- Game Versions
- Smash 3DS, Smash Wii U
Hello! My name is KeeblerGuy, an upcoming Dr. Mario main. I will apologize in advance for I have no ways of recording footage from Smash 4 to demonstrate somethings. There are many things to Dr. Mario that I will now discuss, so let us get right into it.
TL;DR
Pros:
Forces opponents to approach with Pills
Pill Gimps
Good Roll, Spot Dodge, and Air dodge punish via Dr. Tornado
Great Grab, Ground, and Air Combos
Quick, Effective Smashes (Especially FSmash)
Bair Spacing
UpB Stage Spikes and Combo Enders
Good Edge Guard with Bair, Uair, DownB, and SideB (Oh, and Pills.)
Dair Priority
Wall Jump to assist recovery
DownB to assist recovery
Cons:
2nd Worst Vertical Recovery in the game
No Air Stall via SideB
Short UpB distance
Low Jump Height
Weird Launch Paths from Attacks (i.e. Usmash, Uair, etc.) - [Could be seen as a Pro, but personally to me it is a Con]
Slow Movement Speed on Ground and in Air
Dr. Mario is a defensive character who forces your opponent to approach due to overwhelming numbers of pills and Bairs. His game is strongest by grabbing to punish your opponent. From there, you create combo strings to rack up damage. Has very strong finishers in his smashes and aerials. Use DownB and SideB to prevent those who try to edge guard you. That sums it up.
Time to go in-depth!
Playstyle!
Dr. Mario plays a lot differently than Mario, even though he is a clone. The basic way of saying how Doc is different than Mario is: Doc moves slower (ground&air), and he does more damage. A little more info is he has a lot more knockback in his moves and worse recovery.
Because of the things listed above, Dr. Mario plays very defensively. His approach is not bad, but it certainly is not good. Two tools that you will use to force your opponent to approach you are Doc's Neutral B (Pills) and Bair.
Forcing Opponent Approach
Pills:
Hit B, shoot a Pill from Doc's hand; pretty self-explanatory. Now, you force your opponent come to you by shooting Pills, but you don't want them to get you while you are open for a punish. Knowing how to B-Reverse is pretty important, but you do not HAVE to know how to B-Reverse to effectively use your Pills. Running away from your opponent, jumping, and then B-Reverse so that the pill hits them. You can also run away, pivot towards them, and jump. Be careful though, because you could accidentally B-Reverse when you do this and you'll shoot your pill in the opposite direction of your opponent. To fix this, take your thumb off the joystick while you're in the air and during the pill animation. The whole point is to retreat and then Pill to force your opponent to get closer, or they will eat it and take 4%-6% damage.
Bair:
This is my favorite aerial that Doc has. It is fast, does 13% damage, and it pretty much auto-cancels. It has considerable range as well. It can be used to space, retreat, approach, edgeguard, etc. It's a versatile tool is the point I'm getting across. When your opponent is too close for you to pill, Bair them. Doc can run towards you opponent, pivot away, short hop, and Bair. When you hit the ground, you can quickly short hop again and Bair. Repeat until you hit them. After you hit them, you can follow up with a grab, Ftilt, Dtilt, FSmash, etc.
Approaching
Even though I say "force your opponent to approach", doesn't mean you never approach. This is just what you will do more commonly than actually approaching. Doc's main approach is Grabbing, Running Attack, DownB, and Dair. Pills can also aid approach, B-Reversing towards your opponent to throw them off. These moves are pretty much self-explanatory for approaching. I will give a quick tip on Dair and DownB. When they shield when you Dair, go behind them. It gives them less options to counter/punish your approach. After being behind them, grab or DSmash or FSmash. For DownB, if they shield it, mash to gain height and be above them on the last frame to avoid a grab (also go behind them).
Close Combat
I will exclude Utilt, Dtilt, and Grabbing from this section as it better suits the Combo section of the thread.
