation Ultimate]]'') special moves just by pressing the LauncherMove button. The advantages of this vary depending on the move.
*** [[VideoGame/DevilMayCry Dante]]'s Bold Move is the only move that can be cancelled out of his Stinger command normal; Bold Move can also be cancelled into any special move if you're quick enough. Thus, many advanced Dante combos involve Bold Move cancelling out of Stinger and into other special moves. This can prove to be quite DifficultButAwesome.
*** ComicBook/IronFist can cancel his special moves into other special moves. Using this, he can chain up to three special moves together, having more options on the third move. The only catch is that he can't chain a special move into itself.
** ''Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3'' has [[CardBattleGame Heroes and Heralds mode]], which introduces some ability cards that allow players to cancel moves in ways not available in the normal game (dash cancel, jump cancel, special cancel, and so on), usually at the cost of [[ManaMeter Hyper Combo meter]].
** The earlier ''VideoGame/TatsunokoVsCapcom'' had a similar mechanic to ''[=MvC3=]''[='s=] X-Factor called Baroque. By sacrificing all of your current red health, you can cancel any move short of a Hyper Combo, which is useful for extending combos and forming combos with normally laggy moves. It also gives you a damage boost proportional to how much red health you had before activating it. Unlike X-Factor, Baroque can be used as many times as you want as long as you have some red health.
** ''[[VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom2 Marvel vs. Capcom 2]]'', ''(Ultimate) Marvel vs. Capcom 3'', and ''Tatsunoko vs. Capcom'' all feature Delayed Hyper Combos, where you can cancel a Hyper Combo by inputting the command for a partner's Hyper Combo during the first one.
* ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy'':
** As a universal mechanic, you can cancel dodges by attacking, and conversely cancel attacks by dodging.
** [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII The Cloud of Darkness's]] [[SuperMode EX-Mode's]] passive ability lets her cancel any of her attacks [[BeamSpam into HP Attacks]], while [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII Laguna's]] [[SuperMode EX-Mode's]] passive ability lets him cancel his Bravery Attacks [[MoreDakka into any other attack]].
* ''VideoGame/ArcanaHeart'' allows you to pull ''homing'' canceling, which causes the attacker to do a dash that homes in on the opponent after connecting with their attack.
* [[CreatorThumbprint A staple]] in many fighters developed by Creator/ArcSystemWorks.
** ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear'':
*** The series' unique version of trope is called a Roman Cancel, introduced in ''X''. Roman Cancels can be used to cancel almost any attack in the game, which has many tactical benefits. They're very costly (half of a full Tension Gauge) and only work when an attack hits, but in the ''XX'' games each character has at least one move that can be cancelled at a very specific point with only 25% Tension bar and regardless of whether or not it hits; this special technique is called a "Force" ([[SpellMyNameWithAnS sometimes localized as False]]) Roman Cancel. Later entries like ''Xrd'' and ''-STRIVE-'' altered these mechanics slightly; in addition to a new version of Force Roman Cancel, attacks can now be Roman Cancelled if they miss, and successful use temporarily [[BulletTime slows down the rest of the game]] (with the exact duration of slowdown dependent on the Roman Cancel's color).
*** In a character-specific example, Jam's card abilities allow her to cancel certain attacks into [[EvolvingAttack an enhanced version of an attack]] that she created a card for earlier in the match.
** ''Franchise/BlazBlue'', ''Guilty Gear''[='s=] SpiritualSuccessor, has Rapid Cancel, which is effectively the same mechanic as Roman Cancel, but without the ability to Force Roman Cancel. Additionally, Hakumen's specials can be freely canceled into one another, but only as long as his Magatama gauge holds out.
** ''VideoGame/Persona4Arena'' has the One More! Cancel, which is effectively a ''Franchise/{{Persona}}''-themed version of the Rapid Cancel.

