Cancel

A cancel, as the name implies, is the ability to break out of the animation of an attack with another attack, usually done during the recovery frames of an attack. It should not be confused with Linking.

The concept of cancels were first seen in Street Fighter II and have been in almost every fighting game since. Though each fighting game has its own rules on what attacks can be cancelled and what these moves can be cancelled into, most games follow the same general formula:
 * Normal Attacks -> Special Attacks -> Super Attacks

A special case exists in some fighting games, most notably in the Marvel vs Capcom games, where a Normal Attack can be cancelled into another Normal Attack. These types of cancels are known as chains or chain cancels.

Some games also have special mechanics that allow for different types of cancels. For example, Street Fighter IV has a mechanic known as Focus Attack Dash Cancel, which allows the player to cancel the animation of any move with a short dash at the expense of half of their super meter. The Guilty Gear series also has a similar mechanic known as Roman Cancels. Both mechanics have the potential to perform, as well as extend, combos that would not normally be possible otherwise.