Weight
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Weight is a measurement of how much a character can resist knockback. Weight is one of several factors used in calculating the amount of knockback a character experiences. Characters with a higher weight (heavy) tend to suffer less knockback, and characters with a lower weight (light) tend to suffer more knockback, all other factors controlled.
Overview
Weight is in practice understood as how difficult it is to send a character flying away. In this sense, it is usually considered an advantage for a character to be heavy, as less knockback makes it more difficult to KO a character. Additionally, many throws take longer to execute on heavier characters, giving the opponent more time to properly react to throws and DI effectively. Because throwing heavier characters causes the throwing animation to continue longer once the target is let go, the viability of throw combos may be affected; for example, Mr. Game & Watch's down throw-to-down smash combo isn't guaranteed on heavier characters who don't tech the throw, the Ice Climbers's infinite chain grabs are more difficult to perform on heavyweights, and in Melee, Captain Falcon is not vulnerable to many of the up throw chain throws (such as from Marth) that the space animals are vulnerable to despite having equivalent falling speed.
Lighter characters have a few advantages. Weight-sensitive platforms such as those in Mushroom Kingdom and Rainbow Cruise fall slower while holding less weight, making them safer to use for lighter characters. Many combos are less effective on lighter characters because their higher received knockback making it easier to escape - these combos include some of Fox's waveshine combos in Melee and King Dedede's chaingrab in Brawl, where characters below a certain weight usually receive enough knockback to escape. Finally, certain weight-based throws have hitboxes that appear for very short lengths of time, and if the target is very light, the animation may progress so quickly that the hitbox appears and vanishes in less than a frame without hitting - this causes the lightest characters to take less damage, notably with Bowser's down throw in NTSC Melee and Link's down throw in Brawl, both of which miss their pre-throw hit on Jigglypuff.
Heavier characters tend to have stronger attacks, longer range, worse recovery, bigger hurtboxes, higher falling speed, and slower movement, while lighter characters tend to have weaker attacks, shorter range, better recovery, smaller hurtboxes, slower falling speed, and faster movement. However, this is a very loose correlation that many characters defy in some way - Samus is heavy but slow-falling, Wario is heavy but small and highly maneuverable, Zelda is medium-light with slow and strong attacks, and Fox is very light with a very high falling speed and lackluster recovery.
In single player modes, sometimes unnaturally high weight is introduced to challenge the player, such as when fighting Metal Mario; this is often paired with additional flinch resistance, since even characters with infinite weight will still take knockback from any attack with a base knockback greater than 0.
Super Smash Bros. weight values
- Source: [1]
These values use a different scale than the later games - heavier characters have lower numbers, representing a direct multiplier in the knockback formula. For comparison purposes, the equivalent value in the newer system is also listed.
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Super Smash Bros. Melee weight values
Following are the characters in Super Smash Bros. Melee, ranked in order of heaviest to lightest. The Metal Box multiplies a character's base weight by 3, the Super Mushroom by 8/5ths, and the Poison Mushroom by 5/8ths.
| Rank | Character | Weight (NTSC) | Weight (PAL) |
|---|---|---|---|
| n/a | Giga Bowser | 140 | 140 |
| 1 | Bowser | 117 | 118 |
| 2 | Donkey Kong | 114 | 114 |
| 3 (NTSC) 4 (PAL) |
Samus | 110 | 110 |
| 4 (NTSC) 5 (PAL) |
Ganondorf | 109 | 109 |
| 5 (NTSC) 3 (PAL) |
Yoshi | 108 | 111 |
| 6-7 | C. Falcon | 104 | 104 |
| 6-7 | Link | 104 | 104 |
| 8-10 (NTSC) 8-9 (PAL) |
Dr. Mario | 100 | 100 |
| 8-10 (NTSC) 8-9 (PAL) |
Luigi | 100 | 100 |
| 8-10 (NTSC) 10 (PAL) |
Mario | 100 | 98 |
| 11 | Ness | 94 | 94 |
| 12-14 | Peach | 90 | 90 |
| 12-14 | Sheik | 90 | 90 |
| 12-14 | Zelda | 90 | 90 |
| 15 | Ice Climbers | 88 | 88 |
| 16 (NTSC) 16-19 (PAL) |
Marth | 87 | 85 |
| 17-19 (NTSC) 16-19 (PAL) |
Mewtwo | 85 | 85 |
| 17-19 (NTSC) 16-19 (PAL) |
Roy | 85 | 85 |
| 17-19 (NTSC) 16-19 (PAL) |
Young Link | 85 | 85 |
| 20-21 | Falco | 80 | 80 |
| 20-21 | Pikachu | 80 | 80 |
| 22 (NTSC) 23 (PAL) |
Fox | 75 | 73 |
| 23 (NTSC) 22 (PAL) |
Kirby | 70 | 74 |
| 24-25 | Jigglypuff | 60 | 60 |
| 24-25 | Mr. Game & Watch | 60 | 60 |
| 26 | Pichu | 55 | 55 |
Super Smash Bros. Brawl weight values
This is a list of characters' weights in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
| Rank | Character | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bowser | 120 |
| 2 | Donkey Kong | 116 |
| 3 | Snake | 113 |
| 4 | King Dedede | 112 |
| 5 | Charizard | 110 |
| 6 | Ganondorf | 109 |
| 7 | Samus | 108 |
| 8-9 | Yoshi | 107 |
| 8-9 | Wario | 107 |
| 10 | R.O.B. | 106 |
| 11 | Ike | 105 |
| 12-13 | Captain Falcon | 104 |
| 12-13 | Link | 104 |
| 14 | Wolf | 102 |
| 15-16 | Lucario | 100 |
| 15-16 | Ivysaur | 100 |
| 17 | Mario | 98 |
| 18 | Luigi | 97 |
| 19 | Sonic | 95 |
| 20-22 | Ness | 94 |
| 20-22 | Lucas | 94 |
| 20-22 | Pit | 94 |
| 23 | Diddy Kong | 93 |
| 24-25 | Ice Climbers | 92 |
| 24-25 | Toon Link | 92 |
| 26 | Peach | 90 |
| 27 | Marth | 87 |
| 28-29 | Sheik | 85 |
| 28-29 | Zelda | 85 |
| 30-31 | Falco | 82 |
| 30-31 | Olimar | 82 |
| 32 | Zero Suit Samus | 81 |
| 33 | Fox | 80 |
| 34-35 | Meta Knight | 79 |
| 34-35 | Pikachu | 79 |
| 36 | Kirby | 78 |
| 37-38 | Mr. Game & Watch | 75 |
| 37-38 | Squirtle | 75 |
| 39 | Jigglypuff | 68 |
Notes
- According to Super Smash Bros. Melee's Blue Smash Trophy of Mario, his mass is the standard upon which other Smash fighters are measured. While this is true in NTSC Melee (having a weight of 100), the PAL version drops Mario's weight to a slightly-below-standard 98.
- In each game, the enemy team will all have the same weight as Mario, despite each being based off characters of different weights.
- In Brawl, Giga Bowser and Wario-Man are programmed to have weights of 400 and 130 respectively; however they cannot be knocked back, so their weight only has an effect on certain stage elements (such as Rainbow Cruise's see-saw platforms).