* ''VideoGame/NarutoShippudenUltimateNinjaStormGenerations'' added in a new cancel called the Chakra Dash cancel, which is done by pressing the triangle button which activates a character's chakra and pressing "X", which is normally the jump button. This will allow any character to cancel a combo into another combo seamlessly, and is a good way to do a massive amount of damage in a short period of time, but takes out a bit of chakra to do, and can't be done anymore until you charge your chakra back up.
* In ''VideoGame/TouhouHisoutenScarletWeatherRhapsody'', canceling is an integral part of gameplay, as it can allow players to rack up mean combos. And the rules are fairly simple: you can cancel into more powerful attacks. So a B-button attack can be canceled at any time into a C-button attack, which can be canceled into a Spell Card.
* ''VideoGame/{{Skullgirls}}'' has two [[InvokedTrope invoked]] examples.
** Parasoul has the special move "Egret Call", which interrupts the animation of whatever she is doing and causes it to end quicker. This allows her to fake opponents out by cancelling unsafe moves into the Egret Call and trip the opponent up while trying to "punish" the move as well as make moves safe that might not be otherwise. Egret Call can affect almost all of Parasoul's grounded attacks, including her most powerful LimitBreak.
** Squigly can do this via her StanceSystem. Cancelling a normal into a stance move and then quickly hitting another button causes Squigly to immediately come out of her stance and into a position where she can continue her combo or blockstring. She also has special shortcuts made specifically to facilitate this kind of canceling.
** Skullgirls is also unique in the fact that the kind of canceling seen in most other fighting games can be done even if the move to be canceled completely misses. (In other fighting games, one's attack normally must hit or be blocked by an opponent before it can be canceled.)
* Equipping Kinetic Advance in ''VideoGame/RisingThunder'', instead of [[ComboBreaker Kinetic Deflect]], lets you cancel out of most attacks by dashing or jumping. There's a Kinetic meter that's used just for these two abilities, which drain half of it with each use.
* In ''VideoGame/DungeonFighterOnline'', moves can't be cancelled by default, but you can purchase the ability to cancel individual moves with skill points.
* The bootleg BeatEmUp ''VideoGame/{{Titenic}}'' allows canceling any of the player character's animations... [[GoodBadBugs including death]].
* Back dash cancelling (also called "Korean Back Dashing") is an important skill in high level ''Franchise/{{Tekken}}''. It involves cancelling a back dash with a crouch, both allowing the player to block, while also keeping them close enough to punish any whiffed attacks from their opponent.
* Dashing cancels the recovery period of some attacks in ''VideoGame/FightOfAnimals''. Light attacks can also be chained into Heavy attacks.

* One of the more well known examples is in ''VideoGame/CounterStrike''. Most, if not all, snipers cancel the animation that plays after each shot for bolt-action rifles by double tapping the "switch to previous weapon" button. Sadly, this was eventually changed in Global Offensive, forcing AWP-wielding players to wait for the amount of time the animation would have taken before being able to fire again.

** On release the Sniper's Rifle in ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' worked in an identical manner - you could cancel the bolt-action animation by switching weapons. However, this was eventually averted as subsequent patches made it impossible to switch out of that animation.

* ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' preserves and evolves "orbwalking" out of the succession schism following ''VideoGame/DefenseOfTheAncients'' as mentioned above (its ongoing rival and corporeal successor, ''VideoGame/Dota2'', does not have such a gameplay element). Known more colloquially as "kiting", ''League'' implements this in virtually every champion in the game[[note]]Not only is this due to the game generally having much faster animation speed for casting attacks (which can be further increased using the "Attack Speed" stat), [[Instant180DegreeTurn it also completely ignores turn times]], so there's no sacrifice in skipping animation frames[[/note]], especially [[GlassCannon squishy ranged marksmen]] who want to fire off as many shots as possible while keeping distance from enemies. There's also a few individual characters that toy with this mechanic a bit:
** [[MasterSwordsman Riven]] is explicitly designed to have [[LightningBruiser a very fast, combo-rich gameplay style]] inspired by fighting games, where cancelling attacks into other attacks is imperative to mastering her. In general, there are several melee duelists that have at least one ability that cancels their current basic attack animation (Riven is exceptional because ''all'' of hers do), with the very basic combo being to basic attack → immediately cancel into an empowered basic attack → normal basic attack.
** [[FragileSpeedster Kalista]] is an example of a champion who ''[[SubvertedTrope doesn't]]'' have this feature, contributing to [[MechanicallyUnusualFighter how much harder she is to play than most of the roster]]. She cannot cancel the windup of her basic attacks, but instead has a feature of allowing herself to dash a short distance in any chosen direction with each one, replacing the easy cancelability of usual kiting with [[DifficultButAwesome a much trickier, but also much more effective form of running-and-gunning]] (though she still has some of this with her "Pierce" ability, which is effectively the same as her usual basic attack+jump combo, except 1) she can cancel a follow-through animation, and 2) she can manually aim her attack with it).
** [[MageMarksman Akshan]] has a feature with his basic attacks that gives him two options to work with on the fly: if he stays put the split second after firing his first shot, he automatically follows up with [[DoubleTap a second, much weaker shot]]. If he cancels the follow-through animation, he instead trades it out with a short burst of movement speed, making kiting a lot easier. He contains an additional feature that should he land [[RuleOfThree three consecutive attacks on a target]], he deals slight bonus damage ''and'' gains a [[DeflectorShield protective shield]], so whether you cancel your attacks or not is also a matter of playing offense or defense.

