Mario (Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U)


 * This article is about Mario's appearance in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. For other uses, see Mario. For his clone, see Dr. Mario.

Mario (マリオ, Mario) is Nintendo's eponymous mascot, returning to battle once again in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U. He was unveiled on June 11, 2013, during the E3 2013 Nintendo Direct, along with six of the Original 12.

He currently ranks 6th on the tier list, his best tier placement so far. His biggest strength is his fantastic frame data, as all of his moves have low startup and endlag. He also possesses good speed, an impressive grab and combo game, and has good K.O confirms. His weaknesses are that he lacks range and consistent KO set-ups.

Strengths

 * Balanced on most attributes.
 * Has the lowest leaning curve out of all the characters in the game.
 * A moveset that can adapt him to any situation.
 * Has no big flaws or crippling weaknesses.
 * Great mobility on both ground and air, notably having the 9th highest air speed in the game.
 * Good variety of combos, being one of the best jugglers in the game as well having flexible combo throws.
 * Has a reliable sex kick in the form of Neutral Aerial, that is great for starting combos and breaking off enemies combos.
 * All of his Smash Attacks are great KOing options as they reliably KO without having noticeable startup or end lag.
 * Has a Meteor Smash with rather high base knockback in his Forward Aerial.
 * Can Wall Jump to assist recovery.
 * Cape both reflects projectiles and flips foes, which can disrupts enemy combos and frustrate recoveries.
 * Cape can also assist in recovery.
 * Good at edge-guarding with his Special Moves.

Weaknesses

 * Has problems with approaches, as he relies mainly on Fireballs, which cannot be spammed.
 * Lacks range on a lot of his moves which causes him to struggle against characters that can outrange him.
 * Relies too much on combos to do proper damage, as their damage output alone is only average.

Summary
Mario is an All-Rounder type of character, being a very easy fighter to pick, especially for new players. All his attributes are very balanced and above average, with decent speed, weight and mobility, which added with his good variety of combos and Special Moves makes him very flexible, being a reliable well-rounded character capable of adapting to any situation. Of all of the characters in Smash Bros., Mario is the definition of well-rounded. He is a very versatile fighter, being able to deal with just about any situation.

Mario can space his opponents very well with his good mobility and Special Moves, that allows him to safely approach opponents without much trouble.

Mario's Fireball is a good projectile move; though average in speed and only having a decent range, the move is useful for putting some damage on opponents as well as other uses. Fireball has good range and speed and can poke opponents to frustrate their movement. Mario can use the move in the air to toss the fireball onto an opponent from above or he can use it on the ground to force an approaching opponent into the air so that he can hit them with an aerial attack. The fireball can also gimp recovering opponents by using it at the edge. The move can be reversed by slightly inputting the opposite direction Mario is facing and then pressing the button; this can only be reversed in the air but is a good way to surprise opponents; just don't tilt it too far or Mario will use Cape instead.

Speaking of Cape, it is a great move both offensively and defensively. It reflects projectiles and gives Mario a slight horizontal momentum when used in the air which can help with recovery. Mario will also turn an opponent around when he uses this move on them, so if an opponent is running towards Mario or attempting to attack him, he can use this on the opponent to direct them away from Mario and then grab them. Using this off-stage on recovering opponents is a good way to direct their recovery away from the stage, resulting in a K.O., especially against characters with already poor or predictable recoveries.

Mario's up special, the Super Jump Punch, travels in a diagonal trajectory and grants moderate distance, making it a good recovery move, but it can also be used offensively as well. Super Jump Punch has good combo potential, and is a great out of shield move thanks to being quite fast in execution, boasting from above average priority, and easily comboing out of down throw, up aerial, and up tilt. It's also great for getting a kill off the ceiling.

F.L.U.D.D. is useful for pushing recovering opponents away from the stage, F.L.U.D.D. can be a surprise move that has a special type of priority, as it will ignore other projectiles and push approaching opponents away to give Mario some breathing space. Nonetheless, it is still situational.

