Little Mac (SSB18)

**Little Mac** (リトル・マック, *Little Mac*) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. OC 2018.

## Attributes

As displayed in his trailer, Little Mac is a lightweight boxer who performs optimally on the ground, but cannot fight effectively in the air. His mobility is measured in a way that reflects this: he has the eighth fastest walking speed, the third fastest dashing speed and the third highest traction, all of which give him arguably the best out of shield punishment game of any character. His grounded presence is further supplemented by his sidestep and rolls being the fastest in the game, with the latter also being long-distanced. His below average gravity and fast falling speed also give him exceptional vertical survivability for a lightweight. In addition, his fast air dodge (surpassed only by Spongebob's) and high wall jump (surpassed only by Baxter's) give him decent protection against edge-guarders so long as he is near the stage. However, Little Mac is deliberately burdened with the fourth lowest jumps, below average air speed, and the second slowest air acceleration, making it mandatory for him to stay on the ground whenever possible.

Little Mac's greatest strength is his incredibly powerful ground game. He possesses the overall fastest set of grounded attacks, with none of them having more than 15 frames of start-up or 30 frames of ending lag (excluding up smash, which has 35). This makes Little Mac's ground game immensely useful and hence forces his opponents to play very cautiously. Additionally, all of his ground moves are highly damaging, making it easy for him to bring opponents at KO percents. His jab canceled neutral attack, up tilt and down tilt are great combo starters, with his down tilt being especially effective due to its vertical launching angle and low knockback scaling allowing it to combo into any move except his back aerial, down aerial, Straight Lunge, and Slip Counter (although it could combo into said move should Little Mac be quick and read his opponent's offensive reaction correctly). Altogether, these moves grant him a very fast and unique ground combo game.

The speed of Little Mac's tilt attacks can even allow him to perform shield break combos by pressuring his opponent to keep their shield up while whittling down its health. However, if this is not possible to do in a given situation, the speed can instead initiate shield stabbing on many characters, with a prominent example being Template:SSB4. He additionally possesses a very fast semi-spike in his down smash, giving him a deadly edge-guarding move. Finally, some of his moves have increased hitlag (such as a downward angled forward smash), which makes said moves difficult to punish out of shield.

In addition to their strength, Little Mac's grounded attacks are nearly impossible to interrupt. Little Mac's neutral attack and tilt attacks have a unique priority property that makes clanking with another move impossible, otherwise known as anti-rebounding attacks. What this means is that when an opponent's attack within priority range clanks with one of these attacks, Little Mac's move will continue uninterrupted while the opponent's move not only cancels out, but also results in them suffering from lag relative to how powerful the attack they used was. However, this only applies to grounded attacks. With this level of priority, Little Mac can take advantage of the opponent's more powerful attacks, putting them in large amounts of lag while allowing Little Mac to punish immediately due to the low ending lag of his neutral attack and tilts. Besides these, his smash attacks are also difficult to interrupt as well. While they follow standard rules of priority, they have launch resistance during start-up to the end of the final hitbox, making them impossible to interrupt during this period of time. All these factors make Little Mac arguably the hardest opponent to deal with on the ground.

Little Mac's special moveset also has some very useful options. Straight Lunge can be long-ranged, boasts very high power and grants damage-based launch resistance, allowing him to tank low damage hits and retaliate immediately after. It can also be used to escape some weak multiple hit moves if he gets caught in the middle of them. It can also be used as a situational move mid-match to enforce a bad approach or input from a reckless opponent. However, Straight Lunge is held back by its very low speed and considerable ending lag even if uncharged, limiting its usage and making it easily intercepted in almost every other case, which offsets its overwhelmingly high strength. Jolt Haymaker is a strong attack that travels far, can be unleashed on command and grants intangibility during start-up, making it ideal for tech-chasing, re-positioning, and escaping/punishing laggier moves. Despite this, it should not be used excessively, as this move does not stop at an edge upon performing it, therefore leading to an inevitable self-destruct if used near an edge.