* In ''VideoGame/SpiralKnights'', tapping the shield button will stop the attack animation short, giving a few extra precious pieces of a second. Interestingly enough, when doing this with swords, if you attack quickly enough after shield cancelling, it will be the first strike of your combo, and attacking immediately afterwards will result in the third (and usually final) strike of your combo. (Resulting in a combo of 1-shield cancel-1-3 rather than 1-2-3) Naturally, mastery of this technique is highly valuable in the later part of the game.
* In ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime'' it was possible to cancel missile lag by firing your Power Beam, allowing you to fire missiles at a much faster rate than normal.
* Melee attacks in ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'', for both slow firing weapons (but not {{Sniper Rifle}}s since you need to aim) and reloading (as soon as the magazine/clip is inserted).

* The original ''Franchise/TombRaider'' games have many different ways to cancel recovery times from different moves, and working out ways to fit them in using level geometry is one of the main parts of most {{speedrun}}s for them.
* ''VideoGame/SteelBattalion'' has clip dumping. Main weapons will have a firing delay after firing a set number of rounds-one for smoothbore cannons, three for rapid-fire rifles, and five for assault rifles. By holding down the main weapon button such that the initial weapon switch selects the desired weapon (it won't cycle after that) and hitting the magazine change button, one can cancel the delay-but weapons only get three to four clips maximum, with 20 to 30 rounds each, thus burning a lot of spare ammo for an extra shot in quick succession. Furthermore, it's a very frowned-upon tactic in the Line of Contact community and will likely earn the ire of other players unless specifically permitted before the match (say, a match that pits one 3rd-gen VT like an Earthshaker against several 1st-gen [=VTs=]).
* In a very rare RPG example, ''VideoGame/WildArms3'' has this. As long as you have at least 25 Force Points, you can cancel the move you just queued at that character's turn to move, enter another move and you will start your action without waiting. While not often used, it is important if you suddenly want to stop attacking the enemy for whatever reason (the enemy is preparing an instakill move, or a reflect barrier, for example).
* A huge part of ''VideoGame/GodOfWar'''s combat system is the ability to cancel Kratos' standard blade combos with a press of the block button, so if the player is fighting a {{mook}} and his buddy attacks, one can quickly press the block button without breaking the combo.

* Some classes in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' can obtain a kind of passive cancel. One example is the Elemental-spec Shaman's Lava Surge talent. The damage ticks of Flame Shock, a damage-over-time spell, have a 10% or 20% chance (depending on the rank of the talent) to immediately end the cooldown on your Lava Burst spell. Since Lava Burst is guaranteed to land a nasty CriticalHit on a target suffering Flame Shock damage, this talent will provide huge boosts to your damage output when it's feeling generous.
* ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' games also have this. All firearms have their ammo count updated before the animation ends, so it's usually interrupted with a melee attack, weapon switch (especially the fast-switching pistols), or even just sprinting for a split second in ''[=CoD4=]'' onwards. Especially valuable for notably longer empty-reload animations, like those of the light machine guns, which usually have their ammo counts updated right around when your character actually puts in the new belt and lets you skip the next three seconds of slowly bringing it back to bear; there are some weapons in some games where taking advantage of this even obsoletes (or [[GameBreaker completely breaks]]) the game's method of speeding up reloads, like the SCAR-H in ''[[VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsII Black Ops II]]'' which already has a pretty quick animation, but updates its ammo count almost as soon as you drop the old mag, or the [[GunsAkimbo dual]] [[SawedOffShotgun Rangers]] in ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare 2'' which have a very ''slow'' animation, but update their ammo count in about a second.
** Bolt-action sniper rifles and pump-action shotguns also have two distinct timing values for their effective fire rates: the 'actual' fire rate of the gun, and the bolt/pump animation time. Quickly cancelling the second by double-tapping the weapon switch key allowed players to shave off fractions of a second off their overall delay - a tactic often used by more skilled quickscoping snipers. Later games make it so that the bolt/pump animation ''must'' play out, either doing so before letting the player switch weapons or forcing them to do it after switching back to that weapon.
** The China Lake pump-action grenade launcher in ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps'' has a similar exploit - to balance out its power as a multi-shot grenade launcher, it has a much slower pump animation than a shotgun. However, ''reloading'' immediately after firing off a grenade is noticeably faster, even without the in-game perk to let you reload faster, and nothing is preventing you from immediately triggering the reload after firing off a grenade. This only works as long as you have ammo in reserve, of course.

