Doc is good, Right?

[Spaghetti Sammy]

Idunno, just though I'd ask if its generally accepted that Doc is good, albeit a bad Mario. Because it seems a lot of popular people (AceStar, Shofu) think Doc is good, or prefer him over regular Mario. So I just wanted to know if the general opinion is the right one :^)
I think Doc getting 0 tournament representation also "assists" the low rank on the official tier list. If he was played he'd be B tier easily.

 

[Dokokashira]

I'm no expert, but I think Dr. Mario is fantastic. A testament to why I main him. XD

He's definitely far from a "bad Mario" in my eyes. I think the main difference between the two is that while Mario has an easier time getting off combos due to his higher speed, Dr. Mario's successful combos are more potent to his increased power. Heck, I don't feel that Dr. Mario even needs many combos. His attacks are powerful enough that reads and punishes alone are quick and easy ways to get a stock taken.

Most people who think of him as bad usually cite his recovery, which is undoubtedly worse compared to Mario's, since he has lower jump height and I believe that his Super Jump Punch has a bit less vertical height than Mario's. His Super Sheet also doesn't cause Dr. Mario to float for a bit unlike Mario's Cape, which is a huge problem considering every other factor. On the plus side, he has the Dr. Tornado to help aid his recovery!

Detractors also sometimes talk about the arc of his Megavitamins. Because of the way they bounce, they can bounce over extremely small characters like Kirby and Jigglypuff, unlike Mario's Fireball. Personally, this is kind of a moot point to me. Problems with their arc can easily be averted by using them midair. They're also physical projectiles, which is IMO, a great selling point for them. They can't be absorbed by Ness, Lucas, and Mr. Game & Watch for free health or dangerous attacks.

Another difference that I see brought up often is their forward airs. Lots of people think Mario's forward air is better because it's a meteor smash, and dismiss Dr. Mario's since it's just an attack that launches. I feel that this is also a moot point, since Dr. Mario's forward air will be strong enough to KO past the horizontal blast lines (or make them fly far enough to the point they can't recover) at the same percentages that Mario would successfully meteor smash. Dr. Mario's offstage forward air can KO most characters at around 60%-80%, if I'm not mistaken... that's pretty major.

...I feel like I'm kind of lost in what exactly what I was trying to say with this post, and also dragging it on. XD I guess debunking reasons why people think Dr. Mario is worse than Mario? But, anyway, you'd be right in saying that he's considered worse than Mario due to his offstage ability, among other things. I feel, however, in the hands of an experienced user who can bring out his strengths, like Boss, he's not explicitly worse than Mario, just a lot different.

 

[uns4fe]

Docs buff from mario is more kill power and more damaging moves for reduce of speed/recovery.

Doc is a worse Luigi, Luigi has like the same kill power (maybe even better) and like the same damage output and way more combos/kill setups. But doc is swag, swag > being good.

 

[KenMeister]

Hard to say, really. While Doc is great in doubles setting (arguably better than Mario in that case), Doc's mobility and high-committal approach options really hurt him, especially with the strict AC window for bair, and mobility in general that's easy to react to, which kinda gives him a weaker neutral game than Mario since he can't really run away like Mario can when he lacks the range to keep people off him in midrange. He's....Maybe mid tier I'm guessing? His good frame data and decent combo game, as well as powerful OoS punish game certainly carries him a good ways, and he has additional moves like Dair and Nado as good edguarding tools Mario wishes he had. Aside from that, though, coming from someone who's played Doc the longest in Smash 4 before switching to Mario, Mario is definitely the ideal character, but Doc can certainly get by in some MUs whereas trades would hurt Mario the worst in (notably Luigi and Ryu).

 

[Sykkamorre]

With customs, doc probably outdoes Mario to be honest.

 

[Bobert]

Without customs? No not really. He's pretty bad honestly(compared to most of the cast). Mainly because of his mobility and recovery. He's outclassed by most of the cast including his plumber counterpart. I personally like him more than Mario and was super hyped for his return and even mained him on release. As you can tell though, I did switch mains somewhere along the line but not because he's "bad". I still use him often. If you have fun with him, use him and don't let anything.

He is pretty sick with customs though.

 

[A2ZOMG]

Doc isn't really outclassed by Mario when you realize that Mario literally cannot ever kill you in the air in this game.

He's more obsoleted by Luigi in contrast who gets a lot more free damage and KO confirms for getting in. That being said, Doc's low short hop is underrated in relevant matchups.

