Mario (SSBU)

Mario in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Universe	Mario
Other playable appearances	in SSB in Melee in Brawl in SSB4
Availability	Starter
Final Smash	Mario Finale
Tier	A (23)

Mario (マリオ, Mario) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. He was suggested to appear in the then unnamed Ultimate in its first teaser trailer at the end of the March 8th, 2018 Nintendo Direct, and officially announced in Ultimate's E3 2018 trailer on June 12th, 2018 alongside the rest of the returning roster. Mario is classified as Fighter #01, the first fighter number of the Super Smash Bros. veterans and the overall roster. As in Super Smash Bros. 4, Charles Martinet's portrayal of Mario from Brawl was repurposed for Ultimate in all regions.

Mario is currently ranked 23rd out of 82 characters on the tier list, placing him in the upper half of A tier. Despite not facing many changes during the transition, this is a drop from his 9th out of 54 ranking in Smash 4 where he stood at the lower end of top tier. Much like his previous incarnation, Mario's greatest asset is his fast frame data; most of his moves have little startup lag and have relatively low end lag. This results in Mario being fairly difficult to punish relative to most of the cast. His combo game is quite flexible, as Mario can rack up damage quickly and reliably with a myriad of options to do so; Most notoriously with his up aerial ladders, which can lead to near inescapable kill setups either on the top blast line or near the ledge. In addition, he also has a versatile moveset: a disruptive projectile in his Fireball, a reflection-based and reverse-based move in his Cape that can counteract camping, and a decent, if niche edgeguarding option with F.L.U.D.D.

However, Mario also has some notable weaknesses. His moves have short range, with his hitboxes being relatively small and stubby when compared to the rest of the cast. This causes him to have difficulty against characters with long or disjointed range. Mario also struggles with KOing opponents due to lacking reliable finishers. With the few finishers he does possess either being short in range like up and down smashes, slow like forward smash and back throw, dependant on being near the upper blast zone to kill like up special and down aerial, or dependant on edgeguarding like back, neutral and forward aerials. Mario’s recovery, while good, can still be vulnerable to edge guarding due to Super Jump Punch travelling in a very linear direction. Lastly, Mario's average attributes do not allow him to quickly gain an advantage either, as the strengths of other characters can contest with his, with the most notable being his overall range.

Overall, Mario's strengths outweigh his weaknesses, and while there were some initial doubts over Mario's viability, Dark Wizzy and Kurama spearheaded his status as a top-level threat, proving to be one of the most popular characters in the early metagame. While metagame shifts have hurt Mario over time, his success and popularity have nonetheless continued into the post-pandemic metagame thanks to newer players like Snow and Kurama’s continued consistency with the character; as such, Mario remains a strong character in the metagame.

Attributes

Mario is a short middleweight with relatively balanced attributes, possessing slightly above average walking speed, air acceleration, dashing speed and weight, whereas his falling speed and gravity are below average relative to the cast. He also has a very fast air speed (tied with Sonic, Donkey Kong, Little Mac and Inkling for the 12th fastest in the game) and excellent jumps, in exchange for poor attack range and moderately low traction. These balanced stats don't give Mario the edge when it comes to overall movement, but they nevertheless make him adept at most situations where a key attribute is needed to gain the advantage, which, when combined with his very quick frame data, grants him a great neutral game. As a result, despite his attributes implying a jack-of-all-trades type of character, Mario is somewhat more of a rushdown character in practice.

Thanks to his incredibly quick attack speed, Mario shines in close-quarters combat. His fast attack speed allows him to consistently apply pressure to the opponent, and he is capable of quickly racking up damage once he gets the momentum, which is easy to do on characters that cannot match his attack speed without getting heavily punished for it. Excluding his forward smash, forward aerial, and special moves, all of Mario's moves have fast startup and low ending and landing lag (the latter in the case of his aerial attacks, except for his aforementioned forward aerial). All of his grounded moves are prime examples of his quick frame data: his neutral attack is his fastest move and an overall effective way to rack up damage, along with handy combo capabilities, while his up and down tilts are effective combo starters that can help rack up plenty of damage, and the former chains into itself at low percentages. All of his smash attacks are decent KO options, as they can reliably KO at high percentages and have low ending lag; his forward smash has a powerful sweetspot located on the fiery explosion that he emits from his palm and possesses the highest power of all of his smash attacks, down smash is a semi-spike, making it useful for forcing opponents offstage, and up smash is very hard to punish due to its speed, power and slight disjoint due to the intangibility it grants on his head.

