Iko-Seiko
Smash Apprentice
- Joined
- Feb 11, 2014
- Messages
- 93
Greetings, SmashBoards!
I am Nyani, a Mario main from Brawl you've never heard of who just happens to have gotten her hands on the Japanese version of Smash 4 and had some tournament experience with it already(because NJ WOULD run a tournament on day 3). Because I've been so fortunate as to get some competitive play with my favorite plumber in so early, I thought I'd come and share the good news with those of you who may remember the darker days of maining Mario in Brawl.
Simply put, Mario isn't messing around this time. Everything he lacked in Brawl, mostly in the KO Power and Priority department have been granted to him, while the natural improvements given to the entire cast by the new engine's addition of things like hitstun have benefited Mario in a wonderful way. Let's go into some detail.
Movement
In Brawl, Mario had a decidedly average dash speed, decidedly average jump height, and decidedly average air control. Not much has changed in Smash 4, though his dash does feel a bit more agile than in Brawl. Smash 4 in general is a faster game, as well. Overall this lends to him feeling very much like the Mario we know and love; quick, smooth, and mobile. His aerial mobility is just right to allow you to weave in and out with bair pokes, and capitalize on the ones that hit just right. Dair remains a very safe option as well, as Mario's air mobility allows you to weave into shield range, but then out of grab range during the run of the attack, before autolanding it with a show of true platformer mastery.
Mario's dash speed is great, and his pivots feel great too. His pivot ftilt is great for outspacing read dashgrab attempts, and his pivot fsmash can be surprisingly evasive if used right. Mario's spot dodge and rolls are just as good as anyone else's in this game. He also posesses three very important AirDodge Aerials; his Nair, Bair, and Uair can all be used out of an airdodge from shorthop. These can be approach mixups or combo escapes. Not sure exactly how useful air dodge aerials are, but hey. Also, pretty sure that using a nair out of air dodge ends with less lag than the air dodge would have.
TL;DR - Mario plays like Mario. He's fluid and intuitive and jumps a lot.
Combo Game
Aww yiss. Probably my favorite part of playing Mario, and the area I felt most denied in in my Brawl days. Mario possesses, in my opinion, one of the more potent combo games in Smash 4 right now. Let's not waste any more time, and get to the part where Nyani lists some combos that work.
Nair->Grab on shield if you land FAST. Nair has next to no ending lag. Great option on shield if you can land into the grab.
Dthrow->Utilt x infinity. Seriously, this makes me so happy. Utilt juggles were a favorite of mine in Brawl, and they return as potent as ever, if not more. At 0, i've reliably gotten 3-5 utilts out of a dthrow. So good.
Utilt->Uair probably the best thing about Mario in this game. Utilt combos into Uair very reliably. Uair then combos into itself, meaning, yes, uair strings are back, baby.
Utilt->Dair An option I'm not seeing used a lot, but it can yield some interesting setups. Dair is a great move in this game.
Uair->Dair mostly out of utilt. Dthrow->utilt(s)->uair->dair became a favorite of mine during the tournament.
Dtilt->grab More a frame trap than anything. Dtilt has much less ending lag in this game, so it's no longer useless. Off of dtilt, you can dash up and grab. If they air dodge, they'll end in enough lag that you get them with it.
Bair->Bair Listen up Mario players, I wanna see a lot of this. If you shorthop a bair, using that bair as soon as you leave the ground, you can bair again in that same shorthop, and both will come out. Pressure those shields, my friends. Sometimes this can link into a grab, but i believe it can be rolled out of.
CUSTOM COMBOS ARE REAL Mario is a character who excels with freestyle play, so as much as you should know these basics, remember that it's all going to come down to how well you can improvise that next followup.
KO Options
Mario's got some familiar toys here.
In Smash 4, top kills are paramount. Side blast zones on many stages are wide enough that many characters will live to 160+ if you can't sweetspot an fsmash on them(but more on that fsmash later). This isn't a bad thing at all, as Mario's usmash is back with a vengeance. Hitting behind him, then above him, then in front of him, I found myself using this attack to punish rolls a lot. It was reliably giving me top KO's in the 125%-140% neighborhood, which is solid in this game. Learning to use this to punish poorly spaced aerials, rolls, or recoveries will yield you some satisfying KO's.
Mario's fsmash remains the dynamic, explosive palm of fire that t's been since Melee. I've noticed two major things about this move so far. First, it's a bit harder to sweetspot than it was in Brawl, though this may be due to me being used to the stutter step for spacing. Second, sweetspotting it doesn't seem to matter as much. It has significantly more power if it connects with just Mario's hand this time around. I found myself using this attack to punish aerials and recoveries as well, though in different situations than usmash. I was getting KO's in the 120%-130% area with this as well. Sorry I can't be more detailed about that... I'll try to update this bit later.
