Mario (SSB17)

**Mario** is Nintendo's eponymous mascot, returning to battle once again in Super Smash Bros. OC Future, alongside Kirby, Ichigo Kurosaki, Baxter and Ruby Rose.

## Attributes

### Strengths

* Balanced on most attributes.
* A moveset that can adapt him to any situation.
* Has no big flaws or crippling weaknesses.
* Great mobility on both ground and air, being among the top ten characters with the highest air speed in the game.
* Good variety of combos, being one of the best jugglers in the game as well having flexible combo throws.
* Has a reliable sex kick in the form of Neutral Aerial, that is great for starting combos and breaking off enemies combos.
* All of his Smash Attacks are quick and have little end lag.
* Has a Meteor Smash: Forward Aerial.
* Can Wall Jump to assist recovery.
* Cape both reflects projectiles and flips foes, which can disrupts enemy combos and frustrate recoveries.
	+ Cape can also assist in recovery.
* Good at edge-guarding with his Special Moves.

### Weaknesses

* Poor Recovery, being easily gimped.
* Has problems with approaches, as he relies mainly on Fireballs, which cannot be spammed.
* Lacks range and/or kill power on some moves.
* Struggles against characters that can outrange him.
* Relies too much on combos to do proper damage, as they alone do low damage.

## Summary

Mario is an **All-Rounder** type of character, being a very easy fighter to pick, especially for new players. All his attributes are very balanced and above average, with decent speed, weight and mobility, which added with his good variety of combos and Special Moves makes him very flexible, being a reliable well-rounded character capable of adapting to any situation. Of all of the characters in Smash Bros., Mario is the definition of well-rounded. He is a very versatile fighter, being able to deal with just about any situation.

Mario can space his opponents very well with his good mobility and Special Moves, that allows him to safely approach opponents without much trouble.

Mario's Fireball is a good projectile move; though average in speed and only having a decent range, the move is useful for putting some damage on opponents as well as other uses. Fireball has good range and speed and can poke opponents to frustrate their movement. Mario can use the move in the air to toss the fireball onto an opponent from above or he can use it on the ground to force an approaching opponent into the air so that he can hit them with an aerial attack. The fireball can also gimp recovering opponents by using it at the edge. The move can be reversed by slightly inputting the opposite direction Mario is facing and then pressing the button; this can only be reversed in the air but is a good way to surprise opponents; just don't tilt it too far or Mario will use Cape instead.

Speaking of Cape, it is a great move both offensively and defensively. It reflects projectiles and gives Mario a slight horizontal momentum when used in the air which can help with recovery. Mario will also turn an opponent around when he uses this move on them, so if an opponent is running towards Mario or attempting to attack him, he can use this on the opponent to direct them away from Mario and then grab them. Using this off-stage on recovering opponents is a good way to direct their recovery away from the stage, resulting in a K.O., especially against characters with already poor or predictable recoveries.

Mario's up special, the Super Jump Punch, is a good recovery move, but can be used offensively as well. It can combo out of down throw, up aerial, and up tilt, and is also great for getting a kill off the ceiling. Super Jump Punch has good combo potential, being quite fast in execution and boasting from above average priority.

F.L.U.D.D. is useful for pushing recovering opponents away from the stage, but is otherwise not all that great. F.L.U.D.D. can be a surprise move that has a special type of priority, as it will ignore other projectiles and push approaching opponents away to give Mario some space.

At low percentages, Mario's jab combos out of down throw; it is a good combo move as well. Mario's forward tilt is good for ground combos and spacing. His down tilt is another excellent combo move. His up tilt is one of his best combo moves; it combos out of down throw and then into itself from low to mid-high percentages, which can then combo into most aerial attacks and up special. Mario's dash attack, depending on when in the attack it hits the opponent, launches them at different angles; it can combo into back air, neutral air, up air, and another dash attack.

Mario's aerials are all outstanding combo moves. His neutral aerial stays out for a good amount of time, and is a great combo move. His forward aerial is a nice combo finisher and meteors, making it good for securing kills off-stage. His down aerial is fast and a good combo finisher. Mario's up aerial is great for juggling opponents, continuing combos, and killing off of the ceiling.

Mario's smash attacks are all good kill moves that come out fast, enabling them to be easily integrated into combos. Mario's forward smash is a great kill move and combo finisher. His up smash can combo out of down throw and up tilt, and if Mario has trapped an opponent in an up tilt string and they try to counter out of it, charge up the up smash, wait for the counter animation to end, and then punish by releasing it. Mario's down smash is good for covering rolls because of its speed and range as well as an edge-guarding tool.

Mario's throws are all either combos or kills. Forward throw can combo into dash attack or aerial Fireball. Up throw combos into up aerial and neutral aerial. Mario's back throw is good for killing opponents when used on the edge and for getting opponents off-stage. His down throw combos into jab, forward tilt, down tilt, forward smash, and up tilt at low percentages, and up tilt, up aerial, up smash, up special, and neutral aerial at mid-high percentages.

His mobility also allows him to pull quick combos, making him one of the best jugglers in the game. His moves are all quite fast and considerable weak in terms of damage and knockback, meaning he can string moves in succession. One of his best tools are Up Tilt and Up Aerial; both can combo into themselves at mid-low percentages. With a combination of manipulating stale-move negation and making use of rage, Mario can score reliable kills.

However players must be creative to setting up their kills with Mario, as most opponents can overcome Mario in a specific field, which is one of his main weaknesses. As the saying goes, 'jack of all trades, but master of none.' Mario is skilled in a lot of things, but make a mistake and the opponent will be able to capitalize on it easily. Being very balanced, he doesn't really excel at any field, being outclassed by characters that have specific traits to their advantage, such as Ryuko Matoi's speed, Baxter's combos, Kirby's knockback, etc. He also has trouble against characters that can outrange him, such as those with weapons, like Template:SSB16 and Template:SSB16, which boasts from disjointed hitboxes, meaning they will always have the upper hand when clashing with Mario's attacks. His recovery is also considerably mediocre; while Super Jump Punch has decent priority, it is predictable and can be interrupted easily. For that reason, players should be good at reads to prevent enemies from frustrating their recovery.

Ultimately, Mario is the jack-of-all-trades. He can deal against any opponent with decent reliability, but is not truly a master in any specific fields. When playing as Mario, players must make use of his entire moveset and be creative when setting up combos for KO'ing rather than relying on a single kill move.

## Moveset

### **Taunts**

* Side Taunt - Mario Salute: Mario takes off his hat and does the pose from *New Super Mario Bros.* after completing a level.
* Down Taunt - Dead Animation: Mario jumps, spins and falls dead into the ground. This is a reference to his dying animation from the original arcade *Donkey Kong*.
* Up Taunt - Super Mushroom: Mario grows in size and shrinks down. This a reference to when he eats a Super Mushroom in many of his games.

## Victory Poses

* 1 - Mario winds up his left fist several times and punches the screen.
* 2 - Mario does a slow-spinning jump with his fist raised up (similar to his Up Dash Attack) and makes a pose.
* 3 - Mario makes fire appear from his left hand and raises it forward to the screen.
* Victory Music - The classic level completion music when Mario beats a level in *Super Mario Bros.*

## Alternate Costumes

* *See: Alternate Costumes (Super Smash Bros. OC Future)*