- Game Versions
- Smash 3DS, Smash Wii U
Dr. Mario is a great character with many differences from his counterpart. On the surface he may seem like a clone, but when put into action, both Mario and Dr. Mario play completely differently.
Pros:
Strong Up B attack.
Melee Mario Tornado
Stronger Smash Attacks
Great options out of airdodge.
Cons:
Shorter Fullhop
Shorter Up B distance
Cape doesn't stall
Some lingo I will be using so you don't get lost in here:
OOS: Out of Shield, moves and attacks that can be performed while in shield.
RDCG: Roll Dodge Cancel Grabs.
U/D/N/B|Tilt/Air/Smash: Up Down Neutral Back, Tilt Attack, Air Attack, Smash Attack. Ex: NAir, FSmash, DTilt.
Section 1: Moves and Damage.
Before you get to learning any combos or advanced techniques, the first thing any player should do is learn every move and their damage.
The format is Name / Damage, when I say Down/Neutral/Up I'm talking about the angles in which you can do a move. Some moves can be angled, like Doc's Forward Tilt and Forward Smash.
Jab Combo(Attack, Attack, Attack): 2%/2%/4% : 8% Total
Down Tilt: 5.5%
Forward Tilt, All Angles: About 7.5%
Up Tilt: 7%
Down Air: 1%/2%/1%/2%/1%/2%/3%: Total 12%
Neutral Air(This is a reverse Sex Kick!) Weak/Strong: 5%/8%.
Forward Air Strong/Weak: 15%/11%
Back Air: 13%
Up Smash Uncharged: 15%
Up Smash Fully Charged: 21%
Pivot F-Smashes deal the same amount of damage as normal F-Smashes.
Forward Smash Uncharged Down/Neutral/Up: 19%/19%/19%
Forward Smash Uncharged Outside of Effective Range Down/Neutral/Up: 15%/16%/15%
Forward Smash Fully Charged Down/Neutral/Up: 27%/27%/27%
Forward Smash Fully Charged Outside of Effective Range Down/Neutral/Up: 16%/15%/16%
Down Smash Uncharged Forward/Back Hitbox: 11%/13%
Down Smash Fully Charged Forward/Back Hitbox: 15%/18%
Down Special: 1%/1%/2%/1%/3%: 8% Total
Forward Special: 7%, Cape, has a reflective property, does not stall like Mario's.
Neutral Special(Projectile, Pills): 5%
Up Special Strong/Weak Hitbox: 13%/6%
Knowing the damage numbers is a really good way to get the upper hand on your opponent, know them and study them. That way you know what combo/string to use at which times and which will be most efficient.
Section 2: Advanced Sm4sh Techniques
But...I thought this was a Dr. Mario guide!
Yep, it still is, but there's some absolutely essential Smash/4 techniques that you need to learn if you even want to try playing Dr. Mario.
1. Up B Out of Shield. This is done by jumping, and pressing up B at the same time. Having tap jump on makes this much much easier. Doc's Up B OOS is an insane kill move.
2. Roll Dodge Cancel Grabs. Doc has insane follow ups off of throws, and you need to know how to punish moves properly. Roll Dodge Cancel Grabs are done by dashing, then immediately pressing shield, which makes you perform a roll, then canceling the roll very early with a grab either by pressing Shield+Attack or Grab.
3. Powershielding. Powershielding is extremely important to Doc's game, it allows you to get insane and instant punishes with RDCG and Up B OOS. It's done by pressing shield at or earlier than 7 frames before an attack hits you. If you powershield a move, you can almost ALWAYS get an Up B OOS off on your opponent, it has such extreme range, that you can even hit marth if he hits you with his tipper'd sword, you can choose to Up B OOS or RDCG the Marth player. Powershielding even let's you punish Peach's Side B on Shield with an Up B OOS if you're quick enough.
Section 3: Strings and Combos and More
Now to the meat of the whole discussion, strings and combos! I'm going to preface by saying Doc doesn't have too many combos, he has strings that requires you to read your opponent a lot however, and very good throws that lead into 50/50 mixups.