* Most of your attacks in ''VideoGame/ViewtifulJoe'' would cancel each other, noticeably so in slow-motion. It was very much DifficultButAwesome; it made an already [[NintendoHard hard]] learning of a game even nastier by making you interrupt half of your own attacks, but once mastered it gave a great amount of control over shifting attacks very quickly. Infinite Slow Motion Uppercuts, anyone?
* An unusual genre for this, ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' has the 'Quick Reload' technique. Normally when you exhaust a magazine you have to reload normally, which actually does take about two seconds; in a boss fight this is often about 1.9 more seconds than you have to spare. By unequipping and reequipping a weapon, it automatically reloads for you. On top of that, the manuals actually tell you about this technique. After the penultimate boss of ''VideoGame/{{Metal Gear Solid 3|SnakeEater}}'' was made into a complete joke by abusing this technique (since it requires use of a single-shot RPG launcher that normally requires multiple seconds to replace the warhead... or a quarter of a second to double-tap R2), every ''Metal Gear'' since then has forced the player to take the time to let a reloading animation play out as part of the gameplay overhaul bringing the series more in-line with a ThirdPersonShooter.

* From ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphonia'', five out of the nine available characters can start casting a spell and quickly cancel it to more or less break the game by pulling off infinite {{combo}}s.
** Later on someone discovered Auto Spell Cancelling, allowing [[TheMedic Raine]] to join in the [[CrossesTheLineTwice sadism]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgeMp2Zz-EE like this.]]
** Other Tales games have different forms of canceling. Some even have unlockable equippable skills that let you cancel in various ways, such as dash cancelling, jump cancelling, cancelling in ways normal attack chains wouldn't allow, etc. Also in many games, a LimitBreak can only be done as a cancel.
** ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss'' had overlimit cancelling, which worked similarly to X-Factor cancelling above, it was a super mode but the biggest advantage it gave was that it can be done out of any other action, and even counts as a hit as it blows an enemy sky high.
** ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'' builds off Abyss and symphonia so it has spell cancelling and overlimit cancelling as well... but the UpdatedRerelease on Playstation 3, as well as the Definitive Edition added Free Run Cancels, or Manual Cancels as they are only possible on Manual Mode (sorry, semi-auto players!). To put it simply, ''any'' action in the game can be cancelled by free running forward so long as you're in manual mode, which not only greatly increases combo options, it also makes every attack safer to pull off. Essentially, you should be ending any action that you don't plan to chain into another action with a free run.
** ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheRays'' lets you chain all attacks into other attacks and any of those into (and out of) a backstep. While the obvious use of this is to backstep at the end of a combo to act faster or else to quickly dodge an attack, this mechanic also leads to Rays' own version of spell cancelling, which is to start a spell and then backstep during the casting animation, which is the fastest way to advance a chain and reach requirements for master artes. Notably, the developers eventually added a feature that let you resume casting where you left off if you successfully dodge an enemy attack using this cancel.

* The ''VideoGame/GundamVsSeries'' gained more of these as it went on and became more technically complex. In ''Gundam vs. Gundam'', the [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED Freedom]] had it as a unique special move (SEED Mode), which made it a GameBreaker. ''Gundam vs. Gundam Next'' made this part of the game engine under the name Next Dash, executed by double-tapping the Jump/Boost button. ''Gundam Extreme Vs.'' added in Extreme Action, performed with side-step (double-tapping in any direction). Boost Cancelling is typically used to string together ranged attacks while Extreme Action is used to string together melee combos. Additionally, there's Brake Cancelling, which is used with units whose "boost" involves running and is done to cancel the lag caused by the "skid to a halt" animation at the end of a run.
* Similarly, everything except SP attacks is cancellable in ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriorsGundam'' by dashing in any direction. It does however cost more on the heat gauge than regular dashing. On mobility-focused machines however, this makes them more than able to stand their ground against tougher ones.
** What ''isn't'' cancellable are, as stated above, [[LimitBreak SP attacks]] and [[CycleOfHurting stumbling due to being hit]].

** ''VideoGame/KillingFloor2'' embraces this as part of an effort to ease several issues that plagued the first game - whereas ''[=KF1=]'' reloads had specific frames in their animation they had to reach before the game would acknowledge your attempts to switch weapons, ''[=KF2=]'' has an "active reload" exploit for dual wielding and long-reload guns, where you can melee or switch to a different weapon/gear at any point during a reloading animation, making it good for both cancelling a reload once the ammo counter updates and cancelling out of an inconveniently-timed reload if you still have ammo left. Reload cancels might not always save that much time, but you can throw a punch in the middle of your reload, which is great when reload fleeing and you get grabbed by a clot. And then, for good measure, once you've cancelled the reloading animation by a punch, that punch can itself be cancelled by shooting. A patch made this significantly less effective with dual pistols, as your ammo counter only goes up when ''[[AllOrNothingReloads both]]'' magazines are loaded, not just one, but most of the rest of the guns still benefit from the technique.

* In ''VideoGame/TheWarriors'' video game, you can do sweeping attacks with weapon. Normally you can only do one at a time, but if you hold down the block button and then rapidly hit the sweep attack button, you'll be able to do several attacks in succession.

