Ranking EVERY Back Throw Animation in Smash Ultimate 

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I better see Incineroar and Dr. Mario in S tier

I like how ike is basically the most athletic and jumpy character in fire emblem but sakurai was like "what if ike had arthritis in his knees and back"

31:08 I think what's happening is that, at the end of the throw, Cloud's facing slightly too far to the right for his idle. However, instead of rotating him like 1 degree to the left, they actually rotate him 359 degrees to the right, making him spin in a full circle. This doesn't happen at normal speed because the rotation happens between two frames, but slowing the game down adds those frames in the middle of the animation.

K. Rool's back throw is absolutely top tier. Dragging the opponent's face across the floor is brutal but also fitting for his character. I thought Ridley's was similar but I was thinking of Space Pirate Rush

Roy's back throw in Ultimate is the same story as his dash attack in Melee. Can't believe they keep doing him dirty like this 😔

With Ryu, Ken, and Hero, they aren’t so crashing to the floor, rather rolling their momentum to the ground to launch the opponent. They aren’t falling, they’re moving to the floor.

That’s genuinely hilarious that cloud’s back throw breaks so bad once you interpolate it. It’s so random 💀

It has been TOO long since a video here I genuinely think you're a top tier content creator smash bros doesn't appreciate enough. Your main channel is so high quality with incredible editing and this channel is great in its own right as listenable, interested and well structured content

Palu could be hilarious, like she taps the ground with her staff and grants you the power of flight and you just shoot off

Just to clarify, for certain throws, especially the ones pulled from styles like judo, the thrower touching the ground doesn't need a thumpy feel. The thrower (tori) doesn't crash into the ground (why knock the wind out of yourself to throw someone). Ryu's throw shows him shifting onto his back as he does in both the game and with the real life move. Ken's is a little less explainable, but that probably comes with the flashiness.

snake's backthrow is a direct rip from his CQC moveset in snake eater, although in that game it is A LOT more violent as the move there slams the enemy into the ground to knock them unconscious, and the collision is really loud and impactful

Ness’ Back Throw has always amused me from the moment I saw it. It works so nicely for everything.

You didn't even mention that k rool's has a fire trail effect because he's generating so much friction. He has he best overall animations in the game in my opinion.

I can't wait for you to get to the Neutral Air Animation Tier List and then have to rank, like, 14 different versions of the "sex kick."

The roy chrom thing almost feels like late in development they realized back throw was a easy kill confirm and decided rather than change the animation, the knockback, or the first actionable frame, to just make the throw earlier in the animation

Sephiroth and Meta Knight have to be my favourites because of how they play with the idea of throwing someone backward (which is a funny way of saying I really like teleporting).

I love how vicious Ridley’s back throw looks, but then when I use it I always get disappointed by how weak it is. Also does anybody else like MK back throw? I can’t really say why, I just think it looks cool.

52:15 I think that Jigglypuff’s lack of deflation (for lack of a better term) is probably because it’s too short. Pretty much every opponent hits the ground first, so Jiggs never even lands, which is what really causes it to go flat. I’d put it in A tier.

The interpolation issue with Cloud's back throw might be stemming from the fact that it turns him around, so the game interpolates a frame or 2 of him turning around as he returns to idle.

Mockrock: Yeah they're just copying Mario... Also Mockrock: I like how Shiek's back throw parallels Link's. *puts it in A tier...

it's a weird thing to say but Min Min in general may have the best recovery animations in the game. they've all got a ton of personality and really fun trajectories i'll never get tired of watching her get back up from a down smash

I noticed a common complaint among throws that use the martial arts move-- the, how you say "tomoe nage"-- that there's not enough of an impact when they hit their back against the ground. I feel like that's kind of the point, isn't it? The idea isn't that they're slamming their backs onto the ground to make a throw. That would hurt. They bend their legs to lower them to the ground, and *roll* onto their backs to use that momentum to propel the opponent.