 

[KenMeister]

Doc isn't really outclassed by Mario when you realize that Mario literally cannot ever kill you in the air in this game.

He's more obsoleted by Luigi in contrast who gets a lot more free damage and KO confirms for getting in. That being said, Doc's low short hop is underrated in relevant matchups.

Probably something like the Kirby MU I'm guessing, since Kirby has both a solid air and ground game, SH bair is pretty good against him, and bair can kill him when in the air.

 

[Bobert]

Doc isn't really outclassed by Mario when you realize that Mario literally cannot ever kill you in the air in this game.

He's more obsoleted by Luigi in contrast who gets a lot more free damage and KO confirms for getting in. That being said, Doc's low short hop is underrated in relevant matchups.

Maybe not completely outclassed but enough not to use him over Mario if you're wanting to win non custom tournaments or place high at least. He still has a bad recovery and horrible mobility.

 

[A2ZOMG]

Probably something like the Kirby MU I'm guessing, since Kirby has both a solid air and ground game, SH bair is pretty good against him, and bair can kill him when in the air.

Ness and Diddy matchups are noticeably easier for Doc imo, all because you can actually SH B-air them in neutral.

Maybe not completely outclassed but enough not to use him over Mario if you're wanting to win non custom tournaments or place high at least. He still has a bad recovery and horrible mobility.

Mario isn't exactly great either. He has his fair share of stupid matchups. Especially as of this patch.

 

[Bobert]

Ness and Diddy matchups are noticeably easier for Doc imo, all because you can actually SH B-air them in neutral.

Mario isn't exactly great either. He has his fair share of stupid matchups. Especially as of this patch.

I'm not talking about how good Mario is. I'm just saying there isn't much reason to use him over Dr.Mario other than having more power. I'll take mobility, better combos and a recovery over more power, a bad recovery and bad mobility any day.

 

[A2ZOMG]

I'm not talking about how good Mario is. I'm just saying there isn't much reason to use him over Dr.Mario other than having more power. I'll take mobility, better combos and a recovery over more power, a bad recovery and bad mobility any day.

It's not simply "power". Doc has a real edgeguard game and actually can gimp good players, and his airdodge bait is actually a threat and can kill you meaning you actually have a reason to mix up your escape options against Doc, rather than just jump backwards and ledge reset against Mario 100% of the time. Plus his neutral game covers different options given his short hop is lower, Up-B out of shield can kill, and Pills also work differently from Fireballs.

Mario strategically cannot kill you at all if you ledge reset. This is something Doc in contrast actually has an answer to.

 

[Bobert]

It's not simply "power". Doc has a real edgeguard game and actually can gimp good players, and his airdodge bait is actually a threat and can kill you meaning you actually have a reason to mix up your escape options against Doc, rather than just jump backwards and ledge reset against Mario 100% of the time. Plus his neutral game covers different options given his short hop is lower, Up-B out of shield can kill, and Pills also work differently from Fireballs.

Mario strategically cannot kill you at all if you ledge reset. This is something Doc in contrast actually has an answer to.

Still not enough of a reason to choose him over Mario really. His mobility is awful, so is his recovery and his combo game is inferior. Mario can bait an airdodge at the ledge and spike too. He has an easier time against shorter characters sure but you can just secondary a character who can fight against short characters too with actual mobility and a recovery. Mario is also preferred against faster characters.

 

[A2ZOMG]

Still not enough of a reason to choose him over Mario really. His mobility is awful, so is his recovery and his combo game is inferior. Mario can bait an airdodge at the ledge and spike too. He has an easier time against shorter characters sure but you can just secondary a character who can fight against short characters too with actual mobility and a recovery. Mario is also preferred against faster characters.

You never need to be airdodge baited against Mario, because he doesn't have a single aerial that will kill you anyway. Mario doesn't spike anyone offstage who knows the matchup.

Doc's combo game isn't really worse. He does better against floaties typically where his higher damage output and aerial setups from D-throw are more valuable. Furthermore Doc has a Jab cancel game that leaves him at a frame advantage (which can also combo into Up-B on floaties), while Mario's is negative on hit. This is very important especially in the Rosalina matchup, where Doc has both his D-air/Tornado edgeguards and a Jab cancel game to fall back on to kill Rosalina, while Mario can really only bet on Rosalina making a mistake and landing directly into U-smash instead of ledge resetting or using her strong ability to weave to juke Mario.