Pretty much all of our true strings are done off of Down Throw.
Doc's DThrow is a lot different from Mario's, it pops opponents much higher into the air. As a result, the only true combo you will ever get off of DThrow is Utilt and UAir and off of Utilt or UAir you have to read your opponent again since past that it turns into a string and not a true combo.
Off of DThrow, a good string I like to use is U/DThrow depending on %, Uair, Fast Falled NAir, into RDCG and repeat until my opponent catches on and starts doing other things to get out of it or is at high enough % that this doesn't work. If you face a character that doesn't have a fast attack like, say Ike, you'll probably be able to do this a lot. Since they can't break out of it if they don't airdodge after the initial throw. If they airdodge however it's usually even worse for them since you can punish them with an Up B or Smash Attack or a jab combo or a utilt > uair or dair.
Lastly, since Doc's cape doesn't stall, you can do some interesting things with it. I've found that during the initial frames of the cape(while there is a hitbox out as well), you can grab on to the ledge while B-Reversing the cape. This means you can reflect people trying to recover, then grab on to the ledge safely! Sadly this is a bit difficult to perform on the 3DS version, but on the Wii U will be much easier.
You can also just do the normal reversed one while running forward and it will grab ledge. It can also be b-reversed off platforms and covers an absolutely MASSIVE area when you B-reverse while running off a platform.
Also, you will probably see what I do a lot(which eventually does start to get punished but it is still very good), is Airdodge > Down B. If I read my opponent is going to go after me with an aerial I can easily deal 12% damage plus a lot of knockback by just airdodging then doing my tornado while mashing to control the height so they stay in.
Remember how I stated in the beginning of the guide that Dr. Mario's fullhop is shorter than Mario's? Well this can work to his advantage. Doc can actually do a fullhop > pill, and finish the pill animation in the air, which means he can do another jump before touching the ground(the timing is a bit strict) and pill again, and repeat. It makes his pill spam game much better than Mario's.
Lastly I'm going to leave you guys with a For Glory match where I use basically everything I described here. I'm not the greatest on a 3DS but hopefully when the Wii U version comes out I will be able to post more high quality footage and better gameplay. Cheers and thanks for reading!
Pros:
Strong Up B attack.
Melee Mario Tornado
Stronger Smash Attacks
Great options out of airdodge.
Cons:
Shorter Fullhop
Shorter Up B distance
Cape doesn't stall
Some lingo I will be using so you don't get lost in here:
OOS: Out of Shield, moves and attacks that can be performed while in shield.
RDCG: Roll Dodge Cancel Grabs.
U/D/N/B|Tilt/Air/Smash: Up Down Neutral Back, Tilt Attack, Air Attack, Smash Attack. Ex: NAir, FSmash, DTilt.
Section 1: Moves and Damage.
Before you get to learning any combos or advanced techniques, the first thing any player should do is learn every move and their damage.
The format is Name / Damage, when I say Down/Neutral/Up I'm talking about the angles in which you can do a move. Some moves can be angled, like Doc's Forward Tilt and Forward Smash.
Jab Combo(Attack, Attack, Attack): 2%/2%/4% : 8% Total
Down Tilt: 5.5%
Forward Tilt, All Angles: About 7.5%
Up Tilt: 7%
Down Air: 1%/2%/1%/2%/1%/2%/3%: Total 12%
Neutral Air(This is a reverse Sex Kick!) Weak/Strong: 5%/8%.
Forward Air Strong/Weak: 15%/11%
Back Air: 13%
Up Smash Uncharged: 15%
Up Smash Fully Charged: 21%
Pivot F-Smashes deal the same amount of damage as normal F-Smashes.
Forward Smash Uncharged Down/Neutral/Up: 19%/19%/19%
Forward Smash Uncharged Outside of Effective Range Down/Neutral/Up: 15%/16%/15%
Forward Smash Fully Charged Down/Neutral/Up: 27%/27%/27%
Forward Smash Fully Charged Outside of Effective Range Down/Neutral/Up: 16%/15%/16%
Down Smash Uncharged Forward/Back Hitbox: 11%/13%
Down Smash Fully Charged Forward/Back Hitbox: 15%/18%
Down Special: 1%/1%/2%/1%/3%: 8% Total
Forward Special: 7%, Cape, has a reflective property, does not stall like Mario's.
