Marth (SSBB)

Marth in Super Smash Bros. Brawl
Universe	Fire Emblem
Other playable appearances	in Melee in SSB4
Availability	Unlockable
Final Smash	Critical Hit
Tier	A- (5)

Marth (マルス, Marth) is a character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Despite being a "hidden" character, Marth appears in the game's opening video, standing back to back with Meta Knight. It is uncertain whether Marth has improved or been nerfed since Super Smash Bros. Melee (in which he was ranked 4th on the tier list), as he has gained the ability to escape from most combos, the tip of his sword is stronger in most attacks, Dolphin Slash improved, and Counter deals more damage. On the downside, his standard attack combo is slower, the tip is harder to land with most attacks, his standard special is harder to hit with, and the range of his sword and grabs is shorter.

Marth ranks 5th on the current Brawl tier list (the highest unlockable character on the list), still maintaining a high tier ranking similar to Falco and Ice Climbers. He possesses long-ranged sword attacks that give him among the best reach in Brawl, allowing him to space very effectively, especially against characters with poor range. Marth also possesses attacks that are very low in startup lag and has above average mobility, power when he lands an attack on the tip of his sword (in particular his forward smash and down aerial), strong combo abilities at low percents due to his fast attacks, and a strong air game and edgeguarding abilities (with his forward aerial being very powerful at both aspects). Marth has a few flaws however. His primary recovery move, Dolphin Slash, provides decent vertical distance, but only average horizontal distance, making his recovery predictable and rather easily edgehogged. Marth has difficulty KOing without edgeguarding if he can't sweetspot his finishers due to the much weaker knockback delivered, requiring very precise hard reads to be effective. He can have problems getting off the ledge above 100% due to his ledge climbing options above 100% being poor, especially when he has RCO lag and especially against characters like Meta Knight. His options when directly above the opponent are fairly poor because his down aerial doesn't protect him very well from opponents juggling him. He also can have difficulty approaching due to his lack of a projectile. Marth has among the strongest matchup spreads in Brawl (losing only to Meta Knight and King Dedede), and has achieved strong tournament results.

How to unlock

Complete one of the following:

• Play 10 VS. matches.
• Finish Classic mode on any difficulty.
• Have Marth join the player's party in the Subspace Emissary (The Battlefield Fortress).

With the exception of the third method, Marth must then be defeated on Castle Siege.

Attributes

Marth in Brawl is basically a reprise from Melee. He retains status as a quick-footed, high-range lightweight; tall (for his weight class), with stronger aerial attacks. With a great aerial moveset and air defense, Marth is almost unparalleled in the air. Marth also retains certain qualities, such as increased power and hitlag at the tip of his blade, which defines a great part of his game. This tip is the basis for Marth's very potent down aerial meteor smash and for his down tilt edge guard. His attacks, when not tipped, are relatively weak, and hitting with the sweet spot can be difficult (although some attacks are rather easy to sweetspot like his up aerial and down tilt). Most of Marth's attacks have little starting lag and good reach, but his attacks can be easily punished when shielded and not spaced well due to often having noticeable ending lag (though his standard special has Shield damage). Marth himself lacks a projectile, but his high mobility allows him to avoid opponents' projectiles. Dolphin Slash, which grants Marth invincibility in its first five frames, allows Marth to escape chain grabs and gives him access to a powerful OoS option that can KO at higher percentages, though it leaves Marth helpless and vulnerable until he lands, making it a high risk high reward move. As a recovery, the move travels a decent vertical distance, slightly higher than the distance between the main body of Battlefield and its highest platform. Though it can be aimed to travel farther horizontally, Dolphin Slash only provides average horizontal distance and suffers from the landing lag glitch, though Marth can augment his horizontal recovery by charging Shield Breaker. The latter attack has the most horizontal reach out of Marth's moveset, and true to its name, deals high shield damage. Marth players often follow up a shield break with another fully charged, tipped Shield Breaker for a KO. Dancing Blade does high damage and counts as four attacks in the refresh counter, making it great to refresh his other moves as well as inflict high damage on the opponent, and the last hit tilted upwards can KO at higher percentages. As such, Marth is arguably one of the characters least affected by Stale-Move Negation and it is also a good out-of-shield option as it has almost no start-up lag, though like many of Marth's moves, it is easily punished if shielded. Marth's Counter, the fastest counter in the game, can be used to punish opponent attacks and interrupt combos. Marth has good standing grab reach and a very long reaching pivot grab which is combined with the fact that he can chain grab a number of characters using his forward throw (if only for a couple of throws). He also has a grab release infinite on Lucas and Ness (making him a hard counter against those two characters), a chain grab-release to a dair meteor smash (or slight step f-smash) on Squirtle, and grab release to dair, fair, or Dolphin Slash on Meta Knight (although the latter is still considered a hard matchup for Marth). On the downside, his throws are extremely weak in terms of damage and knockback (usually doing only 4% per throw, with the exception of his down throw, which does 5% and his up throw is the only throw that KOs in Sudden Death), although their weak knockback also means they can link into his other moves fairly reliably for racking damage.

