Little Mac (SSBU): Difference between revisions

Little Mac is ranked 81st out of 82 on the ''Ultimate'' [[tier list]], placing him at the bottom of the E+ tier, and also being ranked as the second-worst character in the game and the lowest ranked veteran from Smash 4, only ranking higher than {{SSBU|Ganondorf}}. This is a noticeable drop from his ''Smash 4'' iteration, where he was ranked 43rd out of 54 at the lower end of mid-tier. Little Mac possesses a strong ground game thanks to his excellent ground mobility and numerous grounded kill moves. His smash attacks are especially strong as they have [[armor|super armor]] on startup and very respectable speed for their power, making them decently unchallengeable. His tilt attacks are also very respectable, as forward tilt serves as a quick and capable kill move, while down and up tilts can be used to set up combos. Finally, his special moves have also seen improvements from the previous game, most notably to Jolt Haymaker, which no longer sends Little Mac into freefall.  

Little Mac is a [[weight|lightweight]] with very impressive ground mobility: he has the 8th fastest [[walking]] speed, the 3rd fastest [[dashing]] speed, and above-average [[traction]], granting him effective [[out of shield]] options. He also has the 3rd fastest initial dash, which has a long duration of 15 frames, giving him a long pivot and an excellent [[dash dance]] that is surpassed only by {{SSBU|Zero Suit Samus}}'. His [[sidestep]] and [[roll]]s are tied with {{SSBU|Fox}}, {{SSBU|Sheik}} and Zero Suit Samus' for the fastest in the game; his rolls also cover a lot of distance, with his forward roll having the third longest distance in the game behind {{SSBU|Samus}} and {{SSBU|Dark Samus}}. To compensate, his rolls have very brief intangibility, starting at frame 4 like other rolls, but they only provide enough intangibility to properly protect him for a small portion in the middle of the animation due to how much distance Mac's rolls cover. Overall, these stats overall translate to him having excellent ground coverage and makes it easy for Little Mac to keep up with and punish opponents contesting with him on the ground, while also giving him fast and effective grounded defensive options. He also has fast [[falling speed]] (tied with {{SSBU|King Dedede}} for the 2nd fastest) and below-average [[gravity]], which collectively give him good vertical endurance in spite of his status as a lightweight. Aside from his great [[air speed]] (tied with {{SSBU|Mario}}, {{SSBU|Donkey Kong}}, {{SSBU|Sonic}} and {{SSBU|Inkling}}'s for 13th fastest) and his [[wall jump]], which is the 4th highest, the rest of Little Mac's aerial attributes are notoriously poor: his [[jump]] is tied with {{SSBU|Ryu}} and {{SSBU|Ken}}'s for the 5th lowest, his [[double jump]] is the 3rd lowest, his [[air acceleration]] is tied with {{SSBU|Ganondorf}} for the 6th lowest, and his directional [[air dodge]] travels the least amount of distance. These attributes effectively force Mac to stay on the ground as often as possible to make the use of his excellent ground mobility.

Little Mac's greatest strength is his extremely potent ground game, which is easily among the best of the entire cast. None of his grounded moves have more than 15 frames of start-up, whereas only his up smash has more than 30 frames of ending lag. Only five non-special moves (forward smash, back air, up smash, down smash and forward air) become active after frame 9, and only the former two after frame 10. His neutral attack, in particular, is tied with Zero Suit Samus' for the fastest move in the game, activating on frame 1 and its minimal ending lag and angles allow it to not only jab lock but also make it and {{SSBU|Mr. Game & Watch}}'s neutral attack the only ones in ''Ultimate'' that are capable of jab canceling reliably. Despite his somewhat light weight, Little Mac boasts superb KO potential: his forward tilt, dash attack and smash attacks boast high damage outputs and knockback scaling, yet are also fairly fast. Forward smash can be angled, with the downward variant dealing immense shield damage and the upward variant being one of Mac's most effective vertical KO options on the ground. Up smash's coverage allows it to serve as an effective anti-air, and its sweet spot also deals a lot of shield damage. Finally, down smash is a [[semi-spike]] with a fairly long range, allowing it to [[tech chase]] as well as [[edge-guard]] easily against careless or vulnerable recoveries. Besides their speed and strength, Little Mac's grounded moves are also difficult to interrupt, which combined with his high dashing speed gives him an excellent punish game. His tilt attacks boast [[Priority#Moves that cannot rebound|anti-rebounding priority]]; this prevents them from clanking with opposing ground attacks provided they're within priority range, allowing Mac to punish opponents very quickly due to his own attacks' high speed. While his smash attacks have normal priority, they instead boast [[super armor]] during their use. This offers Mac a unique way of punishing attacks by tanking the hit while immediately retaliating - meaning devastating attacks such as most forward smashes can all be punished. These traits make him arguably the most difficult opponent to directly challenge on the ground for every other character in the roster, including himself.

