Dr. Mario (SSBU)

Dr. Mario; in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
	;
Universe	Mario
Other playable appearances	in Melee; in SSB4; ;
Availability	Unlockable
Final Smash	Doctor Finale

This article is about Dr. Mario's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. For the character in other contexts, see Dr. Mario.

Dr. Mario (ドクターマリオ, Doctor Mario) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. He was revealed for the game along with the rest of the veterans on June 12th, 2018. While Dr. Mario remains a full clone of Mario, he is not classified as an Echo Fighter. As such, Dr. Mario is classified as Fighter #18.

As in SSB4, Charles Martinet's portrayal of Mario from Brawl was repurposed for Dr. Mario in Ultimate.

How to unlock

Complete one of the following:

Play VS. matches, with Dr. Mario being the 62nd character to be unlocked.
Clear Classic Mode with Mario or any character in his unlock tree, being the 7th character in his unlock tree after Roy.
Have Dr. Mario join the player's party in World of Light.

With the exception of the third method, Dr. Mario must then be defeated on New Donk City Hall.

Attributes

As a clone of Mario, Dr. Mario is a middleweight that can wall jump. Like his normal self, Dr. Mario also has excellent frame data: when not counting special moves, the overall start-up lag of his normal moveset is very fast. As a result, Dr. Mario is both difficult to punish and very effective at punishing. Although the two share an overwhelming number of identical animations and even the exact same values for certain attributes (weight, falling speed, fast falling speed and gravity), Dr. Mario nevertheless has a number of traits that differ from his normal self. Like Mario, Dr. Mario's height is below-average.

Dr. Mario functions like a stronger, yet slower Mario, owing to the implementation of multipliers to the majority of his moveset and some of his attributes. Most of Dr. Mario's moveset deals 1.176x more damage compared to Mario's moveset. Conversely, his full hop height is 0.85x; his walking and dashing speeds are 0.7942x; his air speed, air acceleration, short hop height, and midair jump height are 0.7648x multiplier. Most of multipliers result in Dr. Mario being distinctly affected by passive equipment physics from Smash 4, in which he specifically possesses a +22 Attack value and a -65 Speed value^[1]. Although Dr. Mario's lower jump height makes his short hop more effective than Mario's, these modified attributes collectively render his overall mobility as sub-par. His wall jump and ledge jump also cover less distance as a result. Conversely, Dr. Mario's higher overall damage output results in him being noticeably more efficient at KOing in comparison to Mario.

Other noticeable differences between Dr. Mario and Mario are seen in their movesets and, by extension, their playstyles. Although Dr. Mario's overall frame data is only very slightly slower than Mario's (if even at all), his higher overall damage output and slower overall mobility make him unable to use a healthy balance of offense and defense like his normal self. Instead, Dr. Mario is much better suited to a bait-and-punish playstyle. On a related note, Dr. Mario's combo game is less varied and consistent compared to his normal self's, especially with regard to aerial combos. Despite this, his combos deal respectable damage in spite of their fairly short lengths, similarly to characters like Incineroar.