Mario's aerial attacks are also very useful in many cases. Neutral aerial is a sex kick that can be useful in edgeguarding or for breaking combos. Back aerial has the longest reach and the highest knockback of Mario's aerial moves, allowing it to space effectively and reliably KO offstage. Up aerial's extremely quick startup, vertical launch angle, and lack of sourspots let it combo into itself or other moves, on top of letting it easily break or set up combos. Mario Tornado, which is Mario's down aerial, is a great anti-juggling move that also has respectable power, especially if used near the upper blast line. Finally, his forward aerial is a meteor smash with high base knockback for one, making it great for gimping all but the farthest-reaching of recoveries and being an extremely effective KO option offstage.

His special moveset is highly varied and has plenty of uses. Fireball is a projectile with a decently long range. It can be useful in the neutral game or in edgeguarding, thanks to its disruptive knockback and downward trajectory, and is very useful for disrupting direct approaches. Super Jump Punch travels in a controllable diagonal direction and grants moderate distance, making it good at recovery. It also has intangibility upon startup, allowing it to be used out of shield very effectively. Due to its extremely quick startup, it is also a useful combo finisher, especially near the blast line. Cape reverses opponents, with the induced disorientation often being enough to allow a free hit or efficiently gimp a recovery, which aids in edgeguarding opponents. It is also a powerful reflector, making it highly useful in matchups against projectile-heavy characters, such as Simon or Samus. F.L.U.D.D. is a mechanism that shoots water, pushing opponents away, which compliments his Cape. Though situational, it can occasionally be used to give Mario some breathing space. As a result of his Cape, F.L.U.D.D., and his fast aerials, Mario also boasts a versatile edgeguarding game.

Another valuable strength of Mario is his grab game. Though his grab reach is somewhat average, his dash and pivot grabs extend far past his hurtboxes, granting them unusually disjointed range for a character of his archetype. In addition, his grabs are tied for the fastest in the game, and his pummel is fairly quick. His forward throw puts the opponent at a disadvantageous position, where Mario can capitalize on their mistakes. His up throw is a useful combo starter at lower percentages, comboing into his up, down, and back aerials. His back throw is by far his strongest throw and one of the strongest of its type in the game as well, as it can reliably KO at around 160% near the ledge on any character, and even earlier with rage, being capable of killing as early as 107% with it. Finally, his down throw is a great combo starter that can lead to a vast amount of combo opportunities, most notably his up, back, and forward aerials.

Finally, due to the favorable angles his moves send at, his tremendously quick frame data, and his extensive amount of combo starters, Mario's combo ability is fantastic, and it is also worth noting that several of Mario's moves can lock, including his neutral attack. This makes it almost always imperative for Mario's opponent to tech all attacks at low to mid percentages when needed; otherwise, Mario can capitalize on the opportunity and tack on unavoidable massive damage in the process.

Despite Mario's numerous strengths, he is not flawless. His attributes, while well-rounded, are not exactly exceptional, as many characters outclass him in various ways. Notable examples of this include Pikachu having a more versatile edgeguarding game, Luigi and Kazuya having better combo potential, Steve having a superior camping game, Sonic having substantially faster mobility, Bowser having significantly stronger attacks, Snake and Sora having a much more effective recovery, and Shulk and Min Min having drastically larger reach. In particular, the last one is his main weakness: his attacks generally possess relatively poor range.

His lack of reach (which was further worsened by the changes to his up-tilt and dash grab) prevents him from fighting at a safe distance, and consistently forces Mario to approach characters on his own. This leads to him having great difficulty against characters with large or disjointed range, particularly weapon users like Lucina and Cloud. While back air is Mario's most effective spacing tool, it too suffers from a mediocre range that limits its utility against disjointed attacks, and fireball, while an overall solid projectile, is slow and lacks transcendent priority, which means it can easily be beaten by any attack with a large hitbox, making it mostly an unreliable tool for camping. While Mario's pressuring capabilities are formidable, his susceptibility to getting spaced out is among the worst in the game due to his moves possessing very stubby and small-sized hitboxes, this results in Mario having a lot of difficulty in approaching and getting his combo game started if his opponents space him properly, as even a character with a slightly disproportionate disjoint can severely limit his ability to get in. In such cases, he will often be forced to rely on reads and make good for what he has when he gets an opening.

