Template:SSB4 to SSBU changelist/Little Mac

Aesthetics

• As with all veterans returning from SSB4, Little Mac's model features a more subdued color scheme. His clothing now features simple detailing and his muscles are slightly more pronounced.
• Little Mac no longer has sixteen alternate costumes, only eight. Of the cut costumes, his blue and orange outfits have been removed, while Wire-Frame Mac has notably been reduced to just two outfits: his standard and sweatshirt outfits.
• Little Mac's alternate costumes no longer change his skin tone.
• For certain attacks, the visual trail textures will match the color of Little Mac's boxing gloves.
• Side taunt has been altered to have a significantly more noticeable glove-tightening and arm-swinging animation.
• Air dodge has an altered animation.
• Once KO Uppercut is used or lost, the Power Meter now shows the meter physically draining to zero, rather than cutting immediately to the lowest level.
• Little Mac now winces and frowns while clapping during the results screen.
• Doc Louis' quotes have been shortened in Little Mac's victory poses.
• Doc Louis no longer appears in Little Mac's victory pose during Team Battles.
• Little Mac's shadowboxing victory pose features less physical contact between him and Doc Louis, likely due to the latter's absence in Team Battles.
• Little Mac is much more expressive. He now scowls in many more animations, smiles in his down taunt, appears shocked when he gets hit, and looks pained when he is laying on the ground or tumbling.
• Little Mac's on-screen appearance in his wireframe alternate costume has him wear a green hoodie initially, which then turns pink when he throws it off as part of the animation, as opposed to it staying green throughout in Smash 4. This appears to be an oversight.

Attributes

• Like all characters, Little Mac's jumpsquat animation takes three frames to complete (down from 5).
• Little Mac benefits from the re-addition of directional air dodges, which grant him a new option to mix up his landings and giving him a new recovery option.
  • Air dodges have higher ending lag and can only be performed once before landing or getting hit, leaving Little Mac more susceptible to edgeguarding if he does not grab the ledge.
• Little Mac benefits significantly from the ability to dash cancel almost any grounded attack, increasing the versatility of his ground game.
  • In turn, Little Mac suffers from the removal of perfect pivoting due to his previous heavy reliance on the technique in Smash 4.
• As characters no longer dash through each other, many of Little Mac's moves now connect consistently better, most notably with forward smash, Straight Lunge, and KO Uppercut.
  • This change hinders his mixup options, as he can no longer run through opponents for a positional advantage.
• The strengthening of Stale Move Negation disproportionately affects Little Mac, due to his intentionally poor aerials reducing his options for using a variety of moves.
• Little Mac dashes much faster (2.24 → 2.464).
• Little Mac walks slightly faster (1.32 → 1.386).
• Little Mac's air speed is much faster (1 → 1.208), going from tied for 31st fastest in Smash 4 to tied for 12th in Ultimate. Among other things, this improves his recovery.
• Little Mac's max additional air acceleration is slightly higher (0.028 → 0.03).
• Little Mac jumps higher, now being able to reach the lower platforms of Battlefield with one full hop, and the top platform with both jumps. This improves his offstage survivability and prevents him from being camped as easily.
• Little Mac's falling speed (1.8 → 1.95) and fast falling speed (2.88 → 3.12) are much faster, now tied with King Dedede for the 2nd highest falling speed. This makes it easier for him to land safely, but makes him easier to combo.
• Little Mac's gravity is higher ( 0.08 → 0.09), now being around average instead of slightly below average. Combined with his faster falling speed, this allows him to land more safely, but slightly hinders his horizontal recovery and makes him easier to combo.
• As a result, he spends less time in the air after jumping (SH air time: 35→ 33) (FH air time: 51 → 44).
• Little Mac is heavier (82 → 87), now being slightly heavier than Sonic. This improves his survivability.
  • However, this makes him easier to combo when combined with his faster falling speed and higher gravity.
• Little Mac's spot dodge has more startup with a shorter duration (2-16 → 3-14), reducing its intangibility period by three frames.
  • However, it has slightly decreased ending lag (FAF 25 → 24), allowing Mac to act faster out of it.
• Back roll has more intangibility (4-12 → 4-14), but increased ending lag (FAF 27 → 33).
• Little Mac's air dodge has one more frame of intangibility (2-25 → 2-26).
• Little Mac's air dodge has much more ending lag ( FAF 31 → 50), going from the second fastest in Smash 4 to being merely average in Ultimate. It can also be used only once before landing.

