Little Mac (SSBU)

Little Mac in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Universe	Punch-Out!!
Other playable appearance	in SSB4
Availability	Unlockable
Final Smash	Giga Mac Rush
Tier	E (81)

Little Mac (リトル・マック, Little Mac) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. He was officially revealed on June 12th, 2018 alongside Wario and the rest of the returning roster. Little Mac is classified as Fighter #49.

Kōsuke Toriumi reprises his role as Little Mac's voice actor, albeit via reused voice clips from Super Smash Bros. 4.

Little Mac is ranked 81st out of 82 on the Ultimate tier list, placing him in the middle of the E tier, and making him the lowest ranked veteran from Smash 4; this is a noticeable drop from his Smash 4 iteration, where he was ranked 43rd out of 54 at the lower end of mid-tier. Little Mac possesses a strong ground game thanks to his excellent ground mobility and numerous grounded kill moves. His smash attacks are especially strong as they have super armor on startup and very respectable speed for their power, making them decently unchallengeable. His tilt attacks are also very respectable, as forward tilt serves as a quick and capable kill move, while down and up tilts can be used to set up combos. Finally, his special moves have also seen improvements from the previous game, most notably to Jolt Haymaker, which no longer sends Little Mac into freefall.

To compensate for his strong ground game, however, Little Mac packs glaring weaknesses, most notably when it comes to fighting in the air. Although his recovery is improved from the previous game, it remains one of the worst among the roster due to his low double-jump height, being allowed only one Jolt Haymaker per airtime, and Rising Uppercut's pitiful travel distance in the air. His aerial game is also almost non-existent due to his aerials' poor damage and knockback as well as his special moves being weaker in the air. Finally, his average stature compared to the rest of the cast and lack of disjoints give him a notable range problem, which, when combined with his low overall shieldstun outside of down-angled forward smash and sweetspotted up smash, force him to play a linear, risky neutral game, while his high fall speed contributes to his vulnerability to combos, despite granting him decent survivability for a lightweight fighter.

Due to Little Mac's extremely polarized nature, he is considered a rather unpopular pick in the current metagame. He has historically been considered a candidate for the worst character in the entire game, only ranking above Ganondorf in more recent tier lists, but has seen unusually good results for a character of his ranking (particularly in Japan), with Peanut, Tarakotori and, most recently, LiiMac and sy making several good results with solo-Little Mac.

How to unlock

Complete one of the following:

• Play VS. matches, with Little Mac being the 20th character to be unlocked.
• Clear Classic Mode with Mario or any character in his unlock tree, being the 3rd character unlocked after Bayonetta.
• Have Little Mac join the player's party in World of Light.

Little Mac must then be defeated on Boxing Ring (the Ω form is used in World of Light).

Attributes

Little Mac offers a simple yet polarized fighting style, performing well on the ground but poorly in the air. While Mac is rather small compared to most realistically proportioned characters, he is of average size among the entire cast. This can make him somewhat difficult to hit, but also means that most of his moves have short range, which makes spacing crucial for avoiding punishment.

Little Mac is a lightweight with very impressive ground mobility: he has the 8th fastest walking speed, the 3rd fastest dashing speed, and above-average traction, granting him effective out of shield options. He also has the 3rd fastest initial dash, which has a long duration of 15 frames, giving him a long pivot and an excellent dash dance that is surpassed only by Zero Suit Samus and Mythra. His sidestep and rolls are tied with Fox, Sheik and Zero Suit Samus' for the fastest in the game, with his rolls giving the third longest distance in the game behind Samus and Dark Samus. These stats, overall, translate to excellent ground coverage and make it easy for Little Mac to keep up with and punish opponents contesting him on the ground, while also giving him fast, effective grounded defensive options. He also has fast falling speed (tied with King Dedede for the 2nd fastest) and below-average gravity, which collectively give him good vertical endurance despite his status as a lightweight. Aside from his great air speed (tied with Mario, Donkey Kong, Sonic and Inkling's for 13th fastest) and his wall jump, which is the 4th highest, the rest of Little Mac's aerial attributes are notoriously poor: his jump is tied with Ryu and Ken's for the 5th lowest, his double jump is the 3rd lowest, his air acceleration is tied with Ganondorf for the 6th lowest, and his directional air dodge travels the least amount of distance. These attributes effectively force Mac to stay on the ground as often as possible to make use of his excellent ground mobility.

