A2ZOMG
Smash Legend
- Joined
- Oct 13, 2007
- Messages
- 12,542
- Location
- RPV, California
- NNID
- A2ZOMG
- Switch FC
- SW 8400 1713 9427
Introduction
I am A2ZOMG, and for all the things you may or may not know me for, I am first and foremost a Mario enthusiast. I also take pride in my ability to make detailed observations, and I've always been one for advancing character metagames.
To start this guide on how to play Mario, we all need to be realistic. Mario is not a strong character in Smash 4 (especially on default settings). He has many obvious weaknesses that have been consistent for about three games in a row. This isn't to say that Mario can't do cool things, and doesn't have some interesting tricks and strengths. I am not trying to also suggest that Mario is unviable as we know the game right now. I am saying though if you want to main this character, you have not picked an easy character to play.
This isn't a guide that will give comprehensive data such as damage, frame data, and knockback on Mario's moves. This guide aims to teach you the most important things about playing Mario well.
Weaknesses
Before I get your hopes up, Mario has several weaknesses that need to be handled with care.
Poor Range: In this game of Smash Bros, the best characters will be ones that are able to control space effectively in midrange. The vast majority of the cast has longer ranged attacks than Mario especially on the ground. Very rarely are you able to contest other character moves directly.
Bad against juggles: Mario doesn't have a lot of options when he's put above his opponent, especially if he's slightly in front of and directly above his opponent. Mario's F-air and D-air don't help him escape from juggle traps, forcing you to rely on nerfed Cape stalling, airdodging, and B-reverse Fireballs to juke your way out of juggle traps.
Bad recovery: Mario's recovery hasn't generally been exceptional, but it is pretty noticeably bad in this game. Mario is a character who is unlikely to make it back to the stage when he is hit out of his midair jump. His mobility mixups offstage are also limited due to Cape Stalling not being very strong in this game.
Mediocre damage per hit: Mario's damage on single hits isn't very strong on most of his moves. Especially when combined with low range, you have to work very hard to find a way to minimize your risk when fighting other characters, because trading 1 for 1 is rarely preferable for Mario.
Lacks very strong KO moves: Outside of F-smash, Mario rarely can KO below 120%. While U-smash and D-smash both have decent applications due to their speed, you typically have to wait longer than other characters before the moves KO. None of Mario's aerials are strong for KOing, meaning against opponents in the air, your best best at killing them will come from edgeguarding and attempting to gimp.
I could go on with more minor things, but the trend of these weaknesses is pretty clear. To play Mario well, you need to be a player who positions exceptionally well and manages resources carefully and efficiently. This isn't much different from the skills you need to play Mario platformer games. Mario games do not forgive sloppy play, and Smash 4 Mario by all means similarly demands you to know what you are doing before you do it.
Strengths
Low startup and ending lag: Mario's attacks generally speaking are fast. When Mario manages to get close, he is usually able to pressure his opponents before they can pressure him. His low ending lag on several moves does give him some mixup potential on defenses, and some combos for increasing his damage output. Be careful though! Your short range can make you very vulnerable to shield grabs.
Decent out of shield options: Remember what I said about Mario having fast moves? As a result, Mario has some respectable out of shield options that give him relatively easy punishes. But keep in mind your short range. Mario's U-smash, B-air, Up-B, F-tilt, and D-tilt all make relatively good OOS options. Each of these are optimal in different situations.
Has a projectile: Mario's Fireball is a projectile. It's not a great projectile, but it's a projectile nonetheless. In Mario games, your Fireball lets you pester enemies from a safe distance before you plan out your jumps through the level. Now Mario isn't Duck Hunt, Rosalina, or even Zelda who all have obvious trap and setup potential from using their projectiles. Your projectile is almost strictly there to annoy people. That's better than not having a projectile though. It means your opponent can't dash at you or commit to moves mindlessly when you spam these on the ground. It's something you can throw out after F-throw or when your opponent is landing or offstage. Fireballs are a source of free damage. As little as it may be, it helps.
Has a Reflector: When characters like Duck Hunt and Lucario exist, Mario's Cape simultaneously existing gives him a unique tactical advantage. It makes him resistant to being projectile zoned. Cape is not perfect though. It has to be timed well, as it has startup and ending lag that cannot be ignored.
Throws are good: The first thing people think of here would be D-throw, which has combo potential. Realistically, D-throw is overhyped, but it is definitely very useful. Mario's U-throw is also a good throw at low percents for setting up U-air juggles on characters who easily get out of your U-tilt chains. F-throw is under-appreciated due to its positional advantage, having extremely low ending lag which allows you to pressure your opponents easily with Fireballs. B-throw does great damage and has some high percent KO potential. Mario's throws overall are among the better throws in the game, so when you see opportunities to grab against defensive opponents, you should go for them.
In general, Mario's toolset is one you want to use in ways to ensure you are able to find ways to hit your opponents more than they can hit you.