Dr. Mario's grounded moveset has plenty of utility in spite of his slow speed. Neutral attack is Dr. Mario's fastest attack, and the first two hits can lock opponents. Forward tilt is a great get-off-me option, and possesses situational KO potential at very high percentages unlike Mario's version. Up tilt is a decent anti-air and juggling tool that can KO at very high percentages, and it can also combo into itself, neutral aerial, up aerial, back aerial and Super Jump Punch, but is not as effective as a combo starter as his down tilt; however, the move's horizontal range is shorter than in SSB4, and its hitboxes start from a higher position, allowing shorter, crouching or prone characters to potentially low-profile the move. Down tilt is one of Dr. Mario's best combo starters; although it is short-ranged, it is very reliable at a wide range of percentages, with its lower knockback scaling compared to Mario's even allowing it to combo at percentages where Mario's would not work, and depending on the percentage, it can lead into neutral attack, forward tilt, up tilt (only on certain characters), itself, up smash (only on certain characters), down smash, neutral aerial, up aerial, back aerial and Super Jump Punch. His dash attack has vertical knockback, allowing it to serve as a combo starter but hindering its edgeguarding potential. His forward smash, while slower than his other smash attacks, is extremely powerful for an attack of its speed, especially if the sweetspot connects; unlike Mario's, it possesses the electric effect, has shorter range, and the sweetspot and sourspot hitboxes are swapped around. Up smash functions more similarly to Luigi's version than to Mario's version, as it launches the opponent diagonally instead of vertically, and will launch them in the opposite direction of where Dr. Mario is facing as long as they are in front of him; compared to Luigi's, however, it launches at a lower angle, and it has lower base knockback than both Mario and Luigi's up smashes. Nevertheless, up smash's launch angle does make it much better at edgeguarding or setting up edgeguards than both Mario and Luigi's versions, and its higher damage output and knockback scaling compared to both of them also makes it a highly lethal KOing option. His down smash is his fastest smash attack, hitting on both sides (with the back hit being stronger than the front hit), and like Mario's version, it is useful for punishing rolls.

Like Mario, Dr. Mario possesses a decent grab game. His overall grab range is average, but each of his grabs have minimal start-up and ending lag. Forward throw is useful for initiating edgeguards; back throw is one of the strongest back throws in the game; up throw is a decent combo starter that can combo into up tilt (certain characters only), up aerial, neutral aerial, back aerial and Super Jump Punch; and down throw is his most effective combo throw, being able to combo into up tilt (certain characters only), up smash (certain characters only), neutral aerial, up aerial, back aerial, Super Jump Punch and Dr. Tornado depending on the opponent's percentage.

Like his normal self, Dr. Mario's air game is above-average. Neutral aerial is a "reverse sex kick": its clean hitbox deals minimal damage and knockback, whereas its late hitbox deals more damage. Thanks to it hitting on frame 3 and having low landing lag, its clean hitbox is ideal for set-ups. Conversely, its late hitbox is decent at edgeguarding, due to its long hitbox duration and larger hitbox than the late hit of Mario's equivalent move. Forward aerial has considerable start-up lag, but its clean hitbox makes it one of the strongest aerials in the game; as such, it is lethal when SHFFed against unwary opponents that are near the edge. Back aerial is also fast, auto-cancels in a short hop, and possesses a powerful clean hitbox, traits which collectively make it viable for KOing, edgeguarding and approaching. Up aerial's horizontal launching angle grants its beginning and ending frames decent combo potential into Super Jump Punch and back aerial, respectively, at low to medium percentages. This angle also makes its beginning frames capable of edgeguarding, unlike his normal self's up aerial. However, up aerial's launch angle also makes it much less effective at starting combos when SHFFed or juggling compared to Mario's. His new down aerial, while having slow startup, is a powerful meteor smash, making it an excellent option for edgeguarding; it is also an extremely solid combo starter with an extremely wide range of follow-ups on grounded opponents depending on their percentage, including neutral attack, forward tilt, up tilt, down tilt, dash attack, forward smash, up smash, down smash, grab, all aerial attacks (including itself), Super Jump Punch and Dr. Tornado.

With regard to special moves, Megavitamins travel farther in the air without landing compared to Mario's Fireball, and they bounce twice instead of three times; they also have altered knockback, allowing for a wider range of follow-ups. Super Sheet has more vertical range but less horizontal range than Cape, but its aerial version completely lacks the stalling effect of Mario's version, completely removing its recovery potential; it also has a 1.6× reflection multiplier, making reflecting projectiles with it more rewarding compared to doing so with Mario's Cape.

