Mario (Super Smash Flash 2)

Mario is a playable veteran starter character in Super Smash Flash 2. He is one of the first four characters, alongside, and , to be confirmed and first incorporated into the game. His sprites are custom made and his appearance looks similar to how he appears in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, but is a combination of his appearances in the main Smash Bros. games (though his past sprites were brawlified Super Mario World sprites), while his moveset is based on his various movesets in the Super Smash Bros. games. His voice clips come from Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Mario is currently ranked 21st at the top of B- tier on the current tier list (the highest ranked Mario character if sub-series characters are not included). Mario has fast, low-lag attacks, decent combo ability, an above average recovery, and strong finishers in all of his smash attacks, Star Spin and his back throw (when used near a ledge). He has a projectile in Fireball, which he can use to hinder his opponents approach, zone, edge guard, or bait out a shield. He has a strong edge guarding game with his Fireball, Cape, and strong aerial attacks. He also has a good recovery distance-wise, with Star Spin and Super Jump Punch covering good vertical distance while Cape gives him some extra horizontal distance.

However, Mario has blatant problems with his range (including the 6th shortest grab in the current demo) which leaves him highly vulnerable to characters with disjointed range, especially sword fighters such as and. His recovery is linear and predictable, especially after he exhausts his double jump and Star Spin, making him somewhat easy to gimp and edge guard against. His zoning game is not great, as his projectile is weak, slow, and can be easily reflected. Also, Mario's combo game is rather difficult due to his moves being some of the most adversely affected by the overall reduction of hitstun in 0.9b.

Mario appears to have a small player base and has poor representation in online tournaments with only a few players using him from time to time. Of those few, Mario's placements in tournaments are shown to be high.

Attributes
Mario is considered the most well-rounded/balanced character. He appears to have average dashing speed, but below average walking and air speed. Due to this, beginners should consider using Mario as the start-up character when playing the game for the first time. He has a good air game with his aerials being fast, specifically his up aerial, notable for being able to chain into other aerials. He has good approach options with using his Fireballs to put pressure on the opponent and having a good SHFFL. He has finishers in all his smash attacks, Star Spin, when used near the upper blast zone, and his back throw when used near a ledge.

Mario has a good grab game, despite having the 5th shortest grab in the current demo. His up throw being his best throw, which can chain grab high and fast fallers at low percents. He can combo from the throw on other characters due to the hitstun of the move. His down throw does little knockback, but has little hitstun which makes it harder to chain grab with and requires quicker follow ups or else opponents will escape. His back throw is a strong finisher when used near the ledge at high percentages. His forward throw is arguably his weakest throw due to it not being strong, not even killing until over 220% and has no follow ups.

Mario is one of the best edge guarders, so trying to break his guard will be tough. His standard special move, Fireball, is a very spammable projectile, and can help him control his opponent's approach and can also be used to hinder some characters' recovery offstage. Mario has good recovery options in his Cape which gives him a near-infinite horizontal recovery while keeping momentum for him to get back to the stage easily, can be used to reflect his opponents projectile and can be used to gimp opponents trying to recover. He has a great vertical recovery, when all of his options have not been used up, in Star Spin, his midair jump and Super Jump Punch.

However, Mario suffers problems in his range which makes him vulnerable to characters with disjointed hitboxes (ex. and ). His recovery, although good, is very predictable and he might encounter problems recovering when he is up against a good edge guarder. His fireballs are low-priority, which allows them to be cancelled out and reflected easily.

Despite Mario being small, he is a middle weight and is an average faller which puts him in the middle of characters who can be combo'ed. His own combo game is lacking due to the reduction in hitstun of the demo, this makes his combos more dependent on reading his opponents D.I. when compared to other characters. This is also hindered by his below average overall mobility, which makes it harder for certain follow ups.

Changes from v0.9a
Mario has received a mix of buffs and nerfs. Mario has gained more KO power in his smash attacks, thus making them more effective finishers. However, his air game was worsened with most of his aerials losing KO power, his notorious up aerial being given less follow up options and the general decrease of hitstun in the demo has made it harder for Mario to combo. This made him lose one of his best attributes. With the changes done to Mario, he is still a strong character, but is seen as less effective than last demo.

Tier placement history
In tier lists for v0.6; Mario ranked 8th of D tier on the first list and 7th of C tier on the second list where he was seen as low tier character. In demo v0.7; Mario still stayed in C tier where he ranked 8th on the first list and ranked 10th of C tier on the second list with players now viewing him as a mid tier character. He once again was stuck in C tier in v0.8b where he ranked 11th and was still seen as a mid tier character. However, in demo v0.9a; Mario got his best tier position yet where he ranked 10th on the list where he can be considered a high tier character. In demo v0.9b, Mario dropped to 19th of B tier where he is seen as a mid tier character again. The changing metagame showed Mario to be a less effective character and he dropped to 21st of C+ tier, where he is seen as a low tier character again.

Trivia

 * In previous versions of the SSF2 Demo, Mario used a slightly different moveset. Prior v0.2b, Mario used F.L.U.D.D. as his side special move rather than the Cape. The Star Spin's predecessor, the Mario Tornado, was used and had a special homing attack effect when it was done in midair.
 * During the development of Mario's new sprite sheet, former developer ItsameSMB had created a new variation of his down special move called the F.L.U.D.D. Tornado, but was dropped from the game for being un-intuitive.
 * Mario has gone through the most sprite changes throughout the game's development, the second being Link.
 * Mario along with ,, and are the only characters so far to wear their default costumes in team battle when they are on the red team.
 * Mario's previous sprites, alongside with and, were used in one of ScrewAttack's Death Battles.
 * Prior to v0.9b, Mario originally transformed into Fire Mario as his Final Smash. This was eventually scrapped in favor of the Mario Finale.