Playing at Long Range
Mario doesn't have a lot of options at this range. Aside from throwing fireballs and charging FLUDD, this is a range you primarily want to be at against characters who you can specifically force to approach. Against other stronger zoning characters, you will need to either read them well by punishing carelessly thrown projectiles with Cape, or try to throw fireballs at high angles to put a break in their zoning so you can get close. You should not be trying to win a spam war against most other zoning characters unless they are very bad at controlling the air because your fireballs are punishable, and they do not do a lot of damage.
Against characters with quick grounded approaches like Captain Falcon, Sonic, Metaknight, and Greninja, you want to throw fireballs on the ground to force them to slow down. This alone will not keep them out, but it will at least give you more time to think about how you will respond to them approaching you.
Playing at Mid Range
This range is the most difficult for Mario to play in, because this is the range at where everything you do is potentially punishable. Fireballs are a double-edged sword in this range, because you can both annoy opponents and punish commitments outside of Dash Attack range with Fireballs, but having a fireball shielded in this range can simultaneously put you in a bad position where your opponent can punish you.
Mario's options otherwise to fight people in mid range aren't hard to understand. Most of the time, you will use your midrange tools as a means to approach and get you in close range, as you do not want to play footsies and trade with your opponent 1 for 1.
B-air is your best spacing tool overall, with surprisingly decent range and low commitment. As long as you space it outside of shieldgrab range, it is very safe on block. Sometimes, you can throw in a F-tilt or even F-smash after B-airs on shield to punish people who get baited by well-spaced B-airs.
Dash attack And Dash Grab are also an option, but you only want to use these as whiff punishes, or after reading your opponent's dodging/shielding habits.
Mario's F-tilt has lackluster range compared to others, but as one of Mario's longer ranged ground moves, it can be used in midrange as a poke. There are also many things you can punish out of shield with F-tilt easily, making it a relatively safe go-to option to consider.
D-tilt also has okay range for a Mario attack, and sometimes if the enemy shields too much, you can use this to poke under shields and set up juggles. It is not completely safe on block though.
Up-B and running U-smash can be a bit risky, but are important options to remember against characters who have strong aerial spacing games. Both moves have invulnerability frames, allowing them to plow through just about anything in the air when timed correctly.
In general, Mario's extremely short range is problematic in midrange, when most characters have options that are strictly better than yours for spacing. This does have one upside, in that it encourages people to attack Mario. As long as Mario is reasonably close or facing the correct direction, he has several quick options that can be used consistently out of shield. Obviously, this requires you to know the ranges where punishing out of shield is viable.
Finally, Mario's F-smash is a move that actually has very respectable range. It is not extremely fast on startup, but Mario leans back during the charging animation of F-smash. Being in range to F-smash is a range where if you predict your opponent trying to space you out, you can charge F-smash to bait and punish them, even against characters like Marth and Bowser. Charging F-smash has the added benefit of being mostly safe on block, though you will often leave yourself wide open to rolls.
Playing in Close Range
This is typically the range you want to attempt to be in. If you can find a way to get in close range unscathed, or catch your opponent approaching you in a way that you can defend against easily, Mario has more options available to pressure his opponent relatively safely as long as you make sure you aren't in a position to be shieldgrabbed easily. Getting in this range is generally difficult because Mario is bad at approaching and getting past mid range.
Mario's Jabs aren't what they used to be in previous games, but they are still good tools. Mario has one of the fastest Jabs in the game, allowing him to generally interrupt a lot of things when he's in close range. You can hold the Attack button to autoJab, which is almost guaranteed to punish any character that tries to spotdodge against you. You can also try to Jab cancel if you feel like getting fancy, but there isn't anything guaranteed from it, so usually it's better to just complete your Jab combo once you start it, unless it's a situation where your opponent is blocking and you have no other way of faking out your opponent before they try punishing you.
Grabbing is the other thing you want to try doing a lot. Obviously, this works better either when you have conditioned your opponent into shielding, or if they approach and commit in a way that you are prepared to defend against.
Another good way to pressure your opponent for shielding is by using SH D-air. D-air has multiple hits, which can potentially shield poke. More importantly, the move has extremely little ending lag, allowing you to fit in a N-air or U-air immediately after the move ends for additional pressure and mixups. You also have the option of fastfalling the D-air for the landing hit, which both is able to shield poke and in some situations lead to combos if you're close enough.
Capitalizing on the Enemy's Negative State
This is obviously important for Mario in order to avoid the situation of just trading 1 for 1 with his opponent. There's a few basic ways you can do this.
Against characters who need to approach you, keeping away with fireballs as stated can be a source of free damage. Go for throws and punishes when your opponent gets frustrated.
When you grab your opponent, you want to pick a throw that puts your opponent in a position where you can either combo or pressure them. F-throw and B-throw can be used to put opponents off the stage where you can use Fireballs and aerials to edgeguard. At early percents, both D-throw and U-throw can viably start combos. Against most characters, you often need to tack on about 10 percent to your opponent beforehand to make U-tilt juggles out of D-throw reliable, otherwise you should end your D-throw combos with D-smash or Up-B to get guaranteed damage early on. U-throw can be slightly less problematic by more directly leading into U-air juggles. You will often however need to read whether your opponent mashes an aerial, jump, or airdodge when juggling them in order to land more than 2 or 3 hits in your followups.