Unlike F.L.U.D.D., Dr. Tornado is an effective recovery option, with repeated mashing of the special move button allowing Dr. Mario to rise upward with it. It also deals damage. When coupled with its high damage output, very high knockback scaling and autolink angle, it is useful for edge-guarding, warding off edgeguarders, and even out-prioritizing attacks, and it also possesses excellent KO potential. However, Dr. Tornado's much shorter range makes it much riskier to use for edgeguarding compared to F.L.U.D.D. Due to Super Jump Punch consisting of a powerful clean hitbox and a weak late hitbox instead of multiple hitboxes like Mario's, it actually functions more similarly to Ryu's Shoryuken or Marth's Dolphin Slash instead. As a result, its clean hitbox makes it a viable KOing option unlike Mario's. Super Jump Punch is also an extremely effective out of shield option thanks to its frame 3 startup, much like Mario's version.

However, Dr. Mario's flaws are significantly more noticeable in comparison to Mario's. The most prominent one is his lackluster mobility, which hinders his ability to approach opponents, and renders him vulnerable to zoning and circle camping from characters with strong projectile games and high mobility, respectively, similarly to Ganondorf and Incineroar; unlike those two characters, however, Dr. Mario has an effective projectile in Megavitamins, a smaller hurtbox, effective out of shield options, and a decent reflector in Super Sheet, giving him a better defensive game in comparison. Additionally, Dr. Mario shares Mario's notable weakness of having short range in his attacks, which can give him trouble against characters with long or disjointed hitboxes; whereas Mario's faster mobility allows him to somewhat circumvent this weakness, especially against characters with poor mobility and/or frame data, Dr. Mario is less capable of weaving in and out of his opponent's range, making such characters much more difficult for him to deal with. Dr. Mario's sluggish mobility compounds another notorious weakness—his recovery. Despite being able to wall jump and the fact that Dr. Tornado is a much better recovery option than Cape, the combination of his slow air speed, low jump height, slow air acceleration and Super Jump Punch's mediocre travel distance results in his recovery being predictable like Mario's.

Due to his overall recovery granting noticeably less vertical distance compared to Mario's, Dr. Mario is very vulnerable to gimping and edgeguards. As a result, it is optimal for him to read the opponent when trying to return to the stage, as well as knowing when and how to make use of Dr. Tornado, which has a huge amount of ending lag (33 frames, aerial version) and cannot sweetspot edges. Due to his short recovery distance, any sufficiently strong attacks, particularly semi-spikes, may launch him too far away to recover properly. Lastly, Dr. Mario is outclassed in certain aspects by other characters: in particular, Zero Suit Samus has much better overall mobility; Shulk has much more range; and Snake is much better at zoning.

Overall, Dr. Mario's strengths are outweighed by his weaknesses. His fast frame data enables him to pressure, combo and/or punish the opponent effectively at close range, while his above-average damage output makes him capable of KOing easily. Unlike Mario, however, his slow mobility hinders his neutral game so much that he is largely reliant on baiting and punishing. By extension, his sub-par recovery makes him a less capable edgeguarder compared to his normal self, and he retains his normal self's lack of range as well.

Differences from Mario

Despite not being an Echo Fighter of Mario, Dr. Mario is still very much a full clone of Mario. That said, he uses external modifiers to most of his stats rather than directly modifying them, so he sports subpar mobility compared to Mario. However, Dr. Mario compensates for his slower mobility with another external multiplier that increases the damage of his attacks in comparison, as all of his attacks deal noticably more damage without any compensation on knockback, which enables him to KO more easily as a result.

Aside from that, Dr. Mario also has other differences in his moveset. These include, but are not limited to, his dash attack launching upward, his up smash launching opponents behind him, his forward smash possessing an electric effect, his back throw involving lifting the opponent upward then swiftly launching them backward, his neutral aerial being a "reverse sex kick," his forward aerial not being a meteor smash, his down aerial being a powerful single-hit meteor smash, his Megavitamins not being absorbable, Super Sheet possessing more vertical range but less horizontal range, Super Jump Punch being a powerful singular hit, and the retention of Dr. Tornado as his down special move.