This trope is almost completely ubiquitous in {{Fighting Game}}s these days, though it is by no means exclusive to them.

*** The second, introduced in ''[=EX2=]'', is the Cancel Break: the ability to sacrifice a bar of the Super Combo Gauge during a special move or Super Combo in order to cancel into a [[UnblockableAttack Guard Break]]. As with several of the mechanics introduced in ''EX'', this likely have served as a precursor to the Focus Attacks of ''IV''.

** The Brawl [[GameMod mod]] ''VideoGame/ProjectM'' and fan game ''VideoGame/SuperSmashFlash2'' have a special Turbo Mode in which any attack that connects can be cancelled into any other attack, which can lead to extremely long combos. ''PM'' also restores many of the lag cancel techniques that were removed by Brawl, as well as expanding on those that Brawl introduced.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}} Scarlet Weather Rhapsody/Hisoutensoku'', canceling is an integral part of game play, as it can allow players to rack up mean combos. And the rules are fairly simple: you can cancel into more powerful attacks. So a B-button attack can be canceled at any time into a C-button attack, which can be canceled into a Spell Card.

* The bootleg BeatEmUp ''VideoGame/{{Titenic}}'' allows canceling any of the player character's animations... [[GoodBadBugs including death.]]
* Back dash cancelling (also called "Korean Back Dashing") is an important skill in high level ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}}''. It involves cancelling a back dash with a crouch, both allowing the player to block, while also keeping them close enough to punish any whiffed attacks from their opponent.

* In ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy'', you can cancel dodges by attacking, and conversely cancel attacks by dodging.
** [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII The Cloud of Darkness's]] [[SuperMode EX-Mode's]] passive ability lets her cancel any of her attacks [[BeamSpam into HP Attacks]], while [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII Laguna's]] [[SuperMode EX-Mode's]] passive ability lets him cancel his Bravery Attacks [[MoreDakka into any other attacks]].

* ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear'''s unique version is called a "roman cancel". Roman Cancels can be used to cancel almost any attack in the game, which has many tactical benefits. They're very costly (half of a full tension meter) and only work when an attack hits, but each character has at least one move that can be cancelled at a very specific point with only 25% tension bar and regardless of whether or not it hits; this special technique is called a "Force" ([[SpellMyNameWithAnS sometimes localized as False]]) Roman Cancel. The latest game in the series, Guilty Gear Xrd, alters these mechanics slightly; in addition to a new version of Force Roman Cancel, attacks can now be Roman Cancelled if they miss, and successful use temporarily [[BulletTime slows down the rest of the game]]. In a character-specific example, Jam's card abilities allow her to cancel certain attacks into an enhanced version of an attack that she created a card for earlier in the match.
** Its SpiritualSuccessor ''VideoGame/{{BlazBlue}}'' has Rapid Cancel, which is effectively the same mechanic as Roman Cancel, but without the ability to Force Roman Cancel. Hakumen's specials can be freely canceled into one another, but only as long as his Magatama gauge holds out.
** Fellow Arc System Works fighter ''VideoGame/Persona4Arena'' has the One More! Cancel, which is effectively a Persona-themed version of the Rapid Cancel.

* ''VideoGame/NarutoShippudenUltimateNinjaStormGenerations'' has added in a new cancel called the Chakra Dash cancel, which is done by pressing the triangle button which activates a character's chakra and pressing "X", which is normally the jump button. This will allow any character to cancel a combo into another combo seamlessly, and is a good way to do a massive amount of damage in a short period of time, but takes out a bit of chakra to do, and can't be done anymore until you charge your chakra back up.

* ''Franchise/StreetFighter''

