Super Smash Bros. series

Weight

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Mario's back throw speed differs depending on the weight of the character being thrown

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 makes 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 - Captain Falcon is heavy but dashes incredibly fast, Samus is heavy but slow-falling, Yoshi is heavy but rather weak for his weight, Wario is heavy but small and highly maneuverable, Zelda is light-medium with slow and strong attacks, and Falco is 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.

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 1.6, and the Poison Mushroom by 0.625.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl weight values

This is a list of characters' weights in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Super Smash Bros. 4 weight values

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This is a list of characters' weights in Super Smash Bros. 4.

According to the game, weight is the base factor in determining how many powers can be equipped in Smash Run. There are other factors -- namely a character's speed -- so it is not a direct linear correlation, but as a general rule weight definitely carries a positive correlation: the higher the weight, the greater the number of powers, with the only exceptions being Miis and the DLC fighters having a power limit of 25.

Notes/Trivia

  • 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 98, which is slightly below average. This has been carried over into future installments.
  • In each game, the enemy team all have the same weight as Mario, despite each being based off characters of different weights.
    • However, one exception applies to the Female Wire Frame in Melee, who has a weight of 90. This is due to the development team copying Zelda's moveset over to the Female Wire Frame.
  • 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).
  • There are some inconsistencies for some characters' weights:
    • Yoshi is labelled as a heavyweight (even outweighing Ganondorf and Samus in the PAL version of Melee and being on par with Wario in Brawl), despite being a lightweight or middleweight in the Mario spin off games. However, Smash Bros. may actually portray his weight accurately based on his insane eating habits in the Mario series, similar to Wario, while his status of being a fast character is shown in his air speed; that said, Yoshi being light or middleweight in the Mario spin off games may be what is inconsistent, not being a heavyweight in Smash.
    • Rosalina is labelled as a lightweight (only being heavier than Mr. Game & Watch, Mewtwo and Jigglypuff in SSB4), despite being a heavyweight in other Mario games (albeit the lightest heavyweight). However, it had been said that Rosalina being a heavyweight in the Mario series is due to her tall stature, and thus may not actually be physically heavy.[1] This can be explained by her tendency to constantly float when in movement.
    • Mewtwo is lighter than most human characters the Super Smash Bros. series (being the same weight as Marth in the PAL version of Melee and Roy and Young Link in all versions), despite its Pokédex entry claiming it weighs 269.0 lbs (122.0 kg). In Super Smash Bros. 4 it is even lighter than Pikachu, which has a Pokédex weight of a mere 13.2 lbs (6.0 kg). Like Rosalina, this can be explained by its tendency to constantly float when in movement, which is explicitly mentioned by its Red Smash trophy in Melee. Its low weight could also be something of an exaggerated reference to its Defense stat being lower than that of most Legendary Pokémon in its home series.
  • Jigglypuff is the lightest character in every Smash game except for Melee, where it is heavier than Pichu and is the same weight as Mr. Game & Watch.
    • Likewise, Bowser is the heaviest playable character in every game since his debut in Melee, with Donkey Kong being the heaviest in the original Super Smash Bros.

References