Little Mac

Little\_Mac.png

**Little Mac** (リトル・マック, *Little Mac*) is a playable character in *Super Smash Bros. All Stars*. He was revealed on August 23rd, 2018 during a Nintendo Direct to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the *Punch-Out!!* series, which debuted in Japan in 1983, but later debuted in the West in 1984. Instead of retaining *Brawl*'s 3D version of his original design from the NES version of *Punch-Out!!*, Little Mac now sports his updated design from the Wii version of *Punch-Out!!* Despite this, he is now voiced by Kōsuke Toriumi instead of Matt Harty, the latter of whom voiced him in the Wii version of *Punch-Out!!*

Little Mac is currently ranked 43rd out of 58 in the tier list, placing him in the E tier. Little Mac has unarguably the best grounded attributes in the game: he possesses incredible grounded movement and dodging speeds, while his traction is among the highest in the game. These traits allow him to position himself quickly and effectively while heavily complimenting his grounded frame data, which is the fastest overall.

Despite being a lightweight, Little Mac is notable for his array of finishers, which in turn grants him a very effective punishment game. In particular, his KO Uppercut is arguably the best comeback move in the series, and can be performed from multiple set-ups even at low percents. In addition to his outstanding power, Little Mac possesses an effective grounded combo game: his neutral attack is particularly notable for being one of the best in the game due to its high priority and very fast speed, while his neutral and tilt attacks also benefit from anti-rebounding priority.

Little Mac's most advertised flaw, however, is his extremely ineffective aerial abilities. He is burdened with a deliberately underpowered air game and infamously terrible off-stage endurance due to being a fast-falling lightweight with extremely unimpressive recovery options and below average aerial mobility. As such, despite Little Mac's ability to net a KO quickly, he is also highly susceptible to being KO'd at distances where any other character could recover from, due to his weaknesses to gimping, juggling, aggressive edgeguarding, and combos.

While Little Mac's grounded attacks boast impressive power, several of them lack the shieldstun necessary to prevent punishment despite their nearly unrivaled speed, in addition to dealing minimal shield damage. This makes characters with fast movement speeds and/or long ranges difficult for Mac to safely approach even if he spaces correctly, while his lackluster grab game makes him unable to reliably punish opponents who frequently use their shields.

Ultimately, Little Mac's high potential can be offset by his polarized attributes and dangerously risky playstyle. While this has resulted in him maintaining only an average level of representation, his playerbase has managed to achieve success at varying levels. This is evident with Cagt achieving several top 10 placings and a few top 25 placings at the local and regional levels respectively, Destany winning several local tournaments in both singles and doubles play and achieving a handful of high placings at the regional level, and Sol, Vash, and Alphicans each achieving a few respectable placings in singles play and a few high placings in doubles play at the regional and national levels.