Smashes:
All of Doc's smashes are fast, have good range, and powerful. FSmash is especially good for it has a sweetspot on his arm opposed to the electricity, therefore making it easier to hit. It kills early and it is hard to punish due to the minuscule ending lag. USmash is also good because the hitbox is all around Doc and he gets invincibility on his head. DSmash can also kill early if anyone gets hit by the back of it, increasing damage, knockback, and sends them at a low angle. The front of it does work too, coming out fast and giving Doc some space.
Ftilt:
It is a basic Ftilt. Doc kicks and it can be angled. It has a little less range than FSmash, but the trade-off is the faster start up and less ending lag. It can keep your opponent away from you, and end combo strings. There is really nothing else to be said about this move.
Edgeguarding
Doc's Bair and SideB are great tools for edgeguarding. Bair comes out quick and you don't have to really commit to it because it is so safe. SideB is a high-risk high-reward because you can go deep and cape gimp somebody. DownB can be used to edgeguard by making for air, and can kill very early off stage. Uair is another option, but bair is preferred. Another good tool is Pills. You can gimp somebody with a Pill by cancelling their double jump height, and you get the rest.
Situational Mentions
Fair:
Ah, the most memorable dunking attack on Doc in Melee (honestly, I don't know why everyone refers to it as dunking, it does NOT spike). This time around it has been nerfed in speed and precision in Smash 4. The start up and end lag makes it a risky move to use. The sweetspot is very hard to hit, and I can't explain the timing or position of this attack due to me not being able to figure it out well. The best I can say is you want them to be hit the fist at the beginning frames of the actual attack. The move is very hard to hit, but if you do the pay off is very satisfying. It can kill near the ledge at ~90% and killing on stage at ~115%. The best time to use it to get a good punish off or clutching that air dodge. It can be combo'd with in DThrow. More info on that later.
SideB (Cape):
This move will be talked about a little more during the Anti-Edgeguard section, but this has on-stage uses. It serves as a Mix-Up (and confusion) due to flipping the character around and inverting controls. Don't use it too often because it isn't hard for people to catch on, they can step back due to its horrible horizontal range or just input things backwards to make them forwards?. Anyways, you can FSmash after jumping in with a Cape successfully.
Combos!
Mario is known for having an amazing combo game, but Dr. Mario also has a great combo game albeit it is a little harder to perform. The payoff is higher than Mario's because Doc does around 2% more damage than Mario which really adds up in the end (not to mention Doc has stronger finishers). Let's get right into then.
Uair:
I need to discuss something very quick about this move since it is his best combo move. It does 7%. If your opponent is in front of Doc, they will launch in front of you. Behind, they will launch behind. Easier said than done, but it takes getting used to and has benefits for throwing your opponent off.
Grabs:
Dr. Mario has a strong grab game. His grab has a lot of range and it is quick. His roll-grab has a lot of distance as well, being a little shorter than Luigi's. To punish people, you'll grab. It is as simple as that. Most of his combos begin from his grabs anyways, so lets talk about each one individually.
DThrow:
This whole thing could be its own thread, but whatever lets do this anyways. Probably his best throw for comboing in both the low to high percentages. It sends opponents right above Doc's head, unlike Mario's which sends them nowhere. This means his combos are air based beyond 20%. Most commonly, you will followup with a short hop Uair progressing to a full jump Uair and then double jump Uair. Let me show some short data for DThrow combos:
Run+USmash, not guaranteed
Cannot Utilt
Dair
Bair
NOT RECOMMENDED TO UAIR THESE CHARACTERS AT THIS PERCENTAGE
~25%-40%
2 Front Uairs
Back of Uair --> Bair, not guaranteed
Front of Uair --> UpB, not guaranteed
Dair
Bair
~45%-60%
Uair --> Double Jump --> Uair
Dair
Bair
Fair
~60%-80%
Bair
Fair
~65%-110%
Only 1 Uair followups via Full Jump and Quick Double Jump.