As someone who’s actually done some judo I actually really like how Hero’s back throw is animated, the way he goes down and gets back up so smoothly is how you would *want* a throw like that to go. You obviously don’t want to be slamming your own back into the ground to throw someone lol, you actually want to go down with a bit more of a smooth roll like that so you don’t hurt yourself. I know it doesn’t have that video gamey sense of impact but I still like it. (Fun fact, Judo actually translates to the gentle way, which sounds hilariously unfitting on the surface but the art is about smooth manipulation of your enemy’s body, momentum, and weight which also requires the same smoothness in handling your own body, and I feel like this throw does a nice job embodying that)

Pac-Man's is kinda whimsical, I like it well enough. He's definitely cartoony enough to make it work if it could be considered workable.

I know where Doc is going And I'm pretty sure the "spinning mario throws" that lack a hitbox are that way because the characters are holding their victims closer to their body as they execute it.

One thing I want to say for this whole series is that I really appreciate your ability to describe the animation in hyper-specific terms. I try to "play along" and look at each of these animations as I'm watching, try to assess what I like or dislike. But it's hard to convey that, especially when this selection of moves was basically an assortment of backwards tosses, spins, kicks, and slams. You use a very descriptive vocabulary that's quite illuminating.

It's criminal that Wario doesn't say "Have a Rotten Day!" and "Get outta Here!" when using back throw.

For 32:20, I have an explanation, since I've done some 3D game animations myself, and it is an interpolation issue. Basically, it has to do with the variables behind the animation. Cloud when facing right can be considered to have 0 degrees of rotation on the Z (vertical) axis, and when facing left, his rotation is 180 degrees. However, the spin's animation makes him turn in the opposite direction, the animation ending with Cloud at -180 degrees instead of positive 180. At normal speed, you won't see this since the animator will just sync up the flipped and normal poses, however when interpolating them, Cloud will do a 360 degree spin from -180 to 180. The reason this happens with Cloud and not any other characters is a bit more technical, but can be summarized that the wonky animation isn't exactly interpolated, rather it's considered animation blending since it's a jump from one unique animation (the throw) to another (the idle) and Cloud hasn't turn greater than 180 degrees. Also, game engines only go from -180.0 to 179.99... and will overflow/underflow if the Z rotation variable exceeds either amount. So, in reality, Cloud turned LESS than 180 degrees, which is why the full rotation occurred. That is my interpretation at least, having done a couple animations that involve a spin, I've had to deal with this issue, and I tend to just have one animation be the turn, then the next frame silently do a 360 with snap-to-position on that single frame to avoid these interpolation issues.

All the giant swing throws should go into the "Wheeee!" tier

I still remember MockRock citing Dr. Mario’s back throw animation as the best in the game in his clones video. Let’s see if that holds true three years later.

man this is such a throwback. I'll escort myself out

Surprised nobody mentioned this, Steve Back Throw is a Reference to Minecraft, it's literally how the Fishing Rod _actually_ works, it doesn't pull objects to you but instead flings them right past you, essentially throwing them backwards. His Back Throw animation is basically a more Stylized version of the mechanic.

Ken better get s tier. The throw may suck, but it's so well done in animation

I think more back throws should utilize the space in front of the character to build up speed. For example, what if Robin pushed you forward and then use very strong wind particles to make you move very fast while frantically moving out of the way. I think that could be cool.

I so wish they would do the incineroar pause thing right before the suplex instead of when hitting the ground. So he winds up, holds the opponent above him for a split second and than boom. A quick death.

Mewtwo's back throw has always been a favorite of mine. I'm glad to see you think the same way.

