Mario (SSBU)

Mario (, 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, 's portrayal of Mario from Brawl was repurposed for Ultimate in all regions.

Mario is currently ranked 21st out of 82 characters on the tier list, in the A+ tier, as the second-highest character in the high tier. This is a slight downgrade from his 9th out of 54 ranking in Smash 4 where he stood at the lower end of top tier, despite not facing many changes during the transition. Much like his previous incarnation, Mario's greatest asset is his effective 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, most notoriously with his up air ladders. 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. Mario's overall range is below average, giving him trouble against characters with long disjointed range. Mario also suffers from a lack of consistent KO setups, due to having predictable, low range, and unsafe kill options at high percents, alongside his short frame and relative floatiness for a middleweight. Mario's average attributes do not allow him to quickly gain an advantage either, as the strengths of other characters can contest his, with the most notable being his overall range.

Overall, Mario's strengths outweight his weaknesses, and he has seen strong results in competitive play thanks to the efforts of players such as, , , and.

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, , and  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 so 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 or. 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 sends 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 a vast amount of combo opportunities, most notably his up, back, and forward aerials.

Finally, and 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 having a more versatile edgeguarding game,  having better combo potential,  having a superior camping game,  having substantially faster mobility,  having significantly stronger attacks,  having a much more effective recovery, and  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 the universal nerfs to grabs) prevents him from fighting at a safe distance and makes him susceptible to Spacing, and consistently forces Mario to approach characters on his own. This leads to having some difficulty against characters with large or disjointed range, particularly weapon users like and. As such, he will need to rely on close-quarters combat in order to fight decently against characters with disjoints. While back air is Mario's most effective spacing tool, it too suffers from a mediocre range that limits its utility against disjointed attacks.

Mario can also have some difficulty scoring KOs, as he has few strong and reliable finishers and has difficulty landing them, further compounded by his short reach, which limits his options, and a notable lack of KO confirms: outside of forward smash and up smash, 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, his down aerial can sometimes have trouble connecting, his back throw is very slow and thus easy to DI, and his forward aerial is slow and must be sweetspotted (mid hit) in order 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 as a KO confirm at low percents anymore if he has high rage, similarly to 's Screw Attack. Because of this, he must keep his forward and up smashes fresh and be careful to not 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 a sourspot located on Mario's arm, which, while very difficult to hit with, it outprioritizes the sweetspot and has rather mediocre power, while the latter has poor range in front of him, and thus it can have trouble in hitting small or crouching characters.

While his Fireball is useful in the neutral game for stopping approaches and is a decent edgeguarding tool, it's relatively weak for spacing and has noticeable ending lag, making it rather situational in comparison to other projectiles. Lastly, 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.

Overall, Mario has many clear strengths and very few glaring weaknesses, resulting in said strengths outweighing said weaknesses. All in all, his above average mobility and largely reliable combo ability allows 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 overall directly nerfed, the indirect changes to the game's engine drastically benefit his playstyle, plus the helpful buffs to his underwhelming moves causes him to be in a similar position 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 in neutral. For example, his up tilt, one of his most pivotal moves, has had altered hitbox placements with much shorter horizontal range, which significantly hinders its use as a reliable follow-up from his down throw at any percent against most characters, worsening both their combo potential and Mario's punish ability, as this was considered his most effective damage racking option, although this is partially compensated by up throw's improved combo potential at low percents. His dash attack can also no longer serve as a powerful 2 frame punish that leads into a stage spike, due to its late hit's angle being altered to send opponents away from Mario rather than towards him, the new animation gives him less protection overall and his forward tilt has lost its locking potential. On top of this, Super Jump Punch sweet spots edges 3 frames later, to the point of causing Mario to land on the stage and become much more vulnerable if he doesn't use it at a far enough distance, and due of the changes to rage, it is much less effective for taking out stocks off the upper blast line below high percents. In combination with the changes to air dodging, this acts as a double-edged sword for Mario; while they still make him efficient at edgeguarding, these changes render it more effective for other characters to edgeguard Mario.

Overall, Mario retains all of his strengths from SSB4: his extreme combo ability, impressive frame data, serviceable recovery with a high jump height and air speed, and excellent edgeguarding ability. However, his playstyle is fundamentally different due to Ultimate's reworked mechanics, requiring different strategies to achieve the same level of effectiveness that his previous incarnation was capable of, which combined with the higher playstyle diversity among the cast, results in a slightly higher learning curve and cerebral curve.

Update history
With only one nerf to Fireball, Mario was slightly buffed overall in Ultimate's game updates, most of them being quality-of-life updates to his Final Smash, Mario Finale.