At low percentages, Mario's jab combos out of down throw; it is a good combo move as well. All of Mario's tilts have combo potential, as forward tilt is good for ground combos and spacing, and down tilt can combo into his other tilts. His up tilt is one of his best combo moves; it combos out of down throw and then into itself from low to mid-high percentages, which can then combo into most aerial attacks and up special. Mario's dash attack, depending on when in the attack it hits the opponent, launches them at different angles; it can combo into back air, neutral air, up air, and another dash attack.

Mario's aerials all have great utility. His neutral aerial stays out for a good amount of time, and is a great combo move. It also hits on frame 3 allowing it to be used for breaking combo strings. His forward aerial is a nice combo finisher and meteors, making it good for securing kills off-stage. Back aerial has the highest range and knockback out if all his aerials, making it good for spacing and easily able to KOing offstage. His down aerial is fast and a good combo finisher, and is great for dealing with juggling. Mario's up aerial is great for juggling opponents, continuing combos, and killing off of the ceiling.

Mario's smash attacks are all good kill moves that come out fast, enabling them to be easily integrated into combos. Mario's forward smash is his strongest smash attack, able to KO opponents as low as 60% when fully charged and sweetspotted. His up smash can combo out of down throw and up tilt, and is also great for baiting counters. If Mario has trapped an opponent in an up tilt string and they try to counter out of it, charge up the up smash, wait for the counter animation to end, and then punish by releasing it. Mario's down smash is good for covering rolls because of its speed and range as well as an edge-guarding tool.

Mario's throws all have their uses, whether for comboing of KOing. Forward throw can combo into dash attack or aerial Fireball, and can set up edgeguards. Up throw combos into up aerial, neutral aerial, and down aerial. Mario's back throw is by far his strongest throw, KOing below 150% when used on the edge and is great for getting opponents off-stage. His down throw combos into jab, forward tilt, down tilt, forward smash, and up tilt at low percentages, and up tilt, up aerial, up smash, up special, and neutral aerial at mid-high percentages.

His mobility also allows him to pull quick combos, making him one of the best jugglers in the game. His moves are all quite fast and considerable weak in terms of damage and knockback, meaning he can string moves in succession. One of his best tools are Up Tilt and Up Aerial; both can combo into themselves at mid-low percentages. With a combination of manipulating stale-move negation and making use of rage, Mario can score reliable kills.

However players must be creative to setting up their kills with Mario, as most opponents can overcome Mario in a specific field, which is one of his main weaknesses. As the saying goes, 'jack of all trades, but master of none.' Mario is skilled in a lot of things, but make a mistake and the opponent will be able to capitalize on it easily. Being very balanced, he doesn't really excel at any field, being outclassed by characters that have specific traits to their advantage. Notable examples include Sonic having much higher movement speed, Ryu and his brother having greater combo versatility, Donkey Kong having higher raw power, and Cloud having larger range. The lack of range causes him to struggle against characters who wield weapons which boast from disjointed hitboxes, meaning they will always have the upper hand when clashing with Mario's attacks, though thankfully they also tend to have more sluggish frame data as well.

Ultimately, Mario is the jack-of-all-trades. He can deal against any opponent with decent reliability, but is not truly a master in any specific fields. When playing as Mario, players must make use of his entire moveset and be creative when setting up combos for KO'ing rather than relying on a single kill move.

Changes from Brawl
Mario has been heavily buffed in the transition from Brawl. He is much more agile and stronger, and has become much better at comboing and KOing. His range is also somewhat higher as well (though it's still below average). However he also received a few nerfs, most noticeable in his damage output to compensate his increasing of combo setups, with it now being just average. Nonetheless, his buffs outweigh his nerfs as he is now one of the most successful characters in competitive play. This also has resulted in him having the largest tier rise from Brawl.

Aesthetically, Mario's design is retained from Brawl, but is brighter to match his appearance in Super Mario 3D World and Mario Kart 8. His Special Moves received new sound effects from earlier Mario titles. Mario's blue palette swap from previous games has been replaced by a cyan one, and he gains two palette swaps: one based on the American flag, and one based on Waluigi.

