Mario (SSBM)

Mario in Super Smash Bros. Melee
Universe	Mario
Other playable appearances	in SSB in Brawl in SSB4
Availability	Starter
Tier	E (15)

“	A well-rounded hero who boasts a balance between offense and defence.	”
—Description from Melee's manual.

Mario (マリオ, Mario) is a starter character in Super Smash Bros. Melee. He was announced at E3 2001. He returns from Super Smash Bros. without strong buffs or nerfs.

Mario is ranked 15th on the current tier list in the E tier, four places below his clone, Dr. Mario. Mario acts as a well-rounded character, with average weight, falling speed and other such attributes. Mario has above-average comboing ability, and a very versatile grab game; his powerful back throw can gimp recoveries, and his up and down throws can chain-grab. Mario also has decent edge-guarding, with Fireball (a solid projectile), and his Cape which can easily and efficiently gimp almost every other character's recovery. Mario, however, lacks a reliable finisher, and his recovery is predictable and short, though he can extend it. He also has trouble against characters with disjointed hitboxes due to his mediocre range (especially against Marth).

Attributes

Mario using his various recovery options to recover onto the stage. This is a TAS clip from Perfect Control.

As a character, Mario falls under the archetype of being of an average character, with no particularly strong or weak traits; Indeed, in terms of weight, falling speed, air speed, size, and dash speed, Mario tends to fall in the middle of these attributes.

One of Mario's strengths is his rather good combo ability. While not having an extremely high air or falling speed, Mario can easily and efficiently combo most other characters in the air; Mario has plenty of low-lag, low-knockback aerials, and the addition of a long wavedash and fast ground attacks give Mario plenty of combo potential. Mario also has a good SHFFL.

Mario also has an above average approach. Despite an only average air speed and dashing speed, Mario still has good options for getting closer to opponents. His Fireballs have good range and can disrupt opponents at a distance; differing terrains such as slopes and platforms can also give the Fireball many options. Mario, due to his average attributes in traction and falling speed, has a rather long and floaty wavedash; coupled with decently ranged smash attacks, Mario has good wavesmashing abilities.

Mario is also a surprisingly good edgeguarder. He has a meteor smash in his forward aerial, albeit it having high startup and ending lag and not being too powerful, and his back aerial sends opponents on a decent angle for edgeguarding. Mario's Fireballs can also gimp recoveries; its low knockback makes it effective in the regard. Most notably, however, Mario has what is likely the absolute best edgeguarding weapon in all the game: his Cape. When used, it can effectively and quickly gimp almost every recovery in the game; it's especially useful against linear recoveries, such as Fox's Fire Fox or Luigi's Green Missile.

Mario also has a surprisingly good grab game. Despite a rather poor grab range, Mario's throws are notable for their versatility; his forward and backward throws can easily set up gimp KOs, especially the latter, while his up and down throws can act as combo starters, as well as very effective chain grabs: Mario's up throw can chain grab fast fallers such as Fox, Falco, and Captain Falcon, while his down throw can chain grab heavy characters, as well as being able to chain grab Pikachu and Pichu up to high percents, if not to a KO.

Mario, however, suffers from some KOing problems. As he is designed to be a beginner character, Mario lacks particularly powerful or reliable finishers; while his forward smash has good range, coupled with a very visible and easy to land sweetspot, his other smashes are rather short ranged. Additionally, while Mario's back throw is strong, it requires grabbing the opponent first; this can be a challenge, due to Mario's poor grab range. Mario's single meteor smash is also rather unwieldy and risky to use.

Mario also suffers from a below average recovery. Super Jump Punch only grants average to slightly below average horizontal and vertical distance, while Mario Tornado can only grant vertical distance if the B button is tapped quickly. Mario, however, does have some options to improve his recovery; Mario's Cape can allow him to recover from the sides, and he has the ability to wall-jump, which can act as a help on stages such as Final Destination.

Changes from Smash 64 to Melee

When making the transition from Smash 64 to Melee, Mario was neither strongly buffed nor strongly nerfed. Overall, Mario is largely a much weaker character, proof as many of his previous killers, such as his up and down smashes, can no longer KO under 90-120%. However, his attacks are much faster, giving him better combo ability.