Banjo main/fan here, and considering how the duo's animations are top tier almost across the board, their backthrow is a rare miss. _Especially_ considering the fact that they _could've_ made it a very blatant "Pack Whack" reference. In Tooie, Banjo does swing his backpack around, but he only does so once. And that one swing looks and feels like it hits _hard._ Giving him that kind of swing backthrow, but making him only swing them once (like a mix of Mario and Dr. Mario) would've been _sick._

Oh my god i never realized how brutal terry's back throw is jeez

- Sora's is a brilliant smooth animation. It being the same idea as Mario's throw should not detract from the animation itself, and if anything works as a connective tissue between the first and the final smash fighters - similar to how Banjo links to Mario because of N64 platformer era stuff. Its unique enough with the unique flowing animation to warrant being at least on par with Mario's. Personally I think it is much better due to how unique the keyblade disappearing is and the slightly overexaggerated Disney-esque animation with how he performs an extra almost unnecessary spin before returning to idle - the Disney style exaggeration helps a ton of his moves to stand out despite perhaps having very similar overlap with other moves in the game (e.g. his up air). - With the shotos and Hero the solid landing on their backs is the point - its a controlled martial arts technique, and the rigid ending reinforces that. Toon Links is more cartoony to fit his character and as such he has a less solid landing on his back, but it still works very well for him for this reason. - For Pacman I think the rather abrupt stop to his spin provides a sense that there is a lot more force being applied to the throw, almost like how a cartoon character digging their feet into the floor to stop running also suggests there being extreme force behind the run - in this case, replace the running with spinning and I think it matches the concept similarly. - With Zelda I think it looks weaker because the opponent does not follow her hand's arc very accurately, with the opponent lagging behind a good bit. As such it almost seems as if they get thrown too late for there to be any force behind it, despite the ingame function being the contrary - look to Mewtwo's back throw to see how the opponent should move along with the arc of the hand. - Min Min's returning to idle animation as she gets up looks incredibly unnatural - how is she creating the force to get up? Her arms don't even touch the floor (let alone push into the floor) to suggest she is using them to get up, and it does not look like she is using her legs either - it looks like she just sort of pivots on her feet to get up? To me it looks like she has a string attached between her shoulders that is being pulled directly up to return her to her idle state; it looks almost puppet-like. - Incineroar's looks like it should bury the opponent with how much force is being applied. It would work as a free kill follow up too, which effectively is the same as the absurdly early kill potential it already has so it wouldn't be much of an issue design wise - plus a revenge boosted one would apply massive damage as the opponent gets buried, which would mean they natrually stay in the floor longer too.

To be fair to Shiek as a character, in the context of OoT, she had to live through Ganon's take over of Hyrule in real time. So that's multiple years of hiding and probably fighting she had to do.

34:12 The command was back throw and Toad heard "Throw it back"

I never knew Incineroar had that shit eating grin while holding enemies.

It took me a while to notice the flames on K.Rool's back throw every time I notice some orange yellow until I've realized it's flames. Like you said it does fit his character very well.

The amount of edits in this video is actually surprisingly great, like it has more edits than the other animation tierlists videos and i know this night not sound as much but the fact that it is in a 1 hour and half long video is surprising to me. Also this totally answers my question with the throw animation stuff which is good and i didn't expected a throw animation video to go this long, but i'm not complaining at all.

I think some of the 'desynched' throws like Zelda, Lucas, and Greninja are conveying a whip around feeling with the delay. Look at Steve's and how the opponent is thrown well after the rod stops moving. It's easy to see with Steve since the fishing line is visible, and I think the others look good if you know what they're doing. Also, the pause on Incineroar's is just really high hitlag for exaggerated impact, like when a revenge side-b connects.

Ik I’m late but something I like about docs is that if you kill someone with it he does the hand cleaning thing which is really cool

In terms of animation, Incineroar and Doc are my fav back throws. Incin's back throw is just RAW as hell with that suplex And Doc has the "this clinic is closed, it's time to go home" yeet

Man. Your content is so top quality that I don’t mind the wait to get it. This series gives me a lot of appreciation for things that I mostly overlook, but it also ruins a few things for me, like I’ll never be able to look at Roy and Chrom’s back-throw the same way again. King K. Rool consistently proves that he was done a great service in this game animation wise.

