Luigi (SSB)

Luigi in Super Smash Bros.
Universe	Mario
Other playable appearances	in Melee in Brawl in SSB4 in Ultimate
Availability	Unlockable
Tier	C (12) (North America) ? (11) (Japan)

Luigi (ルイージ, Luigi) appears in Super Smash Bros. as one of the four unlockable characters. He is a clone of Mario, keeping most of his moves and animations, though differing in terms of attributes. Like him, Luigi is voiced by Charles Martinet, albeit his voice clips' are merely higher pitched versions of Mario's voice clips.

Luigi ranks 12th on the tier list, placing him at the bottom of the C tier and the entire tier list itself and is his worst tier placement in the series. Luigi's combo ability is varied and versatile, and they can be followed by his most devastating finisher, the Super Jump Punch. He also has a long distanced recovery. However, his weaknesses are extremely overwhelming: he has very slow movement speed, with the slowest traction, dashing, and air speeds, along with the third lowest falling speed and gravity. Despite the latter attribute giving him great jumping prowess, it also gives him a high short hop. Like Mario, his reach is poor, giving him trouble at hitting opponents. Altogether, these attributes result in very weak and almost complete lack of offensive options in the neutral game, despite having Fireball as a projectile. While being a clone in terms of attacks, some of his attacks are much weaker, an exception to it being Super Jump Punch, which is hard to land without confirming a combo into it. Lastly, his recovery is predictable despite being long distanced, and he is easier to gimp because of his lower air speed. As a result of these attributes, he has almost no dedicated players in competitive play, and suffers from poor tournament results.

How to unlock

Complete Break the Targets with all eight of the starter characters, then defeat Luigi on Peach's Castle.

Attributes

Luigi's ending picture in Super Smash Bros.

Luigi is notable for being the only full clone in Smash 64. Many of his attacks, pros, and cons are similar to Mario's, although there are differences. Luigi's main problem is his terrible physics - a combination of slow dashing speed, very slow air speed, low traction, and low falling speed gives him very poor mobility and big trouble approaching, even with a projectile in his Fireballs. He also has a high short hop and short range.

Luigi has a very good recovery - despite being on the more predictable side, his jump is high and Super Jump Punch travels a long vertical distance, with Luigi Cyclone being an additional recovery option (though it requires rather fast button mashing to give distance). However, Luigi Cyclone can be used at different times to mix up his recovery.

Luigi's Fire Jump Punch is a very powerful KO move, and it can be comboed into with any of his aerials sans neutral aerial. Despite this, however, Luigi generally cannot combo well due to his very low air speed. His down aerial is his main combo move, and is excellent at that job, dealing very high damage (24% total), and being able to lead into an up aerial to continue the string (Luigi can do this combo to higher percents than Mario due to his higher jump), but being a multi-hit attack, it can be SDI'd out of, hindering its effectiveness. Luigi's short hopped up aerial to down aerial combos are typically considered the best way to rack damage at base to low percents. Though, having higher knockback, Luigi's up tilt is a slightly better combo move at base percentages than Mario's. His up tilt can chain into itself easily at low to moderate percents, can combo into aerials, and is an effective move to use for juggling along with his up aerial. Luigi has the highest initial jump in the game, which can be a good thing on stages like Hyrule Castle, but it gives him a high short hop, which further hinders some of his combo ability, especially since it's also rather slow.

While slightly weaker than Mario overall, Luigi still has many strong KO moves to his name by virtue of most of Mario's strong ones being untouched for Luigi's versions. Even outside the Fire Jump Punch, Luigi can still KO effectively with his up smash, Luigi Cyclone, and back throw (the former of which is the strongest alongside Mario's and Jigglypuff's, being able to KO at as low as 73% on Dream Land, and the latter being able to KO and edgeguard effectively) His down smash is also a powerful move, with its two hits being spread out over a somewhat long duration, allowing it to easily read defensive options such as rolls, and also being able to hit characters on the edge. His forward throw and forward smash are both usable for KOs near the ledge (with the former in fact being stronger than Mario's, but the latter is weaker).

