Juggling

Note: Not to be confused with traditional juggling.

Overview

Fighting and Action Games

In these genres, juggling is a type of combo that consists of continually attacking an enemy in order to keep them in the air, effectively unable to fight back, for an extended period of time.With regards to fighting games, the concept originated with Mortal Kombat, as prior to its existence, prone, airborne opponents were immune to harm. Juggling was later incorporated into many fighters including those by Capcom & SNK, as well as 3D fighting games, where it is the most common form of combo.

Tower Defense Games

Here, Juggling is a tactic of aligning towers in such a way that when the enemy is about to near a point on the battlefield, the player will sell a tower elsewhere on the battlefield and create a new tower in the enemy's path, causing the enemies to reverse direction and go through a potentially large part of the level again. This tactic works in many tower defense games as enemies cannot or will not cross towers and will follow the shortest path to their exit. In some contexts, juggling is considered an exploitation of game design, while in other contexts it is fair game and even an encouraged or rewarded tactic.