** ''VideoGame/StreetFighterIV'' allowed you to cancel certain special moves with a Focus Attack at the cost of some [[ManaMeter Super Meter]], and then cancel that attack with a forward or backward dash. "Focus Attack Dash Canceling" (or FADC for short) became a very important part of the game's early metagame since it allowed certain characters to combo reliably into their [[LimitBreak Ultra Combos]].
** C. Viper in particular can cancel/feint her Thunder Knuckle and Seismic Hammer specials by pressing any two punch buttons. Some of her more damaging combos use these heavily.
** [[{{Ninja}} Ibuki]] can jump and super jump cancel many attacks which can cancel the recovery of said attacks, she can then further cancel the pre-jump frames into a special attack, focus attack, or Ultra Combo which is the best way to use her ultras as she doesn't benefit from the Focus Attack mechanic as much as the rest of the cast.
** ''VideoGame/StreetFighterV'' keeps up the legacy. While it's not as cancel heavy as its predecessor, it still has V Trigger Cancelling, which works similarly to the Marvel Vs. Capcom example below. For some characters, activating V Trigger to cancel an attack and build a bigger combo is arguably more useful than the effects of the V Trigger itself!
* ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros''
** Because they were designed to facilitate 4-player free-for-alls, the smash games replace the traditional fighting game block mechanic with an omnidirectional "bubble shield" which shrinks when held or when it takes damage from an attack. Although a full shield will block any attack (whether high or low) from any direction, a player's options are very limited while shielding: they can only grab, roll, spot-dodge, or jump. To do anything else, normally the player must release their shield, which triggers a short animation before they can move or attack (the actual length of the animation varies between games). However, jumping turns out to have many uses: not only does it allow the player to launch an immediate aerial out of shield (often being a faster option than jabbing after a shield release), but it was quickly discovered that the initial "jumpsquat" animation (the brief startup to a jump before the character leaves the ground) could be cancelled into an up-smash attack or up-special [[note]]This was to prevent players from accidentally jumping while trying to perform these attacks, because flicking the control stick up was required for both, but was also a means of jumping[[/note]]. This was referred to as "jump-canceling", and it provided many characters with a powerful punish option after shielding an attack, such as Fox's up-smash. Eventually, ''Ultimate'' would streamline the process by allowing characters to up-smash and up-special directly out of shield without needing to jump-cancel them first.
** ''64'' and ''Melee'' have '''smooth landing''' (nicknamed Z-Canceling and L-canceling respectively), where most air moves can have their landed lag halved by shielding at the right time. This can make aerials much safer against block (and much more effective as combo tools) than they would otherwise be.
** Another variation of this is the auto-cancel, where an aerial attack's landing-lag animation is canceled into a much shorter animation by landing within a certain frame-window (usually during the attack's endlag, but also sometimes in the attack's startup). Failure to do so causes the attacker to suffer the entire landing lag animation, increasing vulnerability. Auto-canceling is present in every smash title, but is comparatively strengthened by the removal of L-canceling from ''Brawl'' onwards.
** Landing out of a jump can shorten the ending lag of several specials. The most (im)famous example of this is Falco's laser in ''Melee'', whose aerial version is superior than its grounded version in virtually every way (to the point where a player would only fire a grounded laser by accident): not only does it have a ''significantly'' faster startup and higher rate of fire than its grounded version, but it allows Falco to maintain control of his movement in the air, including triggering a fastfall. This combines with his high fallspeed to allow him to autocancel out of his aerial laser and be actionable far more quickly than his grounded laser would allow.
** Melee features a unique movement technique called "Wavedashing" which combines the game's directional airdodge mechanic with the ground's low friction value: by airdodging forward/backward and slightly down, they can slide along the ground for a certain distance (which is different for each character; Luigi has the longest wavedash and Peach has the shortest). This allows for more precise movement which is less laggy than rolling and typically faster and more versatile than running (which prevents characters from using most of their normal attacks).

** The Brawl [[GameMod mod]] ''VideoGame/ProjectM'' and fangame ''VideoGame/SuperSmashFlash2'' have a special Turbo Mode in which any attack that connects can be cancelled into any other attack, which can lead to extremely long combos. ''PM'' also restores many of the lag cancel techniques that were removed by Brawl, as well as expanding on those that Brawl introduced.
* ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3'' has [[ComebackMechanic X-Factor]], which will cancel ANYTHING that's not a straight cutscene. The catch is that it can only be used once per match. Some other noteworthy cancels include:
** [[VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}} Morrigan]] can use Flight to cancel a Soul Fist (L or M) and then cancel Flight with Soul Fist H, giving her some zoning possibilities.
** [[VideoGame/StreetFighterIV C. Viper]] can cancel three of her four (five in [[CapcomSequelStagnation Ultimate]]) special moves just by pressing the LauncherMove button. The advantages of this vary depending on the move.
** [[VideoGame/DevilMayCry Dante]]'s Bold Move is the only move that can be cancelled out of his Stinger move; Bold Move can also be cancelled into any special move if you're quick enough. Thus, many advanced Dante combos involve Bold Move cancelling out of Stinger and into other special moves. This can prove to be quite DifficultButAwesome.
** Comicbook/IronFist can cancel his special moves into other special moves. Using this, he can chain up to three special moves together, having more options on the third move. The only catch is that he can't chain a special move into itself.

** ''VideoGame/TatsunokoVsCapcom'' had a similar mechanic to [=MvC3=]'s X-Factor called "Baroque". By sacrificing all of your current red health, you can cancel any move short of a Hyper Combo, which is useful for extending combos and forming combos with normally laggy moves. It also gives you a damage boost proportional to how much red health you had before activating it. Unlike X-Factor, Baroque can be used as many times as you want as long as you have some red health. Both games also feature Delayed Hyper Combos, where you can cancel a Hyper Combo by inputting the command for a partner's Hyper Combo during the first one.