Overall, Marth is a fast character whose attack range gives him very potent offensive and defensive options, especially in the air. Thanks to his safety of his moves and their ability to aggressively pressure opponents, he is one of the best offensive characters in the game. His strengths are tempered by his lack of a projectile and his light weight relative to his height, though he is heavy enough to make him vulnerable to King Dedede's down throw chaingrab. Marth also has difficulty KOing the heavier characters, especially those with good momentum canceling, due to his tipped attacks having high base knockback but low knockback scaling, which forces him to rely on edgeguarding to KO. While he has great options below 100% (best regular ledge climb in the game and a ledge jump which gives him up to +10 invincibility, allowing him to ledge jump into invincible any aerial), those options are replaced with laggy ledge get ups above 100% (with ledge jump no longer providing invincible aerials) which can be abused by several characters, especially when he has RCO lag. On the upper side, Marth himself has excellent options both juggling and racking damage on opponents who are trying to climb from the ledge thanks to his quick and safe zoning tools.

Changes from Melee to Brawl

It is difficult to tell whether Marth has been buffed or nerfed from Melee to Brawl since he received both significant buffs and nerfs. Physics changes both buffed and nerfed Marth at the same time. Marth's incredible ground movement isn't nearly as effectively as it was in Melee as Marth no longer has a long dash dance or a wavedash. Additionally Marth's overall reach is considerably smaller, with the most noticeable range reductions in his grab range, tilts, and forward smash. As a result Marth's neutral game as a whole is weakened, due to much less safe movement, approach, and poke options. Additionally, Marth's large combo potential and phenomenal edgeguarding ability were heavily nerfed in the transition from Melee to Brawl, as Marth can no longer create extended, near 0 to death juggles with the aid of platforms and also can no longer close out stocks consistently when he edgeguards due to the loss of consistency in his down air as well as Brawl physics. At the same time though, Marth's combo and edgeguarding ability, while not fatal in most cases, still remains alot better than most and the Brawl physics help alleviate one of his critical character flaws in his poor recovery. The universal nerf of mobility options also helps Marth zone out his opponents better, though the aforementioned reach nerfs and his own loss of movement options offset this quite a bit. The removal of knockback reduction with crouch canceling also greatly benefits Marth, effectively removing one of his weaknesses in Melee where many of his non-tipper moves were crouch-cancelable at low percents. His aerials are also considerably stronger when tipped and can KO much earlier, but they are however, much harder to sweetspot consistently and due to Brawl physics, cannot be set up with hit confirms. As such, while Marth has more potential killing options at high percents, he can only secure those high percent KOs by fishing for them in neutral, which given their small hitboxes and extremely low duration, requires incredible reads and thus cannot be done consistently at high level play.

Aesthetics

• All of Marth's sword attacks now make a high-pitched "whoosh" sound that varies depending on the attack's strength.
• Marth no longer speaks during his first jump.
• Marth now has a light-blue costume that he uses when he is on the Blue Team instead of his default costume.

Attributes

• Marth's air speed is slightly faster (0.9 → 1.034).
• Most of the tipper hitboxes in his attacks are significantly more difficult to land, due to their hitboxes having generally smaller size, particularly in his down aerial and his ground moves.
• Marth's dashing speed is slightly slower (1.8 → 1.7).
• Dash dancing no longer allows Marth to mix up his positioning, heavily nerfing his ground movement and neutral game.
• The removal of wavedashing has hindered Marth's mobility and approach.

