Advice for a PM Mario main beginner?

[SwisshySwaash]

Hi! I've just started playing project M, but i was instantly attracted to Mario. Does anyone have any tips/tricks to help me get started with him? anything is appreciated! thanks!

 

[Hinichii.ez.™]

learn how to do all the basic tech

 

[KinGly]

learn how to do all the basic tech

I feel as though this should be clarified. By basic tech, we mean things such as dash dancing, l-canceling, wavedashing (not immediately important), jump canceling, and shffling. If you don't know what any of these are, you should look up advanced melee tech videos.
It's also useful to learn some of the brawl movement tech such as b-reversing, wave bouncing, and reverse aerial rush (RAR)

As for Mario specific stuff, there isn't much to say. Play smart with fireballs, learn combos from basic starters like down throw, get used to the correct recovery methods (usually down b to cape to jump to up b, but it can be kinda situational).
Mario doesn't have much character specific stuff, so he thrives with a smart player. That being said he's extremely easy to play so a lot of newcomers pick him up.

Btw, the pm character boards have been kinda dead lately, so I'm enthusiastic to see someone posting ^-^

 

[yellowdee]

I highly recommend playing Melee Doc if you have Melee available. View Shroomed's gameplay, and see if you can emulate it. (Good to make note of the use of up-airs, wavedashes, those sweet, sweet tech chases, and jab-downsmashes). Wavedashing and running in the opposite direction you're facing are different between melee and PM, though, so it takes significant practice to be used to the nuances.

Running away and shorthop turn-around B-ing fireballs is a phenominal strategy that is even effective in Melee (though harder to pull off). Neither Boss nor Shroomed do it, but I personally think they'd place higher in tourneys if they adopted that strategy as a mix-up: it gets you out of trouble, and obfuscates your getaway with a fireball!

Recovery:
Some good things to build off of Shroomed's gameplay would be Boss' gameplay as well. He makes good use of all his recovery options (down-B'ing as soon as possible actually directs your hitstunned momentum upward, and you have no lateral momentum to kill [in melee]: when everything's said and done, you'll be a good Mario height-and-a-half above where you'd otherwise be, which means more recovery options, baby!)

Edge-guarding:
Up-air is the most incredibly promising move nobody ever uses, even in Melee. With practice, you can toss a spacy off the ledge and jump straight at them with an up-air ready. I don't know if they can shine against that easily, but I'm speculating it can be very difficult to defend against.

One last thing: Practice against level 9 CPU PM Foxes and Falcos, and egg them on into lasering you. Practice shorthopping away and using your cape to try to reflect some lasers, then answer with some fireballs! They'll use their reflectors, but be stunned for a fraction of a second, so cape your fireball back or try to up-air into their grill. It is so much fun to do, I gotta say! It will help you to get aquainted with general strategies that players use with those top-popular characters.

 

[SwisshySwaash]

I feel as though this should be clarified. By basic tech, we mean things such as dash dancing, l-canceling, wavedashing (not immediately important), jump canceling, and shffling. If you don't know what any of these are, you should look up advanced melee tech videos.
It's also useful to learn some of the brawl movement tech such as b-reversing, wave bouncing, and reverse aerial rush (RAR)

As for Mario specific stuff, there isn't much to say. Play smart with fireballs, learn combos from basic starters like down throw, get used to the correct recovery methods (usually down b to cape to jump to up b, but it can be kinda situational).
Mario doesn't have much character specific stuff, so he thrives with a smart player. That being said he's extremely easy to play so a lot of newcomers pick him up.

Btw, the pm character boards have been kinda dead lately, so I'm enthusiastic to see someone posting ^-^

I highly recommend playing Melee Doc if you have Melee available. View Shroomed's gameplay, and see if you can emulate it. (Good to make note of the use of up-airs, wavedashes, those sweet, sweet tech chases, and jab-downsmashes). Wavedashing and running in the opposite direction you're facing are different between melee and PM, though, so it takes significant practice to be used to the nuances.

Running away and shorthop turn-around B-ing fireballs are a phenominal strategy that is even effective in Melee (though harder to pull off). Neither Boss nor Shroomed do it, but I personally think they'd place higher in tourneys if they adopted that strategy at least for a mix-up: it gets you out of trouble, and obfuscates your getaway with a fireball!

Recovery:
Some good things to build off of Shroomed's gameplay would be Boss' gameplay as well. He makes good use of all his recovery options (up-B'ing as soon as possible actually directs your hitstunned momentum upward, and you have no lateral momentum to kill [in melee]: when everything's said and done, you'll be a good Mario height-and-a-half above where you'd otherwise be, which means more recovery options, baby!)

Edge-guarding:
Up-air is the most incredibly promising move nobody ever uses, even in Melee. With practice, you can toss a spacy off the ledge and jump straight at them with an up-air ready. I don't know if they can shine against that easily, but I'm speculating it can be very difficult to defend against.

One last thing: Practice against level 9 CPU PM Foxes and Falcos, and egg them on into lasering you. Practice shorthopping away and using your cape to try to reflect some lasers, then answer with some fireballs! They'll use their reflectors, but be stunned for a fraction of a second, so cape your fireball back or try to up-air into their grill. It is so much fun to do, I gotta say! It will help you to get aquainted with general strategies that players use with those top-popular characters.