Aesthetics

Dr. Mario is slightly less vocal than Mario. Some of his attacks also emit different sound effects.
Dr. Mario's on-screen appearance, taunts, idle poses and victory poses are different from Mario's.
Dr. Mario's defeated/No Contest animation is different from Mario's. Mario has a new animation in which he looks slightly to the left with a smiling expression, while Dr. Mario retains his animation from SSB4, which is identical to Mario's from Brawl and SSB4 (and like the latter, features him with a neutral expression), except that Dr. Mario looks directly in front of himself.
Dr. Mario is less expressive than Mario. He keeps most of the same expressions as him, such as when he grits his teeth in some of his attacks, is angry when he is attacking and appears shocked when hit or grabbed but his expressions are overall more limited, and he only smiles in one of his victory poses. Combined with the different animation and expression on the results screen, this makes him more serious than Mario.

Attributes

Dr. Mario's idle animation is much less exaggerated than Mario's. This gives him a consistently lower stance as a result.
Some of Dr. Mario's raw properties are modified as if he were wearing equipment of +22 attack and -65 speed in Smash 4^[1].
- The damage outputs of Dr. Mario's attacks use a 1.176x multiplier. As a result, he is significantly stronger than Mario. However, this multiplier does not apply to reflected projectiles or items, and the base damage of his moves can also differ from Mario's.
  - However, this limits his combo game.
- Dr. Mario's walking speed, dashing speed and initial dash speed use a 0.7942x multiplier; short hop height, midair jump height, air speed, air acceleration and air friction use a 0.7648x multiplier. As a result, Dr. Mario is significantly less mobile than Mario.
  - Dr. Mario's lower short hop makes it easier for him to pressure opponents with short hops and use short hop aerials against grounded opponents, but limits his ability to perform two aerials in a short hop.
Dr. Mario's full hop height is 15% lower (36.33 → 30.8805) though not use a mobility multiplier.
Dr. Mario's wall jump covers significantly less height, hindering his recovery.
Dr. Mario walks faster when carrying heavy items.
Dr. Mario's traction is slightly higher than Mario's (0.102 → 0.106), making it slightly easier for him to punish out of shield.

Ground attacks

Neutral attack:
- The first two hits have different base damage values (2.2 → 2.5 (hit 1), 1.7 → 1.5 (hit 2)), resulting in the move dealing slightly more base damage in total (7.9 → 8).
- The first hit's hitboxes are further out (Z offset: 6/8.7/12 → 6.7/9.3/12.5), improving its range.
- The second hit's hitboxes are not attached to Dr. Mario's arm, giving it less range.
Forward tilt:
- Forward tilt has higher base damage (7 → 9) with knockback scaling not fully compensated (70 → 65). When combined with Dr. Mario's damage multiplier, this gives the move KO potential near the ledge.
Up tilt:
- Up tilt has higher base damage (5.5 → 6.3), further improving its damage racking and KO potential when combined with Dr. Mario's damage multiplier.
  - However, its combo potential is weaker as a result.
Down tilt:
- Down tilt's sweetspot is larger (3.2u → 3.5u), making it easier to land.
  - However, this makes the sourspot (which is better for comboing) harder to connect with.
- It has less knockback scaling (80 → 55), and inflicts 3 additional frames of hitstun. When combined with Dr. Mario's damage multiplier increasing the move's damage output, this makes it a more damaging and effective combo starter that loses its combo potential later.
- Its foot sweep visual starts earlier and has a different routine, more closely tracking his foot's current position.
Dash attack:
- Dash attack's clean hit has higher base damage (8 → 9.8), further improving its damage output. Its hitlag was also compensated (1.25x → 1x).
- It launches the opponent vertically, whereas Mario's launches them horizontally. It also deals less knockback (100 base/43 scaling → 90/38). These differences make it effective for combos at low percentages, but incapable of effectively edgeguarding.
Forward smash:
- Dr. Mario's forward smash's sweetspot and sourspot are on his arm and electricity respectively, whereas Mario's are on the flame and his arm respectively. This means Dr. Mario's forward smash does more damage at closer range than it would at farther range.
- It has lower knockback scaling (105 (sourspot)/99 (sweetspot) → 100/94), partially compensating for the increased damage.
  - However, the sourspot is as strong as Mario's sweetspot.
- It has noticeably less range (outer hitbox size: 5u → 3.7u).
- It has an electric effect, whereas Mario's has a flame effect. This makes it capable of hurting Olimar's Red Pikmin and makes it safer on shield, but makes it incapable of hurting Yellow Pikmin or instantly detonating explosives, and makes it easier to DI.
Up smash:
- Up smash launches at a lower angle (83° → 120°), allowing it to KO opponents horizontally if they DI away, but weakening its vertical KO and anti-air potential.
- It has altered knockback (32 base/94 scaling → 0/117), making it much more effective for combos at lower damages while still making it stronger at higher damages. However, this also makes it unsafe on hit at low percents.
- It lasts one frame longer compared to Mario's (frames 9-12 → 9-13), increasing its range in front of him.
Down smash:
- The sweeping visual on down smash is purple and white, rather than yellow, blue and white.

