Mario (SSB4): Difference between revisions

'''Mario''' ({{ja|マリオ|Mario}}, ''Mario'') is a playable character in ''[[Super Smash Bros. 4]]''. He was confirmed on June 11th, 2013 during the E3 2013 Nintendo Direct.<ref name="trailer1">[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvudMu-5kIU Super Smash Bros. for 3DS/Wii U 1st Trailer]</ref> He was also one of the main subjects of the Developer's Direct for ''Super Smash Bros.'' later during E3 2013.<ref name="devdirect">[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQD1yJinzeQ Wii U & Nintendo 3DS Developer Direct - Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U @E3 2013]</ref> He was among the first wave of [[amiibo]] figurines for ''SSB4''. Mario is once again voiced by Charles Martinet, who also reprises his long-time role as {{SSB4|Luigi}}, {{SSB4|Wario}}, and [[Waluigi]], albeit mostly with the same voice clips from ''[[Super Smash Bros. Brawl]]''. <ref name="treehouseday2">[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edCQDRuL8Dk Nintendo Treehouse: Live @ E3 2014 -- Day 2: Super Smash Bros. for Wii U]</ref>

Mario is currently ranked 9th out of 55 characters on the [[tier list]], in the A tier, which is at the lower end of the top tier. This is his best tier placement to date, and a striking improvement from his 31st out of 38 ranking ''Brawl'' where he stood at the top of the bottom tier and is the 5th highest ranking veteran. His primary strength is his effective frame data; most of his moves come out extremely fast and have relatively low end lag. This results in Mario being fairly difficult to [[punish]] relative to most of the cast. His combo game, while not as versatile compared to {{SSB4|Luigi}} or {{SSB4|Sheik}}, is nevertheless potent, as Mario can rack up damage quickly and reliably, most notoriously with his down throw into multiple up tilts. He also has a versatile moveset: a disruptive [[projectile]] in his [[Fireball]], a [[reflection]]-based and [[reverse]]-based move in his [[Cape]] that can counteract [[camping]], and a decent, if niche [[edgeguard]]ing option with [[F.L.U.D.D.]].

Despite being buffed significantly from ''Brawl'', Mario still has a few issues. Mario's primary shortcoming is his below average range, giving him trouble against characters with long [[disjointed]] range such as {{SSB4|Cloud}} and {{SSB4|Marth}}. Furthermore, he cannot effectively outcamp other characters, due to Fireball being relatively slow compared to some other projectiles in the game. Mario also suffers from a lack of consistent KO setups, and along side his short frame and relative floatiness for a midweight, a weakness to [[rage]] setups.

Due to his lack of severe weaknesses, as well as one of the lowest technical curves in the game, Mario has been among the most used characters in tournaments, and has achieved excellent results at top level play. Owing to Mario's incredible tournament placings, especially during the summer of 2016, many smashers have viewed Mario as one of the best characters in the game and possibly deserving of an even higher ranking on the tier list; {{Sm|ESAM}}, for instance, has notably argued that Mario is the best character in ''Smash 4'', while others claim that Mario should be lower due to his not as dominant results and his glaring range issues.

Thanks to his incredibly quick attack speed, he has a formidable close-range game, as few other characters like {{SSB4|Sheik}} and {{SSB4|Meta Knight}} are a match for this speed. His fast attack speed allows him to consistently apply pressure to the opponent, and he's capable of quickly racking up damage once he gets the momentum, which is easy to do so on characters that cannot match his attack speed without getting heavily punished for it, like {{SSB4|Palutena}}. Excluding his forward smash, forward aerial and special moves, all of Mario's moves have fast startup and low ending and landing lag (the latter in the case of his aerial attacks). All of his grounded moves are prime examples of his quick frame data: his neutral attack is his fastest move and an overall effective way to rack up damage, along with handy combo capabilities, while his up and down tilts are very effective combo starters that can help rack up plenty of damage, and the former easily chains into itself at low percentages, as well as being hard to escape. All of his smash attacks are excellent KO options, as they can reliably KO at high percentages without being endlag-heavy; his forward smash has the highest power of all of his smash attacks when sweetspotted, down smash is a [[semi-spike]], making it useful for forcing opponents offstage, and up smash is very hard to punish due to its speed, power and the fact it grants [[intangibility]] on his head.

