Mario (SSBB)

Mario (, Mario) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, who also appears in Super Smash Bros. Melee and the original Super Smash Bros.  reprises his role as Mario, now providing new voice clips, sounding more akin to his appearances from  onwards.

Mario is ranked 31st out of 38 on the current tier list, the top position of F tier. This is a vast drop from his previous placement in Melee, where he was ranked 15th out of 26, and his worst placement in the series to date. Mario possesses fast, low lag attacks throughout his moveset, as well as strong comboing capabilities, with his up tilt and up aerial being especially good jugglers on their own that can set up additional attacks well. Additionally, Mario possesses a notable gimping and disrupting tool in his Cape, an effective projectile in his Fireball, and even an effective out of shield option in his Super Jump Punch. However, he inherited problems from his Melee incarnation, which had been exacerbated. Mainly, he has poor reach with nearly every attack, giving him problems dealing with characters who have disjointed hitboxes (such as ) and is easily gimped due to his predictable and short recovery. Mario also still possesses poor KO potential: He only has a few mediocre finishers (all being smash attacks), while his has below-average power, only KOing at very high percents, and his, despite being a meteor smash, is slow and too weak for KOing unless sweetspotted. As a result, he has no other effective finishers outside of his forward and up smashes, which combined with the existence of stale-move negation, makes it difficult for him to score a KO, forcing him to not overrely on his forward and up smashes and keeping them fresh to take the stock. Lastly, his rather standard abilities are outshined by the abilities of most characters. This has resulted in poor matchups beyond low tier, and terrible tournament results. However, on the Japanese tier list, Mario is ranked 25th out of 36 in the top of D tier, where he is considered to be a mid tier character rather than a low tier.

Attributes
Mario is a relatively straightforward, balanced character, with average attributes and a variety of tools designed to tackle any situation. His weight, dashing speed, air speed, and traction all range from average to slightly above average, though his falling speed and gravity both fall within the lower half of the cast.

Despite his low tier list placement, Mario has a few noticeable strengths. He has relatively quick frame data, with fast options across his entire moveset, both on the ground and in the air. He has some decent grounded options, such as his forward smash being his strongest finisher and one of his longest-ranged attacks, up smash with its fast speed and intangibility, and his up tilt setting up for juggles and KOing at very high percentages. His grab game is versatile as well, with Back throw leading to KOs at high percentages, forward throw having the potential to set up for offstage situations, and up and down throw sending at favorable angles for juggles or combos. However, his grounded moveset does have some negatives. Down smash, despite its very fast speed, is a rather weak finisher, and his down tilt is widely considered one of the worst moves in the entire game.

Mario also has rather good aerials, as they are fairly quick and have decent power. His neutral aerial is a very quick sex kick, up aerial is his main juggling tool and is very useful in combos, forward aerial is a meteor smash that is somewhat useful for edgeguarding, back aerial is a fast and useful KO tool offstage, and down aerial is fast, deals solid damage, and can lead to combos.

His specials are useful too. Fireball is a projectile that is able to interrupt approaches and can somewhat remedy Mario's short range. Cape is a reflector that can also be used to gimp opponents, and can be used as a option for recovery as it boosts Mario upwards slightly. Super Jump Punch is Mario's main recovery move and Mario's fastest out of shield option. As it deals a reasonable amount of damage, it can also be used as a combo finisher. Lastly, F.L.U.D.D does no damage, but it can be charged to unleash a powerful windbox that can be used to push opponents away, leading to edgeguards or simply blowing them offstage.

Despite his strengths, he has many glaring flaws. Compared to Melee, his already poor KO potential has been further worsened. His forward and up smashes are relatively weak compared to the rest of the cast, his back aerial has short range, back throw is easy to DI due to its slow startup, and forward aerial is slow, laggy, and can be meteor cancelled. However, Mario's most glaring flaw is his poor reach. While Mario does have a projectile, the rest of his attacks are very short ranged, forcing him to get up close to do meaningful damage or land KOs. Coupled with Mario's average speed, he can have difficulty landing hits on enemies who outrange him, such as and. His recovery is also rather mediocre. While Super Jump Punch is fast, it follows a predictable path and doesn't go particularly far, leading to Mario getting gimped rather easily. His grab game, while decent, is rendered less effective by his short grab and hitstun canceling limiting his combo potential.