Attributes

 * Much faster air speed, going from 19th to 9th fastest in the game
 * Slightly faster dash speed.
 * Jumps higher
 * Slightly higher falling speed.
 * Reduced traction.
 * Many attacks are faster, however also weaker in terms of damage.

Ground Attacks

 * Neutral Attack deals less damage.
 * Forward Tilt deals less damage and has slightly shorter range.
 * Up Tilt has drastically less knockback, now being one of his best moves for starting ground to air combos. However, it deals less damage, and the drastically reduced knockback hinders its KO potential to the point where it will only start KOing at 200%.
 * Down Tilt is slightly faster, with less ending lag.
 * Forward Smash's fire blast has a larger hitbox, increasing its range. It also has higher knockback scaling.
 * Up Smash deals more knockback
 * Down Smash's back hitbox deals less damage but more knockback, while the front hitbox deals both less damage and knockback.
 * Dash Attack deals less damage, but has slightly less ending lag.

Aerial Attacks

 * Neutral Aerial deals less damage and knockback.
 * Forward Aerial is faster and stronger in both damage and knockback.
 * Back Aerial is much faster and deals more damage and has less ending lag.
 * Up Aerial has slightly more range and also has a different knockback angle, being much more reliable for combos.
 * Down Aerial locks opponents more easily between hits, and the last hit has increased knockback.

Grabs and Throws

 * Mario grabs his opponent with one hand rather than using both. His range is slightly higher.
 * All Throws deal 1% less damage.
 * Back Throw is faster and deals slightly more knockback.
 * Down Throw has much lower base knockback, being now one of Mario's best combo starters at low percentages, however the more horizontal knockback angle and much higher knockback growth makes it less useful for combos against opponents with high percentages.

Special Attacks

 * Fireball has higher startup and ending lag and increased falling speed, but bounces higher.
 * Cape deals less damage when used on ground, and Mario can no longer do Cape Gliding. It also stalls Mario less when used in the air.
 * Super Jump Punch gains more recovery distance.
 * F.L.U.D.D. has more range when fully charged, as well having increased push power. Additionally, it no longer shows on Mario's back after fully charging.
 * Mario Finale causes more damage and traps opponents more efficiently between hits. Its startup also drastically slows down opponents making it much easier to land the attack especially in close range.

Normal

 * Neutral Attack: Punches twice and does a forward kick. 2.5% for the first punch, 1.5% for the second punch, 4% for the kick.


 * Forward Tilt: Reverse roundhouse kicks forward.Can be angled. 7%.
 * Up Tilt: Performs a spinning uppercut. 5.5%.
 * Down Tilt: Performs a sweeping kick. 5% for the foot, 7% for the body
 * Dash Attack: Slides into the ground. 8% if clean, 6% if late

Smash Attacks

 * Forward Smash: Steps forward and thrusts his hand out, releasing a burst of fire. Can be angled. 17% if sweetspotted, 14% if sourspotted.
 * Up Smash: Headbutts upward. 14%.
 * Down Smash: Does a breakdance sweep. 10% front, 12% back.

Other attacks

 * Floor Attack (Front): Gets up and kicks behind him, then kicks in front. 7%.
 * Floor Attack (Back): Gets up and punches behind him, then punches in front. 7%.
 * Floor Attack (Trip): Kicks behind him, then in front of him while getting up. 5%.
 * Ledge Attack: Does a somersault and kicks upwards from a laying down position. 7%.

Aerial Attacks

 * Neutral aerial: Does a flying kick. 8% if clean, 5% if late
 * Forward aerial: Swings his fist in a downward arc. 12% if early, 14% if clean, 10% if late
 * Back aerial: Dropkicks while spinning. 10.5% if clean, 7% if late.
 * Up aerial: Performs a backflip kick. 7%.
 * Down aerial: Performs the Mario Tornado. 1% (hits 1-5), 5% (hit 6), 2% (landing)

Grabs and Throws

 * Pummel: Headbutts the opponent. 3.25%
 * Forward Throw: Throws the opponent forward. 8%.
 * Back Throw: Spins three times and throws the opponent backward. 11% for the throw, 8% for collateral.
 * Up Throw: Throws his opponents upwards. 7%
 * Down Throw: Slams his opponent to the ground. 5%.

