Not just for kicks.
Primarily used to trip enemies, duck under attacks or traverse low obstacles, this involves a character being able to slide quickly along the ground to strike low, almost like a baseball-player sliding into home plate. This will commonly show up in the form of a kick, as it's most often done foot-first, however some characters have been known to slide on their belly. Cases where the user appears to hover across the ground fall under Artistic License.
Since this technique is hardly considered a conventional method of attack, those utilizing it can be expected to be a Combat Pragmatist, Fighting Clown or have some elements of Confusion Fu in their style.
Subtrope of Video Game Sliding. Also see Diving Kick, Dash Attack and Videogame Dashing. Compare Rolling Attack.
Not to be confused with the cryptanalysis term
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Sera of Case Closed performed such a sweep in Chapter 771, bringing down a man who had taken the detective agency hostage.
- One of the titular Claymores, Cassandra, has this as her fighting style; however she hides the technique as it looks strange and undignified. One of her comrades eventually witnesses the tactic, & gives her the humiliating epithet Cassandra the Dust-eater.
- The signature attack of the Chuunibiyou in the anime adaptation of Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions!, often combined with Dynamic Entry.
Films — Animation
Live Action TV
- The Kamen Rider franchise is best known for the heroes' use of Diving Kicks as their Finishing Moves, but in the Kamen Rider OOO movies, both the time-traveling Kamen Rider Aqua and OOO himself (in his Burakawani Combo) use sliding kicks instead.
- Kamen Rider Drive can also perform sliding kicks, with the tire around his chest propelling him forward. He even has a Finishing Move where he slide-sweeps an enemy into the air, then juggles them with Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs.
- Octavia from The 100 performs a sliding kick down a hallway to knock a guard off his feet.
Video Games
- PAYDAY 3: Slide Tackle, in the Escapist tree, allows heisters to stagger standard cops by sliding into them, at the cost of consuming Grit in the process.
- Introduced in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, Crash in can slide attack by pressing the crouch button during a run.
- Slide attacks can be pulled off in Crisis Beat by hitting punch and jump at the same time, knocking over several enemies in one quick move. But there are enemies who does this as well.
- Darkstalkers have certain characters doing this as well. Lord Raptor, Hsien-Ko, Donova, and Pyron. Victor initially had this with his Giga Buster, which was a charging crouch kick. This also extends to Lilith. Felicia also gains one as a possible finisher to her Rolling Buckler in Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and beyond.
- Guilty Gear: Ky Kiske's Stun Dipper has Ky slide forward with a low kick before following up with a sword strike.
- The King of Fighters
- Chin Gentsai can do a slide attack. K' seems to do this with his Blackout.
- This is also a command-special for Mai, King, Chang and Chris.
- Chin Gentsai can do a slide attack
- The Street Fighter games have a ton of them. Initially it consisted only of Dhalsim, Vega and Bison, the list has since expanded to include Blanka, Dee Jay, Rose, Guy, Sodom, Rolento, Cody, R. Mika, Maki, Ibuki◊, El Fuerte and Hakan.
- Hakan, pictured above, has an entire oil theme going for him. Slide attacks make up a good portion of his fighting style.
- Turbo Overkill: The protagonist of this Boomer Shooter is a Cyborg with a chainsaw built into his right leg he uses to cut dozens of enemies into Ludicrous Gibs when sliding.
- Mario is able to do this in Super Mario 64, and it was used for a Dash Attack in Super Smash Bros.. It can also be seen in Super Mario Sunshine, where Mario can remove friction and improve the move's distance by spraying water beneath himself (like a water slide).
- Nathan Drake in Uncharted can do this to trip his enemies while simultaneously punching them in the balls, and it shows up as his Down + Square attack in Playstation All Stars Battle Royale (minus the Groin Attack).
- Mega Man
- Starting in Mega Man 3, a slide has been a staple in the original Mega Man (Classic) series. Notably, it doesn't actually work as an attack; if Mega Man slides into an enemy he will take damage but the enemy will not. The one exception in in Mega Man 5, where the Charge Kick weapon (earned from Charge Man) allows him to cause damage to enemies by sliding. The slide is capable of hurting an opponent when Mega Man uses it in Super Smash Bros. as his down-tilt attack.