Ground attacks

• Both hits of his jabs have less range. Additionally, the second hit of his jab comes out significantly slower and it cannot be buffered.
• Dash attack is 1 frame slower, and has worse hitbox placement. It also has more ending lag, less followup ability because of its now horizontal knockback, and is more punishable, making the move situational outside of a grab release option against Meta Knight.
• Up tilt is weaker at the tip and has decreased range and increased ending lag, removing much of its ability to cover tech options on platforms.
• Forward smash has significantly less horizontal and vertical range. The tipper hitbox is also much smaller and deals less damage, overall making platform tippers extremely rare and difficult.
• While the sweetspot of up smash was weakened considerably, the sourspot hitboxes around Marth during his up smash now launch the opponent into the main hitbox (similar to Roy's up smash in Melee). Consequently, the move has more horizontal range, deals 18-21% damage when uncharged and no longer needs to be tipped to KO, greatly buffing its utility against grounded characters.
• While his down smash is 1 frame slower and has weaker knockback when tipped, the non-tippered hitboxes on the front side now only KO about 5% later than tippered, which overall overrides its nerfs on the move because of it having been a situational move in Melee.

Aerial attacks

• All of his tipped aerials except down aerial can KO much earlier, particularly neutral aerial.
  • However, while all his aerials can KO earlier, they have to be spaced more precisely to sweetspot due to having a smaller hitbox.
• Up aerial, while it combos much worse at mid percents because of the new hitstun mechanics, it now hits grounded characters much easier. From 0 to about 13% (up to about 18% when not tippered), an up aerial on landing combos into moves like neutral aerial and up smash, allowing for quick early damage.
  • Up aerial also has an altered animation, where Marth holds his blade less outward.
• The floatier falling speeds allow Marth to use two forward aerials in a short hop.
• While his forward air's tipper hitbox was strengthened, it is still not particularly powerful even when fresh. Additionally, its now horizontal knockback hinders the move's ability to combo into other aerials, grab or forward smash.
• Down aerial's tipper is more difficult to land, and it's much more difficult to combo into it. As a result, the loss of a reliable sweetspot renders Marth incapable of getting consistent edgeguards. Additionally, the move has significantly less utility, no longer being a useful tech chase option, an out of shield option, or a combo starter from the ground.
  • Down aerial's animation has also changed somewhat, being swung more behind Marth than in Melee.

Throws/other attacks

• Due to throw release points being independent of the character thrown in Brawl, he can now set up a forward throw to tipper forward smash on almost the entire cast (with certain characters like another Marth and Snake requiring Shutter step) for a quick 25% damage from 0. He can also chain throw a few characters with it at very low percents, with some of them being able to be combined with his down throw, like Fox, Falco, and Pikachu.
• His grab range is much shorter as well, especially his dash grab. The removal of jump-cancel grabbing is also a particularly harsh nerf for Marth; coupled with the poorer range on the dash grab and loss of dash dancing, it is significantly harder to land grabs.
• Up throw can no longer chaingrab fastfallers at all and no longer can be followed up reliably on.

Special moves

• Shield Breaker is now a stab instead of a vertical slash, giving it much less reach overall. It is also generally weaker uncharged and fully charged (doing a maximum of 24% as opposed to 28%), is 3 frames slower, and now extends Marth's hurtbox before producing a hitbox. As such the move has drastically less utility; in particular the move no longer has any edgeguarding ability and cannot cover out of shield options.
  • It is however slightly more effective in breaking shields and can still be used as a spacing mix-up as it has more horizontal range than his aerials, though the aforementioned reach and speed nerfs hinder said mix-up's effectiveness. It also has significantly less charging time, going to around 1.20 seconds as opposed to 3 seconds.
  • Shield Breaker now makes a long light-spark sound, which becomes longer and louder depending on the attack's strength.
  • Marth only shouts when the move is fully charged.
• The revamp of crouch cancelling greatly improves the utility of Dancing Blade. It now hits on frame 4. Additionally, there is less technical precision needed to input each consecutive strike allowing it to be done much faster and easier. Barring incredible SDI, it thus fairly combos into all 4 hits reliably, which combined with its low start-up and being possible to use out of a dash makes it an excellent quick punish. It also has increased utility in being able to refresh other moves with the much more severe stale-move negation (as each individual slash counts towards stale-move negation).
• Each individual hit of Dancing Blade is weaker than its Melee counterpart. The variants of its third hit can also no longer tech-chase or KO, but he can still KO with the 4th hit variants (though not as early). The first hit can also only stall Marth in the air when used after a jump (unlike in Melee where it can stall Marth continuously).
  • The hits now link into each other better and he can now wavebounce with Dancing Blade for recovery mix ups or to escape juggles.
  • Dancing Blade's final up input now has a brand new animation, where Marth does an upward launching slash in a recovering turn, as opposed to a forward hopping more pronounced version of his forward final input.
• Dolphin Slash gives a bit more horizontal distance, and its sourspot hitboxes are stronger. It also has more invincibility frames, lasting between frames 1 and 5, improving its use as an Out of Shield option and allowing Marth to escape most chaingrabs and have a sort of second counter.
  • Marth no longer grunts when using the move.
• Counter deals 1.1x damage back with a minimum of 8% damage dealt, unlike the fixed 7% it dealt in Melee, and it no longer has set knockback. In addition, the counter has slightly faster startup being 2 frames faster.