Little Mac's greatest strength is his potent ground game. None of his grounded moves have more than 15 frames of start-up, whereas only his up smash has more than 30 frames of ending lag. Only five non-special moves (forward smash, back air, up smash, down smash, and forward air) become active after frame 9, and only the former two after frame 10. His neutral attack, in particular, is tied with Zero Suit Samus' for the fastest move in the game, activating on frame 1, and its minimal ending lag and angles allow it to not only jab lock but also make it and Mr. Game & Watch's neutral attack is the only one in Ultimate that is capable of jab canceling reliably. Despite his somewhat light weight, Little Mac boasts superb KO potential: his forward tilt, dash attack, and smash attacks boast high damage outputs and knockback scaling, yet are also fairly fast. Forward smash can be angled, with the downward variant dealing immense shield damage and the upward variant being one of Mac's most effective vertical KO options on the ground. Up smash's coverage allows it to serve as an effective anti-air, and its sweet spot also deals a lot of shield damage. Finally, down smash is a semi-spike with a fairly long range, allowing it to tech chase as well as edge-guard easily against careless or vulnerable recoveries. Besides their speed and strength, Little Mac's grounded moves are also difficult to interrupt, which, combined with his high dashing speed, gives him an excellent punish game. His tilt attacks boast anti-rebounding priority; this prevents them from clanking with opposing ground attacks provided they're within priority range, allowing Mac to punish opponents very quickly due to his own attacks' high speed. While his smash attacks have normal priority, they instead boast super armor during their use. This offers Mac a unique way of punishing attacks by tanking the hit while immediately retaliating - meaning devastating attacks such as most forward smashes can all be punished. Additionally, many of Little Mac’s grounded attacks involve him lunging forward with his arms, which, when combined with incredible dash speed, makes him excellent at approaching while also granting him deceptively good range for a physical fighter. These traits make him arguably the most difficult opponent to directly challenge on the ground for every other character in the roster, including himself.

Little Mac's special moves also have fair utility. Straight Lunge gains distance and power as it charges, deals heavy damage, and boasts light damage-based armor while charging, allowing him to withstand weak attacks before retaliating immediately afterward. As such, it is an effective tool against most infinites and multi-hit moves even while uncharged. The move can also be canceled by shielding, giving it utility for escaping certain combo moves such as Witch Twist, and it can be turned around when released, offering decent mix-up potential and a way to get out of combos. However, Straight Lunge's considerable ending lag limits its offensive utility as it can be easily intercepted or punished, while its defensive utility depends on the character and the attack. This makes it great defensively against characters with low damage output or with reliance on multi-hits, such as Sheik or Meta Knight, but it won't help against opponents with serious damage output or on single-hit aerials. Jolt Haymaker propels Mac forward with a leaping punch that travels a fair distance, can be unleashed on command, grants brief intangibility during start-up, and does not lose power when used in mid-air. This makes it useful for tech-chasing, repositioning, and escaping or punishing laggy moves or projectiles, and making it Mac's only useful KO option while in the air and off-stage. Its hitbox is tall enough that it can often clip low-hanging platforms and catch opponents who are attempting to platform camp him. Unlike in SSB4, it also does not render him helpless, making it a much less dangerous recovery move. Rising Uppercut grants brief intangibility on start-up and travels fairly high when used on the ground. This makes the move an effective combo breaker; combined with the last hit's high knockback scaling, it has a very fast startup, and the fact that it doesn't lose power in the air is also quite potent out of shield and for scoring aerial KOs. Slip Counter is an extremely fast counterattack, making it useful for escaping pressure, especially aerial combos. It is also one of the few counters that slides forward before attacking, allowing Little Mac to get closer to his opponent, or even recover horizontally in response to an edge-guard attempt.

Rounding out his specials, Little Mac has a unique fighter ability called the Power Meter. Displayed over his damage meter, the Power Meter fully charges by dealing 333% or receiving 100%. When fully charged, Straight Lunge is replaced by the KO Uppercut, which can KO any character before 40%. KO Uppercut is also unblockable (barring Witch Time), boasts fast startup, and leaps slightly into the air (allowing it to catch opponents on low platforms such as Battlefield's); combined with its immense power, this can quickly turn the tide of a match or further secure a lead if used successfully. It can be comboed into from down tilt at low percents, and is the ideal tech chase option for a defensive player who tends to roll away from Little Mac when placed under pressure. However, Mac loses the KO Uppercut if tumbled after a 4-second grace period (not including footstool jumping), forcing him to use the move quickly. KO Uppercut also has considerable end lag regardless of whether it hits or not, and its short leap can cause Mac to fall off the stage if used while next to an edge, almost guaranteeing an accidental self-destruct if not reacted to. As a result, it is inarguably one of the riskiest, yet most rewarding attacks in the entire series.