Ground attacks

• The increase to shieldstun for grounded attacks benefit Little Mac more than everyone else, making his grounded attacks safer on shield.
• Neutral attack
  • Like most neutral attacks in the game, the first two hits of Mac's jab can jab lock due to their altered angles (85°/80° → 361°/180°), though it can be difficult to land on smaller characters.
    • Due to the universal improvements to neutral infinites, Little Mac's neutral infinite connects significantly better, as it could be escaped from relatively easily in SSB4.
    • Neutral attack's first and second hits have less ending lag (FAF 22 → 17), improving their jab canceling potential.
    • Neutral attack's third hit has slightly less ending lag (FAF 32 → 30).
    • All hits of neutral attack except for the infinite's finisher deal less damage (2% → 1.5% (hits 1-2), 7% → 5% (hit 3), 0.7% → 0.5% (infinite)).
    • Neutral attack no longer has anti-rebounding priority.
    • Neutral attack can no longer be edge canceled into KO Uppercut, as the universal change to neutral infinites prevents Mac from being pushed off edges while hitting opponents.
    • Holding down the standard attack button causes Little Mac to do his neutral attack, while mashing it causes him to perform his neutral infinite. Previously, the infinite would be initiated by holding down standard attack.
• Dash attack:
  • The changes to jostle mechanics prevents dash attack from whiffing close opponents.
  • Dash attack has a slightly altered animation where Little Mac punches slightly lower, while the animation length and hitbox duration both remain unchanged, allowing it to hit opponents at the ledge.
• Up tilt:
  • The removal of perfect pivoting significantly harms up tilt's overall versatility.
  • Up tilt deals less damage (9% → 6.5%).
  • Up tilt's base knockback was reduced, while its knockback scaling was increased (50 (base), 80 (scaling) → 25/120). This increases its knockback overall, but makes up tilt unsafe on hit at very low percents (as opponents can air dodge or attack out of it) while still not being strong enough to be a viable KO move.
    • The reduced damage output and altered knockback improves its combo potential at low and mid percentages.
  • Up tilt is less effective for out-prioritizing attacks with its anti-rebounding priority, due to the move's lowered damage.
• Forward tilt:
  • Forward tilt's second hit connects more consistently.
• Down tilt:
  • Down tilt's has a slighly altered animation where Little Mac stretches his arm more horizontally instead of towards the ground. As a result, its outermost hitbox has been moved further outwards (X offset: 3 → 4.4), noticeably improving the move's range and giving it a disjoint.
  • Down tilt has more ending lag (FAF 22 → 26), reducing its combo ability and followups with a majority of its followups only usable at low percents, while limiting its few consistent followups at higher percents (Jolt Haymaker and Rising Uppercut).
• All smash attacks cause the screen to shake.
• While using any smash attack, Little Mac voices out with his weak knockback voice clip if he takes damage during the move. This allows for a minor mindgame when Mac is hit during his super armor state, but is otherwise a small detail.
• All smash attacks trigger Special Zoom if Little Mac is hit during their startup and lands the move on an opponent.
• Forward smash:
  • All angles of forward smash now use a single "wind" sound effect instead of three separate sound effects.
  • The changes to jostling make the unangled and upward angled versions' sweetspots easier to land, especially against grounded opponents. The windboxes have been removed as well.
  • Unangled:
    • The inner hitbox is slightly longer (X offset: -1.5u → -1.5u - -2u).
    • The move has a slightly altered animation where Little Mac bends his elbow faster. This very slightly improves the move's vertical range.
    • It deals slightly less knockback (30 base/91 scaling → 29 base/87 scaling).
  • Angled down:
    • The inner hitbox extends further towards Little Mac (Y offset: 7.5u → 7.5-8.5u, Z offset: 3u → 3-0u), increasing the move's range towards him and making it less likely to whiff.
    • It deals more base knockback (50 → 65). While this improves its ability to send enemies away or offstage, this significantly reduces its ability to set up tech chases.
• Up smash:
  • Up smash's first frame produces a spark akin to a glancing blow, which visualizes its stronger flame sweetspot.
  • The sweetspot can now hit airborne opponents in addition to grounded ones.
  • Up smash has more super armor (frames 8-11 → frames 8-13), now matching the duration of the hitboxes.
  • It has a shorter duration (10-14 → 10-13).
• Down smash:
  • The move has less knockback scaling (96 → 94).
  • The back hit's outermost hitbox has a swapped Z offset (-1u → 1u).

