I came across this while trying to find context around the “trip” move in Super Mario 64. Although I’ve been playing the game since it first came out, I only just found out that when you crouch and hit the punch button, Mario does a sweeping kick. (You can run, crouch, and punch to enter into a slide, too.) A developer in this interview says the move was meant to counter short enemies, but those never made it into the game.
This article was previously submitted 10 years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12558589