Marth (SSBM)

This article is about Marth's appearance in *Super Smash Bros. Melee*. For the character in other contexts, see Marth.

**Marth** (マルス, *Marth*) debuted in the first game of the *Fire Emblem* series, *Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light* (*Ankoku Ryuu to Hikari no Tsurugi*). Marth was placed in *Super Smash Bros. Melee* due to heavy requests from Japanese players; as his games had never been released outside of Japan prior to *Melee*, his character was among the most obscure in the game in other regions. His popularity as a character, alongside Roy, eventually caused Nintendo to begin releasing the *Fire Emblem* games internationally; the first internationally released game came two years after *Melee*.

Marth is voiced in Japanese by Hikaru Midorikawa, who reprises his role from the 1996 animated adaptation of *Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem*; as *Fire Emblem* had, at that point, yet to officially make its debut overseas (aside from dubs of the animated adaptation), Marth's Japanese voice is used in all regions.

Marth currently ranks 2nd on the *Melee* tier list, in the S tier. Marth has many powerful tools at his disposal, including fast overall startup in his attacks, long and disjointed range, large amounts of additional power at the tip of his blade, very potent juggling and combo ability, the longest non-disjointed grab range, and great edgeguarding capabilities. Marth also has a multitude of good movement options to approach and pressure with; his dash-dance and wavedash are among the longest in the game, as well as being able to dash away from shield grabs without getting punished, complementing his already-impressive range extremely well. Marth also has two very powerful options to KO his opponents and finish combos: his down aerial (a very potent spike when sweetspotted, and the closer to the notorious Ken Combo) and his forward smash when tippered.

On the downside, his ability to punish approaches is somewhat limited in comparison to other top-tier characters due to his lack of a projectile and the short hitbox duration of his moves. Marth also has lackluster defensive properties; his weight makes him very easy to combo while not providing sufficient knockback resistance to survive heavy hits at kill-percent, and his out of shield game is notoriously poor despite his attacks' fast startups. His recovery is also problematic; while it is extendable with his side special and can end with a fast up special that covers decent distance, it is also rather predictable. However, Marth's main weakness is the fact that most of his moves have considerable endlag and are thus very punishable if whiffed. As such, Marth is very susceptible to momentum shifts; a punished move puts Marth in a defensive position where he has few options to retake the advantage.

Despite his low technical learning curve, many consider Marth to be one of the most difficult characters to play at high levels due to the intricate spacing ability required of top-level players to overcome his aforementioned flaws. Regardless of these flaws, Marth has excellent matchups against many characters.

## How to unlock

To unlock Marth, players have to use all fourteen starter characters in VS. matches, complete or fail Classic Mode or Adventure Mode with all fourteen starter characters, or play 400 VS. matches.

Upon completing this, Marth will be fought on the Fountain of Dreams stage, with the track "Fire Emblem" playing.

## Attributes

 File:MarthGimpTaj.gif
Marth falls under the fighter archetype of being mobile, with the ability to easily outmaneuver most of his opponents; Marth has a very fast dashing speed, a long wavedash (specifically the fourth longest in the game) and rather good jumping speed, with above average falling speed, contributing to a good SHFFL. With a large dash-dance window and a disjointed hitbox, Marth has great approach options in this game, both on the ground and in the air.

Marth's primary strength is his range in his normal attacks; the Falchion grants Marth a very large disjointed hitbox that can allow him to safely attack from a distance. Additionally, the tip of the Falchion, its sweetspot, is remarkably easy to connect, making Marth stronger when he is further from his opponent. In addition to this, Marth's attacks are very quick in terms of startup lag, and his long wavedash and dash-dance allow him to further extend his already long reach. This long hitbox with a far away sweetspot also contributes to Marth's superb combo game.

In addition to his disjointed range, Marth has a fantastic combo and juggle ability; despite a slightly below average air speed, with a combination of good jumping prowess, and an average falling speed, as well as quick, low lag, high-ranged, easy-to-sweetspot aerials, Marth has among the best air games in *Melee*, and a great combo ability. Additionally, Marth's grab game is also good, as mentioned before due to a surprisingly long grab range (the longest of the non-grapple grabs, thanks to it extending far past his hand). His throws possess low damage and knockback, allowing him to chain his throws into each other and combo into other attacks. In particular, his up throw can chain throw most fast fallers at low to mid percentages, and it can directly segue into an up tilt or an aerial, and can be used for KOing at high percents on a platform due to being the third strongest up throw in the game. Marth's long dash-dance also makes him a superb tech-chaser.