Update 2.0.0 made his dash attack send opponents at a lower angle, improving its edgeguarding ability and gave the Final Smash Meter version of Mario Finale a slightly higher knockback multiplier. Update 3.0.0 brought the aforementioned nerf to Fireball, making it deal less shield damage, but also made it so that opponents close to Mario Finale were slowed down more. And finally, 8.0.0, made Mario Finale deal more damage and have more vertically stretched hitboxes, increasing its range and making the move harder to escape.

As a result, competitively speaking, Mario has remained mostly the same since launch, but nonetheless has remained a very successful character in competitive play.

 

 

 

 

Moveset
For a gallery of Mario's hitboxes, see here.
 * Mario can wall jump.

On-screen appearance

 * Jumps out of a and punches his right fist in the air while shouting "Let's-a go!"

Taunts

 * Up taunt: Turns his back to the camera and gives a thumbs-up while smiling. The pose he strikes resembles a piece of promotional artwork first released for, but without the wink.
 * Side taunt: Cheerfully tosses in a circle, saying "Woohoo!", then grabs him out of midair and puts him back on his head. Based on the  from Super Mario Odyssey.
 * Down taunt: Spins in the air and falls to the ground with his legs in the air. This is a reference to his dying animation from .

Idle poses

 * Adjusts his hat.
 * Moves his head from left to right and holds his fist in front of his face.

Crowd cheer
 

Victory poses

 * Left: Winds up for a punch and steps forward while punching in front of the screen.
 * Up: Makes fire explode from his palm and strikes a pose. The pose is somewhat similar to his Super Smash Bros. 4 artwork.
 * Right: Does a spin as he jumps high in the air and lands in a strongman pose. It originates from his "character chosen" animation in Super Smash Bros.

Most historically significant players
See also: Category:Mario players (SSBU)


 * - One of the best Mario players of all-time and was the uncontested best from the second half of 2019 to the start of the online metagame. He was only Mario player who was ever ranked in the top 10 on a notable global ranking, ranking 9th on the OrionRank Pre-Quarantine.
 * - One of the best Mario players of all-time who has been the uncontested best since mid-2022. He was ranked as high as 11th on the UltRank 2022.
 * - One of the best Mario players in North America in the post-online metagame. He has been a consistent regional threat and has made several waves at larger events, including placing 9th at the major and 33rd at the supermajors  and.
 * - Although more known for his in the early metagame, he also co-mained Fox, using the character to place 7th at the supermajor  and 17th at the supermajor . He dropped both characters during the online metagame in favor of.
 * - One of the best Mario players in the United States in the early metagame, where he regularly placed in or around the top 8 at events in his region. He has also seen several notable major placements, including 13th at the major and 33rd at the supermajors  and.
 * - The uncontested best Mario player in Japan from 2021 to mid-2023. Although he isn't as consistent as other notable Mario players, he has racked up several top 16 placement at majors, including placing 5th at the supermajor and 13th at the supermajor.
 * - Although a more recent competitor compared to other Mario players, since 2023 he has established himself as one of the best Mario players in Japan, having regularly placed top 8 at events and other superregionals, including 2nd at . He has also performed well at majors, including placing 5th at the major  and 7th at the major.

Tier placement and history
Upon the release of Ultimate, Mario was received lukewarmly and was regarded as an average mid-tiered character. This was seen through his poor range, which was impacted more in the game due to swordfighters and character with disjoints being reworked; swordfighters especially were among the best characters in the early metagame. However, this perception quickly changed thanks to his sizeable playerbase, with many Mario players placing highly at major events. Mario's representation was largely spearheaded by and : Dark Wizzy saw a streak of top 8 finishes at majors -- ignoring full disqualifications -- that lasted from  in August 2019 to  5 months later, while Prodigy 3-0'd  at. Both players showcased how Mario's combo game, while nerfed from the previous game, was still pretty strong and had the potential to zero-to-death opponents. As a result of these strong results, many players agreed that Mario was a top-tier character.

However, the post-pandemic metagame brought about metagame shifts that hurt Mario in the long run. First, some of the new DLC characters introduced during the pandemic period either outranged Mario -- abusing one of his worst weaknesses -- or had a better time fighting him up close. In addition, players began adapting to Mario's zero-to-death combos, making them less deadly. Finally, Dark Wizzy performed notably worse than he did prior to the pandemic, while Mario's overall representation declined as well, going from 9th by the end of 2019 to 21st by the end of 2021. These setbacks mellowed out opinions on Mario, with players now considering him as only a high-tier character.

Fortunately, Mario's representation saw a rebound in 2022 thanks to Mario's best players remaining dedicated to the character. For one, Prodigy, now going by Kurama, began seeing a streak of strong performances on-par with what Dark Wizzy had pre-pandemic. In addition, although he never regained his former glory, Dark Wizzy still saw strong performances once in a while. Finally, new Mario players began making their marks on the scene, most notably and  in Japan. These positive results helped reverse Mario's declining representation in the metagame as well as opinions on the character. As it stands, Mario is ranked 21st on the current tier list as the second-highest character in the high tier, with some arguing he should be ranked in the top tier.