Overall, Mario's weaknesses overshadow his strengths, resulting in poor matchups and tournament representation.

Changes from Super Smash Bros. Melee
Mario has received a mix of nerfs and buffs from Melee to Brawl, but his buffs are flooded over by his more pronounced flaws from his previous incarnation, and the changes to Brawl's mechanics hinder Mario more than they help him. As a result, he was heavily nerfed overall. The removal of wavedashing hinders Mario's mobility and grounded approach, while the introduction of hitstun canceling limits Mario's combo game, and his up and down throws cannot chaingrab anymore because of that. His already mediocre KO power was reduced even further, almost completely removing his back throw's KO potential and his back aerial is still weak for its type, KOing opponents onstage only at very high percentages, forcing him to overuse his forward and up smashes to secure a KO, with the former being slower, and his smash attacks in general are less useful overall, with forward smash's sweetspot being weaker and is now outprioritized by a stronger sourspot while up smash and the front hit of down smash also deal less damage and knockback.

Overall, Mario is considered less effective than he was in 64 and Melee. He is one of the characters to have been the most severely nerfed in his transition from Melee.

Ground attacks

 * Neutral attack
 * Forward tilt
 * Up tilt
 * Down tilt
 * Dash attack
 * Forward smash
 * Up smash
 * Down smash
 * Up tilt
 * Down tilt
 * Dash attack
 * Forward smash
 * Up smash
 * Down smash
 * Down tilt
 * Dash attack
 * Forward smash
 * Up smash
 * Down smash
 * Dash attack
 * Forward smash
 * Up smash
 * Down smash
 * Up smash
 * Down smash
 * Up smash
 * Down smash
 * Up smash
 * Down smash
 * Up smash
 * Down smash
 * Down smash
 * Down smash
 * Down smash
 * Down smash
 * Down smash

Aerial attacks

 * Neutral aerial
 * Forward aerial
 * Back aerial
 * Up aerial
 * Down aerial
 * Forward aerial
 * Back aerial
 * Up aerial
 * Down aerial
 * Back aerial
 * Up aerial
 * Down aerial
 * Back aerial
 * Up aerial
 * Down aerial
 * Back aerial
 * Up aerial
 * Down aerial
 * Up aerial
 * Down aerial
 * Up aerial
 * Down aerial
 * Up aerial
 * Down aerial
 * Up aerial
 * Down aerial
 * Down aerial
 * Down aerial
 * Down aerial

Throws/other attacks

 * Grabs:
 * Pummel:
 * Forward throw:
 * Back throw:
 * Up throw:
 * Down throw:
 * Floor attack:
 * Edge attack:
 * Up throw:
 * Down throw:
 * Floor attack:
 * Edge attack:
 * Floor attack:
 * Edge attack:
 * Edge attack:
 * Edge attack:

Special moves

 * Fireball:
 * Cape:
 * Super Jump Punch:
 * F.L.U.D.D.:
 * Mario Finale:
 * Cape:
 * Super Jump Punch:
 * F.L.U.D.D.:
 * Mario Finale:
 * Super Jump Punch:
 * F.L.U.D.D.:
 * Mario Finale:
 * Super Jump Punch:
 * F.L.U.D.D.:
 * Mario Finale:
 * Super Jump Punch:
 * F.L.U.D.D.:
 * Mario Finale:
 * F.L.U.D.D.:
 * Mario Finale:
 * F.L.U.D.D.:
 * Mario Finale:
 * F.L.U.D.D.:
 * Mario Finale:
 * Mario Finale:
 * Mario Finale:
 * Mario Finale:
 * Mario Finale:
 * Mario Finale:

Moveset

 * For a visual representation of Mario's attack hitboxes, see this page.