Attributes

• Walking and dashing speed have been increased.
• Mario can now wall jump, aiding his recovery.
• Due to his low traction, wavedashing improves Mario's movement options.
• Mario's green palette swap from Smash 64 is now accessible through normal battles instead of just Team Battles.
• Mario's hopping victory pose has been replaced with a new one where he produces continuous explosions (like the one in his new forward smash) from his hand.

Ground attacks

• Neutral attack does more damage; hits 1 and 3 deal 1% more each.
• Neutral attack's first and second hits now have set knockback, allowing the third hit to connect reliably.
• Dash attack deals less damage and knockback.
• Third hit of neutral attack can now clang.
• Dash attack now knocks opponents behind Mario.
• Up tilt is faster and combos more reliably at lower percentages.
• All tilts deal less damage and knockback.
• Down tilt now hits opponents vertically instead of horizontally.
• New forward smash changed to extending his palm and producing a small explosion from it instead of punching: it is faster, stronger, deals a little more damage, and has more range.
• New forward smash has a sourspot that is much weaker.
• Up smash has significantly less startup and ending lag.
• Up smash is much weaker and deals less damage, no longer being one of Mario's reliable KO moves and is no longer the strongest up smash (being surpassed by Pikachu's).
• Down smash is faster.
• Down smash damage output now consists of 16% in front and 10/12% behind Mario, instead of 17% regardless of what part of the attack hits.

Aerial attacks

• Neutral aerial has much higher knockback scaling.
• New forward aerial is an extended downward punch in front of him, which can meteor smash.
• New forward aerial is much more laggy and a less reliable edgeguarding move overall (being much weaker as well), and has less combo potential, now being one of the weakest forward aerials.
• Back aerial is more useful for edgeguarding and also has less startup lag.
• Back aerial deals less damage and has lower knockback.
• Back aerial has a new animation.
• Up aerial deals 1% less damage. The sourspot is also no longer able to combo into moves such as itself and up smash as easily.
• Up aerial's angle changed from 80/70 to 55.
• Down aerial has a much lower maximum damage output (from 24% in Smash 64 to 10% in Melee), it can only hit the target 7 times instead of 8, and is no longer a meteor smash. It can also no longer setup moves such as up aerial and up tilt as easily.

Grabs and throws

• Mario can now chaingrab using his up and down throws.
• Back throw is much weaker.

Special moves

• Fireballs has less ending lag and travel faster.
• Fireballs are smaller and deal 1% less damage.
• Mario's side special, Cape, allows him to deal better with camping and gives him a additional recovery option while in the air. It is also a deadly edgeguarding tool, making Mario one of the best edgeguarders in the game.
• Super Jump Punch can now be canceled with a wall jump near the apex of the move, further aiding Mario's recovery.
• Super Jump Punch gains much less recovery distance and deals less damage.
• The last hit of Mario Tornado no longer has set knockback, allowing it to KO at high percentages.
• Mario Tornado no longer meteor smashes. It also can only hit 8 times instead of 14, deals 10% damage instead of 14%, its first hit deals no knockback, and it now has a delay before the last hit allowing foes to escape the attack more easily. Due to this, the move is now considered nearly useless outside of recovering, and as a situational vertical launcher.

Moveset

For a gallery of Mario's hitboxes, see here.

Mario's aerial attacks.