You want to get into the argument "pick a secondary for certain matchups"? That really isn't proving anything. Doc has completely different matchups, including against high/top tier characters where he's almost certainly better when he's actually able to end stocks, and of course when there's some very strong small characters who Mario has a hard time approaching from the air due to jumping too high. This isn't to say either character is that good. But it definitely in no way implies that Doc is outclassed by Mario.

Also while Doc's recovery isn't great, it's definitely not bad as long as you DI correctly and mix up Tornado and airdodge. Mario's recovery doesn't really outdo Doc's by much when there are in fact quite a few characters that don't have trouble trading and gimping it. Doc's low horizontal mobility mostly just makes his matchup against ZSS really stupid, other than that it's probably overblown compared to the problem that both Mario and Doc have terrible forward facing options. And Mario's problem being unable to kill anyone in the air is extremely undersold.

 

[Bobert]

You never need to be airdodge baited against Mario, because he doesn't have a single aerial that will kill you anyway. Mario doesn't spike anyone offstage who knows the matchup.

Doc's combo game isn't really worse. He does better against floaties typically where his higher damage output and aerial setups from D-throw are more valuable. Furthermore Doc has a Jab cancel game that leaves him at a frame advantage (which can also combo into Up-B on floaties), while Mario's is negative on hit. This is very important especially in the Rosalina matchup, where Doc has both his D-air/Tornado edgeguards and a Jab cancel game to fall back on to kill Rosalina, while Mario can really only bet on Rosalina making a mistake and landing directly into U-smash instead of ledge resetting or using her strong ability to weave to juke Mario.

You want to get into the argument "pick a secondary for certain matchups"? That really isn't proving anything. Doc has completely different matchups, including against high/top tier characters where he's almost certainly better when he's actually able to end stocks, and of course when there's some very strong small characters who Mario has a hard time approaching from the air due to jumping too high. This isn't to say either character is that good. But it definitely in no way implies that Doc is outclassed by Mario.

Also while Doc's recovery isn't great, it's definitely not bad as long as you DI correctly and mix up Tornado and airdodge. Mario's recovery doesn't really outdo Doc's by much when there are in fact quite a few characters that don't have trouble trading and gimping it. Doc's low horizontal mobility mostly just makes his matchup against ZSS really stupid, other than that it's probably overblown compared to the problem that both Mario and Doc have terrible forward facing options. And Mario's problem being unable to kill anyone in the air is extremely undersold.

Doc has a harder time getting in and punishing due to his horrible mobility. His range is the same as Mario's other than FSmash which is shorter but it's a much bigger deal for him because of his awful mobility. It's also easier to keep him away because of his awful mobility. Also, Docs vertical recovery is awful and he needs to use a move that leaves him open in the air to even get close horizontally. You're not going to DI perfectly every time you get launched. There are times where Dr.Mario is knocked too low to recover. Also, Doc can't punish at times where Mario could because he couldn't get close enough in time or his FSmash is just too short. Doc has an easier time gimping Rosalina sure but his speed makes it hard to even get in on her. Mario also has an easier time with Marth and Lucina than Doc because of his superior mobility making it easier to approach and pressure them. Doc has a harder time approaching them and gets smacked by the sword offstage when he uses tornado. Doc also has a harder time with more speedy characters in general.

The reason I mention his mobility so much is because it's his biggest weakness. If he had better mobility, I would see a reason to actually use him over Mario. Being able to Bair a few shorties, having slightly higher damage output and do slightly better against floaties regarding "combos" aren't good reasons to use him over Mario when you have a safer recovery, easier approach, better mobility for chasing and pressuring and better combo game against more characters including the high tiers but Dr.Mario actually has to deal with the fact that his speed in general is awful and try to actually get in to even start a combo which I'll say again, doesn't hold up to Mario's combo game. Mainly because Doc hardly HAS a combo game. Mario has a much easier time linking moves into each other than Doc and he's also better at tech chases. Mario overrall is just a more solid character.

 

[A2ZOMG]

Mario sucks at getting in against people that actually know the matchup too. Neither Mario or Doc by design have any business beating a Ryu, Pit/Dark Pit, Ganon, DK, or Link in tournament that knows what they're doing. Mario's mobility is pretty overrated for getting past good spacing when neither of them can do anything but dashgrab or DA when facing forward (which they also have the same range on, for that matter). Actually, even factoring Doc's slower run speed, his Up-B actually is a good out of dash punish option which is nice for catching backwards rolls, while Mario has a lot of trouble killing you for rolling backwards in contrast.