Little Mac sports a mediocre grab game; Mac's pummel is among the fastest, but his grabs, while having average range, have moderate startup lag and noticeable ending lag, and the ending lag and collateral hitboxes for his throws limit their ability to KO or start combos, as all of them except for his back throw are not interruptible. However, they do have some uses: forward throw can followed into Jolt Haymaker or a dash attack at low percents, but requires a read due to the ending lag; down throw can combo into Rising Uppercut, but has some ending lag and is susceptible to DI; his back throw has decent power and can KO at around 130%, but its collateral hitbox weakens it; up throw can combo into Jolt Haymaker at low to mid percents, and forward throw can tech chase at the same percentages. Unfortunately, this translates to his throws having very limited use, as all of them apart from down throw are only effective for creating space, while back throw can KO but is not as good as other KO throws. Up throw in particular is his worst throw, as he doesn't have the aerials to properly combo from it, and because of its collateral hitbox, it's also too weak to KO even well beyond Sudden Death percentages. This severely limits Mac's options when attempting to utilize throws, and makes them a risky prospect in the first place when combined with his average grab attributes.

Alongside these setbacks, Little Mac is further held back by a slew of exploitable weaknesses. As expected, Mac's weak air mobility and high falling speed make him incredibly susceptible to [[gimp]]s from [[meteor smash]]es, semi-spikes, and even footstool jumps, especially if he doesn't have his double jump. Compounding this, his directional air dodge has the least distance in the game, and his air dodge's ending lag is only average relative to the cast due to the universal changes to air dodges, since the ending lag depends on the character's falling speed and gravity. Thus, it is not only a situational option while in a disadvantaged state, but also poor as a normal recovery move. Mac can grab the ledge by using a directional air dodge if he is close enough, however, allowing him to cover the remaining distance to the ledge, making it very useful if combined with his double jump and special moves. His special moves are also considerably less effective while in the air. [[Straight Lunge]] loses much of its power when used in midair, and its long charge time makes it impractical for recovery. Aerial KO Uppercut is also significantly weaker and blockable, although it still has both KO and recovery potential. While Jolt Haymaker and Rising Uppercut are Little Mac's most effective aerial KO options, they are very poor for recovery, offering poor travel distance, small [[edge sweet spot]]s, and minimal intangibility. Jolt Haymaker does not cause [[helplessness]], allowing Mac to follow up with a wall jump, directional air dodge or Rising Uppercut; however, it travels a mediocre distance and can only be used once before landing or grabbing the [[edge]], leaving Mac one of the most vulnerable characters to edge-guarding as he is unable to use it again if he gets hit. Rising Uppercut loses roughly half its travel distance when used in midair, and while aerial Slip Counter can be a good response to an edge-guard attempt and get Little Mac back on stage, it loses its intangibility, can be predicted, and its end lag if unsuccessful is likely to result in Mac self-destructing or getting gimped by the opponent if used at a low enough altitude. As a result, it is most beneficial to attempt to recover horizontally, rather than vertically, which is nearly impossible depending on if Mac is merely launched, or (semi-)spiked if he lost his double jump and especially after using Jolt Haymaker, which doesn't refresh when he gets hit. These traits result in Little Mac having more difficulty with recovering than most other characters, being commonly cited as one of, if not the worst, recovery of the cast overall. While his below-average gravity and high falling speed grant solid vertical endurance for a lightweight, they also make him very vulnerable to combos and juggling. Additionally, the super armor granted by Mac's smash attacks still causes him to take full damage and must be timed carefully to avoid being punished. These traits make Mac extremely prone to momentum shifts; his lacking air game and overall frailty allows opponents to easily combo or even [[zero-to-death]] him after one mistake, even if Mac was otherwise dominating the match.

Because of these issues, his [[neutral game]], while decent, is predictable, and while he has a good approach due to his excellent mobility, Mac relies more heavily than most other characters on his shield and dodges for avoiding damage and general positioning, both of which can be predicted and easily punished if overused. His short range can be problematic against characters with long or [[Hitbox#Overview|disjointed]] attacks. While these issues can be mitigated with Mac's impressive ground speed, he also has trouble dealing with [[camping]]; his super armor and special moves provide options for dealing with projectiles, but he is still forced to approach, as he lacks projectiles of his own. His short jumps and weak aerial attacks also leave Mac especially vulnerable to platform camping, arguably more so than any other character in the game. While Mac is very effective at tech chasing due to his high ground speed, forward throw and wide, semi-spiking down smash, his combo potential is otherwise underwhelming, which combined with his linear neutral can sometimes make it difficult to safely rack up damage despite his attacks' high damage output. Most of his attacks also suffer from a general lack of shieldstun, meaning that options like dash attack are not safe on shield despite not having overly high ending lag, and the few moves that do deal high shield damage (such as down-angled forward smash) are still rather limited. While he has many potent finishers, his short range and overall lack of shieldstun means that landing them usually requires a set-up or read. Up tilt is also not very safe on hit at very low percents especially if landed early, while down tilt is fast and has good range, but has inconsistent setups. As a whole, Little Mac's poor combo game and lack of true KO confirms require him to win neutral exchanges more often in order to succeed, especially when trying to close out a stock since his most reliable KO options cannot be comboed into effectively at higher percentages outside of Jolt Haymaker or Rising Uppercut. Players must also be careful and know when to attack and play defensively, or else Little Mac could quickly lose the neutral game, and find themselves at a significant disadvantage.