Terry has some tough jeans damn.

1:08:00 with Steve the funny thing he does with backthrow where he places a block above the ledge then stage spikes his opponent into it is hilarious

I tend to agree a lot with these tier lists, but no way is Incineroar A tier. Literally my favorite throw animation overall. Great video regardless!

I would argue for the judo type back throws the fact that they *don't* crash into the ground shows that the technique is good, if you look at real judo masters preforming this throw they are very controlled and accurate as to not hurt their backs on the way down

38:47 Funniest moment in this series so far.

Love to see something as minor as throws getting spotlight here, very agreeable as ever. I don't think Wolf's is as bad as you make out, always thought that was pretty cool? But as ever I learned so much

YES!!! I've been waiting for another episode. Thanks for not forgetting the series.

If there was a “funniest throw animations” I think Luigi’s back throw would also have to be S-tier. As a luigi main it’s hard not to laugh mid-game when using the move😂

How is nobody talking about that sponsor bit? Mockrock the only youtuber that makes me watch the sponsored parts

These ranking videos are some of my favourite content on the platform, ty so much

It wouldn't work as a back throw, but I'd love to see Sora use the same throw as Sully when he throws Vanitas in Monstropolis. If you've never seen that before, do yourself a favor, and look it up and enjoy.😂

I think the pause for inciniroar make it so much better and impactful

I think Lucario as asymmetrical because he’s supposed to be in a fighting stance, if I remember correctly most martial arts/fighter type characters aren’t ambidextrous

You were asking about Steve grab acting weirdly, it's a property of slow motion is all. Timer, training, and special smash affect it 1:07:45

Not too relevant but I find it interesting Link's forward throw might have inspired an animation in BotW, where when he throws a Stalkoblin head, he kicks it! Might just be a coincidence, but the animation is pretty similar.

13:39 “I’ll throw in all the fighting game characters and Kazuya” Bruh the shade

I kind of disagree about byleth. I mean I don't think incorporating the lance would be a bad idea and I think you could maybe do something cool with having them do a toss-into-stab thing with the animation like how fox and falco do a toss into a gun shot. Probably would've looked really cool. But what they went with was really the more creative interpretation IMO. Having them wrap the chain sword around their opponent is an interesting way to build off of the sword's unique aspects, whereas I'm not sure you could do something as interesting with the lance. I think it would've worked to stick with the direction gimmick for the throws, but for me it doesn't really bring them down just using the sword.

With incineroar i feel like that little pause just gives that extra OOMPH imo, like your head got slammed RIGHT into the ground your brain is probably shook af Also with jigglypuff and kirby’s suplex they’re both not actually hitting the floor lmao suplexes don’t do that or else you’d be hurting yourself just as much as your opponent

With the "judo throw" (tomoe nage), it isn't the impact with the ground that make the strength but how much backwards momentum is built in the opponent before the leg is fully extended to give the final push of all that force in the right direction before letting go of them. Not having a beefy smack with the ground is actually good technique, because all that does is impart wasted inertia into the ground that should be transferred by the leg.

I wonder how it would look if they made Roy and Chrom have more of a "stomp" rather than a trip, I think it would work well for the faster animation and different angle.

Ngl I love Corrin backthrow because you literally shank them with your spear

I personally love this channel the more informal and opinion based content is a very refreshing contrary take of your mock rock channel. I love both of the channels but I have a sweet spot for you just talking. Love the content.

ive been waiting for a throw list for so long oh my goodness

Pretty sure Byleth's back throw is a reference to the sword combat art animations in Three Houses where they spin around before landing the blow

With Byleth one of their main weapons is the punching ones so cqc is a thing they are doing in their own game.