Most historically significant players

 * See also: Category:Mario players (SSBB)


 * - While better known for being considered the best in Brawl, he also frequently used Mario at high-level tournaments and was considered as possibly Mario's best player too. Boss' 17th placing at  and  using Mario alongside Luigi are the best major placements anyone ever achieved playing Mario in any capacity.
 * - The best Mario player in Europe and possibly the best Mario player in the world during Brawl's competitive life. Irios most notably placed 5th at Bushido Impact 9 using solo Mario, one of the largest European Brawl tournaments, and has defeated.
 * - Dual mained Mario with, and was one of the very few well-renown Mario mains in Brawl. KirinBlaze's most notable results were placing 33rd at and , which are the only times aside from Boss' aforementioned placings that someone placed top 64 at a Brawl supermajor or major using Mario in any capacity.

Tier placement and history
Since the very beginning of Brawl competitive play, Mario has always been viewed by competitive players as a low tier, nonviable character; as such, he never experienced a period of positive competitive prospects. Although Mario's own attributes were only slightly nerfed from Melee, players quickly noticed that his comparatively standard abilities failed to standout against the many overpowered newcomers added to Brawl. Mario was additionally more severely hindered by the new hitstun cancelling mechanics than most other characters, due to his heavy reliance on combos to compensate for his lackluster damage-per-hit, as well as having very few KO options also making him more relatively hindered by the much more severe staling mechanics. These traits kept Mario from being viable even in the early stages of competitive Brawl.

On the Brawl Back Room's tier lists, Mario was never ranked higher than 27th on the second tier list, and he would then be consistently ranked in 31st place on all subsequent tier lists, remaining eternally in the low tiers. Mario's competitive viability never improved in Brawl, with very few players ever maining Mario and even fewer playing him at a high level, resulting in very low representation in tournaments and similarly poor results. In low tier tournaments, however, Mario is one of the most successful characters, as players can easily pick him up due to his low learning curve and play him to a reasonably competent degree. Along with this, Mario performs reasonably well against other low tier characters, including a few positive matchups against those who are lower-tiered than him. This kept Mario from ever dropping farther in the tier list, but with his inability to viably compete against the majority of the cast ranked above him, and the lack of any competitive breakthroughs for Mario leading to a stagnant metagame, he could never rise any higher on the tier list and never became a relevant character in competitive Brawl.

Role in The Subspace Emissary
In the beginning, trophies of Mario and are thrown into the Midair Stadium, where they come to life and have a friendly fight (a reference to the introduction in the first game of the series, where Mario and Kirby prepare to fight each other towards the end). The player chooses the one they want to play as, where the character not chosen is the opponent. After the battle between the two, the winner revives the loser, they shake hands, and wave to the crowd. Suddenly, ominous red clouds appear above the stadium, and the Halberd emerges from them. It releases Shadow Bugs which form into Primids. and, who were watching the match, come to help, and after defeating all of the enemies, they are all confronted by the Ancient Minister. After seeing two R.O.B.s setting up a Subspace Bomb, Mario runs to try and stop it, only to be blasted out of the stadium and Star KO'd by a cannonball apparently fired by Petey Piranha. During his descent from Skyworld, finds Mario's trophy and revives him. Once Mario recounts what happened, the two proceeded on their journey. When they reach the ground, they fight Primids across the Plain and attempt to stop the Ancient Minister from delivering another Subspace Bomb. Mario attempts to reach the Minister, but falls short; Pit also tries to get him by using a Footstool Jump on Mario, but he also fails. They then continue on their quest.

False Peach
At the shore, Kirby chases after a menacing noise he heard, unaccompanied by Peach. The abandoned princess is turned into a trophy by 's Dark Cannon. A false character of Bowser appears and dissolves, engulfing Peach's trophy. Brought to life is a cloned Peach which tries to fire a Dark Cannon at Mario and Pit. Luckily, destroys the gun using his Master Sword, and fights the princess with. Mario notices them standing by Peach's trophy, which disintegrates. Enraged, thinking that it is the real Peach, Mario attempts to attack Link, but he dodges the attack. Link, Yoshi, Mario, and Pit get into a two-on-two fight. Afterward, 's cargo, stolen from and already loaded with the trophies of, , and  (the former of which is noticed by Link), grabs Mario and Pit's trophies with its mechanical arm. Fortunately, Kirby appears from behind and severs the arm with Final Cutter while reviving Mario and Pit; Kirby had realized that the noise he heard was Dedede hijacking the cargo from Wario. King Dedede turns around and tries to get away, but Pit blows the cargo's tire with Palutena's Arrow.