Aerial attacks

Neutral aerial:
- Dr. Mario's neutral aerial (known as "Dr. Kick" in the tips) deals more damage and has higher knockback the longer it is active, whereas Mario's functions oppositely. This makes the move capable of instantly starting combos and makes it more effective at punishing, but removes its KO confirms and makes it less useful as an instant combo finisher.
- Its late hit is larger (2.8u/2.8u → 3.6u/3.6u) and has higher knockback scaling (90 → 102).
- It autocancels earlier (frame 39 → 34).
- It has more landing lag (6 frames → 7 frames).
Forward aerial:
- Dr. Mario's forward aerial (known as "Dr. Punch" in the tips) launches the opponent diagonally, whereas Mario's meteor smashes them. This makes it very effective at KOing on-stage, but much worse at edgeguarding and makes it less effective at starting combos on landing.
- The clean hit has higher base damage (14 → 15).
- The early and late hits have lower base damage (12 (early)/10 (late) → 10/9).
- The sweeping visual commences one frame earlier, and the last frame of the visual is absent.
Back aerial:
- Back aerial's clean hit has higher base damage (10.5 → 12) with knockback partly compensated (12 base/106 scaling → 10/95).
  - However, this hinders its combo potential.
- The clean hit and late hit have a longer duration (2 frames (clean) → 3, 3 (late) → 5).
- The clean hit has smaller hitboxes (4.5u/5.9u → 4.2u/5.4u).
- It has more landing lag (6 frames → 10 frames).
Up aerial:
- Up aerial launches at a lower angle (75° → 45°), severely weakening its combo potential but granting it edgeguarding potential.
- It has higher base damage (7 → 8.7) with knockback scaling compensated (135 → 114), further improving its damage output.
- It has more landing lag (6 frames → 8 frames).
Down aerial:
- Dr. Mario's down aerial (known as "CLEAR!" in the tips) is a powerful downward stomp, whereas Mario's has been Mario Tornado since Brawl. Unlike Mario's, it consists of one strong hitbox instead of six weaker hitboxes.
- It can meteor smash and send opponents horizontally instead of vertically. This makes it very good at edgeguarding, tech-chasing and starting combos, but less effective at KOing on-stage and extending combos.
- It has reduced landing lag (15 → 13).
- It has significantly increased startup lag (5 → 16).
- It lacks a landing hit.
- It has significantly smaller hitboxes.