Another notable weakness is that Mario can also have some difficulty scoring KOs, as he has few strong and reliable finishers and can have difficulty landing them, especially at high percents, which are further compounded by his short range, which limits his options. Outside of his forward and up smashes, none of his other KO moves are very reliable and consistently effective for doing what they're supposed to: his down smash can only KO reliably with its back hit and is unsafe on shield, Super Jump Punch can only KO at very high percentages or close to the blast zones, his back aerial has short range and is unsafe against disjoints, his down aerial has even shorter range and can sometimes have trouble connecting, his back throw is very slow and very susceptible to DI, and his forward aerial is slow and must be sweetspotted (mid hit) to meteor smash, while the early hit and late hit (first and last active frame, respectively) have too much ending lag to be used as a combo extender while still being unreliable for killing due to their rather low knockback. Because of this, Mario tends to rely too much on his forward and up smashes or reads to score a KO, and his inconsistent KO potential is further worsened by the changes to rage, which hinders him more than other characters, as it doesn't increase knockback as much as in SSB4. Since it also no longer affects set knockback, he can't use his Super Jump Punch’s connecting hits as a KO confirm at low percents anymore if he has high rage, similarly to Samus's Screw Attack and Peach Parasol. Because of this, he must keep his forward and up smashes fresh and be careful not to get predictable, especially with the existence of stale-move negation. While his forward and up smashes are considered among the best of their type, they have their flaws too: the former has noticeable endlag and a sourspot located on Mario's arm, which, while very difficult to hit with, outprioritizes the sweetspot and has rather mediocre power, while the latter has poor range in front of him, to the point where it will sometimes miss completely against short, crouching, or characters with hurtbox shifting properties.

Despite being known for his jumping ability (hence his original nickname, Jumpman), Mario's recovery is easy to gimp and is quite predictable. Despite his fast air speed and high double jump, Super Jump Punch, while fast and relatively safe, travels a merely average amount of distance altogether. This means that if Mario is knocked off stage without his double jump, he is extremely vulnerable to edgeguarding, and one hit could be all it takes to kill him. This also leaves Mario very vulnerable to semi-spikes, as they will likely launch him too far to recover at high percentages. Aside from Super Jump Punch, Mario has no other recovery options aside from utilizing Cape's momentum stalling as a mix-up. Nevertheless, Super Jump Punch still offers a serviceable amount of recovery ability and can get the job done, should it be used properly.

Lastly, some minor weaknesses Mario might also suffer from include a lack of reliable burst options, as due to the small size of his hitboxes, none of his moves (except up special and neutral aerial) can function reliably as a safe approach or get-off me option against characters that can pressure him well such as Fox or Sonic. Mario might also struggle to get back from the ledge, as his ledge options are slow and predictable, making him vulnerable to getting ledge-trapped. While Mario possesses a remarkable air game thanks to his high airspeed, his ground game can sometimes be rather limited due to his walk and run speeds being somewhat unremarkable, which combined with his aforementioned lack of range means he's usually going to rely on rising aerials or grabs to start his combo game, which can be predictable.

Overall, Mario has many clear strengths and very few exploitable glaring weaknesses, resulting in said strengths outweighing said weaknesses. All in all, his above-average mobility and largely reliable combo ability allow him to get the edge easily against most characters, as it is hard to escape from his wrath once he gets the advantage, while it is also easy for him to escape from his opponents’ wrath and regain the advantage. However, because of his low range, Mario must almost always fight in close quarters, and he often relies on reads to secure KOs. Mario has to be very careful off-stage as well, in spite of his respectable edgeguarding game, as one exploit of his defenses can cause him to be unable to recover.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. 4

Mario has undergone a mixture of buffs and nerfs in his transition to Ultimate, but despite being directly nerfed overall, the indirect changes to the game's engine drastically benefit his playstyle, and he has also received buffs to some of his underwhelming moves from his SSB4 incarnation. As a result, it is difficult to determine if he was buffed or nerfed overall.