- Shadow Man from 3 also uses this as one of his moves.
- In Mega Man X, Chill Penguin uses a penguin belly slide as an attack. He's also invulnerable when doing so.
- Copy X has a slide kick as one of his default attacks in Mega Man Zero and Mega Man Zero 3. Serpent also has a similar one in his first form in Mega Man ZX.
- Starting in Mega Man 3, a slide has been a staple
- Midnight Fight Express: One of the upgrades is a slide on the ground to knock back any enemies in front of you, making them less likely to block subsequent attacks for a short time.
- One of Sub-Zero's special moves in the first Mortal Kombat and is a signature move in subsequent games. Reptile followed suit. Kabal uses a cleat slide (see the Real Life baseball example below) to start his X-Ray attack in Mortal Kombat 9.
- So famous is the move in fighting games that in Skullgirls, Double emulates it down to the input with her Cilia Slide.
- Toro Inoue references the move in Playstation All Stars Battle Royale during his Torobi Stance, aside from leaving a trail of fish-bones instead of ice.
- The Slide Kick is one of the most efficient attacks in Mirror's Edge, since it is almost guaranteed to land a Groin Attack on unprotected enemies.
- A common move in Castlevania games. Sometimes it's used to further exploration.
- It's a starting move like in Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, dealing the same amount of damage as the whip.
- An ability of the werewolf boss in Castlevania: Rondo of Blood.
- Batman (and the other characters) can do this in Arkham City by pressing crouch while running.
- Many Tekken games let the fighters slide from a full run into an ankle-aimed kick to trip opponents. Lee and Law can do it from a stationary position.
- Zafina also has the Mantis Slide (performed from her Mantis Stance)
- In the Soul Series, Voldo's Blind Drop Kick works as a stomach-down, foot-first version.
- All characters also use variations of a slide kick for their Dash Attacks.
- Deadpool does this for his Crouching Heavy in Marvel vs. Capcom 3. The game actually has quite a few examples, including X-23 using her hand claws despite having plenty of potential to use the usually method.
- Kirby has a sliding kick attack in several games, including Kirby's Adventure and Kirby Super Star. Aside from being a handy move against minor enemies and blocks, Kirby bounces back upon hitting immune enemies, instead of getting hurt.
- Sonic the Hedgehog has been able to do this in many of the 3-D titles, such as with his individual attack in Sonic Heroes when he lacks team-mates, or as a normal attack in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006). Shadow has also been known to use it.
- Illusion of Gaia: One of Will's attacks is a sliding kick that can be used to pass through low crevices.
- Fancy Pants Adventures: Fancy Pants can slide to knock out enemies. If done on an incline it becomes a Rolling Attack.
- Fishgun grants you a sliding move right at the start (gained before facing the first boss), which the game actually encourages you to keep using.
Sliding is good for moving around.
Do it a lot. - Rick can use a long, powerful sliding attack in the original Splatterhouse. The timing is difficult to get down pat, but the game becomes much easier to beat if you can master it.
- In The very first Touhou game, Highly Responsive to Prayers, Reimu can do a slide kick as one of the ways to knock the Yin-Yang Orb around.
- Raiden in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance can perform a slide attack by pressing the strong attack button during a Ninja Run and then follow that up with either a overhead sword slash with his other foot thanks to his prehensile feet or Blade Mode, which is also the only variety of it that keeps him moving forward during it.
- In Gravity Rush, Kat can justifiably hover across the ground with her Gravity Slide. Enemies she comes into contact with will be automatically hit with her Slide Kick. This move is also used as her Down + Triangle in Playstation All Stars Battle Royale to duck beneath projectiles and giver her more ground maneuverability.
- The SNES game of Alien vs. Predator lets the player do a slide kick.
- In Stampede Run, the slide can be used to break small obstacles and knock other runners out of the way.