Moveset

For simplicity, if, for example, Marth's blade does 4% damage while the tip does 6%, and the attack has no other hitboxes, it is written as 4%/6%.

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack			4%/6%	Slashes Falchion twice in front of himself.
			4%/6%
Forward tilt			9%/12%	A fast swipe upwards with Falchion while leaning forward. It has good horizontal reach and decent vertical reach.
Up tilt			Clean: 9% (blade), 12% (tip), 8% (body) Late: 10% (blade), 12% (tip), 9% (body)	Swings his sword in a large arc above his head, front to back. It has good all around reach with fast startup with small ending lag.
Down tilt			9% (blade), 10% (tip), 8% (body)	A quick crouching Falchion poke. Fairly reliable pressure tool against opponents on the ledge. Can also be used to pseudo crawl.
Dash attack			10% (blade), 12% (tip), 9% (body)	A quick upward sweeping diagonal slash. Has slow start-up compared to Marth's other attacks with high ending lag.
Forward smash			14%/19%	Rotates body counter-clockwise with a strong arc-like swing from his head to the ground. Very fast and long ranged with the knockback of the move being stronger at the tip of the sword.
Up smash		Justice Sword	4% (ground), 14% (blade), 17% (tip)	A quick, direct upward thrust. The weak grounded hit can knock nearby opponents into the main attack. When Marth hits someone at low percentages with his running up smash, it sends his opponent on a bizarre horizontal trajectory with very high base knockback. This is very effective at setting up edgeguard situations at low percentages, especially since Marth is arguably one of the best edgeguarders in the game.
Down smash			14%/17% (front), 13%/16% (back)	Sweeps his sword on the ground towards front then towards back. High vertical knockback if tippered, but its long duration makes it a seldom-used move.
Neutral aerial			3%/6% (hit 1), 9%/12% (hit 2)	Two horizontal slashes around himself. Both hits connect easily on an airborne opponent. The tip of the second strike has rather high knockback and can KO at high percentages.
Forward aerial			10%/13%	Does a forward vertical slash downwards. Although it has fairly low knockback when not tipped, it is very fast in both start-up and ending lag. Can easily be done twice in a short hop and is useful for edgeguarding as a wall of pain. It is considered Marth's best aerial and is arguably the best f-air in the game, if not the most versatile.
Back aerial			11%/14%	Slashes Falchion from bottom to top behind him in an inward swipe. The attack has the unusual property of turning Marth around when used in the air.
Up aerial			10%/13%	A forward to back upward Falchion slash in a delayed somersault. Hit from close is as powerful as the tip, being a reliable vertical finisher but from medium distance it is quite weak.
Down aerial			12%/14%	A forward to back downward outward sword slash. It meteor smashes powerfully when the tip is connected, but launches opponents horizontally when the blade connects.
Grab			—
Pummel			2%	Knees opponent.
Forward throw			4%	Grabs and pushes forward, tripping with the leg. Great for tech-chasing and can chaingrab heavyweights or fastfallers at 0% for up to usually four throws maximum and setup a guaranteed forward smash at 0% on most characters, on some characters it can hit with the tipper for more damage, and on certain characters this combo works up until mid percentages. Can also be used to setup a forward aerial combo.
Back throw			4%	Turns around and pulls the enemy over his outstretched leg, tripping them. Similar to down throw, but even weaker knockback wise and is poor for setting up due to high ending lag.
Up throw			4%	Powerful upward throw with one arm. This is Marth's only powerful throw and it can KO lighter characters under 200%.
Down throw			5%	Throws opponent to the ground. Has extremely low knockback with little KO potential.
Forward roll Back roll Spot dodge Air dodge		—	—
Techs		—	—
Floor attack (front) Floor getups (front)			6%	Sweeps his sword on the ground, front to back.
Floor attack (back) Floor getups (back)			6%	A quick stab to the left followed by a horizontal slash to the right.
Floor attack (trip) Floor getups (trip)			5%	Gets up and stabs on one side followed by a horizontal slash on the other side.
Edge attack (fast) Edge getups (fast)			8% (blade), 6% (body)	Flips onto ledge with a quick downward diagonal slash.
Edge attack (slow) Edge getups (slow)			10%	Slowly gets up and performs a quick horizontal slice.
Neutral special		Shield Breaker	Uncharged: 8%/9%; Fully charged: 18% (arm) 20% (hilt), 22% (blade), 24% (tip)	Marth charges up Falchion at chest level before powerfully thrusting it forward. Deals a lot of shield damage when fully charged.
Side special		Dancing Blade	Varies	A sequence of Falchion slashes with several variations based on control stick tilts.
Up special		Dolphin Slash	13% (clean), 7% (late sword), 6% (late body)	Marth performs a rapid jumping slash that can be reversed. Has a powerful sweetspot located in the first few frames.
Down special		Counter	1.1x (min 8%)	Marth assumes a defensive stance and retaliates against incoming attacks. The power of the counterattack scales with the strength of the attack blocked.
Final Smash		Critical Hit	60%	Marth lunges in one direction, attacking the first opponent. Immense knockback, enough to one-hit KO any character.