Marth also has several powerful attacks in his arsenal; some of them are very fast and have high range, such as his up tilt, while others can KO at close ranges, such as the Reverse Dolphin Slash technique. Marth's forward smash is feared due to its high speed and power when tipped, with the capability to "break" through some projectiles found in the game thanks to its priority; it also works well when wave-smashed, due to Marth's long wavedash. Marth's down tilt and Shield Breaker act as good edgeguarding options, with the former being a semi-spike and the latter have a large hitbox. Most notable, however, is his Template:Mvsub, which acts as a powerful spike in NTSC regions, and an equally powerful meteor smash in PAL regions; it can KO reliably even as low as 40%, and many of Marth's attacks can easily combo into his down air, most notably his Template:Mvsub as part of the Ken Combo. Marth also has access to a grounded meteor in his Dancing Blade. While its uses for KOing are somewhat situational, it can set up tech-chases well, as well as free jab resets.

Marth's primary flaw is his inconsistency in closing out stocks. Many of his quick, safe moves greatly lack in KO power, and while his more powerful options are strong enough to KO at virtually any percent, they are extremely difficult to land. Many of them (including his tipped smash attacks and Dolphin Slash) are highly committal and unsafe to use in the neutral game, and there is no guarantee that he will connect with the correct hitbox in a neutral situation, even if they land. This forces Marth to secure KOs at early percents, usually through edgeguarding or combo setups that specifically ensure he connects with his KO option of choice. However, if Marth racks up too much damage, he will no longer have access to these setups as the opponent will be sent too far away by his combo starters to follow up on. Marth will then often be relegated to poking at the opponent with singular, weak hits to slowly accumulate damage, unable to KO them except through committal reads.

Another problem for Marth is his lack of defensive options. His average weight not only leaves him vulnerable to powerful attacks, it is also being enough to be vulnerable to combos such as Fox's waveshine combos in NTSC regions. More significantly, while Marth's attacks are very fast in terms of startup, they travel in predictable, low-duration arcs and have high ending lag, exemplified through attacks such as his down aerial. This leads to Marth having a terrible out of shield game due to the low duration and high ending lag of his moves, while also leaving him open to punishment. Marth also demands significant knowledge of spacing with his aerials in order to properly combo. For most of his attacks, the sweetspot hitboxes have the lowest priority, so they only hit if none of the weaker hitboxes connect on that frame. In many cases, a specific hitbox is needed to extend the punish.

Overall, Marth's long reach, excellent combos, and powerful finishers result in him being a very potent character in the current metagame. A Marth player must be wary of his weaknesses and spacing, but due to his low technical learning curve, Marth is an effective character to pick up and play.

## Version history

Like some other characters, Marth received some changes in the PAL version of *Melee*, which slightly nerfed him overall, as he lost the ability to reliably KO and edgeguard with his down aerial. In addition, he is also lighter and his air speed is lower; hindering his endurance and making him even easier to edgeguard. However, because other top-tier characters, such as Fox and Sheik, were also noticeably nerfed, Marth has an easier time fighting against them, improving his matchup spread overall. As such, he is considered to be better relative to most of the top-tier cast in PAL than in NTSC.

**NTSC 1.01**

* Template:Bugfix

**PAL**

* Marth's weight has been decreased (87 → 85).
	+ Template:Buff
* Marth's air speed is lower (0.9 → 0.85).
* Down aerial's sweetspot's angle has been altered (290° → 270°) allowing it to be meteor cancelled. This significantly hinders its reliability.

## Moveset

 File:MarthAerialAttacksSSBM.png
 File:MarthAndYoshiGrabRange.gif
*For a gallery of Marth's hitboxes, see here.*

For simplicity, if, for example, Marth's blade does 4% damage while the tip does 6%, and the attack has no other hitboxes, it is written as 4%/6%.
Template:MovesetTable

## In competitive play

### Most historically significant players

*Any number following the Smasher name indicates placement on the 2019 MPGR, which recognizes the official top 100 players in the world in Super Smash Bros. Melee.*