|dashdesc=A lunging {{iw|wikipedia|overhand|boxing}}. It is fast for a dash attack (frame 7), covers a decent distance, and can be a situational KO option, having enough knockback to KO Mario at 136% while near the edge of Final Destination, thus making it moderately strong for a dash attack. It can also hit opponents hanging on edges, and due to its generous hitbox, finds a lot of use trapping opponents on an edge. However, due to its lack of shieldstun, it is notoriously punishable on shield, however, it can [[cross-up]] most of the cast on shield. The angle is different depending on the hitbox and the late hit is notable for its ability to combo into KO Uppercut. It can combo into itself at low percentages. It resembles the attack portion of Von Kaiser's Spin Attack, which is used during Title Defense Mode in the Wii version of ''Punch-Out!!''

|nairdesc=A downward angled jab. It has very minimal overall lag, uses the auto-link angle, and inflicts set knockback. Due to it coming out on frame 2, it is the fastest aerial of any kind in the game. It can be used as a combo breaker of sorts or spammed to combo when in the air and having a very practical use of getting Little Mac out of hitstun without using a landing option very quickly and efficiently. It also uses the [[autolink angle]], which allows Mac to use it to combo upon landing. However, it has extremely short range and has very weak set knockback, making it risky to use offensively. It has a small hitbox on Mac's pelvis that launches vertically with weak knockback; while it is extremely unlikely to hit in a typical match, this gives it extremely niche use as a situational, yet deceptively good combo starter, with Little Mac mains humorously referring to it as the "shitbox" due to its position on Mac. It can autocancel extremely quickly, and can be used twice with a short hop without suffering from landing lag if it is used at the peak of a short hop.

|fairdesc=A hook. It comes out on frame 10 and has a meager damage output. Due to being a semi-spike, however, it can [[gimp]] an opponent (especially those with poor recoveries past 100%) and start a tech-chase. It doesn't autocancel in short hop and has poor range, but it can combo out of several of Little Mac's moves. Although risky, it can combo into Jolt Haymaker when used precisely; at medium percentages, this combo leaves the opponent in an unfavorable position, and can even KO early while offstage. Overall, it is arguably Little Mac's most useful and reliable aerial attack.

|bairdesc=A backfist. Like his forward aerial, it is a semi-spike that has a meager damage output. Compared to his forward aerial, it deals 1% more damage when sweetspotted, but comes out 1 frame slower, and it also cannot autocancel with a short hop. It is also Little Mac's strongest aerial, but is too weak to KO reliably and is best suited for possibly gimping an opponent.

|dthrowdesc=A [[wikipedia:Professional wrestling attacks#Double axe handle|double axe handle]]. Among Little Mac's throws, it is the only one that possesses consistent combo potential: at low percentages, it can combo into neutral attack and Jolt Haymaker (when the special button is inputted again after its initial input), and Jolt Haymaker and Rising Uppercut at high percentages. Its combo into Rising Uppercut is notable in a couple of ways: it functions as a potent KO confirm as of update 13.0.0 due to Rising Uppercut's higher knockback, and it can function as a frame trap (albeit one susceptible to air dodging) when used against some characters (particularly those with floaty jumps, such as {{SSBU|Mewtwo}}) who attempt to jump out. On stages with platforms at medium percentages, down throw can also put his opponent directly above him for a tech situation, which can be followed by up smash, KO Uppercut, Jolt Haymaker, or down aerial (the latter of which can lock them and open up further follow-ups should they fail to [[tech]]). Its collateral hitbox launches nearby opponents at a near-perfect vertical trajectory. However, it has a noticeable amount of ending lag, as it's not interruptible, which makes it vulnerable to [[DI]]. It heavily resembles King Hippo's Hippo Squeeze n' Squash in the Wii version of ''Punch-Out!!''

Throughout the game's lifespan, even in spite of useful buffs and representation from top Little Mac mains such as {{Sm|Kwaz}}, {{Sm|Peanut}}, and {{Sm|Tarakotori}}, who obtained some respectable placements, his cons have largely prevented him from achieving consistent success in top-level play. Even in the online metagame, Peanut’s strong presence in weekly tournaments has failed to offset his lack of aerial utility and vulnerability to edgeguards, represented by Little Mac proceeding to see low representation in both national level tournaments and [[Wi-Fi Warrior Rank]]ed tournaments.  

As of current competitive play, Little Mac has begun to gain a slightly better reception due to more representation and Little Mac players adapting to the recent meta. While he is still considered one of the worst characters in the game, some players have begun to skeptically see him as a low tier rather than a definitive bottom tier. Overall, professional players still see him in the competitive setting as an unviable character due to the amount of work necessary to perform as him effectively at the highest level of play, with him ranking 81st on the first tier list, and his spot in the current one is unchanged, though with a noticeable margin between him and [[Ganondorf (SSBU)|Ganondorf]], who is placed in his own tier in the second and current tier list.