Barrel Rolls and the gamers that love them

[masterwriter42]

This thread is dedicated to Barrel Rolls in video games. Over the span of video gaming history (roughly 500 something years or so), many game characters have proudly and skillfully done a barrel roll. And not only can humans/etc do a barrel roll, but spaceships can too, as can be seen in games like Star Fox 64 and several others that I can't remember at the moment. The phrase "DO A BARREL ROLL", spoken by the general or commander or something (Okay, so it's been a few years since I played it) in the tutorial for SF64, has become very popular with prank callers and bored Adobe Flash movie makers around the world. So this is the place to discuss the barrel roll itself, and anything relating to it, such as which characters do a barrel roll from different games, or proper video game barrel rolling etiquette.

After all, where would Solid Snake be without the ability to do a barrel roll? I grew up playing Zelda 64, and I almost never ran for very long without doing a barrel roll. And what did Donkey Kong's grandfather (or whatever he's supposed to be - the Kong in the original Donkey Kong game) do best? Yes, that's right, roll barrels. And Sonic The Hedgehog... well, he's almost always doing one continuous loop of barrel rolls.

We must all respect the noble barrel roll. Let us discuss it's wonder.

[masterwriter42]

Here's an idea: What's your favorite game character that can do a barrel roll? What is the most practical or useful thing that you have had a character do with a barrel roll (excluding standard linear movement, that is)?

[Lazy Bastard]

I think my favorite barrel roll is from Star Wars: Battlefront for the PS2. Every character can do it, so it doesn't belong to a specific character, but it's useful, and funny. I've used it countless times to escape grenade blasts and both small and large arms fire, and it's really frustrating to the opposition sometimes, as you can do it fairly rapidly

[Helder]

I like it in the Zelda Seies on the n64, why!? because you know he cant have Epone all the time and his running/walking speed is horrible in huge areas but the barrel roll just makes it seem like he moves faster.

[Lazy Bastard]

That's why I hacked the Turbo Run code for Ocarina of Time Though, SubDrag had apparently already hacked part of it...

[masterwriter42]

I like it in the Zelda Seies on the n64, why!? because you know he cant have Epone all the time and his running/walking speed is horrible in huge areas but the barrel roll just makes it seem like he moves faster.

Exactly. Plus, it's just so freaking funny. Bonus humor when equipping the Bunny Hood as young link!