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack			3%	Two weak punches followed by a stronger forward kick. Originates from Mario's standard combo in Super Mario 64.
			2%
			5%
Forward tilt	↗		10%	Does a back spinning kick with his right leg. Good speed, though it has short range and is lacking in power. This move can be angled up or down.
	→		9%
	↘		8%
Up tilt			8%	Does an uppercut while spinning. Good juggling move, as well as a rather good combo starter. Looks similar to the second hit of Mario's Mega Glove combo in Super Mario RPG.
Down tilt			8% (foot), 9% (leg)	Sweeps low to the ground with his leg. Very low knockback. At percentages below 100%, this move is very weak and barely stuns the foe. Above 100%, however, this move can be easily followed with a forward smash for a quick KO, though the move's short range makes this unreliable.
Dash attack			9% (clean), 7% (late)	Slides forward and sticks one leg extended. Knocks the opponent diagonally behind him. Very similar animation to Mario's dashing attack from Super Mario 64.
Forward smash	↗		19% (fire), 15% (arm)	Launches a blast of fire from his palm. The move is relatively quick and powerful. (13th most powerful forward smash in the game, KO percentage wise). When fully charged, sweetspotted, and angled up, it can KO at 72%. Note that hitting the opponent with Mario's arm instead of the blast of fire is the sourspot, and is weaker. The sweetspot has transcendental priority.
	→		18% (fire), 11% (left arm), 10% (right arm)
	↘		17% (fire), 13% (arm)
Up smash			15%	Headbutts upward. A fast, strong move with more range behind Mario than in front. Mario's head is intangible while the hitboxes are active.
Down smash			16% (front), 10% (back feet), 12% (back legs)	Performs a breakdancing sweep kick. Extremely fast, one of Mario's stronger moves. This is based off Mario's crouching attack from Super Mario 64.
Neutral aerial			12% (clean), 8% (late)	A sex kick. Mario sticks his foot out in front of him. As with other sex kicks, it does weaker damage and knockback the later it hits. 9th most powerful neutral aerial in Melee and is overall the 7th most powerful sex kick.
Forward aerial			15%	Punches in front of him with an enlarged fist. Slow, predictable and has high ending lag, but it is a meteor smash, with no sourspot. Still, it's relatively weak and not very reliable to use for an edgeguard, but can be used to send opponents into his forward smash.
Back aerial			11% (clean), 9% (late)	Kicks backward. Fast, good for spacing and edgeguarding.
Up aerial			11%	Does a flip kick upwards. Good move for juggling and comboing, but has low knockback.
Down aerial			2% (hits 1-7 & landing)	Spins around in the air repeatedly, performing a downwards drill kick. Hits multiple times and has a landing hitbox deals weak knockback. All hits can deal up to ≈12.92% when used fresh.
Grab			—
Pummel			3%	Headbutts opponent. Relatively slow.
Forward throw			9%	Spins around once, and throws his opponent forward with decent knockback.
Back throw			12% (throw), 8% (collateral)	Similar to his throw against Bowser in Super Mario 64; spins around three times and throws his opponent backward. Surprisingly high knockback, can hit enemies mid-swing. One of the strongest throws in the game, also being the fourth most powerful back throw. It can KO under 150% near the edge.
Up throw			8%	Throws his opponent upward. Good for leading into an up tilt, or starting combos at higher percentages. Can chaingrab fastfallers.
Down throw			6%	Throws his opponent on the ground. At lower to mid percentages, it can chaingrab characters with moderate falling speeds (such as Pikachu), and at high to very high percentages, it can chaingrab fastfallers.
Forward roll Back roll Spot dodge Air dodge		—	—
Techs		—	—
Floor attack (front) Floor getups (front)			6%	Gets up and punches behind him, then in front.
Floor attack (back) Floor getups (back)			6%	Swirls around in a similar fashion to his down smash.
Edge attack (fast) Edge getups (fast)			6% (body), 8% (legs)	Does a somersault and then kicks upward onto the stage.
Edge attack (slow) Edge getups (slow)			10%	Slowly gets up and kicks forward with one leg.
Neutral special		Fireball	6%	Shoots a fireball as a projectile, which travels forward and loses momentum with each bounce. Because of this, they are best used in the air, and at higher locations. They can be spammed, though with some difficulty, and are a decent way to approach. The move can be more efficient when used in the air, falling to meet the enemy at ground level, while still moving, and negating lag.
Side special		Cape	Ground: 10% (close), 8% (far) Air: 9% (close), 7% (far)	Flicks his Cape from Super Mario World forward, hitting opponents with the reverse effect, as well as being able to reflect projectiles. Very useful for gimping certain recoveries. Slightly aids Mario's horizontal recovery. Has transcendent priority.
Up special		Super Jump Punch	5% (hit 1), 1% (hits 2-8), 3% (hit 9)	Does a jumping uppercut diagonally upward, being a multi-hit attack that causes coins to fly out of the opponent. Mainly a recovery move. Additionally, if used while Mario is directly next to a wall and the control stick is flicked backward at the apex of the jump, the move will be cancelled into a wall jump without making Mario helpless, like the move normally does. It is also a great out-of-shield option. Deals up to ≈12.92% if all hits connect.
Down special		Mario Tornado	2% (hit 1), 1% (hits 2-7), 5% (hit 8 ground), 3% (hit 8 air)	Does a multi-hit spinning attack, very similar to the Spin Jump from Super Mario World. The final hit knocks the opponent straight up, and the move can rack up damage, though it has some ending lag. It can be used for recovery by rapidly tapping the B button, though this requires fast reflexes. Has transcendent priority. Deals up to ≈12.01% on the ground and ≈10.19% in the air if all hits connect.