Run+Usmash, can possibly get 2. 1 Utilt. Can get 1 Uair, must freefall to get another grab --> Repeat until higher percentage.
Dair
~25%-32%
Combo String: DThrow --> Front of Uair --> Utilt --> Back of Uair --> Bair
Bair
Dair
Fair
~35%-50%
2 Uairs at front. Back of Uair --> Bair
Dair
Bair
Fair
~53-56%
Front of Uair off the stage --> Fair (Hard to pull off)
~55%-60%
2 Front Uairs, but different timing (Need to wait a fraction of a second for 2nd Uair)
No more Back Uairs followups
Dair
Bair
Fair
~65%-75%
Front Uair --> Double Jump --> Nair
Dair
Bair
Fair
~80%-105%
Uair
Fair
Bair
~110%-130%
Double Jump --> Uair
Double jump --> Fair
Combo String: Dthrow --> 4 at 0, Realistically 1-2 Utilts --> Back of Uair or Bair --> Bair --> FSmash or Ftilt (Hard to followup at 20%)
4 Utilts
Run+USmash
Uair+Fastfall --> Grab --> Repeat
Dair
~25%-65%
Combo String at 25%: Utilt --> Front of Uair --> Front of Uair --> Ftilt or FSmash
Combo String at 25%: Utilt --> Back of Uair --> Bair
Utilt no longer hits at 27%
Combo String: Front of Uair --> UpB
2 Front Uairs
Bair
Dair
~70%-105%
Uair --> Double Jump --> Uair
Bair
Dair
These are not all the possible combos you can do with DThrow. There are soooo much more it's almost limitless. As you can see, a lot more combos are effective on heavier characters, but really that goes for every character. On to UThrow!
UThrow:
I will not list any combos out of this because they are very similar to that of DThrow, but instead sends them higher. You can do combos ~30% early with UThrow, so that can be a formula of some sort.
UTilt:
This move can combo without DThrow as well. It combos into itself, and sets up combos for the air, so get creative!
DTilt:
Very good ground set-up for combos. Here are somethings you can do:
Dtilt --> FSmash
Dtilt --> Utilt
Dtilt --> Usmash
Dtilt --> UpB
The UpB option is often used most, just because it works from 0%-60%. It's quick and does ~20%, so its a very good two-hit combo!
Anti-Edgeguard!
As it has been stated throughout the guide, Dr. Mario's recovery is bad, like really bad. No air stall via sideB and shortened UpB range hurts Doc's recovery a lot. So, every time you recover, you use DownB --> Double Jump --> UpB. You will get edgeguarded because it is easy to gimp Doc. Here are ways to help his recovery to the stage.
Double Jump --> DownB:
DownB has a more priority than most aerials - which is strange - so you can challenge your opponent who is jumping off the stage with a Nair, Fair, etc. and go right through them (potentially stagespike as well). You don't have to fully commit to this recover due to good air mobility that Dr. Tornado has.
SideB (Cape):
Cape them to swat them away. After using DownB, time your Double Jump to be able to cape them away since they are in the air and will be pushed back. Once you commit to this, there is no going back. You will either survive or get gimped. Chances are you will survive though, but like I said before you shouldn't always cape as your opponent can adjust.
UpB Early:
His UpB is pretty much instant and even the sourspot has good knockback. Don't try to snap to the ledge all the time, your opponent will figure a way to counter it. As long as that UpB hits them you got the stage back. This can potentially stagespike!
Uair:
I rarely do this, but sometimes it works. A quick Uair prevents me from getting gimped and I don't kill myself using it.
High In the Clouds, A Pill:
Very commonly seen in Melee, you shoot a lot of Pills when descending down onto the stage, preventing your opponent from edgeguarding you. If they do try, they eat damage and get disrupted.
And that concludes this guide to Dr. Mario! Thanks for reading this wall of text without anything to really spice it up. I will update this in the future, but if anyone has any additional info, questions, or comments, I will read them and reply. See ya later.
