Backflip

Backflips, also known as Backward Somersaults, are jumps Mario can do that causes him to move upwards and backward. You can perform a backflip by pressing and holding Z and pressing A. Holding forwards during the backflip can cause Mario to have a net forwards movement. The Vertical Speed (VS) value that a backflip starts with is 62. With all of the vertical speed combined, you can get 512 units up from where you started the backflip.

Backflip
Properties
Official Name	Backwards Somersault
Hex	0x01000883
Action Flags	Air, Allow Vertical Wind Action
Action Group	Airborne
ID	0x083
Transitions
Into	Airborne cancels: Water Plunge, Squished, Vertical Wind, non cancel: Ground Pound, common air step: Feet Stuck In Ground, Hard Backward Ground Kb, Backflip Land, Backwards Air Kb, Air Hit Wall, Soft Bonk, Lava Boost
Other
Animation	0x04

Transition In

See single jump for more details

1. Mario's current animation is stopped.
2. Mario's forward velocity is set to -16
3. Mario's vertical speed is set to 62

Behavior

Certain things here are more explained on their individual pages. If something lacks detail, check the link for more information.

As with all airborne actions, a variety of "cancels" are checked prior to actually performing the jump action. These checks are as follows:

1. Water - If Mario's height is lower than 100 units below the water height, the action is transitioned into the water plunge action.
2. Squish - If Mario is supposed to be squished, his action is changed to the squished action.
3. Vertical Wind- If Mario is above a vertical wind floor, his action is changed to the vertical wind action. (This is due to the jump action having the "Allow Vertical Wind Action" flag.)

At this point, two more things happen prior to the backflip action:

• Mario's quicksand depth is set to 0.
• Mario plays a falling noise if he has fallen more than 1150 units from his peak.

With the backflip action occurring now, the following happens:

1. If the Z button is pressed, Mario will enter the Ground Pound action. This stops the backflip action.
2. Mario performs his noise for the backflip.
3. Now, Mario performs the quarter-frame movement via a full common air step. The landing action is a backflip land action. Both the check for hanging and ledge grabbing are not present for this step.
4. The backflip swoosh sounds are played last.

C^ Backflip

The C^ Backflip trick allows you to backflip facing any direction without having to turn first, saving a few frames in some TASes.