Thank you both so much for the advice! I'm going to go play some Smash

 

[eskimoparade]

mario has excellent groundmoves and a superb wavedash, its definately worth using to improve his mobility otherwise faster characters will run circles around you

 

[Altanic]

Jab is Marios best friend.
The first 2 hits lead to all your tilts, smashes, and grabs. Down tilt to fair is basically guaranteed on a lot of characters at the right percentages, so this is one of Marios easiest kill setups because it can come straight out of neutral. I suggest to learn your fireball hit confirms and shield pressure. Fireballs really help Mario get in by following them into aerial or jab pressure, or use them for zoning.
Down tilt to nair is a great little combo for pushing people to the edges of the stage. When you follow that into full hop fireballs, you can continue to keep them pushed to that side.
Dair is an effective for shield pressure if you crossup. It will keep you from being grabbed while they are shielding, so when you land you can read their roll, spotdodge, grab, or even just more pressure.
There is some more stuff on Mario that ive written about in the thread called "D-throw to fair never seems to work." on this forum with some stuff on pressuring and throw setups.

 

[Gambanjo]

after u-tilt, at most I can only get like 2 u-airs before the opponent is out of my reach (based on percent of course). either that or I tend to opt for down/f-smash way too early and end my combo strings. any tips to get the most out of combos as mario?

 

[Tha_Shogun_12]

Combos combos combos! Since Mario is Mr. allrounder you have to make use of every attack that he has, but ultimately you want all these attacks to fall together in sequence.

Utilt, Dtilt, Up Smash OoS, Jabs, and DSmash will be your main grounded attacks. UAir, Bair should be learned and utilized first and FSmash, FAir, DSmash are your main finishers outside of gimps.

Fireballs are your next best tool and can be used in almost everysituation, defense, offense, spacing, etc. Remember:

Grounded fireballs can be spammed the fastest but have the lowest trajectory, used great for camping having your opponent comes to you

Short Hop Fireballs bounce a bit higher, and not be spammed as fast, but can shut down alot of spaced approaches when you are on frame advantage. They almost will always force your opponent into a full jump.

Full Jump Fireballs usually have one bounce life in them, bouncing the highest, and can be wavelanded out of if you shot the fireball on the first few frames. These fireballs usually force your opponent into a shorthop, roll, or dash (which if times right can be intercepted with a well placed UAir and the only fireballs you can legit combo on after a hit depending on the distance.

That should be enough info to get you started

 

[Gambanjo]

Combos combos combos! Since Mario is Mr. allrounder you have to make use of every attack that he has, but ultimately you want all these attacks to fall together in sequence.

Utilt, Dtilt, Up Smash OoS, Jabs, and DSmash will be your main grounded attacks. UAir, Bair should be learned and utilized first and FSmash, FAir, DSmash are your main finishers outside of gimps.

Fireballs are your next best tool and can be used in almost everysituation, defense, offense, spacing, etc. Remember:

Grounded fireballs can be spammed the fastest but have the lowest trajectory, used great for camping having your opponent comes to you

Short Hop Fireballs bounce a bit higher, and not be spammed as fast, but can shut down alot of spaced approaches when you are on frame advantage. They almost will always force your opponent into a full jump.

Full Jump Fireballs usually have one bounce life in them, bouncing the highest, and can be wavelanded out of if you shot the fireball on the first few frames. These fireballs usually force your opponent into a shorthop, roll, or dash (which if times right can be intercepted with a well placed UAir and the only fireballs you can legit combo on after a hit depending on the distance.

That should be enough info to get you started

i've read that cross-up Dair is one of my best approach options. But i notice it gets kinda predictable after a while, any tips for approach mix-ups? or approaches in general?

 

[Tha_Shogun_12]

i've read that cross-up Dair is one of my best approach options. But i notice it gets kinda predictable after a while, any tips for approach mix-ups? or approaches in general?

Due to Mario having short range and not very fast dash or jump speeds approaching with him can be very difficult but it can be done pretty effectively in a few cases. Here are ways I approach oppoenents.

A short hop down b with during jump out of dash. This keeps all of mario's momentum from his Short hop but carries over to even after he hits the ground, successfully coming at your opponent with a multihit attack. I use this mainly on dash dancers and players who try to space with wave dashes.

Another approach option I use is a FF UAir out of short hop (Or Shuffle UAir is what it used to be called) At the last moment of the UAir you can follow up to combos and are safe enough that on shield they can lead to safe jabs for shield pressure. I usually use this on players who are usually pressured to block after a whiffed poke or they are they are on shield and i'm behind them.

DTilt is a really good poke if spaced properly and can lead to combos at certain percents if they are hit, with enough space that even if crouch cancelled certain opponents will whiff grabs, dtilts, and certain can still block certain attacks afterwards

I also hard read NAir and Dash attack alot of times as Nair can lead to Frame advantage attacks or set up for edgeguards and a hard read dash attack leads to combos and tech chases. Both of them stuff out Spot dodges and certain attacks/rolls at certain timings.

The majority of the time however I approach at a certain range either behind my fireballs on full jump or wave dash and/or fox trot at a safe distance until I can gauge their play style after their full jumps. This leads to the other options alot of the time but I can also approach with grabs sometimes depending on the opponents actions after the fireballs.

If you don't mind cycling through matches, here is a link to a streamed tournament I just had yesterday. I use Mario at 1:33:14 and end up winning the three matches to take home winners finals. The matches are vs. Sheik

Edit: The vods just got posted, here are the matches