** [[ComicBook/ImmortalIronFist Iron Fist]] can cancel his special moves into other special moves. Using this, he can chain up to three special moves together, having more options on the third move. The only catch is that he can't chain a special move into itself.

** [[MageMarksman Akshan]] has a feature with his basic attacks that gives him two options to work with on the fly: if he stays put the split second after firing his first shot, he automatically follows up with [[DoubleTap a second, much weaker shot]]. If he cancels the follow-through animation, he instead trades it out with a short burst of movement speed, making kiting a easier. He contains an additional feature that should he deal [[RuleOfThree three consecutive attacks on a target]], he deals slight bonus damage ''and'' gains a [[DeflectorShield protective shield]], so whether you cancel your attacks or not is also a matter of playing offense or defense.

* ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' preserves and evolves "orbwalking" out of the succession schism following ''VideoGame/DefenseOfTheAncients'' as mentioned above (its ongoing rival and corporeal successor, ''VideoGame/Dota2'', does not have such a gameplay element). Known more colloquially as "kiting", ''League'' implements this in virtually every champion in the game[[note]]Not only is this due to the game generally having much faster animation speed for casting attacks (which can be further increased using the "Attack Speed" stat), [[Instant180DegreeTurn it also completely ignores turn times]], so there's no sacrifice in skipping animation frames[[/note]], especially [[GlassCannon squishy ranged marksmen]] who want to fire off as many shots as possible while keeping distance from enemies. There's also a very clear [[InvokedTrope invoking]] of this mechanic with the character [[MasterSwordsman Riven]], who's explicitly designed to have [[LightningBruiser a very fast, combo-rich gameplay style]] inspired by fighting games, where [[DifficultButAwesome cancelling attacks into other attacks is imperative to mastering her.]]

* ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' preserves this out of the succession schism following ''VideoGame/DefenseOfTheAncients'' as mentioned above (its ongoing rival and corporeal successor, ''VideoGame/Dota2'', does not have such a gameplay element). Known more colloquially as "kiting", ''League'' implements this in virtually every champion in the game[[note]]Not only is this due to the game generally having much faster animation speed for casting attacks (which can be further increased using the "Attack Speed" stat), [[Instant180DegreeTurn it also completely ignores turn times]], so there's no sacrifice in skipping animation frames[[/note]], especially [[GlassCannon squishy ranged marksmen]] who want to fire off as many shots as possible while keeping distance from enemies. There's also a very clear [[InvokedTrope invoking]] of this mechanic with the character [[MasterSwordsman Riven]], who's explicitly designed to have [[LightningBruiser a very fast, combo-rich gameplay style]] inspired by fighting games, where [[DifficultButAwesome cancelling attacks into other attacks is imperative to mastering her.]]

* The most notable advantage of ''VideoGame/LordOfArcana'''s [[{{BFS}} 2H Sword]] weapon type is that the second and third swings of its combo can be cancelled into a block, allowing for much safer attacks.
* ''VideoGame/AsurasWrath'' has Jump canceling to follow up with a launcher attack to do an air combo and a homing cancel that's used to home in onto locked on opponents after an air combo knocks them out of the sky, allowing for more follow ups and higher scores.

** A more specific example comes from the [[DropTheHammer hammer]] weapon. The weakest level of charge attack can be chained into the weapon's basic attack combo. You can cancel the basic attack combo before the third hit into a charge attack. Put two and two together, and you have what's supposed to be a weapon that does more damage in fewer hits at a time having the hitrate, and much more DPS as a result, of some of the faster weapons. This was nerfed in ''3 Ultimate''.
* ''VideoGame/DragonsDogma'' has an actual cancel ability called Reset. It's available to Striders and cancels all animations except hitstun. Its upgraded version, Instant Reset, allows you to cancel out of hitstun.
* ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}}'' has a variation, in that one of [[TheMedic Sharla]]'s Aura-type moves resets her other moves' cooldown timers, letting her use a healing or attack move that much faster.
* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'' uses this rather extensively for an RPG. Autoattacks can be cancelled by Artes, and Artes can be cancelled by Blade Specials. Properly timing the cancel makes the following attack significantly more powerful.

* An unusual genre for this, ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' has the 'Quick Reload' technique. Normally when you exhaust a magazine you have to reload normally, which actually does take about two seconds; in a boss fight this is often about 1.9 more seconds than you have to spare. By unequipping and reequipping a weapon, it automatically reloads for you. On top of that, the manuals actually tell you about this technique. After the final boss of ''VideoGame/{{Metal Gear Solid 3|SnakeEater}}'' was made into a complete joke by abusing this technique (since it requires use of a single-shot RPG launcher that normally requires multiple seconds to replace the warhead... or a quarter of a second to double-tap R2), every ''Metal Gear'' since then has forced the player to take the time to let a reloading animation play out as part of the gameplay overhaul bringing the series more in-line with a ThirdPersonShooter.