While considerably weaker than the rest of the cast, Little Mac's air game is not completely useless and has limited perks, which can be utilized for initiating short combos. Neutral aerial is by far Little Mac's most effective aerial: it is the fastest aerial attack in the game and can be spammed, making it a decent combo breaker or to interrupt opponents when jumping from a ledge. It can combo into itself, drag down opponents with him as a sacrificial K.O. option, and grant niche combo opportunities into other aerials or Rising Uppercut. It also features a slightly disjointed hitbox in Mac's pelvis, which causes weak upward knockback that is surprisingly excellent for combos, thanks to the move's autocancel properties, which will allow it to combo into up tilt, up aerial, or Rising Uppercut. Forward aerial is a semi-spike and is decent for combos or edge-guarding, especially against poor recoveries; it can also initiate combos into Jolt Haymaker offstage as a powerful sacrificial KO. Up aerial is very fast and can autocancel in a full hop, allowing it to combo into moves like Rising Uppercut when landing. Back aerial is the worst of its kind in the game, but it is a semi-spike, has fair spacing utility, and sets the opponent up for tech chase situations when used close to the ground. Finally, down aerial is an extremely fast, weak meteor smash that is mainly useful for locking floored opponents who miss a tech, which opens up devastating punishes courtesy of Little Mac's variety of grounded KO moves. It also acts as a highly situational meteor smash, although it is unlikely to be useful outside of surprise gimping. However, his aerials all have short range, poor damage output, and awful KO potential. While his neutral and down aerials can auto-cancel from a short hop, his forward, back, and up aerials cannot. This leaves Mac incredibly vulnerable in the air, as he has no means of properly defending himself beyond point-blank range without exhausting any of his special moves, which are limited to one use until he touches the ground. The low power of his aerials also makes them ineffective for flinching opponents, and Mac's only aerial KO options are indeed his special moves, which are highly likely to result in sacrificial KOs if misused off-stage. This also means that Mac is more severely affected by stale-move negation than most other characters, as he is effectively limited to using little more than half of his moveset in most situations, although his variety of powerful finishers can compensate for it to a degree.

Little Mac sports a mediocre grab game; Mac's pummel is among the fastest, but his grabs, while having average range, have moderate startup lag and noticeable ending lag, and the ending lag and collateral hitboxes for his throws limit their ability to KO or start combos. However, they do have some uses: forward throw can followed into Jolt Haymaker from 0%, but requires a read due to the ending lag; down throw can combo into Rising Uppercut, but has some ending lag and is susceptible to DI; his back throw has decent power and can KO at around 130%, but its collateral hitbox weakens it; up throw can combo into Jolt Haymaker at low to mid percents, and forward throw can tech chase at the same percentages. Unfortunately, this translates to his throws having very limited use, as all of them, apart from down throw, are only effective for creating space. This severely limits Mac's options when attempting to utilize throws, and makes them a risky prospect in the first place when combined with his average grab attributes.

