MARIO - Character Matchup 1
Introduction
"Nintendo's ubiquitous mascot, the red-capped Mario has been hurtling over barrels and stomping Goombas since 1981, and his fighting style largely mimics those antics. As the most balanced fighter in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, like in Melee, Mario has no great strengths or weaknesses, but he does boast several useful aerial attacks, making an air game ideal for anyone using him."
It's a rivalry as old as they come. Nintendo vs Sega. Battle of the mascots. Alex the Kid couldn't handle Mario, which heralded the creation of the worlds fastest hedgehog. And as far as video games go, this is the first and so far, best chance of resolving the rivalry. Each player has their well-defined strengths and weaknesses in this matchup. Mario has a well established air game and priority advantage while Sonic has his speed, ground range and gimping. Both are quite adept on combos as well. It makes for a close fight. So let's get into it.
Behaviour:
-Mario will camp using his fireballs. He can full hop, short hop while approaching or backing off while grounded fireballs will be used to stop easy approaches. Fireballs are Marios way to control the game. They successfully slow up the match, and cause selective approaches with most characters. Though they don't have a fantastic range or damage, they are a great tool to rack up damage without any risk to Mario.
-Marios' air game is very well-developed in Brawl. Mario's N-air and B-air both have quite large priority and give Mario a big advantage in the air. Reverse aerial rushed B-airs will be used as an approach, keeping in mind that a Mario can pull out two B-airs in a short hop. Also, his f-air will be used as a spike as an off edge technique. Mario will do his best to pressure you at close range using SH nairs and advancing Bairs. Marios d-air wont be used as commonly, its priority is a lot less than Mario's other aerials. Mario's generally can afford to play aggressively in Brawl. He is a well balanced character and has enough priority to hold his own in attacking. This leads to comboing. Marios combo ability is pretty fantastic. He will use his jabs, tilts and throws as means to get into combo situations. His U-air is largely annoying and great at comboing in and out of. Their B-air can makes a semi wall of pain by short hopping it continually. Luckily Sonics spring can get us out of mario air comboing.
-This having been said, Marios ability to juggle in the air can do just as well as Sonics. And with his large priority, it really wins out.
-Mario ground game is not as strong as his aerial game. Much like Sonic, he will generally confine his smash attacks just as KO moves after racking up enough damage, with the exception of his D-smash, which comes out hard and fast, and is used in spot-dodge wars. His jab is average and can be pretty easily shield grabbed, similarly with his dash attack. Jab faking to d-smash can also work for Mario.
- Mario is a terrific gimper. The cape, F.L.U.D.D. and his F-air can all end a characters life at very low percentages. Fortunately Sonic isn't a character he can gimp easily, as will be outlined in How to Win.
- As for general gameplay, a Mario is very smart. They will play defensively (ie shield, back off) and shield grab into an bunch of aerial moves as soon as its possible. And as soon as play starts swinging against him, his cape can give him time to get out of sticky situations or simply jump out into another fireball spam session.
* There has been alot of discussion on whether the behaviour of Mario outplays Sonic or visa versa. Fireball usage and avoiding as well as ground games and aerial games of Mario against Sonic have also been discussed alot. For a Mario point of view feel free to check out this thread :
HERE
Commonly Used Moves:
-Fireballs: Used commonly in a jumping approach. Clanks with our spindash/charge and gives Mario a little lag.
-Cape: Luckily there aren't too many useful applications of this move against Sonic, other than to avoid a hit.
-Up-B: Lots of priority on this move. One of the main reasons it is hard to gimp a Mario, not too many others uses against Sonic though.
-B-air: Marios love it. No one else does. Comes out really fast and has great priority and only a small lag on landing. Used alot in approaches and in combos. Avoid at all costs. Spacing is important here.
-F-smash: There's been alot of discussion on this move. So far, it does have more range then ours and has great KO'ing properties (knockback/damage). Again, avoid it at all costs and watch your spacing.
-U-smash: His other big ko move against Sonic. One of the many reasons we should stick to the ground in this matchup. Please don't fall into this.