The five follow Dedede across some plains and follow him into the Cave, where they see Dedede's castle in ruins from an ambush by Bowser. They pursue Bowser through a hole in the castle wall. Mario and the others then confront Bowser at a cliff. Mario jumps at Bowser, but Bowser uses Zelda's trophy as a shield, forcing him to miss. Pit fires an arrow; Bowser, while sidestepping to dodge the arrow, drops the Dedede Brooch attached to Zelda's arm. He loses footing and falls off the cliff into the Koopa Clown Car with the trophy of Zelda, where he laughs maniacally as he flies up to the Halberd.

False Zelda
At the shore, Kirby chases after a menacing noise he heard, unaccompanied by Zelda. The abandoned princess is turned into a trophy by Bowser's Dark Cannon. A false character of Bowser appears and dissolves, engulfing Zelda's trophy. Brought to life is a cloned Zelda which tries to fire a Dark Cannon at Link and Yoshi. Luckily, Pit destroys the gun with his Palutena's Bow and fights the princess with Mario. Link notices them standing by Zelda's trophy, which disintegrates. Enraged, thinking it is the real Zelda, Link attempts to attack Mario, but he dodges the attack. Link, Yoshi, Mario, and Pit get into a two-on-two fight. Afterward, King Dedede's cargo, stolen from Wario and already loaded with the trophies of Peach, Ness, and Luigi (the former of which is noticed by Mario), grabs Link and Yoshi's trophies with its mechanical arm. Fortunately, Kirby appears from behind and severs the arm with Final Cutter while reviving Link and Yoshi. King Dedede turns around and tries to get away, but Link blows the cargo's tire with his Hero's Bow.

The five follow Dedede across some plains and follow him into the Cave, where they see Dedede's castle in ruins from an ambush by Bowser. They pursue Bowser through a hole in the castle wall. Mario and the others then confront Bowser at a cliff. Mario jumps at Bowser, but Bowser uses Peach's trophy as a shield, forcing him to miss. Pit fires an arrow; Bowser, while sidestepping to dodge the arrow, drops the Dedede Brooch attached to Peach's chest. He loses footing and falls off the cliff into the Koopa Clown Car with the trophy of Peach, where he laughs maniacally as he flies up to the Halberd.

Story merge
They later catch up to the Ancient Minister in a desert, and after failing to stop a Subspace Bomb from detonating, barely escape the blast. Mario then leads his team at the Canyon, saving, , , and  from a horde of Primids. The ten of them camp out for a while, until Mario spots an enormous explosion of Subspace Bombs from the Isle of the Ancients. Shortly afterward the Halberd lands, which has been retaken by, , , Peach, Zelda, , , and. Next to it is the Falcon Flyer, containing, , , , , , and.

Mario and company destroy the Subspace Gunship, enter Subspace itself and eventually reach Tabuu. Unfortunately, Tabuu turns all of the fighters into trophies using his Off Waves. Mario is later resurrected by King Dedede, Ness, and Luigi and helps the other heroes through the Great Maze. In Tabuu's Residence, Tabuu poises to unleash more Off Waves. However, appears and impedes this by damaging his wings. Mario joins the battle against Tabuu, eventually defeating him and ending the Subspace invasion.

Playable appearances

 * Midair Stadium
 * Skyworld
 * The Plain
 * The Lake Shore
 * The Cave
 * The Wilds (Part II)
 * The Canyon
 * Entrance to Subspace
 * The Great Maze (if rescued in Subspace (Part I))

Using stickers
Since Mario's primary attacks are kicks, Leg stickers have the widest effect, with Arm attacks as a secondary. Using a Head sticker will usually only affect Mario's up smash (since pummels cannot be used against most enemies), while a Flame one will affect both his Fireball and his forward smash's sweetspot. The Mario Tornado is considered a Spin attack, but as it is Mario's only Spin attack, using a Spin sticker will not have a very large effect. This also applies with Weapon stickers and his Cape.

