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 jump 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 somewhat better recovery, and more finishers. 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

• Forward smash (18%/17%16% → 16%/15%/14%), forward tilt (14%/13%/12% → 10%), and down tilt (12% → 7%) all deal less damage.
  • However, this makes his down tilt more effective for combos.
• The third hit of Luigi's neutral attack has a longer duration (frames 3-7 → 3-8).
• Luigi's dash attack is a signature flurry of weak punches. It has less startup lag (frame 8 → 3), is more effective for combos than Mario's, and is able to deal more damage if all hits connect (10% → 12%).
• Luigi's dash attack accelerates slower, has more ending lag (frame 41 → 61), deals significantly less knockback, and is much more punishable than Mario's dash attack.
• Luigi's forward tilt has a shorter duration (frames 8-17 → 8-12).
• Luigi's up tilt has slightly more range.
• Luigi's up tilt has more lag and deals slightly more knockback, hindering its juggling potential.
• Luigi's down tilt is a simple jab with his foot rather than a sweep kick. It has much less startup (frame 5 → 3) and ending lag (frame 40 → 18) than Mario's down tilt.
• Luigi's down tilt has a shorter duration (frames 5-11 → 3-6).
• Luigi's forward smash has less ending lag (frame 54 → 42), significantly improving its safety.

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.
• Luigi's back aerial has more range.
• Luigi's back aerial has more startup and ending lag than Mario's, decreasing its safety.

Throws/other attacks

• Forward and back throw's damage outputs 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.
• 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.
• Luigi Cyclone requires more button mashing to rise, making it much harder to use for recovery, and 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 overgone 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%) but less base knockback (80 → 70).
• Back throw does less damage (16% → 12%) but has more base knockback (70 → 80).

Special attacks

• Fireballs have lower knockback (22 base/50 scaling → 10/25) and travel a shorter distance.
• Grounded Fire Jump Punch's sweetspot has a different angle (80° → 90°) making it more powerful despite its different knockback values (100 base/78 scaling → 90/80).
• Aerial Fire Jump Punch's sweetspot deals more damage (24% → 25%) with higher knockback scaling (78 → 80).
• Aerial Fire Jump Punch's sourspot deals less damage (2% → 1%).
• Super Jump Punch covers more distance.

Moveset

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%	Decent spacer and KOs at very high damage percentages. Can be angled.
Up tilt			10%	Does an uppercut, and has many of the same uses as Mario's uppercut in that it is a good combo starter, chains into itself, and can KO at high percentages. Can be angled.
Down tilt			7%	Low knockback and range. An easily countered move unless there's a good strategy behind it.
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%	The exact same as Mario's; winds up for a second and punches with an enlarged fist. Powerful, but the weakest forward smash in the game. Using it in a short step will cause Luigi to slide forward a short distance. Has slightly less end lag than Mario's.
	→		15%
	↘		14%
Up smash			19%	Lunges head upwards in an arc. Very powerful vertical finisher; tied with Mario and Jigglypuff for strongest up smash in the game. Can KO as low as 73% on Dream Land.
Down smash			17%	Faster than Mario's, and good damage and power.
Neutral aerial			14% (clean), 11% (late)	Does a sex kick, which gets weaker over time.
Forward aerial			16% (clean), 10% (late)	Spin kick. Luigi sticks his feet out in front, his body aimed forward with them, and spins.
Back aerial			16% (clean), 10% (late)	Thrusts his feet back and flips.
Up aerial			12% (clean), 9% (late)	Great for juggling or KO-ing, depending on what angle the foe is hit on.
Down aerial			3% (hits 1-8), 24% (total)	Drill kick, 8 hits, 3% per hit. Like Mario's, this is a meteor smash that can be used to edgeguard opponents. Last hit does not have knockback.
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 d-smash.
Floor attack (back) Floor getups (back)			6%	Leg sweeps and gets up, similar to his d-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.

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 Super Smash Bros.. 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

Matchups

International versions

Super Smash Bros. (N64) Character Matchups

Avg.

Luigi's best matchups are against Jigglypuff and Samus, while his worst is against Pikachu. He has a few even matchups, and loses a majority of them. His average is 45.

Japanese version

Super Smash Bros. (N64) Character Matchups (JPN Version)

Avg.

Luigi is moved up one spot, only ahead of Donkey Kong. He now has no even matchups and has a 40 average. Notable changes are that he now no longer counters Jigglypuff and Samus. He also has more 30/70 matchups with Kirby, Yoshi, and Samus.

Notable players

See also: Category:Luigi professionals (SSB)

Numbers in brackets indicate position in 64 League Rankings 2017

•  Cafe Japan's best Luigi, placed 9th at Kanto 2015 and Kanto 2016.
•  Czar (#37) Mario main with a strong Luigi secondary.
•  Crystal Placed 17th at Kanto 2017.
•  Igai Placed 25th at Kanto 2018.
•  Freean Dual mains him with Captain Falcon, placed 9th at GENESIS 6 and 17th at Snosa III and GENESIS 4
•  Shears (#48) Pikachu and Yoshi main with a strong Luigi secondary.

Inactive

•  Ruoka Dancho Won Osaka 2009 with Luigi.

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

• Oddly, Luigi appears in Super Smash Bros. twice (not including the introduction sequence, which features all twelve characters) before being unlocked, in the "How to Play" sequence and in the 1P Game.
• Luigi is the only unlockable character in Super Smash Bros. who can be unlocked without playing the 1P Game.
• Luigi's ending picture is the only one to depict another fighter, which is Mario.
• Luigi's overalls in this game are purple instead of blue, which makes him resemble his sprite from Super Mario World. However, his artwork depicts him with dark blue overalls.
• Luigi's portrait on the Character selection screen greatly resembles a mirrored version of his artwork from Mario Kart 64.
• Luigi is the only character in Smash 64 with a taunt that can damage any opponent.