Left Side
Left Side is a trickjump that takes place on top of Top-Hat Tower in the Cap Kingdom. The jump involves performing a triple jump or vault from one of the broken airships to the left of the exit door, allowing the player to reach the top more quickly than by rolling up the ramp. This trick saves around two seconds versus scaling the tower normally.
Movement options
There are three primary ways to initiate the Left Side trickjump: a vault, a triple jump and a divevault. The divevault variant is the fastest by a decent margin, albeit by far the most difficult; the other two setups are roughly comparable, although the triple jump is slightly faster than the vault.
Most runners tend to prefer the triple jump setup, though some have been known to use the vault variant. Some top runners even opt to use the difficult divevault version of the trick.
Execution
Although there are a number of setups available for this trick, the general idea is the same regardless of which is used.
- Execute a triple jump or vault at the very edge of the first broken airship to the left of the door;
- At the peak of the jump, execute a well-timed cap throw and bounce;
- Perform a cap throw against the wall (some players prefer to use an upthrow) to increase Mario's height and distance;
- Wall jump off the wall, aim a cap throw to the nearest notch in the railing pattern, and dive onto the railing.
Partial Left Side
Partial Left Side is a variant of Left Side in which the tower is scaled to the left, but doesn't rely on a precise trickjump. Instead, the player must pass the broken airship that the Left Side jump is normally initiated from, and use another broken airship farther to the left to climb up to the top of the ramp. If performed optimally, this variant of the trick saves around one second over using the ramp normally, and may be easier than regular Left Side for some players.
Speedrun usage
This trick saves time in multiple speedrunning categories, since almost all categories progress through Top-Hat Tower. For categories that requires the checkpoint, a variant of the trick is available.
Full Left Side saves around two seconds over using the ramp on the right side, while partial Left Side saves only one second. This trick is usually not recommended for beginners due to its high difficulty and minimal time save.