Mario (Super Smash Bros. Brawl)


 * This article is about Mario's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. For other uses, see Mario.

Mario returns once again for Super Smash Bros. Brawl. His moveset is basically the same as the previous games, except that his Down Special Move has been changed to F.L.U.D.D., while Mario Tornado has become his Down Aerial.

His tier position (F tier) is the worst it has ever been, ranking 31 out of 37 (the lowest ranked character in the Mario series - even when sub-series characters are taken into account), compared to 5 of 12 in SSB, and 14 of 26 in SSBM, largely because his slightly nerfed range and power, lack of outstanding attributes (outside of edge-guarding), his huge lack of reach without the mobility to compensate for it, poor and unreliable recovery, his lack of reliable finishers, and reduced hitstun (meaning weaker combos) result in slightly below average matchups.

Attributes
Mario is considered a beginner character that people can learn with. This is due to him having no major size or speed flaws and is considered all around and balanced. He is a middleweight, and he is well balanced. Despite being an average-sized middleweight, Mario is one of those who King Dedede can infinitely chain grab without a wall, which is a true problem at high level play. A major offensive flaw of Mario is his lack of finishers. His only attacks that can reliably KO under 150% are his forward smash and up smash. His other possible finishers are situational. For example, his forward aerial is a meteor smash which helps him edgeguard, but it is slow and can be difficult to meteor smash with, it has quite low knockback for a meteor smash as well, but if sour-spotted, it deals good horizontal knockback that can kill off-stage foes at high percentages. The back throw, while one of the strongest throws in the game, will have difficulty KOing without being on the edge, a problem made worse by how slow the throw is, making it very easy to DI. The fact that Mario lacks a reliable finisher that is not a smash attack makes getting KOs even more difficult, due to giving him less versatility. His forward special, the Cape, allows him to turn enemies around and reflect projectiles. The cape also propels him forward a little when used in the air. Additionally, the cape reverses momentum and can be used to Cape Glide which greatly enhances his edgeguarding capabilities. His Neutral Special, the Fireball, is spammable and helps him control the enemy's approach, it can also be used to hinder some characters offstage. His Down Special, F.L.U.D.D., has to be charged up and deals no damage but pushes enemies back similar to Kyogre or Water Gun which also can be used as edge-guard on recoveries like Link's Spin Attack. This can make it difficult to recover for some characters, while for others, it is a mere hindrance. Also, it takes a long time to charge, meaning Mario must wait a good amount of time before it is effective, although it can be saved by shielding and rolling. Excluding F.L.U.D.D. and Fireball, Mario does not have many long ranged attacks. For his recovery, he can wall jump and use his Cape, along with his Super Jump Punch. Super Jump Punch, however, is a relatively poor recovery move in general and is easily edge-guarded due to its predictable trajectory (straight upwards, slightly diagonal), though, it is considered to be a great out-of-shield option. F.L.U.D.D. can also be used to push him back horizontally. His Smash attacks are quick, so he can execute them with little start-up lag. He is also known for being a good juggler with his quick attacks and aerials.

Changes from Melee to Brawl
Mario has been nerfed from Melee to Brawl. He has less options and cannot combo as effectively because of the reduced hitstun. Many of Mario's attacks are slightly weaker and/or have less range. For example, his fireballs travel considerably less distance and deal 1% less damage. On the upside, they now have slightly more hitstun and a larger hitbox. Mario now has a slightly smaller model. Mario also has a new down special move (F.L.U.D.D.) and down aerial (Mario Tornado), making his recovery worse because he can no longer preform the Rising Tornado technique. Mario's cape now reverses the enemy's momentum rather than just reversing their direction. However, it's no longer as effective as an edge-guarding technique due the auto ledge grab feature. On the upside, it is more effective in assisting recovery and disrupting the opponent. Mario's neutral aerial is weaker, and his forward aerial now requires a sweetspot to meteor smash (along with dealing 1% less damage and having lower knockback). However. it is much safer to meteor smash with due to Brawl's slower falling speed. His back aerial is also stronger. Mario's back throw now launches enemies more vertical than horizontally (somewhat like Dr. Mario) but was weakened by a rather large amount. Mario's forward smash is much more difficult to sweetspot but the sourspot was strengthen significantly, being capable of KOing below 150%.

In term of cosmetics, Mario has been updated graphically, with his overalls looking more realistic. His Fireballs look more realistic as well. While he has the same voice actor as in Melee, Mario now has a new voice, instead of having recycled voice clips from Super Mario 64. His back air now has the animation of his forward aerial in SSB. He no longer speaks during his first jump, and all of his jumps make variations of the "boing" noise from Super Mario Bros.; the pitch increases with each jump: the short ground and wall jumps make a shortened version, the high ground jump uses the unaltered standard version, and the second jump and Super Jump Punch each make higher pitched versions.