TL;DR
Pros:
Forces opponents to approach with Pills
Pill Gimps
Good Roll, Spot Dodge, and Air dodge punish via Dr. Tornado
Great Grab, Ground, and Air Combos
Quick, Effective Smashes (Especially FSmash)
Bair Spacing
UpB Stage Spikes and Combo Enders
Good Edge Guard with Bair, Uair, DownB, and SideB (Oh, and Pills.)
Dair Priority
Wall Jump to assist recovery
DownB to assist recovery
Cons:
2nd Worst Vertical Recovery in the game
No Air Stall via SideB
Short UpB distance
Low Jump Height
Weird Launch Paths from Attacks (i.e. Usmash, Uair, etc.) - [Could be seen as a Pro, but personally to me it is a Con]
Slow Movement Speed on Ground and in Air
Dr. Mario is a defensive character who forces your opponent to approach due to overwhelming numbers of pills and Bairs. His game is strongest by grabbing to punish your opponent. From there, you create combo strings to rack up damage. Has very strong finishers in his smashes and aerials. Use DownB and SideB to prevent those who try to edge guard you. That sums it up.
Time to go in-depth!
Playstyle!
Dr. Mario plays a lot differently than Mario, even though he is a clone. The basic way of saying how Doc is different than Mario is: Doc moves slower (ground&air), and he does more damage. A little more info is he has a lot more knockback in his moves and worse recovery.
Because of the things listed above, Dr. Mario plays very defensively. His approach is not bad, but it certainly is not good. Two tools that you will use to force your opponent to approach you are Doc's Neutral B (Pills) and Bair.
Forcing Opponent Approach
Pills:
Hit B, shoot a Pill from Doc's hand; pretty self-explanatory. Now, you force your opponent come to you by shooting Pills, but you don't want them to get you while you are open for a punish. Knowing how to B-Reverse is pretty important, but you do not HAVE to know how to B-Reverse to effectively use your Pills. Running away from your opponent, jumping, and then B-Reverse so that the pill hits them. You can also run away, pivot towards them, and jump. Be careful though, because you could accidentally B-Reverse when you do this and you'll shoot your pill in the opposite direction of your opponent. To fix this, take your thumb off the joystick while you're in the air and during the pill animation. The whole point is to retreat and then Pill to force your opponent to get closer, or they will eat it and take 4%-6% damage.
Bair:
This is my favorite aerial that Doc has. It is fast, does 13% damage, and it pretty much auto-cancels. It has considerable range as well. It can be used to space, retreat, approach, edgeguard, etc. It's a versatile tool is the point I'm getting across. When your opponent is too close for you to pill, Bair them. Doc can run towards you opponent, pivot away, short hop, and Bair. When you hit the ground, you can quickly short hop again and Bair. Repeat until you hit them. After you hit them, you can follow up with a grab, Ftilt, Dtilt, FSmash, etc.
Approaching
Even though I say "force your opponent to approach", doesn't mean you never approach. This is just what you will do more commonly than actually approaching. Doc's main approach is Grabbing, Running Attack, DownB, and Dair. Pills can also aid approach, B-Reversing towards your opponent to throw them off. These moves are pretty much self-explanatory for approaching. I will give a quick tip on Dair and DownB. When they shield when you Dair, go behind them. It gives them less options to counter/punish your approach. After being behind them, grab or DSmash or FSmash. For DownB, if they shield it, mash to gain height and be above them on the last frame to avoid a grab (also go behind them).
Close Combat
I will exclude Utilt, Dtilt, and Grabbing from this section as it better suits the Combo section of the thread.
Smashes:
All of Doc's smashes are fast, have good range, and powerful. FSmash is especially good for it has a sweetspot on his arm opposed to the electricity, therefore making it easier to hit. It kills early and it is hard to punish due to the minuscule ending lag. USmash is also good because the hitbox is all around Doc and he gets invincibility on his head. DSmash can also kill early if anyone gets hit by the back of it, increasing damage, knockback, and sends them at a low angle. The front of it does work too, coming out fast and giving Doc some space.
