Wario (Super Smash Flash 2)

Wario is a playable veteran character in Super Smash Flash 2. He is a starter character. His sprites are a recolored version of his sprites from Wario Land 4. His moveset is all original, but it does share some similarities with his Project M move set. However, his current move set was finalized before his inclusion in Project M. He's the only character representation of the Wario universe.

Wario is currently ranked 28th on the current tier list (the lowest ranked Mario character when sub-series are included or not); a large and devastating drop from his 12th place position last demo. Wario has a good air game, decent combo ability, a good grab and throw game and kill moves in his forward smash, Shoulder Bash (in the moves final frames), down throw, dash attack, and his signature move, the Wario Waft. Wario lacks a projectile, but can deal with them by using his down and forward smash, dash attack and Shoulder Bash. Wario has a good air game with his aerials having good priority and Wario having good air acceleration.

Wario suffers from short range (possessing the shortest grab range) which makes him vulnerable to characters with disjointed hiboxes (ex., ). Wario is a heavyweight which allows him to be combo'ed easily by most of the cast. He has problems with KOing his opponents outside of using Wario Waft because most of his attacks are short ranged, predictable and easy to avoid. Due to Wario's poor dashing speed when combined with his poor range and lack of a projectile, he has poor approach options.

His cons greatly outweigh his pros and put him close to the bottom.

Attributes
Wario can be described as an unorthodox character due to his attributes. Wario's down smash, forward smash, dash attack and Shoulder Bash gives him ways to deal with projectiles. He has powerful finishers in his forward smash, shoulder bash (in the moves final frames), dash attack, sweet spotted neutral air, down throw and the Wario Waft (depending how long it has been charged). He has great air speed with most of his aerials having good priority which gives him a good air game and good approach options in the air. He has effective combo starters in his down smash, down tilt, Chomp and up tilt. Due to Wario's size, he is not as susceptible to shield stabbing like other characters. He has a good grab game with his forward and up throw being chain grabs on big characters and fast fallers while they are good combo starters on other characters. His down and back throws can be used as KO moves, especially his back throw due to its lack of use at early percentages letting it be saved up. Wario's weight and falling speed makes him a hard character to KO. Even though he lacks a projectile, Wario has good camping ability.

However, Wario suffers from poor range (having the shortest grab in the current demo) which leaves him is vulnerable to characters with disjointed hitboxes (ex. and ). Due to not having a projectile, poor ground mobility and reach in his attacks gives him problems approaching on the ground. His recovery is predictable and gives him trouble recovering against good edge guarders. Due to his weight and falling he is susceptible to certain chain grabs. His down air meteor smash is very risky to use due to Wario not being able to do anything unless he hits an opponent and he is unable to grab ledges.

Wario's play style has significantly changed from his play style in Brawl. His play style in SSF2 is more offensive while in Brawl it was more defensive. He is also not as susceptible to being chain grabbed or grab releaseed like he was in Brawl. Wario has unique attributes for a heavyweight. He is small, has decent air speed and he does not have high falling speed like most heavyweights which makes him less susceptible to combos and chain grabs.

Ground attacks

 * Standard attack 1: Punch. 5%
 * Standard attack 2: Hook. 5%
 * Down tilt: Swipes in front of him with his hand while crouching. 6%
 * Down smash: Does an Earthshake Punch from "Wario Land: Shake It!". 10% uncharged, 21% fully charged. Can out-prioritize most projectiles.
 * Side tilt: Punch. 10%
 * Forward smash: Wario's belly expands out in front of him like Fat Wario. 19% uncharged, 27% fully charged.
 * Up tilt: Raises both hands in the air. 7%
 * Up smash: Spins around, hurting opponents with his head. This deals multiple hits. 13% uncharged, 19% fully charged.
 * Dash attack: Dashes and headbutts the opponent while yelling 'Hurry up!'. 11%

Aerial attacks

 * Neutral aerial: Stretches out hands and legs in a skydiver pose and spins. First hit 9%, second hit 4%
 * Forward aerial: Flying forwards kick. 9%
 * Back aerial: Spins backwards horizontally, headfirst. Deals decent knockback on the last hit. 10%
 * Up aerial: Claps both hands onto the opponent. Great juggling and KOs at 120% damage. 11%
 * Down aerial: Does a backflip in place and performs a ground pound. A Stall-Then-Fall attack that meteor smashes airborne opponents. One must be careful aiming with it off-stage in order to avoid a self-destruct, as Wario will not stop until he hits an enemy. The move can be aimed left or right during the whole fall. He will pass through the opponent only on the first few frames of the attack. During the rest of the frames, Wario bounces off opponents. 13%

Grabs and throws

 * Grab: Reaches forward with his hand. The shortest grab range in the current demo.
 * Pummel: Shakes opponent (a reference to the shake move from 'Wario Land: Shake it!). 1% first hit, 1% for all proceeding hits.
 * Forward throw : Throws opponent forward, can chain throw fast fallers and big characters. 9%
 * Back throw : Hits the opponent with his butt. 10%
 * Up throw: Rockets opponent upwards with his biceps. Can chain grab fast fallers and big characters. 6%
 * Down throw: Ground pounds on opponents. Can KO opponents near the ledge, but can be teched. 12%

Other

 * Ledge attack: Animation from the Shoulder Bash. 6%
 * 100% ledge attack: Rolls a distance, hitting all opponents in his path. 15%
 * Floor attack: Pokes both sides. 5%

Misc.

 * Entrance: Drives by in the Wario Car.
 * Taunts:
 * Standard: Strikes a pose doing the sign of peace with both hands and laughs
 * Side: Wario shakes his butt.
 * Down: Wario yells, "Wa, wa, wa!".
 * Fanfare: Stage Clear theme from Wario Land: Shake It!.
 * Win: Shows off his muscles and says, "Yes!".
 * Lose: Looks away and fumes, without clapping.

Changes from v0.9a
Wario has received a mix of buffs and nerfs. He mainly received nerfs to his KO options. However, Wario appears to be a less effective character overall.

Tier placement history
When Wario was first introduced; he was seen as a mid-low tier character. In the tier lists for demo v0.7; Wario ranked 11th of C tier on the first list and 12th of E tier on the second list. In demo v0.8b; he had a huge leap where he ranked 1st of S tier. In demo v0.9a; Wario was originally seen as one of the worst characters in the demo, but ranked 12th when players started noticing his strengths and is considered an mid-high tier character. In demo v0.9b, the changing metagame of other characters, the addition of new ones and lackluster changes to Wario brought him down to be 28th in C tier.

Trivia

 * Wario has received the most changes from his appearance in the Super Smash Bros. games so far:
 * He is the only character to have a least one different smash, aerial and special attack.
 * He is the only character so far that has a different lose pose. He clapps and cheers for the winner in Brawl and 3DS/Wii U, while he just looks away angrily in SSF2.
 * He is the only veteran character who has a completely different victory theme.
 * Wario is the only character with a different entrance.
 * Wario, along with, , , and , is one of the few characters to have a "Defeated/No Contest" pose where the characters do not clap to the winner.