*See also: Category:Marth professionals (SSBM)*

* Azen - Top old-school Marth player from MD/VA. Considered one of the best on the East Coast in the pre-*Brawl* era. Won MLG Atlanta 2004, Tournament Go 6, and MLG New York Playoffs 2006.
* Jakenshaken (#45) - One of the best Marth players in the world. Placed 5th at Fight Pitt 9, 9th at Full Bloom 5, and 25th at Smash 'N' Splash 5. Has wins over Lucky, MikeHaze, and Jerry.
* KDJ - One of the best players from 2006-2008; triple-mained with Fox and Sheik before retiring. Placed 1st at MLG Long Island 2007, 2nd at Cataclysm 3, and 17th at Apex 2012. Has wins over ChuDat, La Luna, and DJ Nintendo.
* Ken - Ranked player in SoCal. Commonly referred to as the "King of Smash" and undisputed best smasher from 2003 to 2006. Invented and named the Ken combo. Won multiple MLG tournaments and EVO World 2007.
* KoDoRiN - One of the best Marth players during the COVID-19 pandemic. Placed 3rd at Mainstage 2021, 5th at SWT: NA West Melee Regional Finals, 7th at Riptide, and 25th at Mainstage with wins over iBDW, Ginger, and SFAT.
* La Luna (#53) - One of the best Marth players in the world. Placed 25th at GENESIS 6, 17th at Pound 2019, and 17th at Get On My Level 2019. Has wins over HugS, moky, and Colbol.
* Mew2King (#10) - One of the Five Gods. Widely considered to be one of the best Marth players of all time. Has contributed largely to the advancement of his metagame, along with PPMD.
* Nintendude (#81) - A former Ice Climber player turned Marth main. Placed 13th at Super Smash Con 2019, 25th at GENESIS 6, and 33rd at The Big House 9. Has wins over Jakenshaken, Ka-Master, and Boyd.
* PewPewU (#24) - The best Marth player in California and one of the best in the world before retiring. Widely known for his proficiency in doubles with static partner SFAT. Placed 4th at Super Smash Con 2018, 5th at GENESIS 6 and Mainstage, and 7th at EVO 2016 with wins over Hungrybox, Mew2King, Plup, and iBDW.
* PPMD - One of the Five Gods. Considered the best Marth in the neutral game and against floaty characters, and among the two greatest Marth players, alongside Mew2King. Placed 1st at Apex 2014 and Apex 2015, 2nd at Apex 2013, and 3rd at EVO 2015. Currently inactive due to health reasons.
* reaper - Previously the best Marth player in Europe. Placed 13th at B.E.A.S.T 6, Syndicate 2016, and Syndicate 2017 with wins over Jeapie, Fuzzyness, and Däumling.
* Rishi (#40) - One of the best Marth players in the world. Placed 13th at GENESIS 6 and 17th at both The Big House 9 and Super Smash Con 2019. Has wins over moky, Westballz, and HugS.
* Shroomed (#30) - Primarily mains Sheik, but has a strong Marth that sees the most use on certain stages or character counterpicks. Placed 4th at Smash 'N' Splash 4, 5th at Low Tier City 7, and 7th at Shine 2018. Used Marth to beat Wizzrobe, ChuDat, and Lucky.
* New Zealand Spud (#38) - The best player in Australia/New Zealand. Placed 1st at Battle Arena Melbourne 11, 2nd at Phantom 2019, and 33rd at GENESIS 7 with wins over Professor Pro, SFAT, and S2J.
* Zain (#6) - The best Marth player in the world with wins over Mango, Hungrybox, Plup, and Leffen. Won GENESIS 8, GENESIS 7, and Pound 2022.

### Tier placement and history

Very early in the *Melee* metagame, Marth was seen as a character that relied too much on rolling and C-stick abuse, traits that led to a negative low-level perception of him despite his then-high-tier placement. Shortly before the third tier list iteration (June 2003), Ken won Tournament Go 4 with Marth, introducing the uses of dash-dancing, chain throwing, and a higher focus on spacing and aerial combat, including the creation of the infamous Ken Combo. Later, Ken incorporated other advanced techniques, such as wavedashing, into Marth's metagame, and showed how powerfully he could punish enemies off small mistakes and reads. Because of this, Ken is credited for largely improving Marth's metagame. Ken, and a handful of other top Marth mains such as Azen, are credited for moving Marth up to the top tier for years to come, usually around the second to fourth highest spot on the list. Marth's first drop into the high tier since then was in the eighth tier list (July 2006), where he dropped to fourth place. However, in the ninth tier list (October 2008), he again moved up to second place, in what became his highest tier placing in all the tier lists.