Taunt

• Grows to a super size, as if taking a Super Mushroom power-up, before shrinking again. This also increases the size of his hurtbox. The size increase stacks with special matches and actual super mushrooms. It is the second longest taunt in Melee.

Idle pose

• Adjusts his cap.

Crowd cheer

	English	Japanese
Cheer
Description	Ma-ri-o!	Ma-ri-o!
Pitch	Group chant	Group chant

Victory poses

An orchestrated cover of the iconic "Level Completed" music from Super Mario Bros..

• Winds up for a punch and steps forward while punching in front of the screen, shouting "Here we go!"
• Makes fire explode from his palm and strikes a pose.
• Does a short spin-jump and lands in a strong-man pose, shouting "Here we go!"

In Competitive play

Matchups

Super Smash Bros. Melee Character Matchups

Avg.

Mario has an above-average matchup spread, as he is not as harshly countered by top tier characters like other mid-tiered characters are. He is countered by two characters (Marth and Jigglypuff) soft countered by eight characters, has four even matchups, soft counters three characters, counters seven (including Pikachu, despite Pikachu being 6 places higher), and hard counters one, Pichu. Mario tends to struggle against characters who can space him easily or edgeguard him, such as Marth and Jigglypuff, and tends to do well against characters who he can combo or chaingrab (especially Pichu). Overall, Mario has the tools to take on most of the cast.

Notable players

See also: Category:Mario professionals (SSBM)

Active

•  A Rookie
•  Green Mario
•  KoopaTroopa895
•  Mango (under "Scorpion Master")
•  SchlimmShady
•  Wobbles

Inactive

•  PPMD

Tier placement and history

Very early in the Melee metagame, when few players knew the potential of now-top tier characters, Mario was considered one of the best characters in the game, ranking as high as 5th on the first tier list. This could be attributed to Mario's simple but effective combo setups, strong attacks, low learning curve, and lack of any outstanding drawbacks due to being well-rounded, as well as his extendable recovery. As the metagame advanced, however, Mario's average statistics were magnified as the potentials for many other superior characters, such as Peach, Captain Falcon, and the Ice Climbers, were discovered. This caused Mario to slowly slip down the tier list as time progressed, as well as lose significant placing in large tournaments; eventually, Mango (under the alias "Scorpion Master") was the only person who placed anywhere significant with him, but even he rarely placed high enough to earn money from playing Mario, cashing in at 25th place at Apex 2010 instead of his usual top 8 placements when using better characters. On the current tier list, he ranks 15th place in the E tier; on the other hand, his clone Dr. Mario and semi-clone Luigi, who were once widely considered worse than Mario, have surpassed him in ranking.

In 1-P Mode

Classic Mode

In Classic Mode, Mario can appear as an ally in team and giant fights, a solo, team, giant, multi, and metal opponent. In Mario's appearances, he either appears on Princess Peach's Castle or Rainbow Cruise. On a team with Bowser, he appears on Battlefield and with Peach, he appears on Mushroom Kingdom II; during the battle against Mario + Bowser on Battlefield, the stage will play the Princess Peach's Castle track.

Adventure Mode

Mario is one of only two characters who can appear twice in Adventure Mode, alongside his brother Luigi.

In the game's Adventure Mode, Mario teams up with Peach against the player in the second part of the first stage, taking place on Princess Peach's Castle. If the player finished the previous segment, Mushroom Kingdom, with the remaining time registering 2 in the seconds digit, Luigi will take his place in a cutscene that will trigger right before this battle.