Also Mario's combo game is a lot more situational than you're implying. Don't try to give me nonsense on that. Most of the top characters in this game actually have reliable ways to escape Mario's strings unless he starts his stuff at specific percents. Doc even benefits from superior tilts which start frame tight combos sooner than Mario's stuff and do more damage. This is especially important on D-tilt, which is their most reliable option for defending against opposing grabs and pressuring shield after spaced aerials. Frankly, both their combo games are circumstantial, but saying Doc hardly has a combo game compared to Mario is pretty blatantly false.

Let me also remind you when you ledge reset against Mario, he struggles to kill you before 160% as long as you don't get grabbed backwards near the ledge and don't make the mistake of landing next to him. Doc in contrast can consistently kill you with fresh Up-B around 130% on the ground, or earlier in the air (where again, Mario can't kill you). As I stated, Doc can also gimp people with Tornado and D-air, which actually cover good options offstage meaning they're very viable competitively. Mario has nothing to edgeguard you with except N-air and B-air stage spikes in contrast, neither of which are good for killing people that know how to recover low.

Neither is that good especially as of this patch. Mario however doesn't outclass Doc, and definitely has important matchups where he's worse off. You're also doing an awfully good job of contradicting yourself by arguing "this isn't about how good Mario is" and desperately trying to prove without citing examples of numbers of matchups where Mario is magically better. The main relevant matchup I will concede Mario is clearly better is ZSS, to a smaller extent Sonic as well. Diddy and Ness however are also strong characters, and Doc being able to consistently hit them with rising aerials is massively important when it's generally too risky to just fight them on the ground.

 

[Bobert]

Mario sucks at getting in against people that actually know the matchup too. Neither Mario or Doc by design have any business beating a Ryu, Pit/Dark Pit, Ganon, DK, or Link in tournament that knows what they're doing. Mario's mobility is pretty overrated for getting past good spacing when neither of them can do anything but dashgrab or DA when facing forward (which they also have the same range on, for that matter). Actually, even factoring Doc's slower run speed, his Up-B actually is a good out of dash punish option which is nice for catching backwards rolls, while Mario has a lot of trouble killing you for rolling backwards in contrast.

Also Mario's combo game is a lot more situational than you're implying. Don't try to give me nonsense on that. Most of the top characters in this game actually have reliable ways to escape Mario's strings unless he starts his stuff at specific percents. Doc even benefits from superior tilts which start frame tight combos sooner than Mario's stuff and do more damage. This is especially important on D-tilt, which is their most reliable option for defending against opposing grabs and pressuring shield after spaced aerials. Frankly, both their combo games are circumstantial, but saying Doc hardly has a combo game compared to Mario is pretty blatantly false.

Let me also remind you when you ledge reset against Mario, he struggles to kill you before 160% as long as you don't get grabbed backwards near the ledge and don't make the mistake of landing next to him. Doc in contrast can consistently kill you with fresh Up-B around 130% on the ground, or earlier in the air (where again, Mario can't kill you). As I stated, Doc can also gimp people with Tornado and D-air, which actually cover good options offstage meaning they're very viable competitively. Mario has nothing to edgeguard you with except N-air and B-air stage spikes in contrast, neither of which are good for killing people that know how to recover low.

Neither is that good especially as of this patch. Mario however doesn't outclass Doc, and definitely has important matchups where he's worse off. You're also doing an awfully good job of contradicting yourself by arguing "this isn't about how good Mario is" and desperately trying to prove without citing examples of numbers of matchups where Mario is magically better. The main relevant matchup I will concede Mario is clearly better is ZSS, to a smaller extent Sonic as well. Diddy and Ness however are also strong characters, and Doc being able to consistently hit them with rising aerials is massively important when it's generally too risky to just fight them on the ground.

I don't really know how I'm contradicting myself. I'm comparing the two characters and saying that one is just better than the other. Not that the other one is super good or anything. Also, you're ignoring the fact the fact that Doc really does have a harder time getting in with Mario. They share similar weaknesses but they're worse for Doc other than kill power. I will admit that Mario doesn't completely outclass Doc(I guess) but he is still a much more solid character I believe and would be a better choice and I do feel that you're underrating Mario. But in all honesty, I doubt I'll change your mind and I'm not going to change mine so I'd rather agree to disagree than turn this into a multi page Mario VS Dr.Mario thread.