Another valuable strength of Mario is his grab game. Even though his grab reach is only average, his grabs are among the fastest in the game, and his [[pummel]] is moderately fast and can rack up quite some damage before throwing the opponent. His forward and up throws have the same overall use: they send the opponent at a disadvantageous position, where Mario can capitalize on their mistake. His back throw is by far his strongest throw and can reliably KO below 150% near the ledge on any character, and even earlier with [[rage]]. Finally, his down throw is a notorious combo starter. It can repeatedly lead into up tilt at low percentages, or down tilts to regrab on fast fallers or heavyweights and rack up at least 20% in the process. Alternatively, it can lead into neutral attack, forward tilt, down tilt, up smash and down smash at low percentages, as well as neutral aerial, up aerial, down aerial and Super Jump Punch at medium percentages. Finally, and due to the favorable angles his moves send at, his tremendously quick frame data and his extensive amount of combo starters, Mario's combo ability is among the most reliable in the game, and it is also worth noting that seven of Mario's moves can [[lock]] (forward tilt, neutral attack's first two hits, [[Fireball]], down aerials landing hit, and neutral, forward and back aerials (the former and latter being usually effective when sourspotted, though a majority of them are only usable at low percents). This makes it almost always imperative for Mario's opponent to [[tech]] all attacks at low percentages when needed, otherwise Mario can capitalize on the opportunity, and tack on unavoidable massive damage in the process.

Despite Mario's slew of pros, he does have some weaknesses. Most characters are able to outperform him in various areas: notable examples include {{SSB4|Bayonetta}} having a more versatile combo ability, {{SSB4|Sonic}} having better mobility, {{SSB4|Donkey Kong}} having higher power right off the bat and {{SSB4|Cloud}} having larger reach. In particular, the latter two are his main weaknesses: his KOing ability is largely inconsistent, with very few guaranteed KO set-ups, and all of them being hard to confirm. While much of his moveset can get the job done, there is a noticeable gap in power between his strongest moves and his other ones, with this meaning he'll usually have to rely on his sweetspotted forward smash, up smash, down smash's back hit, or back throw to score kills, which are all further compounded by the poor reach of his attacks. As such, he cannot afford to get predictable, especially with the existence of [[stale-move negation]]. His lack of reach also prevents him from fighting at a safe distance and consistently forces Mario to approach characters. This leads into having some difficulty against characters with large or [[disjointed]] reach, though fortunately, these types of characters tend to have significantly slower attacks than Mario, meaning that this tends to be the least of his worries.  

Lastly, his recovery is rather limited. He has fast air speed, a high jump, and a very fast and safe up special in [[Super Jump Punch]]. However, Super Jump Punch does not travel a very long distance and is fairly linear, making it easy to predict. His other options also are unreliable, as Cape and F.L.U.D.D. each travel very little momentum and are extremely easy to edgeguard, F.L.U.D.D. being useful only to substitute for his air speed, and Cape only to guard break edgeguarders or wait them out. Despite this, Mario's recovery is generally very good due to its overall speed and safety.

Mario's [[custom moves]] define the fundamentals of customization, with all of them following an "X over Y" pattern. Fast Fireball deals less damage and barely causes flinching, but covers more range at a much faster pace and can further improve his already above average [[camping]] abilities as well as disrupt most attacks. Fire Orb has less range and is much slower, but deals repeated damage and lingers after being shot, allowing for potential follow-ups. Shocking Cape is [[electric]] and has actual KO power, but cannot stall in the air as much as its other variants or reflect projectiles. Gust Cape pushes opponents away, especially at point-blank range, but it deals less damage and possesses more ending lag. Super Jump grants almost twice as much distance, but is unable to hit opponents. Explosive Punch deals high [[flame]] damage, but travels a short distance at a fixed direction. Scalding F.L.U.D.D. hits multiple times and can disrupt an opponent's [[approach]] better, but is not as useful in edgeguarding and has less reach. High-Pressure F.L.U.D.D. takes much longer to charge, but its push effect is greatly amplified.

Overall, Mario has many clear strengths, and very few glaring weaknesses. Despite being intended as a jack-of-all-trades character, his very quick speed overall and largely reliable combo ability allows him to get the edge easily against most characters, as it is hard to escape from him once he gets to combo the opponent, while being easy for him to escape and regain the advantage. Because of this, he has the one of, if not the, lowest technical learning curves in the game, which has secured him high representation in all levels of play, with high-level professionals such as {{Sm|Ally}} and {{Sm|ANTi}} achieving a slew of strong tournament results.

One of the only notable nerfs Mario seems to suffer from is an overall decrease in damage output, with it now being just average. However, due to the significant buffs to both his KO potential and combo ability, this nerf is pretty negligible. Overall, Mario has received major buffs to his maneuverability and combo game, and he is considered to be one of the most potent choices for competitive play, courtesy of being easy and effective to use for beginners and advanced players alike. This has also resulted in him having the largest tier rise from ''Brawl''.