Dsmash is as fast as ever, but only slightly buffed in power. It's great for a quick haymaker, but don'y expect it to KO below 150% reliably.
Mario's gimping game is strong. I feel like, at this point, I don't even need to explain the cape, and so I won't. The FLUDD is much easier to utilize and more than anything, sets up for meteor smashes and Capes. The FLUDD and Cape together form a mighty edge guarding combo that will likely evolve into something very formidable as this game develops.
Custom Moves
This matters, because at the tournament I went to, these were legal. I'll only write about the three custom specials I used for now.
Fast Fireball: The name i'm giving the fireball that shoots straight with no gravity. The animation for this move has less ending lag than the basic fireball, and can therefore be used fluidly out of shorthop like Brawl's fireball. However, it shoots at a height that prevents it from being truly useful on approach to many characters. Still, I found the faster-moving projectile very useful, especially for quick damage pokes, though there were still situations where I would've preferred Fireball Classic.
High Pressure Fludd: Basically how FLUDD should always be always. This variation produces a much larger gush of water with a significantly harder push. I had a match against a Ganondorf player where this move alone completely nullified his recovery. It's also very effective for pushing enemies away on their approach to reset to neutral stance. However, this variation seems to not affect opponents in their shields.
Gust Cape: Gust cape is the truth. Gust cape is gospel. Gust cape is love, gust cape is life. This variation restores the same amount of aerial stalling to the cape that it had in brawl, as well as giving the cape a very useful windbox on swing. I was able to effectively use this windbox to give me space on recovery, especially if my opponent was charging a smash attack near where I needed to land. But it gets better. If the hitbox of the cape itself connects, not only does it still turn the opponent around, and reverse their directional input, but it pushes them significantly harder with the windbox. This often results in the opponent's directional input being reverse to match the windbox, and sometimes even a recovery move's momentum being turned, and accelerated by the windbox. The gimps are too strong with this thing. I really can't think of a reason not to use it.
Matchups
While I didn't play quite enough matches to write a detailed section on this, I can say with confidence that I have not yet encountered a single character that i felt significantly disadvantaged against as Mario. His kit is versatile enough to give me a fun and engaging match against everyone from ROB to Robin. We'll see how this develops.
So there. All the impressions I can give of playing Mario in Smash 4 competitively for 3 days. Obviously, this is woefully incomplete, and we're all sure to discover more as this game progresses. If you guys like this, I'll definitely come back and update it! I hope some of you find this useful. Mario's a contender this time around, let's get out there and show it.
May you walk with the winds of the Gust Cape ever at your backs,
-Nyani
I am Nyani, a Mario main from Brawl you've never heard of who just happens to have gotten her hands on the Japanese version of Smash 4 and had some tournament experience with it already(because NJ WOULD run a tournament on day 3). Because I've been so fortunate as to get some competitive play with my favorite plumber in so early, I thought I'd come and share the good news with those of you who may remember the darker days of maining Mario in Brawl.
Simply put, Mario isn't messing around this time. Everything he lacked in Brawl, mostly in the KO Power and Priority department have been granted to him, while the natural improvements given to the entire cast by the new engine's addition of things like hitstun have benefited Mario in a wonderful way. Let's go into some detail.
Movement
In Brawl, Mario had a decidedly average dash speed, decidedly average jump height, and decidedly average air control. Not much has changed in Smash 4, though his dash does feel a bit more agile than in Brawl. Smash 4 in general is a faster game, as well. Overall this lends to him feeling very much like the Mario we know and love; quick, smooth, and mobile. His aerial mobility is just right to allow you to weave in and out with bair pokes, and capitalize on the ones that hit just right. Dair remains a very safe option as well, as Mario's air mobility allows you to weave into shield range, but then out of grab range during the run of the attack, before autolanding it with a show of true platformer mastery.
Mario's dash speed is great, and his pivots feel great too. His pivot ftilt is great for outspacing read dashgrab attempts, and his pivot fsmash can be surprisingly evasive if used right. Mario's spot dodge and rolls are just as good as anyone else's in this game. He also posesses three very important AirDodge Aerials; his Nair, Bair, and Uair can all be used out of an airdodge from shorthop. These can be approach mixups or combo escapes. Not sure exactly how useful air dodge aerials are, but hey. Also, pretty sure that using a nair out of air dodge ends with less lag than the air dodge would have.
TL;DR - Mario plays like Mario. He's fluid and intuitive and jumps a lot.
Combo Game
Aww yiss. Probably my favorite part of playing Mario, and the area I felt most denied in in my Brawl days. Mario possesses, in my opinion, one of the more potent combo games in Smash 4 right now. Let's not waste any more time, and get to the part where Nyani lists some combos that work.
Nair->Grab on shield if you land FAST. Nair has next to no ending lag. Great option on shield if you can land into the grab.
Dthrow->Utilt x infinity. Seriously, this makes me so happy. Utilt juggles were a favorite of mine in Brawl, and they return as potent as ever, if not more. At 0, i've reliably gotten 3-5 utilts out of a dthrow. So good.