Alongside these setbacks, Little Mac is further held back by a slew of exploitable weaknesses. As expected, Mac's weak air mobility and high falling speed make him incredibly susceptible to gimps from meteor smashes, semi-spikes, and even footstool jumps, especially if he doesn't have his double jump. Compounding this, his directional air dodge has the least distance in the game, and his air dodge's ending lag is only average relative to the cast due to the universal changes to air dodges, since the ending lag depends on the character's falling speed and gravity. Thus, it is not only a situational option while in a disadvantaged state, but also a poor choice as a normal recovery move. Mac can grab the ledge by using a directional air dodge if he is close enough, however, allowing him to cover the remaining distance to the ledge, making it very useful if combined with his double jump and special moves. His special moves are also considerably less effective while in the air. Straight Lunge loses much of its power when used in midair, and its long charge time makes it impractical for recovery. Aerial KO Uppercut is also significantly weaker and blockable, although it still has both KO and Recovery potential. While Jolt Haymaker and Rising Uppercut are Little Mac's most effective aerial KO options, they are very poor for recovery, offering poor travel distance, small edge sweet spots, and minimal intangibility. Jolt Haymaker does not cause helplessness, allowing Mac to follow up with a wall jump, directional air dodge or Rising Uppercut; however, it travels a mediocre distance and can only be used once before landing or grabbing the edge, leaving Mac one of the most vulnerable characters to edge-guarding as he is unable to use it again if he gets hit. Rising Uppercut loses roughly half its travel distance when used in midair, and while aerial Slip Counter can be a good response to an edge-guard attempt and get Little Mac back on stage, it loses its intangibility, can be predicted, and its end lag if unsuccessful is likely to result in Mac self-destructing or getting gimped by the opponent if used at a low enough altitude. As a result, it is most beneficial to attempt to recover horizontally, rather than vertically, which is nearly impossible depending on whether Mac is merely launched, or (semi-)spiked. These traits result in Little Mac having more difficulty recovering than most other characters, being commonly cited as one of, if not the worst, recovery of the cast overall. While his below-average gravity and high falling speed grant solid vertical endurance for a lightweight, they also make him very vulnerable to combos and juggling. Additionally, the super armor granted by Mac's smash attacks still causes him to take full damage and must be timed carefully to avoid being punished. These traits make Mac extremely prone to momentum shifts; his lacking air game and overall frailty allow opponents to easily combo or even zero-to-death him after one mistake, even if Mac was otherwise dominating the match.

Because of these issues, his neutral game, while decent, is predictable, and while he has a good approach due to his excellent mobility, Mac relies more heavily than most other characters on his shield and dodges for avoiding damage and general positioning, both of which can be predicted and easily punished if overused. His short range can be problematic against characters with long or disjointed attacks. While these issues can be mitigated with Mac's impressive ground speed, he also has trouble dealing with camping; his super armor and special moves provide options for dealing with projectiles, but he is still forced to approach, as he lacks projectiles of his own. His short jumps and weak aerial attacks also leave Mac especially vulnerable to platform camping, arguably more so than any other character in the game. While Mac is very effective at tech chasing due to his high ground speed, forward throw, and wide, semi-spiking down smash, his combo potential is otherwise underwhelming, which, combined with his linear neutral, can sometimes make it difficult to safely rack up damage despite his attacks' serious damage output. As a whole, Little Mac's poor combo game and lack of true KO confirm require him to win neutral exchanges more often to succeed, especially when trying to close out a stock, since his most reliable KO options cannot be comboed into effectively at higher percentages outside of Jolt Haymaker or Rising Uppercut. Players must also be careful and know when to attack and play defensively, or else Little Mac could quickly lose the neutral game and find themselves at a significant disadvantage.

Overall, Little Mac excels with a very specific, methodical playstyle that is reminiscent of a real-life boxer; a defensive bait and punish style that entails keeping constant control of the middle of the stage, capitalizing on the opponent's mistakes, staying on the ground as much as possible, and utilizing his excellent ground mobility to his advantage. Because of his polarizing strengths and weaknesses, players must reach a higher than average level of play than most other fighters to use Little Mac effectively: he can be difficult to utilize despite his straightforward fighting style, as his severe disadvantage state forces him to play extremely carefully, despite his high mobility and power. Players must learn to utilize Little Mac's long rolls, fast air and fall speed, and super armor on smash attacks to approach projectile-based opponents, and take advantage of his powerful ground tools to condition opponents to make mistakes.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. 4

Little Mac has received a mix of buffs and nerfs in the transition from SSB4 to Ultimate. While he has received good improvements both directly and from game engine changes, he also received heavy nerfs to his combo potential, and his poor disadvantage is hurt by the universal engine changes. Collectively, Little Mac has been nerfed overall.

Little Mac's biggest buff involves his notoriously poor recovery. Previously notorious for having one of the single worst recoveries in the game, it has been extended and has greater mix-up potential due to the addition of directional air dodges, Jolt Haymaker no longer causing helplessness while traveling more distance, and KO Uppercut granting recovery distance in midair. His attributes have also been modified, as he now has a considerably faster air speed which helps him recover easier, higher jumps which no longer make him as vulnerable to platform camping (while also improving his recovery), and the second-highest falling speed which makes it easier for him to return to the ground. His higher weight not only improves his endurance, but also allows him to benefit from rage more effectively despite its weakening, making him harder to KO when combined with his longer recovery.