Moveset

 * For a visual representation of Mario's attack hitboxes, see this page.

* An angle of "*" is coded in-game as 361; this is called the Sakurai angle. At certain low knockbacks a character will remain on the ground and possibly trip. The angle varies from about 20 degrees to about 40 degrees based on the damage of the target.

** An angle of "-" is coded in-game as 365. It is unknown what this represents, if not simply an angle of 5.

Taunts

 * Up - Turns into Super Mario. The way he does it is how he changes in the original Super Mario Bros. (Same as in SSB and Melee.)
 * Side - Takes off his hat, twirls around, and puts his hat back on, similar to the level clear animation from New Super Mario Bros..
 * Down - Spins in the air and falls on his back, based on the dying animation from the original Donkey Kong.

Role in the Subspace Emissary
In the beginning, a trophy of Mario and Kirby are thrown into the Midair Stadium, where they come to life and have a friendly fight. The player chooses the one they want to play as. If Mario is chosen, the opponent will be Kirby, and vice-versa. After the battle between the two, the winner revives the loser, they shake hands, and wave to the crowd. Suddenly, red ominous clouds appear above the stadium, and the Halberd emerges from it. It releases Shadow Bugs which form into Primids. Peach and Zelda, who were watching the match, come to help, and after defeating all of the enemies, they are all confronted by the Ancient Minister. After seeing the two R.O.B.s setting up a Subspace Bomb, Mario runs to try and stop it, only to be blasted out of the stadium and Star KOed by a cannonball. During his descent from Skyworld, Pit finds Mario's trophy, and revives him. Once Mario recounts what happened, the two proceeded on their journey. When they reach the ground, they fight Primids across the Plain and attempt to stop the Ancient Minister from delivering another Subspace Bomb. Mario attempts to reach the Minister, but falls short; Pit also tries to get him by using a Footstool Jump on Mario, but he also fails. They then continue on their quest.

False Peach
At the shore, Kirby chases after a menacing noise he heard, unaccompanied by Peach. The abandoned princess is turned into a trophy by Bowser's Dark Cannon. A False Character of Bowser appears and dissolves, engulfing Peach's trophy. Brought to life is a cloned Peach which tries to fire a Dark Cannon at Mario. Luckily, Link destroys the gun using his Master Sword, and fights the princess with Yoshi. Mario notices them standing by Peach's trophy, which disintegrates. Enraged, Mario attempts to attack Link, but he dodges the attack. Link, Yoshi, Mario, and Pit get into a two-on-two fight. Afterward, King Dedede's cargo, stolen from Wario and already loaded with the trophies of Zelda, Ness, and Luigi, grabs Mario and Pit's trophies with its mechanical arm. Fortunately Kirby appears from behind and severs the arm with Final Cutter while reviving Mario and Pit; Kirby had realized that the noise he heard was Dedede hijacking the cargo from Wario. King Dedede turns around and tries to get away, but Pit blows the cargo's tire with Palutena's Arrow.

The five follow Dedede across some plains and follow him into the Cave, where they see Dedede's castle in ruins from an ambush by Bowser. They pursue Bowser through a hole in the castle wall. Mario and friends then confront Bowser at a cliff. Mario jumps at the Koopa, but misses with his attack. Pit fires an arrow; Bowser, while sidestepping to dodge the arrow, drops the Dedede Brooch attached to Zelda's chest. He loses footing and falls off the cliff into the Koopa Clown Car with the trophy of Zelda, where he laughs maniacally as he flies up to the Halberd.

False Zelda
At the shore, Kirby chases after a menacing noise he heard, unaccompanied by Zelda. The abandoned princess is turned into a trophy by Bowser's Dark Cannon. A False character of Bowser appears and dissolves, engulfing Zelda's trophy. Brought to life is a cloned Zelda which tries to fire a Dark Cannon at Link. Luckily, Pit destroys the gun, and fights the princess with Mario. Link notices them standing by Zelda's trophy, which disintegrates. Enraged, Link attempts to attack Mario, but he dodges the attack. Link, Yoshi, Mario, and Pit get into a two-on-two fight. Afterward, King Dedede's cargo, stolen from Wario and already loaded with the trophies of Peach, Ness, and Luigi, grabs Link and Yoshi's trophies with its mechanical arm. Fortunately Kirby appears from behind and severs the arm with Final Cutter while reviving Link and Yoshi. King Dedede turns around and tries to get away, but Link blows the cargo's tire with his Hero's Bow.

