The Top Ten Throws

Throwing characters and objects in games is immensely entertaining. Throws can be humorous, destructive, preposterous, and epic all at once. We’ve tossed together this list of the top 10 throws in gaming, highlighting the diverse and most impactful ones. As long as a character or object is moved off the ground and flung into the air to some extent, it counts. If someone or something is grabbed, lifted up and finally slammed into the ground, as you often see in fighting games, it also is eligible for this feature. We hope you enjoy the mayhem!

10: Ness’ back throw – Super Smash Bros.

Many throws in Smash Bros. are iconic, but none have commanded the fear of Ness’ back throw. Ness uses his psychic powers to levitate a character over his head and then blasts them diagonally backwards. When you combine the impressive force of the throw with the awesome animation, especially in juxtaposition with Ness’ innocent appearance, it’s no wonder why this move is so infamously remembered by fans.

9: Your Throw - Boom Blox

Boom Blox on the Wii tasks you to throw balls at structures to make them collapse. The angle and power of your shots is important because often you need to break off certain elements of the structures while leaving others intact. This task is made far more interesting and intuitive because you need to use the Wii Remote to aim and throw the ball. The throwing motion works well and feels good, making it one of the most satisfying throws in gaming to perform.

8: Tower Throw and Prinny Throws - Disgaea

The Disgaea games have two different throws worthy of this list. Other strategy RPGs use a mechanic where you can pick up a character and throw them to gain some distance they couldn’t travel alone in one turn, but none of them take that mechanic to the absurd conclusion Disgaea does. In the Disgaea games you can pick up teammate after teammate to build a tower of characters that you can then throw across the map one after the other to cover immense distance. This can prove incredibly useful if you need to disable a harmful geoblock or enemy on the opposite side of the map. The other, and even more iconic throw, is that anytime the penguin-like prinnys are tossed they explode on impact.

7: Throwing your friends – New Super Mario Bros. and Mario 3D World

Each of the co-op Mario games feature the ability to carry your friends over your head and throw them in the same way you would any other object. This feature can be used for good, as you can carry your friends through difficult sections and deposit them safely on the other side. Inevitably though, the throwing mechanic is used for the nefarious purpose of tossing your friends off of cliffs, which proves entertaining in different ways for the 2D and 3D Mario games. In the New Super Mario Bros games, a thrown character hilariously, perpetually flips upside down until they are off-screen and killed. In Mario 3D World, the very act of throwing is more devious because you have to deliberately chase your target down to guide them to a cliff and their demise.

6: Raiden throws Metal Gear Ray – Metal Gear Rising Revengeance

When Metal Gear Rising resurfaced as Revengeance, one moment of the debut trailer instantly defined the new direction for the game. Raiden is confronted by a Metal Gear Ray in what would ultimately become the game’s first level. Instead of the long, complicated boss fight you would expect from a showdown with a Metal Gear, Raiden ends up grabbing the sword of the colossal robot, lifts up Ray, spins it around, and launches it into the air. Raiden then proceeds to follow it in midair, slashes the sword into shreds, and eventually cuts the entire Ray in half before it ever touches the ground. Everything you’ve expected from a Metal Gear game was beautifully shattered in this epic throw.

5: The 100 yard pass - Tecmo Super Bowl

You don’t need to be a fan of sports to appreciate the absurdity of the 100-yard pass in Tecmo Super Bowl. You can literally throw the football from your end zone to the opponent’s to have another teammate catch it and score a touchdown. Real football is nowhere near as easy as Tecmo Super Bowl makes it look.

4: Tamaki’s Super Moves – Aquapazza

Aquapazza is a crossover fighting game featuring Aquaplus characters, and Tamaki is the unassuming grappler. While this red-haired high-school girl looks normal at first glance, her fighting style is anything but ordinary. After gleefully glaring at her opponent to freeze them in their tracks, Tamaki can chain together two suplex moves and then pick the opponent up and violently spin them in circles before launching them. It’s amazing!

3: Sabin Suplexing the Phantom Train - Final Fantasy VI

Sabin can suplex anything in Final Fantasy VI, but one boss is more spectacular to suplex than the rest. Sabin is your leader in the story when you reach the Phantom Train that takes the souls of the departed to the afterlife. At this point the train functions as a dungeon, and you need to navigate from the back of the train to the front while fighting evil ghosts along the way. The scenario culminates in a boss fight against the front of the train where your party is literally running away from it on the train tracks. Using suplex, Sabin picks up the entire train you just traversed and jumps to carry it into the sky before slamming it back into the ground upside down.

2: Genesic Emerald Tager Buster - BlazBlue

Tager’s Distortion Drive (his super move) is the most satisfying throw in a fighting game. It’s simple and elegant in execution, as Tager first grabs his opponent and hurls them high into the air off screen. Tager then rockets after them in order to slam them back down and shatter the earth. Should you be caught in it, Tager’s attack rips off about half of your health bar and will likely end the match. What makes this move extra devious is that Tager can magnetize his opponents over the course of the match. When magnetized, characters are dragged into Tager when he executes his Distortion Drive, which significantly expands his attack’s range. Tager’s Distortion Drive is so awesome, that it even makes his Astral Heat/Instant Kill move a bit of a letdown.

1: Bowser Toss - Super Mario 64

Mario tossing Bowser in Mario 64 is by far the most iconic throw in gaming. The setup for the throw is simple, as Mario needs to run around Bowser to grab him by the tail. At this point you need to rotate the analog stick in circles to get Bowser to spin faster and faster before letting go and launching him into a spike ball that explodes. Mario’s throw takes skill to perform and proves you have mastered using the analog stick to maneuver 360 degrees in 3D space (a new concept to console gaming in 1996). This makes it extra satisfying when Bowser hits the spike and bounces back from the explosion. The final showdown, and final throw, is extra intense as the circular arena collapses around you to form a star.