Dancing Blade

Hit	Damage	Description
First Hit (Neutral)	3%/4%	Does a vertical slash, has little knockback: incapable of KOing.
Second Hit (Up)	3%/4%	Does an upwards slash. Deals slightly more knockback than the upper slash.
Second Hit (Neutral)	3%/4%	Does a stab, has a little more knockback than the first slash.
Third Hit (Up)	4%/5%	Does a weak vertical slash.
Third Hit (Neutral)	4%/5%	Does a fairly powerful horizontal slash. KOs at around 120%.
Third Hit (Down)	4%/5%	Stabs at the ground. Can meteor smash airborne opponents.
Fourth Hit (Up)	6%/8%	Does a very powerful upper slash. KOs at around 100%
Fourth Hit (Neutral)	6%/8%	Does a very powerful vertical slash. KOs at around 100%
Fourth Hit (Down)	2% (hit 1-4), 3%/5% (hit 5)	Does a flurry of lower stabs. Hits 5 times.

Taunts

• Up Taunt: Points his sword in the air, where it shines. Similar to his stance before performing a critical hit in Fire Emblem.
• Side Taunt: Slashes his sword twice in front of himself, then sheathes it.
• Down Taunt: Twirls his sword, then raises it in front of him saying "みんな、見ていてくれ！," which is Japanese for "Everyone, look at me!" (same in Melee).

On-screen appearance

• Warps onto the stage using warp magic with a twirl and unsheathes his sword.

Idle poses

• Holds his chest and takes a breath.
• Brushes hair out of his face.

Cheer

Marth's NTSC and PAL cheer

File:Marth Cheer Jap Brawl.ogg

Marth's Japanese cheer

NTSC and PAL: Marth-Marth-Marth!
Japanese: Mar-th!

Wii Remote selection sound

Marth's Wii Remote selection sound

Marth swings his sword and shouts.

Victory theme

A small orchestral cover from the title theme of the first Fire Emblem game. It is shared with Ike.

Victory poses

• Sheaths his sword and says "今日も生き延びることが出来た。", which translates to: "Today I have survived."
• Turns with pride, spins his sword, then clashes it to the ground and says "今回は僕の勝ちだね。", which translates to: "This time it's my victory, isn't it?"
• Poses with his sword sheathed and his right arm out and says "僕は負ける訳には行かないんだ!", which translates to: "There's no way I can lose!"

In competitive play

Matchups

Super Smash Bros. Brawl Character Matchups

Avg.