Among other buffs, some of Little Mac's ground moves have been improved. His neutral attack is even faster, can jab cancel with more ease, and can now jab lock. His forward tilt connects better with aerial opponents, and down tilt has more range. All versions of forward smash have lost their blind spots, and up smash has more active super armor frames. Straight Lunge now gains damage while charging, can now be shield-canceled, can be turned around if needed, and deals a consistent 30% when fully charged. Aside from its helpless state being removed, Jolt Haymaker has also significantly improved safety on hit. The aerial version of KO Uppercut now has more knockback, improving its KO power (though it remains a highly situational KO option). His grabs have also received much more range and have lost their previous blind spots, no longer being the shortest in the game.

Little Mac also benefits heavily from some of the universal changes. Since the alterations to grounded movement have returned some of the aspects of dash dancing, this grants Little Mac one of the game's best dash dances. The ability to dash cancel into any grounded attack and the introduction of spot dodge canceling arguably benefit him more than any other fighter, as not only he now has access to all his grounded options at any time, he can avoid most laggy punishment options and retaliate immediately with his strong grounded game; both of these changes improve his hard punish game. The changes to shieldstun make it easier for him to punish aerial approaches out of shield and make his grounded attacks safer, benefitting his ground-based playstyle, while this is complemented by the universal nerfs to grabs and shield grabs, which now make him more difficult to punish out of shield without a sufficiently ranged move. The nerfs to defensive options (shielding, air dodges, rolls, and spot dodges) further improve his pressure ability and punish game, while he still possesses some of the best defensive options of the cast. Finally, the changes to jostle mechanics now make his attacks easier to sweetspot and much harder to whiff up close, such as Straight Lunge's infamous whiffs at point-blank range in SSB4.

However, the nerfs Little Mac has received to his strong grounded game and Jolt Haymaker are harsh enough to eclipse his useful buffs. His best moves for racking up damage are weaker than his neutral attack, the infinite, and up tilt all deal less damage (with the latter being less safe at low percents); the former no longer has anti-rebounding priority, while the latter's lower damage makes it less likely to out-prioritize attacks. Down tilt has more ending lag, reducing its combo potential, especially beyond low percents, and weakening most of his damage-racking abilities while either narrowing or outright removing some of its KO confirms. Down throw has altered and increased knockback, making it better for combos at low percentages, but worse at high ones. As a result of these changes, Little Mac's grounded game has actually become worse despite his much easier access to his options, as he now has to deal slightly more hits and his moves have less followup potential, while he still lacks useful moves to edgeguard or attack offstage opponents with, apart from down tilt, down smash, and the newly buffed Jolt Haymaker. His recovery has also ironically become less consistent than before, as Jolt Haymaker can now only be used once before landing, making misuse or interception of it usually fatal for him; as a result, his offstage survivability still weighs on the opponent, predicting one of the few options he can use while recovering, especially his double jump.

In addition, despite some of the universal changes improving Little Mac, other indirect changes have harmed him at a greater rate. The increased damage on edge attacks (since they now deal more than 8% throughout the cast) means Straight Lunge's armor can no longer withstand them, removing a mind game option. The nerfs to defensive options to become stale if overused, while letting Little Mac punish opponents more easily, make his defense more exploitable due to his awful aerial gam,e making him reliant on dodges and shielding. The limitation to a single air dodge until a character gets hit or lands on the ground, as well as the higher ending lag on one, is especially notable, as this makes him even more susceptible to juggling if his air dodge is misused, and much more susceptible to gimping despite his improved recovery, as combined with the ability to use Jolt Haymaker once before landing makes it difficult to fully extend his recovery. The changes to jostle mechanics, while making his moveset more consistent, make it easier to corner Little Mac and read his fairly linear approach. However, the removal of perfect pivoting, the universal reduction of jumpsquats and landing lag are the changes that hinder him more than any other character: the former change eliminates his extremely strong micro-spacing tactics, while the changes to dash-canceling do not fully compensate for this; the latter two changes benefit his terrible aerial game far less while strengthening most of the cast's aerial games to varying degrees, making him more vulnerable to combos and aerial rushdowns and limits him more to shielding a move or directly contesting them by making use of his smash attacks' super armor to muscle through them, which can be risky.

Overall, despite the changes to Little Mac's awful recovery, safety on shield and the ability to dash cancel moves, he has lost many of the tools that made him effective in the previous game such as his deadly hit confirms and micro-spacing capabilities, and is now forced to contend with the rest of the cast's improvements due to the revamped game physics, which leads to a much more patient playstyle that's less rewarding than before. All of this amounts to Little Mac performing worse than he did in SSB4.

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 slightly 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 dependent 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: