Rolling Attack



The weaponized use of Be the Ball. See also Spin Attack and Sphere Factor.

Not related to Unnecessary Combat Roll or Rounded Character.

Anime and Manga

 * Digimon: Armadillomon uses this in his Diamond Shell attack, specifically in Digimon Adventure 02.
 * Naruto: Choji uses this technique, notably seen with his Human Boulder Jutsu.
 * Pokémon: The Rollout move, as demonstrated by a Donphan in the picture.
 * Yu-Gi-Oh: In the Dungeon Dice Monsters arc, one of Yugi's monsters has this as a Special Ability.

Comic Books

 * Bouncing Boy in Legion of Super-Heroes.

Film

 * Hook had the Lost Boy called Thudball who did attack of the same name.
 * Anguirus in Godzilla: Final Wars attacked by curling into a ball and rolling at his enemies.
 * He also attacks this way in the video games Godzilla: Save The Earth and Godzilla: Unleashed.
 * In the film Battleship, the aliens use ~7-foot-tall wheel-shaped combat drones that attack this way, by grinding/shredding into & through targets. A single one is capable of sinking a US Missile Destroyer (though it takes a little while), and another decimates a US Marine Corps base.

Live Action TV

 * Mighty Morphin Power Rangers featured an armadillo monster called the Soccadillo (it was transformed from a soccer ball by Rita) that could do this. It was also invulnerable while curled. It's entirely possible that Wild Force's Armadillo Zord finisher is a Shout Out to this monster.

Tabletop Games

 * The card Armadillo Cloak in Magic the Gathering.

Video Games

 * Sonic the Hedgehog's signature move, the Super Spin Dash.
 * Street Fighter: Blanka. (A Hong Kong parody film used an actual beach ball painted green to depict this.)
 * Armored Armadillo's Invulnerable Attack in Mega Man X.
 * Blizzard Man from Mega Man 6, Strike Man from Mega Man 10.
 * Donkey Kong Country: Donkey and Kiddy Kong have a rolling attack, while Diddy Kong has a cartwheel attack. Armies and Bristles also do this.
 * All the 3D Zelda games give Link the ability to roll forward. For some reason, in The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time and The Legend of Zelda Majoras Mask, the action is actually called "Attack," even though the most you can attack with it is...some crates.
 * In The Legend of Zelda Majoras Mask, Link can do a rolling attack (complete with spikes) when he transforms into a Goron.
 * Gorons in The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess attack in this way.
 * Pokémon: The moves Rollout and Ice Ball. They double in power if the move Defense Curl is used beforehand.
 * The move Steamroller, introduced in Pokémon Black and White, achieves a similar effect, as well as doubling in power if the target Pokémon has previously used the move Minimize.
 * Lost Planet: The Dongos can attack this way.
 * Stone Mario in Super Mario Galaxy 2. There are even enemies shaped like bowling pins.
 * During the final boss battle from the first Super Mario Galaxy game, one of Bowser's attacks involve him first turning into a rock (which inspired the rock mushroom powerup from the sequel) to crush Mario/Luigi, and later on, using his shell.
 * Terrador uses an aerial version of this in a cutscene of The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon.
 * In Psychonauts, Raz can roll around on his Levitation ball. With the Rolling Havoc upgrade it can damage enemies as soon as he starts rolling.
 * La Mulana has blue hedgehog-like creatures which curl up and then speed through scenery.
 * In Armadillo, you have an attack which allows you to turn into a ball.
 * Felicia's Shoryuken incorporates rolling. Her Captain Ersatz from Galaxy Fight, Roomi, does the same.
 * Mostly averted in Metroid. Samus uses the morph ball to roll alright, but she doesn't generally attack by rolling (aside from the rare usage of the Boost Ball, which is mostly a mobility upgrade), rather using Morph Ball Bombs and Power Bombs instead.
 * In Action 52, the main character in Fuzz Power can do that.
 * Taken Up to Eleven in Prototype, where Alex can perform an airborne Rolling Attack to hit anything within city block range. Oh, it has homing capability as well.
 * Present in almost every Metal Gear Solid game. Raiden gets a cartwheel-like attack in 2.
 * Rammus from League of Legends has a skill called Powerball that allows him to roll like a ball with stable acceleration for some time or until he collides with an enemy. Collision will cause nearby enemies to be knocked up and take some damage.
 * Kano and his Cannonball attack from Mortal Kombat.
 * Dark Souls's Thorn armor allows you to damage foes with your dodge roll.
 * In the Turrican series, Turrican's signature ability is his ability to transform into a spiky energy wheel that can destroy many things in its rolling path. This ability was also featured in the Universal Soldier video game, which was a dolled-up Turrican II.
 * A number of Kirby's abilities incorporate this, such as Wheel, Snow Bowl, and occasionally Fire.

Western Animation

 * Ben 10: Cannonbolt is basically a free-rolling, high-speed wrecking ball.