According to the SWF Matchup chart, Marth's Matchup spread is the fourth highest weighted and unweighted rank. Marth has two soft counters, 9 even matchups, soft counters 10 matchups, counters 8, and hard counters 7. Marth has a lot more even matchups than the other top tiers, but has the tools to beat almost any character. Marth has a very strong air game, his Fair is incredible in almost any situation, whether it be for camping, edgeguarding, or comboing. His ground game, while not as good, is acceptable. His down tilit is fast, strong, and lets him move. Marth can easily wall out characters like Wario and Pikachu, because of their relatively short ranged attacks and lower KO power, but struggles against characters like Meta Knight because of Marth's dependence on edgeguarding. Since Meta Knight has an ungimpable recovery, Marth can't edgeguard MK, removing some of his most important capabilities. He also has trouble against King Dedede, because of his chaingrab, strong recovery, and amazing longevity, forcing Marth to land tippers. Overall, Marth has amazing matchups all around, but more even ones than most other top tiers.

Notable players

See also: Category:Marth professionals (SSBB)

•  Anaky
•  Leon
•  mikeHAZE
•  Mikeneko
•  Mr. R
•  NEO
•  Zex

Tier placement and history

Similarly to Falco, Marth has remained a top tier character even after his transition from Melee. Throughout Brawl's history, Marth has always hovered around the 5th to 7th place positions due to his positive traits as well as his strong representation in tournaments. When Olimar and the Ice Climbers began to rise, Marth's position slipped back to 7th place, with some thinking he would fall further as professionals of characters below him, such as Zero Suit Samus, would discover new innovations in their metagames, while Marth's would remain mostly stagnant due to his simplistic playstyle. However, Marth still did rise back to 5th place for the current Brawl tier list. There are smashers who dispute this placement, stating that Marth is placed far too high; some (such as Keitaro and Mew2King) claim that Marth's nerfs going into Brawl overwhelmed his buffs, and that because his combo ability was completely compromised in the transition, he was a bad character in theory and should be ideally placed around middle tier. However, strong tournament results from Marth professionals such as Mr. R and Mikeneko in high-level tournaments such as Apex 2013 have caused the Brawl Back Room to place Marth in 5th above Falco and Snake.

Role in The Subspace Emissary

Marth in SSE

Two R.O.B.s activate a Subspace Bomb in a barren battlefield. Marth is seen atop his castle watching helplessly as the robots detonate the bomb. He stands and shines Falchion, prepared to fend off the hundreds of Primids advancing toward the castle. Marth confronts the Primids, descending through the building until he reaches the grounds. There he is ambushed by Meta Knight. During the duel (in the same video sequence), they are attacked from behind by a group of Primids, at which point they simultaneously jump into the air, slicing the Primids in two with their swords. Realizing that they share a common enemy, they join forces to defeat the Primids. After fighting against the Primids, both Meta Knight and Marth aim their attacks at the Ancient Minister, who is carrying another Subspace Bomb. Marth misses with Dolphin Slash, while Meta Knight's wing is ignited by a laser shot from the fleeing Ancient Minister. Ike then shows up and dismantles the Ancient Minister's Subspace Bomb with his trusted Aether move. With the Subspace Bomb destroyed, the trio storm the castle once more.

In the desert, they see a vehicle driving off in the distance. Ike immediately jumps off the cliff to pursue it, followed by Meta Knight. Marth merely scratches the back of his head in disbelief before following them. When they find the vehicle, it transforms into Galleom, and the three fight it. The defeated Galleom falls through unstable ground, where it encounters Lucas and Pokémon Trainer in the Ruined Hall. Now severely weakened after being fought again, it grabs Lucas and the Trainer in an attempt to detonate an emergency Subspace Bomb, but Lucas manages to free himself and Pokémon Trainer from Galleom using PK Thunder, commencing a headfirst freefall. Meta Knight catches Lucas and the unconscious Trainer right before they hit the ground and meets them up with Marth and Ike. When the Halberd crashes the Great Fox into a mountain, Marth is unable to catch up with Meta Knight, who is climbing the mountain. Later, the Ice Climbers fall down and befriend Marth, Ike, Lucas, and Pokémon Trainer, only to be rained on by Shadow Bugs from the Halberd above. Mario, Pit, Kirby, Link and Yoshi come to aid them in fighting off the Primids that were dropped. After the battle, the Halberd (now under control of Meta Knight, Snake, Lucario, Zelda, Peach, Fox, Mr. Game & Watch, and Falco) and the Falcon Flyer (carrying Captain Falcon, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Olimar, Samus, Pikachu and R.O.B) land to pick them up.

