Mario (SSBU): Difference between revisions

Mario has undergone a mixture of buffs and nerfs in his transition to ''Ultimate'', but despite being directly nerfed overall, the indirect changes to the game's engine drastically benefit his playstyle, and he has also received buffs to some of his underwhelming moves from his ''SSB4'' incarnation. As a result, it is difficult to determine if he was buffed or nerfed overall.

Mario has received a few direct noteworthy buffs. [[Fireball]] has reduced endlag, a slightly larger hitbox, and inflicts more hitlag on opponents, greatly improving its safety and follow-up potential. [[F.L.U.D.D.]] has reduced ending lag and a stronger pushback effect as a result of its increased set knockback, allowing Mario to disrupt and edgeguard opponents with it more effectively. As a result of his buffed specials, Mario's approach and already oppressive edgeguarding ability have been improved. A few of his standard attacks have received buffs as well; [[forward tilt]] is much more effective as a spacing option due to its higher base knockback, lower ending lag, and the increased [[shieldstun]] for [[tilt attack]]s. Additionally, his [[down aerial]] connects more reliably than before and deals increased damage and knockback, improving its damage-racking capabilities and KO potential. [[Forward smash]] also deals consistent damage across all angles, and when angled up or down, has increased knockback scaling, slightly improving its already impressive KO potential even further.

However, Mario has also received noteworthy nerfs. A notable detriment to his toolkit is the universal nerfing of [[grab]]s; while his throws' excellent utility and his potentially devastating throw combos from ''SSB4'' remain, the increased startup on his dash and pivot grabs, the increased ending lag of all of his grabs and the reduced range on his dash grab make it harder for Mario to make use of his potent grab game. Furthermore, his neutral game, while still solid, has been toned down due to changes to some of his best moves. For example, his [[up tilt]], one of his most pivotal moves, has an altered animation, causing the move's initial hitbox to be positioned higher above the ground while worsening its horizontal range; this not only further exacerbates his already bad range, but also significantly hinders the move's use as a reliable follow-up from his [[down throw]] at any percent against most characters, worsening both the move's combo potential and Mario's overall punish ability, as up tilt was considered to his most effective damage racking option. This is partially compensated by up throw's improved combo potential at low percents, however. His [[dash attack]], while it can still serve as a [[2 frame punish]] at the edge, is no longer capable of [[stage spike|stage spiking]] off-stage opponents, due to its late hit's knockback angle being altered to send opponents away from Mario rather than towards him; additionally, the move's new animation gives him less protection overall. Additionally, the increased knockback on his forward tilt causes the move to lose its locking potential. On top of this, [[Super Jump Punch]] sweetspots edges three frames later, to the point of causing Mario to land on the stage and become much more vulnerable if he does not use it from a far enough distance; additionally, due to the changes to [[rage]], it is much less effective for taking out stocks off the upper [[blast line]] below high percents. Finally, the changes to air dodging are a double-edged sword for Mario; while this makes Mario more effective at edgeguarding his opponents, it is conversely also easier for his opponents to edgeguard as a result.

Overall, Mario retains all of his strengths from ''SSB4'', with his extreme combo and edgeguarding abilities benefiting well from the reworked mechanics despite the nerfs to his moves, though he now possesses a slightly worsened disadvantage state to go with it. His playstyle is fundamentally different due to ''Ultimate''{{'}}s reworked mechanics, requiring players to utilize different strategies in order to achieve the same level of effectiveness that his previous incarnation was capable of. Combined with the higher playstyle diversity among the cast, this results in a slightly higher learning curve and cerebral curve. In short, despite his changes, Mario performs similarly effective as in ''SSB4'', remaining a good choice at all levels of play in ''Ultimate''.