When your opponent is above you, you can chase them with N-air, D-air, Dash Attack, Fireballs, and U-smash as you see fit. If they can't challenge it easily, don't be afraid to go for U-airs. Try to do this in a way so that you condition your opponent to airdodge, and then punish them either after their airdodge ends, or especially if they land on the ground airdodging. Be respectful of counters from characters like Marth and Little Mac, and remember to save grabs for their landings.
When your opponent is offstage, you can try to chase them, though Mario can't jump too far offstage due to his short recovery. Spaced B-airs are still useful for edgeguarding, even if they don't kill. If your opponent is recovering low, you can try to N-air them as they try to recover to the edge, as long as you are careful to avoid being stage spiked. If that seems too risky, then at the very least you should consider pestering your opponent with fireballs and FLUDD. It's not guaranteed to gimp them, but it does give you options to either get free damage or put them in more awkward positions which then you can try to take advantage of for gimping. If you're feeling ballsy or really confident in your aim, a well placed Cape or F-air is a possible and powerful way to gimp.
Recovering from the Negative State
Mario has to pick his moves very carefully when he's in a disadvantageous position. Mario does not have strong aerials for landing on the ground, nor does he have a lot of aerial mobility. Above all, it is by far most important to save your midair jump until you are absolutely certain you need to use it. Being hit after expending your midair jump is the quickest way to lose a stock as Mario, generally speaking.
When you are being juggled, you have four basic options. Aerial Attacks, Airdodge, Cape, and B reverse Fireball. If you think your opponent has juggle strings that can be interrupted in between hits, you can try N-airing. Airdodge if you know your opponent is being hyper aggressive. Cape slows your fall speed on activation, which you can try to time to stay just out of range of some juggle attempts before trying to land. B reverse Fireball is most helpful when your opponent is running to chase you horizontally while you are above them and can give you the quick momentum boost you need to fake your opponent out.
Offstage, it's pretty much the same thing, except you aren't going to B reverse Fireball. Fireballs in this situation can be thrown to try to discourage people from chasing you offstage, as their arc can relatively easily cover your predictable recovery path. Be aware Cape doesn't give you distance or height in this game before trying to use it to help your recovery. I've heard rumors that FLUDD supposedly marginally affects your recovery, though maybe once in a while you might be able to surprise people by spraying them while recovering, not that I'd recommend it because the move is relatively laggy.
Hopefully if you use your options to recovery correctly, you'll reach the ledge peacefully, but then comes the challenge of getting up from it. Keep in mind that only your first ledge grab will grant you invincibility, and that you can not retain any invincibility when dropping from the ledge. Not that ledge hopping is great with Mario anyway, given your aerials don't protect your front that well. If you are feeling adventurous, you can ledgehop fireball and regrab the ledge, but be careful about getting hit out of that!
In general with Mario, you want to minimize risks that are likely to force you to have to recover from offstage, where you are most vulnerable to being capitalized on.
Other Things
Some of these things may or may not be applicable universally. Either way, as a player, it is your responsibility to think on your feet and dynamically assess situations and how you can be a step ahead of your opponent and adapt with good options. These are just a few extra tricks you can consider to give you ideas.Mario's options in close range generally speaking are decent enough to force his opponent to respect them by shielding, especially since Mario has quick aerials that can usually be safe on block. Against opponents who you are able to condition into playing defensively, it is worth empty jumping behind them as they shield. Once you land, you can then try to grab them.
Mario is an extremely small target when crouching. Not quite as small as Kirby, but still quite short. There are many attacks in this game, especially short hopped aerials which you can outright avoid by simply crouching. Crouching also simultaneously makes it easier to powershield most moves, when some characters will either have to commit more predictably to space against you, as well as the relative size of your shield compared to your crouching hitbox being considerably bigger.
If things didn't change from Brawl, normally if you hold the control stick upwards and try to buffer a jump and an aerial attack, you get an Up-smash instead. You can however buffer U-air by holding the control stick lightly upwards. This is very obviously useful for Mario if you can do this reliably, as U-air is a very fast and lagless move that covers a pretty nice arc around Mario's body.
You can fake an approach with Mario by jumping facing backwards as if you intend to B-air, but instead B-reverse a fireball. This can be difficult to do from a short hop, but nonetheless handy if your opponent is used to walling out your B-air approaches.
Mario can still walljump, and you should utilize this on any stages you can to assist your recovery. Walljumping notably is also a way to potentially ledgehop with a B-air.
Back-throw is your best throw against Rosalina, because you will hit Luma simultaneously while performing it. And in case you were wondering, Luma Shot does in fact count as a projectile that you can reflect.
Conclusion
I know by now I've probably come off as very pessimistic overall. What you should be understanding however is that Mario isn't a character who you can abuse mindlessly or sloppily and expect to win easily with. Being successful with this character will be a test of your fundamentals as a player in general and your knowledge of the game.