Later on, in the second half of Stage 11, Metal Mario will fight the player's character on the Battlefield stage, where he functions as simply a Mario permanently under the influence of the Metal Box item. If the player unlocked Luigi, Metal Mario will be joined by Metal Luigi, and they both team up on the player, making for a harder fight.

All-Star Mode

In All-Star Mode, Mario and his allies are fought on Rainbow Cruise.

Event Matches

Mario is featured in the following event matches:

• Event 1: Trouble King: The player plays as Mario and fights against Bowser on Battlefield.
• Event 10: All-Star Match 1: Mario is the first opponent to be fought in this series of staged battles. The player battles him on Yoshi's Island, which will transition to the next stage if Mario gets defeated. With a timer of four minutes, the player must defeat him along with Donkey Kong, Yoshi, Peach, and Bowser.
• Event 19: Peach's Peril: Mario must protect Peach from a slightly larger Bowser on Final Destination. Both Mario and Peach have 1 stock each while Bowser has infinite lives.
• Event 22: Super Mario 128: The player chooses any character and must defeat a total of 128 tiny Marios on Mushroom Kingdom II.
• Event 25: Gargantuans: A scenario designed as a homage to kaiju movies and their various tropes. On the Fourside stage, with unlimited time, the player plays as a giant-sized Bowser (as "Godzilla") with 1 stock against a giant-sized Donkey Kong (as "King Kong") with 2 stock. A tiny Mario and a tiny Peach are also present in this match, who usually gets KO'd in one hit.
• Event 31: Mario Bros. Madness: The player chooses any character and must fight Mario and Luigi in a two-timed match on Mushroom Kingdom. The player must have the most points within the two minutes to clear this event.
• Event 38: Super Mario Bros. 2: The player chooses any character and must defeat Mario, Luigi, and Peach in a two-stock match on Mushroom Kingdom II. Both the characters and the stage are a direct throwback to the original Super Mario Bros. 2, an NES sequel to Super Mario Bros.

Ending Images

• 

  Classic Mode

• 

  Adventure Mode

• 

  All-Star Mode

Trophy descriptions

In addition to the normal trophy about Mario as a character, there are two trophies about him as a fighter, unlocked by completing both Adventure and All-Star modes respectively with Mario on any difficulty:

Mario

Known worldwide as Mr. Nintendo, Mario uses his incredible jumping ability to thwart the evil Bowser time after time. While he's best known as a hero, Mario has played many roles, including racer, doctor, golfer, and villain. His tastes have changed over 20 years of gaming; he long ago swapped the colors of his shirt and overalls.

• Donkey Kong Arcade 1981

Mario [Smash]

Mario is a character without any glaring weaknesses and plenty of strong attacks: he's even equipped with a Meteor Smash. He's a straightforward character who'll reflect the actual skills of the player. Mario's Cape will turn other characters in the opposite direction and can also reflect missile weapons.

• B: Fireball
• Smash B: Cape

Mario [Smash]

Mass determines how easily a character can be sent flying, as well as a character's physical strength: Mario's mass is the standard upon which other Smash fighters are measured. His Super Jump Punch sends foes skyward in a shower of coins, while the Mario Tornado pulls in nearby foes, spins them silly, and scatters them every which way.

• Up & B: Super Jump Punch
• Down & B: Mario Tornado

• 

  Classic

• 

  [Smash]

• 

  [Smash]

Alternate costumes

Mario's alternate costumes in SSBM

Gallery

For this Mario's image gallery, see his gallery page.

Trivia

• A taunting Mario with a Super Mushroom in Giant Melee Mode is the largest possible character size that can be achieved without hacking.
• Mario's taunt is the second longest taunt out of all the characters, the longest one being Young Link's.
• If the Master Hand glitch is used in an event and sets a record, the score is shown on Mario.
• Mario's vocal for his down special move and back throw were used in Mario vs. Donkey Kong. This is the only time a vocal from any character in a Super Smash Bros. game was reused in a game outside the series.
• Mario's "Adventure" and "All-Star" trophies display his 2 newly acquired moves; his Cape side special, and his new forward smash.
• In the PAL Version, Mario's weight was decreased from 100 to 98. This has been carried over into future installments.