Neutral Special(Projectile, Pills): 5%
Up Special Strong/Weak Hitbox: 13%/6%
Knowing the damage numbers is a really good way to get the upper hand on your opponent, know them and study them. That way you know what combo/string to use at which times and which will be most efficient.
Section 2: Advanced Sm4sh Techniques
But...I thought this was a Dr. Mario guide!
Yep, it still is, but there's some absolutely essential Smash/4 techniques that you need to learn if you even want to try playing Dr. Mario.
1. Up B Out of Shield. This is done by jumping, and pressing up B at the same time. Having tap jump on makes this much much easier. Doc's Up B OOS is an insane kill move.
2. Roll Dodge Cancel Grabs. Doc has insane follow ups off of throws, and you need to know how to punish moves properly. Roll Dodge Cancel Grabs are done by dashing, then immediately pressing shield, which makes you perform a roll, then canceling the roll very early with a grab either by pressing Shield+Attack or Grab.
3. Powershielding. Powershielding is extremely important to Doc's game, it allows you to get insane and instant punishes with RDCG and Up B OOS. It's done by pressing shield at or earlier than 7 frames before an attack hits you. If you powershield a move, you can almost ALWAYS get an Up B OOS off on your opponent, it has such extreme range, that you can even hit marth if he hits you with his tipper'd sword, you can choose to Up B OOS or RDCG the Marth player. Powershielding even let's you punish Peach's Side B on Shield with an Up B OOS if you're quick enough.
Section 3: Strings and Combos and More
Now to the meat of the whole discussion, strings and combos! I'm going to preface by saying Doc doesn't have too many combos, he has strings that requires you to read your opponent a lot however, and very good throws that lead into 50/50 mixups.
Pretty much all of our true strings are done off of Down Throw.
Doc's DThrow is a lot different from Mario's, it pops opponents much higher into the air. As a result, the only true combo you will ever get off of DThrow is Utilt and UAir and off of Utilt or UAir you have to read your opponent again since past that it turns into a string and not a true combo.
Off of DThrow, a good string I like to use is U/DThrow depending on %, Uair, Fast Falled NAir, into RDCG and repeat until my opponent catches on and starts doing other things to get out of it or is at high enough % that this doesn't work. If you face a character that doesn't have a fast attack like, say Ike, you'll probably be able to do this a lot. Since they can't break out of it if they don't airdodge after the initial throw. If they airdodge however it's usually even worse for them since you can punish them with an Up B or Smash Attack or a jab combo or a utilt > uair or dair.
Lastly, since Doc's cape doesn't stall, you can do some interesting things with it. I've found that during the initial frames of the cape(while there is a hitbox out as well), you can grab on to the ledge while B-Reversing the cape. This means you can reflect people trying to recover, then grab on to the ledge safely! Sadly this is a bit difficult to perform on the 3DS version, but on the Wii U will be much easier.
You can also just do the normal reversed one while running forward and it will grab ledge. It can also be b-reversed off platforms and covers an absolutely MASSIVE area when you B-reverse while running off a platform.
Also, you will probably see what I do a lot(which eventually does start to get punished but it is still very good), is Airdodge > Down B. If I read my opponent is going to go after me with an aerial I can easily deal 12% damage plus a lot of knockback by just airdodging then doing my tornado while mashing to control the height so they stay in.
Remember how I stated in the beginning of the guide that Dr. Mario's fullhop is shorter than Mario's? Well this can work to his advantage. Doc can actually do a fullhop > pill, and finish the pill animation in the air, which means he can do another jump before touching the ground(the timing is a bit strict) and pill again, and repeat. It makes his pill spam game much better than Mario's.
Lastly I'm going to leave you guys with a For Glory match where I use basically everything I described here. I'm not the greatest on a 3DS but hopefully when the Wii U version comes out I will be able to post more high quality footage and better gameplay. Cheers and thanks for reading!