Ftilt:
It is a basic Ftilt. Doc kicks and it can be angled. It has a little less range than FSmash, but the trade-off is the faster start up and less ending lag. It can keep your opponent away from you, and end combo strings. There is really nothing else to be said about this move.
Edgeguarding
Doc's Bair and SideB are great tools for edgeguarding. Bair comes out quick and you don't have to really commit to it because it is so safe. SideB is a high-risk high-reward because you can go deep and cape gimp somebody. DownB can be used to edgeguard by making for air, and can kill very early off stage. Uair is another option, but bair is preferred. Another good tool is Pills. You can gimp somebody with a Pill by cancelling their double jump height, and you get the rest.
Situational Mentions
Fair:
Ah, the most memorable dunking attack on Doc in Melee (honestly, I don't know why everyone refers to it as dunking, it does NOT spike). This time around it has been nerfed in speed and precision in Smash 4. The start up and end lag makes it a risky move to use. The sweetspot is very hard to hit, and I can't explain the timing or position of this attack due to me not being able to figure it out well. The best I can say is you want them to be hit the fist at the beginning frames of the actual attack. The move is very hard to hit, but if you do the pay off is very satisfying. It can kill near the ledge at ~90% and killing on stage at ~115%. The best time to use it to get a good punish off or clutching that air dodge. It can be combo'd with in DThrow. More info on that later.
SideB (Cape):
This move will be talked about a little more during the Anti-Edgeguard section, but this has on-stage uses. It serves as a Mix-Up (and confusion) due to flipping the character around and inverting controls. Don't use it too often because it isn't hard for people to catch on, they can step back due to its horrible horizontal range or just input things backwards to make them forwards?. Anyways, you can FSmash after jumping in with a Cape successfully.
Combos!
Mario is known for having an amazing combo game, but Dr. Mario also has a great combo game albeit it is a little harder to perform. The payoff is higher than Mario's because Doc does around 2% more damage than Mario which really adds up in the end (not to mention Doc has stronger finishers). Let's get right into then.
Uair:
I need to discuss something very quick about this move since it is his best combo move. It does 7%. If your opponent is in front of Doc, they will launch in front of you. Behind, they will launch behind. Easier said than done, but it takes getting used to and has benefits for throwing your opponent off.
Grabs:
Dr. Mario has a strong grab game. His grab has a lot of range and it is quick. His roll-grab has a lot of distance as well, being a little shorter than Luigi's. To punish people, you'll grab. It is as simple as that. Most of his combos begin from his grabs anyways, so lets talk about each one individually.
DThrow:
This whole thing could be its own thread, but whatever lets do this anyways. Probably his best throw for comboing in both the low to high percentages. It sends opponents right above Doc's head, unlike Mario's which sends them nowhere. This means his combos are air based beyond 20%. Most commonly, you will followup with a short hop Uair progressing to a full jump Uair and then double jump Uair. Let me show some short data for DThrow combos:
DThrow: Light Characters (Tested on G&W)
~0%-20%Run+USmash, not guaranteed
Cannot Utilt
Dair
Bair
NOT RECOMMENDED TO UAIR THESE CHARACTERS AT THIS PERCENTAGE
~25%-40%
2 Front Uairs
Back of Uair --> Bair, not guaranteed
Front of Uair --> UpB, not guaranteed
Dair
Bair
~45%-60%
Uair --> Double Jump --> Uair
Dair
Bair
Fair
~60%-80%
Bair
Fair
~65%-110%
Only 1 Uair followups via Full Jump and Quick Double Jump.
DThrow: Medium Characters (Tested on Mario)
~0%-20%Run+Usmash, can possibly get 2. 1 Utilt. Can get 1 Uair, must freefall to get another grab --> Repeat until higher percentage.