Utilt->Uair probably the best thing about Mario in this game. Utilt combos into Uair very reliably. Uair then combos into itself, meaning, yes, uair strings are back, baby.
Utilt->Dair An option I'm not seeing used a lot, but it can yield some interesting setups. Dair is a great move in this game.
Uair->Dair mostly out of utilt. Dthrow->utilt(s)->uair->dair became a favorite of mine during the tournament.
Dtilt->grab More a frame trap than anything. Dtilt has much less ending lag in this game, so it's no longer useless. Off of dtilt, you can dash up and grab. If they air dodge, they'll end in enough lag that you get them with it.
Bair->Bair Listen up Mario players, I wanna see a lot of this. If you shorthop a bair, using that bair as soon as you leave the ground, you can bair again in that same shorthop, and both will come out. Pressure those shields, my friends. Sometimes this can link into a grab, but i believe it can be rolled out of.
CUSTOM COMBOS ARE REAL Mario is a character who excels with freestyle play, so as much as you should know these basics, remember that it's all going to come down to how well you can improvise that next followup.
KO Options
Mario's got some familiar toys here.
In Smash 4, top kills are paramount. Side blast zones on many stages are wide enough that many characters will live to 160+ if you can't sweetspot an fsmash on them(but more on that fsmash later). This isn't a bad thing at all, as Mario's usmash is back with a vengeance. Hitting behind him, then above him, then in front of him, I found myself using this attack to punish rolls a lot. It was reliably giving me top KO's in the 125%-140% neighborhood, which is solid in this game. Learning to use this to punish poorly spaced aerials, rolls, or recoveries will yield you some satisfying KO's.
Mario's fsmash remains the dynamic, explosive palm of fire that t's been since Melee. I've noticed two major things about this move so far. First, it's a bit harder to sweetspot than it was in Brawl, though this may be due to me being used to the stutter step for spacing. Second, sweetspotting it doesn't seem to matter as much. It has significantly more power if it connects with just Mario's hand this time around. I found myself using this attack to punish aerials and recoveries as well, though in different situations than usmash. I was getting KO's in the 120%-130% area with this as well. Sorry I can't be more detailed about that... I'll try to update this bit later.
Dsmash is as fast as ever, but only slightly buffed in power. It's great for a quick haymaker, but don'y expect it to KO below 150% reliably.
Mario's gimping game is strong. I feel like, at this point, I don't even need to explain the cape, and so I won't. The FLUDD is much easier to utilize and more than anything, sets up for meteor smashes and Capes. The FLUDD and Cape together form a mighty edge guarding combo that will likely evolve into something very formidable as this game develops.
Custom Moves
This matters, because at the tournament I went to, these were legal. I'll only write about the three custom specials I used for now.
Fast Fireball: The name i'm giving the fireball that shoots straight with no gravity. The animation for this move has less ending lag than the basic fireball, and can therefore be used fluidly out of shorthop like Brawl's fireball. However, it shoots at a height that prevents it from being truly useful on approach to many characters. Still, I found the faster-moving projectile very useful, especially for quick damage pokes, though there were still situations where I would've preferred Fireball Classic.
High Pressure Fludd: Basically how FLUDD should always be always. This variation produces a much larger gush of water with a significantly harder push. I had a match against a Ganondorf player where this move alone completely nullified his recovery. It's also very effective for pushing enemies away on their approach to reset to neutral stance. However, this variation seems to not affect opponents in their shields.
Gust Cape: Gust cape is the truth. Gust cape is gospel. Gust cape is love, gust cape is life. This variation restores the same amount of aerial stalling to the cape that it had in brawl, as well as giving the cape a very useful windbox on swing. I was able to effectively use this windbox to give me space on recovery, especially if my opponent was charging a smash attack near where I needed to land. But it gets better. If the hitbox of the cape itself connects, not only does it still turn the opponent around, and reverse their directional input, but it pushes them significantly harder with the windbox. This often results in the opponent's directional input being reverse to match the windbox, and sometimes even a recovery move's momentum being turned, and accelerated by the windbox. The gimps are too strong with this thing. I really can't think of a reason not to use it.
Matchups
While I didn't play quite enough matches to write a detailed section on this, I can say with confidence that I have not yet encountered a single character that i felt significantly disadvantaged against as Mario. His kit is versatile enough to give me a fun and engaging match against everyone from ROB to Robin. We'll see how this develops.
So there. All the impressions I can give of playing Mario in Smash 4 competitively for 3 days. Obviously, this is woefully incomplete, and we're all sure to discover more as this game progresses. If you guys like this, I'll definitely come back and update it! I hope some of you find this useful. Mario's a contender this time around, let's get out there and show it.
May you walk with the winds of the Gust Cape ever at your backs,
-Nyani
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