- Hiryu in the Strider series has a slide kick in most of his incarnations. Usually done by pressing diagonally down + Attack, its used to both traversing low obstacles and attack, except in the NES game and the 2014 game, where he can use it offensively only after getting the Attack Boots in the NES Game and the Slide Assault item in the 2014 game. Most of Strider's Spiritual Successors have the Slide Kick as a starting attack as well, including Cannon Dancer, Run Saber, Hagane and Moon Diver.
- Kage-Maru's Jisuberibashiri in Virtua Fighter.
- Bit.Trip Runner features a slide mechianic to slip beneath obstacles.
- Warframe has several flavors. Standard slides simply move you quicker, but hitting the jump key while sliding allows you to jump-kick an enemy in the face, knocking them over. Hitting the melee button while sliding will usually make you whip out your sword and swing it in a full 360 degree arc, though some weapons have unique attacks for sliding..
- Tiny Toon Adventures games:
- In Buster's Hidden Treasure, Buster can slide into enemies if he gains enough speed.
- In Buster Busts Loose, when played on the Normal or Challenge modes, Buster must use a slide attack when he is running to avoid damage from enemies. In the Children mode, Buster can defeat enemies simply by running into them.
- "Slide Kick" is one of Batman's specials in Injustice: Gods Among Us (Back, Forward, Heavy).
- One Must Fall has the Shadow's Shadow Kick special, which sends a Hard Light clone of itself sliding across the floor to trip up opponents. The Katana and Chronos have sliding kicks as their heavy crouching kicks, and though it lacks proper legs, the Flail's 'lawnmower' attack with its spiked wheels is fairly close in spirit.
- All characters in Dragon's Crown has a sliding kick attack for extra mobility, some percent chance of knockback even against blocking enemies, and low damage. Due to the low damage, most players don't invest the Sliding skill, save for certain Elf builds since the added mobility fit perfectly with the Elf's evasion-based play style. In Ultimate difficulty, you could also acquire accessories that add Fire, Ice, or Lightning properties to your character's slide attacks for added damage and status effects.
- A sliding kick is one of the melee moves available in First Encounter Assault Recon, activated by pressing the melee button while crouching in the first game, or while sprinting in the second and third. It's one of the more powerful moves available to you, able to dispatch just about any non-mechanical or supernatural enemy with one kick to the shins.
- In River City Ransom: Underground, Dance Battler Provie can use a dashing slide kick to trip up her enemies.
- Metroid Dread: While the slide itself is primarily used for mobility, countering during it will have Samus throw out a bicycle kick. This can easily be seen during the boss battle against Corpius, where you can use this combination to have Samus slide under the boss and kick them in the face before leaping at them to start an extended counterattack.
- Turbo Overkill: Johnny Turbo has a chainsaw leg attached to him which he also uses as an attack.
Webcomics
- In El Goonish Shive, Nanase uses this to duck under Elliot's attack and counterattack with a kick from behind.
Professional Wrestling
- In the high-profile fight between Muhammad/Ali vs. Antonio Inoki, Inoki started the first round with a sliding kick before spending the rest of the match on his back, furiously kicking at Ali's legs.
- "The baseball slide" is actually a type of drop-kick in pro wrestling.
- FMW's First Son, Masato Tanaka, and his sliding dangan!
- Willow The Wisp's sliding elbow drop.
- Downed Dragon Gate wrestlers know they have to get moving quickly, less they get hit with Naruki Doi's Bakatare Sliding Kick.
Sports
- In baseball, deliberately "spiking" a baseman by sliding into his ankles with cleated shoes is an attack. Ty Cobb was infamous for this technique and was particularly reviled for his penchant to do this to basemen of the opposing team, often even sharpening the cleats first.
- Sliding tackles in football/soccer were once allowed in some parts of the world, but nowadays you'll get a foul if it's a deliberate attack, or if you touch the opposing player before the ball.
- Tom Brady of the New England Patriots infamously tried to slide kick Ed Reed of the Baltimore Ravens, nearly nailing him in the groin and was later fined $10,000 for it (though he did text an apology to Reed).