-N-air: Just as useful as his b-air. High priority makes it difficult to avoid. Used in appraches commonly.
-U-air: Possibly the greatest aerial, capabale of mega-juggling in the air
How to Win:
"Avoid fireballs
Keep him grounded as much as possible. Utilt trades hits with his bair so it might encourage them to use it less.
Running Pshield aerials that come your way. Try if you can do shieldgrab to dthrow, it gets him in the position you want him to be (not above you)
Once he's on the ground, space with ftilts and dtilts, the former being most important because it has more range and does more damage.
Punish spotdodge or roll abusers with Dsmash, the same holds true in any match up though.
Keep either bair or fsmash nonstale for a kill at a reasonable percent.
Go for the dair gimp, it is possible, hell, even a footstooled Mario can't make it back to the edge if you do it even when he's just slightly below."
ROOOOY!
Keep it to the ground: mario aerial game is very very good. That u-air will slaughter. So try and keep it on the ground. Sonics tilts outrange and come out faster than anything mario can do effectively on the ground. So space your self and put little bits of damage on this way. If you get stuck in mario's aerials, spring out of their and spot dodge down (or if u feel confident, dair). Another alternative is to space yourself after recieving a hit and get him with the range on our b-air, but this is very situational
Gimping: at least try. There is a bit of dispute over how much sonic can gimp mario. But imo i think we are more than capable. Mario's recovery is extremely average and isn't hard to HA from either underneath or a jump out and HA to whack them off the side. From above can be risky because the odds are they will super jump punch before you can get a chance. Also if you can run off that edge after a d-throw its possible to gimp with a double fair. Its all about pickin the right gimp for the right situation. (dont go overboard and kill urself) P.S.: unfortunately these gimps can be very situational, but not at all impossible.
Other quick things: shake up your approaches. dash attack is fairly safe as it is grounded. spin shot or spindashhop depending on what kind of fireball pressure you got comin at ya. last thing to note is dont b scared to use aerials to catch them unaware. sonic is fast and has the possibility of throwing one out before mario even thinks about gettin his hi priority move out.
"Keep in mind that Mario's U-smash punishes too well, and you don't want to be in a spotdodge>d-smash war against Mario, so instead, if you end up spotdodging at the same time, jump out of the dodge or run away. If you want to attack, use tilts."
Tenki
HERE is a video of a Sonic gae vs Mario who shows the style that I am talking about. Unfortunately it's old, and the Mario isn't great, but if you had no idea what we were talking about, this shows appropriate tilts and fairly safe playing. Not great though. If you have any better vids of Mario vs Sonic, you would be a legend in my books.
Recommended Stages:
LUIGI'S MANSION: This one does favour Sonic. I soon as I started playin this matchup here I notice Mario's inability to hop and float around like he does so well. Give Sonic a higher chance of hit with SDR. Killing is the only, issue but it's like that on any level with Sonic. The building also provides covered for fireballs while you charge...taunt....whatever.
LYLAT CRUISE: It has a particularly high ceiling which counteracts Mario's U-smash and according to Matador does not really reduce the effectiveness of Sonic's U-air star Ko's. Fireballs aren't as good here because of the stage and Down-angled Fsmash offstage is harder to punish Sonic's upB when recovering low because the stage often tilts away from it. I've played Matador on this level and it really seems to either disadvantage Mario or give Sonic a massive hand. The Platforms seems to be at perfect height, the only thing to watch is make sure you don't let Mario under you, as you options can be limited.
FINAL DESTINATION: A completely nuetral level. Fireballs are easy to predict in this one. It has a relatively high ceiling and gives Sonic free reign to run around Mario a fair bit. Also the lip has potential to gimp Mario, so overall it's in our favour. Just watch Mario though, because he doesn't have any obstruction in his fireballs and you can't really come from underneath any platforms, so the priority issue is still a big one here.
NOT BATTLEFIELD: The amount of ease Mario has with aerials and fireballing is ridiculousing. Generally steer clear of this one.
Matchup Summary: 55:45 Mario
Completed
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King Dedede: Page 251 or discussion from post #3571 
