Hovering

Hovering was originally a technique in Super Smash Flash 2 that could be performed by. It was performed by holding the jump input in midair and allowed Tails to slow his descent for as long as it was held. While hovering, Tails could move left and right, and moving opposite to the direction he was facing would turn him around. Performing any other action while floating, such as jumping, attacking, or air dodging, would cancel the hovering until the action was complete. Tails was able to hover for an indefinite amount of time and was not restricted by his amount of midair jumps remaining.

In addition to holding the jump input, repeatedly pressing it with no midair jumps remaining would cause Tails to switch between his falling and hovering animations. If done quickly enough, it would slow his descent to an extreme degree, allowing him to stall in the air for large amounts of time.

This technique was removed entirely in Beta 1.0.3 of the demo due to its overpowering nature, as it allowed Tails to recover easily and stall extensively due to the heavily reduced falling speed and indefinite amount of time he could hover.

Origin
Flying is Tails' signature ability throughout the ' series, starting with his debut appearance in '. To fly, Tails twirls his twin tails around like rotary blades, allowing him to move through the air in any direction, reach higher areas, and in some cases damage enemies. There is often a limit for how long Tails can freely fly around without landing, after which he becomes exhausted and slowly drifts downwards.

Tails' hovering in SSF2 most closely resembled his appearance flying downwards in 2D Sonic platformers, which can be used to slow his descent. His ability to fly upward is also reflected in his midair jumping animation and Airlift.