In the post-*Brawl* metagame, however, professional opinions of Marth began declining. After Mew2King's absolute dominance with Marth for a short time span around *Brawl*Template:'s release, Marth's placement in tournaments began to fall, as newer players learned to exploit his weaknesses, and many Marth mains, including Ken and Azen, became inactive from competitive *Melee*. Mew2King himself eventually switched to playing primarily Sheik, and up-and-coming Marth players, such as Tai and PewPewU, frequently struggled to make an impact at tournaments. This led to players questioning Marth's true viability in the metagame, which conicided with a drop to fifth place on the tenth tier list in September of 2010, and a fourth place finish on the eleventh tier list in July of 2013. Upon briefly returning to the scene in 2012, Ken notably claimed that Marth was a mid-tier character who lost in every important top-tier matchup. Mew2King's personal tier list in 2014 also decisively ranked Marth as fifth, claiming that while Marth could punish the entire cast solidly, he got punished too easily in return, leading to losing matchups against Fox, Falco, Sheik, and Jigglypuff on all non-Final Destination stages.

Despite this, new innovations in the modern metagame by the aforementioned PewPewU and PPMD, as well as arguments centered around Marth's frame data, as compiled by various community members such as Kadano, have maintained Marth's viability and changed several opinions concerning his tier placement. PPMD's victory at Apex 2015, where he beat several top Fox players using primarily Marth, showed that despite Marth's more apparent weaknesses today, he is still a character who can win large, top-level tournaments. Pro player Zain has also achieved consistently excellent results using Marth in recent years, winning a significant amount of tournaments including majors like GENESIS 7 and GENESIS 8. Reflecting this, the thirteenth tier list released in March of 2021 ranks Marth as the second best character in the game, only behind Fox.

#### PAL viability

Like several other top-tier characters, Marth was nerfed in the PAL version of *Melee*. His down aerial, a powerful spike in NTSC, had its launch angle changed in PAL, making it an equally powerful meteor smash. As one of Marth's staple moves can now be meteor canceled, impairing his ability to finish off opponents quickly and throwing a wrench in the consistency of the infamous Ken Combo, it may seem as if Marth is worse in PAL overall. However, Marth still retains many other options to KO enemies, and has several other potent (albeit less reliable) options to substitute for down aerial in the aforementioned Ken Combo and other combos, such as his neutral aerial or a reverse Dolphin Slash. Marth was also made slightly lighter, which slightly impairs his survivability, but allows him to escape several of Fox's waveshine follow-ups. The most notable option loss for Fox is waveshine to grab, which greatly impairs Fox's ability to rack up damage on Marth by converting from a shine and forces Fox players to use weaker options instead.

Because some other top-tier characters, such as Fox or Sheik, were nerfed more significantly than he was, Marth has a much easier time fighting against them than he does in NTSC versions, as he maintains almost all of the advantages he has against those characters, while losing several of the shortcomings that made those matchups difficult. Aside from the aforementioned loss of several waveshine follow-ups for Fox, Marth also able to edgeguard Fox more efficiently, due to the nerf in Fire Fox's recovery distance. Sheik's disadvantages in the neutral game are still prevalent against Marth, as she must still cope with his range. However, Sheik's grab is much less of a punishment threat than it is in NTSC, as its launch angle does not guarantee KO setups (such as forward or up aerials) in PAL. These new advantages, as well as various other changes to Marth's matchups, make Marth arguably stronger relative to the cast than he is in NTSC. This is reflected in the PAL tier list, where Marth is ranked 2nd, a decent improvement over his recent positions in the NTSC list.

Despite Marth's theoretical superiority in PAL, there exist very few notable Marth mains in PAL regions, with reaper, Mahie and Salepate being the extent of his current representation; both Mahie and Salepate have also struggled to make an impact outside of France. Furthermore, Ice, once considered one of Europe's best Marth mains, later chose to exclusively main Fox to improve his standings in tournaments.

## In single-player modes

### In Classic Mode

In Classic Mode, Marth can appear in one-on-one matches, team battles alongside Link and Zelda, and as a metal opponent in the mode's penultimate stage. In his appearances, bar his metal match, Marth appears on Great Bay. On a team with Zelda, he appears on Temple. In all such instances, the track "Fire Emblem" plays on the stage, which does not occur in any other mode. Unusually, this does not happen when fighting Marth + Link, during which it will still play the "Great Bay" theme.

### In Adventure Mode

Marth makes no appearances in the game's single-player Adventure Mode. Music associated with him, however, can play in the Underground Maze.

### In All-Star Mode

In All-Star Mode, Marth and his allies are fought on Fountain of Dreams, as Marth was not designated a specific home stage. When fought on the stage, the track "Fire Emblem" plays instead of the standard music.

