Mario (SSB)

Mario (, Mario) appears as a starter character in Super Smash Bros. He is considered an "all-around" character (like in most games) due to his relatively balanced attributes, a trait that has carried on with him in subsequent games.

Like in his appearances before the game, Mario is voiced by, albeit via recycled voice clips from Super Mario 64, but low pitched.

Mario ranks 7th on the tier list, in the B tier. As an all-rounder character, Mario generally has a great balance of offensive and defensive capabilities. He has a strong combo game, including a versatile (that can easily lead into an up aerial to continue the combo, an  as a finisher, or itself offstage to drag opponents down) and his  (which can chain into itself at moderately low to moderate percentages), as well as among the best edgeguarding abilities, with powerful forward and back aerials that can also space against opponents easily, down aerial meteor smash with extremely low set knockback, and a powerful  that can easily cover edge options and rolls. To further compliment his offstage game, he also has one of the few good recoveries in the game; despite a moderate falling speed and low air speed, his Super Jump Punch gains some good distance while being relatively quick, and he also has an additional option in his Mario Tornado, which can even meteor smash a careless edgeguarder on the last hit. Mario has numerous additional tools, including a projectile in his Fireball, a very powerful finisher in his up smash, and useful throws, with his being especially powerful.

Mario, however, has limited range compared to characters tiered higher than him, with issues in the hitboxes of his tilts and aerials. He also has poor mobility, with subpar walking and dashing speeds, and a low air speed, also slightly limiting his combo ability. In addition to this, his recovery, despite being good, is on the more predictable side against most characters, with his Super Jump Punch and Mario Tornado traveling in a linear way that isn't too difficult to attack out of. Overall, however, Mario has the tools to take on any character. He is also considered to be slightly better in the Japanese version due to the changes to SDI.

Attributes
Mario is considered to be the balanced character. His stats are overall average to slightly subpar, with average weight, size, falling speed, and traction and below average walking, dashing, and air speeds as well as a subpar jump. He overall has a good combination of low power and high power attacks, giving him a pretty strong combo ability with many options, yet a variety of KO moves and options. He also has a projectile in his Fireball, that is a decent way to prevent opponent approaches due to falling downward while moving forward if used in the air. On the ground, it travels too slowly (along with the move's ending lag) to be effective however.

Mario's down aerial, a drill kick, is an excellent damage racker, being able to combo straight into an up aerial or itself (if offstage or high enough). It, being a meteor smash with consistently low knockback, is a rather effective way to gimp opponent's recoveries, and isn't of very high risk to use offstage due to Mario's good recovery. Mario's short hopped down aerial to up aerial combos are usually considered the best way to rack damage at base to low percentages, when his up tilt has too much ending lag to combo efficiently. His up tilt can chain into itself easily at moderate or close to moderate percentages, can combo into aerials, and is an effective move to use for juggling along with his up aerial. Mario's up smash and back throw are very powerful KO moves, with the former being able to KO on as low as 73%, and being able to be combo'd into with a short hopped Z-cancelled down aerial, and the latter easily being able to garner KOs or at least set up edgeguards when used near the edge. His down smash is also a powerful move, with its two hits being spread out over a somewhat long duration, allowing it to easily read defensive options such as rolls, and also being able to hit characters on the edge. Even his forward throw and forward smash, weaker than his main KO moves, are strong enough to be able to KO near the edge.

Mario also has one of the best offstage games. His forward aerial consists of multiple hitboxes, with the last few being able to semi-spike, while it and his back aerial are solid KO moves due to their speed, range, and power. Both can also be used for spacing efficiently. His down aerial can drag opponents down if used repeatedly, as it is a meteor smash with extremely low set knockback, though it isn't very fast, meaning characters with better recoveries (mostly, other Marios to a lesser extent) are able to escape. His neutral aerial, while inferior to back and forward aerials in terms of power, may be used to edgeguard whenever Mario is in the situational position to use it after a combo. Fireball, his neutral special, can also be used to gimp opponents with linear recoveries. Super Jump Punch and Mario Tornado also grant Mario a good recovery (though the latter requires quick button mashing), especially vertically, and while both moves travel in a linear way, Mario Tornado can be used at different times to mix up his options and make his recovery less predictable. It can also add to Mario's incredible edgeguarding prowess, being capable of very powerfully meteor smashing, which can be used effectively against foes recovering high.

Despite his advantages which compensate for his disadvantages, Mario still has some weaknesses that prevent him from being in the higher tiers. His attacks generally have short range, allowing many characters to outspace and outcamp him easily, particularly ones with some disjointed moves (most notably, Pikachu, and maybe ). He also lacks a reliable way to deal with projectiles, which combined with his poor mobility, gives him difficulty approaching characters such as Fox. Mario's attacks also aren't very fast, with his best finisher (up smash) having major ending lag, and only very few of his moves (such as up aerial) having notably fast startup. Mario also isn't too good at dealing with pressure due to his poor mobility, though he has good OoS options.

Mario, overall, has above average matchups. His only disadvantageous matchup is Pikachu on Dream Land, with a handful of his matchups being even.

Differences between game versions
In his transition to the NTSC-U version, Mario got a mix of buffs and nerfs, but was slightly nerfed overall due to the higher SDI presence. However, he is still considered to be somewhat viable in competitive play.