The five follow Dedede across some plains and follow him into the Cave, where they see Dedede's castle in ruins from an ambush by Bowser. They pursue Bowser through a hole in the castle wall. Mario and friends then confront Bowser at a cliff. Mario jumps at the Koopa, but misses with his attack. Pit fires an arrow; Bowser, while sidestepping to dodge the arrow, drops the Dedede Brooch attached to Peach's chest. He loses footing and falls off the cliff into the Koopa Clown Car with the trophy of Peach, where he laughs maniacally as he flies up to the Halberd.

Story Merge
They later catch up to the Ancient Minister in a desert, and after failing to stop a Subspace Bomb from detonating, barely escape the blast. Mario then leads his team at the Canyon, saving Marth, Ike, Lucas, Pokémon Trainer and Ice Climbers from a horde of Primids. The ten of them camp out for a while, until Mario spots an enormous explosion of Subspace Bombs from the Isle of the Ancients. Shortly afterward the Halberd lands, which has been retaken by Meta Knight, Lucario, Snake, Peach, Sheik, Fox, Falco and Mr. Game & Watch. Next to it is the Falcon Flyer, containing Samus, Pikachu, Olimar, Captain Falcon, Diddy Kong, Donkey Kong and R.O.B.

Mario and friends destroy the Subspace Gunship and prepare to attack Tabuu. Unfortunately, their plan of assault is interrupted by Tabuu's Off Waves. Mario is later resurrected by King Dedede, Ness, Luigi and Kirby and helps the other heroes through the Great Maze. In Tabuu's Residence, Tabuu poises to unleash more Off Waves; Sonic impedes his doing so. Mario joins the battle against Tabuu, eventually defeating him and ending the Subspace invasion.

Using Stickers
Since Mario's primary attacks are kicks and punches, Arm and Leg stickers have the widest effect. Using a Head sticker will only affect Mario's up smash (since pummels cannot be used against most enemies), while a Fire one will affect both his Fireball and his forward smash's sweetspot. The Mario Tornado is considered a Spin attack, but it's Mario's only Spin attack, so it does no good to use a Spin sticker.

Exclusive Stickers
The following stickers can either only be used by Mario, or can only be used by a select few, including Mario:
 * 1-Up Mushroom: [Leg] Attack +4
 * Bowser (Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix): [Throwing] Attack +20
 * Bowser (Mario Kart 64): [Weapon] Attack +13
 * Bowser (Super Paper Mario): [Arm] Attack +23
 * Coin: [Specials: Indirect] Attack +4
 * Dice Block: [Arm] Attack +8
 * Dr. Mario: [Head] Attack +18
 * Koopa: [Body, Spin] Attack +10
 * Lakitu (Mario Kart: Super Circuit): [Leg] Attack +13
 * Mario (Mario Kart DS): [Leg] Attack +22
 * Mario & Yoshi: [Specials: Indirect] Attack +13
 * Mega Rush Badge: [Specials: Direct] Attack +8
 * Mushroom: [Arm, Leg] Attack +5
 * Peach (Super Princess Peach): [Weapon] Attack +23
 * Peach (Mario Superstar Baseball): [Slash] Attack +5
 * Rawk Hawk: [Arm] Attack +5
 * Red Fire: [Flame] Attack +26
 * Super Mario Bros.: [Arm, Leg] Attack +15
 * Toad & Toadette: [Head] Attack +16
 * Waluigi (Super Mario Strikers): [Slash] Attack +15
 * Waluigi (Mario Superstar Baseball): [Specials: Indirect] Attack +8
 * Yoshi (Yoshi Touch & Go): [Arm, Leg] Attack +8
 * Yoshi (Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door): [Throwing] Attack +5

Trivia

 * Mario is tied with Kirby for being the most playable character in the Subspace Emissary, being playable in 9 levels. Despite this, it is possible to never play as him at any time as you are never forced to play as Mario, unlike Kirby.
 * Mario rarely smiles in Brawl compared to his games and in Melee (he didn't have a mouth in SSB).
 * Mario, Bowser, Link, and Ganondorf are the only returning characters in Brawl to have at least one completely different special move. Additionally, Mario is the only character to have a special move from a previous game turned into a standard attack in Brawl.
 * Although Mario still has the same voice actor (Charles Martinet) as in his own games, in SSBB, it is somewhat less cartoonish than in said games - the same applies to Luigi and Wario.
 * Mario, King Dedede, Ness, Diddy Kong, and R.O.B are the only characters to wear their default costumes in team battles when they are on the red team.