Taunts

 * Side Taunt: Spins and place while taking off his hat. Based on his victory animation after completing a level from New Super Mario Bros.
 * Down Taunt: Jumps, spins and falls dead into the ground. Based on his dying animation from the original Donkey Kong.
 * Up Taunt: Grows in size and shrinks down. Based on his animation after using a Super Mushroom from the original Super Mario Bros., albeit with the new sound effect from recent Mario titles.

On-Screen Appearance

 * Exits out of a Warp Pipe and says "Let's-a go!"

Victory Poses

 * Winds up his fist and punches forward.
 * Performs a spinning jump before posing. Based on his character select animation in the original Super Smash Bros.
 * Summons fire from his hands before posing.

In competitive play
To be added

Mario
''As iconic as iconic gets, this gaming celebrity is known for saving the world from Bowser. He's got amazing jumping skills and makes use of a wide range of transformations. In his free time, he plays too many sports to count. In Smash Bros., he's a well-rounded fighter you can rely on. Say it with me: "It's-a me, Mario!"''
 * NES - Donkey Kong Classics (09/1988)
 * NES - Super Mario Bros. (10/1985)

Mario (Alt)
''Super Jump Punch is an up-special move that lets you leap high into the air, carrying any fighters you strike along with you. You'll be invincible for a moment after you launch this attack. The default side-special move, Cape, will flip a fighter around. Keep a foe from returning with this move!''

Tanooki Mario + Kitsune Luigi
''If you find a Super Leaf, Mario transforms into Tanooki Mario! His newfound tail works as a weapon and as a propeller to slow his fall. His brother, Luigi, won't turn into a Tanooki, though—he becomes Kitsune Luigi. Wouldn't want to have trouble telling the two apart, would we?''

Statue Mario
''Statue Mario is invincible and will be ignored by his enemies. If he transforms in midair, he'll do a nice Thwomp impression but he can't move! Well, unless a moving platform carries him into unlucky enemies. Give it a try in Super Mario 3D Land!''

Baby Mario
''A baby version of Mario, sans mustache, who first appeared in Yoshi's Island. Still in diapers, he mostly leaves the adventuring to Yoshi unless a Super Star is involved. If that happens, he becomes invincible and runs around with a cape--a little smooth-faced Super Mario!''

Boomerang Mario
''If you know how the Boomerang Bros. like to fight, they really aren't that tough. But if Mario BECOMES a Boomerang Bro--Boomerang Mario--what then? Will his opponents be stunned by his new moves? At the least, throwing a boomerang makes things more fun!''

Mario (With Propeller Box)
''Mario with his head in a Propeller Box. He looks like something you'd see in a parade. But wait! That propeller isn't just for show--Mario can use it in the middle of a jump to go even higher. And it'll slow his fall back to the ground too!''

Mario + Standard Kart
''Customizing your ride is part of the fun of Mario Kart 7. Choose the best frame, tires, and glider to make your own dream machine! You can come up with some outlandish combinations, but I think Mario looks best when you keep things simple.''

Mario (Gold Block)
''Oh no! Has the karma for smashing all those blocks finally caught up with Mario, and now he's doomed to wear a block on his head forever? Not at all! This Gold Block gives Mario coins whenever he runs and jumps. Cha-ching! Everyone loves getting more coins!''

Paper Mario
''The paper-thin Mario from the Paper Mario series recently quested for the wish-granting Royal Stickers. These magic stickers are for more than just collecting, though. Mario can use them to change his paper world, and nothing helps him in battle more than a stickers!''

Mario Golf: World Tour
''Looks like Mario is really on his game today! Or he just sent his ball off the course and into the trees--it's hard to tell. Getting a ball out of the rough is part of golf! It adds a bit of adventure to the game, though the undersea course in this world tour probably adds more.''