Rising Uppercut is a spiraling uppercut that covers fairly long vertical distance and grants brief intangibility upon start-up, making it Little Mac's most reliable aerial finisher and a very good out of shield option. It is useful as a deadly combo finisher due to its exceptional knockback, along with its ability to combo from an up-tilt and down/up throws. It additionally boasts extremely fast start-up, allowing Mac to use it out of even the smallest pause between an opponent's combos to potentially turn the tides. Slip Counter is a highly damaging counterattack that is fully invincible during the counterattack. Aside from being great for escaping pressure (especially aerial combos), it is the overall fastest counter in the game, as well as the only one that can come out on frame 4, and one of the few that slides a distance before attacking.

Lastly, the Power Meter is a mechanic unique to Little Mac. It is a visible meter that charges by either dealing or taking damage. When it is fully charged, Straight Lunge is replaced by the KO Uppercut, a move strong enough to KO any character at roughly 30% (along with KOing Spongebob at around 15%). It also has fast start-up, is unblockable, and can be combined with Little Mac's tilts for almost guaranteed KO combos, allowing it to easily turn the tide of a match upon a successful hit. However, it is lost after holding it for 4 seconds and then being launched by any move, which enforces quick and precise use. Additionally, Little Mac must either receive 100% or deal 350% (assuming the player is never hit) in order to be granted the usage of KO Uppercut, and has considerable ending lag regardless of whether or not it hits, making it an excellent example of a "high-risk, high-reward" move.

Despite his impressive strengths, Little Mac is held back by two very easily exploitable weaknesses. The most serious and notorious of the two is his recovery. As mentioned earlier, Little Mac's aerial mobility significantly hinders him, with his horizontal survivability being one of, if not the, shortest among the cast, along with his aerial mobility being unarguably one of the most unrewarding among the entire cast. His fast falling speed makes meteor smashes, semi-spikes and even footstool jumps capable of almost instantaneously gimping him, even at 0%, especially if he has no double jump. His special moves also receive drastic downgrades when used in the air, further worsening his aerial performance. Straight Lunge loses its long distance and high power, to the point where it can never KO even well beyond 150%. Aerial Straight Lunge also suffers from drastically higher ending lag, to the point where one could jump from the edge of a stage and use it, and would not be able to recover afterward. Jolt Haymaker loses half of its momentum and start-up intangibility, Rising Uppercut loses half of its distance, Slip Counter loses its invincibility and KO Uppercut loses the majority of its power, to the point that it only KOs around 150%.

The severe lack of aerial distance on both his recovery moves burden his already poor off-stage survivability, which are further compounded by their small edge sweetspots and lack of invincibility frames until each move ends; Little Mac cannot grab an edge unless he is directly beside it, and an opponent can knock him off before he grabs on, even if his arm pokes above the ledge. Even though all of his special moves can be used as recovery options, half are situational and require extremely precise timing to be considered safe. As such, Little Mac unsurprisingly has the hardest time recovering out of any fighter in the game, which in turn results in him being commonly cited as having the overall worst recovery in the game.

Furthermore, Little Mac has an infamously weak air game. His neutral aerial can initiate intricate combos (which can be used to footstool combo heavyweights or large hurtbox characters before concluding with Rising Uppercut near the upper blast line to score KOs early), his forward and back aerials are semi-spikes, his up aerial is a fast anti-air attack and his down aerial is the fastest meteor smash in the game, and all but his up aerial can auto-cancel from a short hop. However, they are all overwhelmingly offset by a combination of high landing lag, very short ranges, and no realistic power, which grants Little Mac's aerial moveset the lowest damage output in the game. These factors make Little Mac an easy target in the air, as he has no means of defending himself outside of point-blank range. This is further compounded with the fact that none of his aerials make the opponents reliably flinch until medium to high percents, along with his down aerial not being able to reliably meteor smash opponents until around very high percents, along with having a sweetspot that lasts for 1 frame and terrible range.

