Removed Infinites

Jab Lock Infinites

In standard Brawl, if a characters is hit with a weak move while “flopping” on the ground from a previous attack, they will flop again–this can often be repeated indefinitely, or at least across the entire stage. The most common cases involve jabs, but certain down tilts, Falco’s laser, Ice Climbers’ Ice Blocks, and a few other moves can also cause this. In Balanced Brawl, the victims quickly get up after a few flops. This allows general combos out of these set-ups, but infinite locks are gone.

Slipping (Banana) Infinites

There are two changes to forced trip mechanics that prevent locks. The major one is that a tripped character, if forced to trip again while still on the ground, will automatically stand up instead. This prevents banana locks of all sorts, but does not affect general combos involving banana peels. The minor change is that characters who have just been hit by a grounded footstool will not fall over when forcibly tripped. This prevents a very obscure infinite involving banana peels, and pretty much all real players will never even notice the change.

Footstool Infinites

Standard Brawl had some obscure infinites and combos that revolved around doing a footstool on an enemy in the air, forcing them to hit the ground in an untechable state, and doing some series of moves to force them into another footstool. Now, hitting the ground after being footstooled in air results in simply landing on the ground as out of a normal fast fall; the victim lands on his feet, preventing the infinite.

Grab Release Infinites and Combos

“Grab Release” refers to one character allowing another to break out of a grab. In standard Brawl, this could sometimes result in frame advantage making way for some abusive tactics, most notably against Ness and Lucas. In Balanced Brawl, grab break related animations are synchronized to prevent this inequality; the grabber and the victim are both free to act on the same frame. (Donkey Kong retains his 10 frame advantage if he breaks out of a grab on the ground, however.)