Mario (SSBB): Difference between revisions

'''Mario''' ({{ja|マリオ|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.]]'' {{s|mariowiki|Charles Martinet}} reprises his role as Mario, now providing new voice clips, sounding more akin to his appearances from ''{{s|mariowiki|Super Mario Galaxy}}'' 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 [[combo]]ing capabilities, with his [[up tilt]] and [[up aerial]] being especially good [[juggle]]rs on their own that can set up additional attacks well. Additionally, Mario possesses a notable [[gimp]]ing 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, his inherited problems from his ''Melee'' incarnation have been further exacerbated. Mainly, he has poor [[reach]] with nearly every attack, giving him problems dealing with characters who have disjointed hitboxes (such as {{SSBB|Marth}}) 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 attack]]s), while his {{mvsub|Mario|SSBB|back aerial}} has below-average power, only KOing at very high percents, and his {{mvsub|Mario|SSBB|forward aerial}}, 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 [[matchup]]s 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.

Mario has received a mix of [[nerf]]s and [[buff]]s 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''.

*{{change|Mario has been updated graphically, with his overalls looking more realistic. Additionally, the color of his cap, shirt, and overalls are a darker shade of red and blue and his skin became paler.}}

*{{change|Mario no longer vocalises during his first jump, and all of his jumps make variations of the "boing" noise from ''[[Super Mario Bros.]]''; the pitch increases with each jump: the short ground and wall jumps make a shortened version, the high ground jump uses the unaltered standard version, and the second jump and [[Super Jump Punch]] each make higher-pitched versions.}}

*{{change|Mario has been given updated voice clips, rather than reusing theme from Super Mario 64, like in 64 and Melee.}}

*{{change|Mario now has two new taunts: a side taunt where he spins, removes his hat and puts him back on his head, resembling the level clear animation from ''New Super Mario Bros.'', and a down taunt where he spins around in the air, falls to the ground and the gets up, similarly to his dying animation in ''Donkey Kong''.}}

*{{change|Mario's character model is slightly smaller, more in line with his own games, making him harder to hit but decreasing his reach.}}

*{{change|Mario is slightly [[Weight|lighter]] (100 → 98).}}

*{{change|As with the returning veterans, Mario's [[falling speed]] was reduced (1.7 → 1.28). Compared with the returning veterans, however, Mario falls faster. While improving his vertical endurance, it makes him more vulnerable to combos and worsens his already poor recovery.}}

*{{buff|Mario's [[traction]] has been unchanged (0.06). Compared with the returning veterans, however, Mario's traction is significantly higher, making it easier for him to punish out of shield.}}

*{{buff|Mario's additional [[air acceleration]] is higher (0.025 → 0.08), increasing the total amount (0.045 → 0.09) despite his base air acceleration being lower (0.02 → 0.01). His air acceleration has gone from being the 5th lowest out of 26 characters in ''Melee'' to the 13th highest out of 39 characters in ''Brawl''.}}

**{{nerf|The last hit has more startup with a shorter duration (frames 5-9 → 7-10), more ending lag (FAF 23 → 30).}}

**{{buff|Forward tilt deals more base knockback (6 → 8), and no longer deals minimal [[set knockback]] (1 → 0) when angled down.}}

**{{nerf|Down tilt deals less damage (8%/9% → 5%/7%), with only a slight increased to its base knockback (10 → 20).}}

**{{nerf|Its sweetspot deals less damage across all angles (19% (up)/18% (non-angled)/17% (down) → 18%/17%/16%).}}

**{{nerf|Its sweetspot has less knockback scaling (95 → 90).}}

**{{nerf|It deals less damage (15% → 14%) and has decreased knockback scaling (97 → 90), hindering its KO potential.}}

**{{nerf|Its front hit deals less damage (16% → 15%).}}

**{{nerf|Its front hit has less knockback scaling (75 → 73), hindering its KO potential.}}

***{{buff|Its reduced knockback enables the late hit to lock opponents for longer.}}

**{{nerf|Due to hitting six times instead of seven coupled with the loop hits dealing less damage, the move's maximum damage potential is lower (14.74% → 12%).}}

**{{buff|Fireball can now be [[B-reverse]]d.}}

**{{buff|It deals slightly more knockback and a larger hitbox.}}

**{{nerf|Fireballs travels a shorter distance.}}

**{{buff|Cape can now be [[B-reverse]]d.}}

**{{buff|It now reverses the opponent's momentum rather than just reversing their direction, and temporarily reverses their controls as well, making it much more effective as a disrupting tool. Mario also now has access to several new techniques such as the [[Cape Glide]], greatly improving its utility.}}

**{{nerf|Its effectiveness as an edgeguarding tool have been reduced due to characters being able to grab the ledge from behind in ''Brawl''.}}

**{{nerf|If Mario hits certain characters out of their specials moves with Cape (including {{SSBB|Sonic}}'s [[Spring Jump]], {{SSBB|Mr. Game & Watch}}'s [[Fire]], {{SSBB|Snake}}'s [[Cypher]] or {{SSBB|Diddy Kong}}'s [[Monkey Flip]]), they will be able to reuse their specials making Cape a non-viable edgeguarding option against those characters.}}

**{{buff|Its last hit deals more knockback (40 (base)/140 (scaling) → 52/145) and launches at a higher angle (50° → 60°), allowing it to KO near the upper blast line much more effectively.}}

**{{nerf|It now deals seven hits instead of nine, with its hitbox timings altered (frames 3-24 → 3-15), shortening its duration and reducing its total damage output (14.1% → 12%).}}

**{{nerf|It can no longer cancel itself into a [[wall jump]].}}

**{{change|Super Jump Punch has an altered landing animation where Mario lands on his back as opposed to his feet.}}

**{{change|Mario has a new down special: F.L.U.D.D., replacing Mario Tornado from ''Melee''. It is a [[charge]]able move that fires water that pushes opponents away.}}

**{{buff|F.L.U.D.D. is a much more effective edgeguarding move due to pushing opponents away, has much greater reach than Mario Tornado, and can be angled to adjust its hitbox positioning, improving its safety.}}

**{{nerf|Compared to Mario Tornado, F.L.U.D.D. cannot extend Mario's recovery or hit opponents behind him, and does not deal any damage.}}

|dtiltdesc=Performs a legsweep. Though it has low startup lag and surprisingly decent range, it deals low damage, has high [[ending lag]] and low vertical knockback. This means that when Mario connects the move, the opponent almost always has the advantage overall him. The move is flat out [[Punishment|punishable]] on hit all the way up to mid percents or even high percents, depending on the opponent's character. As such, it is Mario's least effective move and it is even considered to be one of the worst moves in the game.

|usmashname=Lead Headbutt

|fairname=Meteor Knuckle

|dairname=[[Mario Tornado]]

|bthrowname=Airplane Swing

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 [[nerf]]ed 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 [[combo]]s 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 [[List of SSBB tier lists (NTSC)|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 tournament]]s, 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 [[matchup]]s 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''.

==In [[Event Match]]es==

===Solo Events===

===Co-op Events===