Aerial attacks

• All aerials have noticeably less landing lag (Neutral: 16 → 10 frames, Forward: 22 → 13, Back: 26 → 16, Up: 22 → 13, Down: 30 → 16).
• Due to Little Mac's faster falling speed and higher gravity, forward aerial and back aerial no longer auto-cancel in a short hop.
• Neutral aerial auto-cancels earlier (frame 25 → 16), allowing Little Mac to use it twice in a short hop without landing lag.
• If Little Mac uses forward aerial or a double jump after Jolt Haymaker, it will give him more momentum.
• The changes to shieldstun for aerial attacks greatly benefits Little Mac, making him less vulnerable to aerial approaches.

Throws and other attacks

• Standing grab's grabbox has been moved forward and is larger (Z offset: 4-8.1 → 7-10), significantly improving its range, no longer being the shortest grab in the game. This also removes the blindspot in Little Mac's arms and hands.
• Dash grab's grabbox has been moved forward (Z offset: 0-5.7 → 4-9.7), considerably improving its range.
• Pivot grab's grabbox extends further (Z offset: 4-12.1 → 4-13.6), improving its range.
• Dash grab and pivot grab have increased startup (Dash grab: frame 10 → 13, Pivot grab: frame 11 → 14).
• All grabs have more ending lag (Standing: FAF 33 → 39, Dash: FAF 41 → 47, Pivot: FAF 34 → 42).
• Pummel is much faster, but deals less damage (2.1% → 1%), going from an average pummel in speed and damage to being weak but among the fastest in the game.
• Little Mac's throws are no longer weight dependent. This worsens their combo potential against lightweights, but improves it against heavier characters.
• Down throw:
• Down throw deals less damage (5% → 3% (throw), 9% → 7% (total)).
  • The move has less base knockback, but more knockback growth (78 (base), 40 (scaling) → 50/88). The lower base knockback allows Mac to combo into a greater range of moves at low percents, while the move's knockback doesn't become greater until above 150%, allowing it to combo for longer as well.
  • The higher knockback growth combined with Ultimate's knockback and hitstun changes makes down throw combo less reliably, with any given combo being more heavily dependant on the opponent's percent.
• Little Mac has altered swing animations for battering items like the Beam Sword, no longer performing a stab forward when using a forward smash. This applies to all except his dash attack. Like in Smash 4, he shares this change with Captain Falcon.