Mario has received a few direct noteworthy buffs. Fireball has reduced endlag, a slightly larger hitbox, and inflicts more hitlag on opponents, greatly improving its safety and follow-up potential. F.L.U.D.D. has reduced ending lag and a stronger pushback effect as a result of its increased set knockback, allowing Mario to disrupt and edgeguard opponents with it more effectively. As a result of his buffed specials, Mario's approach and already oppressive edgeguarding ability have been improved. A few of his standard attacks have received buffs as well; forward tilt is much more effective as a spacing option due to its higher base knockback, lower ending lag, and the increased shieldstun for tilt attacks. Additionally, his down aerial connects more reliably than before and deals increased damage and knockback, improving its damage-racking capabilities and KO potential. Forward smash also deals consistent damage across all angles, and when angled up or down, has increased knockback scaling, slightly improving its already impressive KO potential even further.

Mario also benefits heavily from the changes to Ultimate's mechanics. His already strong set of aerials has been improved even further as a result of the universal reduction to landing lag; this not only makes them safer on shield despite the reduced shieldstun on aerial attacks, but it allows for more reliable combos and even devastating KO setups, such as up aerial into forward aerial. This is complemented by the universal 3-frame jumpsquat, with his up throw in particular becoming a much more effective combo starter as well. The universal increase to mobility further improves Mario's approach and allows him to string attacks together more effectively and close in on opponents more effectively. Lastly, the changes to air dodging further improve his excellent edgeguarding ability, and give him a situational recovery alternative to his predictable Super Jump Punch.

However, Mario has also received noteworthy nerfs. A notable detriment to his toolkit is the universal nerfing of grabs; while his throws' excellent utility and his potentially devastating throw combos from SSB4 remain, the increased startup on his dash and pivot grabs, the increased ending lag of all of his grabs and the reduced range on his dash grab make it harder for Mario to make use of his potent grab game. Furthermore, his neutral game, while still solid, has been toned down due to changes to some of his best moves. For example, his up tilt, one of his most pivotal moves, has an altered animation, causing the move's initial hitbox to be positioned higher above the ground while worsening its horizontal range; this not only further exacerbates his already bad range, but also significantly hinders the move's use as a reliable follow-up from his down throw at any percent against most characters, worsening both the move's combo potential and Mario's overall punish ability, as up tilt was considered to his most effective damage racking option. This is partially compensated by up throw's improved combo potential at low percents, however. His dash attack, while it can still serve as a 2 frame punish at the edge, is no longer capable of stage spiking off-stage opponents, due to its late hit's knockback angle being altered to send opponents away from Mario rather than towards him; additionally, the move's new animation gives him less protection overall. Additionally, the increased knockback on his forward tilt causes the move to lose its locking potential. On top of this, Super Jump Punch sweetspots edges three frames later, to the point of causing Mario to land on the stage and become much more vulnerable if he does not use it from a far enough distance; additionally, due to the changes to rage, it is much less effective for taking out stocks off the upper blast line below high percents. Finally, the changes to air dodging are a double-edged sword for Mario; while this makes Mario more effective at edgeguarding his opponents, he is, conversely, also easier for his opponents to edgeguard as a result.

Overall, Mario retains all of his strengths from SSB4, with his extreme combo and edgeguarding abilities benefiting noticeably from the reworked mechanics despite the nerfs to a few of his moves, though he now possesses a slightly worsened disadvantage state to go with it. His playstyle is fundamentally different due to Ultimate's reworked mechanics, requiring players to utilize different strategies to achieve the same level of effectiveness that his previous incarnation was capable of, and resulting in a slightly higher learning curve and cerebral curve. Combined with the higher playstyle diversity among the cast as a result of the various changes to other returning veterans and the introduction of various strong DLC characters, Mario performs slightly worse than in SSB4.