Throws and other attacks

Forward throw:
- Forward throw has less knockback scaling (65 → 60), preventing it from reliably KOing away from the ledge and making it as strong as Mario's despite the damage multiplier.
Back throw:
- Back throw has a different animation: Dr. Mario heaves the opponent off the ground and above his head, then tosses them away behind him, as opposed to swinging them around multiple times.
  - Compared to Mario's back throw, Dr. Mario releases the opponent earlier (frame 44 → 30), making it harder to DI and increasing its consistency.
  - However, its FAF remains unchanged, increasing its ending lag.
  - It has higher knockback scaling (66 → 68). Combined with the damage multiplier, this makes it considerably stronger than Mario's.
  - It lacks a collateral hitbox.
Up throw:
- Up throw has reduced knockback scaling (72 → 65), making it as strong as Mario's despite the damage multiplier, while possessing inferior combo potential due to Dr. Mario's lower jumps.
Down throw:
- Down throw (known as "Hospital Bed" in the tips) launches at a higher angle (68° → 80°) and has altered knockback (40 base/90 scaling → 75/45). While this makes its combo potential into up and back aerials more consistent, it makes other followups like down tilt and neutral attack impossible.
Dr. Mario's floor attacks and edge attack have decreased base damage (front and back floor attacks: 7 → 6 (both hits), trip floor attack: 5 → 4.3 (both hits), edge attack: 9 → 8.51). As a result, his floor attacks deal roughly the same damage as Mario's despite the damage multiplier.
- However, Dr. Mario's edge attack still outdamages Mario's version despite its lower base damage, thanks to his attack multiplier.

Special moves

Megavitamins:
- Unlike Fireball, Megavitamins cannot be absorbed by moves like Ness's PSI Magnet.
- It launch at a higher angle (361° → 65°), and deals more knockback (35 base/20 scaling → 60/40 (clean), 28/15 → 55/40 (mid), 22/10 → 50/40 (late)), improving its setup potential but hindering its jab reset and edgeguarding potential.
- Its hitbox is longer and thinner (size: 2.4u/2.2u/2u → 1.7/1.7/1.7, Y offset: 0 → -1.7—1.7), better matching the shape of a capsule.
- It deal more hitlag (0.6x → 1x) improving their safety but making them easier to DI/SDI.
- It do not have a flame effect unlike Fireball. This makes them capable of hurting Olimar's Red Pikmin, but renders them incapable of instantly detonating explosives.
- It bounce twice and at a higher angle, whereas Fireball bounces three times and at a lower angle.
Super Sheet:
- Compared to Mario's Cape, Super Sheet's hitbox is positioned slightly upward. This results in it having slightly more vertical range, but slightly less horizontal range.
- It has a different animation where Dr. Mario swings the sheet upward, highlighting its increased vertical reach.
- Unlike aerial Cape, aerial Super Sheet does not stall Dr. Mario. This makes it more effective at B-reversing, but unusable for recovery.
- It reflects for slightly longer (9-20 → 9-22).
- Projectiles reflected by Super Sheet do more damage (1.5x → 1.6x), making it as strong as Joker's Makarakarn.
Super Jump Punch:
- Dr. Mario's Super Jump Punch consists of a clean hitbox and a late hitbox, whereas Mario's consists of seven hitboxes. However, the angle of the attack remains the same as Mario's on all hitboxes, which makes it launch diagonally upon startup.
  - Due to this, Dr. Mario's variant is much less safe on hit at lower percents and is not as deadly of a stage spike until higher ones.
- It has altered hitbox placements.
  - The hitbox is overall considerably larger, making it easier to use out of shield.
- Due to its higher damage output, the clean hit is significantly more effective for KOing when not near the upper blast line and makes it an untechable stage spike at high percents.
- It travels a much shorter distance, making it less effective for recovery.
- Unlike Mario's, Dr. Mario's Super Jump Punch lacks intangibility on start-up.
- It does not produce Coins upon contact, whereas Mario's does.
Down special:
- Dr. Mario retains Dr. Tornado as his down special, whereas Mario's has been F.L.U.D.D. since Brawl.
- Unlike F.L.U.D.D., Dr. Tornado deals damage, making it a very viable KO move at mid percents.
- Compared to F.L.U.D.D., Dr. Tornado is significantly more effective for recovery.
- Compared to F.L.U.D.D., Dr. Tornado has significantly less range and is less important to his neutral game as a result.
- Due to lacking a powerful windbox that pushes opponents away, It is less effective at gimping.
Doctor Finale:
- Doctor Finale produces 2D and 3D Megavitamin-based effects and emits Megavitamins' contact sound effect, whereas Mario Finale produces 3D fiery effects and emits a burning sound effect.
  - It does not have a flame effect as a result.
- Its hitboxs are gradually expanding, better matching the shape of a capsules.
- It launches at a averaged angle (20°-50° → 28°-36°) and has altered knockback.
- The front Megavitamin deals more base damage per hit than the back Megavitamin (2/2.5/3 → 3/3.2/3.4/3.6 (front), 2.3/2.5/2.6/2.8 (back)), increasing it overall.
  - However, it has longer gaps between hits (7 frames → 9) and a shorter duration (frames 65-224 → 65-214 (front), 79-214 (back)). As a result, it hits only 17 times instead of 23, causing the move to deal less damage overall despite using a damage multiplier (maximum damage: 71% → 65.3856%).