Special moves

• Straight Lunge:
  • Straight Lunge can be canceled by shielding.
  • Like with most non-storable charge moves, Straight Lunge can be unleashed in the opposite direction upon releasing the move.
  • Fully-charged Straight Lunge no longer has a blindspot, as characters can no longer pass through each other.
  • Straight Lunge gains power and damage as it is charged; previously, it had fixed damage values for an uncharged and fully-charged attack.
  • Uncharged Straight Lunge has less ending lag (FAF 49 → 44).
    • Uncharged grounded Straight Lunge deals less damage (14% → 12%) and has lower knockback scaling (90 → 65) significantly hindering its KO potential. The aerial version also has lower knockback scaling (95 → 80).
    • Late uncharged aerial Straight Lunge deals more damage (7% → 8%).
    • Fully-charged Straight Lunge deals much more damage (25% → 30% (grounded), 15% → 20% (aerial)) without full compensation on its knockback (55 (base), 86 (scaling) → 50/77 (grounded), 25/100 → 25/95 (aerial)), and deals consistent damage throughout the move instead of having a weaker late hit.
  • Because all edge attacks now do at least 9% damage, Straight Lunge can no longer tank through them as its heavy armor caps at 8%, removing a key ledge trapping option for Mac.
  • When beginning to charge the move in the air, Little Mac drops down a short distance (in addition to the normal falling in the air), increasing the chances of a self-destruct.
• KO Uppercut:
  • KO Uppercut has a new animation. Little Mac performs a jumping uppercut while facing the screen, making it appear more identical to the Star Punch from Punch-Out!! on the NES.
  • The new animation is treated as an actual jump, meaning it is possible to use the grounded variant and end up offstage, especially if the punch is used out of a dash.
  • KO Uppercut now uses Special Zoom. As a result, the move will no longer zoom in the camera outside of a 1v1.
  • KO Uppercut's new animation gives the move more vertical range, allowing it to hit opponents on the lower platforms of Battlefield. It also grants recovery distance if used in midair.
  • KO Uppercut is performed faster in general, making it harder to punish.
  • KO Uppercut no longer has a windbox, making the hitbox connect more consistently.
  • KO Uppercut has less ending lag (FAF 93 → 77).
  • KO Uppercut has less horizontal reach.
  • Aerial KO Uppercut deals much more knockback (40 (base), 80 (scaling) → 50/95), greatly improving its KO potential.
  • Aerial KO Uppercut is no longer unblockable.
  • The change to the move's animation requires a ledge-cancelled KO Uppercut (the "Gazelle Punch") to be performed differently, as the previous method from Smash 4 (ledge jump to uppercut) no longer registers as a grounded move due to Little Mac performing a hop. Little Mac now needs to drop from ledge and then double jump, before uppercutting and using its momentum to land on the stage.
• Jolt Haymaker:
  • Grounded Jolt Haymaker makes Little Mac spend less time in the air. He also lands with significantly more traction.
  • Jolt Haymaker has 1 less frame of startup (frame 9 → 8).
  • Grounded Jolt Haymaker has reduced ending lag.
  • Jolt Haymaker deals more base knockback (33 → 75), sending opponents into tumble at 0%.
  • Jolt Haymaker has less knockback scaling (98 → 63), killing slightly later as its base knockback was not fully compensated.
  • Jolt Haymaker no longer renders Little Mac helpless. This improves his recovery and turns what was previously a common suicidal mistake into a potent edge guarding tool.
  • Aerial Jolt Haymaker travels further (initial speed: 1.4 → 1.6).
  • Grounded Jolt Haymaker travels a shorter distance (initial speed: 2 → 1.7).
  • Grounded Jolt Haymaker gains less height off the ground, making it harder to dodge projectiles with the initial leap.
  • All versions of Jolt Haymaker can only be used once until Mac touches the ground again, even if he is hit out of it. This makes it less safe to use, especially if at the risk of being sent offstage.
  • Grounded Jolt Haymaker will stop Little Mac from going over the ledge in the last few frames, preventing him from just barely overshooting the ledge and having to get back to the stage.
• Rising Uppercut:
  • Little Mac no longer suffers from RCO lag if he is hit out of Rising Uppercut.
  • Aerial Rising Uppercut snaps to the ledge earlier on during the move, instead of only during startup and after the final hitbox appears.
  • Aerial Rising Uppercut keeps a small amount of forward momentum, slightly improving its horizontal distance.
  • Rising Uppercut's first hit has a trail to highlight its hitbox.
• Slip Counter:
  • Slip Counter has less ending lag (FAF 61 → 57) if missed.
  • Slip Counter has a higher damage multiplier (1.3× → 1.5×).
  • Slip Counter grants less momentum after an aerial counter. This lowers its recovery potential, but makes it less likely that Mac gets accidentally sent offstage by a counter.
  • Slip Counter produces an aesthetic spark upon retaliating.
  • When Slip Counter connects, the opponent's knockback is initially slowed before going to normal speed.
• Final Smash:
  • Little Mac has a new Final Smash called Giga Mac Rush. Rather than using Giga Mac as a controllable transformation, Little Mac transforms into his Giga Mac form and rushes forward, and if he comes into contact with an opponent, he unleashes a rush of punches before launching them, similar to Donkey Kong's Jungle Rush.
  • As a result, the undead glitch on the Stamina Mode, and results screen glitch on the timed team battle have been removed.