To his credit, Luigi is a good edgeguarder, courtesy of Mario's edgeguarding tools being mostly untouched for Luigi's versions. His forward aerial can semi-spike, and it has multiple hits. Luigi's back aerial has more range, but is slower than Mario's, but is still a solid KO move, and it along with forward aerial can be used to space. As mentioned earlier, his down aerial can drag opponents down if used repeatedly, due to being a high damage, set knockback meteor smash. However, some fighters (Pikachu, Kirby, Mario and other Luigis) are able to escape. His neutral aerial, while inferior to back aerial in terms of power and range, may be used to edgeguard whenever Luigi is in the situational position to use it after a combo, like Mario's. The Luigi Cyclone can pseudo-spike most characters as an edgeguarding technique, but this is ineffective against characters who can recover from it quickly, including Pikachu, Mario, and other Luigis.

Luigi overall has poor matchups, being heavily countered by Pikachu and having a 40-60 matchup against six characters in the game. He does however have an even matchup against Yoshi and Donkey Kong, and he also does well against Samus and Jigglypuff, hard countering the latter due to his Fire Jump Punch.

In doubles

Overall, Luigi is considered a decent mid-tier in doubles. With a teammate to distract opponents, Luigi gains several opportunities for devastating Fire Jump Punch combos, and his poor approach can be covered by a fast teammate like Fox. Luigi's primary weaknesses are his poor range and poor air speed, which is why he is usually partnered with a character who can cover those disadvantages (like Captain Falcon or Pikachu). He is considered a great combo with Mario due to their combo and KOing options being nearly identical, allowing them to combo extensively.

Differences from Mario

Luigi has slower mobility, less combo ability, a worse approach game, and marginally lowered power compared to Mario. However, he has more range, slightly faster frame data, a better jump, and an additional combo finisher in his Super Jump Punch. He also has a different down tilt and dash attack and differently functioning specials than Mario, as well as a taunt with a hitbox.

Aesthetics

• Luigi's taunt is different, being a bashful kick to the ground. It is significantly faster and can actually hurt opponents, dealing high fixed knockback and 1% damage if it connects.
• All of Luigi's victory poses are different.
• Luigi's fighting stance is unique.

Attributes

• Luigi's falling speed is slower than Mario's (44 → 42), hindering his vertical endurance, but improving his recovery.
• Luigi dashes slightly slower than Mario (44 → 40).
• Luigi jumps much higher than Mario, improving his recovery and making it easier to pull off aerial combos. However, this somewhat impairs his grounded combo ability due to giving him a much higher short hop.
• Luigi has much slower air speed than Mario (30 → 22.5), hindering his recovery and aerial maneuverability.
• Luigi has significantly lower traction than Mario (0.7 → 1.5), giving him much less ground control.

Ground attacks

• The third hit of Luigi's neutral attack has a longer duration (frames 3-7 → 3-8).
• Luigi's has a different dash attack; a flurry of weak punches. It has less startup lag (frame 8 → 3).
• Luigi's dash attack accelerates slower.
• Luigi's dash attack has more ending lag (FAF 41 → 61).
• Each hit of dash attack deals low set knockback, making it much less effective and reliable.
  • Altogether, these changes make Luigi's dash attack significantly less effective than Mario's.
• Luigi's forward tilt has a shorter duration (frames 8-17 → 8-12).
• Luigi's forward tilt deals less damage (14%/13%/12% → 10%), hindering its KO potential.
• Luigi's up tilt's hand hitbox is slightly larger (140u → 145u).
• Luigi's up tilt launches opponents at a slightly lower angle (86° → 80°).
• Luigi's has a different down tilt, a quick low quick rather than a sweep kick. It has less startup lag (frame 5 → 3) and much less ending lag (FAF 40 → 18) than Mario's down tilt.
• Luigi's down tilt has a shorter duration (frames 5-11 → 3-6).
• Luigi's down tilt has much less range due to its new animation.
• Luigi's down tilt deals much less damage (12% → 7%), greatly hindering its KO potential.
  • However when combined with its much faster speed, this improves its combo potential.
• Luigi's forward smash has less ending lag (FAF 54 → 42), significantly improving its safety.
• Luigi's forward smash deals less damage (18%/17%16% → 16%/15%/14%), hindering its KO potential.
• Luigi cannot angle his forward smash slightly up or down unlike Mario. If he attempts to slightly angle his smash attacks, he will perform the fully angled versions.
  • This particularly hurts the move when slightly angled down as Luigi's down angled version deals much less damage than Mario's slightly down angled version (17% → 14%).
• Luigi's up smash has a larger hitbox (190u → 200u).