I love these videos. I watch them over and over and never get bored of them. I really enjoy this throw episode. Though, I main Zelda, so seeing her back throw (one my favorite back throws) put in C tier made me sad. But, your reasons are justified. Just great job on this video and I am very much looking forward for the next animation tier list (and I don't even mind the wait because the amount of work and effort you put in with editing and filming these videos make it completely worth the wait)

I guess the cloud thing is because when he ends the animation, he faces left, but he was faxing right before the throw so he snaps to facing left but the move makes him facing left so he immediately snaps back to left. Idk, just a theory

Weird pick, but Rosalina's Back Throw is my favorite in the game. I know it ended up in S tier so it's probably not that weird, but it might be strange just because of heavy candidates like King K. Rool and Sephiroth. Something about the orbital motion and the great momentum it builds up just makes it so satisfying to see in action.

31:26 it's cuz he turns around in the animation, unlike link. but the game doesn't fully know he's turned around until after he's in the idle animation. so that's the little sutter

Fun fact: Gorillas are capable of turning you inside out from your butthole, be glad DK is holding back.

Congrats MockRock, your animation tier lost has been chosen as my background video for building a Lego set, you should be honored

I do find it weird that Mii Gunner’s back throw is always the laser even if you haven’t chosen that for neutral special, would have been cool to see a throw change depending on your choice for another move

What likely happens during Cloud's backthrow animation is that his transition to his idle stance during the ending lag is likely built into the animation itself, while his root point that dictates which way he's facing isn't updated until the very frame the animation is over so at slower gamespeed, during that one frame, you get this really wonky animation of Cloud spinning around really fast because during that frame the game thinks he's still facing the other way and tries to fill in the time from then until he's facing back

Been binging your content again recently, was v happy to see this show up in my sub box!!

31:09 As a Cloud main I’m upset about learning this

Looks like the weightiest version of a throw if even from the fact alone they gotta get you thrown from the opposite direction you're facing. There may be some other funny throws like burrowing ones, but these are my main idea of a throw.

Back throws in general seem more powerful from alp my years of playing Ultimate

54:30 my BEST guess is this: Lucario is based on boxing (boxing has roots in Egypt, Lucario is a Fighting-type based on Anubis) among other various fighting styles, and, just like Little Mac, he probably is trying to keep proper fighting stance.

"Marth, and the other various Marths..." It almost feels like you're DARING someone to gripe about it. Another entertaining and elucidating video. I don't know what other people say about it, but I really enjoy you going through the minutiae of the animations. It showcases details that I really just never would have noticed playing the game normally. I know these probably take nigh forever to make but I hope it's rewarding enough that you keep doing it.

I think Steve's grab breaking in slow mo, and samus's back throw too, is probably the same reason it makes Luigi's grab get funky too.

46:12 HE SAID THE FORBIDDEN SONIC WORD

13:26 martial artist is a job class In dragon quest (classes aren’t in 11 but I digress) but that was probably the idea Coulda also been inspired by how Toriyama’s artsyle is heavily associated with martial arts for reasons I’m sure are obvious

Another amazing list MockRock!

38:47 golden moment

I'm not sure I understand the criticism around the [TOMOE NAGE]. The idea that it lacks impact, like it's not a suplex? The impact isn't supposed to come from crashing into the ground, the idea is that you're using the momentum from the fall and transferring it to the opponent to send them flying horizontally. So in that case a fluid, rotational motion would work best, which is what most of the examples utilize. If you look up footage of actual martial artists doing the throw you'll see this, the roll onto the back is very smooth, the impact comes from when the opponent hits the ground after, because they've been thrown.

The sound effect on Mii Gunner's back throw is the same one used for their Laser Blaze special. (The one you never see because the charge shot and the grenade are infinitely better.)

One quick thing for daisys' throw, blue toad was given a name his name's buckenbarry and he's doing his best at being a named character of the Mario series.

YAY! New animation tier list! Lets GOOOO!

For Lucario, if I had to take a shot, it's likely similar to Little Mac where their stance is based on an asymmetrical fighting stance, hence they're also asymmetrical

1:01:24 Ken: “Am I a joke to you?”

What's next, air dodges?!