: Let's-a Go!
In a similar fashion to the Classic Modes of past games, Mario's opponents are groups of fighters from various universes fought on a home stage from that universe. The overall concept is also similar to Super Mario Odyssey, where Mario would travel to different kingdoms; this is reflected by the Japanese title, which roughly translates to "Go Around the World". In this case, Mario's route emulates the idea of him traveling to different lands and meeting their local denizens, as in Odyssey.

Credits roll after completing Classic Mode. Completing it as Mario has  accompany the credits.

Character unlock tree
Mario's Classic Mode character unlock tree includes the following characters in order:

Each character can be unlocked by clearing Mario's Classic Mode, or the Classic Mode of any preceding character, if all preceding characters have been unlocked. Once all the above characters are unlocked, clearing Classic Mode with any of them will default to 's character unlock tree, starting with. Furthermore, Mario's tree can also be accessed by completing another starter character's unlock tree, then clearing Classic Mode with any character within, or with any DLC character.

Role in World of Light
Mario was among the fighters that were summoned to the cliffside to fight against the army of Master Hands.

During the opening cutscene, Mario was present on the cliffside when Galeem unleashed his beams of light. Mario was then destroyed by Galeem's light attack offscreen and imprisoned alongside the rest of the fighters, with the exception of.

Mario is later seen under Galeem's imprisonment during the opening cutscene, where a puppet fighter of him is cloned from him to contain the spirit of a Smoky Progg. He is always the first character to be unlocked in this mode.

If Galeem defeats Dharkon, Mario watches in trepidation as Galeem unleashes a wave of light and is ostensibly vaporized with the rest of reality. If Dharkon defeats Galeem, Mario is seen lifelessly slumping over as the world is engulfed in darkness.

Spirits
Mario's default fighter spirit can be obtained by completing. It is also available periodically for purchase in the shop for 300 Gold. Unlocking Mario in World of Light allows the player to preview the first spirit below in the Spirit List under the name "???". As a fighter spirit, it cannot be used in Spirit Battles and is purely aesthetic. His Builder and Wedding outfits have fighter spirits of their own, available through the shop, and in the Wedding outfit's case, can be obtained by scanning the Wedding Mario amiibo or by completing a challenge (Games & More: As Luigi, play solo All-Star Smash and deal damage with a taunt 3 times). Each fighter spirit has an alternate version that replaces them with their artwork in Ultimate.

Additionally, Mario makes an appearance in various primary and support spirits.

In Spirit Battles
Conditions in italics aren't listed on the Spirit Battle preview screen.

Trivia

 * The segment during the E3 2018 Nintendo Direct focusing on his new Builder suit features Mario knocking off of a  on Mushroomy Kingdom. This is likely a reference to the series' common Koopa Troopa enemies, which are also turtles.
 * Ultimate is the 100th game where Charles Martinet voiced Mario, and as a result, he won the Guinness World Record for the highest number of performances as the same character.
 * In the E3 demo of the game, Mario's portrait used his in-game model as opposed to his official render. This was also the case with, , and.
 * Coincidentally, all four of these characters were playable in the Smash 3DS demo.
 * This is the first game where Mario no longer has his Wario-based alternate costume since the first game, and the first since Brawl where Mario no longer has a Fire Flower-based alternate costume, possibly to make room for his Builder and Wedding Tuxedo-based outfits.
 * Coincidentally, five of his alternate costumes (his default, Golf, Waluigi, Builder, and Wedding outfits) also appeared in Super Mario Odyssey. Dr. Mario (portrayed here as his own character) also appeared in Odyssey as an outfit. Only his cyan/pink, white/black, and green/brown costumes do not appear in Odyssey.
 * Conspicuously, some of Mario's alternate costumes can be slightly changed depending on the facial expressions with the eyebrows and the eye color when comparing the Default, Builder, and Wedding as an example.
 * The eyebrows of Mario appear to be a little inwards as for the Default or the other alts. With the Builder and the Wedding, the eyebrows noticeably go more outwards when zooming in.
 * The eye can obtrusively have different vibes depending on the eye colors. The Wedding Mario has a bit darker eye color than the Builder and the Default. The change in the colors is mostly due to the more slight irregularities in the render on Mario.
 * Mario and are the only characters to appear in another character's victory pose (in this case, ).
 * Mario's Wedding costume is the only alt to change his glove pallet both in the render and in-game.
 * Looking underneath Mario's Wedding costume reveals a gap between his shirt and pants.
 * Whenever Mario grabs onto an edge, his hat briefly shifts upward, revealing that his hair is missing and exposing a gap.