Super Smash Bros. series

Weight

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Mario's back throw speed differs depending on the weight of the character being thrown

Weight is a measurement of how much a character can resist knockback. Weight is one of several factors used in calculating the amount of knockback a character experiences. Characters with a higher weight (heavy) tend to suffer less knockback, and characters with a lower weight (light) tend to suffer more knockback, all other factors controlled.

Overview

Weight is in practice understood as how difficult it is to send a character flying away. In this sense, it is usually considered an advantage for a character to be heavy, as less knockback makes it more difficult to KO a character. Additionally, many throws take longer to execute on heavier characters, giving the opponent more time to properly react to throws and DI effectively. Because throwing heavier characters causes the throwing animation to continue longer once the target is let go, the viability of throw combos may be affected; for example, Mr. Game & Watch's down throw-to-down smash combo isn't guaranteed on heavier characters who don't tech the throw, the Ice Climbers's infinite chain grabs in Brawl are more difficult to perform on heavyweights, and in Melee, Captain Falcon is not vulnerable to many of the up throw chain throws (such as from Marth) that the space animals are vulnerable to despite having equivalent falling speed.

Lighter characters have a few advantages. Weight-sensitive platforms such as those in Mushroom Kingdom and Rainbow Cruise fall slower while holding less weight, making them safer to use for lighter characters. Many combos are less effective on lighter characters because their higher received knockback makes it easier to escape - these combos include some of Fox's waveshine combos in Melee and King Dedede's chaingrab in Brawl, where characters below a certain weight usually receive enough knockback to escape. Finally, certain weight-based throws have hitboxes that appear for very short lengths of time, and if the target is very light, the animation may progress so quickly that the hitbox appears and vanishes in less than a frame without hitting -- this causes the lightest characters to take less damage, notably with Bowser's down throw in NTSC Melee and Link's down throw in Brawl, both of which miss their pre-throw hit on Jigglypuff.

Heavier characters tend to have stronger attacks, longer range, worse recovery, bigger hurtboxes, higher falling speed, and slower movement, while lighter characters tend to have weaker attacks, shorter range, better recovery, smaller hurtboxes, slower falling speed, and faster movement. However, this is a very loose correlation that many characters defy in some way - Captain Falcon is heavy but dashes incredibly fast, Samus is heavy but slow-falling, Yoshi is heavy but rather weak for his weight, Wario is heavy but short and highly maneuverable, Zelda is light-medium with slow and strong attacks, and Falco is light with a very high falling speed and lackluster vertical recovery.

In single player modes, sometimes unnaturally high weight is introduced to challenge the player, such as when fighting Metal Mario; this is often paired with additional flinch resistance, since even characters with infinite weight will still take knockback from any attack with a base knockback greater than 0.

Super Smash Bros. weight values

These values use a different scale than the later games - heavier characters have lower numbers, representing a direct multiplier in the knockback formula. For comparison purposes, the equivalent value in the newer system is also listed.[1]

Super Smash Bros. Melee weight values

Following are the characters in Super Smash Bros. Melee, ranked in order of heaviest to lightest. The Metal Box multiplies a character's base weight by 3, the Super Mushroom by 1.6, and the Poison Mushroom by 0.625.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl weight values

This is a list of characters' weights in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Super Smash Bros. 4 weight values

This is a list of characters' weights in Super Smash Bros. 4.

According to the game, weight is the base factor in determining how many powers can be equipped in Smash Run. There are other factors -- namely a character's speed -- so it is not a direct linear correlation, but as a general rule weight definitely carries a positive correlation: the higher the weight, the greater the number of powers, with the only exceptions being Miis and the DLC fighters having a power limit of 25.

Additionally, certain updates have made slight alterations to the weights of characters, affecting both survivability and resistance to combos. These changes have not had a major effect on the metagame.

Update history

1.1.3

  • Change Ganondorf's weight: 112 → 113
  • Change Kirby's weight: 77 → 79
  • Change Sonic's weight: 95 → 94

1.1.4

  • Change Rosalina's weight: 78 → 77
  • Change Sheik's weight: 85 → 84
  • Change Zero Suit Samus's weight: 81 → 80

1.1.5

  • Change Bowser's weight: 128 → 130
  • Change Charizard's weight: 115 → 116
  • Change Mewtwo's weight: 72 → 74
  • Change Sheik's weight: 84 → 81

Notes/Trivia

  • According to Super Smash Bros. Melee's Blue Smash Trophy of Mario, his mass is the standard upon which other Smash fighters are measured. While this is true in NTSC Melee (having a weight of 100), the PAL version dropped Mario's weight to 98, which was slightly below-average. This was carried over for future installments.
  • In each game, the enemy team all have the same weight as Mario, despite each being based on characters of different weights.
    • However, one exception applies to the Female Wire Frame in Melee, who has a weight of 90. This is due to the development team copying Zelda's moveset over to the Female Wire Frame.
  • In Brawl, Giga Bowser and Wario-Man are programmed to have weights of 400 and 130, respectively; however, they cannot be knocked back, so their weight only has an effect on certain stage elements, such as Rainbow Cruise's see-saw platforms.
  • Jigglypuff is the lightest character in every Smash game except for Melee, where it is heavier than Pichu and is the same weight as Mr. Game & Watch.
    • Likewise, Bowser is the heaviest playable character in every game since his debut in Melee, with Donkey Kong being the heaviest in the original Super Smash Bros.
  • A tip in Smash 4 states that Kirby is the third lightest character in the game, and Mr. Game and Watch is the second. While this was originally true, the addition of Mewtwo, as well as Kirby's weight being changed, made this tip incorrect.
  • Some moves treat character weights as a set value (such as 100), regardless of the recipient's actual weight. An example of this is Finishing Touch.

References

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