Mario (Super Smash Flash 2)

Mario is a playable veteran character in Super Smash Flash 2 and, along with, and , was one of the first four characters confirmed in the trailer and that first appeared in the demo. His sprites are custom made and his appearance looks similar to how he appears in Super Smash Bros Brawl, 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 attacks in the Super Smash Bros. games.

Mario is currently ranked 10th on the current tier list (The highest ranked Mario character if sub-series characters are included or not); a "1UP" from his 11th position last demo. Mario's attacks have became stronger from the last demo. Mario has fast, low lag attacks, good combo potential, a good recovery, and strong finishers in all of his smash attacks, a sour spotted forward aerial, back aerial, neutral aerial and his back throw (when used near a ledge). He has a projectile in fireball and can reflect projectiles with cape. He can use his fireballs to hinder his opponents approach, zoning and gimping his opponents recovery. He has good juggling options with his up tilt and up aerial. He is one of the best edge guarders in the game and his guard will be tough to break. He has a decent recovery with Star Spin and Super Jump Punch covering good vertical distance while cape gives him a near-infinite horizontal recovery option.

However, Mario has problems in his range which leaves him vulnerable to characters with disjointed hitboxes. He has a predictable recovery that can be easy to gimp and edge guard against. His projectile is weak and can be reflected. However, his pros overcome his cons and makes him an excellent character to go against anyone.

Attributes
Mario is considered the most all-around and balanced character. 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 up aerial being able to juggle opponents and can chain into other aerials. He has two chain grabs in his down and up throws. He has finishers in all his smash attacks, a sour spotted forward aerial (at high percentages), his back throw when near a ledge, his back aerial and his neutral aerial. Mario is one of the best edgeguarders so trying to break his guard will be tough. His standard special move, the Fireball, is spammable and helps him control the enemy's approach, it 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 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. & ). His recovery, although good to decent, is very predictable might have problems recovering when he is up against a good edge guarder. His fireballs have low-priority which allows them to be canceled out easily and can be reflected.

Ground attacks

 * Standard attack: Punches straight downwards. 3%
 * Standard attack 2: Performs an uppercut. 2%
 * Standard attack 3: Toe kick; Mario's foot expands greatly during the attack. 4%
 * Down tilt: "Trips" an opponent with his leg. It sends them upward. 6%
 * Down smash: Does a "breakdance kick", hitting both sides. Able to KO characters when not fully charged earlier than 100%. 16% both sides uncharged, 21% both sides fully charged.
 * Side tilt: Does a strong kick. 7%
 * Forward smash: Charges and releases an explosive short-range fireball. When sweetspotted, it is one of the strongest smash attacks in the whole game, capable of KO'ing characters around 90% when uncharged. The attack does more damage when an opponent touches the flames and is weaker if they connect with Mario's body. 18% uncharged, 19% fully charged ,sweetspotted 23% fully charged.
 * Up tilt: Uppercut, aka Shoryuken. 7%
 * Up smash: Headbutt. Decent knockback. 14% uncharged, 20% fully charged.
 * Dash attack: Running slide kick. 9%

Aerial attacks

 * Neutral aerial: Sex Kick, Mario extends his foot 12% sweetspot, 9% sour spot.
 * Forward aerial: Arcs his arm while punching forward/downward. Meteor Smash if sweet-spotted. 11% Does good horizontal or vertical knockback if sour-spotted and can be used as a finisher.
 * Back aerial: Kicks backwards with both feet. Good knockback 11%
 * Up aerial: Backflip kick. Very good juggler, as its very fast and has very little to no start-up or ending lag. 8%
 * Down aerial: Spinning kick from SSB/SSBM. It can be used to pseudo-spike. 18% if all hits connect.

Grabs and throws

 * Grab: Mario holds the opponent with both hand.
 * Pummel: Headbutts opponent. 1% for first hit, 1% for all afterwards.
 * Forward throw: Spins around once and throw his opponent forward. 9%
 * Back throw: Spins around four times and throws his opponent backward. Good knockback. 9%
 * Up throw: Mario throws his opponent high into the air and can chain grab, but is easier to DI out of. 8%
 * Down throw: Mario slams his opponent into the ground. Great combo and chan chain grab fast fallers and big characters. 6%

Other

 * Ledge attack: Mario kicks out with both feet. 5%
 * 100% ledge attack: After a slight hesitation, he swing his legs around. 7%
 * Floor attack: Does an attack similar to his down smash in appearance. 5%

Misc.

 * Entrance: Jumps out from a warp pipe while saying "Lets-a-go!".
 * Taunts:
 * Standard: Spins around in a circle once and then puts his fist in the air, saying "Hoo hoo!", while a fireball appears.
 * Side: Same as Standard.
 * Down: Mario grows big with a Super Mushroom, then he returns to normal size.
 * Idle poses:
 * Moves his head from left to right and holds his fists in front of his face.
 * Adjust his hat.
 * Fanfare: Stage Clear theme from New Super Mario Bros. Wii.
 * Wins: Makes his victory pose from Super Mario 64 as a Power Star appears with him.
 * Wins (Fire Mario): The fire pose from Super Smash Bros Brawl.
 * Loses: Claps to the winner.

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 demos v0.7a and b; Mario still stayed in C tier where he ranked 8th in v0.7a and ranked 10th in v0.7b. He once again was stuck in C tier in v0.8b where he ranked 11th and was seen as a mid tier character. However, in demo v0.9a; Mario has his best tier position yet where he ranks 10th on the list where he can be considered a high tier character.

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 unknown reasons. It is speculated that Cleod9 thought the attack to be too complex to program into the game.
 * 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 Peach and Fox, were used in one of ScrewAttack's Death Battles.
 * Prior 0.9b, Mario originally transform into Fire Mario as his Final Smash. This was eventually scrapped in favor of the Mario Finale, which resulted in a very mixed reaction from fans questioning SSF2 ' s originality.
 * In v0.9b, Mario's sprite was a collab of the many devs. The original base was created by PixelBoy, and  Dr. Geno made the stance. Zero Insanity, ElvisDitto, Eggviper, and Playat made the rest of the animations.

External link

 * Mario's page at Smash Flash DOJO!!!