 

[A2ZOMG]

Doc's low mobility hurts him more when being juggled or chasing exceptionally strong negative states than for actually getting in, frankly, though it varies by matchup given he has a better D-air and sometimes Tornado for beating certain juggle options directly. Doc still has an identical dashgrab and DA to Mario, and his SH B-air is superior to Mario's (this matters not just against short characters, but is also highly important against crouching and other people spacing D-tilts as well), not to mention his Up-B is the best out of shield option in the game by far. So he is missing out on much less in neutral than you are suggesting. Most characters that actually are really difficult for Doc to get in on, Mario doesn't exactly have it noticeably easier (characters that easily outrange dashgrab threat range and have relatively low commitment high priority anti-airs).


Frankly, I'm just waiting for people to accept that neither character is remarkable mostly because they lack strong forward facing options, and in Mario's case it's a massive problem to not be able to end a stock when your opponent plays a simple flowchart and then has many opportunities to abuse Rage to ruin your day. And of course that the patch changes pretty much cemented several unfavorable matchups for these characters.

 

[Sykkamorre]

I think the main problem here is that you're comparing doc's combo game to Mario's.
While their movesets are similar, doc's playstyle is quite a lot different to his non-graduate counterpart. In comparison, doc plays like Ganondorf while Mario plays like CF.

In regards to doc having less of a combo game... eh. Simply land before continuing your aerials, which in itself gives you more options.

 

[Eight_SixtyFour]

Why do people keep asking this question? And why do people keep treating Doc like Mario with chains attached to his feet?

I agree with A2Z. There's a lot of things that Doc can do better, which are relevant. Mario is overrated in many ways. I think that both of them are ok and that neither one really outclasses each other overall.

 

[MonkeyArms]

Real reason why people think Mario is better than Doc:
Down throw-U-tilt lock-up airs-up b. Simple up smash kill. Simple recovery.
Reality things he has over Doc:
More combos, better double/triple jab, better dair, better up air, a spike (which is pretty bad), more reliable up smash, faster frame data, longer range forward smash sweet spot (in reality they have the same range), better nair, better cape, F.L.U.D.D. (which isn't that good).
What Doc has:
Better frame traps, harder punishes, better tilts, better down smash, better up b out of sheild, usefull down b, better edge guards, better back air, better forward air (for reading air dodges and killing), bigger up smash hitbox, better single jab, better back throw, better ledge trump options, better punishes for ledge regrabs.

Still think Mario is the better character?

 

[Swampertrulz]

Yeah Dr.Mario is better than regular Mario imo.

 

[onehundredhitz]

I love the Doctor. His sheer raw power alone is enough to get me by. I'm not saying in anyway that I'm a good player, I'm actually horrible, but I've been scraping people in FG (And locally) with the Doc. Up B OoS is godlike, Nado is godlike, Fair is amazing on reads. I don't know, I just have a lot of fun with this dude, even if he's considered the "worst brother".

And he takes work to use, instead of being able to dish out free damage like Luigi/Mario. Dude is just a blast to play.

 

[LittleLeo Cofofo]

Yeah, he's pretty good. Love his combo game <3

 

[A-money2121]

He certainly isn't as good his doppelgänger, but he's arguably the best clone out of the group (Lucina to Marth, Dark Pit to Pit, Ganondorf to Captain Falcon). His differences can be easily identified, for one, and even if he isn't as combo-heavy or as fast in comparison to Mario, he certainly has these traits. Still, Mario retains superior, but Doc still has some pretty decent combos and reliable kill moves. I personally find Doc more fun to use.

So would I say Doctor Mario's good? Yes. Would tier lists agree? Not likely...

 

[sovereigntea]

Mario is extremely predictable. I usually fare well against them solely based on this fact.
Dr. Mario though is far less predictable and is universally underestimated. Doc can bide his time and punish with devastating combos

 

[LoWF JayX]

Doc is pretty cool because Mario is just bananas

 

[L1N3R1D3R]

In my opinion, all Dr. Mario needs to be great is a slightly better recovery and a spike.

His recovery is just a little too bad to be useful. Sure, he has a wall jump, but he isn't too mobile in the air otherwise. His down B and up B go shorter than Luigi's and Mario's respectively, and his side B lost the stall that Mario's had.