Dair
~25%-32%
Combo String: DThrow --> Front of Uair --> Utilt --> Back of Uair --> Bair
Bair
Dair
Fair
~35%-50%
2 Uairs at front. Back of Uair --> Bair
Dair
Bair
Fair
~53-56%
Front of Uair off the stage --> Fair (Hard to pull off)
~55%-60%
2 Front Uairs, but different timing (Need to wait a fraction of a second for 2nd Uair)
No more Back Uairs followups
Dair
Bair
Fair
~65%-75%
Front Uair --> Double Jump --> Nair
Dair
Bair
Fair
~80%-105%
Uair
Fair
Bair
~110%-130%
Double Jump --> Uair
Double jump --> Fair
DThrow: Heavy Characters (Tested on Expand Dong aka DK)
~0-20%Combo String: Dthrow --> 4 at 0, Realistically 1-2 Utilts --> Back of Uair or Bair --> Bair --> FSmash or Ftilt (Hard to followup at 20%)
4 Utilts
Run+USmash
Uair+Fastfall --> Grab --> Repeat
Dair
~25%-65%
Combo String at 25%: Utilt --> Front of Uair --> Front of Uair --> Ftilt or FSmash
Combo String at 25%: Utilt --> Back of Uair --> Bair
Utilt no longer hits at 27%
Combo String: Front of Uair --> UpB
2 Front Uairs
Bair
Dair
~70%-105%
Uair --> Double Jump --> Uair
Bair
Dair
These are not all the possible combos you can do with DThrow. There are soooo much more it's almost limitless. As you can see, a lot more combos are effective on heavier characters, but really that goes for every character. On to UThrow!
UThrow:
I will not list any combos out of this because they are very similar to that of DThrow, but instead sends them higher. You can do combos ~30% early with UThrow, so that can be a formula of some sort.
UTilt:
This move can combo without DThrow as well. It combos into itself, and sets up combos for the air, so get creative!
DTilt:
Very good ground set-up for combos. Here are somethings you can do:
Dtilt --> FSmash
Dtilt --> Utilt
Dtilt --> Usmash
Dtilt --> UpB
The UpB option is often used most, just because it works from 0%-60%. It's quick and does ~20%, so its a very good two-hit combo!
Anti-Edgeguard!
As it has been stated throughout the guide, Dr. Mario's recovery is bad, like really bad. No air stall via sideB and shortened UpB range hurts Doc's recovery a lot. So, every time you recover, you use DownB --> Double Jump --> UpB. You will get edgeguarded because it is easy to gimp Doc. Here are ways to help his recovery to the stage.
Double Jump --> DownB:
DownB has a more priority than most aerials - which is strange - so you can challenge your opponent who is jumping off the stage with a Nair, Fair, etc. and go right through them (potentially stagespike as well). You don't have to fully commit to this recover due to good air mobility that Dr. Tornado has.
SideB (Cape):
Cape them to swat them away. After using DownB, time your Double Jump to be able to cape them away since they are in the air and will be pushed back. Once you commit to this, there is no going back. You will either survive or get gimped. Chances are you will survive though, but like I said before you shouldn't always cape as your opponent can adjust.
UpB Early:
His UpB is pretty much instant and even the sourspot has good knockback. Don't try to snap to the ledge all the time, your opponent will figure a way to counter it. As long as that UpB hits them you got the stage back. This can potentially stagespike!
Uair:
I rarely do this, but sometimes it works. A quick Uair prevents me from getting gimped and I don't kill myself using it.
High In the Clouds, A Pill:
Very commonly seen in Melee, you shoot a lot of Pills when descending down onto the stage, preventing your opponent from edgeguarding you. If they do try, they eat damage and get disrupted.
And that concludes this guide to Dr. Mario! Thanks for reading this wall of text without anything to really spice it up. I will update this in the future, but if anyone has any additional info, questions, or comments, I will read them and reply. See ya later.