Aesthetics

• Due to the aesthetic used in Ultimate, Mario's model features a more subdued color scheme. His eyes and clothing feature greater detailing; the seams on his overalls are more accentuated, and his buttons have a more polished finish. He also has a slightly darker skin tone. Altogether, these changes make him appear virtually identical to his appearance as of Super Mario Odyssey.
  • Mario's standard cap has been replaced by Cappy from Super Mario Odyssey. Cappy's eyes appear during his side taunt and, on occasion, Super Jump Punch, but he otherwise has no effect on gameplay.
• Mario's Builder outfit from Super Mario Maker and his Wedding tuxedo and top hat from Super Mario Odyssey are present as alternate costumes. They replace his Wario-inspired costume and his Fire Mario costume.
• Mario's idle animation is altered slightly; his head is turned more towards the screen, but he still looks toward his front. This has translated into his moveset, with many of his moves having tweaked animations.
• Mario has become drastically more expressive in this game, to an even greater degree than its predecessor, or the rest of the cast. In particular, he will sometimes smile and appear whimsical or happy in battle or when applauding the winner of a match, in line with his canon depiction, although he still looks serious and with angry brows most of the time. In contrast, Mario will also make much angrier expressions than before, particularly when he is preparing to throw someone or when grabbing onto a ledge.
• Walking, air dodge, shielding, helpless, skidding, and ledge-hanging animations have changed. Additionally, Mario now faces the screen instead of away while sleeping.
• Mario's mustache now moves during certain animations, such as while falling.
• Mario's on-screen appearance emits the iconic Warp Pipe sound effect as he jumps out of it, similar to its Smash 64 appearance, rather than the jump sound as in Brawl and Smash 4; this change is shared with Luigi.
• Mario has two new taunts: one where he turns his back to the camera and gives a thumbs-up while smiling, and another where he happily throws Cappy around in a circle. They replace his previous up and side taunts.
  • Mario performs his down taunt much faster.
• Mario's right-inputted victory pose has been slightly altered; he jumps much higher, spins around only once, and has a more joyful expression after landing on the ground.

Attributes

• Like all characters, Mario's jumpsquat animation takes 3 frames to complete (down from 5).
• Mario walks slightly faster (1.1 → 1.155).
• Mario runs faster (1.6 → 1.76).
  • Mario's initial dash is significantly faster (1.6 → 1.936).
• Mario's air speed is faster (1.15 → 1.208).
• Mario's traction is much higher (0.045 → 0.102), allowing him to punish out of shield more easily.
• Mario's gravity is slightly lower (0.08715 → 0.087).
• Forward roll grants less intangibility (frames 4-16 → 4-15).
• Back roll has more startup with less intangibility (frames 4-16 → 5-16) and more ending lag (FAF 30 → 35).
• Spot dodge has less ending lag (FAF 27 → 26).
• Air dodge grants more intangibility (frames 3-27 → 3-29).
• Air dodge has significantly more ending lag (FAF 33 → 53).