Aerial attacks

• Due to his higher short hop, Luigi can perform all of his aerials twice in a short hop except for forward aerial. He can also auto-cancel up aerial if he performs two of them in a short hop. However, this makes his down aerial less effective for combos and gimping when combined with his slower falling speed.
• Late neutral aerial has a heavy kick sound when it connects rather than a medium kick sound.

Throws/other attacks

• Luigi's grab has a different animation, which overall gives it slightly less range.
• Forward and back throw's damage outputs and base knockback are reversed.

Special moves

• Luigi's Super Jump Punch has a sweetspot in the first frame of the move, which deals 25% damage and extremely high knockback. It also has a slightly longer duration (frames 2-23 → 2-24).
  • However, it possesses a sourspot which deals 1% damage and no knockback at all, making it much less safe as a recovery move. Additionally, the move has reduced intangibility.
• Luigi Cyclone only possesses two hitboxes which deal 15% and 18%, respectively, and it is not a multi-hitting move. These hitboxes do not deal set knockback, granting the move KO potential. It also requires less button mashing to rise and has slightly more vertical distance, making it a better recovery option.
• Luigi Cyclone cannot meteor smash airborne opponents, hindering its edgeguarding ability.
• Luigi's Fireball is not affected by gravity, improving its zoning ability but hindering its approaching potential and altering its usage for gimping; additionally, the fireball is green instead of red.
• Luigi’s Fireball travels slightly less distance than Mario’s.

Differences between game versions

In his transition to NTSC-U, Luigi underwent many changes, both positive and negative, which makes him slightly less of a clone than Mario. However, he was ultimately nerfed due to his lower mobility and the higher SDI presence. Despite this, he ironically has better matchups in the NTSC-U version, due to the changes to SDI also nerfing several character's combo options. Altogether, he is a worse character than in the Japanese version, but fares better due to the different gameplay mechanics, though not by much.

Attributes

• Luigi is very slightly bigger (1.0x → 1.12x).
• Luigi's head hurtbox dimensions are very slightly smaller ({155,200,150} → {155,160,150}).
• Air speed is reduced (26.0 → 22.5).
• Rolls travel farther.

Throws

• Forward Throw does more damage (12% → 16%), making it much stronger despite its reduced base knockback (80 → 70).
• Back Throw does less damage (16% → 12%), hindering its KO potential despite its increased base knockback (70 → 80).

Special attacks

• Fireballs deal less knockback (22 (base), 50 (scaling) → 10/25) and have a shorter duration (frames 16-104 → 16-94).
• Fire Jump Punch's grounded sweetspot deals less knockback (100 (base), 78 (scaling) → 90/80), hindering its KO potential despite its altered angle (80° → 90°).
• Aerial Fire Jump Punch's sweetspot deals more damage (24% → 25%) and has more knockback scaling (78 → 80).
• Aerial Fire Jump Punch's sourspot deals less damage (2% → 1%).
• Super Jump Punch effectively covers more distance due to Luigi's larger size.
• Fire Jump Punch's sweetspot now has a ping sound rather than a heavy kick sound.

Moveset

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

Luigi's aerial attacks.

		Name	Damage	Description
Neutral attack			2%	Two punches and a kick. This move is a natural combo. Taken directly from Mario's attack combo in Super Mario 64.
			2%
			4%
Forward tilt			10%	Luigi kicks forwards. The move is similar to Mario's, except it is considerably weaker. Decent spacing move but it is not particularly fast or strong, not KOing until very high percent. Can be angled.
Up tilt			10%	Luigi does an uppercut. It is almost the same as Mario's except for a few minor hitbox differences, giving it many of the same uses as Mario's uppercut in that it is a good combo starter at mid percents, chains into itself, and can KO at high percentages.
Down tilt			7%	Luigi performs a quick low kick. Low knockback and range, although it is very fast. It can lead into a Super Jump Punch at certain percents and it is safe on shield.
Dash attack			2% (hits 1-6), 12% (total)	Six hits, 2% per hit. Due to a developer oversight, there is no finishing hit, and coupled with some ending lag, this move is easily punished.
Forward smash	↗		16%	Luigi winds up his fist for a bit and then punches with an enlarged fist. It is the weakest forward smash in the game. Using it in a short step will cause Luigi to slide forward a short distance. Has less power than Mario's, but it also has less ending lag, making it slightly better overall.
	→		15%
	↘		14%
Up smash			19%	Luigi lunges his head upwards in an arc. It is mostly the same as Mario's, except it has a slightly larger hitbox. Very powerful vertical finisher; tied with Mario, Donkey Kong Jigglypuff for strongest up smash in the game. Can KO Mario as low as 73% on Dream Land at ground level.
Down smash			17%	Luigi performs a double sided breakdance leg sweep. It has good power and decent speed/range. It is the same as Mario's version.
Neutral aerial			14% (clean), 11% (late)	Does a sex kick, which gets weaker over time.
Forward aerial			16% (clean), 10% (late)	Luigi sticks his feet out in front, his body aimed forward with them, and spins. Has slow startup lag but it has a decently powerful hitbox when it first comes out.
Back aerial			16% (clean), 10% (late)	Luigi thrusts his feet back and flips. Similar to forward aerial except it has slightly lower startup and a shorter lasting hitbox. Good for edgeguarding, and has good power.
Up aerial			12% (clean), 9% (late)	Luigi performs a flip kick. It comes out on frame 2, making it the fastest aerial in the game in terms of startup lag (along with Mario's up aerial). Knockback direction depends on which angle the foe was hit on. Lower power than most of his moves, but an effective juggling and combo move.
Down aerial			3% (hits 1-8), 24% (total)	Luigi performs a drill kick, 8 hits, 3% per hit for a total of 24%. A useful meteor smash; Similar to Jigglypuff's down aerial, it can be used multiple times to ensure that the foe is unable to recover. It has slow startup lag but minimal ending lag compared to other drill kills. Can combo into itself and up aerial/Super Jump Punch easily. It also has solid shield pressuring potential due to its low ending lag. Like other drills, it is heavily SDIable however.
Grab			—
Forward throw			16%, 12% (NTSC-J)	Same as Mario, swings foe once and tosses them in front with good power.
Back throw			12% (throw), 16% (NTSC-J throw), 10% (collateral)	Swings three times and tosses foe behind with excellent KO power, a throw from Super Mario 64.
Forward roll Back roll		—	—
Techs		—	—
Floor attack (front) Floor getups (front)			6%	Leg sweeps and gets up, similar to his down smash.
Floor attack (back) Floor getups (back)			6%	Leg sweeps and gets up, similar to his down smash.
Edge attack (fast) Edge getups (fast)			6%	Gets up and somersaults.
Edge attack (slow) Edge getups (slow)			6%	Slowly gets up and kicks.
Neutral special		Fire Ball	6%	Throws a green fireball as a projectile. Unlike Mario's, it is not affected by gravity and travels forward perfectly straight, even in midair.
Up special		Super Jump Punch	25% (sweetspot), 24% (NTSC-J aerial sweetspot), 1% (sourspot), 2% (NTSC-J sourspot)	Does a jumping uppercut. Although it is visually similar to Mario's, it functions very differently. If Luigi is right next to the opponent and does it, it will become a Fire Jump Punch, a move with high damage and powerful knockback, able to KO Jigglypuff at rather low percentages. It can also be combo'd into from a down aerial, or a forward aerial hitting with the weak hitbox (on Luigi's feet). Otherwise, the sour spot deals almost no damage and knockback, leaving Luigi extremely vulnerable. Luigi has some devastating combos involving the Fire Jump Punch. Like Mario's, it is a good recovery move.
Down special		Luigi Cyclone	15% (loop), 18% (final hit upon landing)	A spinning attack that resembles the Spin Jump from Super Mario World. Unlike Mario's, it has only two hits: one at the beginning, and one at the end (only when he lands; the attack will remain having one hitbox while he's in the air). Once he lands, his hitboxes will become inactive except for the second hit, making him very punishable. If two hits connect, it will deal a total of 26-33% damage. If the B button is pressed repeatedly in midair, Luigi will rise upwards. It has vertical KO power at percentages under 100% when used close to the upper blast line, and can be used as a followup to an up aerial.
Taunt			1%	Performs a bashful kick with his left foot while looking down to the ground. The only damaging taunt in the game, it deals weak damage with low set knockback. Although it is possible to perform an infinite combo against lightweights with two Luigis using the taunt, it has otherwise almost nonexistent utility due to its poor range, startup and power.