Changes from Super Smash Bros. 4

Dr. Mario has been buffed in the transition from SSB4 to Ultimate. One of his biggest buffs were to his already above-average damage output; all of his moves deal much more damage (excluding his pummel and get-up attacks), which further supplements his damage-racking game and previously inconsistent KO ability. His recovery, while still poor, has nevertheless improved slightly; his Dr. Tornado has increased distance, and the readdition of directional air dodges gives him another option to possibly extend and mix up his recovery. His Megavitamins and Dr. Tornado have also been given notable improvements; the Megavitamins deal enough damage and knockback to cause opponents to tumble, and launch at a higher angle, making them viable as a combo starter and even giving them the ability to set up KOs. Dr. Tornado, outside of its improved recovery potential, has been significantly buffed; it has gained notoriety for being able to KO offstage effectively at very low percentages, and when combined with its increased distance, make it a deadly edgeguarding option. It also has gained heavy armor on startup if used on the ground, which further improves its safety and viability. Additionally, Dr. Mario has a new down aerial which can meteor smash opponents much like Mario's forward aerial, which when combined with the changes to Dr. Tornado give him an improved edgeguarding game.

However, Dr. Mario has received a few nerfs. Dr. Mario's up tilt has had its hitbox placement adjusted, giving it inferior range in front of and underneath him. Additionally, his grabs have increased ending lag, hindering their utility and combos. Furthermore, his already sub-par mobility is slower, especially in comparison to the rest of the cast, given the nerfs to his air speed and jump height. His overall mobility remains largely unaltered from his previous appearance, resulting in him now being much slower relative to the roster, considering as most other fighters have received buffs to their mobility.

Compared to Mario, Dr. Mario is still a slower and stronger clone of him. However, he is not classified as an Echo Fighter. There is currently no confirmed reason for this oddity, though it is likely due to Dr. Mario debuting in Melee rather than SSB4 or Ultimate as with the other Echo Fighters. Aside from having an updated idle animation, slightly higher traction compared to Mario, an altered animation for his side special, as well as receiving a new back throw and down aerial, he has not been further decloned. He has also received many of the same changes as Mario.

Compared to his appearance in SSB4, his damage-racking potential has increased and his recovery is safer and better overall (though it is still considered among the worst in the game, along with Little Mac and Ganondorf). Because of these changes, he is better in Ultimate, but nowhere as close to his Melee incarnation, where he was a high or mid tier. In the early metagame, he has seen results in the competitive scene, achieving some representation from players like Locus and Lui$. However, Dr. Mario's overall tournament representation has been poor throughout the game's lifespan, making his true tier standing debatable; while some such as Goblin believe he is underrated due to his strong punishes and high damage output, he is generally regarded as a mid, low or even bottom-tier character, with most players drawing comparisons to Mario being a much better character, contrasting Dr. Mario’s slow speed and abysmal recovery. While Dr. Mario gained substantial buffs to his damage racking and edgeguarding potential in patch 7.0.0, reception has been mixed on whether they improve him enough to raise his tier standing.