Ground attacks

• Neutral attack:
  • Consecutive uses of the first hit of neutral attack are faster (9 → 6 frames).
  • The first two hits transition into the subsequent hits faster (frame 8 → 5 (hit 1), frame 7 → 6 (hit 2)).
  • The third hit comes out faster (frame 7 → 3) and goes higher, allowing it to connect better from the first two hits.
    • However, its total duration remains unchanged, giving it more ending lag.
  • The third hit has increased base knockback (45 → 60).
  • All hits have a higher hitlag multiplier (1× → 1.8× (hit 1), 1.2× (hit 2), 2× (hit 3)), giving opponents more time to SDI each hit and DI the last hit.
  • The first two hits have altered damage values (2.5% → 2.2% (hit 1), 1.5% → 1.7% (hit 2)), resulting in the move dealing slightly less damage in total (8% → 7.9%).
  • The first and third hits have smaller hitboxes (3u/1.5u/4u → 1.2u/1.5u/1.8u (hit 1), 5u/2.5u/2.5u → 4.3u/2.5u/2.6u (hit 3)).
  • The first two hits no longer use set knockback (15/10/15 set/100 scaling → 20/15 base/50/33/20 scaling (hit 1), 18/15/25 set/100 scaling → 20/15 base/30/15 scaling (hit 2)) and have altered angles (361°/80° → 361°/180° (hit 1), 361° (hit 2)). This improves its locking ability, and causes it to connect more reliably with the farthest hitboxes, but less reliably with the closest hitboxes at high percents.
• Forward tilt:
  • Forward tilt has a longer hitbox duration (frames 5-6 → 5-7).
  • It has less ending lag (FAF 31 → 26). Combined with the increased shieldstun for ground attacks, this makes it much safer on shield.
  • It has much more base knockback (8 → 55), but less knockback scaling (100 → 70). This makes it significantly safer on hit at low percents, and grants it slightly improved KO potential near the ledge but removes its ability to lock.
• Up tilt:
  • Up tilt has an altered animation with the spinning uppercut starting from a higher and closer position, noticeably reducing its range in front of Mario, to the point it can no longer hit most characters on the ground unless they are very close.
  • Its animation has been flipped, with Mario spinning towards the screen instead of away from it.
• Down tilt:
  • Down tilt's sweetspot takes priority over the sourspot.
  • The sweetspot is slightly smaller (3.5u → 3.2u).
  • Its animation has been flipped, with Mario spinning towards the screen instead of away from it.
• Dash attack:
  • Dash attack's hitboxes are placed farther from Mario (Z offset: 4.4u/4u → 5.4u/4.9u), improving its horizontal range.
  • It has gained a shieldstun multiplier of 1.875×, which combined with the increased shieldstun for ground attacks makes it safer on shield.
  • The clean hit launches at a lower angle (60° → 50°), allowing it to KO more effectively near edges.
  • The late hit has a slightly bigger hitbox (2.6u → 2.7u).
  • It has a different animation where Mario's head is positioned higher, his legs extend farther from him, and he gets up during the ending lag instead of staying sit. This prevents him from sliding under certain attacks, and makes him easier to hit overall.
  • The late hit launches opponents away from Mario rather than towards him (110° → 48°), hindering its combo potential despite its lower knockback scaling (43 → 30), and preventing it from stage spiking opponents below edges.
  • It has a higher hitlag multiplier (1× → 1.25×).
• Forward smash:
  • Forward smash deals consistent damage across all angles (14%/17% (forward), 14.7%/17.85% (up), 14.42%/17.51% (down) → 14.7%/17.8% (all)), slightly increasing it overall.
  • The sourspot has increased knockback scaling (103 → 105) across all angles, while the sweetspot does when angled up (99 → 101) and angled down (99 → 100). Combined with the increased damage, this slightly improves its KO potential.
• Up smash:
  • Up smash's animation has been flipped, with Mario facing toward the screen rather than away from it.
• Down smash:
  • Down smash's animation has been altered, resembling both the Sweep Kick move from Super Mario 64, and the break dance Mario performs on the cover of Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix.

Aerial attacks

• All aerials have less landing lag (10 frames → 6 (neutral), 26 → 17 (forward), 12 → 6 (back, up), 19 → 15 (down)).
• Neutral aerial:
  • Neutral aerial auto-cancels later (frame 34 → 39), although it still auto-cancels in a short hop.
  • The late hit has a shorter duration (frames 6-29 → 6-27).
  • The hitbox on the late hit is slightly smaller (3u → 2.8u).
• Forward aerial:
  • The removal of teching for grounded meteor smashes improves forward aerial's combo potential onstage, compounded further by its reduced landing lag.
  • It has a different animation, with Mario punching downward with his opposite hand and twisting around afterwards instead of flipping.
• Up aerial:
  • Up aerial has less ending lag (FAF 32 → 31), marginally improving its combo potential.
  • It auto-cancels earlier (frame 18 → 17).
  • It has a shorter hitbox duration (frames 4-8 → 4-7).
• Down aerial:
  • Down aerial's last hit comes out faster (frame 25 → 23), allowing it to connect better and preventing opponents from air dodging out of it.
    • However, its total duration remains unchanged, giving it more ending lag.
  • The move deals more damage (1% → 1.4% (hits 1-5), 5% → 5.5% (hit 6); 10% → 12.5% (total)), with knockback not compensated on the last hit, improving its KO potential.
  • The looping hits are weight-independent, and no longer use set knockback, instead having more base knockback with minimal knockback scaling (10 set/100 scaling → 50/25 base/15 scaling). This allows for all hits to connect more reliably, preventing opponents from air dodging the last hit.
  • It can no longer be frame canceled.
  • The looping hits' vertically lowest hitbox is smaller (5u → 4u). The landing hitbox is also very slightly smaller (4.32u → 4.3u).
  • The looping hits' middle hitbox has been removed. However, since it didn't cover any more space than the top and low hitboxes together, this makes no practical difference.
  • The final hit has an altered animation, and the vortex emitted around Mario is larger.