On-screen appearance

• Jumps out of a Warp Pipe just like Mario.

Taunt

• Puts his arms by his sides and slightly behind him, lowers his head and kicks with his left foot. If the foot connects with an opponent, it deals 1% damage with set knockback and stun. This is the only damaging taunt in the game. It is possible for a team of two Luigis to perform an infinite combo on lighter characters such as Jigglypuff using nothing but their taunts.

Crowd cheer

	English	Japanese
Cheer
Description	Lu-i-gi *claps three times*	Lu-i-gi *claps three times*
Pitch	Group chant	Group chant

Victory poses

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

• Shuffles left and right.
• Childishly swings at the air and, after sighing twice, glares at the camera (also his character selection animation).
• While facing backwards, he waves to the left and right side.

In competitive play

Most historically significant players

See also: Category:Luigi professionals (SSB)

Numbers in brackets indicate position in 2019-2020 Smash 64 Power Rankings.

•  Cafe - Japan's best Luigi, placed 9th at Kanto 2015 and Kanto 2016.
•  Czar (#34) - Mario main with a strong Luigi secondary.
•  Crystal - Placed 17th at Kanto 2017.
•  Freean - Dual mains him with Captain Falcon. Placed 3rd at Operation Desert Smash 3, 9th at GENESIS 6 and 17th at Snosa III and GENESIS 4. Also placed 9th at Low Tide City 2021 alongside Captain Falcon.
•  Igai - Placed 25th at Kanto 2018.
•  Ruoka Dancho - Won Osaka 2009 with Luigi.
•  Shears (#64) - Pikachu and Yoshi main with a strong Luigi secondary.

Tier placement and history

Luigi has always been considered a low-tier character, hovering around the bottom three each time throughout all established tier lists. He was ranked 10th on the first two tier lists, and 11th on the third one. Although he has a decent amount of powerful KO moves and a projectile to use for interrupting approaches, he has failed to make a significant impact throughout the entire metagame, primarily due to his struggle to approach himself, poor disadvantage, and unimpressive reach. This has culminated to scarce representation and results, where players who enter rarely place high at nationals. Currently, he sits at 12th place, where players generally agree his placement is accurate, and his metagame is anticipated to remain similar to before. Other low-tiers have accomplished more significant feats, with characters such as Link developing better tools to deal with Kirby and Samus having developed more innovations to navigate around platforms efficiently.

In 1P Game

In the game's single-player mode, a player and a randomly chosen ally fight against Mario and Luigi in a team battle on Peach's Castle making him the only unlockable character who can be fought in the 1P game.

Description

Though often hidden in his older brother Mario's shadow, Luigi is, in reality, very popular. Taller than Mario, Luigi also jumps higher. Although he didn't appear in Super Mario 64, in Mario Kart 64 he performed to the best of his ability. For one who seems to always be in the background, he has many fans who eagerly await his appearance.

Works:

• Mario Bros. (NES)
• Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES)
• Mario Kart 64 (N64)

Alternate costumes

Trivia

• Luigi is the only unlockable character to appear in-game before he is actually unlocked, such as in the How to Play demo and the 1P Game.
  • He is also the only character who isn't unlocked via beating the 1P Game.
• Luigi's ending picture is the only one to depict another fighter; in this case, Mario.
• Luigi's overalls in this game are purple instead of blue, similar to his sprite from Super Mario World.
  • His artwork, however, still depicts him with blue overalls.
• Luigi's Character selection screen portrait greatly resembles his artwork from Mario Kart 64, albeit mirrored.
• Luigi is the only character with a taunt attack.
• When Luigi is hit or uses his Fire Ball, his face texture uses Mario's sideburns.