Moveset
For visualization's on Mario's hitboxes, click here.

Most historically significant players

 * See also: Category:Mario players (SSB)


 * - One of the most prominent Mario players in all of Smash 64. He notably placed 5th at, defeating and  with Mario. He additionally marked some of the highest major placements while solely using Mario, with 7th at  and 13th at . Nowadays, he is ranked as the current best Mario player in the world, placing 65th on the 2021-2022 Smash 64 Power Rankings, using both him and.
 * - The best Mario player from Japan in recent times, but has since been inactive. Has done well playing Mario at events such as 4th at where he beat, and two other top 12 placements at  and.
 * - A high-level player who previously used Mario as a co-main. He played both characters in sets shown with his wins against Mercy and  at  where he placed 5th. He has also made other top 8s such as 5th at  and 7th at  using both characters. He was previously ranked 36th on the 2019-2020 Smash 64 Power Rankings.
 * - One of the most notable European Smash 64 players. Placed 7th at with solo Mario, as well as 2nd at  and  using him as a secondary. He is also active in online weeklies, being ranked 2nd on the February 2023 Online All-Time European Smash 64 Power Rankings.
 * - One of the best solo Mario players in the United States alongside Kimimaru. Most notably placed 5th at where his tournament run included wins over, , and . He also made major placements with 13th at  and 17th at . Previously ranked 59th on the 2017 64 League Rankings before becoming mainly inactive since early 2019.
 * - One of the best Smash 64 players of all time who is efficient with the entire cast. Notably placed 2nd at with solo Mario, beating, , and  at the tournament. His Apex run remains the highest Mario result seen in the history of Smash 64. He has used the character again at many tournaments such as his 1st at  and 5th at.
 * - One of the best solo Mario players in the United States alongside Hydra. Placed 9th at both and, and 17th at  with overall wins over , , and . Previously ranked 41st on the 2017 64 League Rankings before becoming mainly inactive since early 2018.
 * - Considered one of the best Mario players in the United States before switching to . He notably went solo Mario at 9th at, as well as 4th at and 13th at  as one of his characters. He took sets over LD and Josh Brody back when he mained the character.

Tier placement and history
Mario was originally seen as a decent character in the early metagame, where he was ranked at 7th of middle tier on the first list. However, as the metagame progressed, Mario's strengths and how well he was doing in matchups was called into question where he was seen to do well against higher tiered characters. He was seen as being able to go even with Kirby and Captain Falcon, two strong high tier characters who were used in tournaments frequently. He would rise up to 5th of A tier on the second tier list, where he was seen as a high tier character. On the third list, he would remain as 5th but would move to B tier along with Falcon.

In the years since the third tier list, Mario's presence in tournaments would start to drop. This would be due to players either not showing up as much as in the case of Czar, use him as a secondary as in the case of Alvin and Fireblaster or drop him completely as in the case of Nintendude, who dropped him for Fox. This was not helped by the growing presence of Yoshi and Jigglypuff players who were showing how well their characters were against the higher tiered characters, even having better matchups against them then Mario. This would result in Mario dropping back down to 7th in B tier, a spot he has not been in since the first tier list. However, Mario still has a presence in tournaments, so it is unknown how well he will do in the future.

Tornado recovery
Mario can gain vertical distance during the Mario Tornado if the special button is mashed often enough during the attack animation, similarly to the Luigi Cyclone. However, the button must be mashed much faster than with due to Mario's faster falling speed and slightly lower maximum height that can be reached from his down special.

Mario Bros. "pseudo-spike"
Both Mario and Luigi can "spike" an opponent by repeatedly using their down aerials on the opponent when off the edge and then taking advantage of their huge vertical recoveries to get back to the stage. This does not work against, who has a much longer and faster vertical recovery than either Mario or Luigi.

Jab grab
Mario is one of four characters (along with, , and ) that can perform the jab grab, an exploit that allows increased shield pressure. Mario can exploit the high shield stun by jabbing, then immediately jab cancelling using a grab.

In 1P Game
In the game's single-player mode, a player and a randomly chosen ally fight against Mario and in a team battle on Peach's Castle. Later on in the single-player mode, Metal Mario, a metallic incarnation of Mario (introduced in Super Mario 64), is featured as a "boss character" in Meta Crystal. He is not merely a heavier texture-swap of Mario, as his attacks also deal much more knockback.

From the Game
Although best known as the mustachioed plumber who battles the Turtle Tribe with his distinct jumping action, this internationally famous hero has also acted as a referee, a driver, and even a doctor! He's been linked to Princess Peach of the Mushroom Kingdom for years, but to this day their true relationship remains a mystery.

Works:
 * Super Mario Bros. (NES)
 * Super Mario Kart (SNES)
 * Mario Kart 64 (N64)

Trivia

 * Mario's artwork pose has him holding up a, as he did in several older games such as Super Mario World; the pose very nearly matches a piece of official artwork from Super Mario Bros. 2.
 * Mario's portrait on the character selection screen greatly resembles an official artwork from .
 * Mario is the only character who speaks in one of his victory poses (the line being "Here we go!").
 * In several images on the Japanese Super Smash Bros. website, Mario's default costume's overalls seem to have a tint of purple to them, similarly to Luigi's. This was changed in the final game.

Mario (SSB)