Throws and other attacks

• Grabs:
  • All grabs have increased ending lag (FAF 29 → 35 (standing), 36 → 43 (dash), 34 → 37 (pivot)).
  • Dash and pivot grab have slightly more startup (frame 8 → 9 (dash), 9 → 10 (pivot)).
  • Dash grab has slightly less range (Z2 offset: 10.6u → 10.4u).
• Pummel:
  • Pummel deals more hitlag (5 frames → 14), but has significantly less startup (frame 16 → 1) and ending lag (FAF 24 → 7), shortening its duration.
  • It deals much less damage (3.25% → 1.3%).
  • It has a slightly different animation: Mario holds the opponent with one hand, instead of both like in previous installments, maintaining consistency with his grab animation.
• All of Mario's throws have been altered with more forceful animations.
• The speed of Mario's throws is no longer weight-dependent. This improves their combo potential on heavyweights, but reduces it on lightweights.
• Forward throw:
  • Forward throw has gained slight combo potential at low percents due to Mario's faster initial dash speed.
• Its animation has been altered, with Mario turning on the opposite direction faster, but the second half of the spin is slower and he tosses the opponent more exaggeratedly.
• Back throw:
  • It has an altered animation before the throw: Mario no longer briefly lets go of the opponent before swinging them. Instead, to make the opponent fall, he lifts them by the feet and positions their legs closer to his chest, and then he swings the oppponent before throwing them away. This altered animation more closely represents a real-life giant swing.
• Up throw:
  • Up throw has increased combo ability due to Mario's faster jumpsquat and jump speed.
  • It has a different animation where Mario faces horizontally rather than towards the screen, and holds the opponent by their chest instead of lifting them on their back before throwing, more closely resembling the Upward Cap Throw from Super Mario Odyssey.
• Down throw:
  • Down throw can no longer combo into up tilt except against certain large or tall characters due to the latter's altered hitbox placements, hindering its damage racking potential at low to mid percents.
  • Mario no longer performs a front flip after throwing the opponent. He also slams the opponent more forcefully and with a single arm instead of two.
• Edge attack:
  • Edge attack deals more damage (7% → 9%).

Special moves

• Fireball:
  • Fireball has less ending lag (FAF 53 → 50), improving its safety.
  • It has larger hitboxes (2u (early)/1.8u (clean)/1.6u (late) → 2.4u/2.2u/2u), regaining its hitbox sizes from Brawl and with the early hit's hitboxes matching his younger brother's Fireballs.
  • It has an increased hitlag multiplier (0.3× → 0.6×), giving Mario more time to follow up.
  • It has received negative shield damage (0 → -2.5 (clean)/-2 (late)), effectively dealing half its usual damage to shields.
  • Mario no longer opens his mouth when using Fireball on the ground.
• Cape:
  • Cape no longer gives the opponent super armor on hit.
  • It now inflicts knockback if it's used while they're grabbing the ledge.
  • The reflective hitbox is smaller (9u → 6.5u), and has been moved forward (Z offset: 2 → 8). As such, it can no longer cover behind Mario, making it less safe to use.
    • Although, it is easier to reflect projectiles that otherwise would have stopped short of Mario.
  • The reflective hitbox has more startup with a shorter duration (frame 6-20 → 9-20), although it has a new function causing it to start two frames earlier (frame 7) if a projectile is very close to Mario at the time. This slightly reduces its safety.
    • In the same circumstances, the entire move loses two frames of startup, allowing the offensive hitbox to come out earlier (on frame 10) and reducing the move's total duration.
  • The move's animation length is much longer (41 frames → 58). In the air, this means Mario's air mobility is restricted for mu