Additionally, he has no way of KOing reliably in the air without Jolt Haymaker, Rising Uppercut or, in extreme cases, Slip Counter, all of which are very likely to result in inevitable sacrificial KOs if used off-stage. While forward and back aerials are semi-spikes, their very minimal power makes them very risky for edge-guarding. As a result, Little Mac is very prone to momentum shifts, as his underwhelming aerial performance can allow opponents to combo him very easily, and in some extreme situations, zero-to-death him even if he has been dominating the entire match. These issues are what force Little Mac to almost always stay grounded, as he cannot afford to take 50% just by initiating an aerial approach.

Finally, even though Little Mac's ground game is immensely effective, it is not perfect. While his attacks have decent range and high speed, spacing is still essential if he wants to avoid getting punished. Neutral attack, up tilt and dash attack are particularly prone to this, as they lack hitlag and have just enough ending lag to be punished out of shield. With the exception of downward angled forward smash and sweetspotted up smash, none of his attacks deal extra shield damage, making it deceptively difficult to get free punishes on opponents who overuse their shield.

His grab game also leaves much to be desired. Even though his throws deal respectable damage and his pummel is fairly fast, he is tied with Cloud for the third shortest grab range among the cast and has no redeeming throws: down throw is able to score a KO combo with Rising Uppercut but is avoidable with DI, back throw is a KOing option but only at very high percents near the edge, and forward throw is able to combo into Jolt Haymaker or dash attack but only if the opponent misses a tech. Additionally, the ending lag and low knockback scaling of his throws prevent all of them from starting combos of any sort under normal circumstances. As such, Little Mac's throws are generally only used to deal damage, as he cannot add any grab options that can truly give him the upper hand when an opponent is shielding, with few guaranteed follow-ups depending entirely on the opponent's damage. Characters with counterattacks can also be detrimental to Little Mac, as a countered smash attack is often enough to be fatal due to the high power of his smash attacks. Lastly, Little Mac is the character most adversely affected by stale-move negation. As only half of his moveset has great utility, Little Mac may find his finishers KOing later than usual compared to other powerhouses.

## Power Meter

The Power Meter charges when Little Mac deals and/or receives damage. However, when he is attacked, the Power Meter will fill by double to quadruple the amount compared to if he hits an opponent. Additionally, the Power Meter will be maxed out if Mac receives exactly 100%. The uppercut can be canceled by another fighter's attack, blocked by a perfect shield or dodged, meaning that you have to catch opponents off guard to guarentee it hits.

### On-screen appearance

* Enters the stage while throwing a series of punches before tossing his hooded sweatsuit off. If either of his sweatsuit alternate costumes are being used, he will still perform the tossing animation while keeping his sweatsuit on.

### Taunts

* Up: Turns his back to the screen, bends down, then raises his fist triumphantly. Doc Louis may say "Hit 'em, baby!" (叩け！マック！, Thrash! Mac!)
* Side: Pulls the string of his right boxing glove tight with his teeth, then resumes his boxing stance while scoffing. Doc Louis may say "Let 'em have it, Mac!" (ぶちかませ！マック！, Hit them hard! Mac!)
* Down: Performs a series of punches while facing the screen. Doc Louis may say "Show 'em what you've got, Mac baby!" (お前のパンチを見せてやれ！, Let them see your punch!)

### Idle poses

* Shuffles his feet.
* Shifts his head back and forth in front of his fists.

### Victory poses

* Doc Louis holds up Little Mac's arm like a referee would after a boxing match, and cheers him on.
* Shadowboxes with Doc Louis, then turns to the camera while holding his fist up triumphantly while Louis cheers him on.
* Runs and turns his back towards the camera, briefly shuffles his feet, then spins before throwing a triumphant uppercut while Doc Louis cheers him on.

In all of Little Mac's victory poses, Doc Louis will say one of the following at random:

* "(in tandem with the announcer) And the winner is... Little Mac! Hahaha!"
* "Y'know, that belt looks good on you, son."
* "Ya got what it takes, Mac!"
* "Nice work, Mac. You got it all figured out."
* "Way to go, Mac! You're the champ, baby!"
* "Awesome win, Mac. Way to go!"
* "You win, Mac!"
* "Alright! I think I hear a chocolate bar callin'."
* "Was that a little too easy for ya, son?"
* "World Circuit's all yours, Mac!"
* "Ahh, winnin' feels good, don't it?"