### In Event Matches

Marth appears in multiple Event Matches:

* **Event 40: All-Star Match 4**: Marth is the first opponent fought in this series of staged battles. The selected character battles him on the Temple stage with a stock of 2 while Marth has 1. With a timer of four minutes, the player must defeat him and the other four characters one-by-one with the overall time and damage: Luigi, Jigglypuff, Mewtwo, and Mr. Game & Watch.
* **Event 41: En Garde!**: A one-on-one battle between the player as Marth and the enemy Link on the Temple stage, with the two characters having 2 stock each and unlimited time.
* **Event 46: Fire Emblem Pride**: The player battles and must defeat a team of Marth and Roy in an untimed match in the Hyrule Temple stage, with all three characters receiving 3 stock.

### Ending images

MarthClassicMode.jpgClassic Mode.MarthAdventureMode.jpgAdventure Mode.MarthAllStarMode.jpgAll-Star Mode.
## Trophies

In addition to the normal trophy about Marth as a character, there are two trophies about him as a fighter that are unlocked by completing the Adventure and All-Star modes on any difficulty with Marth.

**Marth**
*The betrayed prince of the Kingdom of Altea, the blood of the hero Anri flows in Marth's veins. He was forced into exile when the kingdom of Dolua invaded Altea. Then, wielding his divine sword Falchion, he led a revolt and defeated the dark dragon Medeus. Afterwards, Altea was annihilated by King Hardin of Akanea.*
Fire Emblem
 Japan Only
**Marth** [SMASH]
*Marth is a magnificent swordsman. While his swordplay is faster than that of Link, he lacks power, and his quickness is offset by a marginal endurance. His Shield Breaker gains power the longer it's held. The Dancing Blade combination uses both the Control Stick and the B Button to produce a series of up to four attacks.*
B: Shield Breaker
 Smash B: Dancing Blade
**Marth** [SMASH]
*The tip of Marth's blade causes the most damage, so you should try to create adequate distance between you and your enemy to gracefully strike with that point. Marth's Dolphin Slash is fast and powerful, but it leaves him vulnerable upon landing. Marth uses Counter to block a foe's attack and deal a return strike. If you're fighting a Counter-happy Marth, grab him.*
Up & B: Dolphin Slash
 Down & B: Counter

Marth Trophy Melee.pngClassicMarth Trophy (Smash).png[SMASH]Marth Trophy (Smash 2).png[SMASH]

## Gallery

SSBM Marth HQ.pngOfficial artwork of Marth.RoyClassicMode.jpgPosing with Roy on Princess Peach's Castle.RoyAllStarMode.jpgDashing towards Roy and Link on Temple.

## Trivia

* Marth is the only newcomer and unlockable character to have a clone.
* Marth and Roy are the only characters in *Melee* that speak Japanese in all language versions of the game.
* Marth and Roy are the only playable characters in *Melee* that do not have a stage representing their universe, though hacked data shows that one was planned.
	+ As a result of not having a stage, Marth is fought on the Fountain of Dreams in All-Star Mode and his character unlock battle. In Event Matches, he appears in Temple, and in Classic Mode, he appears on Great Bay.
* Along with Roy, Marth was originally planned to be a Japan-exclusive character in *Super Smash Bros. Melee*, but was kept in all versions on request of an employee at Nintendo of America. Global interest in the *Fire Emblem* series began as a result of their success in *Super Smash Bros. Melee*.
* All of Marth's aerial attacks when tippered deal the same amount of damage (13% damage); he is the only character in the game to have this trait.
* In the debug menu, Marth is known as "MARS" likely to keep the game close to his Japanese pronunciation.
	+ Coincidently, this coincides with his name in the Fire Emblem OVA, which was based off of the third game in the series, *Mystery of the Emblem*, which revolves around Marth's adventures.
* The fan-made term "Marthritis" (derived from the diagnosis Arthritis) references the inability for a Marth player to easily combo into a kill move at high percents.
* In the debug menu of the game, Marth has an additional phrase that goes unused: "レッツダンス！" "Rettsu dansu!", the English phrase "Let's Dance!" approximated phonetically in Japanese.

## External links

* Translation of official character page on Source Gaming
* Official character page on the Japanese *Melee* website
* Are You a Marth Player? by Kira

Template:SSBMCharacters
Template:Fire Emblem universe
es:Marth (SSBM)

1. ↑ https://www.nintendo.co.jp/n01/n64/software/nus\_p\_nalj/smash/flash/1204/index.html