Exclusive stickers
The following stickers can either only be used by Mario, or can only be used by a select few, including Mario:
 * 1-Up Mushroom: [Leg] Attack +4
 * Bowser (Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix): [Throwing] Attack +20
 * Bowser (Mario Kart 64): [Weapon] Attack +13
 * Bowser (Super Paper Mario): [Arm] Attack +23
 * Coin: [Specials: Indirect] Attack +4
 * Dice Block: [Arm] Attack +8
 * Dr. Mario: [Head] Attack +18
 * Koopa: [Body, Spin] Attack +10
 * Lakitu (Mario Kart: Super Circuit): [Leg] Attack +13
 * Mario (Mario Kart DS): [Leg] Attack +22
 * Mario & Yoshi: [Specials: Indirect] Attack +13
 * Mega Rush Badge: [Specials: Direct] Attack +8
 * Mushroom: [Arm, Leg] Attack +5
 * Peach (Super Princess Peach): [Weapon] Attack +23
 * Peach (Mario Superstar Baseball): [Slash] Attack +5
 * Rawk Hawk: [Arm] Attack +5
 * Red Fire: [Flame] Attack +26
 * Super Mario Bros.: [Arm, Leg] Attack +15
 * Toad & Toadette: [Head] Attack +16
 * Waluigi (Super Mario Strikers): [Slash] Attack +15
 * Waluigi (Mario Superstar Baseball): [Specials: Indirect] Attack +8
 * Yoshi (Yoshi Touch & Go): [Arm, Leg] Attack +8
 * Yoshi (Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door): [Throwing] Attack +5

In Classic Mode, Mario can appear as an opponent or ally in Stage 8 along with, , and on Delfino Plaza, , Mushroomy Kingdom, or Luigi's Mansion (with the latter available if it has been unlocked). Mario can also appear as an opponent in Stage 11, but only if he hasn't appeared in Stage 8.

All-Star Mode
In All-Star Mode, Mario is fought in Stage 2 alongside, , and on Delfino Plaza, , Mushroomy Kingdom, or Luigi's Mansion (with the latter available if it has been unlocked).

Solo Events

 * Event 1: Two Trouble Kings: Mario must defeat both and  on Delfino Plaza.
 * Event 6: Super Bowser Bros.: The player controls, who must reach the flagpole in Mushroomy Kingdom without getting KO'd by three other Marios.
 * Event 10: All-Star Battle Regulars: Mario is one of the opponents fought in this event. All opponents are starters from the original Super Smash Bros. game.
 * Event 19: Wario Bros.: The player controls and must defeat Mario and  on the Mario Bros. stage.
 * Event 41: The FINAL Final Battle: The player must defeat a giant Mario along with and  on Final Destination.

Co-Op Events

 * Co-Op Event 1: Two Trouble Kings: Mario and must defeat both  and  on Delfino Plaza.
 * Co-Op Event 8: All MINE!: and  must collect 2,000 coins together in Skyworld while fighting against Mario and.
 * Co-Op Event 17: Sonic and Mario: and Mario must KO 3 other Sonics and 3 other Marios on the Green Hill Zone stage.
 * Co-Op Event 21: The True All-Star Battle: Two players select a character and take on the entire roster on Battlefield.

Trophies
Mario's main and Final Smash trophies can be obtained by clearing and All-Star mode respectively with Mario.

Trivia

 * Mario, when doing his up taunt while under the effect of a backfire Lightning Bolt that makes him larger while playing Giant Brawl, will become the largest size a player can achieve without hacking or glitches.
 * Mario is tied with Kirby for being playable in more levels of The Subspace Emissary than other characters, being playable in 9 levels. Despite this, it is possible to never play as him at any time (as the player always has other characters available to use instead of Mario).
 * He is also one of several characters who can be unlocked before The Great Maze but cannot fight any bosses in the story on the first playthrough.
 * Despite having a very close relationship in the Mario series, Mario and never interact with each other in the Subspace Emissary.
 * Mario,, and  are the only returning characters in Brawl to have at least one completely different special move. In this case, Mario's down special move is changed. Additionally, Mario is the only character to have a special move from a previous game turned into a standard attack in Brawl.
 * He is the only one of these four whose changed move was not a side special.
 * Although Mario has the ability to crawl in some of his games, he cannot crawl in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, while can.
 * This marks the final appearance of Mario's original blue shirt and red overalls alternate costume worn since the original Super Smash Bros. to date.