Marth and friends destroy the Subspace Gunship (though the Halberd was downed in the process). They enter Subspace and encounter Tabuu, who turns them all into trophies. Fortunately he, and some of the others, are revived by King Dedede, Luigi, and Ness, while the rest are revived by Kirby. Marth helps the heroes in the showdown against Tabuu.

Playable appearances

• The Battlefield Fortress
• The Wilds (Part I)
• Entrance to Subspace
• The Great Maze - if he's rescued in Subspace (Part I)

Exclusive stickers

The following stickers can only be used by Marth or Ike:

• Ninian: [Arm, Leg] Attack + 6
• Lilina: [Leg] Attack + 5
• Mist: [Slash] Attack + 8
• Deke: [Slash] Attack + 9
• Eirika: [Slash] Attack +17
• Ike (Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn): [Slash] Attack +27
• Rutoga: [Slash] Resistance +12
• Ashnard: [Slash] Resistance +34
• Shiida: [Specials: Direct] Attack + 7
• Greil: [Throwing] Attack +14
• Marth: [Weapon] Attack +19
• Micaiah: [Weapon] Attack +21
• Ike:(Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance) [Weapon] Attack +23
• Eliwood: Flame Resistance +33

In Event Matches

Solo Events

• Event 31: The Ultimate Bodyguard: Marth must defend Zelda and defeat two Ganondorfs on Castle Siege. Zelda remains in her crouching position until the third background change, where she'll transform into Sheik and assist Marth.
• Event 34: All-Star Battle Melee: Marth is one of the opponents fought in this event. All opponents are newcomers from Super Smash Bros Melee.

Co-op Events

• Co-Op Event 11: The Great Remodeling Battle: Luigi and Peach must fight Marth and Ike and collect 300 coins without destroying any of the breakable pillars on Luigi's Mansion.
• Co-Op Event 13: Blades of the Quick and Mighty: Marth and Ike must defeat Link, Meta Knight, and Ganondorf on Temple.
• Co-Op Event 21: The True All-Star Battle: Both players select a character and take on the entire roster on Battlefield.

Trophies

Marth's main and Final Smash trophies can be obtained by clearing Classic Mode and All-Star mode respectively with Marth.

Trophy descriptions

Marth

The prince of Altea, in whose veins the blood of heroes runs. He and a small group of stalwarts fought to free Altea after it was invaded by the kingdom of Doluna and the dark dragon, Medeus. With his divine sword, Falchion, he fought and defeated Medeus. However, Altea was then invaded by King Hardin of Akaneia and eventually destroyed.

: Fire Emblem (Japan Only)

Critical Hit

Marth's Final Smash. He thrusts his sword skyward, then rushes to meet his targeted enemy with furious speed. The blow he strikes is so powerful that his foe is instantly launched off the screen. As in Fire Emblem, a window appears that shows the character's hit points dropping rapidly to zero—but this is just for effect. Smash Bros. does not use a hit-point system.

: Super Smash Bros. Brawl

• 

  Classic Mode trophy

• 

  Critical Hit trophy

Alternate costumes

Marth's alternate costumes in Brawl.

Trivia

• Marth uses his sword in all of his attacks except his pummels and throws.
• Marth is the highest rated character in the Prima Official Game Guide for Brawl, receiving a 9/10.
• Marth's back air turns his whole body around to face the other way; it is the only aerial in the game to do this.
• Marth is the first unlockable character to join the player's party in the Subspace Emissary, though he is not the first to be played, as Ness is temporarily available in a previous stage.
• Marth's sword trail animations on his aerial attacks will only play if done at the peak or near the peak of his jump and midair jump, when attacking after or before the peak of a jump Marth's sword will simply glow and leave no trail, except on his up aerial. Note this can only happen on a stage in Stage Builder and also happens to Ike.
• Marth is the only character that speaks Japanese in English-language Brawl game (with exceptions of Kirby copying Jigglypuff's ability, where Kirby shouts "Purin!", Jigglypuff's Japanese name). This is so because the only Fire Emblem games he appeared in were only released in Japan at the time of Brawl's release.
• Bowser, Meta Knight, and Marth can all perform the floor glitch.

External links

• Marth's Smash DOJO!! page
• Marth Character Guides at SWF
• Marth's hitbox size of each of his moves
• Marth's Moves - History Behind Super Smash Bros. Brawl, by CrappyCaptureDevice