A spike would be very useful so Doc would have more combo options/finishers. He also wouldn't have to go as far down to effectively edgeguard, which helps because he might not recover otherwise, especially without a wall to jump off. He took Mario's F-air and Luigi's D-air, forgetting their spikes. (I would prefer D-air because his F-air is currently a great kill move, and the spike could work like Kirby, making it an even better edgeguarding tool than it already is.)

However, I think Doc is pretty good as of now. As others have said, he can still combo off grabs, and his down throw has guaranteed followups for any practical percentages: At low percent, it combos into U-smash; at mid percent, it combos either into U-air to N-air to possible regrab or into a down-B; at high percent, it combos into up-B for a possible kill.

He also improves on many of Mario's options. He gains a lot of strength in his moves, and most of them execute either at the same time or only 1 or 2 frames slower. His B-air, F-smash, and D-smash especially are direct upgrades as they become much better kill moves than Mario has. He also benefits from having a more powerful recovery which can either end a combo or protect against edgeguarders.

Currently I think people are overlooking Doc. He may be worse than Mario at the moment, but not bottom of the tier list. He's bottom of the mid tier at LEAST, and with the two buffs I mentioned, he could rival Mario.

 

[sovereigntea]

Honestly I prefer Doc's fair to Mario's. Although it can't spike that makes it WAYYYY more unpredictable. You can always tell when Mario is going to go for the spike, whereas Doc has the potential to pull out a fair whenever and wherever. I find the fair to be a great surprise

 

[Sykkamorre]

Turns out custom Mario might actually be the best character in the game :/

@ A2ZOMG would be able to shed light on this.

 

[A2ZOMG]

All you need to know about custom Mario is that Shocking Cape and Scalding FLUDD are top tier and solve his weaknesses.

 

[Eight_SixtyFour]

I can see Customs Mario > Customs Doc, given that Doc only benefits from 2 customs (3 if you count soaring tornado).

 

[FrankTheStud]

I love Doc, he's a good secondary!

I'm confused as to why people say Mario can't bait airdodges and punish them as well as Doc, though. Mario's dair kills up top at around 130%(?), he has a spike, he has a safer time going deep with bair and cape because of his better recovery, and has FLUDD to force position changes of his opponents and to gimp recoveries. We can't compare Doc to Mario if we're stuck in the idea of "raw power is the only way to get kills." That's just silly.

Doc's recocery is both laggier and shorter than Mario's, making it incredibly easy to gimp. Down b has eons of lag time, and your up b is laughable should you get naired by anyone in the game.
Getting cape against opponents with Doc is also not as reliable, as it could end up actually gimping Doc... He won't be able to make it back on stage because of his poor recovery, and he even continues to fall while caping, making it even more risky. Also, you can't change your recovering predictability with it because it doesn't make you levitate for a second like Mario's. (this is actually pretty important)

Basically, you can't really play Doc like Mario if you want good results... I've had success playing Doc as a sort of hybrid of Mario and Luigi. He has different advantages over Mario, but also very jarring disadvantages. I play him as if his recovery logic were like Luigi's... Without his cyclone and his double jump, his recovery is pretty much gimp city.

Anyway, saying that Mario has trouble killing in the air is an absolute lie, you're just using the wrong moves or not going deep enough. Using Doc's up b to kill isn't worth the risk in most cases, as it leaves you open to a free punish should you wiff... Mario reading an upsmash will kill at the same percent as Doc reading an up b, and it's much safer, too. Also, his dair is absolutely terrible. This is a personal gripe of mine, but the lag time on Doc's dair is absolutely disgusting.

Anyway, both characters have their ups and downs, but Mario is overall a more solid and safe character, mostly because he has more options than Doc and is less predictable when recovering.

 

[WeirdJoe27]

No character should be played like another character (with the exceptions of clone-clones like Lucina/Marth and Pit/Dark Pit). The rest of the cast have unique play styles that can only be fully understood and utilized if you take the time to learn the ins and outs of each individual character. If you attempt to play Doc like Mario or Luigi you're going to have a bad time (and vice versa). That's almost like telling someone to play Ganondorf and Captain Falcon the same or Charizard and Bowser.

Each character in Smash 4 has their unique pros and cons (some have more of one than the other). When you see a great player using their main properly, it's a thing of beauty.