** ''VideoGame/KillingFloor2'' embraces this as part of an effort to ease several issues that plagued the first game - whereas ''[=KF1=]'' reloads had specific frames in their animation they had to reach before the game would acknowledge your attempts to switch weapons, ''[=KF2=]'' has an "active reload" exploit for dual wielding and long-reload guns, where you can melee or switch to a different weapon / gear at any point during a reloading animation, making it good for both cancelling a reload once the ammo counter updates and good for cancelling out of an inconveniently-timed reload if you still have ammo left. Reload cancels might not always save that much time, but you can throw a punch in the middle of your reload, which is great when reload fleeing and you get grabbed by a clot. And then, for good measure, once you've cancelled the reloading animation by a punch, that punch can itself be cancelled by shooting. A patch made this significantly less effective with dual pistols, as your ammo counter only goes up when ''[[AllOrNothingReloads both]]'' magazines are loaded, not just one, but most of the rest of the guns still benefit from the technique.

It might also be worth noting that, when used in a platforming or action title, "dash canceling" or "jump canceling" combos can be used to [[AdvamcedMovementTechnique make your character move absurdly quickly]]; though it may require frame-perfect timing, meaning that this can only be performed with any consistency in a ToolAssistedSpeedrun.

It might also be worth noting that, when used in a platforming or action title, "dash canceling" or "jump canceling" combos can be used to make your character move absurdly quickly; though it may require frame-perfect timing, meaning that this can only be performed with any consistency in a ToolAssistedSpeedrun.

** ''64'' and ''Melee'' have '''smooth landing''' (nicknamed Z-Canceling and L-canceling respectively), where most air moves can be have the landed lag halved by shielding at the right time. This can make aerials much safer against block, and much more effective as combo tools, than they would otherwise be.

** Melee features a unique movement technique called "Wavedashing" which combines the game's directional airdodge mechanic with the low friction value: by airdodging forward/backward and slightly down, they can slide along the ground for a certain distance (depending on their character; Luigi with the longest wavedash and Peach having the shortest). This allows for more precise movement which is less laggy than rolling and typically faster and more versatile than running (which prevents characters from using most of their normal attacks).

** As far as non-character specific cancels go, ''64'' and ''Melee'' have '''smooth landing''' (nicknamed Z-Canceling and L-canceling respectively), where most air moves can be have the landed lag removed by shielding at the right time. Some characters in ''Brawl'' can cancel their fast-moving dash attacks with up-smashes, letting them keep their momentum far longer. [[VideoGame/MetalGear Snake]] is known for this in particular, since he has a particularly fast dash attack and low friction. [[LightningBruiser He can cross stages almost immediately.]]
** Another variation of this is the auto-cancel, where aerial attacks are canceled into other moves by landing on perfect frames standing up. Failure to do so increases vulnerability.

** The Brawl [[GameMod mod]] ''VideoGame/ProjectM'' and fangame ''VideoGame/SuperSmashFlash2'' have a special Turbo Mode in which any attack that connects can be cancelled into any other attack, which can lead to extremely long combos.

* ''VideoGame/SteelBattalion'' has clip dumping. Main weapons will have a firing delay after firing a set number of rounds-one for smoothbore cannons, three for rapid-fire rifles, and five for assault rifles. By holding down the main weapon button such that the initial weapon switch selects the desired weapon (it won't cycle after that) and hitting the magazine change button, one can cancel the delay-but weapons only get three to four clips maximum, with 20 to 30 rounds each, thus burning a lot of spare ammo for an extra shot in quick succession. Furthermore, it's a very frowned-upon tactic in the Line of Contact community and will likely earn the ire of other players unless specifically permitted before the match. (Matches likely to have voluntary clip-dumping could be one 3rd-gen VT like an Earthshaker vs. several 1st-gen [=VTs=].)
* In a very rare RPG example, ''VideoGame/WildArms3'' features an AnimationCancel. As long as you have at least 25 Force Points, you can cancel the move you just queued at that character's turn to move, enter another move and you will start your action without waiting. While not often used, it is important if you suddenly want to stop attacking the enemy for whatever reason (the enemy is preparing an instakill move, or a reflect barrier, for example).

* In ''VideoGame/DirtyBomb'', gun is fully loaded once the clip is inserted and sprinting cancels the rest of the animation. This is enough to ''half'' the reload time of most guns and is also why the "Double Time" perk is disliked on cards without a shotgun because it nullifies this.